May 16, 2012
Things I didn't know about Mt Everest
In the past couple of weeks, I've had two separate events about climbers summitting Mt Everest come up in my daily history search, so I've been reading a lot about the mountain.
The event has been much explored thanks, primarily, to the presence of author Jon Krakauer who was writing an article about the tendency for people to pay their way up the mountain and who subsequently wrote the marvelous - if debated - book Into Thin Air.
If you have an illusions about climbing Mount Everest or simply want to read a white-knuckle account of what that could be like, give his book a try. It's a brilliant read.
Take a listen to Ken Kamler's take on the event. He was there that day.
May 15, 2012
Sumer is Icumen In
So I'll be doing a quick little update of my media consumption knowing
that once summer rolls around, I'll see a spike in consumption rates.
Jim Henson's Tale of Sand - Warning: no Muppets or puppets are involved in this one in the least. Instead, it's an a graphic novel adaptation of a screenplay written by Jerry Juhl and Jim Henson almost fifty years ago. The screenplay was never made into a movie even though it was shopped around to a number of studios on two separate occasions.
The screenplay explores Hensons's far more experimental side, being closer to Time Piece or The Cube. The story - such as it is - finds our unnamed protagonist (that's him on the cover there) awaking in a western town only to get the bum's rush out of town with little in the way of supplies or instructions other than that he has a ten-minute head start and that he'd better run.
Run to where? Run from whom? That is only hinted at as we see an eye-patch-wearing man pursuing with leisurely confidence behind the protagonist. Character development is thin as is linear storytelling. The man's identity is never revealed, nor is any of his background. The identity of the pursuer is hinted at but only barely revealed in the end. Where are we? How did we get there? What are the rules in this magical place? No clarity is provided, and eras, locations, rules of physics are all mutable to the exploration of the man's quest.
As a piece of linear storytelling, this is a miss entirely, but that's not what the book seems to aim for. Instead, we find ourselves rushing along with the man, swept up by the gorgeous artwork and the artist's use of very non-linear comic page layouts.
The story's progression is episodic and fractured, just as is the man's memory and understanding of his new world.
It's not one I'd want to own, but it's certainly one that I enjoyed 'reading'.
1001 Buildings You Must See Before You Die - This is the second or third book in the series that I've flipped through. I think I've looked at Songs and Albums as well. It's a commercially viable sort of book, something that you could easily pickup either as an architectural enthusiast or as a sort of life checklist around which you could frame any number of vacations.
As a library book, however, I found the scope simply to be far too daunting. The idea of actually reading a book of this magnitude - 960 pages with photos of about half the buildings - was far too overwhelming for a three-week period. I ended up flipping through, finding a few buildings that really interested me, and treating the book a bit like a checklist of 'been there, seen that'.
The book presents the buildings in chronological order broken up into eras from "Ancient World to the Renaissance" through post-modern times. Each era is presented without a discussion of the major trends of the era - something I would have found helpful. Instead, the buildings are shown with a one- or half-page essay of each and a label of the style, architect, location, and year of completion.
I would love to have seen more of the actual buildings, but I don't know that I would enjoy owning the book.
In case you're curious, my conquests from the full list...
Blue Beetle: Shellshocked - I groused a while back about DC's choice to off Blue Beetle III, Jamie Reyes; The Atom, Ryan Choi; and Ion, Kyle Raynor, three of the most high profile minority characters in the DC Old 52 universe.
Of course, I hadn't actually read any of the Blue Beetle or Atom stuff, so I didn't have much of a leg to stand on in my complaint - not that it's ever stopped me before, of course.
Here's the first volume of the newish Blue Beetle series which sort of introduces Jamie Reyes and his retconned blue scarab thing which turns into armor that he certainly doesn't understand at the beginning of the volume. I say 'sort of introduces' because little is clear a the beginning as the series came out of DC's 'One Year Later' event which dropped the heroes into a world where the readers had no idea what happened in the past, lost year and revealed bit by bit in the subsequent issues.
The idea was dumb.
Luckily, this series is actually interesting enough that I've gone ahead and requested the other five volumes of the since-cancelled run from PLCH. The setting of El Paso is an interesting choice and makes for natural inclusion of young, Hispanic characters, something that I assume DC was making as a conscious choice to bring in a different market than the typical, middle-aged white guys (like a certain ChemGuy).
