Arizona BBQ Festival 2013

Every once in a while Hilde and I need to remind ourselves that there's more to the world than the house and doctors' offices.  So when I saw there was a barbeque festival being held this weekend in Scottsdale, I went ahead and got tickets.

 

The Arizona BBQ Festival was held on the grounds of Salt River Fields, a large multi-diamond baseball/sports facility.  Besides numerous BBQ and other food vendors, there was live music, cooking demonstrations, the Redneck Games Arena---

 

---where they had such events as Dead Lawnmower Racing, Hubcap Hurling, Arm Wrestling, and Bobbing For Pigs Feet.  We left a little early to catch the contests for Best Redneck Moustache, Best Redneck Tattoo, and Best Daisy Dukes & Cowboy Boots.

There was also a children's area, with lots of inflatable slides and other activities for the kids there.

 

We caught several of the cooking demonstrations.  The 4:00 event was Chef Craig Driml of Uncle Bear's Grill & Bar (a growing chain of "comfort food" -- burgers, pizzas, BBQ, chili, etc -- restaurants, named after the owner's dog), where some very nice pulled pork sliders were prepared and served to the audience.

 

The 5:00 demo was by Chef Mel Mecinas from the Four Seasons Resort in North Scottsdale.  The Four Seasons is very upscale, and I have to say there was a noticeable difference in quality between Uncle Bear's food ("very nice", as I said above) and the brisket and coleslaw prepared by Chef Mecinas.  The brisket was excellent, deeply flavored, pulling apart easily, and served so fresh from the oven that the slices of meat were still hot enough to zing your fingertips if you tried to eat the brisket by hand.  But what really impressed me was Mecinas' coleslaw.

 

I detest coleslaw.  It always seems to be a standard side dish for BBQ, fried chicken, and other comfort-food dishes, and it always sucks.  It takes ingredients that are perfectly usable and edible in other dishes, and combines them into a product to which the best reaction is "Blehhh."  In the last forty years or more, I don't think I've eaten more than a teaspoon or two of the default-coleslaw found on most tables.  But I tried a forkful of Mecinas' coleslaw... and I wanted more.  Holy crap, it tasted good.  Really no-frikkin'-around good.

 

I wasn't the only person in the demo's audience impressed by the coleslaw.  Mecinas was asked if a recipe was available.  No, actually; he'd thrown the coleslaw together by eye and taste, and didn't have formal proportions or measurements available.  But here's the list of ingredients, as closely as I could hear or reconstruct them. (The helicopter-rides vendor was close by, and copters taking off or landing occasionally drowned out the audio in the cooking demo tent.):

• Napa cabbage
• Raddichio
• Apple
• Fennel
• Fresh tarragon
• Celery seed
• 2 parts creme fraiche
• 1 part mayonaisse
• Sherry vinegar
• Cider vinegar
• Sugar

There may also have been a dash of kosher salt and/or pepper in there.  But now I want to go to Four Seasons and try their restaurants.

One of the bands listed to perform at the Festival, Voodoo Swing, sounded like the type of fast-beat, pounding-rhythm ("Rockabilly" is the usual term) performers I frequently enjoy.  But Hilde and I were still in line at one of the food vendors on the opposite side of the Festival when they began their set.  Which was actually a good thing.  I've complained before that too many live performers seem to feel obliged to turn their amplifiers to "11" when they're playing in public.  Voodoo Swing appears to be yet another.  I could hear their music pretty damn well even way over in the food court area.  If I'd been in the official audience area by the bandstand, it would have been physically painful.

As it turned out, I did enjoy Voodoo Swing, as long as I was far enough away to hear them at a tolerable level.  Here's a YouTube video for "My Rockabilly Martian Gal" from their latest album.  (C'mon, could I really write a post this long without including a science-fiction connection?)

And that's how we spent an afternoon actually acting like normal people.

 

Ukelele Therapy, And More

While I'm recovering from my broken arm and waiting for physical therapy to be scheduled, I've been browsing the internet for other people's experiences with their own broken arms.

An especially interesting way to cope come from this comment on a forum for guitar players:

When I did my left shoulder in (broken fingers and thumbs and wrist/forearm too in past, and legs/ankles), I regained full use in about half the normal time, by learning to play the ukulele - it requires very little effort and no arm movement but the finger wiggling is apparently the best physio exercise you can do. Probably manage a ukulele whilst in plaster, did they they tell you to wiggle your fingers?
 

Yes, the ukulele.  The fellow quoted had a left arm injury, rather than right-sided like mine.  But I think it might still be do-able if, after consulting with a PT professional, I decide to try it.

(One of the more constant things on my unwritten Things To Do Before I Die list has been "Learn to play a musical instrument."  That list also includes "Learn to read & write music" and dozens of other tasks and aspirations.)

I've found there are lots of pre-made ukuleles available, ranging from very basic models around $70 up to more deluxe and/or electrified versions costing hundreds.  For those willing to invest a little sweat-&-glue equity, there are DIY kits available, or instructions for making your own from a variety of materials, such as the legendary cigar-box uke, and even a ukulele made from cardboard.

There are a number of websites devoted to ukuleles, like the Tumblr blog Fuck Yeah Ukuleles (some images may be NSFW; a small substratum of ukulele players apparently prefer to play naked).

Besides being used as a musical instrument, some people use the surface of the ukulele as an art surface, handpainting the bodies in a multitude of styles and themes.  Here's one for a fan of the ADVENTURE TIME cartoon:

painted by Jenny7332 on deviantart.net

Some custom ukuleles have variant shapes.  There's actually an Autobot theme ukulele:

made by Celentano Woodworks

I gotta admit, tho', I'm not a big fan of Transformers, so that Autobot ukelele doesn't really excite me.  But with a bit more Googling, I found a ukulele that actually transforms.  Behold, the Folding Ukulele!:

The folding ukulele was designed by a guy named Brian Chan, who unsurprisingly is also an expert origamist.  It comes as a DIY kit made from laser-cut bamboo and additional hardware.  Reviews give it lower marks for sound quality, but the coolness factor is sky-high.

The weirdest ukulele, though, is probably a South American variant called a charango.  The charango's body is traditionally made from the shell of an armadillo:

Does all this mean you'll see me with a ukulele of some sort in the future?  Mmmmmm. . . maybe.  I would be a lot more likely to take it up in private, rather than public.  I'm not an extrovert, unlike some people:

That's John Scalzi, author of Old Man's War and other books, head honcho of the popular Whatever blog, and public ukuleleist.  I like John's writing, but I gotta admit I think I admire him most for his ongoing efforts to make being a goofball more socially acceptable.  Still-closeted goofballs everywhere thank you, John.