Hat Game!

Take that all you pretentious indie kids! ;) jk

Watch the whole show, it is great.  It is from the most recent season.  But the juicy good part, the Hat Game, starts around minute six.

Hot damn!

Our story just gets better and better! Just last week, the Mom recanted her incineration story, and now says she gave the paintings to a mysterious Russian man, and that he has them now.  Plus, we have learned about the the head of the investigation, Ms Raluca Botea, who had organized a sting operation to retrieve the paintings.  But, a possible buyer, a male supermodel from Bucharest, who had decided not to purchase the stolen paintings, tipped Dogaru off, and the sting could not happen.  The paintings are burned, buried, saved, hidden, or sold, or with this mysterious new Russian character.  This is going to be the greatest movie ever.  Art treasures, a daring heist, a loving mother and grandmother, a woman the head of the investigation, mysterious Russians, prostitution, a male supermodel, a small-time pimp and thief suddenly becomes a master art thief, a tight knit small Romanian village that hates outsiders and only speaks a very rare dialect of Russian, and on and on and on, ... The trial for Radu Dogaru starts next month.

Radu Dogaru, our thief, caught on video

This is great because we have so many good female roles, too! The detective, the mother, the grandmother, the girlfriend!

Fantastic stuff!

************
The Wife and I's long weekend is off to a great start.  Indian Springs was awesome, totally an Art Deco Jeeves and Wooster style of place.  Then, dining at JoLe was a revelation, one of our new favorite places, and a place will return to.

Today we are going to see the new Aubrey Plaza movie, The To-Do List, and grill pork chops at home.  Woo-hoo!

I have so much else to catch all you folks up to, as well, but it will be a few days.  Love you all, have a splendid Saturday, kids!

Mwah, ... 

"It's on random, ... "

Here are some links to some fab NYT articles I read over the weekend:  This one suggests that perhaps the future is not broken, and that men are much more philanthropic and share better if they have infant daughters or sisters in their lives; and this one makes me very sad.  Detroit might have to sell off many of its' art masterpieces to reconcile their debts, Detroit being the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, and all ... Saw a host of movies over the weekend, too:  I Give It a Year; Waking Up Sleeping Beauty; Coffee Town; and Inventing David Geffen.  The documentaries were much better than the comedies.  Coffee Town was just plain bad.  It was cheap, stupid, and a thorough waste of our time ...  I Give It a Year was awful, too, but satisfying for a couple of reasons: One, I love Rafe Spall, and he is great in it (and now has climbed all the way to third billing, behind Rose Byrne and Anna Ferris); and two, for whatever unexplainable reason, it was just what the Wife and I needed at that particular moment on a Saturday evening.  Rose Byrne was particularly bad in this movie, and I was disappointed, because she had been so good in Bridesmaids.  Perhaps she has to have rock-solid material to be at her best.  (One last note about Rafe Spall:  He will be -- third billing again! -- starring in a production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal on Broadway this fall.  Betrayal is one of my all-time fave plays, and I wish I could see it.  It is a movie star production.  Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz play the leads.) ... Waking Up Sleeping Beauty was quite good, and not nearly as self-congratulatory as I had been led to believe by some reviewers.  Gosh, are those animators the biggest Comic-Con nerds you ever saw, or what? All those awful beards, and those silly themed parties.  It was plain to me that the Disney Animated Feature Renaissance came about because Roy Disney was able to insulate the nerds from Jeffrey Katzenberg, and because they brought in a legitimate Broadway hit-making team, Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, to be in charge of the songs and the stories.  It is a no-brainer, really.  That is exactly what Arthur Freed did for M-G-M back in the day, to make all those fantastic musicals, bring some of the best Broadway talent to Hollywood to work for him.  The finest moment of the film was seeing the black and white preview edition of Beauty and the Beast that Disney showed at the New York Film Festival.  It is especially poignant due to the fact that Howard Ashman perished due to HIV right after the preview, and never saw the finished film ... Inventing David Geffen was interesting to watch, but did not make me love Mr Geffen any more than I already do (which, honestly is not  very much.) He still comes across as a supreme jerk to me.  And, what is up with this crazy fascination for Laura Nyro? I do not get a sense of nurture from this dude, no matter that he called his first record label Asylum.  Geffen is a tone deaf predatory shark, a telephone screamer, that made himself and his stable of artists a great deal of money, and himself even more.  In fact, according, to Glenn Frey of the Eagles, Geffen even said as much. He told him, "Glenn, you are going to make a lot of money signing with me.  But not as much as me." Thus, this documentary becomes the story of how a man became rich, with a fantastic soundtrack for padding.  We have already got the fantastic Eagles documentary, where is the great Joni Mitchell doc? Those are the stories I am interested in.  Not animated transcripts of screaming telephone 'negotiations' with other record label heads ... I am working today, something I do not normally do, work on Mondays, but the payoff is that I get a long weekend with the Wife out of it.  I am going to take the WSET Level Two Wine Test Thursday (It is like a Somm test, but v basic), and the Food Hole is doing this for all the Wine Specialists in the region.  Very cool. Then, after that the Wife and I will spend one night in Calistoga, eat at JoLe, and have the whole weekend to ourselves back at home.  Should be splendid ...

