# Instruments and Equipment > Videos, Pictures & Sound Files >  Post a pic.of  "where you at man ?"

## Ivan Kelsall

I often think that it's nice to know where people 'are' when they go about their daily lives. It gives me a 'sort of' connectivity with them. In spite of the fact that i'll never meet most of them,i get a feel for _'where they are'_  relative to me,which brings an added depth to any I'net contact.
    This is where i spend a lot of time practicing & of course,adding my _'words of wisdom'_ for all to absorb  :Laughing: .
    My PC was custom built about 5 years ago by a friend of mine - so it's pretty ancient as thing go. It has Microsoft 'Comfort Curve' keyboard with a 22" Samsung flat screen monitor. The speakers are Altec Lansing MX-5020's that have a 12 watt RMS continuous power handling capability,more than enough to deafen you, but good quality sound from a small speaker. So,that's where i'm at right now,
                                                                                           Ivan :Mandosmiley:

----------


## frankenstein

I'll play.. Sunset at the end of my street.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

SWAP !!!!!,
               Ivan :Grin:

----------


## frankenstein

My dog likes it here.

----------


## Bertram Henze

My place in the office - last day before holidays  :Smile:

----------


## frankenstein

and i like it too! crowded isn't it ?

----------


## roscoestring

Playing with friends at a ceremony last night.

----------


## Shelagh Moore

This is a minute or so's walk from my office. A nice place for playing at lunchtime when the weather's good (not so often then!).

----------


## Bertram Henze

> This is a minute or so's walk from my office. A nice place for playing at lunchtime when the weather's good (not so often then!).


...and maybe for playing curling at lunchtime in winter?
(Sigh)  :Sleepy: 

I can see this thread is being turned into a torture for envious office dwellers...

----------


## NickAlberty

Me at the office. I take care of bad feet. I usually pick during the noon hour at my desk. It's a nice change from looking at dirty feet!

----------


## fatt-dad

Here's where I play my mandolin and also where I cook chicken, ribs, and fish (well now that it's summer).



f-d

----------


## woodwizard

I do a lot of picken on that deck for sure!

----------


## sunburst

Just over there on the right, behind the ridge.

----------


## journeybear

This is the view out my back door, and then back toward my place. 

At least it was until this spring, when my neighbor went nuts stealing gravel from the road project (installing storm sewers) and bricks stolen somewhere else, and started turning the garden into a patio.

----------


## Ted Eschliman

Enjoying the weather...

----------


## Plectrosaurus

Looking out my front window!

----------


## Starrshine

The sunset I play to every night from my deck
Bob

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

So, *Ted E.*'s a _storm chase_r in his other life !!! - I sure hope he got the h**l out of there in super fast time. You'd sure need a dickens of a string winder to get one of those started,not even a TurboTune would do that !!. Are you sure you've got enough trees around you there *John* ?.
*Wooodwizard* - that's a HOTEL ! - it sure looks great,& *Bob*,you're blessed with a beautiful view also. *Richard* - to have such a sublime spot so close to where you work must be great in good weather. Many thanks indeed for the pics.guys,  
                                                                                                                                                                   Ivan

----------


## JEStanek

After seeing beautiful Virginia in John Hamlett's post, I feel inadequate to post my messy study or cube.

Jamie

----------


## Jim Rowland

John..wonderful to see the place again. It recalls memories of the years when,disguised as a coolie,I toted buckets of champagne over the ridge to the pool area and strewed myriads of rose petals on the path for your morning (11AM) arrival. I,of course, quickly redisguised myself as a well-known New Mexican artiste and greedily scavanged the stainless steel dumpster nearby for instrument wood. Good times! How is the Dude/jockey holding up?
Jim

----------


## sunburst

The Dude/jocky is holding up well, though he has a repaired broken arm now (it was a rough winter), the pool and grotto are really popular in this weather, and the dumpster is still well stocked. Stop by any time!

----------


## woodwizard

> Enjoying the weather...


Let me guess.... you're in KANSAS!  :Smile:

----------


## Tosh Marshall

Luxury!!!!  You've all got it too good and you're overpaid!

----------


## Ron McMillan

A view from the balcony of our apartment in Bangkok last week. Thunderstorms get quite spectacular here at this time of year.

br

----------


## wwwilkie

The morning routine.  Me and Stan looking out at the mainland from Vancouver Island.

----------


## Spencer

This is an old mill and associated houses, now part of the National Museum, just down the hill from my apartment.

----------


## Ron McMillan

> Let me guess.... you're in KANSAS!


I wonder if maybe he might be in a little place called Photoshop.

----------


## Bertram Henze

If it's to be a home story this is all about, there are some pics of my home in this video rendition of Contratopia's "Bighorn River Sunset" (but not being anywhere near Bighorn River of course - this is Europe's largest densely populated industrial area):

----------


## wildpikr

Pleasant video and nicely played tune.

----------


## journeybear

Very nice. I am always impressed by people's houses that are sparsely furnished yet are still welcoming, not austere, and free of clutter - my main bugaboo.

----------


## Bertram Henze

Thanks Mike and JB - and as for clutter: there are no shots of the inside of the garden shack for a reason...

----------


## Garden Music

My garden in central Florida...y'all come.

----------


## Tracy Ballinger

An evening in the midwest

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

In the redwoods...

----------


## evanreilly

My Music Room:

----------


## Eric Hanson

On Vacation in Asheville, NC
Behind the stage jammin' at "Shindig on The Green" on Saturday the 17th. 
Thanks again Evan!

Also, at The Biltmore House with my wife. Notice the great grotesque of a man playing what looks to be a lute or a mandolin. Fun stuff.

----------


## Randi Gormley

My desk at work (where I was about 30 minutes ago waiting for the lunch truck). There's a tiny picture of me and four friends with our instruments to the right (as you view the picture) of my computer terminal.

----------


## Ed Goist

> My desk at work (where I was about 30 minutes ago waiting for the lunch truck). There's a tiny picture of me and four friends with our instruments to the right (as you view the picture) of my computer terminal.


Randi; love the screen saver with the pix of the Alsatian wine!  :Smile: 

(BTW - _Your desk is way too neat!_)

----------


## evanreilly

You are most welcome Eric!
Good to find another 'cafe hat in the crowd now & again.

----------


## Chris "Bucket" Thomas

Here are two pictures.  One from "Man-Cave" & the other one from the "office".

----------


## Randi Gormley

Fast Eddie: The screen saver was a picture I took back in December for a story we wrote about New Year's Eve celebrations; it was a wine store window display with winter sunshine through the glasses and I liked it better than the generic thing I had on my computer at the time. One of these days, I'll take a picture of my mandolin (or a couple of them) and use that instead. I've just been lazy.

----------


## JGWoods

So I'm not neat.

----------


## Ed Goist

> So I'm not neat.


Is that a passport next to the fiddle? How Bohemian!

----------


## Bertram Henze

> So I'm not neat.


Any burglar will leave quickly because it's plain that somebody else was there already and the cops must be on their way by now... Cool setup!  :Cool:

----------


## Steve Cantrell

Pretty much always right here. Screaming fun.

----------


## D C Blood

Eric...that guy is obviously pickin' a b@nj0....

----------


## Bob Bronow

Working, working, working!

----------


## Steve Cantrell

That almost looks like a scene from Deadliest Catch, Bob.

----------


## Backlineman

I travel a lot, so sometimes I think I get more playing time in hotel room than I do at home.

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

When we're not in the redwoods, we're at home near beautiful Lake Merritt...

(NB, this post has _not_ been  brought to you by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce or the Oakland Tourism and Convention Bureau  :Wink:  )

----------


## Bob Bronow

> That almost looks like a scene from Deadliest Catch, Bob.


Good eye Steve! That's exactly what it is!

----------


## Steve Cantrell

I've seen that rail before. That's really neat. The Time Bandit? Has to be my favorite show, I think. I really don't even watch that much TV, but I tune in for that one. Of all the "reality" TV that is out there, that one seems to ring true for some reason. Do you do production work?

----------


## Bob Bronow

> I've seen that rail before. That's really neat. The Time Bandit? Has to be my favorite show, I think. I really don't even watch that much TV, but I tune in for that one. Of all the "reality" TV that is out there, that one seems to ring true for some reason. Do you do production work?


Glad you like the show! I'm the sound designer and re-recording mixer. Luckily I never have to be cold or seasick!

----------


## journeybear

> (NB, this post has _not_ been  brought to you by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce or the Oakland Tourism and Convention Bureau  )


Oh yes, it has!  :Laughing:  Or your pix are proof that Oakland has come a _long_ way since I was there last. OK, it's been since the late 70s ... 




> So I'm not neat.


I would say your room looks lived in. But then, mine is even _more,_ uh, lived in.  :Wink:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Here's a picture of me in my front yard this past spring and one last month at Bean Blossom.  

I like to play outside when I can. This Labor Day weekend I'll try to get a really nice one up in Door County here in Wisconsin.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

I got a real sense of 'deja vu' from your pic.*Randi*. It looked like my last workstation at British Aerospace,just before i retired,except i had a huge CADS / CATIA display instead of a standard PC - my goodness,it did take me back a few years,
                                                                                                                                                                   Ivan :Wink:

----------


## LateBloomer

Still on this side of the rainbow..... in Ohio

----------


## JEStanek

"Double Rainbow!  What does it mean?"

Jamie

----------


## mculliton123

Soooo Intense, Maaannnn!!

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

> Oh yes, it has!  Or your pix are proof that Oakland has come a _long_ way since I was there last. OK, it's been since the late 70s...


lol (I remember the 70's -- or aleast part of them  :Wink:  )

----------


## LateBloomer

[QUOTE=JEStanek;824514]"Double Rainbow!  What does it mean?"


Jamie, not sure it has special meaning, but I was one happy photographer to capture this scene.  I do live here.... well not in the field but on the same farm.

----------


## sunburst

Was anybody else at Telluride about 12 years or so ago, standing in the rain listening to Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas et al, when the double rainbow appeared in the sky, down the canyon, framing the waterfall that appears in all the Telluride promo photos? 
Alas, I didn't have my camera because I didn't want it to get wet.

----------


## JEStanek

Latebloomer, It's a reference to a viral youtube video where a guy is video taping a double rainbow in Yosemite and seems to have a more exstatic reaction than one would expect.  That "What does it mean" line is in it.  You've captured a nice one.  The way my house is positioned I get them after evening storms from the NW over my neighbors house... never a double though.  You shot a good one!

Jamie

----------


## journeybear

> Was anybody else at Telluride about 12 years or so ago ...


