Cocktail Confessions

Okay, I know it’s been over a week since my previous post of part one, but I’m here now to wrap this puppy up.  So where was I?  I was just talking about the lack of adult beverages, and limited food items, but we had a little something to eat anyways and then went about for more exploring.

Just to the right of the main stage there was an area roped and sectioned off for a small classic car show.  Now how classic cars and Huck Finn tie into each other, I’ll never know, but the closest theory I have is that most people who enjoy Americana and Country music, probably also like NASCAR, and if that’s your bag, I suppose some classic cars can draw attention and bring some additional people out anyway.

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There weren’t too many cars, maybe a total of 15 or so, give or take a couple, but these guys were mighty proud.  I’ll admit I’m missing the ‘car-gene’ many guys seems to have.  I fully admit I don’t know the first thing about carburetors or horse power, but I can appreciate the hard work involved in restoring and showing off your handiwork.  I can also imagine the feeling one can have and the adventures one can enjoy sitting behind the wheel and touring our great land.  These cars just beg to be taken out for a drive in the country, stopping at a malt shop for a classic burger and fries, putting the top down and listening to classic tunes.  Anyway, in the long run it was a nice and quick addition to the jubilee.

There were also some various games taking place at various times and locals within the park as well.  We witnessed some grease pole climbing (ugh, what a mess), horseshoe tossing, axe throwing, egg tossing, and cow chip throwing contests.  There were plenty of other diversions for all ages to participate in staggered throughout the day, but we didn’t participate in any ourselves.

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We did stop at a smaller venue (not the main stage) to sit and listen to a 45 minute concert performed by a quartet group hailing from Arizona named the ‘Hey Boyz’.  They were very entertaining, blending traditional bluegrass and humorous stories and jokes throughout their set.  You could buy CD’s from them as well and they would be performing a few different times throughout the jubilee.  Both Brian and I recorded their concert with our Playsport’s, and Brian even made an audio recording using his Zoom player.  He said it came out pretty good and I look forward to listening to it sometime later.  Maybe I’ll even get a portion of it and upload it as an audio file here on my website.

One of the funniest things we witnessed was this really cheesy 2-man show circus.  It was really low rent, and dated by any standard, but that was part of its charm.  The two guys running it did everything from being the MC’s, changing characters, doing stunts, juggling, performing magic tricks, and selling cheezy coloring books of another circus altogether.  The only animals they had was a very fat and lazy cat who just seemed to care less about what was going on around it, and a few doves used in the magic tricks.  The funniest part to me was that their sound system was basically a tape deck, circa 1980, with way over-warn royalty free crappy circus music that sounded like they were recorded during the sixties.  It was so bad, it was good, and you have to give these two guys a lot of credit for their energy and attitudes.  You can tell they were really there just to entertain the kids and definitely thought their ‘circus’ was much more stupendous than it really was.

After our 20 minute little show, we took a few pictures and opted to call it a day, well at a day at the jubilee.  I wouldn’t have minded spending more time there and hearing a few more acts, but I was with three other people all jonesing for a beer at this point and figured they had seen all that they had wanted to see anyway and were hinting about leaving.

I’m not one for camping much anymore.  Not that I hate camping at all; I did plenty of it as a boy when I was running with the Boy Scouts.  Today, however, I enjoy a clean, comfortable bed, a nice hot shower, and a clean toilet to rest my rosy cheeks on in the morning.  With that in mind, if I were to go camping again, I would for sure try to and stay at Mojave Narrows.  It really is a large and well kept campground with plenty of amenities.

On trek back to Orange County, we decided to stop just on the outskirts of Norco for a beer at some chain Mexican restaurant.  Well, one beer turned into two, which turned into three, and before long we were best friends with the bartender, Ernie.  So much so in fact that he was doling out a few free drinks our way and we had a splendid late afternoon.