Every one have a great Monday!

"Eli's coming, hide your heart, girl"

Brothers and Sisters!

 Brothers and Sisters! I want to see a sea of hands out there! 

Let me see a sea of hands! I want everyone to kick up some noise! 

I want to hear some revolution out there Brothers! 

I want to hear a little revolution! 

Brothers and Sisters, the time has come for each and every one of you to decide whether you are going to be the problem or whether you are going to be the solution! (That's right!) 

You must choose Brothers, you must choose! 

It takes five seconds, five seconds of decision, five seconds to realize your purpose here on the planet! 

It takes five seconds to realize that it's time to move, it's time to get down with it! 

Brothers, it's time to testify and I want to know, are you ready to testify?

Are you ready? I give you a testimonial: the MC5!

"Put a mic in my hands/And let me kick out the jams!"

Mwah, ... 

Saw this trailer posted on Balloon Juice,

And, honestly, despite loving many of these stars (Laura Linney, David Thewlis, Peter Capaldi, Daniel Brühl, Stanley Tucci, etc, ... ) and thinking that Benedict Cumberbatch is the absolutely perfect choice to play Julian Assange, I am not excited about this motion picture.

I do not for a minute believe that Dreamworks and Bill Condon are the right choices for this subject matter.  This seems to me to be the perfect recipe for disaster, an awful film, even if it is boffo at the box office.

I hope I am wrong.

************

Meanwhile, anybody see this amazing story on the front page of the NYT today? (Love my weekender subscription!) Olga Dogaru, who lived in the tiny Romanian village of Carcaliu, became haunted by the staggeringly beautiful paintings her son had brought home in a suitcase one night. There were seven paintings in all, including a Picasso, Matisse, Monet, and Gaugin.

The seven paintings stolen, and supposedly incinerated.

When Ms Dogaru learned that her son was a suspect in one of the greatest art heists in recent times, she thought the best thing to do to protect her son was to incinerate all seven paintings in a wood burning stove! (Or so she says, ... )

Now somebody needs to make a flipping movie of THAT story!

I will get right on it.








Mwah, 
Have a great Friday everyone,
Ardent

Young children with Belfast accents! Woo-hoo!

So the BBC NI series, The Fall, is devilishly good.  And, the Wife and I heartily recommend it to you.  It is streaming for "free" on Netflix.  It is five hours long, and stars Gillian Anderson as a detective who is called in to Belfast to review the police work on the brutal weird murder of the former daughter in law of one of the City's elders, a political heavyweight.

Jamie Dornan and Séainín Brennan in The Fall

Another murder of a similar nature occurs, and Anderson begins to link that murder, and another murder earlier, all together, and she gets put in charge of the case.

