Zennie Abraham goes to White Castle on Palindrome Day

After avoiding it, two weeks ago I bought Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle (with John Cho and Kal Penn) as a Christmas present to myself of sorts, and really got hooked on the movie. It brought me back to my childhood here in Chicago in the 60s and 70s, and where I'm visiting on The South Side as I blog this.

My friends and I always went to the White Castle hamburger joint on Stony Island and South Chicago, across from a mosque that was ran by The Nation of Islam, and my Mom told me never to cross Stony Island to the side of the street the mosque was on. (Sorry but that's the way it was in those days.)

We didn't care about that; we wanted the White Castle burgers by the bunch!

Living in Oakland means giving up White Castle hamburgers. Hey, healthy food and eating local's certainly good for you, but I've got to admit the movement's presented in a boring way and the advocates tend to take things a little too seriously from time to time; it's hard to find a good burger in Oakland and there's no White Castle!

So I made it my mission to get to a White Castle here in Chicago and vlog my experience on Palindrome Day with my trusty Flip Video Camera. (Nope, they're not sponsoring me and neither is White Castle, as of this writing at least.)

The White Castle I visited was on 95th and Jeffrey on the South Side of Chicago. The manager, a young lady named Bria, was really welcoming and explained that even with Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle , business was slow. So I encouraged everyone to visit that store and buy a burger! It's on the video!

Taking Bria's advice, I asked for the "Number One", which sounds like "Number One" from the original Star Trek episode called "The Cage", and which I got without cheese.  (And for some reason it made me think of the "Royale with Cheese" from Pulp Fiction.)

Then I did something I've always wanted to do: open the bag and take out the White Castle burger with the camera running! That was about as much fun as going down that slide at the Google / YouTube San Francisco offices!

Talk about passion food! That's White Castle. Of course, it means extra workout time when I get back to Oakland, but it was worth it!

'The Hurt Locker' wins National Society of Film Critics Best Picture

The Hurt Locker continues to storm the Oscar Awards season. The latest for the Katheryn Bigelow-directed war movie, which is on more "Top 10" lists than any film of 2009, is "Best Picture" at The National Society of Film Critics, which held their meeting Sunday.

Katheryn Bigelow takes home yet another Best Director Award and Jeremy Renner wins Best Actor for the documentary-style war movie.

The Hurt Locker is the story of a bomb squad during The Iraq War and the life-threatening bomb-diffusion missions they take on. The margin of error is zero, and soldiers talk of explosions as sending you to "the hurt locker."

Here's a scene from The Hurt Locker:

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce, Ralph Fiennes
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writers: Mark Boal
Studio: Summit Entertainment



How a sniper scene in The Hurt Locker was filmed is the focus of this San Francisco Chronicle article by Michele Ordona

National Society of Film Critics list of winners:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
BestDirector: Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Best Actress: Yolande Moreau - Seraphine
Best Supporting Actor: TIE: Paul Schneider - Bright Star; Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique - Precious
Best Screenplay: A Serious Man
Best Foreign Film: Summer Hours
Best Nonfiction Film: The Beaches of Agnes
Cinematography: The White Ribbon
Production Design: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Michael Jackson and Lenny Kravitz make "Another Day"

While we pass into a new decade and a new year starting with 2010, Natalie Coughlin is the Top Olympian of the Decade, Newark Aiport is on lockdown, Larry Johnson runs with the Bengals vs the Jets, and Pat White recovers from a hit versus the Steelers, Michael Jackson is still very much a part of popular culture.

On Saturday, January 2nd 2010 (Palindrome Day) a song that allegedly was the result of a team-up between Michael Jackson and Lenny Kravitz hit the Internet. It's called "Another Day".

It's difficult to find any recent reference to the song by either Michael Jackson or Lenny Kravitz, but in this interview with Spinner Magazine, Lenny Kravitz wrote:

I got to work with Michael on a track that has not been released and it was the most amazing experience I've had in the studio. He was funny. Very funny and we laughed the whole time. I also saw what a beautiful father he was. He was a beautiful human being. I am deeply saddened this evening.

