Ike's Place

When John Montagu the 4th Earl of Sandwich had his servants bring him a slab of meat squeezed between slices of bread to quickly satiate his hunger during marathon gambling sessions, he must have realized what he was onto.  Such a simple concept, yet it took until the mid 18th century for someone to figure it out.  But boy am I glad he did.

I love me a good sandwich.  It's something so simple, and yet difficult to master.  Any schmo can layer cold cuts between a couple of Wonder Bread slices, but that doesn't make it a good sandwich.  My uncles contend that my grandmother made the best sandwiches.  Using the exact same ingredients, could I not make an equally great sandwich?  The answer is no. I've had my grandmother's sandwiches.

What is it then?  Is it the meat to bread to cheese to condiment ratio?  That is of course part of it.  And then there is the quality of the ingredients themselves.  A sourdough roll is great, but if its too hard it'll cut the roof of your mouth and all the guts of the sandwich will squirt out the sides.  What's the best mustard; spicy brown, honey Dijon, or plain ol' French's yellow?  Which meat and cheese combinations are the best?  Lettuce or sprouts?  What is king of the meats:  turkey, salami, ham, bologna, olive loaf, head cheese?  The options are endless.

Whatever the secret to a great sandwich the folks at Ike's Place--namely Ike Shehadeh--have got it figured out.  There are several Ike's Place locations in the Bay Area and my family and I ate at one of the newest ones in Santa Rosa.  A couple buddies of mine, one of them a sandwich connoisseur such as myself, recommended it.  And now I have to kill him because the sandwiches are so good I may eat them too often and will soon sport an unsightly spare tire.  Or a slightly larger, more unsightly spare tire.

Ike's Place menu's vary by location, adapting themselves to the local culture.  For instance a sandwich featuring pastrami, bacon, and Swiss is called a Say Hey in San Francisco, but a Charles Schultz in Santa Rosa.  This particular sandwich--on a freshly made dutch crunch roll--was my first at Ike's and it blew my mind.

Like the stupendous dutch crunch roll I had--and have had several time hence---all of Ike's bread choices are freshly baked, with their super secret and delicious dirty sauce baked right in!  You can get bread without the baked in sauce, but why would you?  I have no idea what the dirty sauce is, or why its called dirty sauce, but I frankly don't care.  It's awesome.

Among others, I've also had the Jaymee Sirewich, named for Comcast Sports Network reporter Jaymee Sire.  Consisting of fried chicken, pepper jack cheese, Ike's yellow BBQ sauce, and ranch, its as spunky and sweet as Jaymee Sire herself!  I'm speculating there.  I have no idea if Jaymee Sire is spunky or sweet, but I figure the odds must be pretty good if she is the namesake of a sandwich this amazing.

I've also had the Jon Lum.  I have no idea who John Lum is--and am apparently too lazy to google him--but if he's got a ribeye and cheddar sandwich with onion rings named in his honor he must be one incredible individual.

Needless to say, I have yet to be disappointed by Ike's.  To me, they've lept to the top of the heap when it comes to chain restaurant sandwich making.  In this blogger's book the order goes like this:  Ike's, Togo's, Quizno's, and Subway and their lettucewiches a very, very, very distant fourth.

If you're in the Bay Area, chances are you can find an Ike's near by.  If you don't love whatever you get, I guarantee to reimburse you.
(Guarantee will not be honored)

Foyle's War

I've never been a huge fan of the murder mystery genre of television shows.  It seems they are either skewed to the elderly demographic (Murder She Wrote, Matlock, Agatha Christy for example) or so self-consciously quirky and quippy that they become blindingly irritating and absurd (Bones for example).  Also, the way they hold back information that the hero suddenly reveals at the end when he/she solves the mystery and the endless red herrings set up to distract us make me feel manipulated and cheated.  To a degree, this isn't entirely their fault, as it wouldn't be much of a mystery if the culprit was obvious from the get-go.  However, that element and the fact that once they do catch the perp he or she immediately feels compelled to confess everything is utter contrivance.  Apparently these ne'er do wells did not do well in civics class and are not aware of something called the 5th Amendment.  I guess that makes sense.  They're ne're do wells.  But, for these reason I've never really been able to get into this particular type of show.

However, I have found an exception, and while it does fall into some of those same traps, which, again are at least partially unavoidable given the genre, it manages to do so in a more accptable way.  The show is Foyle's War, a British series aired on PBS that my wife and I started watching thanks to the magic of Netflix Watch Instantly.

