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Burning Man 2012-The Virgin Voyage

8/5/2012

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Getting My Ticket(s)

I parked right under the post that held the 4 signs explaining the parking times, hours and limitations. And I read it and re-read it and re-read it again. And still I somehow didn’t get it. But they got me and I got a ticket.

I so hate parking tickets and haven’t got one in years.

Yuck.

Burning Man sold out last year for the first time in its history. So this year they sold tickets through a lottery system, which I actually signed up for many months ago. But I didn’t get so lucky at which point I figured it wasn’t meant to be and I’d give a try next year and pretty much put Burning Man in the back of my mind.


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The Golden Ticket As the event approached, I started wishing I had got a ticket and could go. And then as our schedule and travel plans started coming together, I realized that this might be the best chance of me being able to actually go. 

But I still didn’t have a ticket.

Months ago I went on-line to see what it would cost to buy it through scalpers. The prices were astronomical. Well fortunately the prices had come down, but there were still plenty of risks and such with getting a ticket that way. So I decided to go at it the “right” way and get it through the Burning Man web-site. There were a lot of people wanting tickets and not many to be had.

 But I was dogged and got lucky and got one for face value. 

Hurray!!!!

Now to get ready.





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Research
I have heard about Burning Man for as long as I can remember and I have thought of going on many, many occasions. And in retrospect, I really wish I had, but hindsight, as they say gives you 20/20 vision.

As soon as I started getting serious about my adventure, I started asking friends and acquaintances who had been, what I should expect or rather what gear should I bring, what do I really not want to forget, what do I need, etc. etc.

What I found out and I pretty much expected this to be the case that talking to people about Burning Man like the story of the Elephant and the Five Blind Men, everyone has their own very unique take on the experience.

My good friend Rusty is a hard core Burning Man participant and has been going off to the Playa forever. So I've been picking his brain quite a bit.

With your ticket you get a Survival Guide




I managed to find one book on the people of Burning Man, and then when I met up with Rusty, he brought a little library.

So I borrowed a couple and have been studying with due diligence.






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The Dust
One thing you hear about from everyone is the dust.

So even though I've been carting several bikes all over the country. I had to find a beater bike that wouldn't mind getting destroyed by the infamous Playa dirt.

Off I went to find my Burner bike

I found a little hole in the wall deep in the San Fernando Valley with a few jalopies.

This one fit the bill pretty nicely.

Already got a basket and the drop in the middle will make it easy to get on and off when I've got my bike blender strapped on the back.

Next step, to decorate the heck out of it and light it up.

More Stuff...Seriously?

You would think that I would be able to go through our storage and piece together enough equipment and supplies without having to get more stuff.  And for the most part that has been true, however....

After a couple of years of almost getting a Utilikilt, and then not, I bit the bullet and ordered one.

Same goes for the roll up solar panel, Tank Girlesque goggles, a pair of black and white stripey MC Hammer style pants as well as some pretty glowy Electroluminescent wire aka EL wire.

And the list goes on....

Getting Ready to Burn

At the regional burn I went to in Georgia I watched in delight and a bit of envy as people played and danced with fire. I wanted to do that.

Skye too, wanted to play with fire. So to add to our list of curious hobbies we started taking Fire Staff classes over in Hollywood at Fire Groove

The great thing about the staff is without a huge amount of instruction and practice, you can look like you know what you're doing and do some cool moves with fire and not worry about too much about catching yourself on fire, which isn't the case with juggling torches, which yes I also have and plan to light up at some point. But I'll need to do quite a bit more practice on that one.

In the mean time, I have some wonderful glow in the dark/LED clubs that are beautiful at night and a tad safer.

Burn baby burn



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Teva Summer Mountain Games, Brought to You by Teva

6/4/2012

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Teva Is Everywhere

I was flipping through Outside magazine when I saw a full page ad for the Teva Mountain Games. It looked cool but it was highly unlikely that I'd be getting up to Vail in June.

What interested me was the variety of what was going to be happening at this 4-day festival, ranging from music, all sorts of athletic competitions, and tons of demos and vendors handing out free stuff.