Finally after that little diversion, think we were now on our way home, my wife was able to finagle us all into going bowling.  We bowled three games at Norco Lanes, and even befriended some young high school kids the next lane over.  We were all pretty tuned up at this point, especially Brian.  We collected some glow in the dark bracelets from our new found friends and they even offered us some pizza.

Once bowling was done, we made our trip back home with Brian sleeping soundly in the back of my car.

This is more or less a quick entry on the state of affairs over here at my blog.

I’ve got a few things lined up in the coming days and weeks including some additional video’s and a podcast I just recorded with my buddy Brett who visited from Idaho this past week.  I’ll have some new recipes up soon, including Cuban burgers (that were a hit at this Friday’s last BBQ), grilled zucchini boats with a bacon gremolata, a new cocktail recipe dubbed ‘The Camel Toe’ for you vodka and tropical drink lovers, and a refreshing watermelon sangria.

I’ll have a few stories to share that took place with my friend Brett, especially our afternoon visit to Turq’s in Dana Point where we get talked to death by druken senior citizens, some additional video of the San Clemente Pier, a review of the Original Pedro’s tacos, some random shots at Cook’ Corner, Dana Point Harbor, S.C. Pier, and more.

This upcoming weekend, my wife and I are going to the Huck Finn Jubilee up in Victorville, CA with our friends Brian and his fiance Shea as well as my college friend Sam and his wife Alicia.  We’ll be there for the beer, food, and good ‘ole bluegrass music and banjo championships.  I expect to get some good vittles there and hopefully taste some good brews.

On the technical side of things, I just upgraded the NextGen Gallery here to v1.5.3 and I also finally purchased a ‘shoot & share’ video camera in the form of the purple Kodak Playsport along with a 8GB SD card.  I’ve posted a few videos up at YouTube, and I hope to not only use it this weekend at the Jubilee, but also do some grilling recipe and preparation “How-To” videos here in the future.  I also have to finish the Earthbox series that I began a few weeks back.  I already have some great jalepeno peppers and tons of cilantro that we are using.

I did have one bummer issue that happened over the weekend.  This past Saturday my Behringer 502 USB mixing board died on me.  I was actually right in the middle of recording a podcast with Brett and at about the 40 minute mark there was a slight pop in my earphones and when I looked at the screen for status I noticed a flat line on Audacity.  The board is just over a year old (March ’09)  and I purchased it through Amazon.  Of course I don’t have the box anymore, so I’m gonna try and get an RMA straight from Behringer, and looking at their support website it appears that they make you jump through hoops for repair. *Sigh*.  The good news is I picked up my Zoom recorder and was able to finish our podcast, but I’ll have to mash the two files together and do some additional editing before I get the next episode posted….maybe in another week since this weekend is already claimed.

One of my closest friends, Albert Ihle, came over this past weekend to help me replant an earthbox he gave me over this past holiday season.  The past few months, this earthbox gift supplied a bountiful and rich bounty of lush and organic lettuce leaves.  With the original four heads that were planted (along with some parsley to boot), Monica and I had tons of green leaves for both salads and sandwiches with left overs to share.  Of course, being organic not only did they taste better and we knew they couldn’t be any fresher from our pickings, but they were chock full of vitamins

However, with the seasons changing from winter into spring, it was time to replant.  Al called me up and asked me what I may be interested in trying to grow this time around, and with the weather going to warm up soon and summer in just a few months away, I opted to go with some fresh chili peppers.  Monica and I enjoy entertaining with large BBQ’s with our friends, and since we also like Mexican dishes, I opted to buy a few jalepenos plants, some anaheim chilis, and cilantro.

It was a perfect 8 am morning roll call when Al showed up this past Saturday and with Bloody Mary’s in hand, we got down to business. What you see in these pictures is a what an earthbox looks like.  Albert and his wife Lisa have been growing many of their own produce for the last three years and we’ve tasted their homemade sweet marinara sauce, had numerous grilled veggies, and of course their own salads.  Click on the links yourself if you want to learn more about this way of planting and growing your own sustainable foods in your garden.