Foyle's War stars Michael Kitchen as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle--or as he always introduces himself, "My name is Foyle.  I'm a police officer."  It's 1940's war-time England and Foyle, too old for the draft and too valuable to the war-depleted police service to be transferred into some civilian war-time capacity, he man's the home front solving murders, sabotage, and the like.  He is assisted by his young female driver, the spunky and easger Samantha (Sam) Stewart of the MTCs and a serious wounded veteran of the botched British campaign in Norway, Sergeant Milner, who at times struggles with life back on the home front.

What makes the show unique is the backdrop of the war.  As a period piece it feels authentic and gives you an idea of what life was like on the British home front.  The war overshadowed everything, even murder investigations and more then once Foyle, though a supporter of the war effort and parent of an RAF flyer, finds himself at odds with some aspect of that very effort.  Whether it's arresting someone who may be a valuable war time official, or releasing a person of interest in a crime because it would benefit the cause, Foyle is faced with tough decisions.  He's a man of principal and takes his job very seriously, but he is not without compassion and humanity and is not adverse to being pragmatic. Kitchen plays the character superbly.  His quiet and unassuming manner belie an unflappable determination and most underestimate him at first meeting.  He can be cheeky and brilliantly British; understated and deadpan.  And like all good television gumshoes, he always gets his man.  At least so far, I've only watched the first three episodes.

The episodes are long, almost feature length at around an hour and a half, which allows plenty of time for the stories to develope and give the characters some depth.  It's not hip or clever and is a bit Masterpiece Theater-ish, but as a well acted whodunit with an interesting and original backdrop it works and is worth checking out.

The Big Year

If you had approached me yesterday and merely suggested that one of the most entertaining movies I would watch so far this year would star Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson as rival bird watchers, I would've punched you in the face for even proffering such a ridiculous scenario.  However, I would then have to pick you up, dust you off, and apologize because that ludicrous sounding suggestion just happens to be the truth.

The Big Year, directed by David Frankel, is the story of three bird enthusiasts, all in pursuit of a big year.  A big year is a competition amongst fans of the avian to spot as many species as you can in one calendar year in a particular geographic area.  If Wikipedia is to be trusted the real life record for the United States (excluding Hawaii) is 745 species, held by a Sandy Komito.  Our fictitious birding trio is played by the aforementioned Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson.

Owen Wilson is the brash and cocky record holder Kenny Bostick.  Kenny, a building contractor, is gunning--or binnocularing--for his second big year.  Staying true to his contractor's scruples, he will do darn near anything to get it, including leaving his expecting to soon be expecting wife mostly on her own to get the house ready for the baby for the year.

Steve Martin is successful CEO Stu Preissler, who has done most of his birding from high atop the New York skyrise that bears his name on the facade.  After one false start on retirement already, Stu is finally ready to get out of the office and give a big year a try but is incessantly pestered by his former staff to come back to the boardroom.

And then there is Jack Black.  Though, it's a lesser Jack Black than we're used to.  Or, maybe understated is a better word.  He's still Jack Black, just....quieter.  In a good way.  He plays the semi-loser Brad Harris.  Stuck in a job he doesn't like, divorced, and still living with his parents, Brad sees the big year as a chance to do something with his life.  His father, grumpily played by Brian Dennehy, thinks its all a big waste of time.

And so the three set out, seperately, to spot or hear as many fowl as possible.  Their paths inevitably cross and the competition intensifies as each suspects the other of doing a big year.  Apparently you try to keep that hush hush so as not to tip off other birders and further stoke the competitive fires of your rivals.

It's mostly a light hearted movie, though there are some moments of pathos when each of our protagonists weighs the costs of pursuing their passion.  Whether its Kenny disappointing his wife and putting his marriage on the line, or Stu's wrestling with letting go of the corporate life and the company he built from nothing, or Brad dealing with a disapproving father who doesn't understand his son's passion and has no real desire to do so.  All three are met with difficult choices along the way and must ask themselves what they are willing to sacrifice for what really amounts to just a hobby.  But as we all know, first hand or other wise, hobbies often become passions and those passions become dreams and dreams are what help to make our lives interesting and worth living.