As far as Teva, I was more familiar with Tivo than any of their products.

Fate would find us en route from Atlanta to LA, so that with just a bit of a detour we could attend the games, and I would learn a lot more about Teva.




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Remember That Mud Run I Signed Up For?

After signing up for the Mud Run, Skye pointed out that if I wore my shoes for the mud run on Saturday, I would have to have different shoes for Sunday's 10k.

Hey! Teva makes shoes.

It's the perfect excuse to go shopping and support the company that has its logo all over the games in just about every conceivable manner.

Adventure Village was the closest of the sites to our hotel. We would frequent there regularly, day and night, to see a number of Dock Dog Competitions, the Slopestyle mountain biking big-air competition, rock out at the After-party with DJ Juggy and of course the Teva tent/lounge.


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Skye rocked her Teva cap all weekend long.

I checked out some sandals and a couple of other shoes but wasn't feeling compelled to buy anything.

We would spend the day checking out slacklining, tent after tent put up by other corporate sponsors, coming back to Adventure Village to check out more of the dock-dog competitions and then some incredible mountain bike big-air jumps and tricks.

More on all that in future blog-posts, this ones strictly for Teva.

It boggles the mind how many ways they were able to get there logo plastered about, even managing to lure the moon to play along.

At the last minute, just before we were to head up to the After-party I slipped back in the Teva tent. I had found some shoes that I liked at another one of their stands and decided to give it another look.

They were starting to zip up the sides of the tent. I didn't see the shoe I like on the display stand, but was able to fish it out of the Teva pool that showcased the water-friendly nature of the Teva brand.

They didn't have my size, but I could check out their booth in Gear Town where they had more shoes.

That would have to wait, it was time to party, Teva style.

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Ironies--There Were a Few

I hiked down to Gear Town the next morning, only to find that they didn't have my size either.

I decided that maybe they were just blowing me off the night before because they were closing for the night.


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So back I went to Adventure Town.

While there I checked out the course for the mud run.

The mud pit wasn't much more than a wading pool with dirt in it and the run wasn't much of a run. It was cold and rainy and the mud run was looking less appealing than ever.

So I opted out.

There was no good reason to do it. There was no challenge to it. I would risk turning my ankle which was already a bit sore. I would most likely scrape up my knees in the pit and most definitely be cold and uncomfortable. And we would miss out on seeing a couple events that were happening elsewhere at the same time.

And the Teva folk really were out of my size.

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Tagged by Teva

At the after-party, they were airbrushing the Teva logo on any willing folk.

Skye and I, caught up in the spirit got marked.

I did eventually find the Teva shoes that I had to get for the mud run that I didn't run.

I found them in one of the local shoe stores, so I ended up supporting a local store as well as the big corporate sponsor.

Mixed Feelings

The unabashed corporate branding and marketing was so over-the-top that it became almost comical. I've been pretty anti-big business and anti-consumerism in the past couple of years. I know that's hard to believe from my antics as of late.

I support local economies and do my best to buy responsibly and ethically. I have been involved in barter communities and have moved all of my money out of major banks and gotten rid of my credit cards, using credit unions and smaller independent banks.

But there are companies and corporations out there trying to make a positive impact.  I honestly don't know where Teva falls in that regard.

They did put on a fun festival.

And there was so much more going on than the crass commercialism that has been the focus of this post.




Insane Slacklining, Unbelievable Bouldering, Out-of-this-World Kayak Free-styling 
So much more to come. 

Stay Tuned

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A Wilde Night with Goats

5/25/2012

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On Being Earnest

Actually it ended up not being so wild and no goats were harmed at the A WILDE NIGHT: After-Party at the Goat Farm.

Not because it wasn't a great party, but more because Cindy and I were already exhausted. I had purchased the tickets the week before, not knowing our schedule.

I figure that we both love events hosted at the Goat Farm, it was to benefit Georgia Shakespeare and I have always been a huge fan of Oscar Wilde, who much to my dismay didn't show up.

