Big Casino to Look Like Brad Pitt

The Big Casino has joined a gym for the first time in his life. They asked me what my goals were and I said that I wanted to look like Brad Pitt (I know this is unambitious but you have to make sure your goals are achievable). I've gone twice and I'm like 1% towards my goal!

Big Casino on Backpacking

Next to this listing are some pictures from the Big Casino's recently completed backpacking trip. My brothers Paul and David as well as daughter Jessica went along. We spent two days getting into a choice lake in the Kaiser Wilderness Area. We spent four nights by the lake and had it to ourselves except for two day hikers who were fishing. We took a day hike up to some 10,000 foot lakes and took the picture of me with the backdrop of the Sierra Crest. It was pretty relaxing and between the four of us we read 8 books! It does occur to the Big Casino that there are different backpacking styles. The two largest contingents are those trained by the Boy Scouts (that would include the Big Casino) and those following the tenets of REI. I encourage everyone to backpack but let's review some of the differences between the Scouts and REI. I've decided that the Boy Scout motto, "be prepared", is more accurately entitled, "be prepared to adjust". For example, we always sleep outdoors on our ponchos rather than in tents, so we only bring tents in case it rains. So, I grabbed a $29 two person tent as we ran out the door. One night it did threaten to rain so we put up our tents and it was clear that mine was wholly inadequate to the task. Being old scouts, Paul and I jury-rigged my poncho over it using a hiking stick as a strut ensuring that if it were to rain we would be nice and dry. If I were an REI type backpacker, I'd have a $250 tent and wouldn't have had the fun to innovate! Another example is the old school grill I always carry to BBQ our fish on. More on backpacking types later.

Big Casino Recommends Santa Cruz Restaurant

Last night MABS and I went to La Posta on Seabright and it was brilliant. I had seabass cooked in parchment with clams and vegetables with a spot of wine. Subtle but very tasty. MABS as usual had crispy duck which was in a wine sauce sweetened with black grapes - very nice for sopping-up with the wonderful bread we were served. The bartender stopped by to chat and we learned that there are over 900 varietals (different kind of wine grapes) grown in the country of Italy. This is in comparison to what I've heard about CA which has something like 30 varietals. We tried a mere three of them last night. Delicious desert of vanilla gelato with a shot of espresso poured on top.

BBQing at Seacliff State Beach

Last weekend we celebrated the wonderous MABS' birthday at Seacliff State Beach. We arrived at 6:45 am in order to grab a couple tables near a barbeque on the strip of land between the actual beach and the road - a very popular location. Even at that early hour we were only able to grab the last three available tables to host the 100's of people who were going to attend this magical 60th birthday celebration. It turned out to be a huge success featuring bbq sausages and various salads. What was also very neat was people watching, such as watching all the people scurrying around at 7:00 am setting up their "sites" with everything from tarps to huge coffee urns. Later, around noon, I walked up and down that strip and observed all the different groups happily sitting around eating, drinking and talking. The groups were composed of a very diverse slice of people reminding the Big Casino that at its very best, America is a nation of immigrants raising their families, enjoying the company of their extended families and friends and all that encompasses living a purposeful life.

Big Casino has solved the problem of cooking eggplant

Everyone loves eating dishes with eggplant in them but most of us don' t like mushy foods. The problem with eggplant is that if you don't use salt to drain off the salt before cooking the eggplant winds up mushy. And if you cut up your eggplant and let it sit with salt for 20 minutes (as recommended) its hard to rinse all the salt off and then you wind up sauteing it which is delicious but not the healthiest option. With some credit given to my incomparable sister-in-law Nancy, the Big Casino has a solution. Cut up the eggplant roughly the size of carrot sticks or french fries or the goofy mozzarella stick appetizers, mix with a little olive oil and bake in a pan for like 30 to 45 minutes, at 450 degrees, stirring like every 15 minutes or so. They will come out of the oven as wonderfully flavorful thin eggplant strips - akin to jerky. You can munch on them immediately or save them and use in almost any dish, such as soft tacos, omelets, pasta dishes etc.

Big Casino asks for your help

While I was a Sophomore Sociology student at UCSB, I was very taken by one of the studies we reviewed that surveyed a large group of women who had had multiple sexual partners and concluded that the women rated their Jewish lovers as the best.  I have often quoted this study and recently have been dismayed that some people doubt its authenticity.  Despite my cursory efforts using Google, I have not been able to locate the study.  If anyone can find it for me they will get a prize!  I know that there is a raging debate between the hard sciences and the soft sciences (my children for example who mock my status as a "social scientist") but I always felt that the study mentioned above gave credence to the validity of the research my fellow social scientists conducted.