No, but I _was_ at the Rainbow Gathering in New Mexico in 1978, near the headwaters of the Gila River. On July 4th, it had been overcast and drizzly all day. In the evening, everybody gathered in the big meadow for dinner. The rain finally stopped and the clouds began to break up. Everybody stood in a great circle holding hands and started chanting, "Rainbow! Rainbow!" Soon the sun began to peek through and a rainbow grew from opposite horizon points until the two arcs met in the middle. Everybody kept chanting, "Rainbow! Rainbow!" and, incredibly, a second rainbow began to form the same way outside the first one - more slowly, and fainter, but surely and steadily, until it too was complete. One of the most remarkable experiences in my life. And still the only double rainbow I've seen.

----------


## djweiss

Sunburst...I saw what you just described in either 1996 or 1998...it was really amazing.

----------


## man dough nollij

I heard recently that when you see a double rainbow, the order of colors is reversed on the second one. A couple of days later I saw a huge double rainbow, and sure enough. Single rainbows go ROYGBIV, and double rainbows go ROYGBIV VIBGYOR. It was really misty on the highway, so the rainbows actually came all the way down to the fender of my truck. Wild.

Mandolin content: Didn't Roy G. Biv play a Fender?

----------


## journeybear

Yes, it's true. It's all about the angle of refraction, that is, the spatial relationship among the light source, the observer, and the refracting medium - ie, the water vapor in the air.

----------


## Paul Haley

Around the corner from Haley Towers. One of the few days that it doesn't rain in Scotland!  :Wink:

----------


## Randi Gormley

At first I thought those were sheep -- they're hay bales, aren't they? Or not ...

----------


## Ed Goist

> ...snip...
> Mandolin content: Didn't Roy G. Biv play a Fender?


Not sure. But I do know that Vib Gyor of _'Vib Gyor and the Hungarian Gypsies'_ played a sweet 1924 Gibson F4. I remember seeing him at the Idora Park Ballroom in Youngstown, Ohio back in the early 1970s. Great show!  :Grin:

----------


## Paul Haley

> At first I thought those were sheep -- they're hay bales, aren't they? Or not ...


Yes, that's what they are

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

*News Headline* - _" Cylindrical,leggless,sheep without fleeces discovered in Scotland !"_ . Randi - i love it !!!. Mind you, there are stranger things up in Scotland - Haggis for one & deep fried Mars bars for another - i love 'em both,
                                                                                                                                                  Ivan :Grin:  :Confused:  :Chicken:

----------


## journeybear

I don't know for sure, never having seen the reference before, nor having spent any time researching  this, but I don't think deep fried Mars bars are necessarily or originally a Scottish delicacy. Not saying they couldn't be popular there (remember, no research), but my understanding is such niceties often originate in Texas, often at the State Fair. It seems there are a bunch of deep frying experts there who present new deep fried goodies every year, in a fit of inventiveness and one-up-manship. This may have started long ago with corn dogs (not necessarily in Texas), and so far has included such amazing innovations as deep fried ice cream, corn-on-the-cob, candy bars, Coca-Cola, and, my favorite, butter. What could be better? But all this is not to say deep fried Mars bars aren't popular in Scotland - they may well be - nor that they didn't originate there - they may well have - I just wanted to say "deep fried butter" ...  :Grin:

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

And don't forget one of the Texas State Fair's greatest innovations, deep-fried Twinkies®

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Seems to me I found deep fried mars bars in Scotland along with haggis and black pudding. _I LOVE Scottish oatmeal!!!_ Of course, over there, it's just oatmeal ...

----------


## journeybear

Well, that can only be a good thing. I expect one would need to, ah, freshen the palate after haggis and black pudding ...  :Whistling:

----------


## Bertram Henze

You don't know haggis until you've tried it in Orkney ... mmmyyyyymmmmm

----------


## Jim Rowland

This is where I spend a lot of time..not as much as I used to.

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Well, with all due respect to our Scottish brethen ... I couldn't bring myself to sample either :Wink:

----------


## JEStanek

I have haggis once a year for Burns' Night Supper.  It's a spicy meatloaf as far as I'm concerned.  If you won't eat haggis you should avoid all manners of hot dogs and sausage!

Jamie

----------


## journeybear

Well, all right, I admit to complete ignorance, having never gotten closer to haggis than hearing jokes and reading recipes, and I suppose if it is plated and presented in such a manner that its presentation is completely dissociated from its preparation, then theoretically at least it may be acceptable, perhaps even delectable. And as Jamie points out, no one should see how hot dogs and sausage (and for that matter, bologna and (so they say) laws) are made. I have heard that there is a distinctive aroma, which may play into some negative impressions. So far I have not encountered it, nor sought it out ... just one of those things ... Maybe I just tend to make my eating decisions on the basis of taste and nutrition, rather than as a challenge or a dare. I know, sensible is the new conservative.  :Laughing:  I would like to share a recipe from a Scottish website. If you can get past the first sentence in the Method section, you should be fine.  :Grin:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

The first sentence? It got worse as it went on! :Laughing:

----------


## JEStanek

I've posted before, this is where I play the most.
Jamie

----------


## tree

Headed to a gorgeous spot in Antrim Co, Michigan for a few days . . . can't wait!

----------


## JMUSIC

Daufuskie Island, SC temp. 110 Degrees. Playing the new Epiphone with the Shadow pick guard pickup and I gotta say...it works great! Second photo is the whole band, The Portajohns, me on harp.
BTW, the guitar player, John O'Gorman, is a MONSTER player.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Quote by Mick - _"...I couldn't bring myself to sample either "_ Hey Mick - You want weird !. Have you seen the Jimmy Martin 'King of Bluegrass' DVD ?. In one part of it some folks are cooking up a stew of Squirrel,Possum & something else un-edible (at least to us 
Brits.). I'll stick to chittlins,pigs maws & such.I could never get my head around what to do with the American secret weapon - GRITS !
  I tried 'em once,couldn't get 'em to stick on my fork,movin' around all the time they were,pesky varmints !!, :Laughing:  :Chicken: 
                                                                                                                                                 Ivan

----------


## journeybear

Well, then, use a spoon, dadgummit!  :Laughing:  Grits are pretty similar to polenta, maybe a bit looser, and you know you would be paying a pretty penny for that in an Italian restaurant. And you can mix some nice sharp cheddar into them and they become - well, what else, cheese grits.  :Wink:

----------


## bratsche

Here's where I'm at, man.... along with the obligatory shot of the sunset looking down the street from my front yard.

----------


## Jack Roberts



----------


## catmandu2

Masked--in front of computer...makes me feel more anonymous.  And unmasked--behind drum kit, Friday night.

----------


## Eddie Sheehy

> Well, all right, I admit to complete ignorance, having never gotten closer to haggis than hearing jokes and reading recipes, and I suppose if it is plated and presented in such a manner that its presentation is completely dissociated from its preparation, then theoretically at least it may be acceptable, perhaps even delectable. And as Jamie points out, no one should see how hot dogs and sausage (and for that matter, bologna and (so they say) laws) are made. I have heard that there is a distinctive aroma, which may play into some negative impressions. So far I have not encountered it, nor sought it out ... just one of those things ... Maybe I just tend to make my eating decisions on the basis of taste and nutrition, rather than as a challenge or a dare. I know, sensible is the new conservative.  I would like to share a recipe from a Scottish website. If you can get past the first sentence in the Method section, you should be fine.


Why would one want to discard a perfectly-good windpipe?

----------


## dragonrAy

I don't play yet. I tool around with the instruments and see how much of the self-paced lessons and such _stick_.  I mostly work on horrible digital music in music trackers and other music apps.


Is a shot of the way I set up my side of the room when I am doing Wacom Tablet remixes or using it as a MIDI device. The desktops share the 32" HDTV, one runs Ubuntu and one XP.  I usually have my Nintendo DS out with apps running on it as well since there are some decent tools on it but the battery had died that day.  Now, since I was given a newer laptop, I have that grey one behind the MIDI keyboard usually sampling in riffs or whatever, which I then load over on the other PC into the apps as a sample to toss into a random song or whatnot. The setup works well when I am doing music discovery type stuff with friends' kids.  A few weekends back I had the laptops and misc gear out.  We had the gal's Rockband drums hooked up to one of them, acting as a digital drum set on the cheap.  It worked well, but you can guess which child got to use my headphones.  :Smile: 


Behind where I am sitting working I have a makeshift table on which I keep the mando-dobro, a borrowed Fender acoustic, and a borrowed Wahldorf Micro-Q synth module (which sounds amusing being triggered wirelessly via the Nintendo DS for the record). On the ground beside it I have a Fender electric jazz bass my brother gave me, our father's old trumpet (first instrument I learned to play that I want to relearn someday though not yet due to a neighbor in our duplex being a nice lady I don't want to torture), and misc PS2 games.  Some of the games are actually music apps you can create in, and then around 10 of the karaoke titles I enjoy.

Once I get an amp I can more easily hook the guitars up to the PC and get more samples made or feel more compelled to practice every single day.  At the moment I mostly work on the Super Mario Bros. theme on the acoustic and keyboard, since it is too loud with the AC/tv for the wife running to do too much with the mando-dobro.  I do try and work on basic mandolin (you may notice it is missing two strings until I buy another pack).  Learning how to better string these beasts I am. I need to find where I packed my music stand to fully make use of the sheet music/books I have purchased, so as to work more on that aspect of my music program.  You forget so much over the years when you drop out of band, then eventually drop out of chorus.

----------


## journeybear

> Why would one want to discard a perfectly-good windpipe?


Well, that's _one_ way to look at it!  :Laughing:  A positive, thrifty attitude.  :Wink:

----------


## journeybear

Not exactly the view from my back porch (shown that already), but nearby ...

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Journeybear-

Whenever I see your location of Key West I think of that line from Key Largo, "How far to Key West?"

I guess you're pretty much bullseye for the big blow, huh?

----------


## journeybear

You might think so, but somehow these storms kind of scoot around us, usually. We got smotched pretty badly by Wilma - same year as Katrina - and even though we didn't get a direct hit, after the eye passed the sea bottom topography created a storm surge that left 3/4 of the island under some amount of water - but that was the worst since 1960. Keeping our fingers crossed, of course, but we're hardy folks here (some say foolhardy), and tend to ride out the storms rather than evacuate. Thing is, if you leave, you can't get back in until they lift the evacuation order, even if you live here. That could be days, and a storm passes through in a matter of hours. As a result, I have a few stories ...

