On travel and breweries

I really meant to write about this a couple weeks ago. Like, right around the time it happened. And really, only because it was something to talk about.

See, many people will tell you that popcorn goes best with movies. I tend to disagree. I am rather popcorn neutral. I am popcorn ambivalent. Simply stated, popcorn does nothing for me. I can take it or leave it. In fact, when I was at the Burton Theatre last week, I did leave it. And it would have been free! Of course, they had also just run out, and I would have had to wait 10 minutes and that's just too long to wait for a bag of popcorn.

This leads to the natural question, if I'm popcorn neutral, than what does go best with a movie? I'm glad you asked, see, there's one thing that just goes perfectly with movies in my world, beer. This is why I have lately taken the opportunity to talk more about beer around here. Beer and movies just go great together. Especially the kind of movies I like to watch. If you're watching something like Chupacabra Terror without a beer nearby, you're missing out on half the point.

Basically, all of this is to set up a story. See, I collect pint glasses. Most are from breweries and restaurants. One of the first glasses I picked up was on eBay.

Not my actual glass. Just a picture I stole from Amazon.

In fact, it would be years before I ever tried Arrogant Bastard Ale. I was at Slow's in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit when I first tried it. Since then, I've tried a few of Stone Brewery's beers. They're good, but I can't drink a lot of them. They tend to be pretty strong, both in flavor and alcohol content!

Back to the present. A couple weeks ago, I was heading out to an Indian Reservation outside of San Diego, CA. And what town would I be passing through? Escondido. And what's in Escondido? Stone Brewery and Stone World Bistro. On top of all that, it would be a Monday, and that means Meatless Monday's at the Bistro. I was in.

It was a beautiful Southern California day. The kind that they rub in the face of those of us living in places that get cold and snow. Sunny, 70ish degrees, not a cloud to be seen. If I had to describe it in a single word, perfect is the only one that comes to mind. The building itself is a bit off of the beaten path, and unmarked. There's little about it to tell you that this is the place you're looking for. There's no indication that there is a restaurant or brewpub here.

You have to take a chance and assume that that is the door you're looking for. Once inside, however, you're greeted by the brewery store where you can buy shirts and glasses and belt buckles and hats and...well, you get the idea.

Off to the side is the bistro. It's primarily outside seating. Which works in SoCal, I suppose. They asked me where I wanted to sit, I said I was from Detroit and it's so nice outside that it would be a shame to be indoors. They sat me outside at the bar.

I ordered the Levitation Ale. An amber that, as far as I can tell, is not readily available in my area. For my meal, I ordered the Mac 'n Beer Cheese.

Mac 'n Beer Cheese
Mike's Beer Cheese makes classic mac 'n cheese classier. And more importantly, much tastier. Made with Mike's Stone Smoked Porter & Garlic Beer Cheese with sun dried tomatoes, and basil.

It was as good as it sounds. Overall, it was a nice little excursion to a brewery I wouldn't normally get to visit. And it kind of brought everything full circle since it was a glass from Stone that started my pint glass collection. And no, I did not buy another glass while I was there.

WonderCon did not go according to plan

That I went to San Francisco really isn't that big of a deal. I've been to California at least 7 times and I've been to San Francisco...um...I think this was the third time. So, I've seen a lot of the city. Not all of it. I've never really wandered too far from downtown. I don't like getting further away than I can walk. Which is fine, I can walk pretty far.

The part of my trip that was pretty cool though was that I go to go to WonderCon. It's not quite San Diego Comic Con, but I was still pretty excited. I mean, it still held more promise than the one they have here in Detroit every year.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get to go. I had such great plans too. I had ordered some 7dollarpopcorn.com stickers that I was going to give away and was going to have some fun with it. Try and get pictures of people holding the stickers and stuff like that.

That was my first problem. There was a problem with my order. The company lost my graphic and then after I re-sent it...they re-lost it. They were unwilling then to do anything that would get the order to me in time for me to bring them out there with me. In fact, I still don't have them. But hey, to make it up to me, they doubled the order! So, now I have twice as many stickers that I don't really have a use for anymore.

That's not entirely true. I'll take them to the Detroit comic con with the same intention. It'll be fine. I'll probably use them as prizes for the next contest I do as well. It'll work out fine, I'm just a little bitter about it.

So, I'm there sans stickers, but I have a bunch of cards that I was going to leave out for people to grab. See, Detroit has a big table of free stuff by the entrance for people to grab stuff from. I figured that this would be standard fare for everywhere. I was wrong. There was nothing like that. So, failure #2.

 

My ultimate goal though was to meet Felicia Day. I mean, who wouldn't want to? She just seems so awesome. And, really, it was her saying she'd be there on twitter that even alerted me to the fact that I'd be out there for WonderCon in the first place. Well, that was failure the third. By the time I go back to the booth that she was signing at, they'd cut off the line. And despite my coming all the way from Detroit, over 2000 miles, I would not be allowed to sneak into line. All I could do was take a picture from about 5 feet away. And, while I want to be mad at the California Browncoats, it's not their fault.  I was pretty disappointed though. I was so close.

I'm glad I went though. I had a good time and got a good deal on some trade paperbacks. We found a place that was selling all the ones they had for 50% off. I picked up Wanted (way different than the movie), Star Wars Tales Vol 2 and three volumes of Y: The Last Man. I also picked up Scott Pilgrim Vol 5 at the Oni Press booth.