The inclusion of a strong magic-theme left me cold and a bit confused as characters popped in and out of the series with cryptic and never-fully-revealed comments about Jamie's scarab's magical background. The exploration of Jamie's powers - he doesn't know what the armor/scarab is going to tell him or make him do, and he often struggles to maintain control of the armor - is interesting but needs to fade away soon if I'm going to see this all the way through.
Worth a read...
Batman: Gates of Gotham - I hate steampunk...hate it.
It's the weird, stupid mix of goth/romantic and faux science that just annoys the crap out of me, and this is just shy of steampunk in my eyes.
I appreciate the creation of Gotham as a character, a city with a rich history of madness and families guiding the creation of both an underclass and a privileged class that looked to help the underclass with their money, sort of the Carnegies of the DC world. Here we see the Waynes, Elliotts, and Cobblepots (?) as the three guiding families whose legacy - bridges and skyscrapers reaching to the heavens - are being tainted and revenged by the descendants of the architects whose designs were made into those 'Gates of Gotham'.
There's some interesting stuff, particularly Dick Grayson's finding of his way as the new Batman (has that entirely disappeared in the New 52?) and worrying about whether he can replace Bruce's knowledge of the city, but in general, this is forgettable.
The covers, however, are highly memorable. It's a shame that they weren't included in the trade.
Sadly, though, I stumbled upon these panels in searching for the covers. What the hell, folks?
Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol - Entertaining enough, but Tom Cruise is aging fast, folks.
He's going to have to slip into playing a different kind of action hero pretty soon.
Good stunts, fun locales, pretty girls...it's lesser than the first two MI's, but it's still a fun enough lark.
Jeremy Renner is a standout here. His star is very rightfully on the rise between the forthcoming Bourne Legacy and the already released Hurt Locker, Avengers, and this flick. He's the real deal, folks. My advice is to see just about anything he's in.
Chemistry Imagined by Roald Hoffmann - This man is the real deal - survivor of the holocaust, Nobel prize winning chemist, host of World of Chemistry, science popularizer, general stud.
When I saw that he had a new book out, I headed to the PLCH catalog to find check it out. Sadly, it's not in their catalog just yet, but this volume was. Since I'm always on the look out for books that might fit the parameters of my ongoing extra credit project, I'll pick up and skim just about any quasi-chemistry book.
This, however, isn't what I was looking for. The book's short (mostly two-page) essays are quick musings rather than somewhat deeper explorations or applications of chemical ideas.
Ah, well...we'll always have World of Chemistry...
Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes - This man is a laugh riot. Every page is full of hilarious gags and japes.
...or it's a 'love story' from the master of depressive comics.
Yeah, that's more like it.
Luckily, Clowes does a great job here of not falling to hopelessly into downerville, saving himself moment by moment with glances into a possibly redemptive outcome - which thankfully does come at the end of the book.
Give it a try.
The Avengers - Well, there...this one's just about perfect.
I'm not hitting any detailed reviews here because there's just not that much to say that hasn't been said in more detail than I'm willing to offer up. Check Comics101's review for a good deal...and Ashleeta Beauchamp's take on the Banner-Stark relationship.
The short of this is that if you've seen all the lead-up flicks - Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America (ignore the Hulk stuff, really) - you're gonna go see this one, and you're not going to be disappointed in the least.
Plus there are a few points of laugh-out-loud funny in the flick.
Go see it.
(And let's cut the crap about this being the best comic book movie ever. Nolan's pair so far are both better because there's a theme there. This is widescreen comics translated appropriately and brilliantly for the big screen, but it lacks the gravitas that's required to top Nolan.)
The screenplay explores Hensons's far more experimental side, being closer to Time Piece or The Cube. The story - such as it is - finds our unnamed protagonist (that's him on the cover there) awaking in a western town only to get the bum's rush out of town with little in the way of supplies or instructions other than that he has a ten-minute head start and that he'd better run.
Run to where? Run from whom? That is only hinted at as we see an eye-patch-wearing man pursuing with leisurely confidence behind the protagonist. Character development is thin as is linear storytelling. The man's identity is never revealed, nor is any of his background. The identity of the pursuer is hinted at but only barely revealed in the end. Where are we? How did we get there? What are the rules in this magical place? No clarity is provided, and eras, locations, rules of physics are all mutable to the exploration of the man's quest.