Big Casino Supports Cultural Arts

I'm very excited about this summer's Shakespeare Santa Cruz plays and plan on attending two of them, Shipwrecked and Midsummer Night's dream.  I already have tickets and suggest you support Shakespeare Santa Cruz and grab up your tickets soon.  (I'm going to skip Julius Caesar, mostly because of the trauma it caused me during English class as a Junior in High School.  We were all required to memorize the "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" speech and stand up and recite it in class.  If you got the first couple lines right you got a courtesy D and if you got all the lines right you were awarded an A.  Knowing my limitations in the memory department I was going for a B and worked overtime to learn all the lines necessary for the grade.  Unfortunately, when I stood up in front of my fellow Coltonites to recite the lines, I got just past C- and forgot everything else, leaving me with a grudge against the bard.  I hope the guy from SSC gets at A. )

Big Casino's Favorite Ten SC County Restaurants

I was asked today where one should go for seafood in Santa Cruz County and was kind of taken aback because I couldn't think of a seafood restaurant that I would recommend wholeheartedly. Yes there is Rivas and other places on the wharf  but none that I particularly care for - nor do we have anything with a cool name like Franks Fish Grotto or something like that.  So if you have any suggestions let me know.  I recommended Hula's Island Grille downtown which, coincidently, appears on my top ten list and has excellent fish served in a variety of sauces etc.

1.) Sabieng - everything is the best ever

2.) Khyber Pass (the chicken tikrit is amazing and "like sex" according to my friends daughter)

3.) Tacos Morenos (burrito with BBQ Pork)

4.) Little Shanghai

5.) Ristaurante Italiano

6.) El Alteno - Downtown Watsonville 

7.) Coles BBQ in Live Oak - very tasty BBQ sauce

8.) The new Greek place where Cymbaline used to be.  The lamb shanks are killer.

9.) Hula's Island Grille (great fish dishes)

10.) Tie between two old favorites - Tampicos and King Schwan

Santa Cruz Geo-Political Geography

Few things irritate the Big Casino more than the ignorance displayed by those who misrepresent the geographical boundaries of Santa Cruz.  The Westside is the University side of Mission Street and the Circles.   Then there is Downtown which is Mission to San Lorenzo River.  Then there is a region with no designation, San Lorenzo River to Ocean Street.  Finally, from Ocean Street to the Santa Cruz Eastern Border - the Eastside.  Live Oak is Live Oak - not Eastside Santa Cruz!

Where is the Center of the Universe?

Me and the MABS spent three nights and four days in San Diego and had a great time.  We stayed just a half block from Pacific Beach and enjoyed sitting in our rental chairs on the beach and reading and enjoying the wonderful weather, walking along the cliff path along the ocean, and visiting the amazing museums.  The restaurants were great and had lots of fun things to do. Actually, the Big Casino recommends you visit and don't miss the Air and Space Museum with the Blackbird spy plane mounted in front - an epic sight!   But I still prefer Santa Cruz (and to cut to the chase, the center of the universe is not just Santa Cruz, its the Westside just past Mission Street within walking distance of downtown).   We're surrounded by a green belt, you can walk or ride your bike to almost everywhere, there is amazing live music in multiple venues almost every night, a vibrant "real" downtown, great public schools, Staff of Life and other organic food stores...well there you go.  

The Big Casino Way to Cook Vegetables

A couple years ago I decided to try to eat better by eating more fruits and vegetables and discovered the best way to cook vegetables.  I use a deep non-stick frying pan with a lid, but I believe others would work as long as you had a lid.  Put just a dab of olive oil in the pan and heat it up.  Throw in fresh vegetables that you cut up fairly small, like green beans to 1/2 inch, sliced carrots, corn cut off the cob, chopped broccoli or cauliflower.  Put on the lid and turn it down to two/thirds.  Another great thing is to count to 100 or so and throw in a couple tomatoes all chopped up.  Soon, like five minutes or so the vegetables are al dente and very tasty.  And here comes the real deal...push the mixture to the top of the pan, crank up the heat and center the heat on the now cleared bottom part and add a little oil.  Saute some onions and tore up tortillas until done.  Mix the whole thing together with a beat up egg until the egg is cooked.  Turn off the heat, put on some shredded cheese.  Eat it with your favorite salsa.  Delicious.  I cook something like this a couple days a week.  20 minutes start to finish and you're sitting there eating your dinner and watching Jeopardy at 7:00!  It helps that my stove is a little off balance so the olive oil for the onions and tortillas pools at the bottom of the pan - so you might want to adjust your stove so you can cook in this same method.

