Looking back on a quick decade

Just a few weeks ago while browsing the book section at Costco (conveniently, albeit confusingly, located between bulk athletic socks and DVD box sets) I spotted Michael Chabon's new collection of essays on modern manhood and fatherdom.

Without much thought I dropped "Manhood for Amateurs" into the cart and have spent the last few weeks reading these smart little jewels of humor that are fiery, like shots of whiskey, but that I can seemingly consume without ill effect.

Chabon is as snappy as ever, but this work is intensely personal and it somehow got me thinking about when I first heard of Chabon and heard him speak roughly ten years ago at a Jewish book festival on an otherwise dreary December night in Walnut Creek, Ca. What startled me most was that this had happened nearly a decade ago and how my life had changed in the ensuing years.

Today I find myself passionately married, living in Seattle, working as an art director and caring for a small but affectionate beagle - all this is several apartments, three cities, two roommates, one college degree and many lifetimes away from the 17-year-old who sat rapt at the thought of working as a professional writer. When a decade slips away this quickly I have to wonder where my priorities lie, and ask myself if I have lost track of the person I longed to be.

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This Ad campaign might be brilliant

Unfortunately, it's still shilling SPAM which ranks too high on my "ick" factor to qualify as a substitute good for real meat. Sorry Hormel, any product that comes with a gelatin layer of fat sitting a top a square of dyed, processed pork protein is out of the question.


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The Gray Lady returns in 2.0?

Amazon has dropped its new Kindle DX with a "newspaper-friendly screen that's 2.5x bigger than the standard Kindle." It has some nice specs (see below), but I'm not totally sold on this device as the new newspaper savior.

Evolutionarily speaking, I see the DX as a very good thing for newspapers. One more step toward a new digital medium with low overhead and subscriptions that would reach a growing demographic of digital news consumers like myself. It's hard to admit that I really am more comfortable with the New York Times in a digital format even though I would have told you I had ink running in my veins just a few years ago. The KindleDX has a lot going for it, but I see some drawbacks.

First the DX's size. Still too small to capture the menu-layout style of a paper, but any bigger and it would be obviously impractical. The real solution will be flexible screens that roll or fold up - when that day dawns newspaper format will get some real traction. Second issue is the demographic who will buy this. At $489 the DX is spendier than an iPhone and yet more limited in its functionality. The young digital consumer - admittedly using myself as a template - reads a lot of online news, but if you're going to haul around something big as sheet of office paper and stiff as a board it had better be able to have the full functionality of a laptop or at least an iPhone. The future newspaper won't be only a newspaper, it will be everything with a newspaper function.

So, nice job Amazon: I appreciate the hard work. Now, when does the 2.0 come out?

• 9.7-inch E-Ink screen (1200 x 824 with 16 shades of grey)
• 1/3 of an inch thick (10.4" x 7.2" x 0.38")
• 4GB Storage for 3,500 books (a bump from 1,500)
• Unspecified but "long" battery life
• Native PDF support through built-in reader
• Automatic landscape/portrait text rotation
• Navigation buttons moved to right side of screen only
• EVDO (of course) for 60-second book transfers

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The 20th Century goes Digital

It's been so long since I've posted, ah Twitter, how you distract me, but I did stumble upon something last week that so jogged my imagination that I couldn't resist it. Google, through their sheer awesomeness and might, wrangled the entire Life magazine photo collection. It's a pretty stunning database that is highly worth mining. I was stuck by home much the above image looked exactly like a production still from "Mad Men."

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Comcast: Worst UI Design Ever?

Just as working as a reporter ruined reading less-than perfect prose, so too has working as a User Interface designer for a few months thrashed my everyday interaction with almost all screen-based devices. If you ever find yourself behind a man or a woman at an ATM, a Self-Checkout line or a movie ticket kiosk who is methodically pushing the touch screen buttons very slowly, checking the "down" state and then muttering about "action on the release," you know you've found a UI designer.

I've really started to notice just how terrible Comcast's user experience is for its on-screen guides.  Contrasted with TIVO it looks clunky, and contrasted with Wii and Apple menus it looks prehistoric. This formatting has not changed much since the TV guide channel first appeared on my parent's TCI back in the '90s. To boot, the Comcast-issued HD DVR displays nice, big Ads on the on screen guide (funny, because I wanted the DVR to AVOID ads) and has totally crippled input ports for nearly every medium and format save coaxial.

I have some big questions for those honchos sucking down dollars in return for a relatively crappy experience:

Blue, purple, yellow, and green - really? First graders know how to match colors better than this.
If Comcast purports to be *the* HD source how is it that their guide won't expand out into widescreen?
Why does Comcast make us rent/buy expensive and nice DVR boxes if they're going to cripple them and make them less responsive?
Who thought it was a good idea to place ads on an already cluttered guide screen (fire that idiot)?

