My So Called Life

WELCOME…to Night Vale

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Okay, this post is LONG overdue!

A while back I mentioned my love of the podcast Welcome To Night Vale. Well, way back at the beginning of May (Baconfest weekend, actually!), we went to see the Welcome To Night Vale live show!

I was very worried the tickets would sell out, so I waited online and bought them the minute they went on sale. I was a bit overzealous; I’m not sure if they ultimately sold out or not, but there were still tickets months later. Oh well. 🙂

The show was amazing. There were plenty of guest stars, of course. Mara Wilson was there; you may know her as the kid in Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, or Matilda. But it is more or less a Cecil Baldwin one man show, and he KILLED IT, basically orating for 2 straight hours. All of the fan energy and costumes were great as well. Man I love that show.

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The very best part of the show was when they asked us to look around and make eye contact with a stranger. Naturally, we all giggled and uncomfortably stared at our feet. A bit later in the show, they admonished us for not making eye contact with a stranger as instructed, and once again told us to do so.

The lady in the row in front of me and a couple of seats down started to look around, so I thought, “Okay, it’s on!” and locked eyes with her. I mean, I’m generally down for whatever, so if she was game, I was game. At least I *thought* she was game, because when Cecil told us to point at the person we were making eye contact with, I think I scared her very badly. 🙂

However, after that, we had a blast. I think both of us were never quite sure if the other one was still going to play along, so every time they would give new instructions to us “partners”, she would kind of glance back really quick to see if I was still doing it. Naturally I was, so we continued on, giving each other exaggerated winks, raising our fists to the sky (or the floor, or kind of both, since we weren’t exactly coordinating), and ultimately saving Cecil from a killer.

So, thank you stranger in the row in front of me, for (kind of) taking the chance and (accidentally) looking at me. Totally made my night.

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So, in addition to my brother and his wife, I took Sara. Sara is not a fan, but I thought, “Surely this amazing, highly regarded show will win her over with its awesomeness!” However, as soon as I saw the sheer number of people dressed in Night Vale costumes, I knew I had made a terrible mistake. This is not the sort of thing Sara would typically attend.

Afterwards I asked her, “So, did you enjoy the show?” and she said, “Well…I think I smiled a few times.” So Night Vale, feel free to use that quote on your promotional posters and whatnot.

Anyway, I think the tour is already over so…I highly recommend you go see it in the past! You may even have smiled a few times.

Mixed Tapes

/ Shane / Leave a comment

The other day, I found a set of 6 or 7 “mixed CDs” that I made back in college and I started listening to them. It is AMAZING!

I remember making the CDs and listening to them a lot, but I have no recollection of what songs are on them. I have no idea what song is going to come up next. But as each song comes on I do a fistpump and go, “AHHHHH THIS IS THE BEST SONG!”

Its a weird experience, both knowing and not knowing about these CDs. Not remembering what’s on them is like a stranger gave me a mixed tape, and that stranger has somehow PERFECTLY aligned with my taste in music. I feel like Past-Shane really knows me, you know? He really gets me.

There is something about a good mixed tape / CD that just drops you into that era. Listening to these CDs is like going on an archeological dig through my subconscious. You could learn a lot about  me (or at least year-2000-ish me) by listening to these.

Current-me really appreciates the way that past-me transitioned from the Flecktones to No Doubt with the perfect Space Ghost quote. And what a delightfully unexpected appearance of One Night in Bangkok!

What was I like in 2000? What did I listen to? Dave Matthews? Check. Songs that were “current” at the time, like Lenny Kravitz’s American Woman, Everlast, and Santana’s Supernatural? Check. Songs from the Big Lebowski soundtrack? Check, check, and check.

I’m not sure kids today, with their iPods and their rap music, can appreciate the beauty of a mixtape. I know there are playlists and whatnot, but the problem is their storage is essentially unlimited. In this case, the limitation of the tape or CD medium is actually an advantage: if you can only fit 14 songs, the selection of those 14 songs is key. What you choose, how you arrange them, tells a lot about you. The thought put into shows through. Given these 7 CDs, you could rebuild my personality (…as it existed in 2001. Hint: it had a goatee.)

When I’m famous, these CDs should go in the Smithsonian.

Last will and testament.

Baconfest 2015, Taste Test

/ Shane / 2 Comments

I was pretty excited about the spread of this year’s bacon. I drove in to the meatpacking district, and grabbed two from Publican Quality Meats, grabbed a curry bacon from the deli at Whole Foods, and then had two of the “fancier” store-bought bacons. I thought we had a pretty good spread, however, after tasting them all they were (surprisingly!) all somewhat similar. So I didn’t feel like we really covered the “range” of bacon after all.

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Although the curry bacon was a bit odd (though not nearly as odd as you might expect!), the strangest bacon was the “Pub” bacon from Publican Meats. Talk about a slab of bacon! It was about 1/2 an inch thick (it’s the second bacon in the picture above). Everyone was a little nervous to try it, but it was much better than expected. Still, we all agreed it was more “ham” than “bacon” and it didn’t do very well in the taste test. However, the next day we chopped some into a charred brussels sprouts carbonara, and it was absolutely perfect.