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Love to hear them ... maybe you could state the location of your mandolin in your place to keep it related to mandolin :Wink:

----------


## journeybear

Hmmm ... Well, it so happens that I have two 3' high chests of drawers stacked, and then stack my instruments atop them, my main axe right on top. This is for space-saving, location assignment, ease of access, safety from damage, but also safety from flooding. I am mindful that two blocks up the cross street was under three feet of water during Wilma; by some accounts it was a river. Before I moved here - whew! And now, after more than three months of construction, we have storm drains on the corner.  :Smile:

----------


## Brent Hutto

> I have haggis once a year for Burns' Night Supper.  It's a spicy meatloaf as far as I'm concerned.  If you won't eat haggis you should avoid all manners of hot dogs and sausage!
> 
> Jamie


I've smelt sausages and I've smelt haggis and they are not the same. And I've seen blood pudding for that matter. Oh, the things I have seen. The horror, the horror.

Fair enough as for the  hotdogs, though.

----------


## bratsche

We were directly in the eye of Wilma.  When we went outside during the "calm" after having the outside view blocked by our hurricane shutters, we saw that our Hong Kong orchid tree in the front yard (18 feet high, 20 feet wide) was hovering over the street at a 45 degree angle, not quite uprooted, but with its lower branches dragging on the pavement.  There was nothing we could do for it. Then after the second half of the hurricane passed over, when the winds changed to the opposite direction, we found the tree uprooted and lying _in_ the yard, at an angle 180 degrees from where it had been blown during the first half.   The power of those winds is amazing!

It was a sad loss, as the tree was gorgeous, especially while in bloom during the winter. Fortunately, however, we found not one but two tiny saplings from the same tree which had apparently grown due to freakish circumstances of twigs taking root in the ground (this tree is a sterile species, not propagated by the copious but useless seed pods it grows after the flowering season... as I learnerd much to my chagrin.)  One was a mere six inches in height, which I carefully transferred to a pot and nurtured until it was about 3 feet, when I replanted it in the site of the original tree.  The other was tightly entwined with an indigenous species ornamental plant that was up against the house, that I had to sacrifice (it was over 9 feet tall, but common and ordinary compared to the orchid tree), which I did a year later.  I dug up both plants together with their entire tangled root ball, which was about 16 inches across, cut off the ornamental plant at ground level, and planted it about 20 feet from the other orchid tree.  They both took off growing, and are now already 13 or 14 feet high, and I prune them often.  I am not a horticulturist, nor do I even have much of a green thumb.  These trees just grow like wildfire.  But they're so pretty.  I'm not going to let the new ones get as wide or topheavy as the old one, so hopefully they won't get blown over during another storm.   Pictured below is the original one.

bratsche

----------


## journeybear

I had considered leaving for Wilma, as a friend was, and had room in his car. But watching the storm track, its route was aimed straight at the evacuation shelter  :Disbelief:  and as it looked like it was going to pass far enough from us that we would just get a glancing blow, I stuck it out. The wind and rain weren't too bad, but the storm surge was something else. The next morning I walked downtown, tree saw in hand (I always help clear fallen limbs and trees from the streets), and was amazed to find three feet of water in the downtown streets. Surreal.

It wasn't Wilma, I forget which one it was (Dennis, maybe), that was such a wind event that it blew salt spray all over the place, and the leaves just dropped off the trees for a week or more afterward. Very strange to see bare trees here.

Ivan was a category 4 storm, and its route looked pretty threatening. They issued an evacuation order - they have to do these early enough to allow for an orderly procedure - and then the storm took a route further to the west and away from us. And I mean, we got nothing. There was no one downtown at night. The street performers at Mallory Square had an audience of dozens. The economic damage was staggering, and people were seriously po'd. T-shirts soon appeared with the phrase "Premature Evacuation" - instant classics.

Ah, enough for now.  :Wink:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Journeybear-

Thanx! People up here around SE Wisconsin often wonder out loud, "Why would anyone live down there with the chance of that happening?" Then, it recently occured to me, you people probably think the same thing about us ... 

We're guaranteed 5 months of miserable cold, ice & snow November thru March and everything that goes with it (cars not starting, power outages, backaches from endless shoveling, etc.).

Then of course, it's the tornado season April thru August, with maybe a 1/2 hour warning if you're lucky! 

But even worse than both of these put together ... almost no mandolins or Bluegrass!!! :Frown:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

*JB* - I did get some good advice on _'grits & how to use 'em'_ from a guy from North Carolina i met in my motel in Lexington,KY. Apart from sticking wallpaper on & slicking back your hair,he recommended adding salt & pepper to make 'em savoury or Jam ( Jelly to you folks), to make 'em sweet. I'd seen something at the Hotel (Executive Inn in Owensboro), that i thought were 'grits'.
What i got when i ordered them at a steakhouse a few days later,wasn't what i expected - my ignorance. But_ 'biscuits'_ - now there's an American National Treasure,i could get seriously addicted to those !, :Grin: 
                                                                                                          Ivan

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Ivan-

Like your biscuits with butter & honey? :Smile:  :Smile:  :Smile:

----------


## journeybear

That is one cheesy looking mandolin!  :Laughing: 

I'm so sure _no one's_ said that before ... I'm _so_ sure ...  :Grin:

----------


## JEStanek

That is the Bill Bussman (Old Wave Mandolins) Cheese mandolin, one of his whimsical but seriously good sounding instruments.  I like real grits with butter (or even better bacon grease and cracklins from the skillet instead) salt and pepper.  For those fast instant kind, I use butter and some maple syrup (I have a sweet tooth).  You should try your biscuit with Virginia ham (salt cured and smoked). Phenomenal.

Jamie

----------


## journeybear

Grits is good. Foolproof recipe - corn, water salt. How can you go wrong? Never had bad grits. Yep, just butter is fine with me, same with biscuits. (Had a roommate who was a chef, told me the secret of French cooking - butter, lots of it.  :Laughing:  ) Haven't gone the drippin's route but sounds good. As I said, cheese works too (first had them at the historic Griswold Inn in Essex CT, fabulous Sunday brunch). A lot of Southern cooking is based on making something tasty out of inexpensive ingredients, and grits qualifies.  :Popcorn:

----------


## dragonrAy

Enjoyed grits since trying them upon moving down to NC.  Some tasty things around these parts.  I had never had collard greens either, so that was a fun discovery.  Texas Pete hot sauce as well.  Never yet tried haggis though I look forward to that, whenever the wife and I visit her friend in Huddersfield I plan to look it up whenever we make the rounds.  That is, if we get to stray far from Yorkshire and check out some of the other countries of the Isles.  I have watched some shows on it, and they do say there are quality brands of it, and then there is haggis not even the locals want.  :Smile: 

We get misc things in the mail to try on a regular basis from the gal over there, and a buddy of mine in Australia.  I have enjoyed marmite, bovril, vegemite, all of the cheeses sent so far, the squash concentrate (this is highly concentrated juice you add but a bit of water to, had a few brands/flavors), HP sauce, gravies, cakes, chocolates, and misc other amusing snacks.  My wife is getting better at making _Toad in the Hole_ also which is a pretty fantastic dish, and simple to make.  It is never as high and perfect as some people expect from a Yorkshire pudding, but it tastes wonderful so I don't complain.  I have had a varied culinary experience in that I was raised in a couple of small towns in Central California and went to a hispanic-heavy elementary, where we had decent mexican food for lunch a lot, and teachers made us other dishes for fun.  Then moved to Upstate NY for several years of eating foods I never knew existed, then stopped in Wheeling, WV for a few months (dutch loaf was pretty fantastic but I did not appreciate the slice of headcheese I had).  I have been here in the Piedmont of NC since '98, with several trips to TN and VA visiting friends and family.  I think all this sampling is partly why I am such an obese gentleman.  :Wink:

----------


## bratsche

I first learned about Marmite from Brits in Spain in the '70s, but you can get it here in south FL at the larger Publix supermarkets.  I love to mix it in with the butter on my veggies, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.  Hubby just wrinkles his nose and says "Ewwww."  He won't even use a knife that has touched it.  LOL

bratsche

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

*Mick* - The best breakfasts i ever had were at the Exeutive Inn in Owensboro,back in '92. Crispy fried bacon,breakfast potatoes,scrambled egg,re-fried beans & 4 or 5 biscuits just with butter. The downside was the very sweet, elderly waitress,who seeing my partly drunk 20th cup of Coffee sitting there,asked _" is there somethin' wrong with mah coffee ? "_ & promptly topped it up again - my innards were floatin' with enough coffe to keep a bear awake all winter.
   For you MARMITE addicts out there ( i love the stuff) be aware that it's 90% salt & not much else.
It's not a good thing if you're trying to keep your salt level down for any reason.
   Haggis is a lovely food. It's made of ground up offal - heart,liver etc. & oatmeal. Boiled until it's cooked,it's beautiful on it's own with mustard or some type of sauce,or served with any veggies you want. We also have 'Black Puddings' for which the town of Bury in Lancashire,a few miles from me is famous - although they are made in other parts of the UK. You call 'em 'Blood Puddings' in the US.
   One thing i couldn't get my head round when first going to the US & it still pertains to this day - & i mean this in a very kind way - your obsession with Tomato Ketchup !. _WOW !_  - you guys must get through a whole ocean of that stuff every year.
  A true food story here. Many years ago, part of an Aircraft project my company was working on was being built in China. We sent a few engineers out to supervise the work & they stayed in a Hotel in Beijing where western food wasn't really 'on the menu'. For breakfast it was usually Cornflakes,something the Chinese were familiar with. On asking if they could have fried eggs for breakfast the next morning - sure enough,the next morning they arrived - on top of the Cornflakes,complete with milk, :Disbelief: 
                                                                                                                                                             Ivan :Grin:  :Chicken:

----------


## bratsche

> For you MARMITE addicts out there ( i love the stuff) be aware that it's 90% salt & not much else.  It's not a good thing if you're trying to keep your salt level down for any reason.


"Darn expensive salt!" is about all I have to say about that... yikes!

All this food talk for some reason reminded me of this video someone alerted me to recently:



 :Laughing: 

bratsche

----------


## journeybear

MMMmmm ... I can't decide between boiled anchovies with soybeans or soft cold tofu ...

I know what you mean about ketchup, Saska. I had a girlfriend once for whom french fries - I mean, _pommes frites_ - were merely a vehicle for eating ketchup, an excuse to eat ketchup, a ketchup delivery system.  :Wink:  And a couple of years ago I had a roommate who used ketchup as spaghetti sauce. I discovered this when one time he asked if he could borrow some of my ketchup. A little later I noticed he had used up half the bottle!  :Disbelief:  (FWIW, I've heard both pasta and ketchup were invented in China. FWIW.) He managed to _burn_ spaghetti another time, but that is another story for another time.

