A Guy Named Renfield

Right after Halloween, my wife decided to have a Thanksgiving party. She wanted to have a real Thanksgiving with all our friends before familial obligations hallmarked the craziness of the season. All our friends loved the idea. Everyone came over when they could during the evening, each bringing a dish to complement the turkey my wife prepared. Most people wanted to bring pie, but we had a varied amount of dishes and plenty of food for everyone to eat at their leisure. “Opportunistic grazing at it’s finest” my wife called it.

A week later my wife’s sister arrived for a visit from Oregon. Our party was originally planned to coincide with her vacation, but her plans changed after we had already made ours. That weekend we drove up to New Jersey to visit their family, and, since she would be returning home before the end of the month, it was decided to have Thanksgiving dinner that weekend. The family loved the idea for the same reason our friends did, as it avoided the holiday travel craze and freed everyone up to do something different for Thanksgiving.

In our case, instead of driving to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s parents, last Wednesday we drove down to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with my siblings. My wife picked me up from my office in Elkridge at 1:00 p.m., and we headed down I-95. Now, I know full well that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving is the heaviest travel day of the year, but I guess I was naïve in my belief that we’d be okay leaving in the middle of the day. I figured traffic would be heavy, but barring accidents I didn’t expect any real trouble. Traffic was actually pretty light and smooth for a while. But south of DC, where the Washington Beltway empties out into I-95 proper, things ground to a halt. No accidents that I could see, just too much traffic for a three-lane road, I guess. What was frustrating was that the HOV lane was moving along almost car free as we were crawling past it. We would have gotten on it as an alternative, but when we came up to the ONLY on-ramp for it, it was just as backed up as the regular road so we opted to stay where we were. Once darkness fell, there was a period of intense rain for a storm moving up the coast, which also made for some slow (or at least, nervous) driving. What Mapquest clocks as a five-hour drive took us 9-and-a-half.

So another Thanksgiving was spent, this time with my brother and sister and their families. It was nice, especially seeing nieces and nephews I hardly ever get to spend time with. We lazed about at my sister’s house, helped my brother hang his Christmas lights, met my nephew’s friends, and did our best to polish off the leftovers. We opted to drive back Saturday night to avoid the Sunday crush. Four-and-a-half-hours.

Labels: driving, holidays, travel

My wife wanted to see Happy Feet, and while I’m a fan of animated films, I wasn’t really looking forward to this one. It just seemed too cutesy, and so many people have tried to capitalize on Pixar’s success that quality isn’t always a guarantee. Well, the film is just as cutesy-wutesy as you’d expect, with cutesy-wutesy penguins of all shapes and sizes singing and dancing. My teeth started to grind when I realized that the film was doing the “Moulin Rouge” thing of having all the characters singing snippets of modern pop songs, but mercifully it was only snippets so they never lasted too long (conversely, this also meant that if there was a song you liked, it wouldn’t last too long).

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the film took a ninety degree turn to the left towards the end. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if I had read any of the reviews, so maybe there’s a lesson there. While it had what was pretty much a textbook ending, I found that it dealt with it in a fairly original manner. I guess since I went into the movie with zero expectations, I found I was able to enjoy quite a lot of it. My wife didn’t enjoy the movie much at all, since she was hoping for a cutesy cookie-cutter story and found the introduction and pursuit of the other plot angle disruptive and non-compelling.

One thing they kind of gloss over, even though it’s the main point of the film, is why the main character looks different. His egg was dropped before he was born, so presumably that’s why he acts different from the other penguins. However, the filmmakers had to make him look different from the other characters – tough to do with penguins – so they kept his juvenile down coat on him long after he should have molted. Presumably, this is explained by the egg-dropping as well, but it had us scratching our heads through the whole film. They did do a nice job with the subtle pattern on his feathers, though. My wife found his eye color even more jarring. Penguins – including his parents – have red eyes. Yet the main character’s eyes were a bright piercing blue. I just figured that was because he was played by Elijah Wood. “What, is it in his contract or something?” my wife demanded.

The only other thing is that for the entire film we were waiting for them to pull out the surfboards. There was even one scene when I was sure they would, but they were completely a no-show. It was odd, because the surfing angle was played up heavily in the first trailer we saw for the film, but we chalked it up to it being a preliminary ad to drum up interest. Turns out, we were both remembering a trailer for another computer-animated penguin movie called Surf’s Up, scheduled to come out next year. Cowabunga.

“Do you feel like Chinese?”

“Ding How!”

It’s not a great joke, but it amuses us every time my wife and I walk by the place in Fells Point. We had originally planned on eating at the Chinatown Café on President Street, but there were no signs of life when we passed it. Maybe it isn’t open on Tuesdays, or maybe they don’t open until 8:00 p.m. or something. We hope it isn’t closed for good. It was one of the few places you could find dim sum around Baltimore.

Frustrated, but determined to stick with an Oriental theme, we decided to finally try Ding How. I think the best way to describe the interior is “comfortable”. The main door leads straight into the large and well-stocked central bar (that can’t be good feng shui, but I’m pretty sure that’s Japanese anyway.) Tables are arranged throughout the large room on either side. We had the place to ourselves, but maybe because it was just early on a weeknight. There is a dearth of decoration throughout, leading me to speculate that they make most of their business through takeout, with the restaurant just being a side business.

