One great thing about living in Tennessee is the ability to take day trips to such great cities, and also there are some really BAD things about it, and that's driving to Nashville to smoke cigars and drink with a friend and having to drive home 3 hours afterwards. I did not drive drunk, but the length of the drive over is NEVER as arduous as the drive home. IT TAKES FOREVER! Thank goodness for McDonald's and usually SONIC, but not tonight. I went over to Nashville to hang out with my friend Bill86. Bill is a lot like me, overly opinionated, and always right. We try to make people understand how smart and right we are, and 8 times in ten they just think we are a55holes. But as anyone who knows me knows, that's their loss. I am a tremendous human being. And furthermore, I don't CARE if they find me to be an a55hole.
I went to the area around Vanderbilt University to a place called South Street Restaurant, and showed up an hour earlier than scheduled, because I have a few new cameras and lenses I wanted to test. And after the day's shooting, I have to tell my sister, LOOK OUT. I am used to point and shoots, and I have gotten lazy in using them. I am not the kind of guy who just turns it to AUTO and shoots, but I AM A GUY that is used to a great modern convenience, and that is Point & Shoots that show you in the viewfinder or on the LCD what your current combination of aperture and shutter speed will produce if you were to click the shutter at any given time. It might be black or blown out, or hell, maybe perfectly exposed. Well today I took out my 'new' used Nikon D70. And in the viewfinder of the D70, its always Sunny in Philly. I always see great shots in great focus, and I fire away, always thinking that I am a photographic genius. And then I get home to my computer and look at the blurry, over-exposed CRAP I shot and go "DAMN, that really sucks." I CAN take a great photo, but again, I have grown lazy and stopped paying attention to the little things, like exposure meters or histograms or flashing ISO AUTO warnings and other things. And so I shoot crap. Luckily inside South Street today, all I really had going wrong was the white balance. I had been shooting in cloudy conditions and came inside and forgot to re-white the camera. So bear with my photos.
The first smoke I had was a Montecristo No. 4 and it was pedestrian, nothing to get excited about. Certainly nothing I photographed. I traded a few cigars with Bill, who was so kind as to give me a Bolivar Edicion Regional German No.1 (or is it a 2?), a Laguito No.1 sized cigar, a HOT, HOT, HOT regional, one that you were very lucky to get if you got even one, never mind a few boxes. and Bill hooked me up with that cigar that I have been wanting to try for YEARS. Thanks.
Here's Bill....
And here is a Cohiba Panetela I worked my way into second...
and next to it a Patron Reposado, a Jack and rocks and a Yeungling pint, all being worked on kinda simultaneous like.
That's all the SERIOUS drinking I did today, I had a few more pints, but no more liquor. Its not good to drink and drive. But drinking and smoking was the deal today, so I had fun while I could. I guess I should have framed it all together, but I was shooting the cigar. You can see a little of the white balance issue there, too. Later on I got into a Monte Edmundo 2007 that was about the same as all Edmundos, underwhelming, but a good cigar to drink with, cause it just burned and gave me something to do with my hands.
Now, that is not to say that I didn't burn it DOWN to the end, oh no, I smoked it alright. Bill and I always talk about the exact same thing every time we get together to mini-herf, it is hilarious. But it never seems like we are talking about the same stuff, its just been so long that we forgot what we talked about the last time. Cigars, vendors, people that get on our nerves, job trouble, hot bartender chicks, and I also always say, "OH, I remember what I wanted to tell you", then I take a puff and forget what it was. Same thing I do here all the time, but with a cigar in my hand.
And we smoke and we smoke, and Bill eats, and I do not, cause I eat chips and drink Mountain Dew all the way to Nashville, so I am never hungry. Today I also had an Esplendido, which I rarely do anymore. It was good to get one in today. I used to just hoard them and never smoke em. Today I had one that was creamy and strong, though not overly flavorful, at least not up to the potential of the smoke. But I smoke too fast when I herf with Bill or anywhere. I run my mouth and smoke too fast.
