Maury's Tiny Cove

If you live in Cincinnati and have never been to Maury's Tiny Cove, you're plain silly. It's an old supper club on the West side of town that specializes in cooking meat very very well. That's right. I said West side. . . you Eastsiders need to get over there, too. I come from mixed East/West parentage and thankfully dso. There's awesome stuff on both sides of the viaduct!.

My parents have taken us there a few times and here are a few of the finer points.

Amazing signage.

A bar that would make anyone from the Midwest comfortable--the usual low-ceilinged, dimly lit, all wood stretch that shows up in corner bars from St. Louis to Chicago.

Bread basket to start? No! A bowl of dill pickles!

Rare Roast Beef, potato fritters, horseradish sauce, steak sauce and a side of broccoli (which by the way, isn't always a specialty of steak houses. . . but it was cooked just right, bright green with a little chew left).

and sometimes, best of all,
Maury's makes your parents look like this. . .

Christmas Ornaments

I will never understand the folks who decorate Christmas trees the way they do in hotels--a selection of 5 ornaments repeated 100 times each all in the same color scheme. Like an interior decorator put your tree together to go with the oriental rug in your living room. Blech.

My peeps do it German-style (though, no actually lit candles on branches). Lots of traditional wooden ornaments from Germany, but also a million different ornaments collected over the years, made by me or my brother in school, made for us, made by the ladies of the family as party favors for the old big super-extended Christmas parties (a tradition, we probably shouldn't have given up on), things we picked up on vacations. Every year, Mom and I share the storiesthat go along with all of them. They're really important. . . part of the family history/mythology.

Check out some of my favs:

So 40's or 50's, this white reindeer with red eyes. In bottom of frame is a reindeer head I made for everyone as Christmas gifts years and years ago. . .

Cincinnati was Porkopolis, so pigs show up more than one might expect on Cincy trees. This was homemade by my mama.

All of the Other Days of Vacation So Far

Not really. But I have a new niece--since June. Yesterday in a court house in Ohio, she officially became a Stewart--her SS# and last name changed and she's ours forever and ever and ever. Apparently, after the judge gave my brother and sister-in-law a brief lecture on parenting, he turned to Morgan and said he had just one question for her. . . how have the last six months been? And she actually giggled in response! Really. Shut Up! So Cute!

Happy to say, that though Dan and I live far far away and haven't seen her since August, she liked us quite a bit and was nothing but happy and giggly in our company. We will be spoiling her rotten. . . even from afar. And every time I go home to visit, I believe it will continue to be a three way death match between me, grandma and great grandma to see who gets to hold her the most.

The perfect baby--see for yourself:

already a connoisseur of fine baby toys

uncle Dan got that baby good!

Vacation Day 1--Justin Roberts turns 40

Our buddy Justin turned 40 in high style, in the party room of the Devon Uncommon Grounds. Most years, Justin has a Frank Sinatra party around birthday time, because he's a little obsessed, but the big 4-0 put old blue eyes in the backseat this year.

Saw a whole host of lovely people. Ate an amazing slice of cake. And then, because this was Justin (of famous children's musician fame--if you haven't heard him, he's great. Like the early Muppet movies his stuff is awesome because it's just as great for grown ups as kids. So, it's kids' music the whole family can get behind), was lucky enough to see a bunch of his friends--Mike Hallenbeck, Eric Ziegenhagen, Liam Davis, the whole Frisbee bunch, my sweetie, Dan Zapruder--play their favorites from the Justin Roberts' catalog. Some songs going way way back to the Kenyon years before all of the fame.

the man himself

It was an amazing night. Justin and his wife are two of the sweetest people we know. And to get to celebrate his birthday with all of those other talented folks? What can I say, musically speaking, I married very very well.

My Christmas Vacation So Far

I've been so terrible blogging of late, because life has really been happening and keeping me away from computers. . . which I have to admit is not a bad thing.

My last day of the day job for the year was the 18th--a combination of a few vacation days and the awesomeness of working for a college--so I still won't be seeing my work computer for another week.

So, the next few posts will be retroactive, a history of Dan's and my xmas vacation thus far. It's been good. I hope yours has been, too.

Comedy Studies

So, in my day job, I help out with the administration of Comedy Studies--a full semester's worth of training in comedy at Second City, with credit given by Columbia College. And I help out in the most drudge-like ways--making sure applications are handled, helping kids understand consortium agreements, that kind of thing. I do, though, get to meet them all when they come in the door and I do a little orientation and help them figure out campus. That's fun. . . because, you know, for the most part, they're all already really funny. And when they first meet, it's as if the most burningly important thing in the world to get done is to out funny one another.

Well, last night, I was final in town for one of their final performances at the Second City Training Center Theater, so Dan and I went. Ordinarily, I fear a number of things done by young people--musical theater, oboe playing, stand up comedy, improv, tap dancing. I fear them, because there is the possibility of them being very very very bad. I think it's endearing whether they're good or bad, but I am a pretty empathetic person and I get easily overwhelmed by embarrassment on behalf of other people. Well, dumb to even have those worries last night.

Those kids were AMAZING!!! So, funny and smart and funny. Both cohorts of students were great, but the second group was so weirdly meta in their funny--poking fun at vaudeville, poking fun at the improv form, poking fun at the act of acting, all while still being really funny and entertaining--that I'm still thinking about how smart they were.

