Yosemite National Park

For Memorial Day weekend my girlfriend and I decided to go hit up Yosemite National Park, as neither of us had been there before and it sounded awesome. As it turns out, awesome was indeed upon the menu and in such abundance that I thought I would share.

Clicking on the image above will send you to an album with all my photos.

Because we went on a holiday weekend, the on-site cabins and hotel rooms were either booked up or ridiculously expensive, so we turned to the ever reliable Airbnb for an alternative. We ended up settling on a condo two hours east in Mammoth Lake. While it would require a fairly hefty drive to get into the heart of Yosemite, we figured the drive would be half the fun. And sure enough it was, although it took twice as long as expected due to the holiday traffic.

I wish my pictures could better convey the heights depicted within because the drop-offs on the ride into and out of Yosemite were enough to make my palms sweat. But boy did they make for great photos! And once we were with Yosemite Valley, it was just the reverse with massive mountains jutting up against the sky all around us. Next time we go I plan to hike up one of those bad boys.



Sadly, we didn't get a lot of time to wander Yosemite as the headlights in our car were broken (we could only use high beams; see Hiaku from Tuesday) but an hour and a half was more than enough to walk to loops beneath the waterfall and through the prairie. And as I mentioned before, the ride in provided us with LOTS of fodder for photos and videos, the latter of which I've yet to dive into.

That was Saturday. On Sunday we decided to stay local and check out the sites around Mammoth lake, which included Mono Lake, a beautiful, massive salt-water lake that is three times as salty as the ocean. It's also littered with Tufa rock formations, formed from...well, I don't really remember how they formed, but they look cool.



We also went off the beaten path and found a much smaller lake hidden among the mountains that was absolutely gorgeous, albeit colonized by what appeared to be a slice of the backwater, redneck South transplanted into the West Coast. I swear I could hear a banjo echoing off the hills...

But our biggest find was a restaurant all by its lonesome out near Mono lake called The Historic Mono Inn. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Mammoth Lakes I beg you, BEG YOU, to go have dinner at this place. It was AMAZING. I ordered the Shredded Lamb Ravioli and my girlfriend got the Rack of Antelope. I almost ordered another serving of the ravioli for dessert, but didn't, which I of course now regret.

The restaurant is fairly small, and because of an absent waiter we were actually served by the co-owner, who was very aimable and was kind enough to answer all of our questions about the place. Even the chef (who was the other co-owner) had a chance to come out and speak to us briefly, at which point I drowned him with praise. I also left a 30% tip, which was probably a first, and clearly deserved.

I don't know how soon I'll be able to get back up to Yosemite, but I will definitely be going back. And if you have any opportunity to do so yourself I highly recommend it.

Daily Haiku - May 29, 2013

Chaotic morning
People leaving, people fired
Crazy email rant.

Daily Haiku - Yosemite Edition

Car headlights broken
Chasing the sun as night falls
Mountain shadows loom.

Daily Haiku - May 23, 2013

Voices harmonize
Over notes of ivory;
Spirits lift in joy.

Busy as a Bee(drill)!

I’m alive, I swear! I’ve just been super busy with staffing our new shows at work and…THE POKEMUSICAL! Yes, my brilliantly offbeat and wacky audition managed to snag me the roles of Professor Oak (good guy) and Giovanni (bad guy). I had Monday off to recover from my trip to Buffalo last weekend, but otherwise I’ve been heading straight to three or four hours of rehearsal after work, and then straight to bed.

We had our first read-through last night and it went great. The quantity of talent, especially in the vocal category, is stunning. There are some amazing songs in the musical and my fellow cast members are just hitting them out of the park. And the script is hilarious, a slightly more adult take on the classic children’s anime series.

Part of the reason that we jumped headfirst into rehearsals is because we only have three weeks to get the show ready for the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Normally musicals would have at least twice as much time to construct, but I’m not worried. Everyone is working really hard and it’s going to be gangbusters!

Can you tell that I’m excited? I am. If you want to get a taste of what the musical is like, here’s a recording of the opening number for the show’s premiere earlier this year.


Image source: 1, 2

Taped auditions are the BEST auditions.

So the Hollywood Fringe Festival is almost upon us and I thought I’d throw my hat in the ring and try auditioning for something. In this case, 'something' turned out to be The Pokemusical, which is a loving send up to Pokemon in all its ridiculous glory.

There was such a flood of applicants though that the theatre had to switch over to video auditions to make sure they could see everyone, which led to what is easily the strangest audition I have ever partaken in. And where’s the fun in doing something incredibly strange if you can’t share it with folks?



Right? RIGHT?!

Daily Haiku - May 14, 2013

Absurd audition
For an audience of one;
Thank God she dates me.

Daily Haiku - May 13, 2013

Now, oppressive heat
Baking plant and man alike
Late Spring plays catch-up.

Is this the real life or is this just fantasy?

I took last Thursday off from work to go audition for a new fantasy-based reality series with a few friends. One of the questions asked of everyone was how we got into fantasy. This actually required a bit of thought as I couldn’t recall off the top of my head how it occurred for me.

As far as I can recall, my sister was responsible for getting me into fantasy, as well as science fiction, which in turn led me into my love of comics which lasted for about 15 years. Specifically, it was a graphic novel series called Elfquest.

Elfquest was a comic book series written and drawn by Wendy and Richard, revolving around a group of elves (the Wolfriders) and their attempts to survive in a world hostile to their kind. My sister had the first four volumes of The Complete Elfquest, which were glossy, magazine-sized graphic novels that compiled the first twenty issues of the series.

