Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Different.

I am not an opera fan, but I do occasionally catch the ovation network while doing something else. I managed to see this clip not once, but twice the other day 12-odd hours apart. Frankly, I find Russell Oberlin's vocals haunting. The first time I watched this I thought WTF? But subsequent viewings spun me right round. And yes. America's foremost countertenor without employing the falsetto technique. This from a 1962 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. 'I know a bank where the wild thyme grows'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbgpIDzQEU

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Bailout?

I was doing some doddling about the nets the last day or so, looking at my favorite '58-'60 Detroit iron, basically to remind myself of the car(s) I could have had if I had decided to go all-Amish at the lodge. This reminded me that aside from my occasional fixation with the Sky and new Challenger, the only reason I'd ever buy a brand new car was if I hit the Powerball. Even then, I'd have to really, really like the thing. The newness would likely wear-off pretty fast anyway so it's a non-issue. 

This realization dovetailed into a discussion, and later, online forum about the big 3's woes. Taking three corporate jets to beg for money wasn't a smart PR move, but if we're talking about wasting cash, the damn things were likely burning an equal amount of green sitting there on standby. Still, bonehead stupid. Anyway....the thing is, non-car people, the ones buying the new machines every few years, should really be paying attention here. If you think GM and Chrysler just build and sell cars and employ lots of folks then you're not seeing the big picture. Forget about auto-specific details for a moment and consider the conveniences and advancements that trickle down the chain to everyday life. It's like saying Ma Bell was just a phone carrier and ignoring the fact their R&D launched satellites, developed the transistor and brought us microwave communication. 

Having a job that occasionally reminds me the lengths these manufacturers must go to to qualify a simple part really drives these facts home. If these things weren't qualified and developed for mass use by the big guys you and I would likely not be able to afford the technology. Advancements in plastics, improved lighting (not just on cars), communication equipment, lightweight metals, and things as innocuous as glass and rubber. I'm not saying the slack wouldn't be taken up by the other automakers, I'm just saying there's a lot more for the average joe to consider than domestic vehicles.

Here's the other fly in the ointment. The guys that bleed the red, white and blue and who should really be up in arms about this stuff are the ones watching from the sidelines and not on the field. Why? Because these guys are more interested in what Detroit USE TO MAKE. They want chrome and V8's and big station wagons with glass packs, the kind of stuff that's hardly PC and, despite what these guys occasionally claim, would kill the big 3 faster than they're doing to themselves Why? Because even if such "retro" stuff were offered, the same guy crowing about how GM is blowing it by not offering a retro-finned car is always going to want the real thing. And he'll typically make up his mind about the time the new car hits the showroom. Such a buy might also question blowing 35 grand on a new car with old-skool style when they can get a low miles original for 20k. No matter how hard the manufacturers try, big blocks, rim blow horns and chrome bumpers will never be made again. Whether it be safety, cost, or what have you. 

Back to the thread, the question was, What Domestic Cars are you Going to Miss the Most?
Excellent question, btw. Answers included the new stuff that actually has passion and identity, like the Corvette, Mustang, CTS, Solstice, and Jeep. But by far it was stuff that hasn't been made in 30 years. Ask a gearhead this question 30 years ago and they'd likely throw out an answer another 30 years back. Let's face it. The guys with gasoline in their veins aren't hot and bothered by new cars from anyone, anywhere. If something catches their fancy, like the new Camaro, they're not first-in-line with cash in hand.

I enjoyed this response:

Since I don't personally care for Japanese cars, can't afford German cars, don't really want Korean cars, and Swedish cars are just weird - it probably means that I won't be buying any more new cars ever and my yard will start to look like a street in Cuba. Hell my whole town will look like Cuba. Without the health care.

Someone else turned the tables and hypothetically posed the question what if Toyota were shuttering their doors, what cars of theirs would you miss? Ummm. Well......

