Today we would have celebrated

not only May Day, but also and more importantly to me, my mother's birthday.  She died a bit over three years ago, but obviously I still think of her often and miss her.

As a small form of celebration, I thought I'd share, courtesy of Rana, two photos of my mother in my house.

The first is her many years ago.

Click an image to see a larger version.

This one shows her playing with a very young Scott.

Yes, this is the same Scott who grew up to become the Great Pirate Neckbeard.

I expect I'll continue to miss my mother until I die, but I'm okay with that; we should cherish the memories of those we love.

Happy birthday, Mom.

Burning Coal offers a lovely Sunday in the Park for a few more nights

I've been to the Art Institute of Chicago many times and viewed the famous Seurat painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - 1884, each time.  I'm with those who consider the painting a pointillist masterpiece, a painting that captivates you both with the techniques Seurat used to create it and, at times, in spite of them.  Until earlier tonight, however, I had never seen Sunday in the Park with George, the Sondheim and Lapine musical about the painting.

Having now enjoyed Burning Coal Theatre's production of this award-winning play, I encourage you to check to see if any tickets are available for the few remaining shows this weekend (it closes after Sunday's performance) and head to Burning Coal if there are.  The show is both fun and serious at various times, the cast members turn in generally good performances, and the several major themes are compelling.

I went to the play with no knowledge about it save for its tie to the painting, so on the chance that you might also not already know the play, I'm not going to give away any of its plot.  You certainly don't need to know the painting or anything about Seurat to have a good time at this show.

When a live theatrical performance goes well, it has a special kind of power that is like nothing else.  For twenty-five bucks you can catch an award-winning play, enjoy a strong cast of local actors giving it their all, and after over two hours of entertainment leave with much to consider.  That's a bargain.

Catch Sunday in the Park with George at the Burning Coal Theatre if you can.

Oh, yeah, I need to see this

Johnny Depp with thinning, slicked-back hair and light blue eyes is creepy as hell.  The story is interesting.  The rest of the cast looks great--and includes Benedict Cumberbatch, who barely appears in the trailer.



Yeah, I'll be there.

The Hillsborough BBQ Company

is for my money the new local barbecue champion.  This relatively new restaurant, nestled in a row of shops well off the main road in Hillsborough, features a real wood-fired pit and a team dedicated to creating great barbecue.  For the most part, they succeed.

Their chopped pork barbecue was so moist and delicious that I never even tried their sauces.  No other local barbecue place comes close to their chopped pork.  Their pork ribs were also the best I've had from a local barbecue joint.

The one meat on which they fell short was brisket.  Too dry by far, it just wasn't up to what even a low-end place in Austin would send out.  I am going to hope they keep trying to improve the brisket.

All the sides I sampled were very good, with the mac-and-cheese and baked beans particular favorites of mine.  Their hush puppies were also perfect.

You do have to allow time to wait.  The place was packed and apparently stays that way much of the time.

The only bad news is that I now will have more reasons to make the long drive to Hillsborough.

If you love pork barbecue, go eat at the Hillsborough BBQ Company.  The food is worth the drive.

Scott, the Great Pirate Neckbeard

Earlier tonight, Scott and other seniors put on a fascinating and fun show, Posters and Pies, about their senior projects.  After brief presentations on all the projects, we then got to see them up close--and eat pizza and pie.  I am very proud of Scott and his teammates and the very cool augmented reality project they did.

After the event finished, however, Scott decided he was done with most--but not all--of the beard he had been growing.  This decision led to a neckbeard...

Click an image to see a larger version.

...which in turn led to Scott's debut as The Great Pirate Neckbeard in the upcoming romance, Pirate.

The adoring fan in the background is his roommate, George.

Despite his cover model status on this soon-to-be-a-bestseller novel, Scott was not done.  Oh, no.

First, he posed in several different shots for neckbeard fans everywhere.

This one, the view from below, also known as "what the hell is on his neck?", is particularly striking.

"What," Scott says, "you don't like the neckbeard?"

"Are you sure?"

"Well, okay then, how do you feel about the reduced neckbeard?"

"Or perhaps you would prefer the checkerboard?"

Oh, yes, he is most definitely my son!

Well played, Scott.  Well played.

Yes, of course I asked Scott's permission before posting these photos.

Ex Machina is a pleasure to watch

I'm a sucker for AI films, and I've been a student of the topic for most of my adult life.  I loved writer/director Alex Garland's 28 Days Later.  So, it's no surprise that, as I mentioned in an earlier post, I was very interested in going to see Ex Machina.  I was not, however, at all sure how I'd react to it.

To my happy surprise, I loved it.  The film is a tight little package that tightens slowly as it progresses, until you can feel the almost crushing pressure from it.  The plot is reasonable, and the outcome inevitable but not overblown.

The three main actors--Domhnall Gleeson, Corey Johnson, and Alicia Vikander--are all marvelous in different ways.  Gleeson plays the visiting programmer with an innocence and awkwardness that fits his character.  Johnson's billionaire software developer and company owner shows perfectly the effects of living too long in his own money-protected bubble.  Vikander is the best of the three, her expressions small but perfect, each small change in her face hitting just the right note.

I could say more, but I really don't want to tread into spoilers.

Do not miss this one.

Dashi is delightful

After the SFWA Reads Southeast event last night, a group of us headed over to downtown Durham's Dashi restaurant for dinner.  Dashi is a two-story establishment that features a ramen restaurant on the bottom floor and an izakaya (basically, a sort of Japanese pub) on the second story.  The night was cool, and I've been wanting to try their ramen, so we stuck to the ground floor.

I'm happy to report that the entire experience was delightful.  I'd read about long waits, but we were late enough that we were able to get a couple of tables right away.  Everyone on staff was smiling and helpful and incredibly pleasant.

The true stars, though, were, as they should be, the ramen bowls.  We sampled a few different broths, and most of us also customized our bowls with some of the available add-ons.  If you go there, I particularly recommend the local pork meatballs, which were simply delicious.  With a range of broths to choose from and 14 different items you can add, you could eat there a great many times and still come nowhere near to experiencing all the available variations.

My only complaint is that the add-ons arrived a bit cooler than the rest of the bowl.  It was easy enough to fix that problem by stirring them into the broth and waiting a minute or two, but the chefs should have done that for us.

I consider that a small thing, however, in the face of how delicious the bowls were.

The dessert menu proved to be a small selection of ice creams from Parlour, which frequent readers (and ice cream fans) will know is the best (by far) local ice cream shop.  None of these flavors were available at the Parlour store, so we shared them all among our group.

I definitely recommend Dashi and look forward to going back.