But the topper is the story my grandma told of a man she knew before she met and married my grandpa. She had him over for dinner, starting with her homemade chicken soup (to die for). He asked her for ketchup. Surprised but accommodating, she brought out ketchup, which he liberally poured into the soup. Next came the steak, done to a perfect medium rare, with baked potato. Ketchup over all. By this time she was aghast, but continued to play the perfect hostess. For dessert, home baked apple pie a la mode ... Yes, ketchup.  :Disbelief:  The cad was never invited back.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

I know what you mean re. the 'ketchup delivery system' JB. I'm exactly the same with a salad. All the veggies are there purely  to enable me to get as much Mayonnaise or Salad Dressing inside me without me having to eat it directly from the container. I kid myself that it's doing me good.
   I got a horrified look from a waitress at a steak house in Lexington, KY,( the same one where i had my run-in with a bowl full of grits), when i asked for French Mustard. That's mustard made with white wine vinegar & herbs & spices & it's awesome with steak. The same waitress also asked if i'd like a 32 oz steak which kinda floored me. I asked her who ate 32 oz steaks,she told 'someone who's very hungry' - nuff said !. She told me folk went in there for them all the time. I'd be ok if i starved myself for a few weeks & then gave myself a month to eat it. I also had some 'Monterey Jack' cheese sticks,deep fried in breadcrumbs - incredible !.
    Nearly lunch time here folks. I'll just wipe the saliva off my keyboard & go eat,
                                                                                                            Ivan :Grin:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

OK - Here goes !. Purely as a means of letting you guys identify me when i'm over in the US next - just so you'll know who you're buying the beer for ( :Laughing: ),here's one of the the ONLY 2 digital pics.of me. I'm usually behind the camera,as my wife Shirley specialises in 'Photgraphic amputations'. It was taken back in July by the father of the young lady,Natalie,sitting next to me.They're our friends from Berlin,Germany whom we meet up with each year in Majorca,
                                                                                                       Ivan :Cool:

----------


## journeybear

I have a 32 oz steak sitting in my fridge right now! I got it to split with my roommate, but he stayed out too long. So I did a variation of steak au poivre with mushrooms, and managed to eat about a third of it. I'll slice the rest up and use it as the basis for a stir fry.  :Popcorn: 

Have you heard about The Big Texan, a restaurant in Amarillo that offers a free 72 oz steak dinner  :Disbelief:  - if you eat it all, in one hour, that is; comes with shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, roll and butter. If you can't finish it, you have to pay for it. Not sure how much it is, but the 36 oz Houston cut steak is $39.95. I imagine they do all right with this.  :Laughing:

----------


## journeybear

Yeah, after years of offering this bonanza for $50, it is now $72 (yes, $1/oz). You pay in advance, then get reimbursed (plus T-shirt and souvenir boot mug) if you finish. Joey Chestnut managed it in 8:52.  :Disbelief:

----------


## Mike Bunting

> Journeybear-
> 
> Thanx! People up here around SE Wisconsin often wonder out loud, "Why would anyone live down there with the chance of that happening?" Then, it recently occured to me, you people probably think the same thing about us ... 
> 
> We're guaranteed 5 months of miserable cold, ice & snow November thru March and everything that goes with it (cars not starting, power outages, backaches from endless shoveling, etc.).
> 
> (


How cold does it get down there in Milwackee?

----------


## Ed Goist

We are wonderfully fortunate to have a fantastic, beautiful, mostly urban metropark in our neck of the woods. It's called Mill Creek MetroParks, and here is an early autumn photo of the Metroparks's historic Lanterman's Mill (which is about one mile from my house):

----------


## journeybear

> How cold does it get down there in Milwackee?


 :Laughing:  Touché! 

Speaking of 'Sconsin, of all things to find at a yard sale here, a Leinenkugel's shot glass. So, who drinks beer from a shot glass, anyway?  :Confused:  That's what I used for the wee dram portion of my "Whiskey Before Breakfast Challenge" entry, BTW - not that you can see, because it was so dark. But it was there.  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Mike-

Sometimes Milwaukee & Wisconsin have very harsh winters, sometimes milder. What is harsh? A January where it never got above 0 Farenheit all month, never. :Frown:  Lake Michigan completely froze over that winter, but I can't remember the year. 

In the movie "Titanic", Jack (Leonardo) is from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and says that we have some of the coldest winters around. Chippewas Falls is in NW Wisconsin in Indian Head.

I also remember snow storms in October and May, but I'm sure that's nothing for Canada.

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Journeybear-

Ah, Leinenkugals's ... the pride of Chippewa Falls! In the movie "Titanic", Jack (Leonardo) was from Chippewa Falls.

Here in Milwaukee people drink beer like water, and from whatever they can ... shot glasses, boots, etc. I've seen it over cornflakes instead of milk (hair of the dog) ...

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Ivan-

So that's what you look like! :Smile: 

When we go to London my wife grabs all the Heinz mayo packets from pubs that she can! She also has it sent to our house from the UK! You make it with lemon, and it's not available here. I'm partial to the HB sauce, which I buy in British specialty shops here, and have that instead of A1 sauce like most people do here.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

I was told about " *The Big Texan* " deal by the very waitress that asked re.the 32 oz steak. She took obvious delight in my astonishment,especially when she wheeled out the 'grits' ( pesky critters !!).
   Going back to the Executive Inn food that i had in '92 - i was amazed to find 'frog's legs' on the menu. Not something i'd go for.They had 'spider crab' legs on one night &i had a bucket full of those - messy to eat but wonderful flavour. The other thing that got my taste buds all shook up,was the 'shredded barbequed beef' - i could have buried my head in the serving tray for that stuff - it was one of the tastiest things i ate over there.
   I was puzzled by the fried bacon to begin with.Very different than the way we cook it,It was totally flat,very thin & crispy & utterly un-eatable with a knife & fork - it just broke. I looked around & saw folk using their fingers,so ok - 'when in rome',i never looked back.
   I was over there with a colleague of mine from work,who's own vacation had fallen through. I don't drive,he does - so we had a grand tour of Kentucky & Virginia 3,500 miles in 3 weeks. We had a good laugh with one of the young ladies serving food at the food counter. She heard us talking & said very politely " i sure do like your accent". I turned to my friend,Andy, & said in a very put-on, posh English accent,_"we don't have an accent do we ?,it's these people who have an accent"_. Well,she nearly dissolved laughing as we also did - great folk to meet with,especially the 'demon waitress' with her coffe pot.
   That was one of the best vacations of my life,certainly the best in the USA - i'll be back !,
                                                                                                                             Iva :Wink: n

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Sorry to hog the thread,but this is one place where we had fabulous food - The Michie Tavern in Charlottesvile. It was quite close to where we stayed. I had Southern Fried Chicken to die for - they wouldn't let me live there unfortunately,
                                                                                                                                            Ivan :Wink:

----------


## Garden Music

> I could never get my head around what to do with the American secret weapon - GRITS !
>   I tried 'em once,couldn't get 'em to stick on my fork,movin' around all the time they were,pesky varmints !!,
>                                                                                                                                                  Ivan


This thread has taken such wonderful side trips--from rainbows to haggis to....grits!  So Ivan, please allow me to share on this topic from a southern American's viewpoint.  Grits may certainly be eaten from a bowl with a spoon, but if a little less water is used in the cooking as I do, then the texture will be more firm and more easily eaten with a fork. Grits is cooked with salt, and the classic topping is lots of butter.  Yum!  Also, you may have noted that I, like many southerners, use the term "grits" as a singular noun, as in, "Grits is a wonderful side dish for fried fish."  (Actually we had that for dinner just last week--yum again.)  However, it is correct to use the word as either a singular or plural noun.  Who knew the Cafe could be so educational?  Cheers!

----------


## Jim Hilburn

This isn't where I am at, but it's where I was at. This is Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park.
The best part is that I can get from this computer to that spot in about 2 1/2 hours. In summer. This is about 3 miles and 1500' up the trail. 
The vertical surface on the peak is called "The Diamond" as any rock climbers here already know. About 2000' of cliff to climb between 12 and 14k. The top of the mountain is 14,259'. Other than the 2 14er's with roads to the top, this is probably the most climbed mountain in Colorado, but it's no picnic. There are some fairly technical and exposed area's on the keyhole route.

----------


## dragonrAy

Yeah, you can get some nice treats at the World Markets here, if you're looking for HP sauce and such.  There is a South African shop down in Charlotte also that has some pretty tasty items, including some fresh baked things.  Then you have the slew of asian food markets around the state and you're in heaven.  :Smile:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Hi Karen - I'd go for the 'firm' grits every time. What puzzled me, was _what i got_ when i ordered 'grits' _wasn't what i expected_. Yes,we've had a few divergencies from the OP,but i began the thread, so 'fire at will' ,this is all very interesting,
                                                                                                                                                                        Ivan

----------


## catmandu2

Beautiful shot of Long's, Jim.  That's a long day up and down from the summit--about the size of a football field, Precambrian granite, and loaded with backpack-thieving marmots.  It is, as you say, one of the coolest 14ers to hike--with views of Glacier Gorge off the back that are stunning.

----------


## man dough nollij

Twenty posts in a row, with no musical or "M"-word content at all! (I wonder if that's a record...?) Great thread, BTW. I've learned more about British mayonaise, grits, and ketchup delivery than I ever knew. In New Zealand, ketchup is called "tomato sauce". It's like American ketchup (catsup) with more sugar and no onion powder. And in the Netherlands, they eat mayo on their fries. Ick!

----------


## Rodney Riley

My granddaughters eat fries with sweet-n-sour sauce. (yeah micky dee's  :Frown:  ) I love ketchup on ham and beans but my wife covers them with mustard.  :Cool: 

Is Mustard an M-word?  :Laughing:

----------


## Jim Hilburn

I can add a little mando content to mine. This is a big Englemann on the Longs Peak trail just below timberline at 10,580'. Sure would make some nice mandolins! (maybe)

----------


## Randi Gormley

We've had a couple of people out here in the wild East eating french fries with mayo; I'd prefer getting my grease and fat in a more palatable way by buying either elephant ears/funnel cakes or greasy french fries with vinegar at local fairs. Yum! I avoid the deep-fried oreos, twinkies and other stuff as being too much of a -- er -- good thing.

just to pretend to bring this thread back to where it started, I'm posting a shot of what once was our living room but is now our music room, where my husband and I do much of our practicing. You can't see them, but the black patch between the window and the entranceway is my piled-up mandolin cases (they balance the electric base in its black zip case on the right).

----------


## journeybear

Hey - I like french fries with mayo - which I understand is Belgian style, and that is where they were invented (supposedly). When I was working at our local shipwreck museum, the company had a discount arrangement with a couple of the food service establishments in the square so we employees could get a 1/4 lb Hebrew National hot dog for $1.25 from one place, and a $2.75 order of french fries for $1 from the conch fritter stand. Either of those was a good enough lunch many times, particularly the fries. Among the condiments available were key lime mustard (dijon-style with lime juice mixed in, mayo (had to ask for it because they kept it in the fridge), and tartar sauce - which was usually my condiment of choice. (Just didn't want to bother the guy at the counter for the mayo.) Yummm! Try it, you'll like it!

