Becoming a bit more American and Making Ice Cream

Finally we are on the way to becoming a bit more American. Firstly, we enjoyed our first Memorial Day weekend in 90 degree plus heat stood on a friend's porch drinking beer and eating BBQ. It helped that the hosts were grilling aficionados and slow-cooked two massive lumps of brisket for something near 16 hours. I may or may not have suffered from something called the meat sweats. I definitely suffered from being bitten by bugs.

As you may guess from the picture above we have also gone a long way to fitting in here in the midwest by becoming owners of a 2003 Honda Civic, with an amount of miles one might laugh at back in the UK. 144,000 sounds a lot, but when people don't consider driving a few hundred miles for an afternoon out a big deal and still try and sell stuff with over 200k, hopefully it'll see us through our next two years here in Columbus.

In the last couple of weeks I have graduated from the labeling department into production at the Ice Cream kitchen. The handmade nature of the product even extends to taking a pint of ice cream in each hand and "tapping" them on an upturned cooking pot. Tapping is important as it gets any air bubbles out of the ice cream. One of the more unpleasant side effects of tapping is the danger of getting ice cream in your eye. You certainly get it in your face, depending on how quickly it is melting will determine just how much of your face and glasses are splattered.

Since tapping, lidding and boxing (the latter two probably not needing too much explanation), I have moved onto "machines". The machines make the ice cream and you (the operator) give it the ingredients to do so. Even though it is pretty hard physical work, the process is relatively straightforward. Basically, pour a bucket or two of ingredients in and tell the machine how long to churn away. What makes this task a good amount more challenging in certain flavors of ice cream is the presence of flecks of white chocolate that have a habit of clogging the machine. Also, making "White House Cherry" involves hand mixing "sugar syrup-plumped cherries" and "roasted whole pistachios". While mixing, though, you need to be sure that the ice cream isn't melting and that it is staying white and not turning purple as a result of the cherries. Fortunately this is a limited editor flavor and will be done with when the president is inaugurated in the fall.

Nuns and Breck Shea's Hair

Call for the Nuns; our home record is pretty poor

Saturday saw us make our way down the road for our first game of this 2012 MLS season. The Crew hadn't given too much reason to be hopeful of three points so far this season, beating two pretty poor Canadian teams and either drawing or losing the rest of their games. After paying $10 last season and enjoying our $5 food voucher, it seemed only right that this season's student tickets were available at $8.... still with a $5 food voucher, can't be bad. The signs were good upon entering the stadium, in that the first people we saw were the ladies above. 

As the teams got around to lining up for the anthems, our buddies in the Nordeke got their various banners in place. It took us until after the game to work out what all the LH's were about. Lemar Hunt passed away a couple of years ago, but a bit of (Wikipedia) research confirms he was a pretty important chap in US sports. As well as coming up with the idea of a "superbowl" he set about founding the NASL in the late 60's, which his Dallas Tornado team won in 1971. After playing his part in setting up Major League Soccer, he took ownership of the Kansas City and Columbus teams, a few years later he bought Dallas too. Think there are probably rules against this sort of thing in most countries. The section of fans near us seem pretty grateful for him and his creating their team and the stadium we were standing in.

Have some of this Brek Shea!

K and I were accompanied to the game by two of our friend's that had never been to a soccer game before. They loved it. And exclaimed, "It's like the fans do the job of the cheer leaders!" I think I was struck anew this time by just how positive the Crew fans are. Overhearing the lady behind me telling her friend why Emilio Renteria was her favorite player: "He just really hustles and tries his hardest, and I just really like him." What didn't seem too important to her was the fact that as a striker he hadn't scored in all nine games this season and could probably have had a hat-trick before he was subbed off in the 83rd minute.

Brek Shea?

Rooney Mara?

At Half Time they were probably lucky to only be one behind. The defenders were pretty much all over the place and with better finishing from Dallas it might have looked a bit gloomier. Brek Shea and his hair were looking lively, but not long into the second half Dallas had a man sent off and the momentum shifted and it was all Columbus. After a great finish from outside of the box to draw level, there was a pretty remarkably headed goal from about 20 yards out, kind of think the keeper needs to take some of the blame for being beaten from that far out. But we didn't care. The Crew closed out the game pretty well and we came home to an ice cream feast.

Jeni's and Working There

I have started work. It's taken me a while, but I finally have a full-time job. For now I have given up on the idea of continuing to mess about with maps and I'm fully concentrating on helping to make the best ice cream in Ohio, and according to a lot of people, the USA. When I was interviewed I knew I would be getting myself into working 3pm - 11.30pm Monday to Friday, but I've been not working for too long to be fussy about such things.

