Thursday, March 12, 2009

Another Round @ #BNBLV

Finally the first live post from the BNBLV, via the Lenovo. Many conversations going on across the stretch of tables, and a couple outside in the smoking area. Had a couple Shiner Bocks and now onto my second Bass. Then we will probably call it early tonight.

Talked to my Mom on the phone during the BNBLV tonight, outside of course. Tried to explain it to her and she asked me if I Twitter. Well that is half the battle, she is learning for someone who refused to use a computer up until a few years ago.

Have not really mentioned it before, but they play the weirdest movies on DVD here, right now it's The Man In The Iron Mask, but earlier it was something called Fido, weird zombie thingy.

So enough rambling, we are going to get out of here before crazy open mic stuff starts.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Another week of BNBLV

Ok, ok, so I still didn't post from the BNBLV this week, I was busy. Lots of folks to talk to and meet with, certainly I cannot be faulted for choosing to converse, rather than stare at my screen all night.

BNBLV continues to attract new folks each week thanks in large part to Twitter. We are also moving towards more orginization, it will arrive at some point.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Watching The Watchmen

Who watches The Watchmen? Quite a few people I imagine, this week, I know I did. For the most part I have tried to steer clear of the movie, choosing not to read a lot about it's development. Kept on the changes, the law suit, but kept trying to hold off so I could dig out my 23 year old comics and read them for the first time in, well 23 years.

Well I never did drag out the comics, but I plan to this weekend. Now that I have seen the film and read some other opinions today, I still can't quite put my to mind what exactly I thought of the film. But here goes with the attempt.

My Twitter sized review: Bloody yes, music some good and some bad, acting uneven, visually stunning, pacing solid.

As a film, I was entertained. All 2.5+ hours of it, I was never bored, I was happy with how the story was drawn out. Thinking about it after, I could only come up with a few places where I felt the film dragged.

Ala 300 the film was quite bloody with the slow motion pummeling of body parts, and a few other graphic sequences that were as gratuitous as the blue dong. Yes the blue dong was distracting, I kept thinking, really, really? You couldn't have Ken dolled Dr. Manhattan or something?

We saw the film in digital theatre, are they all this way now? Honestly, I don't go to the movies much any more, usually only go when it's for free. Sometimes, not even then. But visually the film was amazing, I imagine it is one you will be able to watch many times and always spot something new in many of the sequences.

I love the opening credits, they were interesting and I felt did a good job of setting up the film. Overall the music was either dead on or dead wrong, the lack no score was only apparent, to me, in the one sequence where they did actually have some.

So overall, it entertained. I was not blown away by the film, ready to declare it a masterpiece. But overall I think I enjoyed it, this one will require another viewing at another time to be sure. I think Zach Snyder did an amiable job, I did love 300, but I am a bit biased towards that film as we saw it in an incredible setting that lent itself the film.

Our Watchmen crowd was a bit tepid, only showing any kind of real emotion at Rorschach's prison mess hall sequence. I really can't say what the audience thought overall, maybe they like myself, are still digesting it.

Happy Hour @ Yard House


Oh Yard House, how many ways do I love thee. I first stumbled across the Yard House several years ago at their downtown San Diego location. It was love at first site, that huge wrap around bar with endless taps of beery goodness. The food was pretty damn good too.

So when the Yard House opened at Town Square last year, we needed to stop in and check it out. The evening we were their last year, I remember it being noisy and kinda on they hip side. We being the anti hip crowd, decided to avoid visiting it again on a Friday night.

Well we finally made it back last night, before our screening of Watchmen. Our timing was good as we made it for happy hour and with many lovely half price appetizers to be had, we went crazy. I started out with a Stone IPA and poured over the menu. We finally decided on a fine array of items, heavy on the seafood and for the most part very good.

My inner Gordon Ramsey prompted me to pick the Blue Crab Cakes first, they were good but a bit bland. They had a mango relish on the side, and very little filler in the cake itself. But still for the most part not a lot really good crab flavor. We had no problem eating them, none the less.

Next up we went for the other hot item of our quad, they Moo Shu Egg rolls. These were easily the highlight both for flavor and ease of eating. The applesauce ish dipping sauce on the side was a bit meh, but the egg rolls themselves were spicy of ginger, filled with lots of chicken. Very tasty.

Next up the crazy California Roll, this thing was a challenge. Set on a giant cake of rice, about 6 inches in diameter, it was tough to navigate but tasted great. A mix of cucumber and crab layered on the top of the rice and fish roe on top of that as well. Garnished with additional crab, avocado and pickled ginger, it was surrounded by a plating of oil and a wasabi, soy concoction.

Last we had the huge Poke stack, not sure why I chose this rather than the seared ahi. Storm was about done by then opting to polish off the California Roll. I went straight for the tuna and avoided the accompanying carrot bean sprout mixture that was in the middle.

I managed to polish off a couple more Stone IPA's along the way, too busy eating to look for another beer to drink. All in all very nice and another enjoyable meal at this establishment.