Politics and back stabbing aside, it's a helluvadeal. It's easy to point fingers and ask how such companies can make big gas-guzzling SUVs and then ask for a handout, and the answer is simple. Americans wanted them and were willing to pay for them, until gas got pricey. Is this really your best question? For Chrissakes. Pre-Iacocca Chrysler screwed the pooch by building cars the public didn't want and didn't order. Post-Iacocca Chrysler screws the pooch by giving the public what it wants and continuing to deliver on orders. Sounds like there might be more to this. Hmmm?

The real question to these guys should be what have you been doing in parallel development this whole time? Dual-mode hybrids are a good start, but let's be serious. One thing's for sure, everybody's got an opinion. 

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Real Gusto!

I reported earlier this summer that original recipe Schlitz had debuted in Minnesota (and Milwaukee), now rollout #2 has begun...in the CF/W'loo area! A national rollout may be in the cards, but for now, they're eyeing markets where Schiltz was the number 1 brew back in the day. How I missed this event is anyone's guess. Read further for an article from the Courier.
Milwaukee's old school 
By JOHN MOLSEED, Courier Staff Writer
WATERLOO --- The newest beer in the Cedar Valley has an old name. Schlitz returned Wednesday with classic rock fanfare, a caravan of vintage cars and gussied up "gusto girls."

United Beverage Inc., delivered the first cases of the old-school brew to the Pump Haus Pub and Grill, 311 Main St., in Cedar Falls, AMVETS Post 19, 32 Lafayette St., Steamboat Garden, 1740 Falls Ave., Smitty's Bar, 709 Jefferson St., and the Screaming Eagle Bar and Grill, 228 E. Fourth St., Wednesday. Dozens of people packed the downtown Waterloo bar to sample the new-old beer.

Once the best-selling beer in the country, today Schlitz has faded into obscurity. The Woodridge, Ill.-based Pabst Brewing Co. is reviving the beer with its original 1960s-era formula and brown, glass bottle.

Those who remember the taste said brewers got it right.

"The first sip I drank of it, brought back a ton of memories," said Stan Poe. When Schlitz dominated the domestic beer market, Poe, who ran Standard Distributing, supplied it to area bars. He was at the Screaming Eagle Wednesday night for a celebration on the return of the retro beverage.

"If you're out of Schlitz," Arlan Schellhorn said.

"You're out of beer," Poe finished.

Schellhorn worked for Standard Distributing and works for United Beverage which will distribute Schlitz.

Schellhorn and Poe said Schlitz was the number one selling beer in Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

"It was normal to see a bar lined with Schlitz bottles," Poe said.

Checker and the Bluetones played classic rock music. Clad in red dresses, "Gusto girls" --- named for another Schlitz slogan, "go for the gusto" --- offered patrons a chance to win Schlitz merchandise via a friendly game of bar dice.

Raldo Schnieder, of Cedar Falls, had front a row seat to see the band at the Screaming Eagle. He said he came from a family of beer drinkers.

"About all we drank was Schlitz," he said.

He remembered working to bale hay and having a Schlitz when the job was finished.

"It just washed all that dust right down your throat," he said.

Dennis Kohls said the Schlitz brought back memories.

"It was about all I drank back then," he said.

A member of the Black Hawk County Street Machines, Kohls brought his 1963 Chevrolet Chevy II to the party to add some retro flavor to the event.

Waterloo is one of a handful of Midwestern markets where Schlitz is making a return.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul and Milwaukee markets were first last year. Many Milwaukee locations ran out of Schlitz shortly after its reintroduction, Kyle Wortham, marketing director for the Schlitz brewing company said.

This spring, Schlitz was reintroduced to Chicago locations and is now in Waterloo grocery stores. The company is vetting markets where Schlitz historically sold well, Wortham said.

"We're not looking for a national rollout yet, but that is on the radar," Wortham said.

Returning to the 1960s-era formula means the beer has more body and flavor, he added. In marketing it, Wortham said he's letting history do most of the work.

"We wanted to give the beer back to the guys who made it number one back in the day," he said.

"It's not like they're reinventing the wheel," Poe said.