My training started on Monday and we learned a bit about the company and a lot about health and safety. We also learned about their many different flavors. These included a special limited edition selection for the royal wedding last year. One of the four flavors they created was Eton Mess. Our trainer Steve told us that someone had incorrectly labeled it as "Elton Mess", which has maybe a few unpleasant connotations if you think about it too hard. All new recruits start in the labeling department. It became pretty clear that I was in the minority of 30-something year old men. After reading the Employee Manuel I learned that: ...music is an important part of the kitchen.... for that reason the production manager will oversee music selections...  I had read about Miami rapper Rick Ross before, but I can now say that I know him and his (pretend) drug dealing tales of life very well. I'm also pretty familiar with a good deal of other rapping gangsters that I previously hadn't been introduced to. What I wasn't braced for, though, was our early 20's supervisor taking the day off and leaving the one 50+ lady of the kitchen in charge of the iPod. I like some country, but not 8 hours of bad country (songs about Chevy's and how great America is) interspersed with choice cuts of Nickleback, Korn and Metallica.

Even if the majority of my colleagues are at least ten years younger than me ("You're 32?, that's the same age as my step-dad.. though my mom is a bit of a cougar...") it's been a pretty fun first week, sweetened by the fact that we get to take home ice cream that didn't quite fill the whole pint (our now fully-stocked refrigerator, pictured above). My new fave is Whisky and Pecans; really very, very creamy indeed. Also, I can cycle home in about 20 minutes, which can't be bad.

The Obamas and KBS

On Saturday I attended my first political rally. I thought I'd start big and go for the leader of the free world and his wife. Along with K, her friend S, and 14,000 others, we headed down to the Shottenstein Centre on campus to witness what was some sort of strange cross between a pantomime and an evangelical crusade. We arrived fairly early to be sure of getting in (it later transpired this was never in doubt) and waited in line for a little over an hour. When we got inside the arena (shows coming up there include Van Halen and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and through the airport style security, we quickly tried to get as close as possible. We realized that it wasn't going to be all that close. Rumor was that you needed a pass to stand on the floor right up close, or sit much closer than we got, as you can probably make out in the picture above.

There were quite a few warm up speakers before we got the president and the first lady. These included  a couple encouraging us to phone our friends (like, right then, as they waited) to make sure that they were going to vote democrat in November (yes, November is when the election is, this was his first campaign event); I "forgot" my phone. We also got John Glenn, who was the first American to orbit the earth and third American in space. He is also a former Ohio senator. The mayor spoke, a minister  prayed and we were getting closer. Blue Obama signs were handed out to those that were going to be behind, or at least within camera shot of the world's media. We didn't get a blue sign. Finally the time came and Michelle bounced on stage to the funky bass line of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." People went a bit crazy. She said a few words, spoke about how hard her parents had worked to give her the chance in life she got and then introduced her husband. The place went crazy again and we settled in for Barack's 40 minute speech. I say speech, but it seemed to be more of a series of statements with pauses left for the appropriate response. Either cheers, for the good that has been done so far and the planned good to come, or boos for any Romney/ Republican related fact/ sentiment. Michelle returned briefly, there was more cheering and we were on our way. One of the stranger ways to spend a Saturday morning.

Having previously mentioned Founders brewery here, I had the chance to sample one of their rarer brews this last week. One of my "ping pong" buddies had managed to secure a four pack of the latest release of Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS) from Founders. People go a bit crazy for this stuff, so much so that they line up around the block in Grand Rapids, MI hoping to be able to hand over $114 for a case. People went away disappointed this year, even after the brewery decided to sell only 1/2 a case to each person waiting. They have, as a result, tripled their output this year. The beer is aged for a year in bourbon barrels and stored in gypsum caves under the city. It seemed that there may be the danger that the story and the limited quantity of the beer goes before the taste, but fortunately this wasn't the case. It really was a proper stout, poured like molasses, tasted like vanilla and caramel to start, with chocolate and coffee flavors coming through at the end. I was still tasting it hours later.

Real Estate and the Kids

Monday night saw us heading down the road to "America's Longest Continually Running Rock Club",  otherwise known as the Newport. Finally we were getting around to seeing Real Estate. Most recently, snow had meant a trip to Cleveland earlier in the year was abandoned. Prior to this, their two Bristol appearances coincided with us either being in Columbus, or being out of town at a festival. Tickets to this  CD101 (102.5) show were a bargain $5. Now and again the radio station like to put on "Low Dough Shows" and luckily for us this was one. It was also an all ages show, which meant that those of us either in or close to our thirties were struggling to drag the average age up.