But I got everything I wanted today, I got to go to the campus of Vanderbilt and take a bunch of terrible pictures that show me that I need some SERIOUS practice shooting my new camera. I used to take such fine pictures and now I look like a half-trained chimpanzee. I am gonna work on paying more attention to the viewfinder screen and all it is trying to tell me. But in the end I can't see very well, anyway. I have the viewfinder set up to my eye 'prescription', but the rest of the world and the buttons on the camera are still blurry unless I stop and put on my glasses, during which time I can't take pictures, so mostly I just wing it like I always did with Point and Shoots. Damn 'good' cameras, they suck, lol......
But all in all it was another good day, and another good mini-herf with Bill. Wish you had been there, you'da had a good time, I know it. My sister is in New Orleans right now, so I KNOW she is having a good time..
After such a great victory finally getting a great smoke out of the Partagas Serie du Connaisseur no.1, I was happy to cut and light the second skinny smoke of the weekend, this great little La Gloria Cubana smoke. As the Partagas was a real first for me, the day I finally smoke the Medaille d'Or No. 1 will be a first as well. But for now, I get to smoke the No.3 again. One way of setting this up is to say that I have never had a bad No.3, after having about a half dozen. Spoiler alert.....today would not be the first bad one.
Today I decided to bundle up a bit and head downstairs to see if I could get the birds to ignore me long enough to get some photos while the ate me out of house and home. It didn't take long, and the real challenge was getting Ralph to chill out by himself long enough to quit scaring the birds. I asked him to bring me his ball, which you might remember from previous posts, always makes him go straight to his doghouse to PREVENT me from getting the ball. This works well in peaceful smoking, but today served the birds well, too. Today was the first time I have seen Goldfinches at my feeders, I am sure they have been there before, but I am working during most of the time they are feeding. Seeing them today really tripped me out. I did manage to get a great shot of a House Finch, too. He and his wife. The camera I used does not like to focus at the long end of the zoom, so I had to manually focus, which is always a challenge with MY eyes.
But back to the cigar. Another tremendous smoke, amazing again, how something so thin can taste so great. A lot of cedary, creamy flavor, with a stark citrus note that is so refreshing. The burn was great, too, even though the wind had the thing rolling off the table every time I put it down for a second. Hard to take pictures with one hand holding a cigar. These cameras are OK, but I am not overly impressed with the Fujifilm HS-20EXR. OK, let me re-phrase that. I am impressed, but I do not like it better than the camera I turned on to the repair shop, which came back as another model after Hurricane Sandy severely damaged Fujinon's NY/NJ facility. It does not like to focus, you have to fight with it so damn much.
OK, back to the cigar AGAIN. Jeez its like I have A.D.D. or something.
What was I talking about, again?
Another razor straight burn, outstanding draw, took a ton of abuse and kept on bringing the delicious flavor. I even walked around the yard and worked with it in my mouth which I never do and it did not get nasty. These are great little cigars, good luck finding either one of the panatelas I smoked this weekend. And I really DO mean that. FIND THEM, do what you have to do and get even just a fiver of either one. You won't be disappointed. Metric tons of delicious citrus, tangy, creamy flavor, and a very distinct, clean profile. A yummy 92 points.
After a long hiatus since my Mardi Gras smoking to let the weather clear out, its back to the grind again. I have been on a real tear lately, buying up camera gear like a fiend, a hoarding fiend. But now that I have bought up every reasonably-priced used Nikon and lens, I can return to being myself and saving money like some kind of old age pensioner. Since that is essentially what I am anyway.
I had been wasting a lot of time and effort and cash buying high-end Point & Shoot cameras, because I didn't want the expense and hassle of a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera. I can see now just how prescient that was, I was VERY smart to have stayed away, at least for as long as my little moat and battlements held. That effort ended officially on or about February 20th. I began selling point and shoots and buying up SLR bodies. It started innocently enough, I wanted a decent OLD body for me, and maybe one for my sister. On top of that, just a normal lens for both bodies. END OF ASSIGNMENT.
By the time it was all over, one of the two cameras I bought was WAY better than I expected it to be and I selfishly kept it for myself. So now I had TWO Nikon bodies. I still needed to buy a body for my sister, whom I love. But apparently not enough to give her this other great Nikon body. But I had originally wanted to keep this under budget. So I looked and found a $99 Olympus body and a lens for it for $69. It was a good enough camera, hell it was a DSLR, right? That in iteslf made it "good". But it was not GREAT....the more I thought about it, the more it was JUST like the olden days, when the jacks and mouse story happened.
