World War Food

So there's a really big viral video out for a few months called Food Fight. It's an awesome stop-motion animated movie feature food duking it out. Little did I realize that the creator is actually reenacting wars from World War II to the present with native foods of countries. Visit tourist pictures' website breakdown for all the countries. Here's the video:

Knowing is Half the Battle!

This poster was released this week in advertising the new GI Joe movie GI Joe:Rise of Cobra. The film is directed by Indy native(didn't realize this) Stephen Sommers, known for campy and expensive movies such as The Mummy and Van Helsing. I was never big into GI Joe as a kid, I was more of a Transformers kind of guy. This film will just be a bunch of action with a bunch of bad one liners and special effects. The one thing about this movie that looks promising is that Ray Park (of Darth Maul, Toad, and Headless Horseman fame) will be playing silent but deadly (:P) ninja Snake Eyes. That may be worth watching. The resurgence of GI Joe reminds me of the famous redubbed GI Joe public service announcements made famous by ebaumsworld and Fensler Films. Here's 2 videos with the entire collection! Very funny, some are completely incoherent. The classics include 'Porkchop Sandwiches' and 'Hey Kid, I'm a Computer'. WARNING: Explicit Language:

Pizza Robot Rock Band Now Taking Requests!

This is crazy, since just recently I had a post about Showbiz Pizza/Chuck E. Cheese's. This week, the next new viral video, apparently a car salesman and one of the original programmers for the Showbiz Pizza robot band The Rock-afire Explosion are programming the robots for requested songs! Want to bid for a request? Go to starsof.com/fans/ to find out how! Here's Usher's 'Love in This Club':



Here's the youtube channel: youtube.com/user/fanprograms, which is run by Aaron Fetcher - one of the engineers for the band.

Listed on the channel is the trailer for Rock-afire Explosion: The Movie - A documentary on my childhood pizza place! Check out their myspace page for the film: www.myspace.com/therockafiremovie - I'm watching this when it comes out! Here's the trailer:

SIFF '08 Retrospective: Part III

This will be my last post on SIFF for this year. Once again, I had a great time with friends checking out films across some of Seattle's unique theaters. This post I'll be doing some ranking of the films seen this year AND last year. I'll take a brief look back on last years films. Also, a list of films I missed this year at the festival that I'm still interested in seeing.

SIFF '08 Films I Saw:

1. The Home Song Stories
2. The Fall
   
3. American Teen
4. Ben X
5. Nocturna
6. Staub (Dust)

SIFF '08 Films I'd Still Like to See:

• Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone
• Some Assembly Required
  
• Encounters at the End of the World
• Bigger Stronger Faster*
• Song Sung Blue
  
• Stranded: I've Come From a Plane that Crashed on the Mountains
  
• Man on Wire

SIFF '07 Retrospective

SIFF '07 was my first film festival ever and boy was it a fun ol' time. Their "Find True Film" advertising campaign was great, with very humorous commercials. The official poster (seen left) embodies the city of Seattle, all the way down to the geoduck! I saw 6 films in '07. I'll rank what I saw. Click the title link to go to the official website and click the 'Netflix It' to see the Netflix profile so you can add it to your queue!

1. The King of Kong - The ultimate video game/underdog doc about a Redmond teacher taking on the world record for Donkey Kong is still one of my favorite films in last couple of years....even though the direction could have been a little more objective. The 'Fistful of Quarters' subtitle was added after the limited release, still don't think it's necessary. Q & A at The Egyptian was awesome, it's actually in the DVD extras. Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)
   