The food itself is definitely worth it. While my sister-in-law’s fried Lemon Chicken I found to be rather bland and uninspired, the lemon sauce itself was delicious. My wife really enjoyed her fried eggplant dish (“Like candy,” she said.) The seafood medley on my fried noodles was cooked exactly right and had me surprised at how much I enjoyed it. They may not have put lots of thought into the atmosphere, but food is where every restaurant makes its reputation and its living, and they know what they’re doing when it comes to that.

So it’s my wife’s sister’s first night in town, and we’re ready to show off our Baltimore native experience. Where do we take her to eat? Ellicott City. Oh, well.

We settled on La Palapa, which I'm pretty sure is Spanish for "the palapa". We were in the mood for Mexican and my wife had fond memories of their molè sauce. For those who don’t know, a mole is a sauce made from a choclate base, usually has about 17 ingredients, and is typically very spicy. It is our thought that they get a lot of customers who read “choclate sauce” on the menu and are unprepared for the actual experience. Whenever the Chicken Molè is ordered, the waitress invariably asks, “Are you sure? Do you know what that is?” Last time the waitress even brought back a bowl of it from the kitchen for my wife to taste before she accepted the order.

After running that gauntlet, I ordered the Burro. I couldn’t get over the name but apparently it’s innocent enough, beef tips served in a savory burrito. The food is always good, but the service was a little hit and miss that night. It seemed they just had the one waitress for our crowded section, which included several families, so it took a while to get a second beer (they have an extensive list of Mexican cervezas) leaving no time to enjoy a third with the meal.

When we were done we walked down Ellicott City’s historic Main Street, marveling at the quaint ambiance and the architecture of the structures built up against and into the solid rock. My sister-in-law was utterly enchanted with The Forget-Me-Not-Factory, a three-story building filled with collectibles, holiday knick-knacks, gift items, and costumes. It also had the advantage of being one of the few stores still open at that time of night.

For someone who professes to dislike chain restaurants I sure eat at a lot of them, don’t I? Anyway, I consider Panera Bread a sandwich shop more than a proper restaurant, so my stringent criteria need not apply. It actually wants to be a hip and trendy coffee shop, and it goes a long way to achieving its goal. Free wi-fi sells a lot of coffee and sandwiches these days.

My wife and I stopped in at the one by Arundel Mills next to the Safeway, as we had to pick up a lot of groceries in preparation for a big dinner party we were having and we wanted something quick. We split a Lemon Artichoke Panini, which was very tasty. The ingredients were distinct, the chicken was tender, and it was slathered in hot melted cheese. I always forget how greasy the bread is, but it’s not too bad.

We sat at a booth in the corner, allowing me to observe the layout of the room. They have lots of small tables in the center, presumably ideal for the lunch rush, and a few booths on the sides. The décor and lighting is all very modern and tasteful, and the only problem I had was due to their strict adherence to their design scheme. They have a very pleasant little walled-off nook with a fireplace. There are a few regular tables in the area, but right in front of the fireplace is a coffee table with two padded easy chairs. Tell me, what is the point of designing someplace so hip and trendy that has only one good seat? I’m guessing at larger locations that area is much expanded and includes many more seating options, but it really seemed like they crammed that section in. And I love sitting in front of the fireplace darn it!

I read The Prestige by Christopher Priest several years ago right after it was released. It had won the World Fantasy award, and its premise of two rival magicians seemed intriguing. I recall being rather disappointed with it. The gothic style lent itself well to the atmosphere of the time period, but made for a very dry read. The ending was also dissatisfying, in that the two big secrets (how they did it) – leant nothing to the story. For the main protagonist, his secret is illustrated as you go through the story, and it is the consequences that are supposed to hold dramatic power, but just don’t. For his rival, there should have been references to previous points in the novel to explain how certain feats were accomplished, but since there weren’t it just read as any other fact about the person. All in all, a rather dull novel.

At no point during any of the advertising for the movie do I recall hearing or seeing the phrase “based on the book”, but the producers may have held the same opinion of the novel as I did. The movie, though was a trifle better. But just a trifle. They started off right by having Hugh Jackman take his shirt off in the first ten minutes. Hey, it’s why all the women went to see it, so it was nice that they got it out of the way quick. They changed things around from the book, of course, though there are only a few points I can point to definitively. I’m certain a murder mystery wasn’t part of the book, as that would have been an interesting development. The secret of Hugh Jackman’s rival is presented much better than the novel, but is also incredibly obvious. The movie has a good pace, though, and is aided by some stunt casting in the form of David Bowie and Andy Serkis. Bowie is unrecognizable with slicked-back hair, moustache and goatee,and wearing a suit as the accented scientist Tesla. Serkis is equally unrecognizable since this is probably the first movie he ever made where he isn’t covered by CGI effects. I kept thinking, “Why does that hefty guy have such distinctive eyes and lips?”

Incidentally, we saw this movie at Hoyt's Nursery Road, which is obviously hurting from Muvico's multiplex at Arundel Mills, is a great alternative when you want a stadium theater without the traffic and clutter of the mall.