It is not a whodunnit.  And the series seems inspired by the grim brutal ubiquitous Scandinavian murder style so popular these days.  We see the serial killer at work, and his relations to his family -- wonderful wife, two kids, including an extremely sensitive and precocious daughter who is "on" to what Daddy may be doing, but obviously can not process it, and expresses her pain through night terrors and gruesome drawings made for school.  The killer, Paul Spector is the character's name, is a bereavement counsellor, and we get to see his complex nature, in that like all people, even serial killers, he is not all bad, and is quite capable of doing the right thing for his "patients" oftentimes, even if he comes across a little creepy while doing it.

Spector also has a tight rope relationship with the sex pot fifteen year old babysitter, too, which makes for a thrilling subplot.

As I said, we know that Spector is the killer, so we watch his murders and his home and work life juxtaposed, cross-cut with Anderson's hunt for him.  This is accomplished extremely well by the writer and director team of Allan Cubitt and Jakob Verbruggen.  Their continuous use of cross-cutting as the hunter and hunted go about their days takes pains to point out the many similarities between them, and lends an an objective air about the whole series.  "Everyone has their reasons", indeed.

Plus, just for fun, Cubitt -- the writer and creator -- has included a real whodunnit subplot that speaks to the still fractious Ulster politics at work in Belfast.

Anderson is good, but the real stars for me are Jamie Dornan as Spector; the lovely Laura Donnely as Sarah Kay; Gerard McCarthy as a solicitor and one of Kay's best friends; Bronagh Waugh as Spector's wife; and Séainín Brennan as Liz Tyler.

Moreover, you get to hear young children with Belfast accents! Always good in my book! And people pronounce the word person as pearson, and say hoose for house.

Great great stuff.  The series has been renewed by the way, but it could be twelve to eighteen months before we see series two.

AH

Great movie + this trailer features The Sonics' Shot Down

(My fave part, is the young punk girl who works at the hotel, who is love with the author, when he finally leaves, she says, "It wouldn't have worked out anyway.")

Charlie Pierce is on fire today.

Here is the link to his great post about the GOP's War on Women and Their Ladyparts, and how much money is to be made for them while they do it.

Be sure to read all the way down to the end and go to the Rude Pundit link.  It is fantastic.  Real life stories from women about the choices they have had to make in their lives.

All my love,



Michael

This morning's Donna Reed Show recap:

We open with a typical Stone family breakfast scene:  Jeff at his normal spot at the kitchen table, stage right; Dr Stone seated center stage; and Donna going back and forth between the stove, stage left, and the kitchen table, filling juices and coffee, eggs, bacon, etc, ... When Mary enters from a doorway upstage left.  She is ebullient, filled with rapturous joy.

The Stone family at the breakfast table.

Mary informs the clan that she is thrilled because she just got the principle dance lead in the big Central High Revue Show.  Dr Stone says, "Well, I guess all those dance lessons paid off, after all."

Mary is then careful to stress to the family what a big commitment this is, and that there will be so many rehearsals, and that the director, Mr Cooper, is very intense and strict, and since this is such a big opportunity for her, that well, perhaps, she could be excused from doing her normal washing up after dinner duties during the run of the the production.

Dr Stone and Donna are aghast at such a preposterous notion, and Jeff cracks wise.  "But Mom and Dad," Mary pleads, "Can you imagine a movie star washing dishes?!"

Dr Stone says, Yes, he can.  And the irony is not lost on the audience for our close up of Ms Reed (the only true movie star of the four actors), with a dish in her hand, agreeing with her husband, "I can, too."

Despite losing that battle (hey, she gave it a shot!), Mary finally sits down to breakfast stage left, and explains to the Stones just what a big day today is, as the final auditions are being held for the remaining roles, and by tomorrow she will learn who her partner is for her big showcase number.

The next scene takes place at the Central High theatre space.  In the foreground center, amongst the auditorium seats, are Mary, and her classmate Kenny.  Mary seems surprised to see Kenny here for the auditions, and tells him so.