As a piece of linear storytelling, this is a miss entirely, but that's not what the book seems to aim for. Instead, we find ourselves rushing along with the man, swept up by the gorgeous artwork and the artist's use of very non-linear comic page layouts.
The story's progression is episodic and fractured, just as is the man's memory and understanding of his new world.
It's not one I'd want to own, but it's certainly one that I enjoyed 'reading'.
As a library book, however, I found the scope simply to be far too daunting. The idea of actually reading a book of this magnitude - 960 pages with photos of about half the buildings - was far too overwhelming for a three-week period. I ended up flipping through, finding a few buildings that really interested me, and treating the book a bit like a checklist of 'been there, seen that'.
The book presents the buildings in chronological order broken up into eras from "Ancient World to the Renaissance" through post-modern times. Each era is presented without a discussion of the major trends of the era - something I would have found helpful. Instead, the buildings are shown with a one- or half-page essay of each and a label of the style, architect, location, and year of completion.
I would love to have seen more of the actual buildings, but I don't know that I would enjoy owning the book.
In case you're curious, my conquests from the full list...
- Colosseum - Rome. Italy
- San Miniato al Monte - Florence, Italy
- Salisbury Cathedral - Salisbury, England
- Florence Cathedral - Florence, Italy
- Palazzo Vecchio - Florence, Italy
- Florence Baptistery - Florence, Italy
- Uffizi- Florence, Italy
- Basilica of St. Peter - Rome, Italy
- Craigievar Castle - Aberdeenshire, England
- Colonnade of St. Peter - Rome, Italy
- Culzean Castle - Ayrshire, Italy
- Royal Albert Hall- London, England
- Glasgow School of Art - Glasgow, Scotland
- Casa Milá- Barcelona, Spain
- La Sagrada Família - Barcelona, Spain
- Fox Theatre - Detroit, MI, USA
- Chrysler Building - New York, NY, USA
- Empire State Building - New York, NY, USA
- Rockefeller Center - New York, NY, USA
- Pentagon - Arlington, VA, USA
- Italian Chapel - Orkney Islands, Scotland
- Indiana College Life Insurance Company Building - Indianapolis, IN, USA
- Sears Tower - Chicago, IL, USA
- East Building, National Gallery of Art - Washington, DC, USA
- United Airlines Terminal, O'Hare Airport - Chicago, IL, USA
- Aronoff Center for Design and Art - Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art - Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Walker Art Center - Minneapolis, MN, USA
- Centre Pompidou - Paris, France
Of course, I hadn't actually read any of the Blue Beetle or Atom stuff, so I didn't have much of a leg to stand on in my complaint - not that it's ever stopped me before, of course.
Here's the first volume of the newish Blue Beetle series which sort of introduces Jamie Reyes and his retconned blue scarab thing which turns into armor that he certainly doesn't understand at the beginning of the volume. I say 'sort of introduces' because little is clear a the beginning as the series came out of DC's 'One Year Later' event which dropped the heroes into a world where the readers had no idea what happened in the past, lost year and revealed bit by bit in the subsequent issues.
The idea was dumb.
Luckily, this series is actually interesting enough that I've gone ahead and requested the other five volumes of the since-cancelled run from PLCH. The setting of El Paso is an interesting choice and makes for natural inclusion of young, Hispanic characters, something that I assume DC was making as a conscious choice to bring in a different market than the typical, middle-aged white guys (like a certain ChemGuy).
The inclusion of a strong magic-theme left me cold and a bit confused as characters popped in and out of the series with cryptic and never-fully-revealed comments about Jamie's scarab's magical background. The exploration of Jamie's powers - he doesn't know what the armor/scarab is going to tell him or make him do, and he often struggles to maintain control of the armor - is interesting but needs to fade away soon if I'm going to see this all the way through.
Worth a read...
It's the weird, stupid mix of goth/romantic and faux science that just annoys the crap out of me, and this is just shy of steampunk in my eyes.
I appreciate the creation of Gotham as a character, a city with a rich history of madness and families guiding the creation of both an underclass and a privileged class that looked to help the underclass with their money, sort of the Carnegies of the DC world. Here we see the Waynes, Elliotts, and Cobblepots (?) as the three guiding families whose legacy - bridges and skyscrapers reaching to the heavens - are being tainted and revenged by the descendants of the architects whose designs were made into those 'Gates of Gotham'.