Earthbox example

What’s nice about this episode is that it is a great example of using the portable Zoom H2 recorder out in the field.  I recored approx. 50 minutes of straight audio which I got o edit down for your plreasure, all while learning about earthboxes and plenty of gardening and growing tips.  I also shot some video as well using a Kodak Playsport flash cam at the same time and I’m in the process of editing those for a future posting as well.  So not only can you enjoy this very educational podcast, with a few shots of vodka mixed in by yours truly, you’ll also eventually see some video clips as well.

Bloody Mary’s featured in this episode were made with Snug Harbor mix, winner of the ‘outstanding beverage’ award at the 1998 International Fancy Food Show.  What makes this Bloody Mary mix unique is it’s inclusion and blend of both clam juice and Chesapeake Bay Seasoning.  If you aren’t making a cocktail, try using it as a cooking sauce, maybe even a booster in Mexcian Ceviche.  You can find this online or unique liquor and gifts stores like Home Goods.  The bootles are 25oz in size and retail for approx $8.

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It’s been a long time coming, but I spent a lot of the day yesterday editing this podcast episode into something I really wanted it to be.  It took a bit longer than expected to put this together as I was looking for the perfect music (thanks Limewire) for the introduction to set the mood and a great tie in to an overall theme. 

I also kind pushed myself here at a technical level in editing.  First, I used my portable Zoom H2 in the field for the first time.  It worked pretty well, although I did misplace the manual, so I had a few hiccups at first.  I have to work on the microphone gain.  For my initial recording I had set it to medium, and although we were sitting only a few feet from it with no other background noise, the recording seemed somewhat fainter than I expected, so I boosted it in Audacity.  It also took longer than I expected to transfer the raw MP3 from the Zoom to my PC.  This Podcast has a total of 3 mono tracks and 2 stereo tracks that I spliced together, remixed into a single track (to help save on bandwidth and space), faded out some entrance music and for the first time added an end trailer, and I’m pretty happy with the result seeing this is the most complex editing I’ve done thus far.

I also used Limewire for the first time, trying to find the perfect lead in bumper.  I had a specific song in mind, and I actually own a clean copy of the song somewhere but couldn’t find the CD, so I opted to download from the wild-wild-web.  The thing is, you never know exactly what you are going to get in quality or length, and sometime the descriptions don’t always match what you’re looking for so there is a few trial by fire attempts to get the right track.  Anyway, in this case, I chose “Grim Grinning Ghosts“, better known as the overall soundtrack for Disney’s Haunted Mansion.  It appears in a few various incarnations and pressed a few times in some rare LP’s and CD’s many of which are now out of print.  To me it was worth it.  For those that really like the Haunted Mansion, here’s an interesting and detailed site about the ride, it’s history, the story behind it, and its look throughout the various theme parks: DoomBuggies.com.

Also appearing in this episode is yet another libation.  The website is called ‘Cocktail Confessions’ for a reason, and so it keeping that dream alive I bring you Jack’s Pumpkin Spice Ale from Michelob.  It’s a seasonal beer (fall) that clocks in at 5.5% alcohol with hints of cloves, nutmeg and allspice.  As I explain in the podcast, this years batch didn’t taste all that ‘pumpkiny’ to me, and I might suggest you try Buffalo Bills Pumpkin Ale or even Blue Moon’s, Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale.  Both of these have a richer pumpkin and spice taste, and there are plenty of others.  If you know of any good ones you’d like to suggest, please drop me a line.