Kenny, who has a stammer, says he was not sure so about it, either, but that his Mother insisted.  His Mother thought it would give him a boost of self confidence.  Kenny is extremely nervous about the whole enterprise, and Mary gives him a "lucky coin".  She says that all the best actors and dancers use lucky charms to get them through the tough and nervous times.  Kenny says, Thanks, and trudges off towards the stage for his audition.

Next we see Mary arriving home.  Dr Stone, still in his doctor's scrubs (he is a pediatrician who does most of his work at home), is reading the paper in the living room.  Ms Stone is there, too, having a cup of tea.  Naturally Donna asks Mary how her day went, and Mary is ever so vexed.  She is worried about Kenny, she says.  It seems, she continues, that the only reason Kenny is going to be in the Revue, at all, is because of his Mother.  Dr Stone, who is Kenny's doctor (and just about every other single child in Hilldale!), talks about what a good boy Kenny is.  Ms Stone asks her husband, "Does not Kenny have a bit of a stammer?" "Yes," he says, "But it is nothing serious.  It really only happens whenever he is nervous.  He just needs a bit of confidence.  I think being in this production could really help him."

"But that is just it," Mary says, "Kenny was so nervous before his audition that I gave him my 'lucky coin'."

Her parents beam at their daughter with immense pride, and tell her what a lovely thing she did.

"Only," Mary goes on, "There is nothing lucky about it.  It was just some penny I found buried in my pocket!"

Dr Stone says, "What you did was beautiful.  We doctors do it all the time.  You gave Kenny a placebo.  It is amazing sometimes the effect a sugar pill can have on all kinds of mysterious ailments."

The next day we return to the auditorium, the children eager to learn their dancing partners for the big dance number.  The director, Mr Cooper, reads off the first two couples and then announces that Mary will be dancing with Kenny.  Mary tries hard to hide her disappointment but fails, whilst Kenny comes up to her overjoyed.  Kenny says, stammer completely gone, "My gosh, this is wonderful! I have nothing to worry about now.  I will be working with you, the best dancer in the whole school!"

"Yes," Mary says, distractedly, "It is great, isn't it? I will catch up with you later Kenny.  I have to talk to Mr Cooper now."

Kenny exits upstage center, and our next scene is with Mr Cooper and Mary.  Mary asks Mr Cooper why he paired her with Kenny on account of how much shorter Kenny is to her, and on account of how nervous Kenny can be.  Mr Cooper explains that he did consider pairing Kenny with another girl closer to his height, but that he could not help but notice the magical effect Mary had had on Kenny these past few days, and that his confidence seemed to be at an all-time high.  "It was the right thing to do," the director says.  "But," he goes on to say, "I will change the pairings if you insist.  Are you insisting I do so?"

By this time, back at home, Mary is a complete mess.  She unloads her Kenny issues upon her parents, who comfort her, and explain to her that she need not worry so much about Kenny, and how tall he is, and the production, and what not.  It is all going to work out just fine, they tell her.

The next morning at the breakfast table, Jeff is talking to Mary while Ms Stone finishes up the dishes.  "There are rumors," Jeff says, "That you don't like your new dancing partner, Mary."

"Ugh," Mary says, "I am nervous enough already! Mom," pointing at Jeff, "Do you see what I have to deal with here?"

"So," Jeff asks, "Are you going to give Kenny the brush off? Hey, I have an idea! If you are so worried about Kenny being so short, and all, why don't you just saw off your heels? Or make him dance on stilts?"

Paul Petersen, the actor playing Jeff, then has a very fine comic moment when he exits upstage left on his tippy toes, as if walking on stilts.  And then a close up of Shelly Fabares as Mary.  A light bulb has just turned on above her head.

Next we see the big dance number in rehearsal.  It is a tap shuffle affair with three pairs of dancers, Mary and Kenny the lead pair.  Kenny and Mary and the other dancers do a fine job with the dance until taskmaster tyrant director, Mr Cooper, cuts the number short, and not quite yelling at them, says, "Listen listen listen! Stop focusing so much on the steps, that you are not listening to the music! That is enough.  Bring on the singers!"

