ABBA!

 
What  a great week!
 
I spotted this jarred herring in a fancy store in Milwaukee and just had to share it with you! Who knew that Abba did pickled herring!
 
I finished my jury duty last week, just missing getting on an attempted murder trial with two defendants on Tuesday... and getting off a bit early of Thursday, not a bad finish. Work paid for one of the days, and for the day I was actually on a jury I think I get 15 bucks and a letter of thanks from the judge. (I'll frame the letter..)
 
After that, I worked straight through until Tuesday and flew to Chicago, (Midway) on Wednesday and met a group of people from our Southwest region. We picked up our rental and then visited three of our stores in the Chicago area, and then drove to Milwaukee for the American Cheese Conference. We checked in to the very lovely Hilton there, which was built in 1928. It''s a fantastic old hotel in immaculate condition, the service was great! We had dinner at a place nearby, (I had a brat, since we were in brat country) and we all tucked in early enough for the nite.
 
The next morning, we met for a buffet breakfast in the hotel and then went to our first seminar; "Affinage", which was interesting enough, and then after a break we had lunch, again provided by the hotel. The food was O.K., but just O.K. And we are hard to please...
 
After lunch, some of us did a seminar on traveling for cheese, (for which I will be doing a presentation next year), and after that we had drinks in the hotel bar and then went off to meet the Midwest team for a dinner that they were hosting at a very good natural and organic restaurant. I have to admit that my expectations were not high for this dinner, but I was pleasantly suprised! This place was fantastic! I had the best carpaccio (with fresh white truffles) that I have ever had, and the organic beef tenderloin was stellar! The wine selection was not so good, so we drank Chimay which served us well. We sailed back to the hotel bar and had some more drinks, mostly the local brew and managed to get up to our rooms.
 
The next morning, I met some of our group for breakfast and then went to a retailing seminar that was most interesting. There were a lot of people there from the industry, (most of the really big players) and a lot of cheese makers, all trying to figure out how to sell more cheese. Considering the fact that many of the people in the room would gladly cut each other's throats in competitive merchandising, it was a civil enough panel and imformative.
 

 
For the afternoon, we all went to busses and proceeded to visit a couple of gourmet retail stores, one of which was interesting. The other store featured a nineteen year old "Miss Wisconsin Swiss Cheese Queen" with goopy pageant hair and a rhinestone tiara handing out samples. I'm sorry that I do not have a picture of her for you, but there was just no way that I could have done it! I thought it would be cute to have our regional cheese coordinator doing a graceful bow to the Swiss Cheese Queen... but that made her laugh so hard that the picture was out of the question. (I love her, she has such a good sense of humor! She always gets it.)
 
You see the poor girl, who looked like she would have rather spent the day in hell, was standing in front of an enormous display of Velveeta!
 
The bus delivered us back to the hotel, where we had an hour or so to rest and then...
 

 
...we went to the Milwaukee Art Museum a very amazing building on the shore of Lake Michigan for a reception. The wings that you see in the pic fold up and down during the day. It's extraordinary; the building is a work of art. And there is art inside.
 

 
Like this Chihuly glass installation. Well, I just love Chihuly, and within seconds of saying that out loud, I was in conversation with a well heeled cheese maker that owned a few pieces. Then I finally met the woman from Neal's Yard that had set up our (Massy's and my) visits to the Irish cheese makers and was able to thank her in person for her help (she had been sequestered as a judge for two days...) and also tell her that the article that I wrote for the company newsletter was going to be published soon, and that after that she was welcome to use it for any promotional purposes. She seemed happy about this, and she should be; it's a good piece. And I was happy too. It's a good example of what I can do when someone sends me out on a cheese trip.
 
The next morning after breakfast, I hooked up with my regional coordinator and some other people from our region and we reported for duty at the main ballroom to set up the vast displays of cheese for the big event that night. I got one of the tables to do, not the biggest display, but still.... Eight hours later we had finshed and my group went downstairs to the bar for some refreshments. After a while, we went back upstairs quickly to change into some less funky clothes and attend the big event. After all the displays are built, everyone leaves the room and the judges come in and place the various first, second, and third ribbons on the winning cheeses that were scored during the previous two day judging period. Then we all get to go in and see who won. (The table I did looked rather perfect with a cascade of ribbons in perfect symmetry down the front, as if I knew who would win for that category, but that was just blind luck. The pics that follow are of two of the tables, but not of the one I did. I haven't got a pic of that yet, but will soon from another source. My camera battery went out... doh!)
 


