HowlerCafe Meter

 

Our new power meter. I cannot wait to watch the kilowatts count up!
The boat has arrived with my equipment, now it is in customs. Custom duty is 46% of declared value. I love borders, passports, duties and tariffs!

Bug Beauties

 

 

 

 

These got left off the Aliens posting...

Is this gonna be a stand-up fight, sir, or another bug hunt?

 

 

 

 

Local critters hanging around the not quite open Howler Cafe...

Pre-emptive Strike

 

So we were chillin' in the dining room last night. Doors open..no AC, commenting on how this "vacation day" involved the Wife being at work --pro bono-- for a 9 hour stretch, and in walked this fella...
We are not unfamiliar with scorpions, after all Jezebel had immaculately conceived 17 of them in my care, but this one was walking across the floor. Very healthy, medium claws which means pain not death, but as you can see no small beastie.
I thought a couple things: wife might be upset if I kill it which would mean long debate about killing things that are genetically mean and could ruin a potentially good Friday night forecast, or I could take the let the scorpion be and kill bugs that don't bother us until it stings us in our sleep..
So I killed it.

Nicaragua Contrasts

 

 

 

 

Nica Culla!

 

 

 

 

Nicaragua Pictures

Tourist Visa in Costa Rica is a flat 90 day Visa. This means one must apply for an extension or leave the country for 72 hours. Those of us staying here have 2 drivable options: Nicaragua or Panama. My main man had overstayed so I went along for the ride.
He is my partner at the Howler which is still “under construction”. We have a party of 25 booked for February 18th. I am hoping we nave been up for a week before that, but I digress...suffice to say I chalked my trip up to “research”. San Juan Del Sur is a tourist town, nice roads, running cold water and 90% uptime electricity. I'll be posting pics here and on flickr (sign up, viewing is free. Add me as a contact and see all the weirdness in macro) On to the snaps!

Nica at Night

(written in MyScene Notebook, 2am)
It is 2am in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. The 75cl of Queen Anne scotch is empty, if not dry.
I am reading Delillo´s Underworld. Listening to dogs bark. Deep, not low, bass music with a woman singing. Echo, reverb, wind.
The beat is a stop start throb. The voices (not the singer) are audible/overlapping but incomprehensible as I speak less than pidgeon Spanish.
It was later than this last night when I was jolted awake by the sound of sex in the next room.
The pain raised then was different than this. This is drink and existentialism and the loneliness of 4 days away from the woman I love.
I need to look up Bruegel´s "the Triumph of Death" tomorrow b4 returning to Costa Rica.

Angry Island - Hunting the English

This is a collection of essays by A.A. Gill. My wife first brought the author to my attention with a restaurant review from the London Sunday Times. You know, London, where we met ;)

His review was delicious.

This collection revolves around the conceit that the English are noted for their barely controlled rage. He makes a pretty good case. Most of the blurbs take the book as satire/humor and seem to leave it at that.

Perhaps it is my being a stranger in a strange land here in Nicaragua, separated from the aforementioned wife who is not in London but nonetheless distant, but I got a lot more than a couple of good hours in the pages from this.

Not sure if the book imprinted better by my being jolted awake at 3am by the local talent in the adjacent room, but imprint it did. Let me spoil an essay:
Voice -- is an essay that discusses class structure and upward mobility based on accents, with an emphasis on the various English accents. I learned to speak watching TV, and have been known to jibe at my Kansas friends for their pronunciation of words like "cement" -- you know "see-ment", and "lawyer".

Boy, do I feel like a jackass.

This skinny book is replete with behavior altering, cool insights, just like that. From the guy that doesn´t like comedy, I highly recommend it!

Costa Rica Color Study(s)

More pics from the back catalogue.
New new stuff coming Wednesday!
The trick to blogging from internet cafe in Nicaragua: 1 pic at a time!

Nicaragua

Internet cafe too slow for me to upload pics, so a current events instead:
Woken at 5am this morning by roosters that warned the trucks would be coming soon anyway, I might as well get up.
Used keys to open shared bathroom for the cold shower. Soap supplied by hotel = 1 sliver of a travel bar. Contacts out in borrowed case, purchased solution for 7 dollars, actually in date. For perspective: room with 2 beds = 18 dollars a night, with 2 towels.

I was surprised the fifth of "Queen Ann" scotch was only half empty, but remembered the full bottle of vino tinto I drank at the "Dolce Vita" prior to the late night Howler strategy session. Dinner for 2 with 1 scotch, 5 beers and a full bottle of house wine = 35 dollars. Food was good, service hot. After dinner drinks marred by the arrival of rude gringos arranging tables the way they like without regard to seated customers. I cringed when the table leg hit the back of the eating customer without even a half hearted Spanglish apology.

