Author Archives: laurn larson

Susana Balbo Signature Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

2 December 2017 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

W Balbo 2014Cabernet Sauvignon from Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina

95% cabernet sauvignon

5% merlot

14.3% alcohol

Opened 21 Nov 2017

els 9.2/10

James Suckling 93

Wine Advocate 91

Vinaceous 91

Susana Balbo’s winery, established in the stunning, idyllic eastern foothills of the Andes Mountains, within the viticultural region of Uco Valley, which lies southwest of Mendoza, Argentina; is surrounded by 52 acres of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot vines; produces 4 brands of wines with distinct and complex personalities that appreciate long, secluded years in their bottles: Crios, Ben Marco, Nostros and Susana Balbo Signature.

The vineyards are at an average elevation of about 3800 feet above sea level where the

W Balbo Winery

The Susana Balbo Winery and Vineyards. Photo by Susana Balbo Winery.

steppe climate provides a large swing in growing season temperatures ranging from daytime highs in the mid 80s to night-time lows approaching 50 degrees Fahrenheit, with arid conditions that receive a paltry 1 to 1.25 inches of rain per month. To compensate for the semi-desert conditions and the well-drained alluvial soils of Uco Valley, the vineyards are drip irrigated from the Andes’ snow melted water to provide just the right of amount of essential moisture to produce these flavorful wines.

The grapes are hand-picked and fermented in concrete vessels and finished with 13 months in 70% second use and 30% first use French oak barrels.  The wine has a clear, bright ruby color with aromas of black berries and a very subtle hint of mint and earth. A long, full, dry finish with close to perfect tannins. Wonderful.

An outstanding wine. Decant and aerate for at least one hour.

$20.99 wine.com

Grand Forks, ND Housing Market

1 December 2017 By in Real Estate Tags: , , Leave a comment

Trends from the previous month:

  1. The overall market is about flat with last month, but days on market increased substantially. 40 out of the 196 homes on the active market have seen price reductions from their initial listing. Roughly 1.5% of the total homes in Grand Forks are for sale.
  2. There are approximately 8% fewer homes on the market.
  3. All houses are priced flat with last month, the price per square foot is roughly flat, the square footage per house is flat, and the days on the market has increased.
  4. Houses less than $500,000 are priced about flat, the price per square foot is significantly higher, the square footage per house is flat to higher, and the days on the market has increased.
  5. Houses equal to or more than $500,000 are priced higher, the price per square foot is flat, the square footage per house is flat to slightly higher, and the days on the market has stayed flat.RE Housing Nov 2017

The Price of Secrets

28 November 2017 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Secret Scripture  (2017)  Rated: PG-13  Runtime: 108 minutesM Scripture 2017.jpg

Genre: Drama-Mystery-Romance

els – 6.5/10

IMDb – 6.6/10

Amazon – 4.4/5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes Critics – 4.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes Audience – 3.4/5

Metacritic Metascore – 37/100

Metacritic User Score – NR/10

Directed by:  Jim Sheridan

Written by:  Sebastian Berry, Jim Sheridan, Johnny Ferguson

Produced by:  Noel Pearson, Rob Quigley, Jim Sheridan

Music by:  Brian Bryne

Cast:  Rooney Mara, Aidan Turner, Theo James, Eric Bana, Vanessa Redgrave

To understand this movie, a smidgen of background knowledge germane to WWII Irish history is needed, or else the story becomes unhinged from the plot with cryptic scenes sprinkled throughout the movie that will bewilder and flummox the viewer. At the start of WWII in 1939, Ireland declared its intent to remain neutral towards the Allied and Axis powers, and they did officially remain neutral throughout the war, but provided assistance to the Allied powers when and where possible.  The Irish government feared joining the war on either side would reopen the recent wounds inflicted by their civil war fought in the early 1920s; by the fascists and the anti-fascists, the pro-Brits and the IRA, the pro and the anti-treaty proponents, and they all remained active in Ireland up to, and beyond WWII.  The IRA was particularly anxious to curry favor with the Germans, to obtain their aid in the form of money, influence, and weapons; endeavors precipitating various IRA acts of war within and beyond the borders of Ireland.