 
We went around tasting each of the winning cheeses, at least the ones that I hadn't tasted while I was setting up, and dishing a few of the choices while agreeing with most of the others. There were some amazing cheeses! My new favorite blue is the Crater Lake Bleu. It's a brilliant blue cheese, and most important for this competition, it's a brilliant American blue! It's original in it's flavor profile, not an imitation of a continental cheese. It was made by Ig Vella, the son of the man perfected Vella Dry Jack and a legend in cheese making in the Sonoma Valley.
 
There were other choices that stood out, but this was the big one for me. (Carr Valley's Gran Canaria won "Best of Show" and it was great, but I am a blue and washed rind fanatic so it wasn't as big of a deal for me.)
 
There were over 800 cheeses this year for the competition, about two hundred more than last year and twice as many as the year before. American artinisal cheese making is beginning to come into it's own and we are not just making imitations of the great cheeses of Europe, we are charting our own course. And that's a good thing.
 
We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel bar, which we had adopted as our place to meet, arguing about the various merits of the cheeses that we had seen and discussing how we might merchandise them in our stores and what wines and beers might work with them and then as it got later, we talked about how we felt about what we do and how we get through each day of work.
 
These are my people.
 
I work with an amazing group of people; we are passionate about the stuff we sell because we love it so. The cheeses that we sell are alive; pockets of protein protected by a microbial community with an amazing complexity and a  venerable history. The flavors and textures are linked to the land; a cheese is a product of it's locale, the grass and soil, the terroir. The animals that feed on that environment, produce milk that is flavored by what they eat and the cheese makers work with the local microbial population, often brilliantly, to produce something that is wonderful, and sometimes sensually awe inspiring. And every one of us involved from farm to market, goes totally over the top when someone gets it right.
 
 
 
 
So, anyway... next is Vegas to meet luca and see GC and Bok, and then a drive down to Santa Fe...  (we may or may not get to see Alex there, we're still working on the exact dates).
 
Other changes in my life are on the table, but nothing definite yet.
 
Just a lot of very interesting possiblities... and out of that pile will come what may.
 
I'm ready.
 
durlx
 
 

This last Thursday...

I dreaded doing jury duty. I just didn't want to do it! O.K. I know it's a civic duty, a price I am supposed to pay for my freedom, a responsibility that I have to fulfill in order to be part of a just society. But, I still didn't want to do it. I was very busy, and couldn't afford the time, (there was only one day of paid time off for this...). And the idea of hanging around with possible criminals and their lawyers on one or more of my days off did not appeal to me in the slightest way. Worst of all there was no way I could avoid it.

I went the first day feeling low and mean and very sleepy, and much to my dismay, everyone was very nice to me; they thanked me for coming, calmly explained what was required of me and apologized if there was any inconvenience. A judge came to the prospective jury waiting room and told us why it was important for us to be there, and he apologized for our inconvenient circumstances and made a few lame jokes about it, but you could hardly fault him for his efforts to make us feel that we were important to the legal process. But I was out of there by one PM that day, all the courts, but one had settled without a jury.

The next day I went, Thursday...
...was different. After an hour and a half, I was called with a 50 person jury group to a court room. So we went up and sat down. They called the first thirteen and the judge explained what was going to happen, (spending a great deal of time about how it would not "be like Perry Mason", something that I think was lost on about half of the prospective jurors), but still putting the point across that the defendant was innocent and that it was up to the prosecution to convince us that the defendant was guilty, instead of the defense proving that he was innocent.

They called the first thirteen prospective jurors and started to interview them. The judge asked each one, in turn, if they had any friends or relatives in law enforcement, if they or any close friends had been victims of a crime and if that would make them unable to make a fair judgement in the case. Finally, he asked if they would be able to apply the law to their understanding of the case and make a fair judgement. Everyone answered in turn.

Then the prosucution talked to each of the prospectice jurors, and then the defense attorney, each of them making litle jokes along the way as they talked about the various points that might be covered in the case.