This is said to be that track called "Another Day":



Stay tuned

Related topics:

MTV, pop music, youtube music video, jackson five, kravitz in paris, king of pop

Dolphins Quarterback Pat White had a concussion after Steelers hit

This Dolphins Quarterback Pat White Update.

Dolphins Quarterback Pat White suffered a concussion after being hit helmet-to-helmet by the Pittsburgh Steelers Ike Taylor. On a 3rd down and 9 play with 2:05 left in the 3rd Quarter, Pat White ducked down with the ball and ran left to the sideline to try and make a 1st down. He just missed as he was blasted by Taylor just as White headed for the sidelines.

White was immediately immobile after the hit, with Steelers and Dolphins players waving over doctors and trainers to help him.

The hit that Taylor made was within bounds; no penalty was called.

Profootballtalk.com reports that a "league source" said that Pat White had suffered a concussion, but had recovered from it.

Pat White was the second of two Dolphins quaterbacks removed from the same game due to injury. Earlier, Chad Henne was taken out after fighting blurred vision from a hit by Steeler's Linebacker Lamar Woodley. The problem wasn't immediate; it got worse during halftime of the game, so Henne was deactivated from play.

The Dolphins missed the playoffs as a result of the loss, 30 to 24.

Related topics:

nfl Football, nfl playoffs, sports, pro football

Should San Francisco restaurants only serve Napa/Sonoma wines?

Should San Francisco restaurants only serve Napa/Sonoma wines? That the question at the heart of a lively Linkedin discussion thread that consists of (as of this writing) 74 comments. The idea of the talk has its roots in the burgeoning local food movement.  

While I recently indulged in a White Castle burger eat out in Chicago, I regularly shop at the Oakland Farmers Market and wish to help promote the local food movement as I learn more about it. I'm not an expert. But because of my interest, the discussion caught my eye.

Unlike Twitter, which doesn't have a membership gateway and what one tweets is available for public view unless they're set to private, Linkedin groups generally require membership. For that reason I'm not going to post what others have written on Linkedin here. Instead I will give a general overview and provide a link for you to go right to the conversation.

The "Eat Local" movement is a call to encourage residents of a city to consume locally-grown food. The producers consist of food co-ops, community gardens, and farmers' markets. People who steadfastly adhere to this idea call themselves "Locavores" and have a long and growing list of followers.  Moreover, it has production farms, like Alemany Farm in San Francisco:



Currently, the focus has been on promoting foods locally grown in the Bay Area, but Jon Wollenhaupt, the Vice President of Excel Meetings & Events in San Francisco, opened the movement's collective lens to consider wines with his Linkedin question and discussion:

Should the "Eat Local" ethic apply to wine as well? Should San Francisco restaurants only serve Napa/Sonoma wines? The localvore ethic certainly make sense for restaurants that focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients. The eat local movement here in the Bay Area has very passionate, vocal supporters. More often, I am seeing this conversation extended to include wine. To what extent does this make sense, if any? How do wine producers react to this?

Increasing criticism is surfacing in articles of San Francisco restaurants who are not "supportive enough" of local (Napa/ Sonoma) wineries. Some wineries seem to be trying to leverage the localvore position to influence and minimize the purchase and placement of imports on wine lists. Is that position defensible if those same wineries are shipping to out-of state distributors? Or even to Southern California accounts? (a lynchpin of the localvore position is the 100 mile diet)

The conversation has attracted a number of luminaries in the San Francisco Bay Area Wine Industry. Some think including wines is taking things a bit too far. I and others were concerned that local urban wineries were being left out of the conversation.

I write this in an effort to open the conversation to a wider audience. Hopefully, San Francisco Chronicle Food Critic Michael Bauer will take up this subject - the last time he blogged about the local food movement was 2007. I'd love to hear or read his take on this, and by extension that of his readers.