I've never put mayo on grits, though ...

----------


## Mandolin Mick

My wife likes fries (chips) with Heinz Mayo w/lemon when we're in London! I like fries with HP sauce.

----------


## journeybear

One last thing (maybe) about mayo - I believe Hellman's has a little lemon juice in it (check the ingredients), and also had a variety that was _lime_-flavored. Perhaps that was just around here and/or other areas with large Latino populations. I wasn't crazy about it. Haven't noticed it in a while.

----------


## Mike Bunting

> Mike-
> 
> Sometimes Milwaukee & Wisconsin have very harsh winters, sometimes milder. What is harsh? A January where it never got above 0 Farenheit all month, never. Lake Michigan completely froze over that winter, but I can't remember the year. 
> I also remember snow storms in October and May, but I'm sure that's nothing for Canada.


My mandolin is from Wisconsin, Chris Stanley lives in Rhinelander and the fellow that I got it from lives in Delafield, so I have a certain attraction
for Wisconsin.
That 0 F. equals -21 C, we had one winter a couple of decades ago where it stayed below that from November to March but that is pretty unusual. This year the Saturday before Christmas, the temperature dropped to -56 C. possibly the coldest in the world they said and a week or so later it was above freezing, thanks to the Chinook wind that can raise the temps as much as 30 degrees in a matter of hours. Barring those extremes, however, our climate is not that much different that it is in Wisconsin or Minnesota. We get really dry weather here and I always keep my instruments in a room that is humidified.
A pic my daughter took, snowboarding in the high Rockies. Those are clouds by the way, not snow in the distance.

----------


## journeybear

Among the cooler sights on this planet is looking down on clouds, however it's done. That is a great shot.

BTW, according to my calculations, 0 C is -18 F. But who cares - it's still too cold for picking!  :Wink:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

In the UK 'Ketchup' is more often called Tomato Sauce. .The product that Heinz is most noted for in the UK (other than baked beans) is their Salad Cream,not so much their Mayo. Hellman's is possibly the most widely known of the Mayo.stuff. They make (or used to - haven't seen it in a while) a Garlic Mayo.,utterly dreamy stuff (if you like garlic that is).
   The first time i saw Mayo. on fries was on a trip to Holland over 40 years ago.It didn't appeal to me at all - until i tried it.Salt & vinegar and / or HP Sauce is still my favourite on fries ( 'chips' in the UK ie.fish & chips). As a condiment for burgers & cold meat sandwiches,my favourite is 'Creamy Horseraddish Sauce'. Hot, sweet & awesome !,
                                                                                                               Ivan :Cool:

----------


## Bertram Henze

> BTW, according to my calculations, 0 C is -18 F. But who cares - it's still too cold for picking!


Actually, it's the other way round. 0 F = -18 C (calculate here). Interestingly, both scales intersect at -40 F = -40 C. But that is definitely too cold for picking...

----------


## Mike Snyder

Mix a little horseradish in with the catsup or mayo. Home-made, hopefully. Sometimes Dikon radishes get hot enough to grind into a sauce. Just be sure to do the grinding outside in a breeze. Don't ask me how I know that. I stll weep a little when I think of that disaster.

----------


## journeybear

> Actually, it's the other way round. 0 F = -18 C (calculate here). Interestingly, both scales intersect at -40 F = -40 C. But that is definitely too cold for picking...


Oops! Clumsy of me. I saw that and changed it but must have hit Cancel instead of Save. Clumsier of me.  :Redface:

----------


## Dan Hoover

when i started out as a child,my dad use to have his sunday breakfast like this,4 pancakes,2 sunnyside up egg's,3 bacon on top and cover it with ketchup...most gross thing to ever see..i still can't handle it..but he's 78 now? still running..ketchup has a place,it's not there though..and some of the places you guy's are putting it?? i dunno man? on a hot dog??
 for me,fries need malt vinegar on the bottom and ketchup on top...although i do order now/then fries w/gravy..very good..cheers

----------


## Ben Milne

Sorry, No mayo content...

----------


## Bertram Henze

> when i started out as a child,my dad use to have his sunday breakfast like this,4 pancakes,2 sunnyside up egg's,3 bacon on top and cover it with ketchup...most gross thing to ever see..i still can't handle it..but he's 78 now? still running..ketchup has a place,it's not there though..and some of the places you guy's are putting it?? i dunno man? on a hot dog??


I saw a family in Cornwall once with a little boy who every morning ate a big plate of baked beans with ketchup sprinkled liberally over it all. Couldn't stare at it for long, it strikingly looked like a chainsaw accident.

----------


## journeybear

> Sorry, No mayo content...


Isn't that a mayonsard roof? Have I got that right? No?  :Confused:

----------


## JeffD

This is where I was last week. Sailing the East River.

----------


## catmandu2

> I also remember snow storms in October and May, but I'm sure that's nothing for Canada.


Yeah, those are two of the snowiest months along the Rockies.  But what's really hard on the foliage are the summer dumps--September and June.

----------


## Brent Hutto

> Actually, it's the other way round. 0 F = -18 C (calculate here). Interestingly, both scales intersect at -40 F = -40 C. But that is definitely too cold for picking...


The other night we were watching a nature documentary and the narrator referred to the temperature as "around 40 below". I said to my wife "I wonder if that's C or F?" and she didn't respond. So I asked "Do you get it? That's a joke" but she did not get it. Wasn't impressed when I 'splained it to here either...

----------


## journeybear

Gave you the cold shoulder, eh?  :Wink:   :Smile:   :Whistling:

----------


## JEStanek

Awful.

----------


## journeybear

Thanks! I worked really hard on that.  :Grin:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

She probably doesn't have perfect pitch if she can't tell a C from an F ...  :Grin:

----------


## JEStanek

I take no repsonsibility if you guys get (rightly) knocked upside the head for these comments... just sayin.

Jamie

----------


## jim simpson

Mayo content:
Many moons ago (1978) my wife and I and some friends visited England. We were at the dining table with a friend who was a native Englander. He looked at the jar of mayonaise at the table and went on to recite, "Mayonaise have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.... "  at which point bits of food intermingled with laughter exited our mouths!

----------


## Bertram Henze

Can't let these "scary food" stories pass without stating that I actually like British cuisine and was able to enjoy everything I encountered in pubs and restaurants there so far. There is nothing creepy about it. Inside knowledge about preparation details puts you off your lunch in most countries, so that doesn't count.

Where I really have encountered things I literally could not eat or drink was the US. I remember a UA flight from Chicago to Denver where they served a snack which I can only assume was one of those plastic fakes they put on display in Burger restaurants. In Pittsburg PA, I bought a bottle of a soft drink with the promising sounding name of "root beer". The taste resembled neither roots nor beer but rather like what comes out of those little probe taps in petrochemical processing plants. Talking about beer - ordering a beer on a flight from JFK to Pittsburg, the stewardess offered a choice of brands neither of which I had ever heard of before, so I chose blindly (Michelob) and thus learned that you can make a fortune selling used dishwashing water.

That's not saying that there isn't excellent food in the US, but apparently you need more knowledge to pick the right thing than you need in the UK (which also applies for France, btw, especially if you don't speak French).

----------


## Mandolin Mick

I'm one of those oddities who absolutely *loves* British cuisine!!!  :Smile:  My wife & I have been to the UK 6x and look forward to the pub experience, etc. Nothing even remotely close to it in the US.

However you have to go to Starbucks if you want a decent cup of coffee  :Coffee: , but they're appalled at what we call tea, especially iced tea!!!! :Disbelief: 

Cheers to Ivan!!!

----------


## Bertram Henze

> you have to go to Starbucks if you want a decent cup of coffee


I'll say that's true for every country on this planet except Italy.

Hey, that just gave me a business idea what to do with that oil spill... :Smile:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

You may be right about that ... even in Paris. They almost always give you espresso. After a while we got tired of it and almost jumped up and down when we found a Starbucks near our Rue Cler hotel. :Smile:

----------


## journeybear

> ... the stewardess offered a choice of brands neither of which I had ever heard of before, so I chose blindly (Michelob) and thus learned that you can make a fortune selling used dishwashing water.


At the risk of starting a firestorm of banter about beer - which could be a whole other thread - I just wanted to point out, in case you didn't know, Michelob is the _premium_ brand offered by Anheuser-Busch, makers of the #1 selling beer in the US, possibly the world (so they claim). This is more a testament to the apparent preference among American beer drinkers for bland beer (or A-B's aggressive marketing practices) than its quality. Let's not forget the current massive ad campaigns for such baffling brews as Bud Light and Michelob Ultra, for which even more flavor is diminished in favor of reduced caloric content. And though I haven't checked, I'm sure that other top selling beers in America include Coors, Coors Light, Miller, Lite Beer, and so on - none of which will compare favorably with European beers. BTW, someone once told me in Europe Heineken is disparaged for blandness.  :Disbelief: 

There _are_ some very tasty beers produced in this country, but on a much smaller scale and with much less availability. I was quite tickled to see Yuengling so popular around here when I moved here and wondered why that was so - knowing it as a relatively small PA beer - and then to find the company has a brewery in Tampa. Ithttp://www.yuengling.com/news/n_martin_guitar.htms nice to have this as a choice among the less expensive offerings, and even the house beer at many establishments. Last year they had a marketing campaign with Martin Guitars - they need to work on Gibson.  :Wink:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

I'm from Milwaukee and I oughta know ...  :Whistling: 

Don't know that I've ever seen anybody here drinking anything by Anheuser-Busch willingly ...  :Wink: 

As you probably know, beer is our most cherished & famous industry here. Miller is King of Beers here. Miller Park, home of the Milwaukee Brewers (and where Farm Aid will be this year!!!), is basically a shrine to Miller. 

What's really sad is that in my lifetime I've seen the Schlitz, Pabst & Blatz breweries all go the way of the horse & buggy ... they're all downtown luxury apartment complexes now.

Anyway, I've been to Europe often, and I can't get used to warm beer; the colder the better!!! And in my humble opinion ... you can't beat a German lager for flavor. I like the Schlitz '60's formula best.

