Fall continues its inexorable march towards winter and the holiday season. We’ll be hosting Thanksgiving and Christmas again this year, which is fun to prep for. Dad is getting some bespoke meats from Pat LaFreida; we’ve had lots of good roasts from him, but this year I think we’ll be trying his turkey as well. We usually just get the freebie turkey from Shop Rite, which I brine, spatchcock, and smoke on the Weber Bullet smoker we’ve been using for probably a decade now. I have to remember to get some smoke wood. I guess that’s my prompt to start a Thanksgiving project in OmniFocus!

So it’s spritzes now with some cheese and cured meats. There’s chicken in a marinade that I’ll be grilling shortly. Be well and thanks for reading.

Garden State Comics Fest at the Vineland Convention Center

That Vineland was hosting the Garden State Comics Fest somehow escaped my notice, but Joey and I rolled over there yesterday. I hated paying $30 a head to get in, but we both wanted to check it out (Joe especially). Aaron would have been keen to attend, but he was on a scavenger hunt with his pledge class in New York City, which is a decidedly more exciting experience for sure. YOLO.

The venue was Vineland’s recently rechristened Convention Center; it used to be an Amish Market, which is a regional trope in my opinion. They can’t possibly be truly Amish, and there are a lot of vendors that are local “English” hawking wares. The market closed in 2015, and has sat unused since. This was the first event to be hosted since it’s been turned into a convention center, and while I’m skeptical of anything downtown maintaining a foothold, I am hopeful that it will. Landis Avenue was once the crown jewel of a thriving city commerce center; it is long, wide, and boasts spacious sidewalk space. It’s a true shame that the downtown hasn’t witnessed the kind of revivals we see in nearby Camden County, but maybe there’s hope.

Joe and I walked around and checked out the vendors: there were lots of comic books, toys, and artsy/craftsy things available for purchase. There were some cosplay enthusiasts prowling around, including a notably awesome Darth Vader. It was small but fun.

Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7, a “Nifty Fifty” Lens

I took yesterday’s pics with a Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 aspherical lens, which I found on eBay. I’m pretty sure I’ll purchase most of my photography lenses etc from eBay from now on; I’m not serious enough to need new gear, and what I’ve gotten so far has been in exemplary condition.

A 25mm micro fourth-thirds lens corresponds to a 50mm full-frame lens. It’s not terribly different from my 20mm Panasonic f/1.7 lens, but enough to look a bit different. 50mm approximates what we see with our eyes, uncorrected, so I thought it would be fun to shoot with. I still get great bokeh with this lens, but with a tighter field of view. So far, so good.

Black Stallion Chardonnay

Rhonda and I went to Five Points for parm and mussels last night, but we faced a 30-minute wait (and we were early diners). We said nah and continued on to another local favorite, the Savoy. While a long wait at one place often presages a long wait at another, we were relieved to be seated immediately. And Tommy’s house is a veal house, which is always a good thing. As an aside, the Savoy has been consistently excellent for a while now.

Anyway, we ordered a bottle of the Raeburn Chardonnay, which we had a glass of the last time we were there; it was recommended by the owner’s son, TJ, as a cost-adjacent but more interesting chard than the two house wines (Carmel Road and I can’t remember the other one). They didn’t have it on the menu, though, so I ordered a bottle of the Veltliner they had on the menu, which I figured we’d get into, since Bellview makes an excellent Grünner Veltliner and we have it from time to time.

The owner, Tommy, appeared within moments with a bottle in hand, and asked us, “Do you trust me?” He asked if we would consider the Black Stallion Chardonnay in his hand, and said of the Veltliner that we’d ordered, that the Austrians only make one wine, and it’s not that good. I pointed out that we had it at Bellview and loved it, but he said it’s different (which makes some sense, since we’re not in Austria). So we tried a sip and nodded our approval. It’s a bright, citrusy take on the varietal, less oaky. It was really good and I plan to shop for it when I need a bottle for a BYOB night. As it stands right now, we have a couple of bottles of Bellview’s rosé in the stash to ride out the lull between batches; they’re supposed to have a new vintage debuting in December, so we’ve a few weeks or so to sit on our hands and wait. I’m hoping they have it on tap again for growler fills.