There's some interesting stuff, particularly Dick Grayson's finding of his way as the new Batman (has that entirely disappeared in the New 52?) and worrying about whether he can replace Bruce's knowledge of the city, but in general, this is forgettable.
The covers, however, are highly memorable. It's a shame that they weren't included in the trade.
Sadly, though, I stumbled upon these panels in searching for the covers. What the hell, folks?
He's going to have to slip into playing a different kind of action hero pretty soon.
Good stunts, fun locales, pretty girls...it's lesser than the first two MI's, but it's still a fun enough lark.
Jeremy Renner is a standout here. His star is very rightfully on the rise between the forthcoming Bourne Legacy and the already released Hurt Locker, Avengers, and this flick. He's the real deal, folks. My advice is to see just about anything he's in.
Chemistry Imagined by Roald Hoffmann - This man is the real deal - survivor of the holocaust, Nobel prize winning chemist, host of World of Chemistry, science popularizer, general stud.
When I saw that he had a new book out, I headed to the PLCH catalog to find check it out. Sadly, it's not in their catalog just yet, but this volume was. Since I'm always on the look out for books that might fit the parameters of my ongoing extra credit project, I'll pick up and skim just about any quasi-chemistry book.
This, however, isn't what I was looking for. The book's short (mostly two-page) essays are quick musings rather than somewhat deeper explorations or applications of chemical ideas.
Ah, well...we'll always have World of Chemistry...
Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes - This man is a laugh riot. Every page is full of hilarious gags and japes.
...or it's a 'love story' from the master of depressive comics.
Yeah, that's more like it.
Luckily, Clowes does a great job here of not falling to hopelessly into downerville, saving himself moment by moment with glances into a possibly redemptive outcome - which thankfully does come at the end of the book.
Give it a try.
I'm not hitting any detailed reviews here because there's just not that much to say that hasn't been said in more detail than I'm willing to offer up. Check Comics101's review for a good deal...and Ashleeta Beauchamp's take on the Banner-Stark relationship.
The short of this is that if you've seen all the lead-up flicks - Thor, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Captain America (ignore the Hulk stuff, really) - you're gonna go see this one, and you're not going to be disappointed in the least.
- The action is a blast.
- Loki totally works as the bad guy.
- The two just human folks hold their own.
- The Hulk is the best Hulk that we've seen on screen - in spite of the fact that Norton did a fine job.
- Stark and Banner are the best characters here.
- Captain America's appropriately wooden but heroic.
- Scarlett Johansson doesn't ruin the thing and looks pretty throughout.
- We get a teaser for the next Avengers. (I have no friggin' clue why anybody leaves before the credits of a Marvel movie at this point...c'mon, folks!)
- Fury is marvelously controlling and starting to lean a bit further toward his Ultimate universe persona of living in the morally grey areas.
- I'm thinking Colby Smulders is going to be a fine replacement for Agent Coulson, though I'm really sad to see him go.
Plus there are a few points of laugh-out-loud funny in the flick.
Go see it.
(And let's cut the crap about this being the best comic book movie ever. Nolan's pair so far are both better because there's a theme there. This is widescreen comics translated appropriately and brilliantly for the big screen, but it lacks the gravitas that's required to top Nolan.)
May 14, 2012
No picture today
I remember hearing about the Carrolton Bus Crash when I was in middle school. It's been 24 years since the horrific collision, and I see the signs every time I drive back to New Albany.
I wish the survivors of the crash well and am thankful that improved bus safety design came about because of the tragic event.
Update: Say What Now of the Day
From this weekend's links post with the apparently nutty conservative woman ranting about the dangers of gay people and AIDS and lots of other things.
Apparently there's a little more to the story. I'll quote the TheDailyWh.at's update here:
Apparently there's a little more to the story. I'll quote the TheDailyWh.at's update here:
Jane Svoboda, whose anti-gay rant at a Lincoln, NE, City Council meeting went viral last week, isn’t the crazy conservative she’s been made out to be in the media, but a schizophrenic who lives at an assisted-living facility, says her family.As always, there's more to the story than we knew.
Svoboda is listed as a protected person, according to court documents, and her brother, Patrick Svoboda, is her conservator because she is incompetent. He said their family has tried to get her help multiple times, but there’s little they can do unless she becomes a danger to herself or others.
He said he’s disappointed that the video was so widely shared when people didn’t know his sister’s back story.
