Diner Review VIII: The Sunrise Diner

Sunrise Diner
146 N Main St
Edwardsville, IL 62025
(618) 659-8688


Soooo...we venture to Illinois again this time to The Sunrise Diner which is in downtown Edwardsville and just happens to be right across the street from my law firm. The Sunrise has great ambience and sits right on the street which is cool. It sits in a row of shops with a Wine Bar and the much dreaded Bryan Cave and is right on Main Street and hard to miss. With its unassuming glass-front window and chalkboard sandwich board outside, it does not impress. Inside the restaurant is kept fairly clean by the owners, and it is obvious that this diner has only been open a couple years.

“The furniture is rather new, the tables in good condition”. I read this in an online review and find it... a poor recounting of the place. Everything is blond wood and kind of lost in the 70’s. It looks vaguley like grandmas kitchen. Although they have a smoking section the persnickety among us will notice that the smoke permeates, upsetting some people and making the rest of us certain that we are at least in a diner. I think Illinois is supposed be going totally smokeless even in bars. I am a non smoker but that stinks of communism to me. There is almost no space to walk amongst the tables and the service is, well, diner service. I object because there is no grill and no counter with stools but I give some breaks for more rural Diners. There is no jukebox. Fortunately there is also no internet.

On a normal weekday morning you can count on seeing the police chief in his booth in the corner just enjoying his breakfast, holding court and taking things in. I do not know what he gets but he drinks a lot of coffee and tends to keep to himself unless one of his friends shows up. I have had breakfast there on about 4 occasions now, normally on a Monday morning and although the service is relatively indifferent and not particularly attentive it is more then adequate.

It is quite the combination. The cream gravy is passable, a little thick and pasty but with some decent flavor. The sausage appears to be local and home made. The hash browns...shredded as God intended and cooked pretty perfectly on a consistent basis. Good stuff. The pancakes are thick and wide and they serve them with plenty of buter and syrul. Try the gyro breakfast platter, generally I am not one for Greek food but all the food is rather good. An average breakfast will run you less than $7.

Dos Peros

Soooo..what do you say about a man at 45 who suddenly comes up as the possible owner of two dogs? As regular readers know our family suffered a major psychological blow last year with our sons leaving (escaping?) to college. We dealt with that very well trying to focus the excess energy on our two remaining homebound, long suffering children. They did not seem to enjoy that. Then our old, tired, back surgeried mutt declined to a point where she was fairly unhappy... perhaps even tremendously unhappy...and she needed to be put to sleep. That was Rascal and Rascal was a smallish, skittish mutt who came into our lives when we were obsessed with the rearing of young children. The kids noticed we had a dog around but not much else. Anyway...Rascal was gone and my wife was thinking we did not need another dog but I began to plot and scheme.

For me, for whatever reason with all my insecurities, a family does not look like a family without a dog shambling around, sniffing people, barking at strangers, peeing wherever sometimes, sleeping in the same room and generally being around. (That is what we call a run on sentence). So I wanted a dog. I had a good friend who was very active in animal rescue and when she realized I was a candidate for one of her charges she went to work. She had us out to a birthday party where she had some friends who were dog people and also had her 7 or 8 dogs wandering around. She also had a book of the dogs available for adoption and told my wife when they would be at Pet Smart.

It was not too much later when my wife told me she was going to “look” and that same day when she said “come over, I think I have found our dog.” Lily was there on her lap in the pet store nervous and shedding like it was snowing. Very cute. I walked her around and she skittered nervously, just a puppy. They said she was a Jack Russel/Beagle mix and she was very loveable. We took her hom, my daughter named her Lily after a few starts and stops with other names and....we had a new child. My wife focused her formidable skills on acclimating the dog getting firmly involved in:
1. Potty training
2. Diet
3. Exercise
4. Obedience School
5. Finding dog people for our rambunctious dog to play with

Sooner or later the dog started sleeping with us and became firmly embedded in the fabric of our family. Although she has too much energy it was good and with the recent Michael Vick thing I came to grips with the fact that Lily was a Pit Bull who had likely been discarded due to her smallish size. She looked liked one and acted like. If it looks like a duck and flys like a duck... But just as people told us, she was sweet, loveable full of energy and great to have around. In playing with other dogs it was rougher then I was comfortable with but tails were always wagging with all the dogs and everyone seemed to get along at the dog park.