The meat and potatoes of this podcast however is the interview I recorded with my grandfather Harold.  He recently just turned 91 years old, and I kinda wanted to get some time with him before it was too late.  We’re all lucky he is still around after surviving being a tail gunner in a B-17 during WWII, having had open heart surgery, a pacemaker installed and a few other medical issues.  He’s still going strong…at least mentally.  He’s 100% Italian, being born here but his parents were immigrants.  I initially wanted the recording to be about his days being a master carpenter and working on the early builds of the Tiki Room, some of the facades on Main Street, and other contributions he made at the park, but after 40 minutes of great stories, I realized I wasn’t recording properly.  So instead of having him rehash everything all over, we just segued into his early days growing up in Wakefield, Michigan then eventually moving out to Anaheim, CA.  The actual recording was almost an hour long, and for this podcast I decided to break it up into a smaller segment I’m calling part 1, which is approx. 20 minutes long.

Finally my garage door died a loud and expensive death last week.  We had to buy a new one, and thus opted for the Heritage 3000, triple layer door: steel + insulation + steel.  It looks very nice, much quieter than the old one, and will hopefully help in reducing both our cooling and heating costs in the long run.  The really funny thing to me is how my neighbors have reacted.  To me, it’s just a garage door.  It’s white, it opens, it closes and does what any other garage door was designed for.  However, many of the men on my street have taken a very keen interest in its look, its operation, and overall functionality.  A real ‘Tim the Tool Guy Taylor’ moment where they all had to check it out and kick the tires per-se.  I personally found it very amusing that the men were all into it as much as they were.  In the end, it’s still a garage door.

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This episode/entry was fun to do for a few reasons: we (that is Brian Liles and I), had already had a few pitchers of Sam Adams Summer Ale under our belts that we enjoyed over at a beautiful day at Cook’s Corner in Trabuco Canyon, CA.  Then as we proceeded to records this, we had a surprise visit from Chip Gahagan of Smogtown who popped on by for a few minutes, and lastly we discuss a little bit of G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie as well. Listening back to make show notes was a little embarrassing as I caught myself being tongue tied and repeating myself multiple times.

Cook's Corner

So to start with Brian of Brians4x4adventures.com, or friend Scott W and myself headed out to Cook’s Corner (Wikipedia entry) for a little Sunday afternoon beer bonding.  The short synopsis of the place is as such: Built by Andrew Jackson Cook around 1884, the original building was meant to supply local miners as a mercantile and a few years later a place to eat as well.  It survived the prohibition era and was converted into a bar.  In 1970 a motorcycle accessory shop owner from Santa Ana bought the property and publicized it as a place for motorcycle clubs to enjoy.  It has changed hands once again a few years back and actively participates in the promotion of several charity motorcycle rides.  It’s now considered a historic landmark and is enjoyed by numerous social clubs and O.C residents.

It’s a great place to spend the afternoon, especially the weekends where one can typical witness 200+ motorcycles parked out front.  They have a very large outdoor patio area that has seen many improvements the last few years including new picnic tables, umbrellas, outside bars (three portable at last count), and a place for local merchants to sell various motorcycle accessories.  They have a small kitchen that turns out various burgers, tacos, and finger foods along with a inside band stage and the occasional outside band as well.  I’ve been coming here for at least 7 years now, and it really never gets old.  I have yet to run into a bad situation with a ‘biker’ and quite the contrary all the ones I have met or spoken to have been pretty personable for the most part.

Music for this episode

I’ve listened quite a few bands there over the years, and while I’m not a huge fan of classic rock they have the occasional bluegrass or jazz band out there and it always sounds good under the Southern California weather and sun with a couple of pitchers of beer and friends.

In this podcast episode Brian discusses his recent FJ Crusier trip across Canada and into Alaska that he took part in with his friend Luke from Radrod57.com.  Head over to Brian’s site for some gorgeous high quality pictures he took and read some of his continuing exploits.  You can ever read more over at Luke’s page as well.  Makes me wanna cash everything in, grab an RV, and do a roadtrip across America myself and hit up some hidden bbq joints, some town festivals and make some new acquaintences in local camp grounds.