2. Monster Camp - Documentary on the Seattle chapter of LARPing group NERO (New England Role-Playing Organization). It introduces the layman to LARP as well as delving into the lives of some of the groups players. Very fun and entertaining film here, nothing incredibly profound here. It was great to see some of the players in the movie come dressed to viewing that I attended. This had a limited release this year, expect it to eventually come out on DVD. Netflix It!
3. Rocket Science - A very indie film about a high school boy with a stuttering problem who decides try out for the high school debate team. In my previous entry about the doc Resolved, I had mentioned this film. It was a witty coming of age film, I don't think there was anything really outstanding about it especially compared to the likes of a film like Juno. Director Jeremy Blitz also did the film Spellbound (spelling bee, not Hitchcock), so he must really like academic competitions. Netflix It!
4. Fido - Canadian comedy placed in an alternate fifties reality where a war broke out against humans and zombies. The humans won and the zombies have become domesticated pets. The premise of the film is great and the first half of the film builds up a lot of momentum, but I feel like it struggles to finish off with a solid plot and resolution. I'd say give it a view if zombies are your thing, you'll get a kick out of it! Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)
5. Eagle vs. Shark - A New Zealand comedy very much in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite: about hilariously socially awkward people. This was my introduction to half of The Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement. This film is not all completely funny, it has some incredibly sad moments and some of the humor I felt guilty laughing about. This is a must for Conchords fans. Netflix It!
6. Noise - An Australian film about a cop with tinnitus who tries to hunt a killer who slaughters a number of people on a public train, not the recent film about noise pollution starring Tim Robbins. This film was quite slow, the only reason I saw this because the word tinnitus was floating in the description. It does play a part in the film, but not as prominently as it could have been. I'd pass on this film, but if you're interested in it you can watch it on DVD now. Netflix It! (on Watch Instantly too)

SIFF '08 Retrospective: Part II

Staub (Dust)

Country: Germany

So this movie is about exactly what it states it's about: dust. This film was part of an 'Alternative Cinema' program for SIFF. I have not seen many, if any, European documentaries and I was hoping for a film that would provide an intricate view on the minute particles of dust - what they're made of, how they affect us, how much of the stuff we breath in, people's view on dust, etc. I kind of got bits and pieces of that. Like the subject and title of the doc, the director floats around certain aspects of dust but never goes too in depth on one subject. I almost felt as though he had a short attention span. I don't know any German, but the narration was incredibly monotone and very little humor was used throughout. I was under the impression from an excerpt/trailer for this film that there was an underlying humor about it, but it seemed so serious. Gripes aside, there were some interesting scenes including a researcher who collects and classifies clumps of dust. I'm quite bewildered at what the director wanted out of this film, if I wanted something more educational I'm sure the Discovery Channel could come up with something much more engaging and informative. I'd say pass on this film.

Official Movie Site: http://realfictionfilme.de/filme/staub/index.php

Trailer: - Watch the trailer on the movie site, see this clip it's the most worthwhile part of the film.


Ben X

Country: Belgium


Ben is a high school student with Asperger syndrome. He is the picked on by classmates and can only find solace in playing an MMORPG called ArchLord. I didn't know this was actually a real game until recently. Although Ben struggles to interact with those around him, he is able to express himself through his online avatar. He eventually uses this escapism to try to break out of his oppressive life in the real world. Director Nic Balthazar shot this film based upon a novel he wrote which was based on an autistic boy who committed suicide after being bullied at school. The film does a good job of juxtaposing Ben's inner self to his outward self.

Official Movie Site: www.benx.be

Trailer:




American Teen

Country: America

No, I didn't get nostalgic for The Brat Pack and saw The Breakfast Club - just deceiving advertisements. I have to admit that the main hook for me wanting to watch this film was not that it got high praise at Sundance, but that the movie follows the lives of 4 (I'm convinced the fifth guy makes cameos just so they have a Judd Nelson wannabe on the poster and he's the opposite of a rebel) high school seniors from Warsaw, IN. We the audience get to peer into the lives of 4 socially diverse teens throughout their senior year, from beginning to end - the relationships, thoughts on the future, college, etc. It's quite candid, without it feeling like another reality TV show. Like a good doc, you find yourself routing for certain people in the film. Since watching The Up Series (I'll blog about that another time), watching the lives of real people (not stage celebrity life) is quite engaging and you can relate to the ups and downs of life. I didn't find it in anyway shedding a negative light to middle America, although the audience I saw it with at the festival seemed to have a field day bashing the humdrum life of the Midwest. The film definitely reminded me of home and friends, although I didn't grow up in rural Indiana. During the Q&A after the film, director Nanette Burstein explained her process in picking the right high school to do the movie in. She wanted somewhere in middle America, a community where it was small enough that it had only one high school (decisions and events in the school would hold more precedence), and a school that would be willing to allow a crew to film the schools ins and outs for an entire school year. Once the school was picked, she started interviewing students of interest to put into the film. Definitely an entertaining and great film, Burstein was fortunate enough to catch some really candid footage from all the teens lives.