Kenny and Mary go back to the auditorium chairs and have a scene.  Kenny says, with no stammer, "Wow! I can not tell you what a big help you have been to me, Mary.  It is so much fun working with you."

"Kenny," Mary says, "Listen.  Have you considered wearing lifts in your shoes? All the best dancers and movie stars do it these days.  Everyone."

Kenny's stammer returns, as he says, "Really, Mary? You really think I should?"

"I am just thinking of the production, Kenny.  I want it to be the best Central High Revue ever."

The next scene is the night of the Revue opening.  We watch a frantic Stone family nervously and edgily leave their house to get Mary to the theatre in time for her call.

Then, we are at the production, just as the curtain comes up on Mary's big moment, we see a proud and thrilled Stone family in their seats applauding as the dancers take the stage.

The number seems to be going alright, though we do notice a few minor slips on the floor from Kenny, dancing in his obviously uncomfortable lifted shoes.  The dancers dance until just before the big finish, as Kenny and Mary are moving stage left, Kenny loses his footing altogether, and to break his fall grabs the stage curtain.  The curtain tears, landing in a heap on top of Kenny and Mary, both sprawled out on the stage floor.

The next shot is of the Stone family.  Dr Stone and his wife naturally feel pain at what has transpired, whilst Jeff, feeling embarrassed, tries to hide his face in his suit jacket, as to avoid being seen.

Back at home, Mary is distraught, refusing to eat the milk and cookies her mother has brought to her.  Ms Stone reminds Mary that there is another show tomorrow, and that she had better buck up.

"Tomorrow?" Mary says, "Not only am I not going on stage tomorrow, I am never going out again, ever.  Or, at least, until I move away to college.  And I am going to wear a black veil over my face at school, so no one will ever know who I am."

Her Mother gently tells her that she does not think that wearing a black veil at school will make her inconspicuous.

The doorbell rings.  It is Kenny.  He wonders if he could speak to Mary.  He feels absolutely awful about what happened tonight.  There is no stammer.

Just before Ms Stone comes in to tell Mary that Kenny is here, we see Mary sneaking some cookie bites, before throwing herself in a fit of despair on her bed, as her Mother enters the room.

Mary goes down to talk to Kenny.  Kenny says he is so sorry for screwing up the dance number, and that he would completely understand if she wanted to drop him for the rest of the run.  Then Kenny gives Mary back her "lucky coin".  "I guess it was not so lucky after all," Kenny says.

Mary apologizes to Kenny, gives the coin back to him, and tells him she would rather have no other partner.  And, to go back to wearing his regular shoes.

The last scene is the next night, at the performance.  The number goes off without a hitch, and receives thundering applause.





The End

Life is funny.

Yesterday I was convinced that work would be absolutely awful, and it turned out great, with tons of great customers trying our sale wines, and making friends, and working so hard, and having fun, and feeling satisfied so much upon my boo-t-ful walk home, listening to Stax Stax Stax. "Who do you think you are?!" Crazy. Good crazy.

Everyone have a splendid Saturday, and kick out the jams (safely) for me tonight!

Tomorrow it is The Way Way Way Back at the Albany Twin and Rivoli for the Wife and I! Woo-hoo!








xxxoooxxx

That disgusting anti-choice bill in Texas is going to pass today,

And Gubner Haircut will waste no time, at all, in signing it.

It will be challenged in the courts immediately, and will not take effect until the courts (possibly The Supremes) have the final say.

We need to keep up the good fight, folks.

We will win eventually on this issue, and the GOP's War on Women can be blunted, if not vanquished entirely.

Keep fighting brothers and sisters.


mds

I absolutely love my new NYT weekender subscription.

It took me about a half dozen hours just to get through the oodles of fantastic writing on Sunday. I loved the magazine, the Arts section -- more on this in a minute -- the Week in review, the Travel section (our cat Molly loved the Travel section, literally to pieces), the front page, even the Sports section was updated w/ most of Saturday's baseball results, and had a lengthy article on the Swingin' Oakland A's (and their crappy ballpark.)