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We must stop meeting like this

One of our wonderful teachers, Jacosa from Circus Arts was performing which was an unexpected treat.

We ran into her the other day at the Sweetwater Festival where she was at the Circus Camp booth but she merely handing out flyers, so it was fun to see her up on the trapeze.

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We're All the News Now

I didn't realize until later that I managed to capture the fire-breather twice, once on my phone and then on this other spectators phone, pretty interesting.

I don't often think too much about the risks involved in fire-eating and breathing, but the other day I found out one of our circus arts alum had burned her lung playing with fire.

But it sure looks cool.

I mean hot, I mean....



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And The Band Played On

Blair Crimmins & The Hookers were rocking  the room with a vaudeville and ragtime kind of flavor and we would have probably kicked up our heels and joined in with the dancing, but as I mentioned we were exhausted and our feet were already wanting to go home.

We gave in and headed home after not so long, but it was fun time while there.


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Inman Park Festival 2012

5/2/2012

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Lovely Bookends

At last year parade, we were new to the neighborhood, and the Inman Park Festival and Atlanta were complete unknowns to us.

Atlanta has become like home to us and Inman Park has become our backyard.

Last year I was titillated by the bunch of "gnomes" going for a Guinness World Record. Now I know several of them and were invited to join in on the annual rebuff.

Last year we shouldered our way to the front of the crowd to see and hear the marching band, Kelly’s Seed and Feed Marching Abominable Band. Since then we've seen them at several other events and one of the members worked with Cindy on movie and another was a teacher at Circus Arts Institute.

To the point where we were much too casual about things this year.

Around noon we walked less than 100 yards over to Park's Edge, to meet up with some friends. This was our first time to this restaurant which is more about the even closer, Barcelona.

It's been on our "bucket list" since we saw it on Chef Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares, one of Skye's favorite shows and chefs.

Anyhow, we hung out for too long and almost missed the parade.

Almost....

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My Heroes

We made it to the parade just in time to catch the Imperial OPA Circus, a group of performers that several of our "circus" friends are involved with, including
Stevens Seaberg our hand-balance teacher at Circus Arts.

The first time I saw the Box Top Hero Corp, I thought they were really cool.
So did a friend of ours, David who also takes classes at Circus Arts.

So much so that he tracked them down and became one of them. Way to go after your passions.


And of course, we can't forget.......
the video goes on for a while, because, well there were a lot of gnomes.

They are going after a Guinness World Record after all.

And the Gnomes Go Marching On
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Too Much Technology or Was There?

The day was marred by horrible cell phone receptions that made finding one another and other friends nearly impossible.

Granted we hadn't formed any sort of plan, or figured out meet-up spots or even the parade route before hand, like we would have prior to Iphones, Google and the like.

Skye, who has become my event photographer, was busy playing around with our new Lytro camera, which we found out later isn't yet compatible with PC or even slight older Mac OS. So now many of our parade and festival images are essentially locked in this little box until software becomes available or we figure out how to access them in another way.

Oh well..

So this is not the best or most flattering picture of my teacher, Steve, out of focus with smeared make-up, but its the best I have.  The chap in the pink skirt is another member of the Imperial OPA.


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It was great to see so many gnomes in one place.

I really didn't hang out much longer.
It was hot, really hot.

I didn't need festival food, what with my "new" diet and all.

I certainly didn't need to buy any more "stuff" because I was just getting ready to start figuring out how much and what I will be jamming into the little Rav 4.

And the couple beers, I did manage to acquire hit me fast and hard due to points mentioned above, temps and empty stomach.

Will we be around for the next Inman Park Festival?

Who knows?

I thought last years' would be my first and last.  Maybe I'll show up sporting a red pointy hat and a fluffy white beard.

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Sweetwater 420 Fest--3rd Time's a Charm

4/24/2012

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It's All in the Timing

I ran the 5k in Saturday morning, collected my race T-shirt and wrist band that got me into the festival and a free beer only to find that the festival didn't open for another 3 hours.

Cindy, Skye and I headed back several hours later. The walk was a bit longer and the event was much more crowded than any of us imagined. Regardless we paid for our wristbands, yes, I somehow managed to lose mine, but hey it's for a good cause.

