My Next Purchase

After doing some research and comparing the MSR AutoFlow Gravity Filter against the Platypus CLeanStream Gravity Filter System on various websites I decided to go with the MSR. I have been using an MSR pump with a ceramic filter for years and it has performed very well. It is easy to clean, and other than a slowing flow rate, should last for a few more years. But pumping is one of my least favorite elements of the outdoor adventure so I am going to try a gravity filter. This will be perfect for group trips and appears to be lighter than most water filtration systems. The hollow fiber filters are supposed to be a little more fussy but it should be worth it with the higher flow. I will let you know after I use it. Next trip should be in a few weeks.

2 Episodes in...Justified aka "Tim Olyphant is Pissed"

As you can see from the picture above, Tim Olyphant is pissed about something. After two episodes we don't really know what it is but it appears he doesn't like bad guys.

FX has released a number of good series in the past few years - Rescue Me (seasons 1 and 2), Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sons of Anarchy (season 1), the too quickly canceled Starved, even the narrow minded and hopelessly going nowhere series The League - all of these shows brought something interesting, funny, and well produced to TV.

Justified is a well done show with a charismatic and interesting lead. The show is about a U.S. Marshall who is forced to leave Miami and return home to the backwoods of Kentucky due to an altercation in a hotel (a very memorable first scene in the first episode). Timothy Olyphant plays the Marshall Raylan Givens and channels a few parts Clint Eastwood (both Dirty Harry and The Man with No Name), a few parts Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and many parts Seth Bullock from Deadwood. Olyphant's roll in Deadwood was a sheriff who wanted justice and control, so much so that he wasn't human. The Givens character is a better version of Bullock, one that anyone could identify with.

The first episode moved briskly and introduced a white supremacist played superbly by Walton Goggins (who has an impressive IMDB resume). While the show doesn't appear to have a central storyline, only a central theme, hopefully the white supremacist character returns to a main role. The watchability of this show is very high mainly because Olyphant is doing his best work. The writing is good enough to keep the series moving. Hopefully the episodes centered around various Marshall duties (prisoner transport, manhunts, witness protection) can stay fresh.

2 Episdoes in...The Pacific Miniseries

Here at Things That Entertain Alex we have decided to debut a new segment about television - "2 Episodes in..." will review new TV series after the second episode. Really you need about two seasons before you know if the writers have any idea what their longterm plan is but after two episodes you have an idea where the first season is headed.
The Pacific miniseries on HBO, produced by the team behind the original Band of Brothers Series, is a world war two war-drama abou the theatre in the Pacific Ocean. The first episode followed the marines at home and at briefings describing where they were headed then took us straight to the landing crafts. After an anticlimactic landing at Guadalcanal we see them get their first action. The second episode follows the soldiers through a few more tense battles, some pysocological struggles, and finally getting off the island. The last scene of the second episode was probably the best of the series when the dissheveled and shell shocked marines chat briefly with a Navy cook about what they saw and he responds that Americans now see these men as heroes.

The shows production value is very high and it succeeds with large set piece battles as well as with the psycological aspects. A scene in the second episode when the Marines loot an Army resupply is particular entertaining. The acting is overall quite good and the cast is made up of men you recognize but have to IMDB to see where you recognize them from (the kid from Jurassic Park is about to enter the fray).

The single biggest problem with this show is that it is not as good as the original Band of Brothers miniseries. The original, released in 2001, followed airborne troops through France, Belgium, and Germany. The characters were more memorable, better acted, and easier to identify. Characters in The Pacific seem to blend together and look enough alike that you cannot tell who is who. And since all of the battles occur at night and are lit by muzzle flashes, flares and explosions you really can't tell what men are involved in which firefights and it has never been made clear which company/battalion each group are with.

Because of the high production value and potential for character development this is a much watch; but if you need a World War II fix watch the original BOB series.