The retro appeal may also attract younger beer drinkers. Pabst enjoyed a boost in Pabst Blue Ribbon sales when that beer became an underground hit with young urban and college drinkers.

"They're thinking the old-school beers are the cool thing," said Ivan Wieland, Screaming Eagle owner. "I hope it goes like crazy."

Half-Assing It

The week went something like this:
 
In the office Monday, getting things done. Follow that up with 3 (long) consecutive days of training and some very poor weather. Turn it all around with a half day Friday chock full o' productivity on the business side. Step outside and "enjoy" the cold, gray rain at lunchtime. I let things blow over since all my intended work was to be outside. How to pass the time? I flitted with the idea of cleaning up and heading to the Rod, but was afraid I'd lose the entire afternoon. How about a quick flick then….Kevin Bacon in Footloose? Excellent.
 
Ventured out after the rain subsided. Ended up performing surgery on the OSB sheathing under the rear windows behind the housewrap. Why? This is the wall that took a swim shortly after construction. Regular siding over these areas wouldn't have required attention but I needed my aggregate panel install to be perfectly flat. Well, flat as possible anyway. And managed to install three of said panels before darkness fell.
 
Friday night? Saturday morning was kind enough to remind me of the PL fun. In a very rare move, Cam and I closed the place down. But, work to do and all that. Grubbed out the brush where the PoCo and I agreed to put the 25kVA transformer. Trimmed and installed the remaining 3 rear panels (involved process, actually). Towed the Brougham to a spot that wasn't directly over where the primary electrical feed will run. And planed, ripped, routered and notched the 16' east beltline board as darkness fell. Then hitched up the picker and brought it to the parents for Sunday. Saturday night's movie? Blue Hawaii. Yes, I'm serious.
 
Sunday..no lodge work! I bet you didn't see that coming. First was a run to the parts store, then the real fun began. And I'm not talking about the guy behind the counter asking me, in all seriousness, if I had the 15-bolt pan or the 16-bolt pan. Sorry pal, I haven't been wallowing on my back under the truck yet. Ended up buying both kits then. Bottom line- transmission filter and fluid change, oil filter and change, air up the tires in the truck and picker, whole lotta oil-dri and broom time. And, the famous Merry Christmas sign raising. I recall at least one year where this operation was a piece of cake. Of course, that was before the re-shingling and removal of pulleys. And to my surprise, Cara had never seen the sign first hand. One would've thought the picker would make quick work of raising that thing, or at least help to hold it off the shakes, but oh-no.  It was late afternoon before we had that thing squared away. Only a couple minor injuries, both to the shingles and a couple folks involved. Too dark to dive into Cara's glow-plug harness fault then. The temps had really dropped by this time so we finished up our laundry and had pizza with the parents before heading back to the apt.
 
Okay, so all of this is the superficial stuff. Lately, the indecision continues. One of the projects slated for next summer is a shelter east of the lodge. As with the lodge, this is yet another opportunity to sharpen my design skills. OK, more than that, design AND engineering skills, because this thing also has a heavy emphasis on rapid assembly and low-cost. My initial design from months ago really fit the bill, unfortunately, a triangle is a very poor form to maximize usable square footage. You end up with sides exceeding common length lumber (now you need butt-joints and have to consider deliver and costs skyrocket once you exceed "common" lengths) to get decent interior space. A keystone shape may be considered. But there are other issues here. I'm eager to put some googie flair into this thing, but that presents more problems because a) the style and materials of the shelter need to harmonize with the lodge next door. B) Googie costs bucks. C) Googie and free-form should be reserved for the drive-in. C+1) The Drive-in needs to be labor, time and cash-concious as well and I already have a design on the table for it. C+2) Scuttle the current design and allocate googie-required funds?
 
