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Ryan Gillespie
Author's posts
Jan 13 2012
twenty eleven
Its beginnings were still in a bit of emotional turmoil. The middle was filled the fallout from a medical event. As it came to an end, most things had settled down to a pretty stable routine.
I think the best way I can sum up 2011 is it was a year of either looking back at 2010 or looking forward towards 2012.
That said some highlights from 2011:
● An externship at the Hollywood Farmer’s Kitchen doing food preservation.
● Roasting my own coffee (and getting a mention in the LA Times because of it).
● Traveling to Portland Timbers matches in Portland, San Jose, Vancouver & and going to both matches in LA.
● Reading more books than 2010.
● Beer Belly (a craft beer bar — not my actual beer belly) and the great folks I’ve met there.
I am definitely looking forward to this year…there are big changes in store and I’m excited for them to come to fruition. But those are for a future post.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2012/01/twenty-eleven/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/12/books-ive-read-in-2011/
Dec 01 2011
Mmm…Coffee (aka…So I Did This)
A few months ago, I finally took the lead of my friend Elizabeth and began to dabble in the practice of home coffee roasting. I ordered a started kit from Sweet Marias and one of the leading books on home coffee roasting from Amazon. After reading the book, I dove in and made a few batches of coffee. They were all drinkable but at the same time, I wasn’t completely sure what I was doing. Its one thing to read about how to do something, and another to actually be doing it. When I saw that the Institute for Domestic Technology was going to offer a class in Home Coffee Roasting led by one of the roasters from LAMill Coffee, I was intrigued.
The Institute for Domestic Technology grew out of the now defunct (on temporary hiatus) Altadena Urban Farmer’s Market (a rogue farmer’s market) and offers classes mainly at the historic Zane Grey estate in Altadena. They offer classes in cheese making, bread making, food preservation and other domestic arts that are less practiced these days.
The class began with a tasting of a tea (known as cáscara) in Spanish) made from the dried fruit of the coffee cherry. It’s rarely exported outside of the coffee producing countries and most notably drank in Bolivia.
Underneath the fruit, the bean still has a hull coating that needs to be removed before roasting:
Once the hull is removed, you can roast the green beans. I’ll let that story be told in this LA Times Piece:
The next DIY frontier: roasting coffee beans at home by Betty Hallock
In the end…I ended up with these:
Freshly Roasted Costa Rican Blend (Blend courtesy of LAMill Coffee)
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/12/mmm%e2%80%a6coffee-aka-so-i-did-this/
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/11/even-if-i-dont/
Nov 08 2011
when rhino’s fly
© Michael Raimondo/WWF Black rhino being transported by helicopter to an awaiting land vehicle. The helicopter trip lasts less than 10 minutes and enables a darted rhino to be removed from difficult and dangerous terrain. The sleeping animals suffer no ill effect.
As part of conservation efforts, a group of 19 rhino’s were moved to a new range. Part of the journey involved a short helicopter trip. More from the WWF here.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/11/when-rhinos-fly/
Nov 07 2011
Portland Timbers, We Adore You
[A video commemorating the first home MLS game from the Front Office]
A great 1st season in MLS barely missing the playoffs.
Can’t wait until next season!
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/11/portland-timbers-we-adore-you/
Oct 28 2011
Love
“If you can love someone with your whole heart, even one person, then there’s salvation in life. Even if you can’t get together with that person.”
— from 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/love/
Oct 27 2011
The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
I’ve been on a bit of an Americana/Roots kick lately. So when I heard one of the songs off of this album on KCRW recently I had to look it up.
The album comes from lyrics found in four notebooks found in a briefcase with him when he was found dead in his Cadillac on New Year’s Day 1953. They’ve been stored in a vault at his record company (and its successive owners) ever since.
In the mid-70s, his son Hank Williams Jr. recorded some songs based on the lyrics found, however by and large the lyrics had remained in storage. Under the guidance of Bob Dylan, 12 artists have taken these unfinished lyrics and created songs from them.
I’m loving this album (despite its inherent sadness and loneliness).
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/the-lost-notebooks-of-hank-williams/
Oct 24 2011
Some things I’ve been up to in October
Sweet Pickled Pumpkin
Pepper Mash (future Hot Sauce)
Freshly Home Roasted Coffee Beans
(more to come on this soon)
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/some-things-ive-been-up-to-in-october/
Oct 23 2011
Vancouver BC (Timbers vs Whitecaps)
As Sept turned to Oct, I flew up to Portland to meet up with my friend Elizabeth. The purpose, to drive up to Vancouver BC to see the Timbers take on the Vancouver Whitecaps in the last “Cascadia Cup” match of the season. Unfortunately, the result of the cup competition was already decided for this season (damn flounders)…but we were still in playoff contention and definitely could use the 3 points against one of our natural rivals. The game was on Sunday Oct 2nd in the early afternoon, so we headed up Saturday morning to make sure we’d have plenty of time to check out some events planned by the Timbers Army (and we would have had to leave super early to make it to the match on Sunday if we had left the same day).
Because of the early start time, and the request from the Whitecaps front office that we be in the stadium a couple hours before kickoff, the morning meetup was pretty early (at least for the folks that had stayed out late partying the night before). Since we had all been pretty tired from the drive on Saturday, we had ended up crashing pretty early. As a result, I got up at a fairly normal weekend time for me (around 7am), got ready and went for a walk. It was an absolutely gorgeous morning with hardly a cloud in the sky. It wasn’t until closer to game time that the projected cloudiness appeared at all…and that was just some light cloud cover at that. One of the great Pacific NW fall days for sure.
There were around 500 of the Timbers Army in town to support the team. The pub we met up at to pick up our match tickets was about 1 kilometer away from BC Place (the stadium). Being the best supporters around…we sang the entire way there. It made for some interesting looks for the friendly natives.
Despite being inside the stadium before any of the local fans, the we were all up singing and waving flags from the moment we got to our seats until the end of the match. We were apparently a little loud, as friends watching on TV told us later that you could only hear the TA chants and barely anything from the Whitecaps fans. Our newly favorite chant of the day “Our House, in the middle of BC” was pretty accurate (especially as we won the match).
It was a great time, even if I didn’t get to see much of Vancouver (since we left to drive home right after the match). I definitely want to go back and visit for a longer trip sometime soon. More pictures from the trip and the match are HERE.
Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2011/10/vancouver-bc-timbers-vs-whitecap/