----------


## journeybear

I agree. As I surely have mentioned before, when I went to school in Wisconsin I learned there were literally hundreds of small independent usually family-owned breweries in the state. I was told this was a result of the combination of glacially pure waters and the large number of immigrants from Germany and other northern European countries. They were brewing in a style and on a scale that didn't even have a name until later - microbrewing. I used to say the state's nickname shouldn't be "America's Dairyland" but "America's Breweryland."  :Grin:  Yes, it's less wholesome, and harder to say,  :Wink:  but true. Our campus bar had four taps - one domestic mass-market beer (usually Pabst, but also often Schlitz), one import (Bass, Harp, Guinness were in high rotation), and two Wisconsin beers - Point, Potosi, Leinenkugel, many others. I got spoiled by these, and the price (25¢ a cup, $1.25 a pitcher), so after graduation, when I discovered what things were like in "the real world," it was quite a rude awakening!  :Disbelief:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

We had Point & Leinenkugel's at the Wisconsin State Fair last night. :Smile: 

Are you able to spill the beans on which school? LaCrosse? Oshkosh (my wife's alma mater)? Eau Claire?

----------


## journeybear

I can give you a hint - OK, two hints - the highest point in the area was the I-90 overpass, and our suburb was in Illinois.

----------


## Mandolin Mick

The armpit of Wisconsin? Beloit? :Disbelief:

----------


## journeybear

Hey now! There are many places can lay claim to that distinction. I'm not proud of it, nor defending it, but it wasn't all that bad, though Beloit Corp. spewed some awful stuff into the air at fairly frequent intervals. We did get some good music there, though - Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks, Leon Redbone, The Siegel-Schwall Blues Band. Being 100 miles from Chicago and 75 miles from Milwaukee meant pretty easy road trips for bigger-name acts, and also sometimes those blues guys would get out of Chi-Town and come up. Also, there was a place called Mr. Bill's Barbecue that had two great sandwiches - the Whole Hog and the No Name (pulled pork with BBQ sauce, a mysterious sausage patty) - very popular with the inmates. The name of the joint may or may not have inspired the SNL skit, no one knows (or is telling).  :Wink:

----------


## Ed Goist

> I'm one of those oddities who absolutely *loves* British cuisine!!!


*Oxymoron* (n): oxymoron (äk-sē-mȯr-än). Inflected Form(s): plural oxymorons also oxymora \-mȯr-ə\ Etymology: Late Greek oxymōron, from neuter of oxymōros pointedly foolish, from Greek oxys sharp, keen + mōros foolish. First appears in English approximately 1657.
definition: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as in *'British cuisine'*); broadly : something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.
Related entries:
oxymoronic \-mə-rä-nik, -mȯ-\ adjective
oxymoronically \-ni-k(ə-)lē\ adverb

 :Grin:

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Many moons ago ... my route on Tuesdays was in the city of Beloit, WI and South Beloit, IL. Beloit College was one of my stops, as well as the Beloit Daily News, Alliant Energy, etc. I even had a stop in the Town of Turtle! :Grin: 

Beloit is called that by people up here ... Actually, I liked the Rock River. :Smile: 

That's why I know 9/11 was on a Tuesday. I was in Beloit that day and caught the news as the events unfolded at each stop as my route progressed.

What was your mascot? The Blackhawks? The Turtles?

----------


## Mandolin Mick

> *Oxymoron* (n): ox•y•mo•ron (äk-sē-mȯr-än). Inflected Form(s): plural ox•y•mo•rons also ox•y•mo•ra \-mȯr-ə\ Etymology: Late Greek oxymōron, from neuter of oxymōros pointedly foolish, from Greek oxys sharp, keen + mōros foolish. First appears in English approximately 1657.
> definition: a combination of contradictory or incongruous words (as in *'British cuisine'*); broadly : something (as a concept) that is made up of contradictory or incongruous elements.
> Related entries:
> ox•y•mo•ron•ic \-mə-rä-nik, -mȯ-\ adjective
> ox•y•mo•ron•i•cal•ly \-ni-k(ə-)lē\ adverb


Ed-

I know .. that's why you rarely ever see a British restaurant ... but I *love* it!!!

----------


## journeybear

> What was your mascot? The Blackhawks? The Turtles?


The Terrapins or the Buccaneers - the Bucs. We had a decent basketball team, pretty good hockey team, but terrible football team. When I went it hadn't won in years and had the current record for consecutive losses. I even got a letter from the coach in the summer before I went that began, "We have heard of your continuing interest in football ..." inviting me to try out for the team. I had said nothing of the sort. I realized later they had probably sent the same letter to every male applicant. But what the heck. If they were that desperate, maybe I could help out. It turned out it meant showing up a week earlier, staying in  a frat house, and getting steak and eggs for breakfast. I was pretty quick on my feet at the time, and decided I wanted to be a defensive back - I'd rather hit than be hit. Somehow I missed a practice, and as punishment I got to sit on the bench. Maybe my being a long-haired hippie had something to do with it, too. Anyway, after three games of bench-warming while we were still getting clobbered I had had enough. Then the last game of the season we hosted Carleton, also winless that season. We thought we might have a chance. This game was unofficially dubbed "The Toilet Bowl." Late in the game our QB managed to get a wobbly duck of a pass over the goal line that the receiver caught and held onto. The local paper went nuts, proclaiming this 7-0 victory a "Grid Shutout." What a thrill!

In case people are wondering, the turtle heritage is prevalent. Turtle Creek is the local tributary of the Rock River. Also, right in the middle of the main campus, there are a series of Indian burial mounds which are called the Turtle Mounds. Not sure why - could be some physical resemblance, could have been some local tribe's name. Just one of those unexplained mysteries of the unexplained ...

----------


## Mandolin Mick

And ... the Rock River and Turtle Creek are loaded with Snapping Turtles!

To get this back to mandolins ... I think there's somekind of Bluegrass festival in the Town of Turtle ...  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## Dan Hoover

did someone say " free beer? "

----------


## JeffD

> In Pittsburg PA, I bought a bottle of a soft drink with the promising sounding name of "root beer". The taste resembled neither roots nor beer but rather like what comes out of those little probe taps in petrochemical processing plants..


Hey now hey, don't be knocking those probe taps.  :Smile: 

Good root beer, which is not easy to find, is a delight. Complex mix of flavors. Dreams of sasafrass, wintergreen, anise, hints of licorice, is that cloves?, ... What you get from the big names is way too sweet to taste any of the subtlety. I have made (brewed and mixed) my own root beer, in miniscule batches for myself and friends, and Bertram if we ever have the good fortune to meet in person at a jam or something, I will introduce you to a real treat. Nothing like what A&W puts in front of you.

Goes best with the tune Pays De Haute.

----------


## journeybear

> To get this back to mandolins ... I think there's somekind of Bluegrass festival in the Town of Turtle ...


News to me, but I haven't kept in touch.

To get this back to beer  :Disbelief:  I was instructed in the mystery of the G chop chord there, by a fellow name of Alan Kornhauser, who went on to become a brewmaster at Anchor Steam in San Francisco. So, yes, at one point there were actually two mandolinists there, both from the great state of Rhode Island, too, FWIW.  :Mandosmiley: 

See? I managed to get it back to mandolins, after all.  :Laughing: 

And Dan - if I told you once I've told you a hundred times - FREE BEER *TOMORROW!* And if you miss it, keep checking back!  :Laughing:

----------


## Dan Hoover

i can smell free beer a mile away,i have the nose of a german shepherd...sometimes i play my mando like i have the paws of one too.. :Grin: 
  back to "where i'm at man" here's a pic of me where i'm at most of the time..back yard with the dog's..i'm the one sitting pretty.. :Grin: ..cheers

----------


## Ed Goist

Dan: Those dogs look thirsty and very much in anticipation of a pending drink. What are their names? BTW - nice grill.

----------


## Dan Hoover

> Dan: Those dogs look thirsty and very much in anticipation of a pending drink. What are their names? BTW - nice grill.


 thank's Ed,black one is Jet,sable is Oskar..water is their favorite toy,next to my feet..the grill is getting a lot of work this summer,smoking peppers...cheers

----------


## catmandu2

> she probably doesn't have perfect pitch if she can't tell a c from an f ...






> I take no repsonsibility if you guys get (rightly) knocked upside the head for these comments... just sayin.


C F I K (New England accent)

----------


## Bertram Henze

> I have made (brewed and mixed) my own root beer, in miniscule batches for myself and friends, and Bertram if we ever have the good fortune to meet in person at a jam or something, I will introduce you to a real treat. Nothing like what A&W puts in front of you.


I had been suspecting that the name originates from local recipes not really cut out for mass production  :Smile:

----------


## MandoNicity

> I've posted before, this is where I play the most.
> Jamie


OMG DUDE!!! You have a lava lamp!  Far out!  Like...whoa!   :Wink: 

JR

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Mick - I wish i had shares in Budweiser,me & my 6 pack of Loars would be comin' over to visit right now !.
Bud.must be the most common beer to be serverd in US bars.The last time i was over i literally had to ask for another brand if i didn't want Bud..Just asking for 'a beer' got you a Bud.every time. 
   I was amazed to find a restaurant in Virginia owned by an English Guy & a Canadian guy & their wives. They had Double Diamond English beer on tap - i was 'forced' to have 3 pints before leaving. I also had one of the best 'double decker' sandwiches & salads i've ever eaten,
                    Ivan :Wink:

----------


## Bertram Henze

Actually, I found out that one beer in the US I could drink was Kilian's Irish Red. It resembles nothing Irish, of course, rather seems like an attempt at looking like the Czech Staropramen Granat.

One outstanding delicacy I can eat in large quantities there is cheesecake.

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Ivan- 

Bud is pretty much a dirty word here in Milwaukee! It's similar to what some Americans feel about owning a foreign car (but I don't), or anything that you'd view in the UK with nationalistic pride. 

Milwaukee & beer are synonymous in the USA. We have a very strong German heritage in Wisconsin and as Journeybear pointed out a few posts ago, we're America's breweryland. :Smile:

----------


## MandoNicity

> Actually, I found out that one beer in the US I could drink was Kilian's Irish Red. It resembles nothing Irish, of course, rather seems like an attempt at looking like the Czech Staropramen Granat.
> 
> One outstanding delicacy I can eat in large quantities there is cheesecake.


That's another Coors product.  

JR

----------


## MandoNicity

And by the way for all you Europeans and such.  There are truely amazing beers in the US, just stay away from any of the macro brewers.  I am a self confessed beer geek and can attest to having tried and reviewed hundreds of brews.  There are many smaller Micro breweries that produce amazing quaffs.  I am no fan of lagers so can't speak for them but IPA's Stouts and such are my bread and butter so to speak.  My favorite beer style is barley wine and one of the best is "Old Ruffian" from "Great Divide" in Colorado.  Amazing stuff.  There are many regional micro beers that are fantastic and complex.  Macro beers are just bland and dull.  And don't start me on wine...I'm a wine wonk as well...   :Wink: 

JR

----------


## Bertram Henze

> And don't start me on wine...I'm a wine wonk as well...