Shake Weight

This is just too awesome to not post. This is the shakeweight, which kind of looks like a dumbell crossed with a sex toy. Watch the video at www.shakeweight.com/ and prepare to have your mind blown. Also enjoy the women with really disgusting arms.

Warrior Dash

Before I busted up my knee playing basketball (and falling on asphalt) I signed up for the Warrior Dash. It will be my first adventure race of the year and covers 3 miles with multiple obstacles. Before I hurt my knee I was running 4 to 5 miles a day and figured I could compete for a place on the podium (and the metal warrior helmet that comes with it). Now I am just looking forward to jogging the race and bumbling over obstacles. I guess the injury took the competetive edge out of it. Oh well. Should still be a fun event, and for only 60 bones you can't really go wrong.

New Playstation Sex Toy

I am not sure if Playstation intended for their new motion control joystick to look like some of sex toy but, well, it definitely does. Assuming it vibrates this could make for some interesting and immersive gaming opportunities.

Un Prophete

As noted previously, Saturday night was a rough night for good movies. Maybe that was a reaction caused by our Friday night viewing: Un Prophete. Before I go further - GO SEE THIS MOVIE! It was excellent from start to finish - acting, direction, cinematography, story - the entire film had a tension to it that I rarely find in modern cinema.
The movie stars Tahar Rahim in a star making part. He is incarcerated in a French prison and has to quickly learn the ropes. Without spoiling too much, he goes into jail a poor, illiterate boy with no friends or family and leaves with an education, family, and a life waiting for him on the outside. How he gets there spans two and a half hours, covers a few different jail cells, multiple shower scenes (some benign, some violent), different cities, and some things you would never expect to happen. The movie could have been cut down to two hours or so but it does not suffer at its length.
This movie is so good I really don't want to go into the details of the plot because you should go see it. Just know that you do not know how this will end and the protaganist's life always feels one misturn away from ending. This tension is a breath of fresh air compared to predictable flicks like Avatar, District 9, and An Education. GO SEE THIS MOVIE!

Crazy Busy

So I have been ridiculously busy now that my officemate Hector is gone and I have taken over his workload. I have also been sick with a little viral throat thing and crippled with a sprained ACL. All of these things have resulted in no posts in almost a week. My apologies.
Anyway, I spent the three day weekend (I called in sick on Friday) making pasta sauce and watching bad movies. The pasta sauce came out tasty, and the movies were awful. Here are three quick reviews of my Saturday night viewing:

New York, I Love You - Possibly the worst movie I have seen that I can remember, this is an art house effort with an ensemble cast. It is assembled like all of those bad Valentine's Day type movies but goes absolutely nowhere. The characters have no backstory so you don't care where they are going, and well, they don't go anywhere anyways. An example - Bradley Cooper climbs into not one but two cabs with other random characters in the movie. They are all affable enough to share the cabs. End scene. Great, they share cabs. The characters do not reconnect. His whole story arc is that he had a one night stand with Drea de Matteo (from the Soprano's) and felt some sort of connection. Queue the steamy sex scene. He waits for her at a bar, she appears to be hours late, he gets up to leave and hails a cab as she walks up. They hop in and go off together all smiles. So we establish they have a physical connection but since we never see them again we have no idea where it goes. And frankly, who cares. This movie was awful. I couldn't even watch the last 15 minutes after investing an hour and a half, so maybe it all came together in the end, but I doubt it.

Mean Girls - Tina Fey and Lindsey Lohan at the height of their powers; we didn't watch the whole movie since Ariel and I have both seen it, but this movie is hilarious. I will typically not get suckered into high school girl movies, but this stays witty and creative enough to hold up to multiple viewings. For some reason it is okay for a guy to like this movie. Maybe that is a testament to Tina Fey's writing and how attractive a young Lindsey Lohan was.

