Old Ways

I'm not a coffee drinker, but I'm a fan of the Roasterie because I recognize a kindred spirit there.  Like the coffee roaster's near neighbor Boulevard Brewing, he's bringing quality back to a beverage that had been given over to pure commodity treatment. Why do I hassle with disease-prone, indeterminate (meaning they outgrow normal cages), heirloom tomatoes? Or spend whole days brewing a batch of beer using ingredients and methods that had been all but forgotten by the mid-20th Century? Because old ways are often the best ways.

As with the craft beer industry, it's apparent that people were eager for some flavor, and the Roasterie has done well enough that they toyed with taking over the Folger's plant that's to be shuttered in downtown K.C.

Alas, it was too different an operation. Probably much like if Boulevard were to ponder buying Annheiser Bush brewery in St. Louis.

I guess the Roasterie has arrived, though. Like when Boulevard opened its 'big-ass brewhouse' and turned the original brewery over to creating esoteric beers for the Smokestack series. The icon of their brand, they installed this DC3 on their roof, taking off over Southwest Boulevard (and a roundhouse I didn't know was there).

Guitar

I spotted this guitar at Pizza 51 by UMKC.

Very cool folk art, I guess a leftover from of a play at the college.

Wrong On Purpose

A book I've been perusing lately on photography has a section about when 'wrong' is right.

I think this was one of those times. I took this shot of the Broadway Bridge (and a railroad bridge the the remnants of the an earlier railroad bridge, the Hannibal Bridge) with the sun setting behind it the other night.

But while I was playing around, I played a bit with white balance, and I got this shot which I really like. The white balance was set to fluorescent lights.

The Good Old (Real Old) Days

I hadn't been out here for a couple of years.

It's dumb, but it's a fun kind of dumb.

My brother gave me a hard time once about how I raved about Ren Fest when I was in junior high.

I'm sure I was ridiculous about it. It was an intoxicating blend at that age, a cocktail of fantasy, theater, history, and unashamed nerdiness all served up with a twist of sex appeal.

The Sin Seller was who really hooked me. In hindsight, she might have been no older than seventeen, but when you're a fourteen year old male, a seventeen year old girl is an exotic older woman.

I can't recall what I 'paid' for my sin, I hear the acts can collect tips but not charge a fee. Whatever, the sin seller wore a costume reminiscent of a court jester costume, with form-revealing tights extending from the suggestion of a skirt and plenty of cleavage.

She sold me lechery.

Told me she could see that lechery would be the perfect sin for me, then proceeded to pantomime fitting me with a full body suit of it. I don't think she touched me, but she made me absolutely weak in the knees.

Come to think of it, one of the Bad Influences in my life back then who was probably partially responsible for me discovery the Renaissance Festival is now one of the stars of the show.

Mayhem of the Jolly Rogers was a two years ahead of me at Hocker Grove Junior High and actually was the first one to suggest I go to Lobster Land.

That would have been, what, 1981 or so? Forty years later, he makes at least part of his living as a singing pirate. Some guys have all the luck.

Obviously I had fun with my Nikon on this trip.

Depth of field is still like a new discovery to me. That and being able to capture fast action.

I even enjoyed the joust. In the past, it's turned me off, so professional wrestling.

But I guess I've broadened my horizons to embrace a little bit of sports theater.

Oh, word to the wise: if you are waiting in line for the Mermaid Cove exhibit, make sure your kid's age is a single digit. Mo posed for a shot with the teenaged girl lounging in a large aquarium with a foam mermaid costume, but she was clearly not impressed with it.

I had a big moment of nostalgia when I came across a duo singing Old Dun Cow. I had some Marty Burke tapes when I was in high school acquired at science fiction conventions (part of Marty's circuit back then—the 'filk sings'), and that was always one of my favorites.

I hear Marty passed away a couple of years back, and I seem to recall that it was after a long and debilitating illness. Sad to hear, he was one of the best mood casting performers I've ever had the privilege to hear.

I didn't find Old Dun Cow, but Red Haired Mary will give you an idea about what Marty was all about.