Baroness

Finally we discuss G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra movie (hence the ‘criminals’ in my title).  For those of you who grew up on the property that made it famous back in the 80′s, you may be slightly disapointed in some of the character origin reboots in this 2009 feature film.  Being a comic book purist in my own right, and being a huge fan of Larry Hama’s creativity for the Hasbro line and the yarns he spun for Marvel, I have a few problems with the treatment that gave Cobra Commander, Zartan and the Baroness.  Also the Ripcord/Scarlett love angle and the CC/Baroness sibling reveal really bothered me.  But if you can put those issues aside ,(and the accelerator suits) then this was a pretty darn good matinee action-comic movie.  Good fight scenes, neat technology, grand in scope….but clearly sets up and demands a sequel.  I mean it is called ‘The Rise of Cobra’ after all, and we just get a taste of things to come towards the last 15 minutes of this movie.

The one that did surprise me however was the Joe’s dropping the “Shit” bomb as gratuitous as they did.  There were a couple of things in the movie that may have made the old cartoon watchers smile, like “Knowing is half the battle.” and the of course the reference to the “Kung Fu grip”.

Show Notes

• Bumper Music: “My ’98 Old’s” – Public Enemy, Yo-Bum Rush the Show (1987)
• 00:35 – Introductions
• 01:10 – Discuss Cook’s Corner memories and atmosphere.
• 07:55 – Brian talks about recent trip with Luke across Canada, including camping, camera’s, and food.
• 29:59 – Brian gives us an update on his incredible wieght loss thus far.
• 33:30 – We talk G.I. Joe the movie (lore vs current re-imagining), Transformers, comics

Cook’s Corner

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The following enhancements and/or general changes were made over the last few days to the site as I continue to learn and make minor adjustments.

• Link added: Chris Richardson is the developer of the Map Press plugin and was very kind to help me out directly and very quickly when I sent him an email regarding some technical issues I was having in getting maps to display when ‘published’.  Added a link to his plug-in site in the Blogroll section entitled Map Press.  Go check him out if you have WordPress.
• Plugin update: Map Press v1.5.8.8 was updated 7/23/09.
• Plugin update: Sociable v3.4.3 was updated 7/23/09.
• Plugin update: Askimet v2.2.6 anti-spam was updated 7/21/09.
• Plugin update: Power Press v0.9.2 was updated 7/23/09.  However, I noticed when I did the upgrade some (not all) of my settings were lost.  I need to go back and ‘re-validate’ two of the feed settings so when I eventually try and post these to Zune or iTunes, these services will recognize new podcasts when posted.  Speaking of Zune and iTunes, I’m going to try and get at least one of these (probably Zune first) submitted over the weekend.  Crossing my fingers.
• Zoom H2 portable mic: Was supposed to be delivered today, however, most recent tracking update has now extended the window upwards of 7/29, which sucks, because its apparently at the FedEx facility in Aliso Viejo as of 6:30am this morning which is 10 miles from my house.
• Plugin deleted: Deleted visitor IP mapper running in background (my eyes only).  It didn’t seem to be capturing ‘all’ the data and therefor not doing it’s job correctly or accurately and thus just taking up space at this point.  No big loss.
• Plugin added: Added Next Gen gallery plugin that allows for slideshows and picture gallery enhancments.

Eh…I’m in a lazy mood today.  Very lazy.  Don’t want to work lazy.

I’m sure part of it is the heat outside, some of it is that my body is sore and totally out of shape this past week, and some of it is that work can just be plain demoralizing at times.

I stare at the clock today, counting down the hours until I make my 30 minute commute home, just to do a few more chores, eat a particularly boring dinner and go to bed again.  Rince and repeat.  Rinse and repeat.

I have another post brewing in my head now, something I have to devote more energy to than this one, but I’m just putting it off. Out of laziness.