Drank the bottle of wine watching spanish dubbed low rent Hercules meets Froddo in the bar.

Bar, tables, roofing and lighting now set for the Howler.

Coffee and Hummus for breakfast at the Gato Negro, delicious. Bought the wife a copy of a fat book that I never got back from Ken, back in the day, Delillo´s "Underworld".

Walked to Spencer´s dream home designed by a dictator a couple of leaders back, took a bunch of snaps I hope to post "soon". Lunch at the Gecko. Met the owner of this themed bar after a couple mid-Sunday margs -- a Spanish major with a minor in foreign relations -- talked about the downward spiral the states are in and the sharp look to his establishment.

Another restaurant this evening for research. Walked to Pali looking for lemons and Cardamon. Looks like a stop will be in order in Pachera..

the Way to Costa Rica

Thanks to several complaints about file size, exposing everyone´s email etc, I have decided to share the "new life" pics here on the blog, pending the launch of the HowlerCafe website...
I am a few big emails behind, but wanted to get started, so ENJOY...
(yes, I will caption the new stuff)
I have chosen to not reactivate my Facebook account as the "college students" doing "homework" via Facebook has soured me to that social network. Feel free to comment on the pics as you see fit here..

Night at the Iguana on the Isle of Jura

The delicious Jura beat back the cold on this the final movie night hosted by the 2404i crew. Big thanks to Steve for a fine scotch pick. A shout out also to David, for recommending the too good for the iPod generation film, "Night at the Iguana".

Movie Night ended then at the 2404 location.

Movie night will return 5 days a week and a Sunday Matinee relocated in Tambor, CR pending renovation of the existing building and acquisition of a DVD projection system.

Planned schedule: Monday - Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10:15pm. Sunday Matinee at dusk. Admission free, seating limited. Accepting suggestions for "Grand Opening Film"..

Quantum of Solace

The Vesper Martini: 3oz Gordon's Gin, 1oz Stoli, 1/2oz Lillet, lemon peel and we all know how to prepare it. Served a batch before the Midnight Opening, and it set the tone for a normal Bond film: excessive and in good spirits -- but this was no normal Bond film.
Let me whip out a reviewer word "hyperkinetic" and then continue down that path - nope! Can't join that whining line o' chatter.
Never mind the title sequence, just enjoy the cool title track and the rest of the film's "Bond variations" soundtrack. Where is the tracking gunbarrel and blood wash? Where is Q? Patience!
This film is edited in shorthand. The fourth wall is chalk outline. I went to the film with the usual suspects and the newcomer, my less than 2 month hitched wife, who has not seen every Bond film 3 times like some of us. She has not scoured the intertubes looking for bits about Parkour or even contemplated seeing "Blood and Chocolate" for the Parkour alleged therein..so the editing was a little hectic for her.
Just right for me though. The film was like a conversation between two East-Coasters -- half sentences and interruptions and a whole lot of ground covered really quickly. Bring it on. I am sure I am not the only one looking for the next level.
Recommended!

Obama. I still can't believe it. Wow!

Fingers crossed that the new boss ain't the same as the old boss. Hope. There is still time to fix this big country. Darren was right, racism has lost. I predicted White Fear to stop this, and I am happy to be wrong. I thank Science Fiction, and the dream of a color blind world. Now if we can just get the media to stop fanning the ashes..

Electric Dragon 80.000V

This is Japanese CyberPunk from Sogo Ishii. Yes, yes, the guy that did the insane "Burst City". "Electric Dragon" is a touch more linear, and benefits from that for my tastes. This is shot in black and white, with deft camera movement and embedded animation, Manga style. I'd like to comment on the terrific music that Dragon Eye Morrison (our hero) wrenches out of his electric guitar.
The movie is short, loud and fast. It has a stripped down lean feel, like an old biker film with a sheen of art and better editing. This is highly recommended with the caveat that it is not for everyone. It is non-linear, abrasive and gorgeous. The soundtrack is psychedelic punk guitar. There are no Asian women, no Kung Fu, just the crackling of 80.000v!

babylon AD

Vin's "Children of Men" earned a 4 on the "Tomatometer". Partly because it was "Children of Men", partly because it was Vin, and most assuredly for the editing of the fight scenes. That being said "4" is harsh and wrong and a collection of straight world reviews. PS: not all science fiction has to transcend the genre.
This is genre, it is chock full of cool things, it has the Belle Parkour Team doing the stunts -- and if you don't know who those guys are you haven't been paying attention. Did I mention Michelle Yeoh as a co-star? No? A 4 -- shame on your tomatometer. Check out the interactive folding map in the trunk and then you give it a four.
Recommended