But, my new NYT crush (along with Manohla Dargis and Paul Krugman) has got to be Alistair Macaulay, the NYT's dance critic.  His lengthy and fascinating article on the state of  American-born ballerinas today was the best thing I have read about dance in ages, and even name checked two ballerinas I just saw in The Nutcracker, Sarah Van Patten and Vanessa Zahorian, last December.

Yeh, yeh, yeh, I am going through a whole other new balletomane thing again right now.  (Get over it!) And, I have a feeling Mr Macaulay is just the man able to guide me through this world "neutered by nylon", as Spy Magazine said way back in the day.

Here is the linky to Macaulay's great article.

Sarah Van Patten, SF Ballet

Vanessa Zahorian, SF Ballet

Kisses on both cheeks!
Ardent




P.S.  An aside to my Mum, Macaulay reviewed a Ballet Austin performance this week, as well, at Ballet Across America.

Baseball is cooler than Star Wars! The results are in!

It was close, but I can confidently report that baseball is cooler than Star Wars.  I conducted an extremely scientific poll last Saturday amongst team members at the Walnut Creek Food Hole, and here are the top line results:

Which is cooler, baseball or Star Wars?

Baseball:  48%
Star Wars:  43%
No Opinion:  9%

Folks over thirty overwhelmingly went for baseball.  (Both Paula and Leslie chose baseball, but said it was a very difficult choice for them.) Men overwhelmingly went for Star Wars -- Nick C and I chose baseball, the exception that proves the rule -- and women narrowly went for baseball.  I, as a pollster, also had to learn to hide my current results when asking the question due to learning that the only reason Geoff with a "G" from grocery voted for Star Wars was because he saw that it was trailing at the time; he, he said, "likes to support the underdog."  Another grocery man, Matt H, was very suspicious of the pollster and the poll, and was very free with his extremely loud opinion that not only was Star Wars cooler, but that baseball, "was the worst, and most boring sport ever!"

One person who had no opinion was Jonquil, and another "no opinion" vote was from an insane Belgian barista dude, who is always going on about MG cars, Martinez wineries, and Lady Gaga.

There it is:  Baseball is cooler than Star Wars! Fact! QED!

I will conduct another Food Hole poll soon, and give you the results forthwith.





Ciao!

Au Pairs - 'Armagh' [1981 track with lyrics]

'nuff said.













mds

Swan Lake Ballet (Tchaikovsky) - Act II: XIII. Danses des Cygnes (Dances...

No earth shattering news here, just that Tchaikovsky is otherworldly amazing!

Such great music!




Ciao!

"I am going to get yelled at today."

That is what I told my friend, Nick C, yesterday, and that is exactly what happened.  And, if I were working today, which thankfully I am not -- my first time off on July 4th maybe ever -- I would have gotten yelled at again.  Just like last year.

It is such a shame that it has come to this, but it has.  It is a beautiful local guy hero story that has mutated in to an angry cult mob.  Most of the folks that are reading this do not even flipping know about Russian River Brewing, or Pliny the Elder (the beer), so I will give you the lowdown now.  To wit, Vinnie Cilurzo and his wife Natalie were hired by Korbel to make craft bottle and barrel aged beer for their label.  Brilliant! And their cork finished ales are some of the best in the world.  But, they also decided to start making bottle cap IPAs after Korbel let them loose, starting with Blind Pig, which has its' own cult following.  Then, they came up with Pliny the Elder (fantastic name, even if everyone pronounces it wrong -- finally, and for once and for all, it is Pliny rhyming with many, not tiny.) Pliny the Elder is a double IPA, which is all the rage right now.  Our beer set at the store I work at has been completely dominated and overrun by "Super IPAs" as Nick C and I call them.  We have dozens of them, whereas, just seven or eight years ago, IPA was not a hot brand, and the very fine Lagunitas IPA was our best seller.