Official Movie Site: www.americanteenthemovie.com

Trailer:

SIFF '08 Retrospective: Part I

So, SIFF's been over for more than a week and I figured I'll shed a bit of my thoughts on the films I saw. I saw a total of 6 films this festival. I definitely enjoyed myself this year, although I definitely felt the lack of selection of films since the festival was scaled down this year. This doesn't necessarily mean I had exhausted my options, there were definitely other films I wanted to see. I'll include the first 3 films watched in this post:

The Fall

Country: USA

I came into this film with a little skepticism. Tarsem (as he likes being called) directed The Cell, which was filled with wild, vivid, and sometimes gory imagery. I felt that film had so much eye candy that it was trying to get you to forget how shallow the acting and plot was. Although The Fall looked more promising, I was hoping I wouldn't get the same letdown. I did not. The story follows an injured stuntman in 1920's LA who befriends a little girl in a hospital and tells her a tale about 5 warriors on a quest to defeat the evil Governor Odious. As the story progresses, we find that the stuntman's tale is more than just mere fiction. This film is far from original in it's form of storytelling, it was a good combination of radiant visuals and heart wrenching human emotion. Films that are in the same vein to me are The Wizard of Oz and Big Fish. Although I did feel some of the visuals were absolutely gratuitous and overdone, they were very pleasing to the eye and added a solid connection of the fantasy with the reality of the story elements. I had wished the characters were a little fleshed out, I never got the real nitty gritty of what made the characters ticked as you are restricted to what the tale tells you. Romanian native Cantica Untaru (who plays the girl Alexandria) absolutely steals the show and her on-screen chemistry with the stuntman (played by Lee Pace) is heartfelt and believable. The soundtrack immersed me into the movie, it was epic yet very soothing. I'd recommend this film, don't go into it expecting anything profoundly novel but it's a film filled with adventure, humor, love, and picturesque cinematography. The film has had a wider release in America since the end of May, so if you can find it try to give it a watch.

Official Movie Site: http://thefallthemovie.com/
Trailer:



Nocturna

Country: Spain

I had really wanted to see an animated film while at the festival this year and this one seemed to be the most promising of what was available. Although this filmax animation films: filled with a child's whimsical imagination and creativity. production hails from Spain, it was dubbed in English most likely due to the fact that it was targeted for a much younger audience. The SIFF site advertised this film as similar to Monsters, Inc. and Miyazaki films. Nocturna takes us to a land that thrives after every child is asleep, where creatures of the night make sure children are in slumber and engrossed in dreams. Orphan Tim stumbles upon this world one night when he refuses to go to sleep after discovering that his favorite star has suddenly been snuffed out. With the help of his cat and a Quasimodo-esque character known as the Cat Shepherd, Tim discovers a greater threat that could endanger the night and Nocturna. The character design and art direction in this film are great, but I found the story a bit half baked and had a drawn out resolve. Once the characters are introduced and you are thrown into this universe of Nocturna, then the movie has to find find some direction and it had trouble finishing off it's barely 80 minute run time. I was confused at times about the consistency of the characters as well, one character I wasn't sure if he was supposed to be an antagonist or protagonist by the end of the film. Some portions of the film are so drawn out and dark, viewers may begin to feel sleepy, I went to watch this at 11:00 am and I felt like it was bed time during parts of the movie. I also felt the British voice acting hurt the film a little, maybe if this film gets a wider release American actors can do the voices - not that something like that would make it a whole lot better. It's really too bad, with all the time invested in creating this world and these characters, I wished that more time had been put into constructing a more engaging plot.