The hall is pretty large and has the ability to hold around 1700 people. It also holds a Mike's Late Night Slice pizza counter, which has to be a welcome addition to any gig venue. We made it pretty early and were able to spend a bit of time spotting the bits of the ceiling that weren't peeling off. Melbourne, Australia's Twerps opened the show and after Julia's mic had been turned on they sounded good with their slightly slacker, Go Betweens/ Feelies jangle pop. They seemed really made up to have had the chance to tour with Real Estate and they were pretty amazed by the size (about half full) of the crowd. 

An hour or so later Real Estate came on to what seemed to be a pretty full crowd of maybe about 1500, judging by a few spaces here and there. They seemed pretty taken aback, having mostly played venues of 3-400 capacity on the tour so far. Throughout the set they played pretty much all of last year's "Days" Long player and kept me more than happy by playing both "Fake Blues" and "Beachcomber" from their Self-Titled 2009 album. After about an hour as the smell of pot and the 18 year old screams got a bit more enveloping, the set came to an end. There wasn't much chance of them getting away with not coming back and when they did they brought the Twerps with them. It was all pretty un-rehearsed but they managed to all plug in and have a good go at covering the Clean's "Anything Could Happen". It was a super fun end to a great show, good job to Promoswest and CD101 for getting so many people in at $5 each.

Without my $2 bus fare home, we missed any potential bus and took on the pouring rain. Just as it looked like it might be easing off, we took the opportunity, as you can living here, to buy ice cream at 10:45pm. Five minutes later, the rain got heavier and between the dickhead drivers of Columbus and a lack of drainage on High St, we were pretty soaked. I wasn't too bothered.

Records and Rain

Saturday was record store day here in Columbus, as it was in the rest of the US and the UK. After trawling for the list of exclusive releases for the day I decided that there wasn't really anything I was willing to stand in line waiting outside in the rain for an hour or so to have a chance of getting. Instead, even though it was raining, I decided I would head down to my closest store, Lost Weekend Records, later on in the day. I aimed for 1pm having read that Lydia Loveless was due to play a set outside. I cycled down in light rain, and was happy to see her setting up under the cover of a gazebo. While she was getting ready I went inside to peruse the racks and check out what was left of any exclusive release (not much).

The rain had pretty much eased off by the time she got to playing her set in the shadow of the gazebo. It was just her, an acoustic guitar and chap on double bass. I really enjoyed her songs and the simplicity of her guitar and belting country, but not too country, voice. She played mostly songs from her debut album (above) and also a cover of Elvis Costello's "Alison," which featured on the B side of her record store day release. I decided to pick up her album after she finished in the busy shop. While waiting in line I also found another bit of Ohio country/ garage (rock).

The Heartless Bastards were formed in Cincinnati in 2003 and their debut album (above) had been on my list since I had worked out that one of my favorite tracks on a fantastic, Joff Winterhart-compiled compilation CD was in fact them and not Sleater-Kinney. So that was record store day for another year,    doing our bit to support our local independent record store, not that I'll be waiting to go back until this time next year you understand...

St James and "Craft" Brews

Saturday brought my first trip to the St James Tavern. The bar is in the Italian Village area, not too far away from some parts of town we've been encouraged to avoid. It might be called either a "dive bar" or, more complimentarily, a neighborhood bar. From the front it looks pretty inconspicuous, but once you get inside you are greeted by wood panelling throughout. They started out well in my mind with the catchy slogan: "No crap on tap for 15 years". Not only was there no crap (ie the big three: Budweiser, Coors or Miller) on tap, but what they did have was mostly new to me and all at $3.50 a pint.

I started out with a Founders Red's Rye. Couldn't really resist the opportunity for my first rye beer and I have to say the citrusy flavor wasn't too overpowering and definitely something I would have again given the opportunity. Just when I think I've narrowed down the list of breweries that are new to me whose beers I need to experience, another one comes along. I will be getting on and trying their oatmeal stout before the Ohio summer arrives.

In another first, I turned next to 21st Amendment's Black IPA. It was decent, but the power of the malt seemed to overshadow the supposed hopiness of some sort of IPA. Pleasant enough, but not on the list for a second go. I had previously had another of their brews from a can. As the barrels were being emptied by a busying crowd, the bartender kept returning with new brews and I got the chance for a glass of Monks Blood. Served in a tulip style glass and coming in at a hefty 8.3% this dark Belgium style ale has plenty going on and dangerously does more than enough to mask the fact that it's as strong as it is!

I ended the night with what has to be my current fave: Bell's Two Hearted American IPA. Bell's brewery is in the fantastically named Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's not really on the way to or from central Ohio to Detroit, but I think we'll have to find a reason to stop there sometime soon.