Any cheesecake champions here?  :Grin:

----------


## Dan Hoover

> Any cheesecake champions here?


 i make a cheesecake that would blow your sock's off..w/riccota,creamcheese,limoncello....sometimes i'll make a crust out of biscotti,but most of the time "it's just the cake"..i've had a few people buy them off me,but,that feels weird...i'm beginning to believe that we need a special group here about food/beer and wine??but how to make it mando related??

----------


## Miked

> Any cheesecake champions here?


  Good cheesecake is one of my passions.  Here's a fantastic chocolate cheesecake recipe that will knock your socks off.  Good quality chocolate is the key; no Nestle's chocolate chips for this one.

----------


## Bertram Henze

Good one, Mike.  :Cool: 
When you say "Preheat the oven to 350 degrees" - is that F or C?  :Grin:

----------


## Bertram Henze

> i'm beginning to believe that we need a special group here about food/beer and wine??but how to make it mando related??


It becomes mando related in my backyard after work on summer evenings, when I am having dinner and practising with my little electric neighbor-friendly ear-phoned tenor-uke tuned as an OM. That instrument's advantage re food is it has no holes any crumbs could fall in through.  :Smile:

----------


## Dan Hoover

> Any cheesecake champions here?


 kinda the same here bertram,backyard,cheesecake,little wine.. except i usually have a dog sitting in front of me drooling,wanting my cake...
 since mike shared that chocolate cheesecake (which i'm gonna try,sounds great)...i wrote up mine up,very basic..i haven't made one in awhile,i'm gonna make mikes next..my wife both loves and hates me when i make cheesecake..

----------


## bratsche

(bratsche silently ponders what "C F I K" might stand for; and marvels at the stunning revelation that cheesecake is actually a Coors product.  :Disbelief: )

----------


## JEStanek

Killian's Irish dREaD is a Coors product.  Not Cheesecake.

Jamie

----------


## bratsche

(-;

----------


## journeybear

C F I K = See if I care - with N' England accent, that's "see if I cay-ah"  :Wink: 

BTW, whilst not extolling the virtues (if any) of Killian's Red, saying it's a Coor's product may mean nothing more than the company was a corporate acquisition, and they may well be brewing the same way as ever. I dunno. Me, I prefer Samuel Adams, in its many forms, for many reasons, but if for no other reason, than that the motto "Brewer - Patriot" delights me no end, particularly their choice in priority.  :Wink:

----------


## Ed Goist

In New Englandish, shouldn't it be CFIKA?

----------


## journeybear

Nope - silent A. And CFIK!  :Laughing:

----------


## journeybear

Noting that several contributors to this free-ranging thread have posted interior as well as exterior environments, here is what my work station looks like today.

This isn't the cover of "Sgt. Pepper's," but perhaps a brief key to the symbology is in order. Counterclockwise from the bottom left corner ...

The Obelisk - rectangular mandolin case; also functions as chair, stool, and table
copy of last year's band's demo
original manuscript of song
purple ruler - Purple Rules!
Buffy Sainte Marie mousepad
enormous coffee cup
Mandolin Café sticker
my #1 fan
Brigitte Bardot background - not nude, wearing a teddy
menagerie - purple sand-filled gecko, Florida gator chomping on a parrot
lava lamp (kind of what started this all)
Lotti Golden - 'Motor-Cycle' - one of my all-time favorite records, read about it and the lyrics project at my myspace page
trophy and ribbons won at conch shell blowing contests
fading poster from annual seasonal Cajun/country/bluegrass band
picture of me backstage with Lucinda Williams and a friend of hers
magic wand kaleidoscope from the 60s

and above, pink flamingo Christmas tree lights


OK, a bunch of stuff. But stuff is what separates people from animals, who mostly don't have stuff.

----------


## bratsche

Sheesh, I clicked on that just so I could see who your "#1 fan" is, expecting a cat, dog, turtle, or *something* live, and it's just a danged ventilator!   :Laughing: 

bratsche

----------


## journeybear

Hey now, careful how you talk, you may hurt her feelings!  :Grin:  She's just the right size and speed, always is there for me, and never has an unkind word to say. There's a ceiling fan, too, but this is #1.  :Wink:

----------


## des mando

cheesecake? i thought forum guidelines prohibited  bringing up religion

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

I had a couple of large pieces of baked cheesecake last night - i'll have a couple more tonight. It's not often i indulge,but once in a while the 'sugar bug' bites & i need my 'fix'.
  Re.beer - we have a huge array of imported beer inmost of our supermarkets these days. My favourites are mostly Polish or Belgian beers,huge tastes. Guinness make a bottled beer they call 'Foreign Export',which is quite incredible,light years better than ordinary Guinness.
*Mick* - i learned long ago " what made Milwaukee famous ". I suppose in the USA,the same as in the UK,you have to hunt for the good beers. Most beers sold in English pubs these days are pretty much made to a 'formula',there's no real individuality in most (not all) of them.But although i like beer, oi be a Cider drinker !,
                   Ivan :Wink:

----------


## journeybear

Over here the beer wonks say Guinness Foreign Export is nowhere near as good as what you have over there. Go figure! I guess the Guinness is always browner on the other side of the pond.  :Laughing:  I somehow managed to miss the 250th anniversary brew last year. How was that?

BTW, speaking of imports, for some unfathomable reason Stella Artois is probably our top-selling beer at the cinema. This may have something to do with a pretty aggressive ad campaign, or it may be related to the recent corporate takeover of Anheuser-Busch and resultant distribution increase.

----------


## Bertram Henze

JB, Thanks for linking that Brigitte Bardot pic - must be an older image  :Grin:  (In return, my own wallpaper image is here).
Funny guitar, though - nylon strung with a glued-on bridge, but a tailpiece connection like for an archtop?

Ivan, how about a discussion on real ale? (did somebody complain about bringing up religion...)  :Laughing:

----------


## MandoNicity

Guinness is one of those myth beers, an Irish dry stout.  Usually a dependable quaff when you are surrounded by #### brews.  I've always been told that the best is pulled on the ferry from London to Ireland.  Who knows?  Stella is semi "ok", but about the lowest of the low when it comes to Belgian brews.  I think of it as the Budweiser of Belgium.  Betram, I am in full support of the "real ale" movement.  Having said all this, these days it's all red for me.  Give me the grape!   :Wink: 

JR

----------


## Bertram Henze

> ...the ferry from London to Ireland.


 :Laughing:  :Laughing:

----------


## journeybear

_Mein freund,_ if you are paying that much attention to the _guitar,_ time to reevaluate your priorities.  :Wink: 

Oh, that's right - this is a _musical_ discussion forum ... sorry, my bad ...  :Whistling: 

I do wish it were a mandolin, so it could be added to the Women With Mandolins collection. It really is a very charming photo. Oh well ...

----------


## MandoNicity

Sipping a nice inexpensive Rhone while playing "As Time Goes By" on my mandolin.  There's my mandolin content to the thread.   :Wink: 

JR

----------


## Mandolin Mick

Ivan-

When we go to the pubs in England, my wife usually goes for the Blackthorn or Strongbow. :Smile:

----------


## dragonrAy

> i make a cheesecake that would blow your sock's off..w/riccota,creamcheese,limoncello....sometimes i'll make a crust out of biscotti,but most of the time "it's just the cake"..i've had a few people buy them off me,but,that feels weird...i'm beginning to believe that we need a special group here about food/beer and wine??but how to make it mando related??


Well, food is something that unites people.  If you look at it through a sociological lens food is a core of the cultures and values of a people.  Every sector of life across this world of ours has its own plethora of food cultures wrapped around one another like leaves on the chinese cabbage I put in my calzones last night.

Food also expresses societal mores and norms that we do not always understand, but more than that it is our sustenance.  Music is much the same.  Music unites us, and expresses our cultures in profound ways.  For many of us, we have to be connected to some musical place whether it be stuffing the notes in our ears, mashing keys, buzzing into a trumpet, or strumming and picking strings.  We eat and then work off some of the food with a jam session (I want to get better in my composing so I can make electronic music my wife likes that just so happens to have organ, mandolin, and such in it besides the other genres of music I explore).  We might down some nice little treat after some multi-hour session of fiddling with knobs and settings in the software as we compose.  We eat and drink while hearing good music.  People sing about food, and some of the lucky ones of us are even talented enough to earn grocery money playing (not me obviously).

I would imagine people could dash in pictures of their recipes they eat during/after/before jams, mando cakes/pastries, and other related musical fun.  Some mando songs about these beers and other delights could be pretty amusing YouTube fodder.

On topic, I wish I still lived here sometimes.  Not my photo and larger embedding was disabled, thus the link and small photo.  I was too young to know what shops existed around Oceano, but it is not far from San Luis Obispo.  Any ever visit National Reso-Phonic Guitars there?


Locally, this is my favorite sort of view as I drive between here and other places here in/leaving Rowan County.  My wife's Brit chum was pretty amused to know that we really did grow corn in Carolina, as she had always heard the phrase "not for all the corn in Carolina".  Our neighbor across the way grew corn forever.  The grasshoppers that were drawn to his crop used to visit us and munch on my pepper plants.  Not my photo either, and the neighbor had a much smaller field of corn.

----------


## Ed Goist

> ...snip...Guinness make a bottled beer they call 'Foreign Export',which is quite incredible,light years better than ordinary Guinness....snip...
> Ivan


For any beer geeks in the room, Guinness foreign export is made from all malted barley. This gives the beer more of a porter quality, a little more richness from the malts, and a little more alcohol. 

Traditional Irish Dry Stouts are made with a small percentage of unmalted roasted barley (which, BTW is responsible for both their 'dryness', and their superior nutritional value when measured against other beer styles).

However, German beer labeling rules used to state that beers made with anything other than malted grains could not be called 'beer' when sold in the important German beer market (this was due to the famous Reinheitsgebot of 1516). As a result, Guinness began making an 'export' version with all malted grains which could be labeled as beer in Deutschland.

The EU has since pressured Germany to loosen the Reinheitsgebot regulations, and they now apply only to beers brewed in Germany. However, 'Guinness Export' proved to be so popular that Guinness continued to brew it.

For those stateside who want to try this version of Guinness, it called 'Guinness Extra Stout' here (however, it's brewed in Canada - something Guinness attempts to downplay as much as possible).