We grabbed a couple of beers and then we both realized that we had all just committed that morning to trying to trim down a bit. As we looked around at the food, typical fair food, not at all conducive to losing weight, scanned the packed crowds and saw how bored our 13 year old daughter was, we agreed that under different circumstances we all might be having a better time.

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The Green Zone

The one area where there was no crowd at all, was the area with the Environmental Awareness tents. I spotted a sign for biochar, which is something I had heard a little bit about but was certainly interested in learning more about.

They (bioponica.org)were using biochar, (really another name for charcoal when it is used for particular purpose, such as a soil amendment) in re-circulating water and soil-less garden beds, similar to hydroponics and aquaponics, but a little different.

So that was cool.

We went to the Kids Zone which was for kids not teens. The Circus School tent was pretty much about face painting. Again not for a teen, especially one there just with her parents. 

So when I showed them an escape out the back of the festival where we could avoid going through the crowds, they went for it.

We were probably at the festival for less than an hour.



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Two Step Forward, One Step Back

I had started my fitness routine again and showed tremendous restraint in the caloric kingdom and the thing I was most interested in at the festival was at 2 pm on Sunday. Cindy wanted to go into the office to do a little catch up work and Skye, well any excuse to not be under parental authority; so I was cleared to go and enjoy  the Cask Ale Tasting.

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Willy Wonka Starts Playing with Beer

Yes, "Nuttin' Butter" tasted like peanut butter, not a little, a lot, it was like drinking a peanut butter beer, which is amazing in a "wow, that's pretty crazy" kind of way, but not something that you want to have too much of, which is why the 5 oz. samplers were perfect. Grab all 5 for $15 and it is a bargain and a trip for the taste sensations.

Chubby Chocolate Bunny tasted like chocolate and seemed like chubbiness would be the outcome.

The juice beer, tasted, yes like a fruit beer, which I don't like and didn't like so much this time around either.

The King Pin which was an IPA with hop additions and black pepper was by far my favorite.

That said, so glad to have sampled the rest, a bunch of Everlasting Gobstoppers, as far as beers go.



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Funny Seeing You Here

Just as I was finishing my last fermented fantasy brew, I saw a friend from the West Coast, who like so many of us in the film business, finds himself everyplace but home.

He actually stayed with us for a while when he worked in LA; he's from San Francisco. And he and his family returned the favor when Skye and I were racing in one of those Urban Dare/ Great Urban Challenges, can't remember.

Anyway ran into him and a couple of his co-workers and hung out for awhile before grabbing a couple of "local" and delicious fish tacos and then sliding out before I got into trouble, caloricly or .....

Jumped on my bicycle and pedaled on home, burning off a few of my indulgences.

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The Georgia Decompression-2011

12/16/2011

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_ It’s taken me this long to blog about this because I begin to ramble and have had a hard time being succinct, as you’ll see. I have yet to relate my “Alchemy” experience. And so the ramble begins….

Prelude to Decompress

I’ve wanted to go to Burning Man for years now, and for a variety of reasons never made it there, even though I knew a lot of people who went and living in LA ,it wouldn’t have been the epic trek it is for many people.

In September/October, I went to “Alchemy, The Georgia Burn”, a regional burn structured around the 10 principles from Burning Man, for four amazing days.

I had the time of my life, made some wonderful friends and jostled many of my beliefs, opinions, views on life etc. , validating and confirming some, confounding and disrupting other and forcing me to consider and rethink some that I had held, up until that point, relatively steadfast. 

Several weeks ago we attended the 7th Annual Atl DSB Orphan Burner Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner and again had a wonderful time, surrounded by open, giving and accepting people. And more friendships were made.

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_  The Week Ends- Decompression Begins

Friday night, after meeting up with several of Cindy’s co-workers and going to a couple local bars, I was able to convince a group of adventures to travel over to The Jungle for the First Fur+ Fire Ball. I hooped a little, danced a lot and saw some amazing performances, but may have overdone it on the partying level, leaving me depleted and not quite up for the Decompression, which fortunately was only around 2 miles from the house.