Five Couch House

There are a lot of measurements that one can use in rating a living situation.  When I was younger, one of the things I always strived for was to live in a house with the maximum number of couches.  And partially achieved this when I lived on Del Playa in Isla Vista as a student and we scrounged together three couches for the living room - heaven.  Last Thursday I helped Jessica move into an old victorian down the street from me and low and behold it was a five couch house!  JR is living the dream (how true it is that our youngsters achieve the goals we were unable to reach).  Three couches in the front room, one in the living room and one on the porch.  Way to go JR!

Public Education

Two recent events have reminded me of how valuable and important public education is to our society.  The first was attending the graduation of my son Nate at California State University at San Jose State.  It was extremely moving to see how proud and excited all the parents were sitting in the stands at Spartan Stadium as the 5,000 capped and gowned graduates sat on the football field below.  The tremendous diversity of the graduates was inspiring and a reaffirmation of every families' hopes for tomorrow.  At one point the speaker asked that all students who were the first graduates in their families to raise their hands and it seemed like 50% did.  We have to recognize how vital an opportunity this is and keep higher education affordable!

The other event was the recent retirement of Dan Cavanaugh a gifted and dedicated elementary school principal who led Bay View school for 20 years, ending in a couple days.  Remarkably, he led the staff through an educational process and strategy that side stepped the no child left behind test driven curriculum and resulted in Bay View School earning a huge State School rating of 7 or 8, one of the five best in the County.  In this day of school voucher discussions, inane testing and other threats to our public schools, hats off to the dedicated teachers and principals whose first priority is the education of all children!

Big Casino's Favorite Ten Beatle Songs

Every Thursday there's a Beatles show on KZSC that I listen to on my way to work and boom, I'm already there.  Last New Year's Eve it was like a religious experience as MABS and I spent the evening listening to (and singing along with) the Sun Kings play every Beatle song we could think of at Don Quixotes in Felton.  Since the songs are so short we heard a bunch of them.  And of course they saved one of the best for the encore...She loves you, yeh, yeh, yeh.  I was disappointed that they played my least favorite song at midnight - Hey Jude.

1. In My Life

2. Got to Get You Into My Life

3. While My Guitar Gently Weeps

4. Fixing a Hole

5. Drive My Car

6. I Am the Walrus

7. Back in the USSR

8. Day Tripper

9. Hard Days Night

10. Tax Man

11. Paper Back Writer

12. I'm Only Sleeping

Republican Legacy

One has to ponder the huge legacy that the Republicans will have if they continue stonewalling new taxes in California and allow all the State Parks to close, end numerous vital services like in-home support service, dental care for SSI reciepients, ending CalWORKs, etc. and leaving our local cities and counties with untenable budget deficits by taking money from the local jurisdictions. Its hard to imagine anyone taking pride in such a misguided principled action.  We'll see.

Best Six Scenes from Fellowship of the Ring Trilogy

I was laying in bed this morning listing my favorite scenes from the trilogy and here they are.  

1.) Aragorn's "Crispen Day" speech at the gates of Mordor

2.) Arwin's escape with Frodo and drowning the Ringwraiths in the river adjacent to Rivendale.

3.) Gandalf's little speech to Shadowfax when he heads off to get the Rohan reinforcements

4.) Gandalf and the extra Rohanians rescuing Helm's Deep by showing up a dawn

5.) Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli, racing across the plains on foot to rescue the hobbits

6.) The Ents destroying Sauron's tower by breaking the dam.

7.) Gandalf's battle with that monster thing while escaping from the old Dwarf Cavern

Best 10 Movies Ever

I often talk about my favorite ten movies and for the sake of your enlightenment I have listed them below in order.  Of course, the list is subject to re-evaluation when I think of a movie I saw a long time ago and any instant candidates (certainly not Bloom Brothers that I saw last night!).    Also, I don't limit myself to just ten best movies in the top ten.

1.) Original Star Wars

2.) Hoosiers (you can argue what is the best movie ever, but you can't argue which is the best sports movie ever - Hoosiers)

3.) Das Boot

4.) The Fellowship of the Ring series

5.) Stalker (incredible Russian Movie by Tarkovsy)

6.)   Platoon

7.) Pulp Fiction

8.) Dr. Zhivago

9.) Momento

10.) Nine Queens

11.) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

12.) Raiders of the Lost Arc

13.) Bridge Over the River Kwai

14.) Kontrol

15.) Ground Hog Day