Happy Halloween
Archive for October, 2009
This version of the website has been running one year! What should I do for next year? Write better articles or redesign the artwork? Hmm!
For some statistics, I get between 300-400 hits a month and about 250 RSS feed hits. A little over 90% of the visitors are new people. I’d like to retain a few more than I have, but at the moment there’s nothing to really keep a person coming here (other than my constant twitter reminders.) Now if I could just get this damn book published…
Bad name, but a good movie. If the name doesn’t ring any bells it’s because it hasn’t been in theatres for 50 something years. I’m not quite sure how I even came on to it, but it is a good find.
The Big Combo is an old film noir from the mid 50s. It’s one of those black and white detective films that were all loosely based on the hard-boiled fiction of the 30s and 40s ala Dashiell Hammett. It’s similar to The Maltese Falcon, but not quite as famous and lacking a certain Mr. Bogart.
It’s a good film though. The story has some holes in it and the romance is pretty ridiculous, but the imagery is great. Dark hallways, lots of shadows. The detective in this case is Police Lt. Leonard Diamond who is trying to break the back of the local Mob syndicate, called The Combination, led by Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown chews the scenery for an hour and a half, foiling our good detective’s attempts at breaking the mob. Mr. Brown’s girlfriend, Susan Lowell, however provides a crack in his organization… A side plot has Mr. Brown’s assistant, Joe McClure, a former leader, trying to reclaim control of the Combination. That, of course, doesn’t end well.
A lot of older films come off poorly. Either the dialog is stale, the plot too reliant on unrealistic humanity, or the look is just terrible. Big Combo manages to sidestep that. The imagery is gorgeous. Everything is too dark to look fake. The plot is actually quite brutal. There’s no helpful neighbor showing up with a solution at the last minute. As for the dialog, it’s hard-boiled fiction. A lot of one-liners, a lot of glares, not much narration. The whole thing times out around 80 something minutes so it wraps up nice and quickly.
Considering that the theatres are showing off a handful of sequels and bland teen films this week (every week), I was happy to find something a bit more engrossing for my evening entertainment.
My little site isn’t exactly a high hacker target, but it does get assaulted pretty regularly by roaming bots. I’ve found it necessary to make periodic tweaks to keep everything running smoothly. Wordpress is nice because a number of the security precautions that I would normally have to implement myself can be found in plugin form.
I currently use Akismet for spam filtering, WordPress Database Backup for weekly backups, and WordPress Security Scan. This list includes those plugins with 20 or so more for securing a wordpress install.
The cast of HBO’s Game of Thrones! Perfect casting by the looks of it, but where are the other Baratheon brothers? And Melisandre? And Petyr Baelish?
Very exciting!
A week ago I finally ate dinner at Mountain Brauhaus located past New Paltz on the road to Minnewaska. I’ve wanted to eat there for over a year, having passed it every time I go hiking. For whatever reason I didn’t make it there until last friday. Worth mentioning, I actually did attempt to eat there twice previously but the waits times were longer than I had time for. Mountain Brauhaus is a popular place.
I arrived in around 6:30Pm on a friday with three companions we were promptly seated by a young waitress dressed in a peasant’s dress reminiscent of Maria from The Sound of Music. For a nominal $2 we each ordered the local apple cider, which was exceptional and later water.
As an appetizer, we ordered the German pretzel, which came out to be a sort of roll-like thing or a garlic knot without the garlic. It came with a mustard, a bit sweet perhaps, and was devoured quickly. I’m glad we ordered it though since the rest of dinner proceeded somewhat slowly.
Like many of the restaurants in New Paltz, the food was by and large exceptional. We each got an entry salad, nothing special but fresh, and a sweet, dark bread was kept in supply. Also like many places in New Paltz, the overall service was courteous but slow. Our meal took about an hour and a half, which would be about thirty minutes slower than I normally would like. They were busy, so I wouldn’t count it terribly against them, but I suspect anyone hoping for a quick snack and go will be disappointed, at least for a friday night dinner.
For an entrée I ordered the sausage medley. The dinner comes with saurkraut, three different types of sausage, and German potato salad, which seems to be normal potato salad but with a similar sour taste as sauerkraut. The sauages were a few inches long, rather large. I was actually somewhat disappointed by the size initially, but by the end of the meal I was absolutely stuffed. The sausages are filling and tasting, ranging from a sort of sour meat, to a kielbasa taste, to a sort of buttery smooth meat.
My companions ordered the Schnitzel A la Holstein, a fried veal cutlet with an egg on top, also the Spaetzle Primavera, a dense noodle and vegetable medley, and the Zwiebel Rostbraten, a steak with mushroom sauce. I cannot confirm personally, but they were all delicious by repute and filling.
The overall atmosphere was serious but energetic. The restaurant is a tad dark, sort of a large family dining room with small tables. It is a restaurant for long conversations and good company. I was pleased to find the ‘german’ novelty was kept happily to the waitress’ dresses and not made a gimmick.
I’ll never have enough time to make Mountain Brauhaus one of my usual restaurants, but for special occasions or a sausage craving its well worth the visit. I enjoyed the food immensely and while the prices are not terribly cheap (except $20+ a person on average) they were not terribly overpriced as well. I felt full at the end of the day and my companions carried boxes of leftovers home. In total I enjoyed the experience and would recommend a night at Mountain Brauhaus without reservation.
Ugh. Fake punt pass. Only good thing to come out of yesterday. Seahawks = Sunk. Time to retool the whole machine.
Sometimes I get lazy and decide I’d rather link to something than write.
I justify it because they’re kind of cool.
I didn’t post anything after the Seahawks last week. Hasselback was injured, Senaca Wallace was nothing special, and the rest of the team is various states of injured. The Seahawk season seemed like another disaster.
That’s still probably true, but there’s watching today’s 41-0 rout of the Jaguars felt good. The 49ers lost; the Seahawks still have a shot at taking the division. The team is too weak to go anywhere in the playoffs, but if they can get over their injuries, and more importantly, if Hasselbeck can stay healthy, than they can contend. I’m staying with my ultimately prediction, first round playoff lost, but at least they can get that far,
And then what for next year? They need to finally solidify the o-line, Hasselback only has a few years left, and eventually they need to strengthen their defensive backs. I’m not sure whether they should pick up a new franchise quarterback or stay with Hasselback and work on the offensive line. Either works. Hopefully Mora can work his magic in another offseason.
Anyways, hats off to a great Seahawks win. Also go Yanks!