The Ugly Truth - This movie has me absolutely convinced that I could write a screenplay. I actually found some of the dialogue refreshing (the writers are all women, but wrote the male character's part with a decent edge) but for the most part this story was as formulaic as they come. You knew how this would end before it started but the movie did not deviate from standard Hollywood cliches throughout. I would say the low-light was the scene where Gerard Butler gives Katherine Heigl vibrating panties before a business meeting. Obviously she puts them on right before the meeting (who wouldn't?) and obviously the controller ends up in the hands of a curious 8 year old and (obviously) she proceeds to have an orgasm during an important meeting. WHO WRITES THIS SHIT?! I am going to go ahead and say you can skip this one.

Yellowstone

My next destination? Yellowstone. 17 hours of driving. 4 or 5 nights on the trail. Can you say life lister? I want to go to there.

The North Face Denali Jacket

If you buy one piece of The North Face gear you should probably get this jacket. The Denali is just fashionable enough to wear out at night and just nice enough for me to wear to work everyday. The 300 series Polartec polyester fleece is warm enough to wear into the 40's or 50's over a t-shirt and also has just enough wind resistant to stand up to about 10 mph gusts. The polyster is also naturally hydrophobic so when it gets wet it retains heat and dries quickly. You can shake this jacket and watch the water come off.

For the outdoors the Denali holds up as a solid 3 season backpacking jacket. It is a little heavy and oversized for my taste but its versatility has forced me to bring it along regardless of its shortcomings. The polyester breathes well while insulating and the shoulder fabric is strong enough to endure hours with backpack straps rubbbing against it. I think my favorite thing about it is that it makes the perfect camp pillow. Fold the jacket up a few times, stick it in a soft shirt, and you have the perfect vehicle to rest your head on. It is warm and soft and does not compress too much (like a down jacket) or spread flat to be uncomfortable by the end of the night. I enjoy using this as a backpacking pillow so much I have considered bringing it on summer trips when I truly did not need it.

Pretty much everyone I know has one of these jackets for wearing around town, but few people realize this is an excellent piece of gear for backpacking. My only complaint is that it should be a little more stout against the wind; if it was I would bring this jacket on every backpacking trip.

Friday Night

My officemate Hector is headed off to our Cedars-Sinai project by the Beverly Center. In honor of his departure we spent last Friday evening downtown (where he lives) bowling and drinking. We started at the new Lucky Strike Bowling Alley at the city center. They sell themselves as "upscale bowling." The alley was relatively clean and nice but since most bowling alleys look like giant ashtrays that isn't saying much. The happy hour was the highlight with $3 pints. I asked the waitress for a pint of Newcastle to which she responded that they didn't have "pints" but they did have plastic 16 oz cups. I informed her that 16 oz's is a pint. Not sure if an upscale joint should have waitresses who know what a pint is, but the beer was delicious none the less. We also ordered pizza (decent), fries (very crispy and salty), and artichoke dip (repulsive). The dip came with half as many pita chips as you needed and for some reason was covered in disgusting cheese. Also the food was not priced like the drinks so 8 bucks for crappy dip was a rip off. Come for the drinks and $5 dollar rounds (before) and don't stay for anything else.

From there we went to Lawry's Carvery next to Staple's. I was going to order the turkey club but the consensus of everyone who worked there was that the Prime Rib Bleu was the dish to order. The prime rib was perfectly cooked and melted in my mouth. It tasted a little like butter and didn't taste at all like steak. Somehow the perfectly red, tender and fatty meat had very little taste. For that reason I added Lawry's Seasoned Pepper and Lawry's Seasoning Salt to every bight. The Lawry's Seasoned Pepper saved the meal. It was so good I had to take it home. I casually slipped it into my jacket and now I have it for the next tasteless steak sandwich I get.

Lawry's was good enough that I would try it again, as was the Lucky Strike happy hour. Don't waste time eating at the bowling alley though. While it may be "upscale" the food is not worth the bucks and the pints are only 16 oz's.