You know, it seems like we always get these fancy butcher shop bacons, and they always lose to some regular old store-bacon. I don’t know if it’s because the butcher-bacons tend to highlight the meat flavor, and thus downplay the seasoning, or if the fault is mine: maybe my tastes run more towards the bacon I grew up with, so bacons that taste more like that are subconsciously more appealing to me.

Anyway, on to the results:

Nathan:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  8  Very crispy, good flavor – solid everyday bacon
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  5  Thick! ery very good ham. Pretty good bacon.
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  7  Crispy with good flavor. The “pepper” or spice flavor overpowered the meat flavor
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  7  Flat. A lot of meat per slice. Nothing outstanding but nothing negative either
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon  5  A little tough. Unusual after taste. Extra smokey. Tastes less “piggy” more “beefy”.

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Amanda:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  9  Crispy – good flavor w/pepper thing + melt-in-your-mouthy
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  3  This is ham. Not as bad as I thought.
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  5  Salty + chewy. Meh flavor.
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  4  “Smokey” flavor has taste potential. Good flavor.
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon  7  Super thick (yet not ham). Salty + not ver smokey

Sara:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  8!  Good everyday bacon – I really liked it.
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  4  This is like eating the fat of ham. Non-gristly fat, but still fat. Somewhat aromatic flavor. Would not choose for anything but novelty.
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  6  Hammy flavor. Okay.
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  7  Flat. More melt in your mouth. Tastes a little burnt even though it isn’t. A little sweet aftertaste.
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon  3  Very sweet. Don’t really care for it. Texture also unappealing.

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Shane:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  6  Melts in your mouth, very salty. Nice appearance – wrinkly, not too flat, looked “real”
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  4  Obviously this is the weird one. V. unusual appearance, more like pork belly, but good. Fatty, but not too fatty. Surprisingly bacony. Not for just eating bacon, though.
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  7  Similar in appearance to #1. Very good flavor, a good solid bacon, if nothing too special. Barely edged out #1, not quite as salty, not as “melty”
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  5  Flat, crisp, maybe overdone. Meh.
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon  5  Tough, flavor is…unusual. Dont’ know if I’d want more than that half piece, but it was interesting.

Evie:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  9  not sweet, spicey!
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  1  not going to try it again
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  4  soft and chewy
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  5  opposite of 3.
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon  2  crunchy!

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Ollie:

Brand Rating (1-10) Comments
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered

 ⇅
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon

⇆
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked

⇅
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon

⇅
 Whole Foods Curry Bacon

⇅

Overall Results:

Brand Average Rating
 Wellshire – dry rubbed, peppered  8.0
 Publican Meats – Pub Bacon  3.4
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  5.8
 Publican Meats – Slab Bacon  5.6
 Nature’s Rancher – hickory smoked  4.4

Baconfest 2015

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Baconfest 5 logo

Well, another baconfest has come and gone.

I can’t believe we’ve been doing this for 5 years already. It seems like just the other day we started doing this. Can I just say that I’m *so* not tired of this yet? Best. Tradition. Ever.

Like all good traditions, some parts have fallen by the wayside (e.g. The Watching of the Kevin Bacon Movie), and other traditions have sprung up (e.g. The Waking of Guests With the Talking Bacon — seriously, this is the part the kids look forward to the most!)

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It is, however, a mega-ton of work. From planning the menu, to running around buying the bacon for the taste test, to cooking everything for days beforehand, to the smell of bacon leaking into every nook and cranny of your house, your clothes, your very nostrils…yeah, I was a little stressed out.

This year was particularly bad. Not only did the kids have their big ballet performance during baconfest on Saturday, but we also went to see Welcome to Nightvale on Friday night (post to come; I’m a little behind!). Add in the ballet dress rehearsal / costume fitting on Thursday, swim class, etc. and it was just a little much for the week.

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Because of all that, the menu was a little light this year. Most of the meals had to be quick ones, so we didn’t overdo it on the bacon this year. I think this might have been the first year that I didn’t feel like I ate a whole pig by the end of the day, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

On the flipside, my heart hardly had to struggle to pump blood through my bacon-clogged arteries, which means it didn’t get any exercise this year and is probably going to grow weak.

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For breakfast this year, we basically just had scones. They didn’t even have bacon in them! But we had the taste test as part of breakfast, so that was bacon enough.

For lunch, we had a Bacon Chopped Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette (see above), and it was just about perfect. Really hit the spot. We also had a Spaghetti Squash with Bacon, Spinach and Goat Cheese (see below), and followed that up with Oatmeal Cookies with Molasses & Bacon Fat. The cookies were actually really, really amazing, though not particularly bacon tasting (which actually was okay with me).

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Finally, for dinner we needed something simple, since we were coming from ballet, so we just had two dips, with veggies and crackers. The first, the Bacon Cheddar Ale Cheese Spread, pretty much stole the show for the weekend, but the Bacon, Scallion and Caramelized Onion Dip wasn’t bad either. And then more cookies, natch.

Finally, we ended on a game of Agricola, the most bacony of games, which — what’s that? Oh, I won? Oh, oh, I see. I believe that’s 3 in a row for me, which is an unprecedented win streak for anyone not named Sara. I’m like the Sara of Agricola.

2015_05_09_1785Stay tuned for more baconfest posts this week. Here on the Halbach channel, it’s all bacon, all the time.