Impressive stuff. And as it turns out, even doing mundane things like handling applications for Comedy Studies, makes you kind of a V.I.P. at the event. We didn't have reservations, but we totally got seats through the director of the Training Center waving us in past the guy with "the list" (Thank you, Anne!). And Jason, my super nice counterpart at Second City, brought Dan and I free cokes. . . but they arrived looking like this:

Even the drinks were funny. Yah.

Zoo Lights v Festival of Lights

Maybe it's not in keeping with the Christmas season or the general good cheer of this blog to say that if the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights went head to head in a death match with the Cincinnati Zoo Festival of Lights, that I feel pretty confidently that the Lincoln Park Zoo would get schooled. I will be going to the Festival of Lights soonish and will also take photos and maybe you can be the judge. We loved our time at the zoo here in Chicago on Saturday, but I think the Cincy Zoo has a much better overall plan/scheme/design than the kind of stripey frenetic thing happening in Lincoln Park. . . but we'll wait and see when those pictures go up.

What I know for sure, though, is that the Cincy Zoo doesn't do anything confusing like throw a wreath around Tutankhamun and try to dress him up as a Christmas guy. Pretty sure that wasn't really his bag.



The one thing that the Lincoln Park Zoo does have that the Cincinnati Zoo doesn't, is the impressive back drop, as evidenced here. Chicago is an unimpeachably beautiful and grand town and really shows off during the holiday season.

Zoo Lights

Dan and I decided that a good way to work some of the kinks out of my back (there's been some tragic back pain lately. . . but I'm on the mend. Sincerely) was to soak up some Christmas cheer at the Lincoln Park Zoo Light extravaganza. We soaked up cheer. I got exercise. We ate hot soft pretzels and cocoa and looked at some monkeys. It was a good night.


And Dan has begun his traditional thug-disapproval pose in front of all things cute and Christmasy. It's all for show. He loves the season. But it's so preposterous--this pose for photos at Christmas time--and it makes me laugh and laugh and laugh--which I'm thinking may really be why he does it. Last year, he posed this way in front of such things as a giant blow-up Clifford the Big Red Dog, a redonkulously cute installation of anime panda bear statues and a live nativity creche. Seriously, I know it's weird that I think it's so funny, but I come close to messing myself everytime.

More Cleveland Thanksgiving

So, if we're lucky during the Bardsley Thanksgiving in Cleveland, Dan and his brother have a hootenany for the rest of the family. They both have upsettingly beautiful voices and they often do this performance that mixes a perfect blend of pretty, heart-rending and the dumb/funny that twins inspire in one another. There are few things better than them playing together. And we lucked out this year.

So here are two videos taped on my crappy camera at a family party--which explains the coffee house chatter. The first song is them not getting through Rocky Mountain High, but not getting it through it in the funny way they have. And the second song, "My Favorite Chords" by the Weakerthans, Dan recorded a version for me for my birthday, so when he looks up and smiles at the moment in the song that goes "it's such an enormous thing, to walk and to listen". . . that's for me, or maybe, really, for me and Dan.

It's okay to be jealous of any of this . . .

Little Froggie Luchador

La Rana! The newest in the luchador family. I love making all of my little critters, but the little peaceful Mexican wrestlers are always my favorites to put the finishing touches on.

And this last pic as proof that they're even cute naked.
(which, secretly, is how these guys like to be anyway. . . dressed as wrestlers because they like the glitz and the glam and people thinking of them as muy macho, but they're truly more lovers than fighters.)

Caterpillars and apathy

new embroidery available on fivetrees (except the blue pillar. . . he sold at Renegade)

this little 'pilllar sold in the first few hours of Renegade. A super nice lady handed it to me with a look of glee after looking at it for only a minute or two. Sincerely, that's the best kind of compliment--that brief look, grab and out thrust of the arm accompanied by giant smile that says, "oh my gosh, yes please, sell this to me." Thank you, stranger. You made my day.

Cleveland Thanksgiving Continued

Friday night of our Cleveland Thanksgiving adventure, we went to meet Dan and Scott's old high school friends for drinks. Right before meeting them, we stopped in at the Prosperity Social Club in the Tremont neighborhood for a quick drink. Dan's friends were fun, but I wish we could have spent the whole night at the PSC. The perfect cozy neighborhood bar that you find all over the upper midwest.

Bad Blogger! Bad!

I have fallen woefully behind here. But it's been so busy. Thanksgiving in Cleveland and Amy's little sweatshop kicked into high gear for Renegade (which I was only physically able to do one day of. . . so a bust after all that work, but that story to come in later posts as I get caught up).

But first Cleveland! Which is so much fun every year--Turkey Day with Dan's people, hanging out with Susan and Tony and Karen and the Brother's Phillips. Dan is a twin and that's especially fun. No one tickles Dan quite like his brother Scott does. They have a slightly different funny than the rest of the world.

But here were some of the sites.

The Westside Market. I make everyone go every year. Eventually, folks are gonna say no and I will have to go alone, but I desperately want one of these in Chicago. A huge market filled with independent meat and bread and cheese and chocolate and crepe, and tea and coffee and herb vendors. It's open a few days a week and all of the food looks 100% better than what's available in the grocery store. If we had one of these in Chicago, I wouldn't shop for meet anywhere else.

Plus the building is unbelievably beautiful.

Renegade Craft Fair This Weekend!

I am showing at Renegade this coming weekend. If you're in Chicago, stop by! I'd love to see you there. Dan and I will be at the booth eager to see familiar faces.