Ode to the Sweet Potato

I've just finished dinner, London broil with sauteed mushrooms and baked potato. It was accompanied by a cabernet sauvignon we had picked up in White Oak Vineyard in Napa. However, the peace de resistance was desert, homemade sweet potato pie. Like in the Randy Owen song, "Song, song of the South, Sweet potato pie and a shut my mouth..." The wedge had an old golden color to it somewhat like burnt sienna. Slightly warm with a flaky crust and a dollop of whipped cream. It was the food of gods. We had bought the potatoes at Cook's Produce stand in Edgefield, South Carolina. The recipe was my mother's. The texture was a course but creamy. The native sweetness of the tuber enhanced slightly by the spices of the Orient. So quickly it was gone. No crumbs were left. But in the middle of the saucer was one lonely tear. When the last bite of this undeniable icon of southern cuisine is gone it is, indeed, a time for sadness and morning.

NO SUCH THING

"An ambitious story that scorns sensational journalism. Beatrice (Sarah Polley) is a naïve reporter sent to find out what happened to a camera crew that disappeared in Iceland. Instead, her focus turns to a depressed and suicidal monster she encounters there. She promises to help the monster but instead feeds him to the hungry international media. The first-rate cast includes Helen Mirren and Julie Christie." says Netflix.

We thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Although the premise is sort of hokey. I mean a monster in Iceland? Get real! The performances really make this movie. Dame Mirren is right on. But then that is not a surprise. The music is good as well. But most of the monsters I've seen in movies did not have X-rated dialogue. But all this adds up to a thoroughly entertaining movie. This is one of the best of the fantasy/science fiction films.

Grape Stompin'

Yesterday, we went to a grape stompin' at Irvin House Vineyards on Wardmalaw Island. It was the first grape stomp for either of us. Traditionally, harvested grapes were placed in a huge wooden vat and the harvesters would stomp on them to remove the juice from the ripened grapes. Part of the process of making wine. This Carolina vineyard only cultivates native American grapes and from it create their five varieties of wine. The Grape Stompin' celebrates the grape harvest and is a family event with grapes being stomped in half wooden barrels with live music, arts and crafts sales, barbecue, games and, of course, wine. We found it enjoyable and reconnected with some folks we hadn't seen in awhile. We would have enjoyed it more had we brought some chairs and some friends to have shared the joy with.

Whew!

The last few have wiped me out. I've been working on a special project of mine and it's been energy intensive. It's required a lot of research on line and a number of face time meetings with some other people. I've been learning to use Google Docs. And have been investigating starting a facebook group.

Gotta love it

This kind of blows my mind. Is this a mash up or what? Sometimes the creativity just blows you away in it's universality!

Just a blog

Today was one of those days that was good although nothing exciting happened. But what is exciting anyway? Nothing of creatively happened although I did watch a Disney/Pixar film on TV. There was a very good show on this a.m., The Rise of the Video Game. It traced the games from their humble beginnings of games such as "Pong", to the multi player games of today. Not only the graphics and technology but how the games reflect our society. Role playing with avatars in virtual reality environments are almost spooky. It is easy to see how a person could get the two confused. What is real and what is not. It begs to answer Plato's question about the shadow of the lion on the cave wall.

Which was real?

Enough of this heavy stuff! We spent most of the day at the lake with church friends. We had fun and overate of the hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken sandwiches. After returning home I tried my hand at veggie burgers. A combination of chick peas, potatoes, breadcrumbs and various made a presentable pattie. I browned 'em up in a skillet before serving 'em up on a bun. They were surprisingly good. I was testing the recipe for a camping menu.

This is a link to one of our favorite San Diego resturants. http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&aq=1h&oq=&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBR_enUS277US277&q=hash+house+san+diego

Dillinger

This is a great gangster film. I liked it very much although the 1973 movie Dillinger starring Warren Oates was good, let's face it , although Oates may have looked more like the real Dillinger there is no mistaking Johnny Depp's adding something to the role. Besides, Depp's brooding look adds so much to the character. I liked the music to this one, it wasn't some banjo picking of some '30's vintage jazz.

I like the gangster films. I guess it's the rat-tat-tat of tommy guns and the "high-speed" car chases. I thought there was a serious flaw in this one . I remembered that Dillinger was betrayed by "the woman in red", but noticed the "the woman" in this movie wore an orange dress. Further research shows that the movie was historically correct and "the woman" wore an orange dress. However, the lights of the the theater made the dress appear red to the FBI agents in the ambush. Another interesting fact was that Purvis had a problem lighting his cigar as a signal to the other agents to ambush Dillinger but they recognised his attempts as the signal which allowed them to surprise Dillinger and successfully shoot him in the back.

As an aside, I'm amazed at how easily the gangsters and G-men handle the tommy guns. I picked up one of these, Thompson sub-machine guns, the other day and found that it weighed about ten pounds without the drum magazine.

Notes on the FBI's list of public enemies of this era:

* John Dillinger was killed and not captured.

* Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were killed and not captured.

* Baby-faced Nelson was killed and not captured.

* Machine gun Kelly was the only notable public enemy that was captured rather than killed. he died in prison of natural causes.

Video Doodling

I am continually working on ways to make my video stuff more interesting. I am currently working on a short piece concerning my great-grandfather's service in the American Civil War. i doing so i had to find a way to animate maps to illustrate his travels. By the use of the transition features of the Ulead Video Studio program I was able to do this. however in order tho perfect this task, experiments were necessary. There for the results of my experiments are shown here. The term" video doodling" comes to mind. The images and effects have no significance but did induce a certain amount of humor.

Bang! Bang!

We jumped at the sound of automatic weapon fire. The sound echoed off the cement block walls and after the burst the clink of spent cartridges falling on the concrete floor. There was a heavy smell of cordite in the air. And it smelled good! I sent Claudette to see the girl behind the counter for some hearing protection because my ears were ringing. The earplugs used for rock concerts didn't come close to doing the job. When safe inside the earmuffs I filled the cylinder of the revolver with .32 caliber Smith and Wesson long cartridges. Taking careful aim at the silhouette target down range I squeezed off three shots. . Then Claudette had the opportunity to further ventilate the target. With a flip of the toggle switch on my left the target comes to us on a device similar to clothesline apparatus. Upon care observation we found that all bullets had perforated the torso of the target. This lead us to believe that we could have stopped and intruder during a attempted home invasion.

Fishing and so on...

It has been good week. Several good movies watched, daily gym trips, and the Wednesday morning apple fritter breakfast with friends. Did I mention fishing? This week I think we went 3 times to our neighborhood lake. Some days we were lucky and some days we weren't. One thing of interest though, alligators. When the gators are close I keep one eye on the bobber and one on the alligator!
I finished the Shutterfly picture book for Mama. It took a little while but I think it came out good. I had a coupon from Delta Airlines for a free 20 page book. all I had to pay was the shipping.
I won my auction on Ebay for a deHavilland DH-3 Otter model airplane kit. I will construct it as a turbo Otter like the one we flew on in the Misty Fjords of Alaska. And speaking of Alaska, I spoke with David this week and he is doing well. Making music and making beer! He has also caught a lot of salmon that he is processing for the winter food supply.