“To me, it shows how little society really cares about people with mental health issues,” Patrick Svoboda said. “She does have a very tender heart… but anything she says is certifiably schizophrenic … she’s not some crazy conservative.”
Nonetheless, Jane Svoboda is a registered lobbyist at the Capitol, and she usually speaks twice a month during the council’s open mic sessions. She also frequents the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, where she hands out fliers and is known as the “Crazy Blue Protesting Lady.”
Queens of the Bluegrass
So I was talking to my sister a while back, and it turns out that she has a little thing on the side. See, she helps out at some of the Kentucky Beauties pageants, these beauty pageants that a friend of hers runs around the Bluegrass state.
I'll admit that I'm not so clued in with the whole beauty pageant world, so when she started talking about her weekend in Dry Ridge, KY where the then-latest Kentucky Beauties pageant was held, I had a tons of questions:
I'll admit that I'm not so clued in with the whole beauty pageant world, so when she started talking about her weekend in Dry Ridge, KY where the then-latest Kentucky Beauties pageant was held, I had a tons of questions:
- Really, there's no hurdle to entry other than the entry fee?
- What do you mean that they often crown girls champs even though there's only one entry in their category?
- Wait, they had a whole competition based only on the photos that the people hand in? And there's a photo winner in every age group? Ad everybody can submit multiple photos at $20 a pop?
- There' no talent category? No question-and-answer session with each girl? This is a straight-up beauty pageant?
- The winners in each category go on to some kind of Kentucky Beauties state-wide pageant, but even the rest of the competitors can advance if they want to and are willing to pay a fee?
- And these people run pageants twenty or so weekends a year as a full-out money making gig clearing thousands of dollars in a single day each time?
- They also rent out booths to companies and people that sell pageant stuff - dresses, photos, make-up, stuff - boosting their revenue even more?
May 13, 2012
Moving on up...
Suck it, Nadal...
Anybody have any idea what the record is for most consecutive weeks in the top three of the world rankings?
I know Fed is one week behind Sampras for most weeks at #1, and he will become the record holder for most weeks in the top two when this week's rankings come out, but I'm curious about top three. It looks like Fed has a while to go to catch longest time in the top ten, though. (Fed broke into the top ten after winning the Hamburg Masters, May 2002, so it's been almost exactly ten years now.)
Anybody have any idea what the record is for most consecutive weeks in the top three of the world rankings?
I know Fed is one week behind Sampras for most weeks at #1, and he will become the record holder for most weeks in the top two when this week's rankings come out, but I'm curious about top three. It looks like Fed has a while to go to catch longest time in the top ten, though. (Fed broke into the top ten after winning the Hamburg Masters, May 2002, so it's been almost exactly ten years now.)
May 12, 2012
I'm getting new tires...
Yup...that's Saturday's big excitement.
Adulthood is awesome!
Adulthood is awesome!
- Say What Now of the Day - Sometimes you just have to acknowledge the crazy and let it have its five minutes of time.
- You've been eating cupcakes wrong your whole life - Good lord, it's true.
- Some Saturday inspiration - Neil deGrasse Tyson strikes again
- Two rules for success - Clearly, this man is smarter than I am.
- New Argo trailer - Bennifer's been 2 for 2 in directing so far
- Infographic of the Day - Beautiful infographic about gay rights around US broken up by region...stunning concentration in NE...drought in SE...
- Periodic Ceiling of the Elements - I've been wanting to do this for years, but his is much more professionally done.
- The frequent fliers who flew too much - Turns out AmericanAirlines's lifetime pass was a bad deal for AA and a phenomenally awesome deal for the purchasers.
- ComicsAlliance reviews Superman III - Turns out it's better than I or II.
- Carl Sagan on the chemical elements - love this man
- Common appliances, uncommon uses - brownies in the waffle iron, could be tasty
- Photo from Climate Impacts Day - Biggest issue around
- Support for Same-Sex Marriage Edges Upward - Fascinating research
- ZBoard: the Segway of skateboards - I'd be tempted if I lived a little more urban...and good weather.
- 29 Touristy Spots in America that are Actually Good - Been to three of the...Shake Shack needs to be next
- Does Noah Know How Sexy He Is? - Noah knows the way to middle class America's heart.
- Back to the Future business card of the day - A simple solution
- The Venn Pie-agram - A brilliant way to end today's post.