Little diversion from the plot so far. When I was just a kid, my mother thought it would be appropriate if we started using our own money to buy Christmas gifts for each other, amongst the three children in my family. Great idea. I am not sure what happened before, maybe my PARENTS bought non-Santa gifts for us and disguised them as being from each of the other kids. But to begin this project-idea, we went down to the ben Franklin store, which at that time MIGHT have actually been a T.G. & Y. store. I already knew the toy section there quite well, I had coveted all the little stamped steel friction toys that you drug backwards on the floor and then released, sending them zooming forward til they ran out of wind-up. So I knew what MY plan was going to be. I would buy what I wanted for me, then use the leftover money to buy THEM something. By the time I had lavished myself with treats, I had just enough money left over to buy my one sister a rubber mouse and the other a set of jacks/ball. WHO buys someone a rubber mouse? What was she, a CAT? Anyway, whatever I have become in my life since that was greatly affected by that embarassment. If I am ever overly generous with gifts today, it is because I never really understood the perspective of another person as well as I did that day. It changed me inside and cut me to my core. I must have mentally resolved never to do that again. And such is the way I learned every hard life lesson that I ever learned; the hard way.
Again, I digress. But that story will somewhat explain why I was not going to do that to my sister this time. I could give her a rubber mouse DSLR, or the DSLR I had intended from the beginning. Now this was NOT going to be some kind of giant 'statement buy', it was going to be the cheapest, most left-behind, used Nikon they offer nowadays, the Nikon D70. This is a relic, a dinosaur, a complete 2003-2004-era also-ran in the modern world. However in it's day, it was extremely capable and in use as a camera capable of delivering professional results. It is probably the single highest-selling digital SLR Nikon ever produced. Now that it is the cheapest used Nikon you could find, did that somehow wipe all that glory away? Hell, I didn't think so.
But during the time I spent agonizing over the original purchase wave, deciding which one to buy and what lenses I should get with it, THREE used Nikon D70s disappeared from the shelf, as if someone had been watching me and was trying to stick their foot up by butt for spite. I bet those cameras had been there for a year, and now all of a sudden, three in a day disappeared. Granted, I got one of them, but that left NO D70s left a week later when I decided that I had to replace the Olympus I got for my sister. So I went to another vendor and picked one up. So now I had in my posession FOUR DSLRs and a few lenses. Luckily my nephew is graduating high school this summer and he is into photography and the ridiculous old Olympus would suit him to a tee, his first DSLR. Making it all that much nicer is that the damned Oly is a freaking great little camera. Takes brilliant, colorful photos.
So after all that, everybody wins. Well, except me. I went on a lens buying spree that basically broke me. Had to sell a bunch of cigars to make up the damage, which I had to do anyway, so don't cry for me, Argentina. But I went from being a very well-equipped and sensible Point & Shoot owner, happy as a clam, to being just another one of the sickos who has been infected with this NEEDY camera gear disease for which there seems to be no cure. The only thing that balances it out in the end is that out of ALLLL the stuff I bought, I only paid 'new' prices for one lens. Everything else was bought USED. Down to the memory cards and shoulder bags. I probably have in my hands now some $15,000 worth of camera gear and am only out maybe $2000. Despite the depreciation, it still WORKS like $15,000 worth of gear, I am happy to report. And in the end, everybody's happy. Even me.
And for my sister who reads this blog, don't let the outpouring of hidden facts (some not hidden, poor girl, I burdened her with most of the play-by-play via email, in that classic OLS writing style, 400 words to say 50 word ideas) discourage you. I bought a ton of TV gear to ready myself for freelance work, and I bought a ton of Still gear for my own pleasure. I know you will use your camera and get another ton of enjoyment out of it, and I will gain even more satisfaction in the purchase during the times I will be there with you snapping away. And if I recall, you handed me down some accessories during my first foray into 35mm photography, which, quite unsanctioned by you, became a bold quest to snap cheerleaders in the most embarassing possible moments for my own perverse, high school pleasure. IT DID give me a good shutter finger, though. So there's that.