So when my wife informed me that there was a 2 year old Labrador mix...Lola...who needed a home I thought, well...why not. Lola was owned by a couple who then had a small child and could not handle her anymore and was living with a single man who already had a dog and was hoping to find a good home. He assured us we could “try her out” but I knew from past history that when you get a dog, you tend to keep a dog. Lola is a sway back, bowl legged, ematiated dog, about 60 pounds of dog and on her way to 80 when we start to feed her. Her ribs stick through and she walks (shambles) around our house as we see if this is going to work.

It is amazing how much every new personality changes the dynamics of a household. This dog is even natured, calm and pleasant. She and Lily spent the entire first day wrestling, mouthing and of course humping each other going through all the dance of establishing the dominant dog of the house. It was all pretty pleasant and innocent with Lily walking around outside in our yard and peeing EVERYWHERE and then generally tussling on a non stop basis, tails wagging as they danced their dance. Lola has a lot more energy then Lily who although energetic has lived with the Beckers for coming up on a year and has acclimated herself to our slothful lifestyle. Lola has not been indoctrinated and by the end of the day Lily was tired so I separated them and took Lily upstairs to be with Sandy where she collapsed on the bed. My daughter let Lola upstaris and when she stuck her large face up on the bed Lily, the Pit Bull did not hesitate and made one quick violent snap at her head, catching her delicate noze in her teeth and ripping it. Sending Lola screaching downstairs to park by the back door, bleeding...as Lily settled back in on the bed. Lola seems to be a pretty gentle sweetheart and I think she was a little in shock but she cleaned up well but...it is a gash in the nose. Lots of blood.

Territorial...that was the other thing I read about Pit Bulls...territorial. She acted just as we should have suspected that she would. She was tired and wanted her space and she was laying in bed with Sandy..her master and was going to allow this final encroachment. Mid-life is odd. Stupidity never seems to go away and although we know the dog makes no sense it seems like the right thing to do. So, we are feeling our way. Seeing if this works out. Perhaps the second dog does not make sense yet...perhaps we need to get rid of another one of these kids? Food for thought.

Diner Review VII: Spencer's Grill

Diner Review
Spencers Grill
Kirkwood
On Kirkwood Road (Lindbergh for non-residents)

So...it is a local favorite and it is close to home but sometimes I wonder about Spencers Grill. Not open on Sundays. (which considering it’s location it should be) Sits right in the middle of one of our better suburbs. Still it is a pretty great place. Nice menu with all the fixings... good long counter with the appropriate stools, three or four VERY old and uncomfortable wooden booths. Small parking lot in back and regulars can walk in through the back.... the rest of us go in the front. It has a long straight counter with about 8 stools and then has four booths along the window on the left. The booths were apparently made by hand a long tiime ago and are made to fit the space rather then provide any dining comfort. The padding on them, such as it was, it torn and almost gone. They are made of wood and are too small providing much unwanted bumping of knees, especially when your breakfast companion is a 50 year old man.

There is a decent amount of cigarette smoke. The waitresses are always pleasant and they take pretty good care of you. The crowd is pretty considtently male and middle class and a tie is not really out of place but a golf shirt is certainly fine. People are there early and they open at 6.

The food is good.Their hashbrowns are standouts. Very greasy and always formed into the appropriate patty. They tend to be pressed thin which thems a crispiness which is unexpected and delightful. The eggs are once again...fine and unremarkable and cooked to order. The sausage patties are smallish but have good flavor and the gravy is thick and creamy though a little bland for this reviewer. The bland gravy is over bland, thick biscuits which although filling were not particularly satisfying. What makes Spencers unique in our area is that they serve Scrapple. Our friends at Wikipedia tell us:

Scrapple is a savory mush in which cornmeal and flour, often buckwheat flour, are simmered with pork scraps and trimmings, then formed into a loaf. Small scraps of meat left over from butchering, too small to be used or sold elsewhere, were made into scrapple to avoid waste, a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition.