Official Movie Site: filmax International's official page in English
Trailer:

The Home Song Stories

Country: Australia

The difficulty about finding information about this film before I saw it was that it's definitely an Asian film involving Chinese characters, but it does not come from China or Taiwan or Hong Kong - it comes from Australia. Director Tony Ayres wrote and directed The Home Song Stories, which is based on his childhood growing up in the 70's in Australia. Rose is a singer from Shanghai night club singer who marries an Australian sailor and moves to the land down under, bringing her son and daughter with her. She moves from man to man, trying to find a way to support herself and her children. Her relationship with her kids develops before our very eyes as we see her children grow up and she grows older. We see much of not only an immigrants struggle to survive, but also the pressures of Chinese culture and traditions. This movie was quite the emotionally draining experience for me. Being Chinese-American and wondering what struggles my grandparents may have had trying to make it in America set the foundation for this film bringing me right on in from the beginning. We see Asian family dynamics between the son and his mother, the daughter and her mother, as well as the brother with the sister. Joan Chen's performance is incredible as the sometimes confident and other times emotionally neurotic mother trying to get by. I cannot imagine what it would be like for Ayres to write a story about his mother this way, it must have been quite a feat. This is definitely a recommend, although I'm not sure when it'll be available in America.

Official Movie Site: http://www.dendyfilms.com.au/homesongstories/
Trailer:

All's 'Fair' on 'Fry - Day'

This last weekend marked the beginning of summer. What better way to kick it off with some fair-inspired food. Out yet another cookout this weekend, I decided to try doing deep fried candy bars, a staple at any American fair midway these days. I did some research, and found a couple of recipes. The difference is just the ingredients and consistencies of the batters. Apparently the deep fried candy bar has it's origins in Scotland, where the UK Mars Bar (sweeter version of the American Milky Way) is battered and fried. I found a recipe that turned out a consistency very similar to fried bars that I've had in fairs back in Indiana, and a recipe that is supposedly more like the Scottish version. The Fair is more doughy whereas the Scottish is a bit crispier. So here's the concoctions for both:








'Fair' Style
Wet ingredients:

• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tblsp of vegetable oil

Dry ingredients:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt

Add dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then whisk in dry into wet ingredients and chill.










'Scottish' Style

• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup of corn starch
• 1 pinch of baking soda
• Milk or Beer (Beer gives a lighter taste)

Add flour, corn starch and baking soda together. Then add milk or beer until ingredients have a thin cream consistency - was at least a cup. Then chill until ready to use.


Other ingredients besides your batter is a chocolate bar and oil for frying. Mars brand chocolate bars are the best since they have a good structure to hold up in the frying process. A bit of Washingtonian history, Mars Incorporated was founded in 1911 in Tacoma, WA by Frank and Ethel Mars. Chill the candy bar in the fridge before frying(at least an hour to be safe) - no need to freeze as the bar may still be cold or solid after frying, you want the bar nice and gooey in the center. I also cut the bars in half, since a whole deep fried bar is quite substantial. Heat some oil (about 3 inches high) in a pan or pot to at least 350 degrees F. Coat bar in batter and place into oil. Remove from oil once batter has turned golden and place on a towel to remove excess grease. You don't have to wait too long to dig in. Garnish with a little confectioner's sugar and it goes great with some ice cream. I also tried battering an Oreo (straight out of the package) and it worked out great!








Eric brought dough for doughnuts, so I tried wrapping a chocolate bar or Oreo in the dough and then frying until dough turned golden - very tasty! Also coating with confectioner's sugar or cinnamon sugar adds some more flavor to the doughnut. I believe he used Food Network's Alton Brown doughnut recipe from Good Eats.

Masticaters Unite!