Olympic Awesomeness

Everyone who watches curling loves it and thinks they can do it. I doubt it is as easy as drunk people think it is but I found a place near LA that has curling. I may just have to hit up the open house: http://www.iceoplexsimivalley.com/curling.htm

Mmmmmmmmm, Seafood by the Airport

I picked Ariel up at the airport on Saturday after her trip to snowy New York. Thanks to Virgin America's in flight Internet she was able to send me a message with the urgent title "I am hungry." I yelped restaurants within five miles of the airport, sorted by highest rating, and narrowed the selection to a Jamaican spot and Mariscos Moni. Ariel, as usual, chose the Mexican food at Mariscos Moni (henceforth abbreviated as MM).
For anyone who is not aware mariscos (note this is wikipedia en espanol, but you get the point) is seafood of all kinds. MM's menu featured three pages of whole fish, ceviches, and standard dishes with seafood. Items like carnitas, carne asada, and pollo were relegated to the back page. This was the first time I have ever seen this. This restaurant is really dedicated to their seafood.
The meal started with chips and salsa. The salsa was a little too spicy for my tastes and did not have nearly enough substance (few tomatoes). The chips were average at best. We followed that up with a mixed seafood tostada. The mixta consisted of shrimp, octopus, imitation crab, and a few other items I couldn't identify. All of the seafood was tender. I liked the marinade and its ceviche-like acidity, Ariel did not like how tomatoey it was.
For entrees Ariel ordered the shrimp fajitas and I got the shrimp enchiladas. My little shrimp in the enchiladas were undercooked and the dish was not as hot as it should have been when it was served. The fajitas came out sizzling and were quite delicious, especially all of the onions and bell peppers which reached that smokey/carmelized perfection that make fajitas so delicious. Both dishes came with huge portions of rice, salad and beans that were cooked with ample amounts of lard.
Overall the food was just slightly above average but the cost for the three above dishes and two sodas was $40. That is too much for what we got. The best thing about this meal? Reheating my dish last night in a pan with a little olive oil was better than the original serving. All of the cheese, sauce, rice, and shrimp (now thoroughly cooked) turned into a delicious congealed mess.
If you are looking for good mariscos try Mariscos Guillen La Playita on Lincoln in Venice. This shack it like Moni only fresher, better, and cheaper.

The Time is Now

The Redundant Clock designed by Jai Lee. He works for google. He appears to be smart. I want to make my own since they aren't for sale.

LA 27

On Sunday Ariel and I met up with my friend Dan who writes about food. His blog, DanEats, is an entertaining look at all the restaurants and dining experiences he gets himself into. Now that he is slowly moving from New York to Los Angeles we have been getting lunch and dinner together about once a week. Since he is writing about food I figured we should try to go to different places. So far we have gone to Baby Blues BBQ, Mario's Peruvian, and a few other spots spread around town.
Having an amateur food critic in my life has compelled me to try new things. For Valentine's day Ariel got me Counter Intelligence by Jonathan Gold, the Pulitzer Prize winning food critic. For the last few years I have searched out Gold's recommendations. For the most part his tastes are a little too spicy for me but sometimes we find ourselves in complete agreement. The Donut Man is the best example of this. Gold and I have come to the mutual conclusion that the strawberry donut from here is the best in LA (my coworkers now agree as well). But lunch on Sunday wasn't going to be donuts so I had to find somewhere new between Santa Monica and Los Feliz.
After 20 minutes of research I settled on El Izalqueno and its El Salvadorian Food. It was suitably exciting and foreign and was located just north of downtown. Ariel and I arrived at the listed address first and were disappointed to find that the restaurant was either never there or had been replaced. In its place was LA27, a Nicaraugan restaurant with a live band and tables filled with families. Had it been Ariel and I the loud music probably would have turned us away; but when Dan sauntered up we determined it was worth a shot. We were quickly sat at a 4 top by the only waiter who spoke english. We asked about specialties and all of the drinks which had names we did not recognize. The waiter helped us out bigtime by bringing us samples (in little salsa cups) of ten different drinks. These ranged from rice based drinks (some with pineapple, chocoloate, and other spices) to fruit drinks (lemonade with sesame seeds, coconut). All of them were different from anything we had ever drank.
Following the drink sampling we ordered a starter of Baho, a meat stew served with perfectly sticky white rice. The stew had some potatoes, plantains, some very fatty meat, carrots and tomatoes. There was very little meat but what was there was delicious. The plantains were too hearty for me and lacked the sweetness of their fried bretheren. The potatoes were very good. Dan and I both ordered the fritanga a la 27 which had chorizo (delicious, but we hardly had any on our plates), carne asada (excellent, thick cut seasoned perfectly) and pork (great marinade but a little dry). The sides were rice mixed with pinto beans, lettuce and tomato, fried plantains, fried cheese, and tons of a vinegar based salsa consisting of baby corn, onions and carrots. The salso went with/on everything and we went through about half a container. Ariel got the shredded beef plate which was like Ropa Vieja from Cha Cha Chicken but not quite as good.
This is probably the most authentic foreign food experience I have had; meaning that I basically felt like I was in Nicaruaga while eating there. No one spoke english, the food was delicious, and the music was inappropriately loud and invasive. Flower vendors and pirated DVD sellers walked the floor looking for buyers. This was an amazing experience, not to be missed.

