Halloween: Holiday Lost?

This past Saturday was Halloween. When BowlingJoe was growing up in Port Angeles, Halloween was always a special look-forward-to and must-do event. Twice the urgency when it happened to fall on a Friday or Saturday night. Rain or shine, the neighborhood kids would get together donning white sheets or those cheap plastic masks that became moist from the condensation of your breath after two minutes.

We’d canvass virtually the entire town with pillow cases (they made the best candy bags as opposed to the disintegrating paper grocery bags), returning home only to dump the haul from the first load and go back for more. Guaranteed cavities by the pound.

The really good houses were the ones that gave out full-sized candy bars. None of those unfortunately named “Fun Size” things that they give out today. And every now and then there would be a resident that had the audacity to give out something healthy, such as an orange. Scandalous!

Ah, but that was then and this is now. Some people still speak of brisk crowds of candy-gathering youth on October 31st. But there has been a steady decline in the numbers of them who are ambitious enough to head down our long, dark but accessibile driveway. In fact, let the record state that in 2009 we had just three trick or treaters show up at our door. That’s right, three. And they all came in one group with a watchful parent standing 30 feet back.

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Now THAT'S how big I remember the candy bars being

Assuming that my hypothesis is correct and there are fewer active doorbelling ghosts and goblins, I’m interested in the underlying reason(s) that this is so. Does our society have a collective case of "stranger danger"? We all listen to the news and every now and then a crazy person or two captures the headlines, getting his (or her these days) fifteen minutes of fame and then some. That's gotta enter the craniums of a lot of Gen X-er parents.

Then there are the parties tied to places of employment. Sifting through Facebook entries I learned that there are more than a few parents who transported their offspring to places such as Microsoft who had a party in waiting.

Or is there just so much going on these days that Halloween is on its way to becoming as obsolete as a television antennae? Has it evolved into an adult holiday in which half the neighborhood has gone to a party, leaving the lights out and nobody home to hand out candy?

Maybe someday, somebody will write a book in which all of this is figured out. In the meantime, we have two extra large bags of candy sitting around if anyone is interested. We don't touch the stuff anymore.

Conveyor Belt Sushi: What a Concept

This past Saturday, Muffinheadedboy turned 22 years of age (which doesn’t seem possible but then you can’t argue with a calendar). To help celebrate this event, he and his girlfriend took a break from Fall Quarter at Western Washington University in Bellingham to spend some time with us in the greater Marysville-Smokey Point area.

First, we met them at one of BowlingWidow and my favorite Saturday afternoon haunts, Skookum Brewery (previously blogged about in July, 2008). Much to the young man’s (and our) delight Skookum offers a free pint of ale on your birthday. We all had a nice conversation as we savored the hoppy moments.

We asked him where he wanted to go to dinner. Unfortunately, his girlfriend wouldn’t be able to join us but he picked out a fairly new place that they have been to a few times in the past. Unlike his parents, Muffinheadedboy is a fan of sushi. We headed toward Belt Sushi and Roll. My first thought was that this is a strange name for a restaurant. What do they mean by “belt”?

Upon entering the establishment, that question was answered immediately. The room is fairly small as restaurants go, and there’s a long U-shaped counter that customers are seated at. Just above the eating area are two conveyor belts providing slow-train transportation to small dishes of various types including sushi, shrimp rolls, squid, dumplings, and so on. I counted around 30 different items, including fruit and desserts.

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Scene from a Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant

It’s kind of like dim sum at a Chinese restaurant only without servers and carts. Plates are color coded by price and run anywhere from $1 to $5 each. And if the conveyor concept doesn’t thrill you there’s a small menu to be ordered from as well. Combine all of this with the optional soy sauce, wasabi paste, hot chili sauce, and pickled ginger, and there’s something for everyone waiting to be plucked off the belt.

Is conveyor belt sushi new? Although it’s new to us, it’s hardly new in Japan, where there are more than 3000 of these places, and most large cities around the world. The first one can be traced back to 1958, according to Wikipedia. Apparently (and I have no idea since I don’t know jack-diddley about sushi) the quality of the product is a few notches below fancier sushi restaurants and is given the fast food label by those in the know.

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Scene from another Conveyor Belt Sushi Restaurant

But fast food or not, the food was good and the experience was well worth an hour of being hypnotized by watching the conveyor belts go round and round, spotting new dishes every now and again. And at 40 bucks for three of us, we got our money’s worth. We left Belt Sushi and Roll happy that Muffinheadedboy chose this place to celebrate his birthday. My birthday is coming up in three months. We just may have to go back.