A really nice trick for you widescreen viewers: change your color scheme to "Onyx." It may not fill the whole screen, but the black background will certainly improve the effect. 




Technorati: Comcast | Design | Blogging | Critique | Media

Who's Sadr's graphic designer?

Does Moktada al-Sadr have an entire graphics department churning out propaganda posters? If not, whoever does his Photoshop work deserves to be (and very well might be) punished for visual crimes against humanity. Take a look at those posters — what is with the gradient work? Jeez, it looks like someone broke out Printshop Deluxe and went wild. I will give credit where credit is due, someone has obvious been sharpening their magic lasso tool skills because the edging on the angry mob montage is well done.

Winter Grapefruit Sorbet

When the mercury gets way low there's nothing quite like a nice simple bowl of ... sorbet? Don't ask what I was thinking making frozen treats while snowflakes piled upon our windowsill. Perhaps inspired by Alaskans (the biggest per capita U.S. consumers of ice cream despite frigid conditions), something clicked.

One big secret of citrus lovers is that paradoxically, in the dead of winter, you'll find the absolute BEST in sunny oranges and vibrant grapefruit. It's a blast of sunshine and vitamins. Making sorbet is a lot easier than you might expect - no need for an ice cream maker. This recipe would be great with fresh rosemary infused into the simple syrup, get creative. Get the recipe...

Winter Grapefruit Sorbet

2 cups water
2 cups of sugar
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed/strained ruby red grapefruit juice (don't use bottled!)
zest of one grapefruit
2 tablespoons grapefruit pulp
1 teaspoon light corn syrup

1. Mix water and sugar in a sauce pot and heat on medium until the sugar dissolves entirely. Place pot in the fridge or chill down in bowl of ice.

2. Combine remaining ingredients with chilled simple syrup and place in a stainless steel bowl in the freezer.

3. Return each hour to mix. The corn syrup will help keep the sorbet from getting grainy and icy, but the more you stir the smoother the result.

Auntie's New Newsletter

Auntie's Notes was badly in need of an update when I moved aboard with company. The publication had solid content but was presented poorly. The first step was to pick a uniform font and style book. The emphasis is placed strikingly on the words and letters with liberal use of handsome drop caps.

Originally designed with a spot blue ink as the sole color (still very present in the design), I was able to negotiate with the printer to move to four color processing.

The Scoop on Scratch

Stumbling out of Far West on Friday night Justin, Yelena and I stumbled into the man behind the long chef's table at hot spot du jour - Scratch. For those not in the Spokane-foodie-know, that's the eagerly awaited restaurant under the Montvale and located just two blocks from my apartment. Chef Jason Rex, clad in a bright red kitchen coat, was kind enough to give us a snappy tour and to let me use the bathroom.


The first thing that was noticeable was the intense smell of reducing stock. It may be the umami base of pretty much every dish at every restaurant but odds are the stock used in the valoute you had last weekend wasn't made in house. Scratch - hence the name - aims to change that. After personally making a massive pot of chicken broth last weekend (all stock isn't broth) I can tell you there's a BIG difference between the can and what you make yourself. Continued...

It's hard to judge a restaurant without tasting the food, so I'll reserve judgment for later, but there's the standard Spokane fare - apparently Ahi is mandated by some regional code - and some genuine surprises like beef tongue and a veal saltimboca which just might break my no red meat ban. The physical space is compact and intimate and Yelena immediately noted that it would have been in good company on 23rd in Portland. There's also a nice private back room that seems perfect for a party. Time will tell.


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Vocab is way too fun

Yelena gets credit for digging up this one. A delightful little vocab word quiz (easily played at work) that benefits the UN World Food Program. For every word you get right the participating sponsors donate 10 grains of rice. It's Freerice.com.

Ok, that doesn't sound lie a lot, but if you look at the daily totals it's gone from 830 grains on Oct. 7 to 56,893,100 grains on Oct. 30. This is growing exponentially so spread the word - boost some vocab and feed some people.

One discovery I've already made: Pert means "saucy." This begs the question, is PertPlus shampoo actually titled "ExtraSaucy"?

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A very sad night

Friday night was date night at the Neuman/Buzinover residence and we took the opportunity to yet again test the waters of Spokane's burgeoning food scene. Overall, I've been pretty pleased with the restaurants and service section of the Lilac City, but I was disappointed with what we found at a newer South Hill eatery specializing in small plates.