I don’t remember when exactly I was exposed to the series, but it was likely in my very early teens, and they were a wonderful source of content for my dreams and imagination. For years I imagined myself as the lone human to be accepted by their tribe, running through the forest with them, hunting with them, going on daring adventures with them.

While I did have friends, I didn’t really see any of them outside of school, so I was often left on my own for entertainment, and these books were an oasis for me. And more importantly, they were the gateway into the larger world of comic books that kept me hooked up until a few years ago, when I finally stopped purchasing titles on a monthly basis.

Of course, that wasn’t my only source of education in the world of fantasy. Around that time I got into Dragonlance, also through my sister, and the original Chronicles trilogy cemented my love for the genre. From there I branched out into other novels of the same series, classics like Legends trilogy, dealing with the troubled relationship between the warrior Caramon Majere and his brother, the mage Raistlin Majere, The Legend of Huma, and Kaz the Minotaur. Sadly, I didn’t get into Forgotten Realms until my mid-20s, and then it was only for the Drizzit novels (good stuff).

I actually haven’t read any of those in over a decade, and now that I’ve thought about them I really want to go back and give them another go and see if they’ve stood the test of time. Thankfully, most used book stores tend to have hoards of them, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Hell, the library may even still have some of them in stock!

If you haven’t read Elfquest of any of the classic Dragonlance novels before I would highly recommend you check them out. All the Elfquest comics can be found online for free now, and as I mentioned previously the Dragonlance novels can probably be found just about anywhere there’s a used book store.

But if you’re looking for the very cream of the crop in the Fantasy world, I would have to point you directly to Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and its sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, which are the first two installments of The Kingkiller Chronicle. These are probably the best written fantasy novels I’ve ever read, though not my favorite.

That titled goes to a random series I stumbled across called, Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors. It’s a compilation of the first three books in the series, which revolve around a bunch of college kids who suddenly find themselves thrust into the pretend world in which they had been playing. I think at my peak I owned three different copies of the book.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Daily Haiku - May 9, 2013

One more game, then off.
Good intentions pave my path
Yet here I remain.

Daily Haiku - May 7, 2013

Pilot preview week
Breakfast and entertainment
Plus new Fall line-up.

What I'm Cooking: Whole Wheat Pizza

So one of my friends is leaving for the East Coast tomorrow and decided to throw a goodbye party for himself on Saturday. Being a proper, hot-blooded American he decided his (almost) final meal by the Pacific should be pizza. And lo and behold, the most recent issue of Cooks’ Illustrated just happened to have a recipe for whole wheat pizza, which turned out to be FANTASTIC. So come, join me on my not-so-mystical journey into the mildly healthier world of whole wheat pizza.

Like most recent recipes, this one recommends using a food processor to make the dough, mixing in the yeast with the other dry goods. I’ve always found this odd because I’ve always been under the impression you wanted to activate the yeast first by throwing it in warm water with the sugar. *shrugs* But who am I to argue with Cooks’ Illustrated?

The Dough (makes 2 12-inch pies):

1 1/2 cups (8 1/4 ounces) whole-wheat flour
1 cup (5 1/2 ounces) bread flour
2 teaspoons honey
3/4 teaspoon instant or rapid-rise yeast
1 1/4 cups ice water
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4 teaspoons salt

The first step is to combine the flours, yeast and honey in the processor and give it a quick spin. I’ve used honey before, but never in combination with dry goods and was worried it was just going to clump, but it was an unnecessary concern.

Next, while the processor is running, slowly poor the ice water and continue to spin until there is no dry flour remaining. Let the dough stand for 10 minutes.

Finally, add the oil and salt to the dough and process until it forms sticky ball that clears the sides of processor. That completed, remove the dough and give it a good knead on an oiled countertop until smooth (something else I had never done before). Shape dough into tight ball and place in large, lightly oiled bowl. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 18 hours or up to 2 days.

The Sauce:	The Toppings:
¼ cup olive oil 2 cloves of minced garlic 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 1/8 teaspoon of red pepper flakes 1/8 teaspoon of salt	1 cup of fresh basil 1/2 cup grated Romano cheese 2 cup mozzarella cheese 3/4 cup Ricotta cheese

Toss the oil in a skillet on medium-low heat until shimmering, then throw everything else in and constantly stir until fragrant, about thirty seconds to a minute. Let cool before using.

An hour before you plan to cook your pizza, remove the dough from the fridge, split it into two equal balls and let them rest on a well-oiled surface covered with an equally well-oiled bit of plastic wrap.

Now at this point CI would have you preheat the oven to 500 degrees, with the pizza stone resting on the highest rack available, just below the broiler. Then they’d have you blast the broiler for 10 minutes to really heat up the stone before returning the oven to 500 and throwing in the pizza. Unfortunately, my pizza stone is only rated for 450 degrees, and sticking it under a broiler would definitely crack it, so 450 degree it is.

Anywho…once you’ve fully preheated the stone for an hour, start rolling out your dough. Using a spoon, spread half of the sauce over each pizza, followed by the basil, Romano and mozzarella. Once your toppings are complete toss the pizza into the oven for 8-10 minutes. Depending on what temperature you cook it at you might need to add a few minutes.

Once the pizza is done, remove it from the oven and dollop on as much ricotta cheese as you want. After letting it rest for about five minutes, cut that sucker into slices and chow down! This pizza was delicious and I will absolutely make it again.

Daily Haiku - May 3, 2013

The body rebels
Aches and pains demand movement
Democracy now!

Scalding water burns
Cleansing both hands and dishes
Sins and filth erased.

Daily Haiku - May 1, 2013

The phones have gone down
Office consumed by chaos
Cue 'Lord of the Flies'