June 25, 2017
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Life and Death over the board

The game of Go is all about surrounding territory and surrounding your opponent but sometimes the result of a whole game hinges on the status of a single group. Is it alive or is it dead?

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In this game, I harassed a weak white group – the one in the bottom right quadrant of the board – poking at its eye shape. White ran his stones toward the centre, hoping to connect up with distant friends, but sadly for him, I was able to block any connection, leaving white with just one of the two eyes necessary to survive. My opponent could not achieve a living shape, connect to friends, nor launch a counter-attack. 19 stones were dead in the water and white had no alternative but to resign the game.

We played 7 games the other night. I won 3 and Vox won 4. Even though I was behind in wins, this kill was the highlight of the evening for me. Many times, when you attack an opponent’s group, there is profit to be made by forcing your opponent to live. Killing a group on a large scale can be very difficult and so attacking for profit is often the better strategy. In this case, everything fell into place for the huge kill.

Filed under: Go
June 24, 2017
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Adventures with Ruby and George

Today we visited the leash free park along Etobicoke Creek. For those wondering how to access it, go in from South Creek Rd, which runs south from Dundas St west of West Mall. It’s a great spot for dogs because they have lots of room to romp and swim and splash about in the water and chase other dogs. We had a great time.

The creek was high from all the rains but that didn’t stop the dogs from enjoying the water. They ran and played themselves silly.

 

June 22, 2017
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Tostones and Eggs at the Comfort Food Diner

WARNING: contains ridiculously delicious fried food.

I haven’t had fried plantain (tostones) in years, which is crazy because they’re fantastic. Today I was in the No Frills buying cat litter and a few other things, and when I swung by the veggies, they had some good looking plantains there. These ones had turned from green to yellow but didn’t yet have all the black sugar spots. The green ones are starchier and the super-ripe ones are sweeter. The ones at the No Frills were right in the middle of the scale. I bought one and decided to make myself tostones and eggs for lunch. Retired guys do that.

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There are two things I can tell you about frying plantains. One is that even though many people deep fry the hell out of them in half an inch of oil, you don’t have to do that. I used about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. That’s it. The other thing I can tell you is that to make them super-fantastic, you fry them once, press them, then fry them again.

You can slice your plantain however you like. I cut mine on diagonals about half inch thick. You want your oil hot enough that when you touch a piece of plantain to the pan, you can see oil bubbles. Fry them for 30 seconds on each side, then take them out and put them on a paper towel covered plate.

If you made these things every day, you might want to have a tostone press in your kitchen, but I used a small pot and it worked just fine. One at a time, put a piece of once-fried plantain on a cutting board, cover it with the pot and press down. You don’t have to be Superman or Wonder Woman to do this. The pieces flatten out nicely with a little pressure.

Once you’ve got them all pressed (and this is no big deal, it took me under a minute), put the pressed pieces back into a hot pan. I think I cooked mine for maybe a minute more on each side, just enough to make them crispy. I think some folks cook them to a potato chip level of crispiness, but that wasn’t what I was after. I wanted them nice and crispy on the outside but still soft on the inside. When they’re ready, put them back on the plate on some fresh paper towel. Add some salt right away. If you’re thinking, oh man, I don’t want to add salt, that’s bad for you, consider you’ve just fried your breakfast.

Same pan, I fried two eggs, over easy. Sunny side up would have been fine too. The joy here is in mopping up the runny eggy goodness with a tostone. Let me make a confession here and now: I squirted sriracha all over the whole business before eating, just because.

Super-delicious.

 

June 20, 2017
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Business development?

Just now….land line rings

Hi this is Alice from Fitser (?…lots of noise from other telemarketers in the background)
Who?
My name is Alice from Fitser.
And why are you calling me this morning, Alice, and what is a Fitser exactly?
We do online promotion and marketing and I’m calling to help you promote your business.
My business?
Yes we can promote your business.
Well, lately I’ve been playing a lot of old time clawhammer banjo. Can you help me promote that?
Oh yes.
And button accordion too?
Oh yes.
So Alice, how exactly are you going to promote my business?
We can promote your business by building you a website to increase your online presence and everything.
Wow that sounds exciting Alice but here is the thing. You are trying to get business by calling people at home who may or may not actually have businesses. That doesn’t seem like a very smart way to promote your business, does it?
I’m not trying to promote our business, I’m trying to promote your business.
Oh I see. Well Alice, I don’t have a budget for promoting my banjo playing just now so I won’t be hiring you. It would be really great if you didn’t call me at home anymore. Think you might be able to take my name off your list?
OK.
Thank you Alice and have a nice day.
OK bye.

