December 26, 2012
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Life of Pi

We ventured out to see Life of Pi tonight. Boy was I surprised when we were handed 3-D glasses. I suggested to Tuffy P that we see this one, but had I known it was in 3-D, I would have chosen a different film. I don’t like wearing 3-D glasses, at least in part because I have to wear them over my normal glasses. As well, I find the 3-D effects to be strange and artificial, at least some of the time.

In the case of Life of Pi, felt it would have been a better film if the filmmaker had made the commitment to make it without 3-D. It would have been a shorter film, and would not have taken the time to languish in filmic effects, and I would have been fine with that. On the whole, my biggest criticism of the film is that it was too long in any case. I think a full half hour could have been edited out and the film would have been stronger.

Still, it is a beautiful work and a fantastic story and it’s well worth seeing.

December 23, 2012
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Angeline the Baker

I started playing Angeline the Baker today on the oil can banjo, based on the following tab I found on the banjo hangout…

tab-angeline-the-ba-14806-232952232011The little H’s are hammer-ons and the little P’s are pull-offs and the SL’s indicate slides. This should keep me out of trouble for a little while.

December 22, 2012
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Playing the Can

Playing the oil can banjo until my fingers are sore. Expecting callouses on the fingers of my left hand soon enough. Playing a few easy tunes, learning to coordinate the right and left hand. Feeling like I’m off to a good start, although I’m sure as I encounter more difficult or complex tunes, I’ll be in the weeds quick enough. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

December 22, 2012
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Soup Day

Saturday is soup day around here these days. I wasn’t sure what variety of soup I was going to make today until we visited friends this morning who gave us some dried mushrooms. More specifically, these are Boletus Mirabilis, known as the Admirable Bolete.

I’ve never eaten these before, but they are reputed to be tasty mushrooms with a lemony nuance about them. The packaging assures me these were picked in Canada, and since I know these to be western mushrooms, it’s a good guess they come out of BC. These boletes were thinly sliced and dried, but still you can see these were really nice big specimens. I soaked a handful for half an hour while I prepared some other ingredients.

I started off with some Starsky’s BBQ bacon, a couple good slices diced up and added in a handful of chopped onions, some chopped up fresh thyme, and then after about 5 minutes, some celery root, carrots, and zucchini. I chopped up the soaked boletes and added them in along with loads of fresh creminis. I tossed in more fresh thyme and some dry summer savory and a little spash of soy sauce and some vegetable stock.

It’s simmering away on the stove and promises to be a very good soup.

December 22, 2012
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Is there some kind of award for this?….

I knew it was a bad idea when I realized that not only was the Starsky parking lot full, but all the illegal street parking was filled for a half block. Did I turn around and go to a saner place to buy my groceries? No way. I was after some primo Polish sausage for Christmas and there was no turning back.

Just for the record, shopping at Starsky on the afternoon of the last Saturday before Christmas is a crazy idea.

Let me just say I emerged alive and in one piece. The cash line-ups extended up the shopping rows all the way to the crowd around the sausage counter.  Crazy. The one good thing about the whole business is that everyone seemed to be in a relaxed state of mind, resigned to the wait.

December 20, 2012
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Starting somewhere

My brother the trout sent me a simple arrangement of the tune Old Molly Hare and I’ve started to learn it on the can. I have to start somewhere and this seems to be as good a place as any. The can has a unique sound, sort of like a regular banjo and yet different. I guess it should be different, being made of an oil can and all.

The arrangement is for double C tuning, but since I have a short scale neck and would normally tune to A instead of G, for this tuning, I’m in double D rather than double C. All I can say is that it sounds way different than the open A tuning I initially tuned the can to. My brother sent me this song because it’s simple – most of the melody resides on the first string – but at the same time can be jazzed up some too. I need simple at this stage.

I’ve been able to more or less play it well enough that it sounds like a tune, and even build speed a little and try a couple pull-offs. I’ll work on this one for a while, commit it to memory and as I get better, I’ll add to it and see how nice I can get it to sound.

I wanted to hear how other people play this tune so I turned to the YouTube machine. Here are some examples of how people who know what they’re doing play Old Molly Hare.

and a twin fiddle version…