(Fair warning here now:  I used to love beer.  I used to drink California craft ales.  I loved Red Tail, Lagunitas, and my all-time fave -- which I still love -- Anchor Liberty.  But, right about the end of the Nineties, when I was in a band, and drinking a lot, and much too much for my own good, I found ale too high in alcohol and too heavy for my taste, and switched to lager.  Lager, poor misunderstood ugly red headed stepchild you are today! And, then when I started developing a passion for wine, and learning every frickin' thing about wine that I could, desiring to be a wine buyer for my store, I pretty much swore off grain for grape.  My goodness, my Wife is shocked these days to see me drinking beer, after all those early years of our relationship, drinking tons of lager while playing Winning Eleven on my Playstation 2.)

Anyhoo, when the crash happened in 2008, wine sales took a serious nose dive, and beer and spirits became the serious sales drivers in the booze biz.  And, they still are today.  And, just a few years later, Dogfish 90 Minute IPA became available in California, and Pliny the Elder was unleashed onto the Bay Area.

Pliny the Elder is probably a great ale, if perhaps seriously overrated, but is most def not to my taste.  These dramatically hopped high alcohol Cali styled IPAs, honestly, taste like pot to me.  They taste like the pot I used to eat back in my college days, when I used to do stuff like that, eat pot instead of smoking it.

Anyroad, Pliny the Elder has become a sensation! It is prob the most sought after beer in the country.  Folks buy Pliny and ship it to their friends and family across the country, or overseas.  It has a severely limited production, as is hard to find outside of the Bay Area.  One of the greatest things ever for my regional team, was Benjamin OE setting up a relationship with Russian River Brewing and Whole Foods Market.  Whole Foods Market is your best source in the Bay Area for buying this cult beer.  (And, could we finally flipping, please, quit thinking and saying that beer is only lager, and not ale, as well.  It really gets on my tit! It is like book stores differentiating between fiction and literature.  UGH!)
||000;/['''''''[[[[[[[[[[;-------------

(Apologies for that last line, that is what my wonderful new kitten, Nora Charles, has to say about this subject.  Actually, I am rescinding my apologies now, because I think Nora has brilliantly encapsulated my feelings re dealing w/ Pliny the Elder cult worshippers.)

Man, as in love with this post as I am, I find that I am constantly getting off track.  How about another,

Anyroad, we get three cases a week of Pliny at my store.  Three cases.  Seventy-two 500 mil bottles.  They normally arrive on Wednesdays.  These bottles sell out in under two hours upon delivery.  We do not hold bottles for customers, and we do not have a limit on how many you can purchase.  It is first come first serve.  The absolute best way you can deal with this crazy cult phenomenon.  It has gotten to the point that we do not even put the product on the shelf.  We put the boxes on the floor and let the customers have at it.

I can not tell you how many times I have been yelled at if a customer was unlucky enough to have arrived too late.  The worst times are holiday times, like this week.  If the holiday is midweek, like this one, then our delivery of Pliny is apt to be a day early.  Thus, I got yelled at yesterday (Weds., the normal delivery day) because we were already sold out of Pliny, as it actually arrived on Tuesday, due to July 4th.

But, Nick C had it worse than me.  He was yelled at by three customers, including one who said, "Well, I guess I just won't be able to drink on the 4th."  Of course, this asshat did not really mean that.  He was simply saying that he was not going to give us any beer business in protest that we did not have flipping Pliny on the shelf for him.  It was gone!

But, even worse to me than the angry self-entitled Pliny customer is the embarrassed Pliny customer.  These are the folks that loiter around our beer cooler, desperate to have a team member ask them if they need help.  These folks are frankly ashamed to be a cult member.  When asked, they do not even ask for Pliny the Elder by its' name! They say something like, "Do you have any of the Russian River ales?" when they are absolutely not interested in any of the fine Russian River cork finished ales, but really only want Pliny.  How pathetic! If you are the flipping member of a cult, be proud of it, and pronounce it!