Then the judge told everyone that if they were not picked for the trial, they shouldn't feel bad; someone else just got picked. And for those who were picked, well, they should feel honored.

I'm sitting among the crowd of the un-picked and thinking "if they just take these first 13, I can be out of here in another thirty minutes! But no.

Half of the first group are excused and they call another thirteen, of which I am one. So, I am sitting there in the jury box and I am finally starting to think about how I really feel about it. And then the judge is asking me; "Are any of your relatives or friends in law inforcement?"

"No, there are not."

"Have you or any of your close friends or relatives been victims of a crime?"

"Yes. I have been mugged and robbed. Two of my employees at a business that I owned were robbed at gunpoint and eight of my close friends have been robbed at gun point at one time over the last decade."

"Would this prevent you from making a fair judgement in this case?"

"Well, no..."

"You don't sound very sure..."

"Well, I've been thinking about this as these questions came up and I'm not sure how I feel."

The judge then went into a few minutes of explaination of what was really happening in the court and in the end I had to say,

"I can be fair in this." and then he went on to the next person.

I thought it was a slam dunk; the prosecution might want me, but the defense would drop me like a poison snake.

But during the cross with both the prosecution and the defense lawyer, it was like I was the hit of the social season. "You do retail? What Kind?" "Grocery." "Oh! Which one?" "Whole Foods Market." "Do you have a brother?" "Yes." "Do you all maybe get together and write stories?" (This with a wink from the defense lawyer, expecting a laugh...). "No. No, we do not." (I said it, totally dead pan, which amused the judge a bit, and apparantly the defense lawyer as well, since I was picked for the jury).

Then we broke for lunch, a cold version of Five Happiness' "Boneless Chicken with gummy strange rice with shrimp that is supposed to look like fried rice, but is definitely not really fried rice, but it's good enough for jurors since we got the contract". I was hungry by then, so I ate it, but I am going to have a word with Paggy Lee from Five Happiness next time I see her. (Yeah, that's really her name... Paggy Lee.)

The details of the case (armed robbery) were many and would take a long time to relate, but basically, the defense never said that their guy didn't do it, (he was wearing a jacket with his name embroidered on it, he was so there, and with a gun...) just that he didn't actually get any money, so they hoped that we as a jury would reduce the charge from armed robbery to attempted armed robbery, a lessor charge with less time. There was one other odd detail that was presented without too much comment by the prosecutor. But it was there and it quietly pointed to prior trangressions, but that wasn't our concern.

It took 15 minutes for our jury, precisly divided between black and white, male and female to finish the deliberation, and five of those minutes were for deciding on the foreman, who politely demured at first, and then finally accepted his post. We were of one accord; the fact that he robbed someone at gunpoint and didn't actually get anything did not change the fact that he did the crime. And then we were excused and then I went to work and worked until 10 PM.

And back to work at 8 ayem... I was tired at the end of that next day, but, well... it just wasn't as bad as I thought it would be doing jury duty. There was that moment, each time as we gathered by the door to the courtroom, and the man said, "Please rise for the jury!" and we walked in and everyone else was standing, waiting for us to take our places. That was O.K. We were given respect. It was up to us to decide the merits of the prosecutions' case and make a decision that would greatly affect the defendant, and the victim as well.

As I was leaving work today I told a bit of the story to one of our detail cops, a very charming and very handsome man. (He's gorgeous...and a really smart cop... Davo and Glennie know which one...) He's very clever and knows a great deal about what goes on in the city. He said, "You all did convict, right?" I told him that we did.

He smiled and said, "You did right."

I've got two more days to serve, Tuesday and Thursday. I don't dread them so much any more.


July 22, I leave for the American Cheese Society Conference, but there's a few problems with travel arrangements. For one, I can't seem to find a room for the third night, Saturday. Apparently it is also the day of the Milwaukee Mousquuito Slapping Contest, or some such other major Wisconsin event and there are no rooms available! I may have to stay at the airport that night! But I'd sleep in the subway, darlin', (if they had one) for one night, because I love cheese! We'll see.

And, another chat with luca this evening about our upcoming road trip... he keeps mentioning "area 51" and how much he would like me to meet some of his family.

Things continue to move at a rather accelerated pace for me...
...and that's a good thing.