May 11, 2012
Things to buy...or to recreate...
Very cool stuff...I'll tell you next week how I wandered onto today's fascinating science/Etsy blog because I don't want to ruin a surprise for somebody who might find this blog.
But...it has a bunch of very cool stuff. Not all of it is stuff I want, but it's cool and geeky (science geeky), indeed.
For example...
...non-traditional locket...
...dorky biology pickup line cards...
...element wood blocks...
...DNA earrings...
...more geeky biology pickup line cards...
...glow-in-the-dark plutonium soap...
...geeky chemistry pick-up line artwork...
...apparently geeky bio folks buy cards...
...can the bio folks lay off the cards for once?...
But...it has a bunch of very cool stuff. Not all of it is stuff I want, but it's cool and geeky (science geeky), indeed.
For example...
...non-traditional locket...
...dorky biology pickup line cards...
...element wood blocks...
...more geeky biology pickup line cards...
...glow-in-the-dark plutonium soap...
...geeky chemistry pick-up line artwork...
...apparently geeky bio folks buy cards...
...can the bio folks lay off the cards for once?...
May 10, 2012
The Bestfest Club: Opening... LonnieBurger Basket: Suspending
We feel like the best burgers have been found...
From those top three, there's a sizable gap down to City View Tavern, Sutffed on Vine, and all the rest of the burgers in the Cincinnati area.
We're both bored with going to bars and ordering average burgers. Yeah, some of them are a little better than others, but none are remotely close to breaking into the top three. If anybody comes up with a new, allegedly awesome burger that we just have to try, we just might dust the LonnieBurger basket rubric off and take it for another spin. Until and unless that happens, though, it looks like the LonnieBurger Basket thread will be heading into cold storage.
But what should be turn our attention to next?
I suggested hitting up the various Mexican restaurants around - and there are a bunch of them around the city. I'm all down with going with tacos - maybe a chorizo and a shredded beef and a chicken or something - or with just going for green enchiladas, but The Girl said she has her favorite Mexican place (Taqueria Mercado) and doesn't want to have to go elsewhere instead of there.
The Girl suggested a Saturday morning date with breakfast dives - Waffle House, Sugar and Spice, Hyde's in Hamilton - NOT Grand Finale, First Watch, IHOP, Denny's, Original Pancake House. And no breakfast buffets. I'm all down with that and just need to come up with a way to score things. I need a few suggestions here, folks.
My questions...
- What should I order?
- I hate fluffy pancakes, so pancakes are out because most places go big and fluffy.
- Waffles are hit or miss - small, thing or big, thick with nasty fruit. I'm thinking that's out.
- Hash browns seem like a must for me. But how to order them? Plain? Onions? Cheese? Is that cheating?
- I'm a hearty eater, so no cottage cheese, no melon, no fruit, probably.
- I don't drink coffee, but The Girl swills it like she breathes air, so she'll rate that part.
- Eggs? how many...cooked how?
- Bacon? Sausage? Are links better than patties? Should I take whichever they say is better?
- I'm not feeling like an omelet is the right way to judge a dive bar.
- Water? Orange juice? Size of glass & cost?
- Toast? If so, is it bad to get jelly in a packet at a dive bar?
- How do I rate a dive bar?
- Friendliness of regular patrons?
- Crowdedness?
- Cost? If so, what's fair for what I'm ordering?
- Speed?
- Are shredded hash browns better/worse than cubes hash browns? Do you expect spice in your hash browns?
- Where should I go looking for the best breakfasts in town?
- What do I call this thing?
- For now I've gone with The Bestfast Club, but I could be persuaded to go in a different direction?
- The Breafbest Club?
- Cereal business?
- Eggs over Lonnie?
PS: As a closing to LonnieBurger basket series, we stopped by Gordo's in Norwood this past weekend, trying to see if the original was better than the Fairfield version.
 |
| image from getinmahbelly.blogspot.com/2009/03/gordos.html |
No photographic evidence exists, but here's the scores...
- Burger - 8 - good taste, not meatloafy at all
- Toppings - 8 - I cheated and went for the Gordo burger with Boursin, roasted poblanos, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and mayo. Very tasty
- Fries - 6 - plank...fine
- Cost - 4 - burger + fries = 9...Diet Coke = 2...
- Ambiance - 8 - This place has atmosphere unlike the Fairfield one.