After lounging around the house for most of the day, running some errands, etc and missing, a hooping class, the trapeze workshop and some other “organized” events, finally was able to get the family up and out.  I had floated the idea of camping but Cindy was having none of it, Skye was game but after thinking about how tired I already was and given the generous in/out hours and policies of the event, I too opted for returning to our comfy bed.  I’m still not sure about that decision.

I had a brought a couple of growlers of beer(locally-brewed of course), a ½ gallon jug of water, a few cans of Red Bull, and a bag of juggling scarves and bean bags. Needless to say that made for one really heavy and cumbersome bag.

A quick aside, while I feel myself to be a convert, and consider myself a “burner”(it wasn’t that big of a leap), Cindy has not been as fully won-over. She appreciates and respects much of the principles in theory but in practice she is a bit skeptical, which I understand and agree to at times and in parts. So she is less enthusiastic than me and sometimes it takes time for her to leave the “real” world behind and well, for lack of a better word, decompress.




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Our eyes and beings were drawn to the light and spectacle of people playing with fire, poi-spinning, hooping, fire staves and wands, breathing, eating and spitting fire, and so on and so on. The music was great and not ridiculously loud.

It was perfect. I could barely contain my excitement.

Skye immediately start taking pictures, eager to get some good photos for her class.

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And she did. I can't post them all, but here are a few.

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After a while Cindy started getting antsy and began to feel we were at more of a rave scene than a burn and was concerned about Skye being there. Things started getting tense. Remember what I had said about her needing to decompress.

So we started to wander around and made it to a stairway leading down to where tents and camping and such was happening.

On the first landing were people juggling.
We stopped.
We watched.

I joined them, started juggling and never made it any further down.

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Man on Fire (Not really)



Overwhelmed with Decompressing

Cindy and Skye continued on down, eventually running into friends we made at the Thanksgiving potluck.

I juggled for a bit longer. Shared stories. Shared drinks. Shared experiences and philosophies. It is so much about sharing.

A passer-by admired our juggling and proceeded to do a back-flip like it was nothing. Again more sharing.

I went back up to groove along to the music and continue to be mesmerized by the fire play, appreciating their art.

Cindy minus Skye found me again. Skye had met another girl there exactly her age and they were off and about together, instant pals.

We hung out together, chilling out, enjoying the beautiful evening.

And it continued like this for a few hours, when Cindy and Skye had had their fill.

They took off and I stayed to continue to absorb the amazing energy and spirit.

I watched as a couple of people loaded log after log into the amazing fire sculpture that glowed and lite up and performed its own magical dance. I was lucky enough to be able to thank its creator and amazing artist, Charlie Smith. If you ever click on a link on my site, I highly suggest clicking on his name. I wish I had a picture but his website will give you an idea of the magic I got to enjoy.

I eventually went inside and the merriment and joyful celebration flowed.  I could continue to gush but you get the point.

After a while , I had to make a decision as to stay or make my way home.

I headed out and that is another story.

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Turkey Tales

11/27/2011

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Let's Talk Turkey
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Yesterday, I finally was able to complete my turkey journey.

Less than a week before, I had started the trip and took a Thanksgiving Turkey Butcher class at Nature’s Harmony Farms. Since then I have been working ridiculous hours on a movie my wife is decorating, “Neighborhood Watch”. The set I was working on is supposed to be a Costco, but as it often goes it was “easier” to create our own Costco than film in a real one.  I have always had my issues with the massiveness and consumer-glut that is Costco and I have on more than one occasion left a full cart and retreated because the place freaks me out so. And yet it was my charge to help make this huge empty warehouse look like the real thing.

By the time I arrived the lion’s share had been done but I was up to my elbows in its madness, right up until late Saturday afternoon when I started preparing the turkey that had been sitting in our fridge for the previous week waiting…

Waiting for me to figure out what we were going to do with it.

What? What, say what?