That being said, a couple of things in the works right now for Cocktail Confessions:

• I purchased a portable Zoom H2 mic today from an Amazon reseller at a very discounted price along with an additional $25 off from a reward certificate I had.  I should get in no later than Thursday and I look forward to doing recording sessions in the field with people who can’t make it to my house for whatever reason.
• Spent yesterday morning doing some editing on an upcoming podcast (Episode #4 for those that are keeping track) with Audacity.  I just so wish they had a better online manual/tutorial section, but it’s freeware, so what do you expect?  Episode 4 will be on The Orbit Inn and Living Desert zoo in Palm Springs, CA.
• I’m very excited to announce I have recorded my first guest episode yesterday with my friend Brian Liles from Brians 4X4 Adventures (How do you like that for a plug Brian?).  I think the raw audio session turned out nice using just one microphone, and it clocked in around 52-53 minutes.  I was thinking about breaking it up into two shorter episodes, but the more I think about it, the more I think I may just as well keep it intact as one podcast.  Just needs some editing, addition of some bumper music, and get my links in order for that blog entry prior to posting.  I think it went really well and smooth and should be a treat for those that like to hear about off roading adventures.  Brian talks about his recent escapade to the Grand Canyon in this one and it’s a good one to listen too if you’re planning your own off road trip out there anytime soon.
  

  Smogtown

• Chip Beef, bassist for punk underground band Smogtown has tentatively agreed to sit down in the coming weeks and be interviewed as well.  I’m looking forward to that for the sheer fact I know nothing about the punk movement in So. Cal., and Chip was entrenched it.  We’ll for sure have some good beers and stories with that one.  Expect Chip to be uncensored as he lets the stories fly.
• Expect a Big Brother 11, week 2 recap podcast later this week.  I’m just waiting for Tuesday’s episode to air and probably record and post sometime this Wed., July 22nd.

Zoom H2

It seems the biggest issue I’m having right now in producing podcast content on a regular basis for this site is the availabilty and scheduling of my guests.

Everyone I have approached thus far in wanting to sit down and open up with me to spin a few memorable yarns all seem very open, even somewhat excited to do so (and the promise of free drinks seems to whet their appetite even more), but when it comes to actually getting someone to come over at any given time to my in home studio, its like getting a Mexican to become a documented U.S. citizen…..just can’t get it to happen.

So in looking into alternatives such as phone interviews on Skype, (which if any of you have ever heard Skype calls on Adam Corolla’s podcast, will recognize there are some quality issues that plague the service) I’m now looking into various portable digital recorders.

And I’m not talking about the cheap little deals that executives purchase from Staples or Sky Mall, but some decent professional ones that are intended to aid in the recording of more than one voice or musical instruments.  While there are various digital recorders that will fit this bill, it seems in my research that Zoom recording devices are the default standard.

As of this writing there appear to be two current models, the H2 and superior (and more expensive fancy gadget), the H4n.

For my purposes and that of my podcasts that rely on place ‘ole voice recording, the base H2 looks like the way to go.  But who knew that a simple little device like this could have a list price of $330+?!?   Thank goodness most internet sites are offering this much lower in price, thus making the average cost closer to around $150.  Still a bit pricey in my opinion, but for my purposes and intent what are you gonna do?

Some of the features include a USB 2.0 interface, the ability to record in WAV (96kHz/48kHz/44.1kHz at 16 or 24 bit), MP3 (upwards of 320kbps), and VBR data formats, comes with a 512MB SD memory card (upgradable to 16GB), wind filter, led display, one touch recording, uses 2 AA batteries, and weighs in at only 4 oz.  There are plenty of other features as well, but the ones listed are the main ones for podcasters.

This would give me the ability to take a recorder with me and conduct sessions anywhere, anytime, and totally more dynamic which would make people feel more natural and at ease instead of sitting up in my quasi-studio.  I’ll have to keep my eye on this and may just purchase one soon anyway to get this gig rolling.

Anyone out there have any other suggestions, ideas, or their own experiences with the Zoom H2?