- Other stuff - +1 floor (awesome wood floor)...-2 burger shaped like hockey pucks, hard to eat, too thick not wide enough
- Total - 33pts
- Terry's Turf Club - 45
- Cafe de Wheels - 44
- Senate - 43
- City View Tavern - 40 (scaled from 32/40)
- Stuffed on Vine - 38
- Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36
- Roxy's - 36
- FlipDaddy's - 35.5
- Sonny's Three Meat Burgers - 35
- VanZandt - 34
- Gabby's - 34
- Oakley Pub & Grill - 34
- Gordo's (Norwood) - 33
- Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
- Troy's - 32
- By Golly's - 32
- Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40)
- Sidetracks - 31
- Zola's - 30
- Trinity Pub - 29.5
- Virgil's Cafe - 28
- Tank's Bar & Grill - 28
- The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
- Smashburger - 28
- Habits Cafe - 28
- Graffiti Burger - 27
- Arthur's - 26
- Sammy's - 25
- Skinny Legs - 25
- Gordo's (Fairfield) - 20
May 9, 2012
May 8, 2012
LonnieBurger Baskets: Zola Pub & Grill
Two burgers in two days here as we went from Friday night's Trinity Pub burger to Saturday's birthday burger at Zola's Pub & Grill in Covington.
Apparently in retrospect, I might've taken a few more photographs, so I'll be heading onto the web to augment what I can provide.
Let's start with what Cincinnati Magazine has to offer up...
Burger
Atmosphere
Um...carry the seven...double the burger...take the square root and integral...we get 7+5+7+7+6-1 = 30 points...
Apparently in retrospect, I might've taken a few more photographs, so I'll be heading onto the web to augment what I can provide.
image from SteakNPotatoesKindaGurl
Let's start with what Cincinnati Magazine has to offer up...
24 Zola Burger ZOLA PUB & GRILL $7.25 (as of publication almost two years ago now)We headed down into Covington and bopped up onto Main Strasse for a good burger. Let's see if I can reach way back into the memories and see what there is to say about Zola's burger.
It’s meat overload, but the ham and bacon crowning this patty lend fat and flavor to the lean, somewhat dry beef, as do the mushrooms, onion, and American cheese. The toasted kaiser bun stands up to all that admirably. Try the Asian slaw—it’s like potluck ramen salad. Wednesday at Zola is Burger Mania and burgers are just $6. / 626 Main St., Covington, (859) 261-7510
Burger
- There's something to be said for a straight-up, beefy burger. Zola's isn't a plain, beefy burger. Zola's burger has a tasty bite to it, a peppery flavor that I enjoy and that I found reminiscent of the burgers at City View Tavern and the Oakley Pub & Grill. It wasn't an over-abundance of flavor drowning out the beef of the burger but rather a nice compliment to the flavor of the beef. The burger was cooked about right with just a little pink showing for my medium order, but can nobody produce a good crust on a burger? Terry's where are you? Burger - 7
- I like the onion straws. They're a nice touch on a burger. These were well made and added a little crispness to the burger. The cheddar was nicely melted. The pickles were...pickley...and successfully sliced right there on the bun top with the onions and tomato slices. And they threw some mayonaise under the burger with the lettuce. Apparently the bacon got missed. We'll drop that a point or two later. The toppings that I saw on this Saturday were absolutely nothing special. Meh... Toppings - 5
- Fresh cut fries with the potato skins still on the edges and a little salt make for a fine accompaniment to a burger. These were...fries. Not much else to say there. They were well cooked and nicely crispy but not much more than just good fries. Fries - 7
Atmosphere
- Zola's is a nice, neighborhood bar. The bar itself is a beautiful space with gorgeous pillars and attractive woodwork crowning those columns. The mirrors make the smallish bar - which also has a second story that we didn't, admittedly, wander up to - look larger, something that is, admittedly a little needed. I'm a fan of the old standard wood pub decor. Atmosphere - 7
- I went with the Mo Town (with barbeque sauce on the side) for $6.95 including fries...plus $2.00 for Diet Coke. That's $8.95, a point below average so...Cost - 6
- There's the huge drawback the Zola's is forty-five minutes from my house. That's a drawback, but I can't really blame them for that.
- There's also the fact that Zola's is in Northern Kentucky where smoking is still legal and fair game in a bar. With only a few folks in Zola's with us at the time, the place stunk of smoke. There are ashtrays on every table. Welcome to the tobacco capital of the United States. -2
Um...carry the seven...double the burger...take the square root and integral...we get 7+5+7+7+6-1 = 30 points...