After the upstate NY/Toronto trip, I was in New Orleans for only six days. I worked in the New Orleans store on Tuesday morning and flew to Denver that afternoon. The weather sucked and ground stops in both Dallas and Denver delayed my arrival. I finally got the rental car, (after dealing with some very rude people at Avis... I mean this was set up on a corporate account and they acted like I was trying to steal the car because I wouldn't give them a personal credit card number). Drove north to Ft. Collins in a driving rain storm and checked in at the residence inn at around midnight. After that, everything went smoothly. I had a late breakfast and got into the new store about noon and went to work. They did a good job with this one and I had a fantastic time there. I didn't have much time to do anything other than work, but I did get a chance on Friday to drive into the mountains for a couple of hours.



The drive to Rocky Mountain National Park took about an hour each way, but the scenery on the way was lovely, especially along the Thompson River on the way to Estes Park and back. I only spent about 45 minutes in the park, but it was an orgasmic 45 minutes! There aren't any mountains here in the big mother swamp, and I like mountains! I found myself kind of moaning every so often as I drove along and some fabulous geological feature came into view... it was a lil' strange... I couldn't help making that noise...



Wow. I really need to go back and see some more of that.

Ft. Collins.

It's a college town, (University of Colorado), and IBM, HP and a few other companies are located there. The parts of the city that I saw were all very well manicured in that suburban sort of way. It was very pleasant, the summer weather very easy to take, enervating in fact, with highs in the low 80's and low humidity. I enjoyed my time there. I worked at the store Saturday morning until about eleven and the headed down I-25 to Denver, an absolutely gorgeous drive. The foot hills of the Rockies were most amazing to me! They are hills, but they are huge! The views during the drive were stunning, and of course, always to the right, the Rockies, some of them capped with snow. I enjoyed every minute of the drive.



Denver International Airport is a truly bizarre place. Architecturally, it's brilliant; depending on which way you approach it, it either looks like a group of science fiction like tents on the plains or a part of the Rocky Mountains. It's an impressive place, clean and new, but it's odd also; it has an odd feeling to it which I noticed the first time I was there for a connecting flight. There were astronomical cost overruns (from one point something billion to way over four billion, and that's a lot!) during it's building and a lot of controversy. This site has some wierd theories about the airport. Could any of it be true? I certainly don't know. But I can tell you this; during the underground train ride to the "C" Terminal, I noticed that the walls of the tunnel were lined with hundreds of little propellers mounted on the tunnel walls that would spin as the train wooshed by. A bit of whimsy perhaps? Or is there a more sinister purpose, hehe.

A stark contrast...

I arrived at MSY in New Orleans and was immediately overwhelmed by a sinking feeling. The airport is nice enough for a smaller non-hub, but after I picked up my bag, I stepped out into the humidity and the filth of the taxi loading area and found a taxi right away. It was, as often happens, one of the lazy drivers who prefer picking up unsuspecting visitors at the airport and trying to fleece them instead of making an honest living. The driver was obviously dismayed when he realized that I as a citizen of the town, and he was a total annoying asshole the entire way. He reluctantly asked me if I would like the A/C on, (by law, it was supposed to be on already for passengers), and when I said yes, he acted annoyed. The cab was dirty and in poor condition. I used to always report these morons to the cab authority, but ah, this time I just couldn't summon up the energy. Something has happened to my sense of civic pride...

After getting home at midnight Saturday, I worked Sunday and Monday here in New Orleans. On Sunday, I had to deal with an outside contractor who just furthur eroded my feelings about this crazy city.

What fresh hell is this?

So, after seven days of mostly enjoyable work, I had two days off, today being the first of the two. Did I get to "sleep in late" or just relax?

No. I got up early in order to go to the Criminal Courts Building for Jury Duty! Just what I needed. The building is on the National Historic Register, (it's been used in many films) and it would be a joy to visit it if it wasn't so grimy and populated with our particular brand of public employees, (not to mention the various criminals and their keepers...). It wasn't as horrible as I thought it might be, but it was bad enough. I had to stomp on a big cockroach that was trying to get to my Barg's. There were twelve courts in session today and they called fifty people out of the two-hundred and fifty prosepctive jurors crammed into the basement room for a trial about ten ayem. (For a twelve person jury, they need fifty people to cover the rejections by both sides, and any other recusals.)