I Heart Meatballs

So I love me some meatballs; not as much as some people I know (wink wink), but I do love them. More generally, I love Italian food. I grew up eating the stuff basically every night but as the California culinary scene so did my tastes. I now have a much more broad palet and rarely seek out Italian restaurants.
In Ariel's and my search for a wedding caterer I must admit I was surprised when A.G. Ferrari was an option. Our venue the Brazilian Room has a list of 8 or so caterers you have to choose from and the Italian deli was one of them. I remember eating there occasionally in Corte Madera when growing up and enjoying the food, but I never imagined that they might cater the most important event of my life.
On our last trip to the Bay Ariel and I tried five different caterers. Many were good, but they lacked the oomph that we were looking for. Each caterer had as many weak dishes as good ones. The only one that really stood out was AGF. All of the appetizers were delicious, as were the entrees and desserts, and the only menu items where they came up short were the easiest to fix: the salad and the grilled veggies. We tweaked the veggie selection to our liking and added some items to the salad to make it more in line with the food we love. The salmon (with a crispy bottom) and the bruschetta appetizers were particularly excellent.
We haven't booked AGF yet (we have booked our photog, florist, and DJ) because we still want to perfect the menu, but once we get them dialed in we will be that much closer to the big day.

Long John Performance: Smartwool versus Patagonia

For my first snowshoeing trip I decided I needed more than one pair of long johns. I bought a pair of Smartwool Midweight Bottoms for general backpacking use a few years ago. I typically would throw them on at night when the sun started to go down and wear them under my pants until climbing into sleeping bag. Since they are merino wool they are soft, odorless, and warm while also wicking sweat away. Since I would be snowshoeing and sweating I wanted a pair to wear each day. I love testing new clothing and building up my gear box so I wanted to try something new. I went with the Patagonia Capilene 3 Bottoms which are basically synthetic versions of the Smartwools. Here is a breakdown of the performance:




Smartwool ($75) - For warmth, softness and cut these can't be beat. The merino wool insulates in the cold and transports sweat when working hard. The fabric is soft enough that these are the perfect cold weather sleep wear. And there is something about the fit around the ankles that is perfect (although the seat is a little dumpy). I wore these after the first day's climb and to bed, and the all day the second day (downhill). For warmth underneath a windshell layer these really can't be beat.







Patagonia Capilene 3 ($45) -I wore these the entire first day underneath my snowshell pants. They were warm enough that I ended up opening my knee zips after a few hours of climbing but they kept my legs dry and I was never uncomfortable. Even while shoveling snow to make base camp the sweat never clung to these longjohns. The elastic waist band and elastic at the ankles were a little too tight but the overall performance was impressive.