- Terry's Turf Club - 45
- Cafe de Wheels - 44
- Senate - 43
- City View Tavern - 40 (scaled from 32/40)
- Stuffed on Vine - 38
- Five Guys Burgers and Fries - 36
- Roxy's - 36
- FlipDaddy's - 35.5
- Sonny's Three Meat Burgers - 35
- VanZandt - 34
- Gabby's - 34
- Oakley Pub & Grill - 34
- Quatman's - 32 / 34.5
- Troy's - 32
- By Golly's - 32
- Wildflower Cafe - 31.25 (scaled from 26/40)
- Sidetracks - 31
- Zola's - 30
- Trinity Pub - 29.5
- Virgil's Cafe - 28
- Tank's Bar & Grill - 28
- The Pub at Rookwood Mews - 28
- Smashburger - 28
- Habits Cafe - 28
- Graffiti Burger - 27
- Arthur's - 26
- Sammy's - 25
- Skinny Legs - 25
- Gordo's (Fairfield) - 20
May 7, 2012
Practicing a trip down memory lane
Happy 10th Anniversary, Answer...AI...you don't need to practice any more...
At least the man has a sense of humor...
Thanks, Calen for pointing this out...and for Jay Morrison from the Journal News for pointing it out to her...
At least the man has a sense of humor...
Thanks, Calen for pointing this out...and for Jay Morrison from the Journal News for pointing it out to her...
More pretty Lego pics
Simple little joys...taking photos of your Lego stormtroopers doing maintenance on your Macbook...
Ah...
There are other pics in the photostream like these fun Lego ones...
Oddly, though, of the forty-some pages of photos, about twenty are of what's apparently a field trip to the Tokyo airport with special attention paid to getting a photo of every plane that took off or landed during the trip.
Weirdly...
Ah...
There are other pics in the photostream like these fun Lego ones...
Oddly, though, of the forty-some pages of photos, about twenty are of what's apparently a field trip to the Tokyo airport with special attention paid to getting a photo of every plane that took off or landed during the trip.
Weirdly...
May 5, 2012
Happy prom, everybody!
- Super Creepy Kids Song of the Day - Yup, it is super creepy.
- Ashton Kutcher dating ad - That's not funny...and I'm guessing kind of offensive.
- Review: Taqueria Yolandita - Maybe after the burgers?
- 5-Minute Compilation of Superhero Movies - Yup, that's about all of them.
- Donnie & Marie Osmond do Star Wars - Just remember that in thirty years, something from today will be regarded just like you're looking at this video.
- BCS Gets It Right - If it starts with four teams, it'll grow to eight soon enough. I'd be happy with eight.
- Billy Hamilton is Very Fast - and this one belongs to the Reds!
- Trailer for upcoming movie Shuffle - I'd see that.
- Stephen Colbert reports on Kermit's legal troubles - As always, hilarious...
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Kermit the Frog's German TV Offense - Hans Beinholtz | ||||
| ||||
- Reddit's "What Secret Could Ruin Your Life If It Came Out" thread is a harrowing decent into the darkest reaches of the human soul - but also a fascinating one
- Yosemite Range of Light - Gorgeous
- Logo trends 2012 - DC's logo sucks
- Space Shuttle Launch - This makes me sad that I never saw one in person.
- What if Bruce Timm designed the New 52 - It'd look better, that's what.
- Metallurgy for the Non-Metallurgist - It's geeky that I'm excited to get a copy of this, right?
- That's not Kobe beef you're eating - Did anybody believe it was?
- 2012 Major League Wiffle Ball - Yes, these are my students.
- Trailer for new sci-fi movie Looper - Yeah, I'd see that one, too.
- The Official Nick Offerman Aging Timeline - This along with Nick's 10 pieces of advice can make anybody a man.
- Indiana-Kentucky series ending - sadness...but I'm thinking it'll come back down the line
- Six lesser known movies with twist endings - I can roundly endorse Arlington Road, The Prestige, The Sting, History of Violence (I don't remember a twist), and Empire.
- Working at DC Comics looks like a dream job - I want all those shelves.
- 10 Quick Practical Jokes - I hate practical jokes, but these are minor and quick enough that they might be fun.
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