First off, the physical location is very small and was absolutely slammed with customers. We went to dinner fairly late, but a table for two was still 20 minutes. The ensuing time was filled by an extremely pleasurable cocktail interlude. If there is one saving grace of this joint it was the expertly prepared drinks and snappy bar service. My pomegranate-gin concoction perfectly accentuated the herbal qualities of the Bombay Sapphire without mucking it up with a lot of goopy syrup. The lady's infused mango vodka was equally tasteful.

Dinner was another story. Continued ... Our waitress was flustered, constantly re-asking us what we'd ordered, and service was uneven. Food was decent at best. Whereas the drinks possessed an ethereal, light quality, the dishes were as heavy-handed as they come. Not that the flavors were poorly chosen, just overdone. I might recommend the Nytimes' minimalist-in-residence Mark Bittman to the chef.

Although we liked it, pasta with ham was overcooked and smothered by drenched in a pepper jack goop. Lemon chicken, a favorite of my companion, was left almost untouched by her. The biggest failure was a stuffed portabello mushroom that came to our table as pile of risotto with a mushroom completely buried beneath it. I actually asked the server where the stuffed mushroom was that we had ordered. The risotto stuffing - cooked long beyond the proper al dente texture and doused in cream - was absolute paste more closely resembling mashed potatoes than a grain.

The coup de grace was leaving the restaurant to see one third of the kitchen staff in the parking lot leaning on the dumpster and laying (flat on their backs) on the ground while smoking cigarettes. Now, I know that kitchen crews are a hard living sort of lot (see "Kitchen Confidential" A. Bourdain, 2000) but this sort of behavior is supposed to be conducted OUT of sight

from patrons, not flaunted.

Northern Radio Exposure

For those in the know, I'm a big public radio junkie (although I've recently eschewed Frequency Modulation for podcasts) but my tastes have generally been circling the NPR format. I'll confess to a penchant for some PRI and APM series ("The Splendid Table" or "This American Life," anyone?) and yet my preferences have always stayed decidedly American. The BBC, while informative has never really done it for me, and Wisconsin and Minnesota, though seemingly foreign, are definitively under the stars and bars.

So it was a pleasant surprise to stumble onto the CBC's "As It Happens." Yes, I inevitably run the risk of sounding like an American schmuck by saying how surprised I was by our Canadian neighbor's "All Things Considered"-esque news show. Aside from the evening runtime and radio medium it bears very little in common with its south-of-the-border cousin.

First off, it sounds like experimental college radio. The news summary at the op of the show has some psychedelic groovy tuneage. The Hosts have a *unique* delivery style. Carol Off is somewhat conventional but Barbara Budd, see left, has an inflection and wacky delivery style that would make Susan Stamberg blush (Swastika is pronounced Shwah-steek-ahhhh?). Then there's also the wacky news content ... Continued

Last week AIH featured a nice little piece on the Canadian duck-calling champion. OK, I'm on board so far. Quirk is cool right now and I'm buying the story, but then Susan Off asks the guy to play his winning routine (keep in mind I'm wearing headphones) and he goes blasting off. This is not some short routine. It's two full minutes of piercing duck shrieks interspersed with the briefest of moments filled by more pleasing and normal soft quacks. This show is begging for an SNL parody.


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I am so busted

Put me in detention folks because I have not been blogging. In the ensuing months I've certainly experienced an unvaryingly amazing stream of food, friends, art , life and culture. I've been living in Spokane now for at least a month with Yelena. We've already had so many house-guests I can hardly count, but that's fine because our vintage apartment downtown is big enough to be a youth hostel.

Angie came west to visit us last weekend (see attached image) and I attended my first "ho-down" with that daring chick slurping down the white peach sangria that Justin and I slapped together.

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Five years of blogging

That's right ladies and gents — forged in the crucible of the Internet, this blog has been operating for five years. I know the announcement comes about two months late, but it wasn't really high on my priorities to boast about my geekiness.




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Greetings from Spokane

Getting here was terrible. Despite hours of built-in extra travel time I wasn't fully prepared to experience what is known as ODOT Hell. The 205 was slammed and traffic was intensely heavy - even at 2 in the afternoon - so I arrived at PDX at 3:45 with a flight scheduled to leave at 4 p.m. I was in full-on panic mode. So when I reached the front counter and the woman told me the flight was delayed a half hour I was thrilled. The first time in my life that a delay was useful.

As far as hospitality goes, this weekend has been unprecedented. I've had a blast hanging out with Shadra and meeting an entire crew of amazing Spokanites.

Also, I've been eating like a king in the best restaurants in town. Of course it was great to see the old favorites like Tom Bowers (who took Shadra and me to Hamburger Heaven - a superb joint in The Middle of Nowhere, Idaho) and Lacey Krause, but it was also a treat to meet Jenn and Remi. More to come ... check back later.


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