Oakland Raiders battle Baltimore Ravens, lose 31-13

The Oakland Raiders battled gamely but lost to the now-playoff-bound Baltimore Ravens 31 to 13. It was a game the Oakland Raiders could have won, but an injury to quarterback Charlie Fry and questionable offensive strategy changes related to installing Quarterback JaMarcus Russell to replace him, engineered Oakland's loss.

The Oakland Raiders opened the game with Quarterback Charlie Frye and a great mix of spread passing formations, short passes and runs. The only problem was a consistent pattern of throwing out of passing formations and running out of running formations. The only aspect of this game more disappointing than the Raiders offensive plan was the sparse attendance. About half of the third deck of the Oakland Coliseum were empty as were large sections of seats around the stadium. All of that as readily visible on television as the Raiders offensive problems.

The Baltimore Ravens Defense was not the reason for the Raiders' offensive woes. The Raiders had more plays than the Ravens and just five yard less in total offense (330 to 325). The Raiders had 7 yards per pass versus 4.7 for the Ravens. The difference was turnovers and yards rushing, but most of the Ravens yards on the ground were earned after the Raiders turnovers. So all fingers point to the Raiders offense.

The problem isn't one player but the gameplan. Charlie Frye's injury revealed one major, glaring fact: the Oakland Raiders have not worked with JaMarcus Russell extensively on the kinds of passes that Charlie Frye executed so well when he was in the game.

JaMarcus Russell's problem is borne of a lack of confidence in the ability to react to what he sees. In several instances Russell pulled the ball down because he had not developed enough of a feel for the Raiders system to throw on time, such that passes could be completed even with cloe coverage. JaMarcus Russell's so fearful of throwing an interception that he's waiting for the obviously open receiver before he pulls the trigger. That doesn't happen a lot in the Raiders passing game as its designed.

Charlie Frye has more collective experience than Russell, so he should and does make throws that are in close space. The issue is the development of Russell. He's a project the Raiders have not committed themselves to and lived with his errors. Head Coach Tom Cable pulls Russell for other quarterbacks, watches those throwers get injured, then puts Russell in only to suffer with his lack of playing time. So the downward performance spiral continues.

The Baltimore Ravens are not a great team, but a squad aided by great coaches. The Ravens Willis NcGahee's 167 yards rushing consisted of one physical, stiff-arm of a run for 77-yards, and the rest a gashing mix of off-tackle runs and attacks around the end of the Raiders Defense. The run gains were strategically intelligent and complemented their seam-based passing attack. But with all of this, the Raiders arguably beat themselves and have earned the 8th pick in the 1st Round of the 2010 NFL Draft.

Wes Welker injured; Texans beat Patriots 34-27

In a stunning turn of events, New England Patriots Wide Receiver Wes Welker was injured in their game against the Houston Texans and on the same Sunday that Pat White was hurt and taken out of the Steelers - Dolphins game. The Texans won the game against the Patriots, 34-27.

Welker was injured after catching a pass during New England's first drive of the game. Welker made the catch then turned upfield in such a way as to twist his knee.

The injury starts talk and tweets questioning New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick playing his starters when they know they're already in the playoffs. Last week Indianapolis Colts Head Coach Jim Caldwell and Colts executive Bill Pollian were questioned for removing starters, thus blunting the Colts chance to finish the season undefeated. This is some of what's presented on Twitter:

sherriadelman I'm by NO MEANS a Patriots fan, but the Wes Welker injury is a good argument for resting players prior to the playoffs. #fb
1 minute ago from web

AlioTheFool Everyone should admit this now RT @Adam_Schefter: Charles Woodson hurts shoulder, Wes Welker hurts knee, Bill Polian looks brilliant.
1 minute ago from UberTwitter

WayneTwitteker RT @Marc_Bertrand: Spread the word: Sources tell @985thesportshub that Wes Welker is done for the season. #Patriots #NFL
5 minutes ago from web

Stay tuned.