Movies with choreographed violence prompt a guilt response in me. I think they’re cool and enjoyable, but feel that I shouldn’t partake. I do have a tendency to over-indulge at times. This is one of those movies, it got some good reviews and I’ve found myself needing escapism recently.
Category: play
Urban hiking in Chicago isn’t happening for the Steffen’s in January. We could, but we’ve found that it’s best just to hole up in inside during the winter and recharge/recover.
So, Gail and I used a perfect Friday in January during a visit to San Francisco to take a little walking tour. It gave me an opportunity to learn Google Maps and practice how I’m going to map things when we get down to it in Chicago. Check out the map below. If you click on each marked location you’ll get comments and maybe some insight. The Chicago maps will be much more robust because I know this city.
We’d been to San Francisco before so we had a few destinations in mind but mostly wanted to get acquainted with some neighborhoods and have a bite to eat. We had planned to go longer but cut things a little short in the end. We officially went about eight miles, but this could easily be made longer or shorter because the area is so dense in sightseeing options.
Our starting point was the Fairmont Hotel in Nob Hill and we ended the day a few blocks away at a great little restaurant called Aliment. My original plan had us going to Corona Heights Park just west on 16th Street in The Castro, but we ran out of time/fuel.
Valencia Street in the Mission had a bit of everything – gritty urban hipster mixed with boutique food and retail. Hayes Street in Hayes Valley was more of the same, but smaller and residential. If I were to go back, I’d get some hill climbing in and maybe carb up at Tacolicious on Valencia and Schulzie’s Bread Pudding on Hayes.
Categories
Cover Her Face
This is the first in the Adam Dalgliesh mysteries by P. D. James. Gail has been a fan for decades so I thought I’d crack one open and see what the big deal is. This is a post-WWII murder mystery that takes place on an estate in the English countryside. The local police don’t appear to be to handle it so DCI Adam Dalgliesh (that’s Detective Chief Inspector for those unfamiliar with British police ranks) from Scotland Yard is called in.
Categories
Babette’s Feast
I contend that Gail and I saw this movie about 20 years ago. She disagrees. After watching it again, I still contend that we saw it in the mid 1990s and she still contends that we’ve never seen it, together at least. Who cares really. Just know that I love (and loved) this movie.
I don’t own a bike but I consider myself a cyclist I guess. I mean, I commute a lot for work and and run errands on a Divvy bike and I did a 30 mile ride last year on a borrowed bike (trained with multi-park-n-go Divvy rides). So that’s my cyclist street cred, where do I stand bicycle nation?
Categories
The Art of Fielding
The last book I was read was The Art of Racing in the Rain, so I’m on kind of a The Art Of… streak. Both books were similar in that they used with the artistic side of sports as a background for stories about human relationships. Now that’s a genre I can get behind!
Categories
The Equalizer
Denzel Washington is a top provider of entertaining violence. You don’t feel guilty watching a shoot-em-up if someone with Denzel’s acting chops is involved. That’s just me rationalizing stuff again, but there is an element of truth to it.
I loved this movie. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it. It could be that I harbor this desire to hike a big long trail like Cheryl Strayed did. Or it could be that I just like messing with outdoor equipment. Or maybe it’s inspiring for me to hear about people pushing beyond their limits. Regardless, this movie hit all those notes smack on!
Categories
The Art of Racing in the Rain
This book is narrated by a dog and the reader is the only one who can hear him. When I think about it, the narrator can only be heard by the reader in most books, unless written in first person, so I guess it’s not that weird. But this book was written in first dog (vs first person, get it?), so the dog narrator has the chance to interact with story versus just narrating, but only the reader can hear his voice since dogs can’t talk. Once I gave it some thought, I realized how slick this was.
The story of Louis Zamperini is pretty awesome. The guy ran in the Olympics in 1936, then went to WWII, then crashed in the Pacific and spent like two months on a life raft, then got captured by the Japanese and spent two years in a prison camp, then forgave his captors and ran the Olympic torch through Japan when the Olympics were in Nagano. The movie, however, wasn’t as great as his life, in my view.