GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Notes

  • Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, 2017

    I woke up thinking about the animated movie Mary and the Witch’s Flower, which was done by a group of Studio Ghibli alumni.

    The drawing style of the movie was classic Ghibli in its look and feel, as was the story with a strong girl as the lead in a fantastical world.  In fact, it was based off of a story by Mary Stewart, who had also written the story behind Howl’s Moving Castle, which is a very good movie by Ghibli.

    Unfortunately however, there was something missing in this effort.  Or rather, I should say maybe there was too much thrown into this effort.  It hit all the classic Ghibli beats, but it just didn’t hold together tightly as an experience.

    I wonder what was the missing piece of the puzzle.  I wonder if it because they didn’t have big headliners on their team, like directors Miyazaki or Takahata, or if it was someone outside of the limelight who held a quiet influence over the studio process.

    What is the magic ingredient that takes excellent craftsmanship and shapes it into greatness?

  • Atrium!

    The other day I went to a meeting at a consultant’s office.  As I entered the main entry, my eye caught the name of the complex, “Rent your office at the Atrium!”

    I saw the fire stairs and rushed up the usual utilitarian set of concrete steps with metal pipe rail.  But when I pushed open the door to the second floor…there was indeed an open courtyard with a big rock landscape feature with stream in the middle!

    So yes, it was exactly as advertised, this is an open impressive atrium office building. In suburbia, you’re definitely fed a whole lot of bull with the building names, but once in a blue moon a developer will give you exactly what they promised.

  • Bread, 15 November 2018

    I decided to also do a steamed bread for the Thanksgiving potluck today and it worked out pretty good.

    240g all purpose flour (Costco)
    60g whole wheat flour (Montana Wheat)
    150g water
    50g starter
    30g sugar

    If I thought my sourdough was easy, the steamed bread that my wife has been working on is even more so.  On Wednesday morning we mixed up the ingredients in the kitchenaid and let it sit.  After I came home from work last night, we proofed it in the oven and accidentally overproofed it so I added an extra 60g of flour to the final 300g overall that we see up there.

    Then I let it recover from the re-knead for an hour, took it out and put it in the steamer, let it proof for a half hour and then steamed it for 45 minutes.  I can’t complain, it kept its shape and was nice and tasty.

  • Bread, 13 November 2018

    I baked two of these for our office Thanksgiving potluck.

    The pretty one went to work.

  • Monster’s University, Dan Scanlon, 2013

    We watched Monsters University a couple days ago and I have to say I was quite surprised.  I had very low expectations at first after realizing it was a prequel during the first scene.  In fact I almost walked away to do some chores. However, by the end of the movie I was impressed. It showed me the story telling potential of a prequel, which I had previously written off as an impossible task after the weak Star Wars movies as well as the horrific Assimov infill Foundation infill novels.

    The movie did the basic job of a prequel, illuminating the characters and the relationships of the main protagonists.  Unlike other prequels that seem to repeat the genre structure and tropes of the original, Monster’s U also does a good job of telling a different and amusing story. It’s not a groundbreaking story, but as a sequel to another children’s film it doesn’t need to.

    Ultimately it made my wife and I want to rewatch Monster’s Inc, to see how knowing that original story would be different now that we know the backstory of these guys. I’m not sure if there’s a higher recommendation that I can give than that.

  • Kahuna, Günter Cornett, 1998

    We bought the game Kahuna on a sale the other day.  I had not researched it thoroughly but the price was right and I had heard good things about it.  Even if the game itself is a little to complex for my daughter’s age, I knew the rules were very simple so we started playing it anyways.

    A few plays in, a chain reaction revealed itself on the board.  At that moment, I was reminded why I love boardgames, especially the old german style games that was popular in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.

    For me it’s not about winning, even though the fact it is a competition does sharpen the mind.  The true joy in boardgaming is found in these moments where the game mechanics come together to create an emergent moment you couldn’t easily envision after a straight reading of the simple rules.

  • Bread, 7 November 2018

    I am publishing this way after the fact, but I believe this is one of our early forays into steamed bread.

  • A new food lifestyle

    I’ve been enjoying the products of the food scientists at the local fast food chains and it’s become clear it’s time to change things up.

    Our office has a large break room with a good sized kitchen sink, so I woke up this morning and realized that if I brought some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, the salad spinner, some greens, and nuts, I’d be doing pretty darn good.  There is also a range, so I could also bring eggs if I’m feeling particularly fancy.

    I suspect I’ve been trapped in a mindset created way back in  Houston when we didn’t have a car for a year and a half.  But I have one now, and if I’m gonna drive to BK, I might as well go to Smiths and get something slightly less unhealthy.

  • An organic block party

    Last night, we went again to a big block party down in the southwest part of town.  Almost two thirds of the houses in this cul de sac was seriously decorated, as was many other houses in the subdivision leading towards their street.

    Last year we were invited by friends to this block, who were themselves invited by friends of one of the originators of this event.  My wife was pregnant with the boy at the time so we took a moment to rest on chairs on their driveway.  The originator came out and chatted with us and could not have been friendlier.

    She said the whole thing started up years ago because she and some neighbors got tired of going to the mall for halloween and decided to have a small block party instead with a couple folding tables in their driveways.  Over the years it has just grown and really become a major event.

    Sometimes things just happen, we just got to be there to ride it.

  • Bread, 26 October 2018

    As a state employee, I got to take Nevada Day off.  So the night before, I went ahead and mixed the dough at the next step up, 75% whole wheat.

    100g all purpose flour (Arrowhead)
    300g whole wheat flour (Montana Wheat)
    300g water
    100g starter
    11g salt
    11g olive oil

    I have a habit of waking up early during the work week, because I starting thinking about work the moment I wake up, which then makes me unable to fall back asleep.  However, since this was a weekend day for me, I managed to sleep in to 0740 and it meant the dough was on the edge of overproofing.

    I fired up the oven, preshaped the dough, and once the oven hit 450, I pulled out the pot, folded the dough and threw it in, and gave it the new square snip patter on top.  The thing was a little misshapen, but it came out well.  The flavor is fairly wheaty, but noticeably more than the 50% mix.

    The next step would be to either go up to 100% and see where it takes me, or to try making the 75% without the olive oil. I’m not sure which one will come next.