But it's not all hard choices and pathos.  It's mostly funny.  It's not necessarily lolemutpot funny (for the uninformed that's laughing-out-loud-every-minute-until-the-point-of-tears), but there are several audible laughter moments and an overall vibe of fun.  Ok, I'm about to channel the elderly for a second, so bear with me, but so many comedies these days rely on over the top stunts and fart jokes for cheap laughs, that it was refreshing to watch a comedy that didn't have to go there.  That should tell you just how restrained Jack Black, one of the best physical comics out there, actually was.  I counted only one prat fall.  And it was funny.  Ok, I feel the Spirit of the Elderly leaving my body.  Wait...WHY CAN'T I GET TO THE INTERWEB ON MY CORDLESS PHONE DAGNABIT!  Ok, now it's gone.

Lastly, since our characters travel back and forth across this great nation in search of their birds we get to check out some pretty great parts of America's natural beauty.  Some lesser known, like Attu Island and the Ruby Mountains.  Some pretty cool bird footage too, though actually I wish there had been a little more.  It might have helped us non-birders appreciate what the big deal is a little better.

It's not a perfect movie, and dances dangerously close to sappy on a couple of occasions, but it was surprisingly enjoyable.  You know, because its about bird watching.  Which is probably why its already all but been forgotten about, and that's for the birds.

Contagion

I will never touch a doorknob, each peanuts out of a communal bowl, or shake hands with a Chinese chef ever again.  Thanks a lot Contagion!

Steven Soderbergh's medical thriller Contagion is a tautly spun tail of epidemic and panic, made all the more frightening by its realism that makes you think, "Wow, this could really happen!"  That realism--along with an exceptional ensemble cast and a creepy, ominous soundtrack--is that separates this movie from all other "disaster" flicks.  We all know the world isn't going to really end in 2012 and regardless of what you think about global warming you gotta admit an overnight northern hemispheric blizzard where you literally have to outrun temperature is pretty unlikely, not to mention California joining Hawaii as an island state (for the record, I love a bad disaster movie; always so full of wonderful cheese and you usually get to see a beloved landmark crushed/swallowed up/melted/toppled/imploded).

To be sure the scenario in Contagion is unlikely, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility, especially in light of the SARS, bird flu, H1N1, and swine flu scares over the last few years.

The story starts with a cough.  Seemingly innocent enough, but before long the cougher is overtaken with fever and seizures.  Similar symptoms soon appear in other corners of the world.  Medical officials the world over are stumped by this new virus and there is no known treatment.  As the CDC and it's counterparts around the world scramble to find the origin and research to develop a vaccine, the disease continues to spread rapidly, aided by the virtual closeness of our globalized world.  As the virus spreads, so does fear and becomes as, if not more dangerous, than the virus itself.  Rioters storm grocery stores and pharmacies, stocking up on canned goods and bottled water.  People live in fear of handshakes and the mere breath of neighbors.  Purported by a popular conspiracy theorist blogger to be a cure, a supposed homeopathic remedy becomes a valuable commodity with roving mobs willing to threaten and kill to get it.  Health officials are kidnapped and held hostage, their captors hoping they will be moved to the front of the line when a vaccine is finally discovered.  Meanwhile, the body count continues to rise.

Rather than follow one main character's thread through this nightmare, Soderbergh takes an ensemble approach, looking at the epidemic from different points a view.  The actors are all top notch and give good performances.  Matt Damon and Gwyneth Paltrow are a husband and wife, one who is immune, one who is most certainly not; Lawernce Fishburne is the public face of the CDC both trying to help find a cure and trying to keep the public from going into full scale panic; Kate Winslet is a CDC researcher who is out in the field trying to track down the origin's putting herself in peril; Marion Cotillard is a WHO doctor working in Asia trying to track down the source; Jude Law is the conspiracy theory blogger, bent on exposing the government secrets he's sure are being covered up.  The cast is rounded out by Elliott Gould, Jennifer Ehle, John Hawkes, and Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston.

The movie moves along at a good clip, not lingering on one character or story line too long, always keeping things fresh and interesting.  You witness the breakdown of society from every angle and watch the characters wrestle with difficult decisions:  should a government official tell his loved ones privledged information that would give them an advantage over the general populace?  If a cure is found, how can it be fairly distributed?  What's the balance between national health and national security?

Despite the obviously upsetting premise, the movie ends on a pretty positive note, though even that is still bittersweet.

Contagion is a solid movie all the way around, being both entertaining and intellectually stimulating.  Just be sure you wash your hands afterward.

Lake Almanor

I have a good reason for the extended gap between reviews this time.  Honest.  I've been lounging on the beautiful, alpine shores of Lake Almanor for the last week.  What's that you say?  You aren't familiar with this Lake Almanor?  Well let me enlighten you (what a a fortuitous opportunity to share my first Place review).