I signed up for the class weeks before because we were planning to be with family on the turkey day. Because of aforementioned job, that plan got high jacked and we ended up going to a friend’s house for the day, a friend who already had a bird, and who, by the way made an incredible spread of food. But the point is/was my beloved turkey had no home.

As the days passed and I raced around Atlanta trying to help make a non-Costco warehouse into a Costco, I would try to think of what to do with this amazing corpse in my fridge, something that would suit its beauty and justify(at least in my mind) it’s death and evisceration at my hands.


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Which is when I ran across/was forwarded or I don’t quite recall how I got wind of 7th Annual Atlanta Dirty Southern Burners Orphan Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner!  These were a group of folk who were part of the Alchemy Festival.
Now I didn’t know if I “knew” them or had ever met any of them before, but they were “burners” which means we would be more than welcomed. 
Big asterisk here, as in, there are several blog posts related and growing from this “burner” thing but not here and not now.


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We are talking turkey.

To sum up why and what I have been babbling about for the last few paragraphs,( I sadly make light of my writing and not getting to the point because of how we look at words, writing, etc. these days. After reviewing “Oliver Twist” as part of Skye’s home school adventure, I remember how lovely words and lengthy exposition can be, not that I am in anyway comparing myself to Dickens, except perhaps using a lot of words to get from point A to point B, and remembering that the journey truly is the more important than the destination)

Go On

I got home racing and started the turkey too late and with not all the necessary stuff, all I was missing really was parchment paper which was not something I got.
So I’m looking at my time, which if I were to believe Tim (from Nature’s Harmony) is more than sufficient, but I am a skeptic, a non-believer as my default setting and I can’t believe that this big friggin’ beast taking up half of my fridge can cook in a tad more than 2 hours.
People spend a week figuring out time, the brining and cooking, so that 3 days out might be sufficient and here I am 4 hours from wanting to be somewhere, 30 minutes away with a 15-lb hulk of poultry not in the oven.

I was f---ked for lack of a better term.


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Skye catches my madness, which for better or for worse, is her normal. I love her beyond compare. The bird was good, or good plus.
So I would go along with Tim’s nonsense and be “right” about my misgivings and show up around mid-night with a properly cooked bird.

Cindy got home with the meat thermometer, one of the “non-essentials” I forwent and I grabbed it from her and jammed it in the thigh of the obviously undercooked bird.  It was done. I mean, in theory, I mean according to this new-fangled meat thermometer. It looked done.  It smelled done, but it couldn’t be done, not in the short time I cooked it.

Or it could be done and because I cooked it at such a high heat, it would be dry and inedible. Screw it, I didn’t even know these people. If it was unfit, well let’s just say you get what you pay for.

It was amazing. Never had I had such a succulent turkey. I am not saying this to be boastful or anything of that ilk. It just was. How it was, was a mystery, until I started cutting up the left-overs the morning after.

And now out of laziness and an ode to/nod to/respect for, really….back to the lazy truth of it I will just quote verbatim, “ If you’ve only ever eaten the plumped-up grocery store version of ‘turkey’, switching to heritage breeds, might surprise you in more ways than one. ….(OK not verbatim completely but..) Lastly, taste. Believe it or not, turkeys do have flavor! At least heritage breeds do. All the way through to their bones. We found it largely a waste of time to make stock from grocery birds, but with heritage turkeys, one turkey carcass seems to equal two chicken carcasses when it comes to flavoring stock”


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Which brings me around to concluding/not concluding this blog post. I came upon the Beekman connection because I “inherited” their cookbook, The Beekman, 1802 Heirloom Cookbook, and when I grabbed it because maybe, just maybe they might be able to point me in the right direction as to what to do with aforementioned (yes, I do like that word and may overuse it) carcass, I got the perfect answer and a wonderful explanation about heirloom turkeys to boot.


No end in sight

I promised/threatened to end this post before I was ready, so….

As I was tearing the bird apart this morning, Tim’s words were rattling in my head, rattle is a good word given what is going on in the orb. I thought about him saying the bird was fattier. What? How could that be? …Oh you mean the bird has more fat in normal places, not that the thing is “fatter” as we would think of it.