On the drive-in front, I had planned earlier this summer to kick-off construction on it this next spring. I pulled the parcel out of ag production so it wouldn't be planted with corn this year (leaving inevitable stalk and stubble to fight next season). There are even preliminary flags placed for support piers. BUT, I'm thinking the drive-in should get its due. If it means pushing the thing out 12 months for a much better design and more cash to throw at it, perhaps it should wait. Funds are now tied up with the inflated costs of bringing power back there. The current design meets the critera set forth, but it's lacking…..something.
 
And that's interesting to think about, too. What's the difference between a hamburger stand and a steakhouse? Pretty much everything aside from charging money for prepared food. Besides a parking lot, a building able to seat patrons (booths, tables, décor), hiring wait-staff, a full-fledged kitchen, menus, restrooms, etc.  What's the difference between a small drive-in and a large drive-in? A screen but bigger. A projector but bigger. A parcel of land but bigger. The minimum requirements are pretty much the same whether the DI is large or small (still need a ticket-taker and booth, a concession stand with offerings, restrooms, yard lighting and pole-top lights, fencing, etc.) It doesn't cost twice as much to build a concession stand twice as large. Nor does it cost 200% to build a screen twice as big. At some point you break out of this comparison (I'm not talking about hanging a bed sheet from a clothesline here, or my 16mm projectors). Both screens require guy wires and a minimum number of poles. Labor to dig holes and erect the the bracing, and so forth. So, at what point do the lines intersect and you know what to build? And what about intangibles? How is your experience affected if I built a DI with a) a cool ticket booth that no one ever mans, b) a hokey ticket booth the run-down DI's have now, or c) no booth at all (and throw the $$ at something else). What if that "something else" were a greater variety of films. Then what's your answer? These are the things I need to continue to weigh. Low cost. Easy to build. Maximum Impact. Semi-permanent.

Monday, November 10, 2008

'Check's in the Mail

Well, it's official. To borrow a word from work that I loathe, the "electrification" project is ON. Now for the permits, the easement agreements, getting the crop out, and so forth. Ideally, the process should be transparent (especially for this costly sum) but if you don't take an active roll in it you'll end up with a transformer cabinet where you want to put your shuffleboard court. Or something like that. So, a meeting to walk the fences with the PoCo is slated for tonight. I'm not going to hold my breath on this one; there's always a catch.
 
Cold weekend, by the way. In fact this past week was a long gray smear punctuated with flurries and icy winds. Now that I've been doing this a couple years it's getting more and more apparent how my perception of workload lags the seasonal change. Getting even the simplest stuff done is a daunting challenge when it's 23F outside. That said, I'm looking forward to shifting to interior work here in December. If the electrical service does pull through, having both light and heat should really have a psychological impact for the better. Next season, should time and funds allow, should be an explosion of "details". When the big stuff is no longer being drug behind you by a rope, it's easier to spring forth.
 

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Obligations

Wrote a pretty length blog entry the other day while doing some reminiscing since it will have been 36 months this November that I cut the check for the land and kicked off the lodge project. But, the thing got pretty wordy so I decided to scuttle it. 

Not a bad weekend so far. Cold, rainy, damp, and dark far too early. But, progress nonetheless. Spent the day in the bucket working on the rear exterior. More tomorrow as well, I'm afraid. Since it's been getting dark practically after work all week I've really gotta make the most of this time. Last night I said the hell with it. It was cold and blustery and I had already met up with the utilities after a long day, so I stayed in and fired up the Betamax. Lit things off with an unopened copy of Australia Now, featuring the top acts of the day (1983), including Angel City, Icehouse, No fixed Address and Split Enz doing songs you've never heard of! Followed it up with Hitchcock's "Suspicion" with Cary Grant. It didn't take long to realize I had caught this one on TCM a while back. Not awful, but not a personal top-10 either.

Thursday night I had the place to myself and put on Casino. FANTASTIC. 98% of the acting, the cinematography, the acting, Joe Pesci, it never gets old. Tonight was BTTF 3, one I hadn't fired up in a while. The things you can watch when you're home by 8! (after Lawrence Welk and defrosting the ice box) No, I'm serious.