Who would eat this shit? Maybe John Meyers but he is from eastern Pennsylvania so probably not. Seriously....how does a bunch of stuff that sounds like it was dropped on the floor constitute breakfast? Remember this Diner Reviewer has a goat like stomach and absolutely no sensability regarding taste or anything else. I cannot stomach what I have seen of this. Although I am happy to mix the ingradients on my plate into something that looks like it was recently puked up, the idea of someone serving me a “plate of puke” is slightly (maybe tremendously) more distasteful.

Spencers makes itself a top quality choice and one of the only ones west of Lindbergh...barely. No jukebox. No calendars on the wall but still 8 Slingers on a 10 scale. They also get points for having their own web site. Very new millenium for an old world breakfast.

http://www.spencersgrill.com/

Bonnie Prince Billy

Will Oldham
Bonnie Prince Billy
Palace
Palace Brothers
Palace Music


So...I spent a rainy Sunday at the end of July going through my iTunes library and finally rating all of my songs by Will Oldham. Oldham is an iconclastic, indie rocker, altcountry, country, atlernative singer songwriter who has various bands which all have had different names and are all him. His sound has been described as all of the above but eptiomizes low-fi post punk of the mid nineties.

Oldhams does what he wants to do and is not an attractive man. Both of these facts can be seen in Kanye West video in which he appears. He is the “star” of the video. IF YOU DO NOTHING ELSE CLICK ON THIS LINK!

http://www.kanyewest.com/?content=video_cant_tell_alt

He has also appeared in about 10 films including Sundance Nominee “Old Joy” which had music by Yo La Tengo.
Over the last 12 years or so his music has befuddled me, entertained me and moved me as much as anyone I can think of. His albums are all of uneven kind and quality. Under the Palace moniker he tended to pick his musicians and singers and then go in and record by the seat of his pants. This results in music that is always “interesting” but often seems self involved and...mopey...and kind of all over the place. But I noticed that his songs were popping up more and more on composites and that there were a lot of different ones. I also noticed I had downloaded a lot of his live music and had over the years caught some pretty brilliant unreleased stuff. He recently has settled on the Bonnie Prince Billy name but is still doing the same thing. He said with the different Palace names he wanted people to understand that there were different musicians and a different thing going on each album. He does not seem to worry about that anymore.

He first grabbed me with the 1995 “Viva Last Blues” which fulfilled my definition of a great CD at the time because it had three songs that knocked me out. he has an...interesting voice. He is atonal but sings with passion and in tune, like a deranged Neil Young. The songs “New Partner”, “Work Hard Play Hard” and “Cats Blues” all are just great indie rock songs. This album is at best...under rated.

There are a lot of artists now who I view as deriving a lot from Oldhams work and they are Sufjan Stevens and Sam Beam who does business as “Iron and Wine.” I don’t like these guys at much but they put out some good music. His songs have been covered by a lot of people but the most seminal cover of one of his songs was Johnny Cash’s version of his song, “I See A Darkness”. A lot of his songs, like SufJan Stevens have religious and spiritual themes although I would argue that Oldham is much more comfortable with the well enunciated word “fuck.” His spirituality also seems somewhat ambilalent. Sometimes he sings song which seem so unbelievably Christian and Jesus like...and then he sings songs like “Pushkin”
“God is the answer...
God is the answer...
God is the answer...
God lies within.”
I don’t know Pushkin. I assume he wrote about God and religion at some point but Wikipedia says he lived between 1799 and 1833 and was one of the great Russian poets and social reformers...sent into exile by the Czar. I like songwriters who introduce to the character of Pushkin and get my curiousity going and then sing about God and religion in a way that make me examine my own spirituality....such as it is. Then there is “Jolly Song” which sounds like a white boy in slow time singing a negro spiritual....
“When thy song, flows through me.
When thy song flows through me, my Lord...
Then life is sweet....
Oh life is sweet....
Sorrow a dream....”