As much as I love the story of Russian River Brewing, and all the great sours and Belgian styled ales they make, and My Gawd, I am sooooo thankful for their business, and their fantastic relationship with the Food Hole, I am sick and bloody tired of this cult.  I am almost near the point that Vinnie sell off the Pliny label to Anheuser Busch so I just do not have to deal with these losers ever again.

Let me reiterate one more time, that it is not Vinnie and Russian River that I have a problem with, it is the angry embarrassed rude asshat cult worshippers that I have issue with.  Fussing over date labels! It is just fucking beer! Not a first growth or tête de cuvée.

Man, flipping drink a Bud or a Shiner Bock today.  Or do like this Okie Commie Pinko does, and drink nothing but French wine today.

Peace flipping out,
Ardent









P.S. I really do not want to flame on Vinnie or Russian River Brewing, at all.  They seriously make some of the finest beer in the country.  It is not their frickin' fault they made something so popular that their customers are jerks.  Here is their website. My personal favorite is their Redemption ale.














ah

I was going to go off on Pliny the Elder cult worshippers today,

But, will save my wrath for them until tomorrow.

Wrapped around our Marriage Equality victories last week is an seemingly unending rash of terrible political defeats and just general crap:  The GOP's War on Women, The Voting Rights decision, Snowden, Greenwald, Paula Deen, Immigration Reform, the delay for ACA, et cetera et cetera et cet a bloody cetera, ...

But, I am going to focus on the frickin Right to Choose struggle right now, and am going to cede the floor to blogging legend Charlie Pierce right here.

Never flipping forget that absolutely none of this GOP crap has anything to do with a woman's health.  This is all about vanquishing clinics, making it nearly impossible to even have a right to choose in states that pass these shitty unconstitutional bills.  In Texas there would be five clinics! In Virginia, one! 

And, big bad old asshat Rubio is now trying to build up his cred again, after the teabaggers have ditched him on account of the whole Amnesty Amnesty Amnesty For All! crap.  He is introducing to the Senate the twenty week limit with absolutely no exceptions, even in the case of rape or incest.

The GOP seriously seem to think they can win nationally with this shit, with pissing off all people of color and  women.

The problem is that even though this strategy is a dud at the national level.  It plays great at your local bar, coffeehouse, and state house.  And, that is where the good guys are getting their asses kicked every damn day.  

Do something! Let the world flipping know we can not take this anymore.  Vote in all elections, not just the General.  Organize, get on the barricades! Donate! Do something.  There is a nation to win, a nation we might actually become proud of on flipping holidays like July 4th.

P.S.:  Man, it is gonna be an Au Pairs marathon for me the next few days!

The Wife and I will be there for sure.

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, starring Steve Coogan, and featuring our Veep, The Thick of It, and In the Loop favorite guy, Chris Addison.

It can not miss, right?

I had forgotten how good Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is.

It is merely a trifle, a truffle, a bon bon, but what an absolutely scrumptious treat nonetheless.

Three of my faves: Frances McDormand, Amy Adams, & Shirley Henderson

It plays like a Paramount Hollywood pre code picture, but was made in 2008.  It is sexy, glamourous, and sweet.  And the dizzying, breakneck speed at which it flies gives off the subtle impression that the film was shot in one take as the world's longest tracking shot.

Amy Adams is superb, and sexy as all get-out, of course, as an aspiring American actress, lounging in bubble baths, and traipsing round the flat in lingerie.  And, they give her a chance to sing, too.  But my favorite acting moments are Frances McDormand eating those cucumber slices -- she is so desperately hungry! -- and Shirley Henderson's awkwardly attractive walk towards her friends, wanting to show off her new engagement ring.

Plus, the film has a couple of my other fave actors:  Mark Strong, and Ciarán Hinds.

Miss Pettigrew might not be everybody's cup of tea, but it certainly hit the spot for me yesterday on a blisteringly hot and gorgeous day and a wonderful home date w/ the Wife.

************

But, then in honor of our new kitty, Eleanor (Nora Charles), I watched The Thin Man after my Sweetie fell asleep:

All my love,
Ardent

Our new little calico angel, Nora Charles.