MeanMrMustard's Musings

Stalled

It kind of figures that the minute I stumble across a television show I'm willing to take time out to watch, it gets cancelled.

Farewell, Drive. Klund can rest easy.

Labels: television

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 8:16 PM |

I have discovered ...

... the goodness that is "Drive". Fox, Monday nights. Tim Minear, Joss Whedon's co-producer on "Firefly" and right-hand man on "Angel", is doing a pretty impressive job of keeping me entertained. Having Nathan Fillion around, plus occasional glimpses of Amy Acker and Richard Brooks, boosts the nostalgia factor. But without that, it'd still be butt-kicking fun.

If you've missed it so far, catch up online at your convenience. You almost certainly don't want to try to jump in without at least watching the first two hours, though I'd recommend all four -- things move fairly fast.

Labels: television

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 9:14 PM |

Gone But Not Forgotten

Courtesy the Los Angeles Public Library, a moment of nostalgia for my brother, Kirk and Kassia, and anyone else interested.



For more heartbreak (or possibly heartburn), go here.

One restaurant unmentioned on those pages: Bruno's, on Centinela. Looked like an Italian church (or very small cathedral) inside, with an arched central nave flanked by raised aisles -- lots of marble and sculpture. Apparently closed around 2000 and converted, appropriately enough, into a church.

Unless my Google skills are fading, there's a dearth of pictures of either Bruno's or Kelbo's online. A shame -- I'd really love to see a good photographic record of the lucite kitsch wall in the West L.A. Kelbo's, which was described lovingly (if inadequately) here:

The building looked wild. It was surrounded by tikis and tropical foliage. It had murals that dated back to the late 50s depicting native chiefs and topless maidens. Men were running toward the trees carrying naked women on their shoulders, while creatures seeming to be half ape, half man, chucked coconuts at one another. Could a mere dining experience truly live up to the kind of idyllic primitivism that these murals seemed to promise? We had to see. Inside Kelbo’s was more excessive still. The ceiling was festooned with puffer fish converted into lamps. Each had a different colored light inside, and emitted a soft eerie glow. The place was very dark, and as our eyes adjusted to the darkness it seemed that every square foot of space was filled with some garish trinket or display. On a bamboo platform behind the cashier there laid a mannequin in a diving suit stabbed in the chest with a knife. There was an entire wall made of lucite, and embedded in it where hundreds of doodads from 1963, the year the wall was made. It contained an irrational assortment of items, none of which seemed to bear any relation to the others: Barbie dolls, lipstick, guns, children’s toys, even two fried eggs. How any of this related to the theme of the restaurant I couldn’t figure then and still can’t. But it was stunning, and mind-boggling, and in a lurid pop art sort of way, beautiful.

The best (only, really) picture of the wall I could find online is here. It almost completely fails to capture the magic of it.

Labels: nostalgia

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 4:05 PM |

Gorgeous

Spring has made it to the Cities, finally. We've had a beautiful weekend, and for me, that means getting on the bike. Yesterday I made two neighborhood rides, once to Office Max for a printer cartridge and once to Kowalski's for some artichoke hearts. Today, while Kristi took Emma for her swim lesson, I did a 12-mile loop around western Saint Paul -- started out reversing the route of the Saint Paul Classic 30-mile loop, then ... well, here's a map, including the detour to Minnehaha and Snelling to find out that the Minnehaha library branch is closed on Sundays. About 12 miles without getting out of the saddle, which in April is enough to wear me down. But it felt good -- the knee is solid. And 12 miles is just a little shy of the 13-mile ride to work, so I'm thinking that I'll be in solid commuting shape well before Emma goes into a summer program that stretches to late afternoon and I actually have time to do the commute.

Oh, yeah. And taxes. The less said, the better. We owe less this year than last, but that's largely because of donating Kristi's old Mazda last year; I doubt we'll be doing that again soon.

Labels: bicycling, weather

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 3:10 PM |

Sketch-Up

Google's Sketch-Up is a blast. I've had it for a while and never done much with it. But we're preparing to cut open one of our newly-remodeled walls upstairs to add built-in media storage under where we'll hang the TV, and it's great to visualize. I ended up doing a lot more than necessary, because it's so much fun I didn't want to stop. Still no furniture, but I'm sure I'll get around to it soon.

Sketch-Up (including the location of studs in the TV wall):


For comparison, from December:

Labels: computing, home

posted by MeanMrMustard @ 10:36 AM |