I was thumbing through the stations today and I found something that I thought I would never see again - The Glutton Bowl. The 2 hour professional eating competition aired on Fox in 2002 and was my (and probably many others) first exposure to the IFOCE, Kobayashi (not that fabrication in The Usual Suspects), and the world of competitive eating. It featured such foods as bowls of mayonnaise, beef testicles, sticks of butter, and cow brains. I remember no too long after this special aired, Kobayashi tried to competitively eat hot dogs against a Kodiak bear on TV (ironically also on Fox). Here's what happened:

Hollywood Loses One of Its Greats

This news is a little old, but on Sunday Stan Winston passed away at the age of 62. If you've never heard of him, you've almost certainly seen much of his iconic work. He was an Academy Award winning special effects and makeup artist. His work is what has made creatures such as the Terminator, the Predator, the Alien Queen, and the Jurassic Park dinosaurs icons in movie history. Many of these films have definitely played a part in my interest in film and it is sad to hear that the mind behind it all is gone. Like I had stated in a previous post, Jurassic Park is the movie that got me into movies and if those raptors or that t-rex were any less convincing on the screen I'm not sure if I would be as blessed as I am now to see as many movies as I have seen so far in my lifetime (I know, quite a statement and no mention of Star Wars!).Although he is gone, his production companies still live on, check them out at stanwinston.com.


Here's a tribute video provided by movie site JoBlo.com:

Tournament of Motormouthed Champions

After seeing the film Rocket Science (stars the guy who plays West, the flying kid from 'Heroes')last year at SIFF 2007, I was introduced to the world of high school debate. I had no idea that the competitions involved lugging crates of research papers and trying to talk as fast as possible. While in my hotel room last night for work I saw a documentary on HBO about high school debate, Resolved. The documentary follows 2 debate teams from very different socio-economic backgrounds and the one inner-city duo's quest to change the current style of competition, using a lot of jargon and speed reading (or spread). Although I don't agree with the fact that the current state of debate is racist, I'm sure I'd lose a debate with someone who thinks so. Here's an excerpt from NPR featuring the director and one of the debaters.

Here's a clip from the film, hopefully it'll eventually come out on DVD (it is listed on Netflix):


All this fast talking reminds me of this guy:

What is Best in Life, According to Arnie.

Here's a video of Arnold Schwartzenegger's on screen kills and a complete body count before he became the Governator of California. Wait till the end, it's got a breakdown of the body counts for all his films.

Movie that Looks Hot, Hot, Hot!

So after the polarizing Academy Award winning film No Country For Old Men, the Coen brothers follow up their hit w/ Burn After Reading. It's about two gym employees, played by Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand, who try to sell off a CD full of CIA secrets. With No Country the Coens have been back on track after a bit of a slump. Their last 2 films, The Ladykillers and Intolerable Cruelty (Paris Je T'aime's too short to count), were quite unwatchable. I can't wait for this film, which comes out September 12th. Below's the red band trailer (meaning it's got some explicit content):

Of Rats and Joysticks

So news came out recently that Leonardo DiCaprio will be a in a biopic about Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari. So for this blog entry, I knew I had to put something Chuck E. Cheese's related since Bushnell was also the founder of the animatronic pizza joint. Little did I know how much obscure information I would find about the place online. This also brings me back as I would frequent Showbiz Pizza - one of CEC's engulfed franchises- often as a kid. I must say, my parents must have really loved me to keep taking me there. I'm watching some of the videos online of memories I have of the place and I must say I don't know if I could stand going there more than once as an adult. Part of me also remembers that place being very loud when the animatronic shows happened, I wonder what a noise level survey would have shown. I found this website, ShowBiz Pizza.com, which is a museum of all things ShowBiz/Chuck E. - from the history of the tokens to a whole library of employee training videos. Here's a training video I found on youtube:

Deliciously Good Read

I've just finished this book called The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Wha?! That's right, I've not only read and finished a book in a week but it's about Chinese food. Author Jennifer 8. Lee (numerology infused into one's name), an American born Chinese writer for The New York Times, writes about the impact of Chinese food in America and how American the Chinese food we have in the States really is. Like the title of the book, a major portion of Lee's quest is to figure out the origins of the fortune cookie after a series of lucky numbers from a fortune garners a lot of Powerball Lottery winners. Other interesting topics in the book include the history of Chinese takeout in New York City, Asian manufacturers' fight to have any soy sauce that is not naturally soy brewed to not be classified as soy sauce, Fold-Pak food pails, Jewish people's connection to Chinese food, why General Tso has chicken named after him like Colonel Sanders, and the lofty task of finding the greatest Chinese restaurant outside of China. The most I got out of it, being a Chinese-American, was the history the restaurant industry and its impact on Chinese culture in America. Much of the Chinese food here in America is all-American because the food is a fusion of Chinese and what Americans like in food. I also realize now that the stuff my grandma's been making for years is probably the real Chinese food. Like they used to say on Reading Rainbow I'll tell you to go to your local library or bookstore and pick up a copy today because it's a great read, but don't take my word for it!