His most recent collaberation was with the alt rock, super mopey, instumental and some times synth heavy (almost all the time) Tortoise. They plan and he sings and although I really cannot stand their music his reading of Springsteens “Thunder Road” last year was...moving.
If you love great singer songwriter who play whatever they want and figure if they do it with passion that people will find it, he is your guy.

it is a pain putting together a nice sampler of his music from iTunes due to him operating under so many names but....here goes.
Bonnie Prince Billy
1. Thunder Road
2. Be Still and Know God
3. Senor
4. Cursed Sleep
Will Oldham
5. A Suckers Evening
6. Arise Therefore
Palace Brothers
7. You Will Miss Me When I Burn
8. Pushkin
Johnny Cash
9. I See A Darkness
Unfortunately that is all you can do on iTunes. I could do you better. Just ask.

The Dumb Fall Hard

Alberto Gonzales
Who Cares?







Seriously... is there anyone who cares about this guy or this administration anymore? Aside from being an ongoing embarrassment which will not go away. They have very little relevance other then hoping that they do not do any more damage before they get out. There is no question we will still have a 100,000 men in Iraq at the end of the administration. There is also very little question that even in the case of someone’s death they will not appoint another Supreme Court Justice. Their failed foriegn policy has left us with no military force that can threaten anyone and we are so reviled by the rest of the word as to have any influence other then fear and loathing.

Still, Gonzales has provided us with another embarassing, yet divine comedy. Much like Scooter Libby you have to feel sorry for the guy. The misguided sense of loyalty which trumps honesty, the Consitution or any sense of dignity or self respect. And having said all that I want to be clear, Congress is worse. Of that whole Senate Judiciary Committee Arlen Specter is the only one I can currently stomach. I know he is an old time hustler and fixer but whether it is regarding Supreme Court nominees or this current debacle with Gonzales he is the only guy who seems to understand the humor of the situation. And he is the only Republican with the balls to say to Gonzales that he has no cfredibility and frankly he does not believe him.
Think about that. The Attorney General of the United States of America (our head cop, the guy responsible for being the symbol of American justice) has one of the senior Senators from his party say that to him...to his face... about him. Oh the humanity. It was hard to watch...over and over again after it happened on CNN and Meet The Press. Surprisingly Fox (fair and balanced) did not cover it.

CNN said:

But sources involved in discussions with White House officials say,"People are a bit shocked. He didn't win over Democrats and he may have lost a few Republicans. No one privately is saying it's a homerun. No one is saying he did what he needed to do. There's faint praise like he didn't get killed. We understand he's on shaky ground." They went on to quote White House sources saying, “His [Gonzales'] tactic was inexplicable. He keeps saying I know why I made the decision, but I don't know anything else,"

His Republican friends said:

"The communication was atrocious. It was inconsistent -- it's generous to say that there was misstatements; it's a generous statement. And I believe you ought to suffer the consequences that these others have suffered," Coburn said, adding, "I believe the best way to put this behind us is your resignation."
Coburn is the first Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee to call for Gonzales' resignation.

Wow!

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pennsylvania, told reporters that Gonzales' "credibility has been impaired" and that the case has put career attorneys in a precarious position.

Our friends at Fox labeled Specter as a Democrat...nice “mistake.”

"The moment I believe I can no longer be effective, I will resign as attorney general," Thats what the man said but how can he concievably be effective after that beating. Granted Spector is probably tired of seeing the guy as it becomes more and more clear that the only reason he has not been fired is because Bush knows he could not appoint anyone conservative enough for his base who would have a prayer of being confirmed and then...oh yes...it does distract from his disasterous war policy. Anyhing that keeps the latest Iraqui or Afghan or Pakistani war failure off the front page is a bonus. So what if it further shames our country to have this poor, overmatched, outwitted, wrongheaded yet still stridently loyal man crucified by members of his own party.
***
But why do I say Congress sucks? becuas the two things that have them pissed off, the firing of the U.S. Attorneys for political reasons (which is clearly not illegal although it breaks precedent and is further evidence of an amoral dogmatic White House) and his apparent lack of candor that he went to John Ashcroft’s hospital bed to get him to OK the continuation of the warrentless search and siezure law and his insistance that there was no debate in the Justice department make him a liar. I am tired of Congress getting to the bottom of something that should be very embarrassing for the administration and people perjuring themselves. I cannot get excited about this anymore. Clearly when the White House does something stupid it is expected that subordinates will lie about, humiliate themselves and destory their careers (and damage the Constitution) so that they can be seen as team players.