Mandolin content: Guinness goes well with Irish fiddle tunes.  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Unfortunately,due to the tender ministrations of the 3 premier Irish Airlines who won't let me carry my Mandolin on board their wonderful craft,i've never had the chance to try Guiness in Ireland. I was told many years ago that there were 3 'standards' of Guinness over there,how true that is i don't know. I do know that of all the Guinness that i have had,their 'Foreign Export' is by far the best.
   I'm also rather partial to a nice Deutsche Weissbier (wheatbeer).The first time i ever drank it,in Austria. (Schneider Weiss) i almost fell of the bar stool after 6 bottles of the stuff. There are different varieties,one of which hits the 8.2% alcohol mark - great beer though,just the thing for washing all the
'wurst' down,
                 Ivan

----------


## Ed Goist

Ivan! *Schneider Weisse* (Original and Aventinus) are my favorite beers in the world! 
*Prosit!*

----------


## JEStanek

Young's Double Chocolate Stout.  End of post.

----------


## woodwizard

My favorite beer and especially in the summer is ICE COLD... :Grin:  and  I have had plenty going up and down Big Piney Creek which is just around the corner from my house. We also done some boat picken as well down Big Piney from time to time.  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

That's the stuff Ed - the "Aventius", also known as 'milk of amnesia' !. Young's 'Double-choc.'is also terrific
Jamie. Lots of great beers - too little time. 
*Wizard* - looking at that pic.of Big Piney Creek made me go a bit cold. It looked very similar to the place where i nearly took an unwanted dip in Green River KY.,after slipping on the muddy bank in '92. It was only a tree sticking out of the bank that saved me,
                                                                          Ivan :Chicken:

----------


## JEStanek

Samuel Smith... darn near every brew is perfection.  In the fall we have a Pumpkin Fest and serve some nice Pumpkin Ales (Smutty Nose, Dog Fish Head, etc).  There's a beer for every season and whim.

Jamie

----------


## Bertram Henze

Ok, now everybody does it, I might mention my own favourite German brew, which is Jever, representing all that coastline freshness I need so much. Switch on your speakers when clicking that link.
Whenever switching into Irish mode, such as in a session, it's Guinness for me.

The southern german wheat beers some have mentioned I know from my youth (grew up in the most northern tip of Bavaria), but many of them contain lots of leftover yeast from the brewing process which my stomach cannot deal with too much of. I left those behind in the mists of personal history.
That did not stop one fiddler who appeared at one of our sessions, speaking a distinctly Bavarian accent, from ordering 5 glasses of it at a time, nicely arranging them in front of himself and drinking his way through them in 15 minutes.

----------


## Jill McAuley

> Guinness is one of those myth beers, an Irish dry stout.  Usually a dependable quaff when you are surrounded by #### brews.  I've always been told that the best is pulled on the ferry from London to Ireland.  Who knows?  Stella is semi "ok", but about the lowest of the low when it comes to Belgian brews.  I think of it as the Budweiser of Belgium.  Betram, I am in full support of the "real ale" movement.  Having said all this, these days it's all red for me.  Give me the grape!  
> 
> JR


As a Dubliner and a Guinness drinker who's taken the ferry from _Holyhead_ to Dublin and back again too many times to mention over the years, I can tell you categorically that the Guinness on the ferry is fairly vile.....

Cheers,
Jill

----------


## journeybear

> I'm also rather partial to a nice Deutsche Weissbier (wheatbeer).The first time i ever drank it,in Austria. (Schneider Weiss) i almost fell of the bar stool after 6 bottles of the stuff. There are different varieties,one of which hits the 8.2% alcohol mark - great beer though,just the thing for washing all the
> 'wurst' down ...


We offer a Canadian ale here at the local art cinema called La Fin Du Monde - "end of the world" - which is 9%, almost wine strength. Our pricing is $3 for domestic, $4 for imports, and $5 for FDM only - and it is still one of our top sellers. I think I know why ... it's delicious. OK, it's strong. But it _is_ pretty tasty.

----------


## JeffD

OMG there is a lot to beer. Thats why I stick to bourbon. I don't have to do trigonometry and organic chemistry just to get a drink. There are only two things in bourbon: alcohol, and all that other stuff to make you think you're drinking it for some other reason than the alcohol. The truth of this last statement is much more evident after the second drink.

As for where I am at right now: 

Let me paint you a mental picture: I am sitting in the parked truck tapping on my laptop, connected by a nearby hotspot to the net, just outside of a secret roadside eatery, at an undisclosed location.  I am waiting for my buddies to get back from the eatery with the best grilled pork sausage and friend onion and pepper subs you can imagine, wrapped in white shelf paper that will be grease stained by the time we reach the park. At the park we will break out mandolin, banjo, and two fiddles, said sandwiches, some home made root beer, and have us a time.

We will play Pig Ankle Rag, Hog Trough Reel, among other tunes, to honor the _Sus domesticus_ that gave its all for our jam.

----------


## journeybear

Sounds good. Sounds like "where you at man" is just slightly off the grid.  :Wink:  Add to your set list "Gimme A Pig Foot And A Bottle Of Beer." Hmmm ... make that home made root beer. Sounds _real_ good. 

I'll be right over.  :Mandosmiley:

----------


## woodwizard

Thank God for the tree Ivan! Glad you made it.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

*Wizard* - I was at the Mammoth Caves National Park & me & the work's colleague i was over with ( the driver in our little expedition), decided to go for a photo-stroll along the banks of Green River. Under the shade of the trees,the footpath was still very slippery from previous rain. I stepped too near the edge of the riverbank,fell onto my butt & slid like wildfire down towards the river. There was the tree sticking out of the bank & i managed to grab it as i slid past.
   My friend, Andy,had gone the opposite way along the path. I shouted for ages until he eventually heard me. I threw my camera up to him so i could hold onto the tree & steady myself on the slippery mud. He rooted around & found a tree branch which he threw down to me to help & then hightailed it back up to the Ranger Station a mile & a half back. I stood there wondering what to do. It crossed my mind that i could jump in & swim down river ( i used to be a very strong swmmer) hoping to find somewhere to drag myself out . Having re-gained my sanity,i decided against that. I stood there thinking to myself that the mud was a slippery as ice -BINGO !. What do climbers do when climbing up snow - dig steps. I used the branch to dig a deep step into which i jammed both feet. I dug another & another..... until i got to the top of the bank. I walked straight through the bushes to get back onto the main path up to the Hotel & Ranger Station ,no more slippery mud for me boyo !!. 
    When i got back to the Ranger Station,Andy was there giving the details of my little escapade to a very lovely young Police woman. Apparently in such situations,the Police,not the Rangers deal with them.
   I excused myself & let them know i was back & ok. I had to sign a form saying so & then it was back to our room for a shower & a change of clothes.
   There was a Ferry point on the river close to where i nearly fell in,& we walked down to it. I shouted to the Ferryman & asked him how deep the water was,he said it was around 3 feet deep at the time. I told him that i'd nearly fallen in. He shouted back _" Oh !,you're the guy"_ . Apparently the Rangers had called him on his phone to tell him to be on the lookout for anybody floating down the river. Somehow,i'll never forget Green River,
                                 Ivan :Grin:

----------


## mandolinlee

fatt-dad - just found this thread, Question - If that's summer, what's winter like?
Lee

----------


## first string

Canadian or not, Guinness Extra Stout is darn delicious. In fact, upon having the "Export" for the first time while overseas, I thought, 'this is good, but not as good as the extra stout.' I feel pretty foolish now that I know it's the same thing. But who knows, maybe the Canadians do something special to it. 

That said, the most delicious beer on earth is absolutely, without question, unequivocally Trappist Rochefort 10. Nobody knows beer like those Belgian monks.

----------


## Ed Goist

> ...snip...That said, the most delicious beer on earth is absolutely, without question, unequivocally Trappist Rochefort 10. Nobody knows beer like those Belgian monks.


*I hear that!* The seven Trappist breweries are the Lloyd Loars of Zymurgy.
-Ed (feeling rather smug that he sneaked in some mandolin content!  :Mandosmiley: )

----------


## Scotti Adams

Heres the ol Home Place

----------


## John L

Not home, but one of my favourite places to play - Lake-of-the-Woods

----------


## Mandolin Mick

This is me on the shores of Lake in Michigan at the "top `o the thumb", Gill's Rock, the tip of the Door County peninsula, which is Wisconsin's premier weekend getaway. My wife took this picture of me over the past Labor Day weekend.

----------


## mandopete

A couple of weeks ago with Story House at the Chilliwack Bluegrass Festival.

BTW - I kicked butt in the US Men's Team corn shucking contest (I'm just sayin')

----------


## JEStanek

If you win the prize it ain't braggin.

----------


## Ivan Kelsall

Hey Scotti - You've got plenty of pickin' space there. A lovely home indeed,& plenty of space for your own music festival !,
                                                                                                                                                                   Ivan

----------


## Lefty J.

My god... Such pretty places those are. I'm so envious.

----------


## like2fiddle

My backyard

----------


## NickAlberty

Our group, SpringStreet, doing a show at The Oklahoma Music Hall Of Fame in Muskogee, OK.

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

We recently moved from our Oakland to nearby Emeryville, home of Pixar, exceptionally cool urban architecture, live/work lofts, a vibrant arts scene, and our favorite diner, _Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe_ (the latter of which pulls a good pint of Guiness, lest I wander too far off topic).

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

"Where I at man", part 2 of 2: my favorite public art installation in Emeryville, are these yellow utility boxes seen all over town, by a local artist commissioned by the city...

----------


## Paul Kotapish

Hey Jim,

Emeryville underwent one of the most amazing transformations of any town I've ever witnessed. When I moved to the east bay in '82, Emeryville comprised a run-down steel mill, some corner liquor stores, a row of PaiGow poker parlors, a few brothels, and a pretty good country roadhouse saloon--that used to be a brothel. 

Today it is a thriving high-tech village with some great restaurants, interesting residential and commercial architecture, a bunch of high-end retail shops, a huge Ikea that sits on top of the of mill site, and that same row of PaiGow poker parlors. It's been gentified to the gills, but mostly to the benefit of the region as a whole and certainly to the coffers at city hall. There are even some interesting innovative cohousing projects and alternative art scenes there. 

And the Can't Fail Cafe is a great spot--night or day. Not too much in the way of live acoustic-music venues there, but Strings is just down the street and the Freight isn't too far, either.

----------


## Jim MacDaniel

I really didn't know much about Emeryville until I took a job at Chiron (now Navartis) in '94. Though it's grown and developed even since then, it still has than same urban, alternative, funky vibe that I enjoyed back then. My main worry is that its real estate and rents don't increase with its continuing development, pricing the artists out of the area, since they are a big part of why this is such a special place. But City Hall still seems to be as commited to the arts as they have been for the past couple fo decades, so hopefully my worries may be foundless.

(Now we just need to do something about the music scene  :Mandosmiley: )

----------