 

June 18, 2017
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A new garden sculpture

Over the years gardening on 27th Street, our ideas about how to approach a garden have changed somewhat. It’s no longer just about a flower bed and some plants. What is the shape of the garden – and the shape of the space around it? How do you walk through it? Are there low plants that hug the soil and rocks? What about trees and vines and other plants that love to grow high? Each garden has its own character and that character changes over time.

In the past couple years I’ve considered architectural elements – garden sculpture, a gate, pillars, birdhouses, the book box and let’s not forget benches – places you can sit and enjoy the garden. Architectural elements are one way to achieve height in the garden and an unexpected focus.

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Today I added a new garden sculpture to the goose garden out back. The raw materials for this project were simple – a pillar and a target-like industrial mold of some kind. After capping the pillar, I cut a couple pieces of re-bar and used them to attach the target to the pillar. With the help of some cement, I planted the completed unit in the garden. Later, we have the option of painting it or perhaps adding some mosaic.

 

June 18, 2017
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My old friend the button accordion

When I started playing clawhammer banjo, I fell hard for it and very quickly it dominated the music I played to the point where my old accordions lay quiet. I really never gave it a second thought – until recently. I’ve been missing the button accordion, the sounds it makes, how it feels to play it. This morning I picked up one of my accordions and put it on. How do you play this thing?

I used to know so many tunes on it, and I sat there trying to draw them out of my memory. The good news is the music comes back. My fingers, which have become fairly adept at finding the notes on my banjo, were tentative, but soon I was making music. Managing the air was still second nature. I started remembering bits and pieces of tunes I used to play. I think I can get back my chops fairly quickly with a little effort.

The button accordion uses different muscles than the banjo. You wouldn’t think that is a big deal, but after playing for 45 minutes this morning, a number of muscles were complaining. Back when I played accordion every day that never happened. It would have been better had I not stopped along the way to learn banjo, but I know I needed that focus to learn a new instrument.

Now I’m starting fiddle, continuing to learn banjo tunes, and yet I want to get back to playing accordion too. My first thought is I haven’t time for all that among various other projects I have going – including making paintings for my next exhibition. I guess I’ll have to organize my time better.

 

June 16, 2017
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Was that music or construction noise?

I’ve begun my first tentative steps learning to play fiddle. I’m reminding myself that my first days on button accordion were a struggle, figuring out to to manage air and cope with learning two sets of fingering, one for pushing and the other for pulling. Early days with clawhammer were challenging too,  learning to strike the individual strings cleanly and getting the basic frailing stroke down. I think fiddle has an even steeper learning curve than both those instruments and there are plenty of initial challenges to overcome.

Putting in some time learning to get clean tones seems to be the order of the day, but it is easier said than done. I practiced simply getting good full tones on open strings, going from one string to another, and after a while I got the hang of that. Of course everything fell apart when I tried to finger a simple tune. I found that as I concentrated on finding the right finger positions, getting the pitch as correct as I could, I messed up with the bow hand.

It is, however a start, and I’m managing my expectations. My fingers will get used to finding the right finger positions and my ear will tell me when I’m off. Bowing too will get easier the more I work at. I know from my experience playing other instruments that I will learn through playing tunes, and that my patience for exercises and scales is limited. On clawhammer, I’ll work on a tune, spending extra time on the tougher bits, going back and forth between the whole tune and the parts that need work. I also know I’ll keep at it as long as I’m having fun and seeing some improvement along the way. This morning by the time our Newfs Ruby and George told me it was time to stop, I was playing a very rough and scratchy Lisa Jane, and I’m telling myself that’s a good start. Rome was not built in a day and like that. I don’t plan on moving on to anything else until I can play that one so it sounds like fiddle instead of construction noise.

 

June 15, 2017
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Why are we attracted to daredevils?

Today Erindira Wallenda dangled over Niagara Falls from a helecopter holding on by her teeth. I’m not even making this up. Why are we so fascinated with stupid stuff people do?

When I was a little kid I remember watching Evel Knievel on television, jumping over stuff on his motorcycle. In his storied career (if that’s what you call it), he smashed most of his bones. I recall being glued to the screen, but no matter what happened it wasn’t going to be satisfying and the same goes for today’s goofy stunt.

We don’t want to watch Erindira Wallenda lose her grip and fall to her death. And yet, if she is successful, it’s just another day at the office. I suppose we are attracted to the tension, the possibility of disaster. Other members of the daredevil Wallenda family have died, right? Previous failures offer credibility to the whole business.

What motivates a daredevil? What they do is as far away from the work-a-day world as you can imagine. And what do you do for a living? I face death, and what do you do? Maybe some people need the thrill the way addicts need their drugs? Perhaps they’re addicted to risk.

Remember Fernwood 2 Nite, the old Martin Mull tall show spoof? Barth Gimble had a recurring guest named Virgil Simms, a daredevil with a plan to jump over 3 motorcycles with full-sized, fully equipped mobile home……