To be honest, I'm a little hesitant to enlighten you too much.  I feel like Lake Almanor is something of a well-kept secret.  I'm afraid after my massive audience reads this review it'll become another Lake Tahoe.  But I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take.

Lake Almanor is located in Plumas County in Northern California, according to Google Maps 81.6 miles east of Red Bluff and just south of Mt. Lassen.  Resting at about 4500 feet and nestled between the Plumas and Lassen National Forests, the setting is every bit as beautiful as Tahoe, but without the crowds and traffic. The lake itself isn't quite Tahoe's crystal blue, but it's a whole lot warmer and doesn't stop your heart when you jump in for a swim like Tahoe's frigid waters.  This is helpful for when you fall off your boat or jet ski, which there is plenty of space to do, with its 32000 acres of surface area and 52 miles of shoreline.  I've been going to Lake Almanor for over 20 years and there is still plenty of lake I've never seen, either from on the water or the shore.

The fishing is usually good, either in the lake itself or many of the streams in the area such as Hamilton Branch or Deer Creek.  This year was a little slow, with most of our catches consisting of smallish bass near the shore, but my cousin did land a pike which was probably seven or eight pounds.  Since we didn't have a scale handy, we couldn't get an official weight so my family record setting seven pound King Salmon in 1989 still stands!

Like I said, my family and I have been going to Lake Almanor since the mid-80's, and it's just about the perfect spot for a big family group.  We used to rent a house from a family acquaintance, but with all the kids getting bigger and having kids of their own, we outgrew those accommodations.  However, there are plenty of places to stay on or very near the lake.  Anything from rustic tent camping to RVing it to fancy lakeside resorts.  Ok, I don't know how fancy they really are--this isn't Tahoe after all--but there are some very nice places.  The last couple trips we've stayed at the Carson Chalets, which offer very comfortable and clean triangular domiciles just a brief walk from the private beach.

If just sitting in or boating on the lake isn't all you would like to do, there are lots of other outdoorsy activities close at hand.  Mt Lassen and its National Park is nearby, with plenty of hiking trails, waterfalls, and Bumpass Hell, a festering, bubbling canyon full of sulfur pots.  Pretty stinky, but worth checking out.  Here's an overly dramatic video describing the area:

Ok, thanks for that.

If you're up for a bit of a drive through the mountains--though on surprisingly straight roads--Burney Falls State Park is about an hour and a half away.  It's a beautiful drive and the destination is absolutely worth it.  Burney Falls are (or is it "is"?) one of the coolest looking falls anywhere and the hike to the base takes all of about 10 minutes, so you get maximum reward for very little effort.  Here's a video of the falls...just mute the audio.  Very annoying music.

The nearest town of any size, which really isn't, is the hamlet of Chester.  You'll find your standard grocery store and a couple of sporting goods stores there to stock up on supplies.  There are a couple of decent eateries, like the Kopper Kettle for breakfast (I recommend the biscuits and gravy) and either the Pine Shack or the Lassen Gifts soda fountain for milkshakes.  The Pine Shack has over 30 flavors!

But if you're more interested in sticking close to your campsite/cabin/chalet at the lake, you certainly will not be disappointed.  Lake Almanor is Lake Tahoe without the crowds, heart palpitations, and gambling.  Right, so if you like gambling go to Tahoe.  If not go to Almanor.  Wait!  No, don't.  Bah...too late.  Now it'll be overrun with Critical Errors fans.  Just when you see me soaking up some sun while fishing for The Big One, don't all rush up for your autograph at once.

The Intellectual Devotional: American History Edition

I'm something of a trivia junkie.  I DVR Jeopardy every day.  I've even taken the contestant test a few times (still waiting for my call).  I'm the All-Star cleanup hitter in the annual New Year's Eve Trivial Pursuit my wife and I play with friends every year.  Give me a movie, and I can tell you who's in it.  Give me a song, I can tell you who sang it.  Give me a war, a book, a country, I can tell you who fought it, who wrote it, and what the capital city is.  Most of this information, I have no idea how I know it.  It just floated through space one day and my specially tuned magnetic brain plucked it out of the air.  None of this information is very useful, however, except in trivia games.  I was hardly a brainiac in school, and straight As were never on my report card.