Here's To Good Health...

After a long and successful run of poor eating habits and inconsistent exercising, I’ve decided that it’s time to take a serious look at losing (and keeping off) some weight and improving my overall health. I weigh 215 pounds. This would be fine if I were six-foot eight, but replace the “six” with “five” and that’s where I’m at. And at 48, it’s not as though my ability to metabolize food is exactly on my side either.

To assist with this, I’m employing a very simple yet potentially effective device: potential public humiliation. That’s right. Every month I’ll be checking in and blogging my weight versus where I think I should be at for that week. I’m taking it pretty easy. At a pound per week, I’d hit my initial goal of 180 (which STILL makes me overweight according to those militant height-weight charts) sometime in May of 2010. You can’t hide behind facts and data. I’ll also be setting up “before/after” numbers for triglycerides, cholesterol, blood pressure and so on.

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So let the record state that on September 9th, 2009 I tipped the scales at 215 pounds. And hopefully I’ll muster up the willpower to replace orders of macho nachos with wheat thins and low-fat cheese.

Update: September 30th, 2009: 210 pounds. So far, so good. Now for the hard part. Continuity.

Uncorked: Al Stewart Live with Dave Nachmanoff

In 1992 Al Stewart and his then-guitar accompanist Peter White recorded a live acoustic CD called Rhymes in Rooms. On the disc, Stewart and White performed eleven songs including “Year of the Cat” and “Time Passages”, which were top ten hits in the late 1970s.

Fast forward to 2009: Much to the delight of their fans (and those who might be about to become fans) Al and his current touring guitarist, Dave Nachmanoff, have just released their own unique collection of live acoustic songs that richly draw from Stewart’s vast breadth of work, called Uncorked (a nod to both wine – Stewart is a wine expert - and being “unplugged”).

The first thing I noticed upon reading the track listing is that it’s a set of music longtime fans can truly enjoy. The live versions of these songs consist of material originally recorded from 1967 (“Bedsitter Images”) through 1988 (“Last Days of the Century”). There’s also a rarity thrown in for good measure (“Coldest Winter”). No hits or anything that came close to a hit appears on the disc. And I’m more than good with that.

Lyrically, Uncorked plays to Al Stewart’s strengths. Intelligently written, historically based songs such as “Palace of Versailles”, “Warren Harding” and “Old Admirals” are solid choices. I remember them as examples of songs that sent me scurrying to the library to learn what they were about, in days well before the internet reduced exponentially the time required to do such a thing.

As for the music side of things, Stewart’s voice may have a few more rough edges compared to the “smooth as glass” sound from twenty years ago, but he’s still easy to listen to. Nachmanoff’s nifty guitar work sails through the set adding texture as though he’s been playing Al's songs his entire life. Well, actually that's because he has.

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He handled parts that were once done with a piano decades ago (“The News from Spain”) with his acoustic guitar and didn’t miss a step. On other songs, I wondered how he could get his instrument to make such varied and unique notes (“Midas Shadow”).

Recorded at three different venues during a Northeastern U.S. tour in 2008, the production is clear and crisp, as good as or better than being there in person.

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One of the pleasures of experiencing an Al Stewart/Dave Nachmanoff concert is the witty repartee in between songs. There’s a sampling of that on this disc called “Auctioning Dave”. Having heard a large number of Al’s stories over the years (many of them several times, in fact), I did enjoy the quirkiness of this segment but also wondered whether there may have been another choice that would connect with the listener to a greater degree. (Although there just might be a hidden dialogue track at the end of the last song on the disk, wink wink).

Ultimately, Uncorked is a solid and timely effort both in terms of Al Stewart’s long career and as a showcase of Dave Nachmanoff’s talent as a guitarist. The disc is well worth owning whether you’re an Al Stewart completist or someone who wants a good representation of what it’s like to be in the audience at an Al Stewart/Dave Nachmanoff concert.

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Uncorked can be purchased at www.davenach.com/products.html. Audio samples are available.

Crab Safari 2009

There’s nothing in the world quite like eating Dungeness Crab, conveniently found a short distance from pretty much anywhere in Western Washington. I’ve been going crabbing for years on Guemes Island and fondly remember the days in which one could walk along the shore during a low tide and garner a limit of six within an hour.
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Preparing the Crab Traps
Those days are sadly gone as the season doesn’t start until late July, long after the crab have moved to deeper parts of the water. Also, the size of what’s considered a legal catch has slowly crept larger and you’re now allowed to keep five instead of six.