This is not news anymore. It is not even interesting. Watching Gonzales made me feel the same way I feel watching Paris Hilton explain away her actions or Lindsay Lohan explain hers. this is low drama and low comedy. Congress has some serious things to deal with (consumer debt, sub prime mortgages, hedge funds, the Iraq war, the Afghan War and the destruction of the middle class to name a few) but they lack either the balls, the creativity or the intelligence to do that so instead they engage in the same pathetic melodrama we saw in Clinton’s last Congress where they impeached the President for his recollection of one his White House blow jobs. THAT MY FRIEND IS WHAT REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT IS FOR.
Makes me dream of what it would be like if Hunter Thompson was still alive. Bad Craziness.... Indeed!

Me with pitchers


Me in a hat with crazy eyes



Hat in a Window

Book Review Number 8: Huckelberry Finn

Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckelberry Finn
Barnes and Noble Classics 292 Pages

So...who cares about Mark Twain. He is dead...right? I like to read. I read a lot of crap. I read a lot of cynical, negative crap. Every once in a while it is time to get back to a classic or two. Last year it was Anna Karenina which was as hard as I remembered it but much more rewarding then it was in college. Twain seemd easier, shorter and yes more American.

Written in 1884 (although most of it was allegedly written pre civil war when “Tom Sawyer” was released, many have pointed to this book as the start of American literature and pegged and perhaps unfairly saddled with the title of “Great American Novel.” I thought it would be easy to read and it is...if you gloss over, skim and just kind of take in the narrative swing. But you can’t. Twain demands attention because he is so biting, so critical and so funny that it is embarrassing to miss the jokes.

Twain wrote this in a “style” that sought to mimic the rural Missouri and rural south which he experienced. This is similar to many hip hop authors, and southern authors since that time. The idea that you could write out bastardized king’s english and that all printed word whould not be written like Jane Austen (who was born right in the middle of Twains life) was an anathma. But the book is just so good.

A classic story of adventure and human nature. Starkly drawn characters which allow the reader to identify with each one and the bad characters are never totally bad and the heroes...Huck and Tom... are never really that good. From his abusive father to the rivercity con men that he “befriends” the bad guys are richly drawn, complex and ultimately sad characters and the fact that he can make you feel empathy fo these cruel and stupid characters is for me one of the books greatest traits.
In our politically correct day this book would not be published due to his use of the word “niger” over 200 times, primarily with the character “nigger Jim.” While it certainly would be totally unacceptable and unjustifiable in ANY modern society at this point, his use of the word has been defended and contextualized but I am not sure that Twain was not deeply familiar with the offensiveness of the term and it’s odious nature. In using it so casually throughout the book is evinces a contempt but in one of the most quoted and most biting indictment of time and really of human beings there is the sequence where Huck is explaining that a dirver blew on a steam boat and Aunt Susie asks:

"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" she asks.
"No'm," comes the answer. "Killed a nigger."

Seriously...where do you go with that? Devaluation of human life, social commentary, indictment, whatever...all in about ten words. Arthur Petit wrote a great summary book of Clemens relatioship with the south, slavery and blacks called “Mark Twain and The South.” Here is the link:

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/enam482e/reviews/swilson.html

Throughout the book he is constantly throwing out other beauties such as when his discussing a farm house preacher and says:

”....and he never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too.”
Beautiful.

The story waxes and wains but many commentators including Twain believe that the novel should have ended after about 200 pages when Nigger Jim gets stolen from Huck. The rest of the book after that is a somewhat long winded happy ending. The brevity of style is what is also amazing. If T. Corghassen Boyle or David Foster Wallace Wrote this book now it would be 800 pages with footnotes. Twain did it 150 years ago with incredible grace. Bottom line is that if you need a good read and you need a little bit to think about, this is a nice break and a good refresher on life, writing and what is great and bad about people... and authors....and America.