Bottom Line - If I was looking to buy one pair of longjohns to last me forever I would go with the Smartwools. They are soft enough to wear at home and perform well enough to wear while doing intense physical activity. If you need to buy multiple pairs for a trip and are on a budget the Patagonia Capilene is a great economical choice. They performed as well as the Smartwools while sweating (the polyester wicks better than the merino) but the Smartwools were warmer while standing around at camp. It depends on the situation but both of these longjohns perform well.

Top 10 Hikes and Dive Spots

The website Gadling has a list of what they consider the "World's best Hikes." One of the hikes is the Mt. Whitney climb which I did in one day in 2008. Maybe it was the trauma of the 22 miles that day, but I would not consider it one of the "world's best." Either way, the ten hikes listed are all trips I want to do.
They also listed the top 10 dive sites.

http://www.gadling.com/2010/01/26/10-great-destinations-for-scuba-diving-adventure-videos/

I now have 20 trips to do in the near future.

Empowered by Gaiters

There is something empowering about wearing gaiters. When combined with durable snow pants and hearty winter boots you feel like you could be walking through knee high lava flows and be fine.
Mine are the Outdoor Research Verglass Gaiters. They are affordable ($45), durable, waterproof, and not vomit inducing ugly. Over two days of snowshoeing and potholing up to my knee my feet remained dry and these remained in place. The calf strap is sturdy and never came loose. The leather straps were easy to adjust (before they were frozen over). The velcro front made putting them on easy even after the spent the night getting coated in ice.
They are not without their problems though. Maybe I have skinny legs for my shoe size but the calf strap had to be cinched almost all the way down to stay up on my leg. While the strap never came undone I did end up with an annoying bunching at the top of the gaiters and the actual strap sticking out to the side. This could theoretically get snagged on something. My second complaint may happen with all gaiters. The lace clip at the toe always came unhooked. This never impacted the performance of the gaiters but had circumstances been different I would want these more firmly locked onto my shoe. I may add a little ring onto my boots so that I have something more secure than crossed laces to hook my clip around.

La Botte

My parents were in town after a desert valley road trip and requested we go to La Botte for dinner. We had eaten there on my last birthday and had an amazing culinary experience.
We went on a Tuesday night and the restaurant was mostly full. I am not sure if they expected this because we ended up with one thoroughly overworked waiter. He looked a little like Christiano Ronaldo and had the accent of an Italian characterture. After dropping off our menus we didn't see him for about 30 minutes. Our wine took an additional 30 minutes to arrive. If it wasn't for very stimulating conversation this meal would have been miserable.
For food we tried to order the Scallop salad but the waiter informed us they were out of scallops. We ended up starting with the cured duck (duck prosciutto) which was tasty and the red beet ravioli. The ravioli was absolutely amazing. The flavors burst out of the homemade shell, the presentation was perfect, and the dish tasted earthy (the beets), cheesy and a little sweet.
My entree was the pork shoulder served on chard with a kobucha squash mustard. The meat was a little undercooked (it didn't fall apart completely, just mostly, I almost had to use a knife) but the mustard was perfect. It had the consistency of sweet mashed potatoes but the spiciness of a hot ground mustard. And I love mustard.
My dad ordered the filet mignon medium rare. It came out cold so he sent it back to be reheated. When it came back it was closer to medium than medium rare. He said it was delicious but overcooking your cold meat is not acceptable.
Ariel ordered the lamb ragou which was pretty good. The homemade pasta was smooth and floury (just right). I thought the lamb flavor was overpowered by the cheese, but the dish was still quite good.
So in summary, the service was deplorable but the food was delicious. The two bottles of wine we drank were also top notch (the first was a reasonably priced Montepulciano, my dad ordered the second but it was also smooth). I still recommend this place even with the bad service.
http://www.labottesantamonica.com/