Still, we make at least an annual crustacean gathering trek, and this time we were joined by our good friends The Johnsons and their kids.

We started things out by baiting the six crab traps that we were to toss into the water. One can use lots of different smelly and disgusting things to do this, from dog food through fish heads. My father in law likes to use cockles whose shells are smashed. It must be the natural way to attract crab.

Our group of four dropped the pots and came back to shore to give the shelled diners a chance to partake in their last meal before they found themselves in the business end of a bucket. We left the traps out for a couple of hours and then headed back out to reap the rewards of a bountiful harvest.
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Michael and Matthew: Anxious to Get Going

Or so we thought. The first trap looked promising as we lifted five keepers out, sending them to their holding cell. Unfortunately, the remaining traps weren’t as generous and we ended up with a total of ten to split between two families. Not bad, but far from the best we’ve seen and about half of what we would have had if we were to hit our limit.

We hauled the critters back to the boiling whirlpool bath that awaited them where they spent 15 minutes cooking. Then came my least favorite part. Removing the big shell and cleaning the lungs, guts and whatever other vile non-white-meat things exist in crab. I know that many parts of the world eat the WHOLE crab but that’s where I get off the train.
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The Crab in Various Stages of Processing

Finally, they were give a last rinse and put in Ziploc bags, ready to be put in the cooler and taken home. Crab Safari 2009 is history.

The Best Tacos In Marysville

You know, the older I get, the more I appreciate the simple things in life. Distractions? They’re a younger person’s game. I believe it was Edie Brickell who once said “throw me in the shallow water before I get too deep." I've always liked her, especially because her dad (Eddie Brickell) is in the Texas State Bowling Hall of Fame. Yeah, I know, he's a lefty but I'm willing to look past that.

Going to eat at a taco truck is probably the most simple of all dining experiences possible and it’s something that BowlingWidow, Joe (the creator of Captain ILL) and I have been doing nearly every Monday night after our yoga session for the last couple of months. And I do say that it’s a tradition I hope will continue for many more Mondays to come.

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BowlingJoe demonstrates proper taco-eating technique
Spicy, authentic Mexican food has always been a part of my life. And it probably will be until that inevitable day when the x-ray machine reveals that my intestines resemble something that looks like Swiss cheese. But for now, there isn’t anything better than two chicken tacos and an order of refried beans smothered in plenty of red and/or green homemade salsa.

The tacos each consist of two small corn tortillas topped with seasoned meat (options include beef, chicken, tongue, brain, and more….I’ll pass on the brain, thank you), onion and cilantro, with optional garnishes of radish, lime and jalapeno on the side. And at a buck twenty-five each, they’re the best value in town, period.

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The El Rey Taco Truck in Marysville
The El Rey taco truck is located (for now anyway) just west of I-5 off exit 199, on the left shortly after you enter the Tulalip Reservation. I think it’s at the third stoplight after you make the left turn at the end of the I-5 off-ramp. But don’t blink, you could miss it.

Blues, Brews (And a Couple of Boos)

I’ll preface by saying that the reason for this event is a worthy one. It was a benefit for the Lincoln Theater in Mount Vernon, a downtown theater that has bucked the trend of what happens to old theaters and is still relevant in hosting everything from classic films to concerts to plays. In that sense, I feel good that our 20 bucks each went to a good cause. We need to keep more "Lincoln Theaters" alive.

Having said this though, I’m wondering if the organizers of the Porterhouse Brewfest would be able to kick things up a notch in the future regarding a couple of things.

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Some of the action under the tasting tent

First, consider the physical location of the event. It was held on a small street of approximately one block in size. I understand the desire to keep downtown business open for business on a nice Saturday afternoon, but have they considered holding the party at nearby Edgewater Park or another area with more open space?

Next, it would have been nice to have had somewhere close to the twenty breweries that were advertised to have been there. A source in the know told me that breweries are required to donate their product to the event which could explain the low turnout. It could also explain why many were pouring their darker (and too heavy for hot weather) holiday ales in August along with much of their “second tier” products.

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The Alice Stuart Band performs at Brewfest '09

As for the blues end of things, the Chris Eger Band started things off at 2pm. They were decent enough with their covers of tunes such as “Crossfire” by Stevie Ray Vaughan but sagged somewhat when they went to their own material. Local blues legend Alice Stuart and her band followed and sounded great but we had to leave in the middle of the set.

It was a great charitable idea that I can get behind, but unless the festival shows signs of improving its execution I’ll probably be just as glad to give $20 to the theater directly and call it good.