As for the SMOKING part of this entry, sorry, that happens tonight. I need to test out a 35mm 1.8 lens in the fading dusk light. I understand it is quite a fast lens, so we shall see how it all goes. And it could be that I ride to Nashville on Saturday to smoke with my friend Bill, so maybe some photos of that, too. NOW, back to saving money like a normal person in a depression. Thanks bankers and mortgage lenders!
While I was down in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I started the day off with a Montecristo Petit Edmundo. Ironically the reason I did this was because I wanted to get the crap out of the way early. As much as some reviewers go apey over these smokes, I rarely have any good results. But I will say that I have been lucky in one way. When I really have to have a performer, the cigar DOES come through. When I am just sitting out on my porch with a beer and a digital camera, they SUCK in masterful ways. But when I am someplace where the cigar just has to be great, I have to admit that the MPE fills the bill. I can recall a fantastic MPE I had up by Sandusky Bay in Ohio while herfing with a hundred of my closest friends. And just last week, I had a great smoke in Luling, LA for Mardi Gras weekend at the Krewe of Lul. (clever name, huh?) It cut and drew perfectly, lit a bit slowly, and gave up tons of creamy, cocoa-ey smoke with a wily little spicy core. The Monte Petit Edmundo burned slowly and allowed me to smoke it very close to the band, and I even pushed it up for a bit of extra time. This was a clutch time for the cigar to perform, because I had just offered what I deemed to be a relative Premium Cigar Novice his choice out of my humidor, and he picked the Montecristo No.5, which left me without a cigar I considered key to a great time and a great series of smokes, on a personal level. So without that Monte 5, things had to start looking up fast, and they did. I can't say enough about the MPE and its performance. If there was one tic in the negative column, it might be that it burned a little crooked, but never badly as a whole. Once the cigar passed halfway, it developed a smoky herbal undertone to the cocoa that I found really enjoyable. I am not going to go out on a limb and say "Well, Skipper, from here on out it looks like smooth sailing...", but I will say that I often judge a vitola harshly by how it treats me from week to week, but I DO try to admit it when over the long haul, things even out, and that I have to give this MPE it's due, it came through in the Mardi Gras Clutch..........90 points.
I can't be there for the Fat Tuesday celebration, but I managed to make a trip down south for the weekend BEFORE Fat Tuesday, and while I DID get a rock peck in my windshield which will end up costing me $150 one day soon, it was a nice trip. I saw things I can't UN-See, and did things I can't un-do, but on balance, sure, it was a good time. I started off with my traditional (thanks, Tina) seafood feast that I get treated to when I arrive. This one was not as good as the others I have had in the past, too much salt in my fried oysters and the shrimp were wrapped in bacon with a jalepeno tucked in there and broiled. Sounds great, but I like SHRIMP, and as much as I love bacon, it DOES overpower something as delicate as the taste of good shrimp. Tater tots were good, lol. And before I go off on it and make it sound BAD, it was delicious. It only stands out against the backdrop of PERFECT meals I have had in Randy and Tina's house in the past, all of the past. But I digress as usual....
A almost first....a great Montecristo Petit Edmundo at 9:30 am.
Beer to follow at 9:35.
Rained out two years in a row, Bill and Edie rolled at last.
Ched the Head and Paul the host
Damn fine meat, and there was a LOT more.
Scratched out art
When is that damn parade gonna get here?
Damn Right, son...
Never EAT food the same color you are....is that King Cake?
No, I see, it's just some shirt design behind the plate.
Kittys
Put this in the bag
Throw me somethin, Mister!......(She DID get that tiger/leopard.)
Hawses!
This girl is gonna milk that giant Tweety for two blocks,
you watch...she won't throw anything for ten minutes.
This guy, HE WILL.
Happy Mardi Gras!
That's a snapshot of the Krewe of Lul, a little local parade that hasn't been little in 20 years. They should be proud of it. They need to spring for a few more bands though, because marching bands are what makes Mardi Gras complete for me. I should have taken pictures of the jello-shot lady that put me down hard. I drank no more beer than usual, but I got a headache way too early and had to stop drinking. I blame the jello shot lady, Vickie. She always puts a hurtin' on those things, and this year they were Absolut-ely gasolinic. The pudding shots Tina made were great. it was a good day. Everybody had fun like they usually do, no scuffles or trouble, lots of good food, Mr. Lionel's Jambalaya, Ched's chicken legs and boudin, and I think he had some deer backstrap poppers that were in demand. Can't believe I missed this trip two years running.