Oh and "dark" meat, I have never encounter more flavorful dark meat and....
 
So much more to say and so much more on my mind.........

I have to end, I would not be OK with not acknowledging the burners, the farmers, the regular folk who don't ask for or want the spotlight, so forgive my indulgences to acknowledge them...

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What a Weekend

11/7/2011

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Eating Out

We have been relatively good recently at not dining out so much. It is the one indulgence all three members of the family share a passion for. But lately we've curtailed it fairly well. We certainly made up for it this weekend.
It actually started last week with the opening of Barcelona, a wonderful Tapas/Wine bar literally steps from our new pad. We'd already been there a few times before this weekend rolled around. We were going to go out for sushi Friday after Cindy got home. I knew that she would be late and that I would start getting hungry and grouchy, so as a preventive measure, Skye and I went for just a little tapas prior to sushi. It worked out well. We had two lovely family outings in one evening, although somehow the "small bites" didn't do much to reduce our sushi feasting.

Saturday Night Fever

I blame it on the mundane nature of household tasks and errands. By the day's end, after puttering around the house, and filing and organizing and blah, blah, blah, I needed some fun. Which was perfect because we already had plans to go out with friends. When I was getting ready around 6 and already getting hungry Cindy informed me we weren't meeting them until 9. That used to be normal, but I've become quite the early bird, so I knew this wasn't going to work. What to do?
Back to Barcelona. By the time we met up with our friends, we were practically ready to call it a night. But we rose to the occasion and were able to be social for several more hours.

Daylight Savings? Not So Much

Earlier in the week I signed up for the first Inman Park Beer Chase 5K and Beer Fest 2011.  I also bought Cindy a ticket for the Festival and beer-sampling after the 5k.

Oops.

The Beer Chase 5K or 3 mile stumble

I haven't been running at all lately. I honestly can't remember the last time I went for a jog. Still a 5k is not so hard for me, it's just a little over 3 miles. But running with little sleep and fairly hungover and with the Vibram 5 fingers, well, let's just say I was very glad it was as short as it was and that I didn't care about my finish time.
It was fun in spite of that, although I was surprised how quiet and serious everyone seemed. I couldn't figure out whether the people around me were there more for the run or the beer. Usually that's a pretty easy one to call but not on this Sunday.

Cindy and Skye did accompany me to the race start. It was probably only 200 yards from our condo. They didn't bother taking any pictures though and were on their way home probably before I was out of sight. I wouldn't fault them for that give how long I probably took to get out of sight.

The Inaugural Inman Park Beer Chase 5K and Beer Fest 2011

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I have participated in some kind of physical event in most places I've been in for any amount of time. It's a different way to connect to a place and the people. Amazingly we are rapidly approaching what may be the end of our Southern stay. It's impossible for us to know but I figured I better get my Atlanta event t-shirt. And this seemed like best of many worlds. Really, really local, a short run requiring just the slightest commitment and of course there's the beer element.



I realized later that I was standing on a hill when I took this picture so it came out a little uneven. I know what you're thinking, it being a beer festival and all, but that wasn't the case this time around.

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Another tiltly pic.

Most of the Sponsors are local businesses, most of which we've gone to at one point or another. Doing a pretty good shop lately of supporting local economies and being a localvore.
I'm not absolute with either endeavor but I figure if everyone changed a little bit, then no one would have to go to the extremes of say "No Impact Man" or the Amish or well, you get the idea.






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I've had Magic Hat before and always like their designs and their beer is quite nice as well. On this particular occasion, I was drawn to the Circus tent feel of their set-up.

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 I don't know what it says about me that I had heard of and tried a majority of what the 80+ vendors had out to sample,other than I  obviously I like beer.
They were all micro-breweries, many of them local. Other than when I'm purchasing a case or more, when I'm entertaining I almost never buy mass produced beer. And of course, if I can actually talk to the person brewing the beer, it makes it taste all the better. The same kind of thing that happens for me at the farmer's market. All in all this living local thing is very satisfying to me.