It was perfect weather, too. Looking at the forecast, we might have grabbed the last truly fair weekend of the season to go. Wish my oldest daughter could have joined us, but it wasn't to be.

I guess I went a little crazy with the camera. Three full 8GB cards, actually. I tried to video one of the Jolly Roger's songs, but I'm so unfamiliar with the D7000's video features I couldn't get it running. It's kind of a shame to carry that capability around and never exploit it, though I got the thing for still shots, and would have bought it even if it didn't have video capabilities.

Just shy of a thousand frames, though. Took me most of a week to get around to sifting through them for what I wanted to share here.

Hail Monarchs!

We grew this parsley for us. Actually, Corinna did, that's an herb I always forget about, but she had it established in her herb garden before I met her.

She found these monarch caterpillars infesting our grove of parsley and we're both thinking...be our guest.

If they were eating my Barracker's Favorite heirloom tomatoes, that would be different, but if I knew monarchs liked parsley, I'd have grown extra just for them.

Sunset Behind Broadway Bridge

One of the pillars you can see here (just on the other side of the Broadway Bridge) is from the first railroad bridge over the Missouri River, the Hannibal Bridge, constructed in 1869 for a million dollars. It also cost the lives of some divers who got the bends making the concrete footings happen. The replacement is visible on this side of the Broadway Bridge, and amazingly enough it was built in 1917 (and still carries trains every day).

Divorce Maker

We picked up this tandem bike off Craigslist.

About a fourth the price of even an entry level new one, and it was pristine. Hanging, bat-like, in a garage for years since it had been received as a gift. No brand on it, the seller told me it had been a kit that his Dad helped him assemble.

Corinna and I took our first, very short ride on it. Perhaps a half mile. Terrifying for both of us.

Me, I kept feeling her weight shift and that gave me that tippy feeling I can't stand. She was riding stoker, so she had to trust me to steer, shift and brake. And she can panic just riding side by side with me on regular bikes for some reason, so every hundred feet or so was another psychological trust fall.

I was in Midwest today (dealing with the replacement for the frame I destroyed when I didn't steer, shift and brake the way Corinna thought I should have) and I told Zeke I thought every marriage counselor should have a tandem bike in his office and make couples ride it around the parking lot as an exercise in trusting each other.

He said, "That's why they call them divorce makers."

I suspect it's a mistake to blame either marriage counselors or tandem bikes for the ensuing divorce. Rather than 'making' the split, I suspect both just help diagnose it.

Cheap Date

When I read the book The Millionaire Next Door, I remember one of the characteristics they cited for the accumulators of wealth they wrote about was that they were a cheap date.

A substantial number accumulated great wealth without having fantastic incomes, but they enjoyed the simple things in life, knew how to cut corners and maximize returns.

It's the get rich slow strategy you don't hear much about.

One of the things that let me know Corinna was a keeper when we started dating was she was, above all else, a cheap date. I think the first time she let me buy her dinner out, she steered us to the Hyvee salad bar, true story. When I balked, she said, "What, you'd love me more if you spenta bunch of money on this dinner?"

Saturday afternoon, she wanted to go on a freegan binge, harvesting walnuts, apples, crabapples, wild grapes, chestnuts and whatnot. I went with, not so much to help with the harvest which was pretty boring for me, but to hang out with her and play with my camera. A lot of times when I want to set up my tripod and play, she doesn't want to stay in one place long enough for me to experiment. Fruit picking and nut gathering evens things out, I guess.

I got to thinking, it wasn't my A-list choice, I would have gone on a different sort of bike ride. One that didn't take the trailer on her bike, one that involved more miles and less scavenging.

But I know couples where the guy has to take his mate shopping on a weekend afternoon. To antique malls, auctions, furniture stores, plain old box stores, whatever. And in most of those situations, the guy can't bring along his camera and tripod and do his own thing, he's just stuck. Plus, it's expensive.

All the stuff Corinna and I went shopping for this warm September afternoon was free. No 'bargain' $1000 pieces of furniture, no overpriced nonfunctional shoes, and I didn't have to sit around waiting for her to try the stuff on and ask me if it made her ass look fat.