I have not been wandering in the wilderness for 40 days, but it sure seems like it sometimes. I have tried many cigars out of my massive aged stash, and for all my trouble, have gotten very little pleasure to report to you here. That all changed tonight. I set aside two 'long and skinnies' in the dry box for this weekend's blog posts, a 2005 Partagas Serie du Connaisseur No.1 and a 2002 la Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or No.3.
Sounds like a can't lose lineup, but given the past performances you have read about here, I was not holding my breath. What I WAS doing was opening up the fridge and mixing up a nice cold White Russian which I knew would not melt out and dilute, given the 40 degree night. I put on the trusty LSU watch cap, a LSU hoodie and a pair of sweats and my warmest slippers, took my drink out to the porch, popped open my folding chair and cut and lit this great stick.
I picked up this box of smokes when it was announced that the entire Partagas Serie du Connaisseur line was going to be cut. Not only were these smokes being cut, but a knee jerk reaction by Habanos S.A. to cut out all the 'problem smokes' from their massive catalogue was going to mean the demise of the La Gloria Cubana Medaille d'Or line as well. In the ridiculously bad cigar boom in Cuba (1997-2000), cigars that were difficult to roll were being returned to shops in great numbers because they WOULD NOT DRAW. So HSA decided that these superb smokes were just too difficult to roll by all but a few torcedores, and what's more, they didn't sell well at all. It was an easy decision for them to get rid of these problem children. What they failed to realize is that a closet group of smokers was addicted to these great cigars, and just because they were not 'popular', they were very much appreciated by a loyal following of smokers in the know. But HSA did have one plan that they intended to follow no matter what the cost. They decided that a fixed amount of tobacco would generate MUCH more revenue if they slashed the catalogue to just the most in-demand smokes they offered. The best tobacco would be split up to create only those smokes that were chronically out of stock on store shelves and the greatest number of smokers asked for. This would lead to more happy customers when they entered the shops. So the long and skinnies HAD to go. And go they did. And the majority rejoiced. While the minority lamented the loss of their own favorites. And tonight I would smoke the very first one of these cigars I had ever had. I have had these cigars since they were officially discontinued. They are 2005 vintage, and I got them around 2008. I was all set to buy any number of other boxes, but my priorities shifted quickly when these began to disappear everywhere. I ended up being forced to buy them from a vendor that was FAR from being a discount vendor, and I paid dearly for the two boxes I was able to get, but get them I did.
The cigar drew a LITTLE tight, but was very smokeable, and in fact it helped me to not over-puff on the cigar and heat it up. And when I had my first ever puff of a Serie du Connaisseur of any number, I actually spoke the words "oh-ho, this is gonna be good." This might not be anything odd to the average smoker, but I live alone and I was speaking to no one. But I was definitely right. The smoke that poured forth from this cigar was different from almost any cigar I have had to this point in my long smoking life, but at the same time, very familiar to me. The Partagas pedigree was quite evident, a nice flat spicy core, with a roasted nut and toasted tobacco taste that FORCED you to puff too much, just to get more of this wondrous taste. I have had many cigars that share this profile, in fact, I would say to the well-rounded smoker, it was a delicious blend of the Partagas Super Partagas hand-rolled cigars, and the Partagas Presidente, very classic in style, and as much as I know how hard this is to read, I'll still say it, "old-school Partagas". The cigar tasted like a throwback to the old times I talked about the other day, when EVERY cigar you pulled out of a box of havanas was a special experience, filled with unique flavors and indescribable exoticity. The flavors that made havana cigars the best in the world, no comparison to the cigars that were available from other countries, and sadly, no comparison to the current lineup from Habanos. The compliment of the White Russian was right on time, maybe the perfect drink to accompany this smoke. The cigar drew so well, burned so straight, and offered such hypnotic flavors that I was very close to proclaiming this the finest cigar I had ever smoked. But for one thing. The flavor progression was nothing special. The flavors were perfect, and they kept me coming back for more, nearly to the point of constantly over-heating the cigar. But