It really did make me look forward to the Motor City Comic Con though. The guy from Flight of the Living Dead is going to be there!

Just for fun

Like I said, I travel a lot. And, I thought it would be kind of fun for you to see where I've been. This map has all the states I've been to colored in red. I've been to all but three of them for work. And, if I did one of these maps prior to 2006, there would have been almost nothing colored in. Maybe 6 states. I've been to 26 of them now. That actually impresses me just a little bit.




create your own personalized map of the USA

What is "Where's dreamrot?"

As some of you may know, I travel as part of my job. I've flown just under 30,000 miles so far this year, not counting a flight I took out to Vegas for a 'vacation'. I've been on 21 trips so far this year (again, not counting Vegas and a personal trip out to Georgia). So, I will have been someplace other than home about every other week by the end of the year.

This is not me complaining. Trust me. Sure, it's tiring, but I get to see the country and someone else pays for it. What more could you ask for?

A few years ago, when I traveled less frequently, I started taking pictures of my feet. Me standing in different places. Actually, lets back up a little further. My friend Paul used to take a picture of his feet whenever someone he had a camera in his hands. No more than one feet picture per roll of film though. I thought it was a great idea and ran with it. Suddenly, my family expected me to take a picture of my feet at the holidays. It got a little boring at that point. I mean, what's less exciting than doing something just because it's expected of you. I'm not calling it boring, I'm just saying it lost a little of its appeal. This is not the same as saying that I stopped doing it.

You can start to see where this is headed. As I started to travel, I started taking pictures of me standing in wherever I was. It was something fun, a little different and I got a kick out of it. I still do it almost everywhere I go...provided I remember.

Last week, as I was sitting in my hotel room, I thought it might be fun to occasionally post one here and have a contest.

Here are the rules:

1) Frequent commenter Kate is disqualified. Sorry. I explained to her why. It's just that, well, she actually KNOWS where I was. Kind of makes it less fun.

2) There will be a prize. Of my choosing. Typically a DVD. It will be a DVD that has been reviewed here and rated favorably by me. I'm not just looking to give away things I don't like.

3) The winner can decline the prize if he/she chooses. An alternate prize will not be offered.

4) This isn't about the prizes. This is just for fun. Seriously.

5) Contest will start on a Monday and the answer will be posted on Friday.

6) The first person to correctly guess where I was standing will be the winner. I will specify how specific you need to be in the post. No random drawings if two people guess correctly. The winner will just be the first person I see to have the correct answer.

7) Clues/hints will be provided. Some in posts, others on my Twitter feed. Some clues will be much more obscure than others.

8) It will never be someplace I was more than a month ago. I want to keep it current.

9) Rules can change, but will not change DURING a contest. If a Where's dreamrot pic is posted, the rules will not change until the contest ends.

10) There is no tenth rule. It just seemed like a shame to stop at nine.

The first contest will start later today.

See what I did there?

Did you see that? Pretty neat right? I disappear for a while and then BAM all of a sudden I'm back talking about Star Wars all week. From out of NOWHERE man. Like a ninja and shit. Exactly.

Don't worry, things will be back to normal on Monday, since I'm unlikely to post much next week. I've got to go out to Van Nuys, CA for a week, with all of Saturday to kill in the LA area before a late night flight home. I'm thinking I'm going to try to head down to Santa Monica and stare at the ocean for a while.

A bit off topic, but what the hell

A bit of an off topic post today. Nothing about movies, and no movie posters. Nope, instead, I'd like to talk about something else.

I spent my weekend in Portland, Oregon doing a bit of work. It was the first time I worked a weekend in...a few years. I thought I was done with that nonsense. Nope, company proved me wrong (I volunteered). So, it was off to Portland I went. And in Portland, I got to be everything I hate about the world. I helped an old lady with a microwave carry a microwave like a good person, and I forced my own personal beliefs upon a complete stranger like a complete asshole. I'm just that kind of guy.

Aside from all that, I went to the Stumptown Comics Fest. It was an odd sort of coincidences that led to me being in the right place at the right time. Who would have thought that it would work out so well, right? It's another coincidence that I even heard about it. Have you read the webcomic Octopus Pie? It's written and drawn by Meredith Gran, and it was her on posting about being there that alerted me to it even going on. And I told her as much. She seemed genuinely pleased that some guy from Detroit happened to be in town and happened to be a fan of the comic. Not only that but enough of a fan to come and meet her. And, you know, she was a really great. She gave me a book and even drew a picture in it for me. I have to say it was very much worth going down there.

It does make me think though, I've had the opportunity to meet quite a few people who's work I enjoy. Sometimes it's through a quick meeting at a con, other times it's been a chance meeting on the streets. I'm no autograph chaser (though I did buy one from Johnathon Frakes because I wanted him to take a picture with a stuffed monkey), it's just nice, I think, to have the chance to tell someone that their work has had an impact upon you. That they've done a good job. I know I get a kick out of it when someone sees a movie on my recommendation and likes it or tells someone else about it.

Bah. I'm rambling. Whatever. Go check out Octopus Pie, it's funny and it's written by a really cool chick. I have a flight to catch (first class, baby. gotta love those free elite upgrades.), I get to go home for a few days.