As time went on, the person in charge would announce how many courts were still in session. Very few jurors are ever chosen, in most cases the defendant pleads guilty and there is no need for jurors. About eleven ayem, they announced that there were only two courts left in session and that they would be six person juries if they needed them, and they read off the names of fifty people that would have to stay. I was one of the ones who remained in their chairs after the others went off joyfully. A few minutes later they read off another twenty-five names since another court had settled. Once again, I was left behind.

At noon, the judge sent down word that we were to go to lunch and be back at one PM. I walked out and looked at my choices. Should I go visit one of the many bail bondsmen I had gotten to know when I worked for the Cajun Chef, bailing out his cooks when they went astray? Or should I go to one of the dumpy food establishments in the area? (Which includes one of the oldest looking Mickey D's in the country, it still has those "golden arches" that go right over the building...) I decided to just go back into the holding room and get a bag of cheesy snacks from the vending machine. At ten minutes to one, they announced that the defendant in the last court in session had pleaded guilty and we were free to go! I jumped on my scooter and roared off to freedom, free, free, free at last!

Of course, it immediately went from was once a sunny day to pouring rain.

Do you wonder why I ponder leaving this place?

Two recent films.

Lord of the Rings.



I finally watched the third film in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I can't say enough about these three films; it's just an incredibly amazing accomplishment! I've read the books several times over the years, always enjoying them, always becoming totally immersed in the rich texture of the stories. I read a lot and I always have a fairly vivid picture in my mind of the landscape of the books that I read. I was concerned that the Lord of the Rings films would not live up to my vision of the scenes in the books. But everything was nearly perfect, just like I had imagined everything might look. The actors in the film looked so right; the guy who did Gollum was brilliant! The elves were all perfect. The humans and the dwarf were perfect. Only the hobbits were a bit different than what I had imagined, and after a little while, they seemed just right as well. The adaptation of these revered fantasy novels for film was a monumental acheivement!



Party Monster.



O.K. I know. This is not a "critically acclaimed" big box office hit film. Lots of poeple hated it, almost all of the reviews were scathing. I think it was all just a bit much for all of them.

I liked it. But then I loved James St. James book, Disco Bloodbath! It's a peek into the "club kid" scene in NYC in the eighties, (a scene that the infamous Mark Allen knew something about), and a juicy peek at that. James St. James is a witty and clever man I think, I find his drug use and fabulous use of costume intiguing and amusing, and his writing clever enough. As for Micheal Alig and the club kids; how could you not want to find out more about them? What were they thinking! bwahahahaha!

The reviewers hated McCauley Culkin. But he did a very good job of acting the part of Alig. And he looked rather good doing it. There's a scene where Alig has just recovered from a drug overdose, (well, nearly recovered) and grabs the drip rack and saunters out of the hospital and into his next party where he wears a couple of strips of cloth tape, some glittery eye makeup, a lil' pouch for his doodads and nothing else. There's a lengthy scene of him from behind and well, for a lil' chicken, it's choice.

Marilyn Manson plays Christine, a large and delerious drag, (or perhaps gender changing) person, but honestly, I could have played that part... probably you could have too after a costume and make up session and a few Jeagermiesters.

But the real reason that puts all this over the top for me is that fact that Seth Green plays James St. James. I'm a Seth fan. He's one of those people that when I see him in a film, I can't not look at him. If you've paid any attention during the last three years of my site, you might have noticed that a man of his stature and coloring tends to push a lot of buttons for me. To see him play a flambouyant gay man was a real plus, and I think he did a pretty good job of it. (And you can bet I watched all of the extra DVD stuff...)

Party Monster is a very gay film, (although there are not a lot of homo-erotic scenes, there should have been a few...) very not "main stream", not a great film, but entertaining enough for us. The murder was horrible, but the characters involved were a wonder, worth looking at.

What next?

Well, the American Cheese Society Conference is coming up soon, the end of July, in Wisconsin. It's the Oscars of American artinisal cheese making! I'll so be there.

And I just talked to luca today. It looks like there may be a road trip in August...

Fair warning to all within a five hundred mile radius of Las Vegas!

durlx