Red Belt

Next time you catch a rerun of Married With Children -- and I don't care if it is for the sharp writing, Christina Applegate or Peg's Leopard top -- try to get your head around "Al" being a Black Belt. We already know from the "Spanish Prisoner" that he and Mamet work together..but to this Kansas transplant they seem an unlikely pair. Apparently Ed O'Neill (Al) has some martial arts in him, and got Mamet involved.
"Redbelt" is the first child of this pairing on that subject, and man is it good.
Like all Mamet it is important to have the guests seated and focused and well-lubricated prior to pressing play(you assume correctly Grasshopper, this did not make the 50 mile travel for a movie radius). "Redbelt" opens hard and fast and keeps moving. The moments of stillness that come in the film are oasii of reflection and conjecture as the none riveted parts of the mind fill in the backstories, the time and the place of this wonderful tale.
Top notch writing a given -- this is Mamet -- and the actors are up to the task. Camera is good, if not excellent, as is the soundtrack. The story may strain plausibility -- but look at the VP on the Republican side -- truth can be stranger than fiction.
This is highly recommended on several fronts, not the least of which is my love of action films -- which this qualifies as easily, though is not confined by the label, and as another feather in the cap of Mr Mamet.

Mad Men

I will start off by mentioning my bias: I am an ex-salesman. "Glengarry Glen Ross" is not a sad movie about desperate men for me but a tour de force by Mamet that captures the biz on key, perfectly. Additional bias includes watching the series on Blue-Ray with a beautiful woman that loves the show. No, she does not call me "Don Draper" at inappropriate times...
All that being said, here is a quick synopsis, and a couple o' comments. "Mad Men" are a self-promoting group of Madison Avenue advertising guys in the late 50's - early 60's. The 1st Season introduces the team, and their office -- and the politics of the office and the times.
This is done with a hyper saturated palette and sense of irony. The viewers already know the results of their campaigns (or at least we should -- I work in an office that thinks Pinochet is a wood puppet) but the entertainment is in the details. Like the Glengarry Glen Ross crew these guys are charismatic, focused, and completely wrong on so many levels.
The show is nuanced enough to keep you watching, and caring, for these b-(ad) men and the women that love them. As a period piece it may be way over the top. As a costume drama it is nearly as interesting as "Rome" -- yes, the costumes are at that level -- and the colors of Rayon and Polyester pop amidst the clatter of manual typewriters and glass doored office spaces.

I am so looking forward to Season 2!

Twilight Samurai

This poster is a little misleading: there is precious little blood in this quiet, moving film. Apparently the critics mistook Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat's understated acting as turgid and unemotional way back when "Crouching Tiger" landed on US soil. Not sure how this could have been said, as every gesture and glance spoke clearer love than I can even imagine, never mind endure..
"Twilight" has as powerful an emotional feel, in a slightly different period of time in history.
I'm betting the critics were too busy reading the subtitles to see the actors! A common complaint, "I want to watch movies not read 'em," apparently extends beyond the Kansas borders...
"Twilight Samurai" is the first part of a trilogy I have been hounded to watch for over a year now.
I was not fooled by the cover, and imagined a slow period drama sleeper, in spite of the stand up guy that recommended the film. I should have been more trusting, as this film is superb.
So you lean back, mumble a bit about my incoherent spoiler free reviews and think, well, he says it is a Samurai film without blood and has love at the core, so how could his original assertion that the film must be a boring period drama have been so wrong?
Alienation does not always mean tattoos and piercings or even that we are all storage cells for the hive mind!
Recommended

RIP Bernie Mac

As my sister once said, "Bernie Mac is one funny motherfucker."
"Kings of Comedy" was the movie we were discussing. Bernie Mac, bigger than life with a bigger heart. He will be missed -- and I don't like comedy. We could talk about his show, we could talk about the smartfellas trying to find a place for this very funny guy -- from his TV show to the "Transformers" and yeah "Charlie's Angels 2". That list should let you know just how hard they tried and failed to contain/showcase his talent.

Anthony Wilson "Adult Themes"

The nature of my day job is largely thankless. We replace electronics for the insurance industry, so are customers are not repeats, usually suspicious, and have just been ripped off by thieves -- not the best environment for fun. I am no longer a rep, but the IT guy. I do answer the phones once in awhile, and, as luck would have it, found a fellow Jazz listener.
I recommended Kip Hanrahan, he recommended Anthony Wilson. I ordered "Adult Themes" on his rec, and was delighted with what I heard. Anthony Wilson has put together a terrific album. I enjoyed it from the first listen, but took a couple more spins just because.
"Because", the Beatles tune, is one of the covers on this record, and it is very well done. It is nice to have a familiar melody deconstructed and exploded by guys at the top of their game, and this is a pretty solid cover.
The gem on this disc is the "Adult Themes" suite, which closes the record. It is done in several movements and really swings. This is big band music with intimacy and chops that hold up to repeated listenings. Like Mr Gold(thank you), I will have to recommend this one!