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Alchemy-The Georgia Burn

10/9/2011

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A week ago at this time we were in the midst of packing up our campsite and getting ready to go home after a long and very full weekend at Alchemy, the Georgia Burn, a regional burn patterned after the Burning Man event in Nevada.

We had an incredible experience. It has taken me several days to recover, decompress and process all that happened there. And of course daily life goes on with all sorts of new adventures, ideas and what-have-yous to blog about.  But I have much to say in regards to the Alchemy, so it will be on the main website with links from the blog. Honestly I am still figuring out the mechanics of blogging and websites so forgive the clunkiness of the delivery. 

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a view from the top of the effigy, the camp continued to grow
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the effigy engulfed in a fireball, taken by Skye from our campsite
From the comfort of our campsite we watched an incredible display of fireworks, culminating in the burning of the effigy. That night we saw amazing  performances, fire dancing, fire-spitting, fire poi, pretty much every you could play with fire was represented.

More pics and many more stories to follow.

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Weekending--Another race, another street festival

6/26/2011

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Metro Dash--Atlanta

IThe Metro Dash is a race that is a series of 30 obstacles laid out in a parking lot. It is a sprint, around 600 meters in total.
I was a bit nervous about this race, nervous in the way that I am about 5k's and 10k's and stairclimbs. I have no doubt about finishing. It's more about how fast to go. In most of the races I do, finishing in one piece makes for a success, the time is almost irrelevant. They don't even keep time in the Tough Mudder. But for shorter events, it is very much about the time, so pacing isn't geared at just finishing, it is about finishing with a good time.

I did not pace this well.
I have not been training much as of late and have been in a weird emotional state. My confidence has been lagging. I started out and did 90 percent of the course at what could be seen as a jog or warm-up. When I rounded the corner and realized I had 3 obstacles left, I turned it up, but by then it was far too late. I  crossed the finish line at 10 minutes and 13 seconds, which sounds fast because most of my races take over two hours, but the winning times were in just over 6 minutes. More importantly, I did not feel like I gave it my all. So rather than feeling really good about finishing a race, I left the event pissed off at myself, which is kind of lame and unfortunate. But it did strengthen my resolve to get back to serious training. It did throw off my day though.

To try to get back on track I decided to go to an outdoor festival in downtown Atlanta, Atlanta Streets Alive.


Atlanta Streets Alive

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"Imagine a street full of people of all ages and backgrounds, walking, biking, creating and laughing, together. A street temporarily closed to cars, but open to people. Imagine residents safely enjoying their city, socializing with neighbors, and engaging in healthy activities. Imagine if all of this were free, with absolutely no barriers to participation. By the people, for the people. Sound good yet?"

That's how the website read. I was ready for that. What I got after bicycling in the 90+ degree heat with a ton of humidity was was something else though, particularly the "street full of people"

The streets were all blocked off, although one of the police helping to manage the event had no idea what was going on, when asked if there was a festival she answered, "No, it's something for bikes and scooters"  There wasn't much in the way of entertainment or activities. The few booths and such that were there, were spread out over mile or so and in spite of their good intentions were lack luster at best.  I stopped by to offer support and engage.

One booth GreenPlate was aimed at using less plastic which I'm all for. I was the only one visiting the stand so it was like preaching to the choir. There was a booth for ZipCar, a car-sharing service that I had read about and was interested in, so I picked their brains a bit which I think was good for all parties involved. I think I will be joining up at some point. I have a goal to have only one car for our family, which is what we have right now. ZipCar could be a cost-effective way of maintaining this goal/lifestyle without much sacrifice.  I avoided the fixie bike booth because I didn't want the temptation. And somehow I missed the stilt-walkers which was one of the main reasons I biked on over. All in all it was good to get out on my bike and it changed my mood so....

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    Jon Danniells is an adventurer and traveler, a teacher and student, a husband and a father, a cook and a farmer, a "week-end warrior" (very amateur athlete) and has not earned any money on these labors of love.When I googled myself what showed up first was my IMDB listing, which is basically a resume for my 20 and then some year career in film, for which  I fortunately do get paid.

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