Something is (finally) afoot around here. Yesterday night I noticed a new SCHLITZ neon sign in the window at the OP. "Odd", I thought. Now Cara shows me a couple pics she shot tonight at Spicoli's. One is a different interior Schlitz actual-neon sign that says Go for the Gusto. And a banner on the door proclaiming "We're Bringing Back the Gusto, ask for it Nov 10th". Very reminiscent of the northern MN handbills (in 60's style) I spotted earlier this summer where original recipe Schlitz was offered. How.....surreal.

Monday, November 3, 2008

If I could sum up the weekend: Fantastic weather coupled with fantastic lethargy!
 
Actually, Sunday really kicked us in the hindquarters. One of those gloomy but temperate days that somehow steals your soul. But let me back up for a moment. The great race started Thursday I suppose. I had been trying to finish up some lodge tasks all week that just weren't coming together before nightfall. Ended up taking off Wednesday afternoon and getting lots done. Thursday after work I discovered I had left the powertool batteries back at the apt. This was pretty infuriating so I made do till dark installing insulation, then decided this would be a good night to air up, hitch up and take the trailer over to the box stores to return some lumber that had crooked and pick up the uber-expensive aggregate panels that would not fit in the Blazer (ask how I know). I found out the C-57 bridge was closed so the detour took me to the north bridge now open after several YEARS of construction. Basically to head to Lowes I had to drive to Janesville first. Swell. Things did go better from there though and I made it to the apt a little after 9 after a slow and deliberate drive back from Waterloo trying to keep the aggregate in place. Unhitched things and collapsed!
 
I should also mention the day job has been in full swing this week, compounding the exhaustion. But how can a guy sit on his laurels knowing snow will be flying very soon? So, I had been looking forward to blowing off a little steam Friday night. I ended up with a fix for my two soffit planes not wanting to meet perpendicularly and worked with that after work till dusk then a swing by the parents and some cleanup at the apartment. I forgot to mention I've still been dealing with the utilities' shenanigans which is cause for much gray hair as well; should know more today.
 
Anyway, met up with Cam and Ben at the PL with a visit from Cara and her friend. Saw some pretty good costumes. Some pretty bad costumes too. Me? No one could tell if I was in costume or not! My dracula-like incisors gets 'em everytime! No pool antics, unremarkable swill and a penchant for early Macintosh discussion with Ben inevitably lead us to any place that could serve up some pineapple pizza. Lucklily, the OP's kitchen was still open. I had brought along my rotary cell phone which came in handy for calling a couple local eateries (and bewildering fellow patrons). Pretty sure Cam had had a rough day as well so he left Ben and I to our own devices; we ventured to the hill. Full house! (yes, Bob Sagget). Actually, the crowd was packed in the front of the OP leaving open tables at the rear. And I do mean packed. Ben and I were the last two allowed in per capacity rating. After realizing service might be a little…slow, I hatched a plan. Mojo's walk-up-window for slices of sausage pizza and further discussion at a not-so-packed Library. This begs the question..at what point will they get something decent on tap?
 
Saturday, a day full of shopping: Construction clothes, mattresses, eons sorting through 1-by lumber. Replacing the two Dewalt batteries that have served me so well, to the tune of a C-note and change.
 
Then Sunday, time for brass tacks. Cara spent the bulk of the afternoon staining the west upper side of the lodge with the picker. I was working on the red beltline on the side door overhang and later pulled out the masonry blade to cut up the first aggregate panel. Neither of us were making much progress and really would have preferred to be any other place but there, but knowing darkness would fall at 5PM once the week started and having such great temps to work in, we made due. After giving a tour to the grandparents shortly before sundown we all headed in for pizza (with pineapple!) and I finally saw a chance to pull out the SE/30. It sprang to life without any tweaking and reminded me just how "crisp" using the Mac once was. This was system 7.5.5 of all things, not even 6.0.8. I found the original Cosmic Osmo disks upstairs and successfully loaded them along with HyperCard and Cara and I entertained ourselves until sleep called.