This book also reminded me about an article the Seattle Weekly did about the history of teriyaki restaurants in Seattle. Check it out here.

Visit Lee's blog at the fortunecookiechronicles.com, especially after you've read the book. There are a lot of pictures from her journeys that she wrote about in the book.

Here's an NPR interview with Lee and an excerpt from the book as well.

I don't watch The Colbert Report, but I found out about the book from this interview between Colbert and Lee awhile back while channel surfing:

Great Scott! Universal Studios Burnt!

So if you've heard this Sunday, there was a fire on the Universal Studios backlot in Los Angeles. It took over 400 firefighters to stop the blaze. Large portions of the lot were destroyed, including the New York Street facade, the King Kong attraction, and Courthouse Square. Also, a vault of 50,000 high quality film copies were destroyed. Fortunately, no original or irreplaceable reels were lost. It has been determined in the last couple of days that the fire was due to a blow torch that was used on a set. Another issue was that the firefighters did not feel that there was proper water pressure to extinguish the fire faster. Here's a link that lists a few movies filmed in the damaged area.

Seems like everything from Back to the Future is being destroyed at Universal Studios. First they shut down one of their coolest rides, Back to the Future: The Ride, to replace it with a Simpsons ride last year and now this. I don't know why anyone would want to shut down a theme park attraction where you ride a flying time machine built out of a DeLorean. I've been to Universal Studios maybe 2 or 3 times in my life and that ride was always the thing I was looking forward to. If you've never been, this is what you missed out on:

Days 3 & 4 of Big Sky Country

Not much done the last couple of days in Montana. During my time in Butte, I saw the 2 attractions the city had to offer on my way out: A statue of a woman on a mountain and a giant toxic pit. I made my way up to Helena, the capital of Montana, before ending up in Great Falls. Before I left Montana, I had to eat at an Arby's. Although the fast food chain originated in Ohio, I've noticed the last couple of times that I've traveled through Montana that their Arby's are some of the best I've had. I'm sure decent fast food is due to good management and ownership but I think the state's dedication to good beef had something to do with it too. I ordered a large roast beef sandwich aka, for those of you who remember what the half pound sandwich used to be called, The Big Montana. It went down real well with a large side of mozzarella cheese sticks. One final memory from Montana, I was thumbing through the TV stations in my hotel in Butte and I saw one of the most infamous episodes of Walker, Texas Ranger. I think this clip sums it up:


Yeah, that's Haley Joel Osment.

Day 2 of Big Sky Country

Today, I headed over to the Museum of the Rockies (MOR), on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman. It is always a reinvigoration of my childhood when I get to go to a museum with a dinosaur exhibit. As a child dinosaurs were what I loved, I read books about them, drew pictures of them, and would try to get my hands on anything dinosaurs. Jurassic Park is still, to this day, one of my favorite all time movies - the film brought many creatures I had read about to life. I'd attribute the film to sparking a greater interest in watching movies too. The state of Montana is one of the epicenters of the paleontologic community as many dinosaur skeletons and fossils have been found there. One of the most notable paleontologists, Jack Horner, is a Montana native and is the Curator of Paleontology at MOR. Horner was an advisor for the Jurassic Park films and was an inspiration for the character Dr. Alan Grant. The museum was great. It's not a very large museum, but the halls that housed the dinos were quite impressive. Almost all of the castings and real skeletons of dinosaurs came from Montana. The museum boasts the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton in the world. The exhibits have many interesting theories about dinosaurs that I had not heard before. A couple that struck me included T-Rex being a scavenger and ceratopsians'(horned dinosaurs) horns were used for species recognition. One amazing discovery the museum houses is a bone of a T-Rex found in Montana that is the first fossil containing soft tissue - quite a find! Below are just a few pics of the museum.