in terms of what most people would call flavor changes, there were not a lot to be had. And let us all remember that I do NOT have a good palate. So most people would give this cigar MUCH more respect in that category, but as I cannot discern flavor progression unless I am hit over the head with it, we'll just say that this cigar was not as good as the best Fundadore I have ever had, and even a bit below the stunning Partagas Churchill Deluxe I had a few years ago. But wow, what a cigar. About as enjoyable and infectious a cigar as a person could smoke. The ash fell at a consistent 1.5 inches each time, the draw did tighten up a bit near the end, and it was only the cold that began to creep into my feet and legs and hands that forced me to stop smoking this cigar. As it was, I still smoked it further than my traditional halfway. The bands on this smoke were placed lower than usual, and that helped me to feel like I had indeed wrung the last of the great flavor out of the cigar. But it was difficult to let it go so soon. What is it about these old-style long panatelas that just makes the magic happen? There is no abundance of fillers for torcedores to work such magic with. But somehow they consistently impress the true connoisseur. And THAT'S why people are so upset about the demise of this style of cigar. Well, the people that know a good smoke when they smoke one, anyway.
TOP CLASS CIGAR, I have no trouble in the least scoring it a 95. Were it a bit more complex, it could have easily notched the highest score I ever gave a cigar on this blog, currently standing at 97. THIS smoke COULD have been a 98. But who's complaining?
I wanted to make popcorn, and did not want to use a microwave or even eat microwave popcorn. But the only pot I had to use had no lid. It was an old Revere Ware pot....but not that old, mid 80s, and NOT part of the real American tradition that was Revere Ware. Back in the late 30s, a company began to make a type of cookware that was created with stainless steel and had a bottom section covered in copper. It was for decades, one of the finest cookeware lines in the history of American cookware, famous for it's very even heat distribution across the bottom of the pot. But after 1958, an effort was made to save money in production, and the cookware's patented electroplating process was shortened to lessen the amount of copper that would adhere to the stainless steel pot. This was by far NOT the death of Revereware, but it ceased to be 'your granny's Revere Ware' after that decision cut the thickness of the copper layer in half.
ANYWAY, I wanted a lid for my pot, so I started hitting up the Goodwill store in the neighborhood where I work, hoping to find a Revere Ware lid. I didn't find one, but I ended up finding something that would work. What I DID find was a couple of Revere Ware frying pans. I found one of the amazing 12 inch skillets just like my mother had. What I would find out after buying three frying pans though, once I got back to work and searched the internet, was that...well, all the info I passed on above plus a lot more. The pots I had were great, but they were NOT the same as the REALLY good stuff. And if I was gonna waste time buying used pots and cleaning them up, I wanted the best used pots I could get, or I would just do what I had done for 30 years, make do with the crap selection of cookware I had. But one thing DID happen that day, I found out what to look for on the bottom of the pot that told me what to buy and what to leave on the shelf. And in the span of 3 weeks or less, I found a GIANT selection of pre-1958 Revere Ware cookware: 2 more frying pans, 2 medium stockpots, 4 small stockpots, 1 4-quart pot and two lids (finally got my matching LID!) Plus a couple of spare lids, because one thing I found out about thrift stores is that you grab what you find, even if its only a lid. If you don't, the next time you go, you will invariably find the matching piece for the lid you saw yesterday, but in that one day span, someone else WILL snatch your lid. If you buy lids and no pots, eventually the pot will show up. You can also find nicer Bakelite knobs and handles on stuff and swap them onto your best pieces.
Some of the stuff I bought was just WASTED, covered in cooked-on gunk, electric eye scorches, bad scratches....and many would require several hours of hard work to get back into prime condition. In the end though, I have totally filled out my collection of stuff, and now if I pick up anything else, it will only be because the pots I find are best bought by someone who knows what it is and what its worth and is willing to bring it back to prime form. And sure, maybe sell it to someone on Ebay. Its REALLY true about this product, they DON'T make em like they used to, and if you want the best, nowadays you have to go online and find it second hand.