The one subject I did always do well in however, was history.  Maybe that's because with all its names, facts and dates to memorize it fit naturally into my intellectual wheelhouse.  Whatever the case, I've always loved it.  That's also probably why I love the book my family gave me for Father's Day, The Intellectual Devotional:  American History.  It combines my love history with my love of factoids into one concise volume, perfect for a quick glance while drinking your morning coffee or for a longer look while retiring to the lavatory to consider more personal matters.

The Intellectual Devotional series of readers--there are five editions--are modeled after their spiritual counterparts, but instead of a passage of scripture and a brief ecclesiastical thought for the day, they devote a page every day of the year to one fact and an explanation of it.  In the case of the edition I received, American History.

The book covers topics in seven "fields of knowledge":  politics and leadership, war and peace, rights and reform, business, building America, literature, and the arts.  Within each topic, which are spread throughout the book, are the subjects of the one page synopses on everything from Jamestown to Mark Twain to the Smithsonian to the Panic of 1853 to Bob Dylan.  There are of course the well known people and things you'd expect to find, like George Washington and the Civil War, but also things you probably were supposed to learn in school but forgot about, like Brown v. the board of education and the Lend-Lease Act, to things you probably never heard about like Jacob Riis and the Utopians.

Now, it's a pretty good trick to be able to boil something as complex as the Civil War down to a one page capsule, but the authors David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheimer do a pretty good job of hitting the high marks for each topic.  This obviously is not intended to be an exhaustive look at each of these aspects of American history, but it serves as a good jumping off point for further study on something maybe you weren't aware of.

Whether you're an aspiring Jeopardy contestant like me or want to brush up on your knowledge of the USA (or are looking for something to read in the bathroom) this is a book you should checkout.  I know I'll be purchasing the other editions at some point in preparation for next year's Jeopardy test.

The Adjustment Bureau

Men without hats.

The Adjustment Bureau is a fine little movie if you find yourself at home on a Tuesday night and all the other HBO On Demand selections are things you've already seen or look even more tedious.  Such was the situation for the wife and I this last Tuesday.  There isn't anything particularly egregiously bad about The Adjustment Bureau, but neither is there anything worth writing home or on your blog about.  Unless you're desperate for content...

George Nolfi directs Matt Damon as David Norris, rogue blue-collar congressman from the Bronx with a bright future, but also a penchant for forgetting he's a public figure and doing really stupid things.  So, not unlike a real life congressman.  Thus far his tomfollery has not cost him politically, but that's about to change.  During his race for the Senate seat, word gets out of some frat boy stunt and Norris finds himself in hot water.  One things leads to another, and the next thing he knows he's in a hotel men's room kissing a ballerina who is on the lam from hotel security.  Which as it turns out, is not nearly as tawdry as it sounds.

Norris is mesmerized by the security-dodging ballerina Elsie Sellas, played by Emily Blunt, and the two attempt to strike up a romance.  I say attempt  because a shadowy group of men in hats are determined to keep them apart.  Yes, you read that right.

The hatted gentleman are members of the--you guessed it--Adjustment Bureau.  Employed by someone called The Chairman, it's their job to keep things going according to plan and to make, ahem, adjustments when things start to go off course.  Who or what they are and who exactly The Chairman is is hinted at, and sorta kinda nebulous, but they are equipped with a few special skills to accomplish their task.  Like the hats, for instance.  And some really spiffy notebooks.  However, they are not all powerful and have rules they must follow as well.

The bulk of the movie is Norris' quest to discover why the Adjustment Bureau has it in for him and why he and Elsie aren't supposed to be together.

The movie is based on Philip K. Dick story The Adjustment Team.  I've never read any Philip K. Dick, but the movies I've seen based on his works (Minority Report and Blade Runner) deal a lot with free will and if  it really exists or not, and this one has themes along those same lines.  It's sorta Matrix-y in that way.

The performances are fine.  Damon and Blunt are fine as the leads, and though I found Blunt's character to be a little annoying and not someone I would want to spend a lot of time with, Damon's attraction to her was believable enough.  The Adjustment Bureau squad members include Anthony Mackie, Terrance Stamp, and Mad Men's John Slattery, who apparently can only take roles where he wears finely tailored suits.  In their roles, all three are just...fine.

Fine.  That about sums it all up.  It's a fine caper-ish mix of sci-fi and thriller, with a dash of romance.  The ending left me a little flat, leaving some lose ends to the imagination, but not in a really satisfying way.  But, it's a fine little movie, especially if you're a fan of millinery, as I am, and find yourself with nothing better to do on a Tuesday night.