After work at the airport and seeing lots of bones in the museum, I was hungry and sort of in the mood for some ribs. I stopped in at Bar 3 BBQ. I got a half a rack of St. Louis ribs and I have to admit, I've never had to work so hard to clean off a half rack. The ribs were huge and they don't trim off a lot of the meat like other places do. The sides I chose (garlic mash potatoes and baked beans) were a bit dry, but they did the trick. Definitely another filling meal in Montana.

Day 1 of Big Sky Country

Greetings from Bozeman, Montana! I'm traveling throughout central Montana this week testing Horizon Airlines at their various aiport hubs. My trip today was not without it's interesting moments. The flight was supposed to stop in Butte, before ending up in Bozeman. While we were descending into Butte, there was a bolt of lightning that flashed by the plane. Concerned that there might be something wrong with the plane, which was a Bombardier Q400, they had everyone get off the plane and wait for a mechanic. After almost an hour of waiting, Horizon says that the plane was going to be taken out of commission and that a bus was going to take us to Bozeman - another hour and a half drive. Within 10 minutes of this announcement, we are then told that the plane will end up taking us to Bozeman. Anyways, long story short, more delays occur to get us on the plane and take off - we finally arrive at 5 PM Mountain time, 2.5 hours late. Fortunately, I didn't have to do any testing so it was a relaxing time of sitting around and doing some reading.

After finally getting my white RAV 4 rental (was hoping for the promised Mazda6 or similar sedan), I got to my hotel around 6 PM. I'm quite impressed w/ the RAV 4, it drives like a car but with large SUV side mirrors. I was hoping to go to the Museum of the Rockies today, but maybe tomorrow. I decided to check out a steakhouse that I had heard from many sources touted as 'The Best Steakhouse in Montana' - quite a lofty title. It's a little place called Sir Scott's Oasis Steak House, located in a little town about 20 miles west of Bozeman called Manhattan. I soon found out why some may think it's the best steakhouse in Montana...even though this is the first one I've ever been to. You just get a bargain for your buck at this place. Because of the size of the place, it was very busy. I reserved for 7 PM and ended up being seated about 20 minutes later, but it's understandable since I was the only person in my party. I definitely got the small town vibe, many people in the restaurant from different parties were interacting with other parties. Once you're seated your table has a basket of crackers, a relish tray of assorted fresh veggies, a decanter of ice water, and a huge scoop of butter for the crackers....maybe for the veggies too. Yeah, that picture is butter-not sour cream or ice cream, butter. All the dinner entrees come with salad, soup of the day, a side of potatoes, garlic toast, ice cream, and a cup of coffee. As hungry as I was, I decided to exercise some self control and get one of the smaller steaks on the menu: the 16 oz New York Strip. All the steaks in the restaurant are USDA Prime Black Angus beef - very flavorful, many times very expensive, beef. The first bite of the beef came from my soup, which was a beef chili, although the beef wasn't ground it was chunks of prime rib - yum. When my steak came out it was sitting on an iron skillet surrounded by garlic toast and Jo-Joes, my tuberific side of choice. Jo-Joes are round sliced sections of potato that are battered and deep fried. It's good that I had something deep fried, I was tempted to try their steak fingers which were battered and deep fried strips of steak. The steak was one of the best strip steak's I've ever had - flavorful, perfectly medium rare, tender and moist. I was able to completely finish my meal, which left me stuffed, and was topped off with a generous scoop of rainbow sherbet. The great thing about this place is that whole meal cost about 20 bucks and there's no sales tax in the state of Montana! Definitely you can get much greater portions for more money, I think the most costly entree on the menu was around 55 bucks, but it was a huge helping of surf and turf. I noticed many doggy bagged their meals, which is a plastic baggy for your meat and a brown lunch sack to place everything else in. I'm sure you can get some huge steaks other places in Montana, definitely in the country, but the whole package definitely makes it one of the best.