Roseanne McNulty the elder, played by Vanessa Redgrave, and Roseanne McNulty the younger, played by Rooney Mara, parcel out a story of love and loyalty, unrequited love and betrayal, death, cruelty and denial; which, during war leads to Rose’s incarceration, or to use a less judgmental word, confinement, in an Irish mental institution for nearly 50 years. The institution was less about care and rehabilitation than an exercise in control and dominance; keeping Rose docile and quiet, but in the end, not able to lessen her romantic love or boundless spirit, just her hold on reality. Rose the elder maintains a record of her captivity, mysterious inscriptions in her bible, that becomes the source of her deliverance from past; bringing closure in the kindred form of a believer and a redeemer.

The directing, writing and acting are all exceptional.  Only the improbable conclusion lessens the impact of the story but it still works even though you see it coming a mile away.  Catch up on your Irish WWII history and then watch the movie.

A Short as a Feature – A Drama as a Mystery

24 November 2017 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Anti Matter (2017)  Rated: NR  Runtime: 105 minutesM AntiMatter 2017

Genre: Drama-Mystery-Science Fiction-Thriller

els – 4.0/10

IMDb – 6.3/10

Amazon – 3.4/5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes Critics – 7.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes Audience – 4.3/5

Metacritic Metascore – NA/100

Metacritic User Score – 7.5/10

Directed by:  Keir Burrows

Written by:  Keir Burrows

Produced by:  Dieudonnée Burrows

Music by:  Edwin Sykes

Cast:  Yaiza Figueroa, Tom Barber-Duffy, Philippa Carson

Keir Burrows is a celebrated short film director and writer making his feature-length movie debut with Anti Matter; a low-budget, moderately, but mistakenly, cerebral science fiction flick set in the present at England’s Oxford University.  Ana (Figueroa), a doctoral candidate, along with two of her fellow student accomplices: Barber-Duffy as Nate and Carson as Liv, design a protocol to transfer matter from one point to another, instantly, via a wormhole.  After successfully transferring inanimate objects and small life-forms Ana, to guarantee future funding for her research and the subsequent commercial development of instantaneous globe-hopping, transfers herself through the wormhole, after which her mind ceases to retain any new information or memories, thus beginning the mystery of why that happened and how to correct it.

This movie has received fairly positive reviews; this will not be one of them.  The title of the movie is an enigma and a charade, anti-matter does not enter into this story one way or another; it is never mentioned, that I can remember, and wormholes are predicated on the curvature of space-time and negative energy, at least according to the current working hypothesis.  Why name the movie Anti Matter? The title “Negative Energy” certainly would have been more honest and just as good, if not better.  Additionally, the subtitle: “Science and Hell have Come Together”, is also a non-starter, an illusion of horror, likely used in the title and story synopsis only to drum up interest and sales. The only hell is the one contrived by the director and writer to create a mystery that only exists with the viewer, and if the viewer is paying attention, the mystery does not last for long. The acting is abysmal; paying for real actors would have paid big dividends. Liv who plays, unconvincingly, the world’s greatest jerk, making Sean Penn and Don Rickles look like well-mannered saints, hopefully, never sees the glare of another movie set light in her life, and she can rightfully blame the director-writer for her atrocious nature and character development, or maybe not. This is a movie that has all the appearances of a short that was stretched, unforgivingly, into a full-length feature film. Cutting 25 minutes of celluloid, 80 minutes is still a feature film, may have saved this movie but the director’s ambition in creating a mystery-thriller out of a sci-fi drama outran his talent.

If you are into B movies, by all means, watch this film, otherwise take a pass and do something else with your time.

Prison Blues in Rage of Orange

22 November 2017 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Brawl in Cell Block 99  (2017)  Rated: NR  Runtime: 132 minutesM Brawl 2017

Genre: Action-Crime-Drama-Thriller

els – 7.0/10

IMDb – 7.2/10

Amazon – 3.8/5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes Critics – 7.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes Audience – 3.7/5

Metacritic Metascore – 79/100

Metacritic User Score – 6.9/10

Directed by:  S. Craig Zahler

Written by:  S. Craig Zahler

Produced by:  Jack Heller, Dallas Sonnier,  Gregory Zuk

Music by:  Jeff Herriott, S. Craig Zahler

Cast:  Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Carpenter, Don Johnson

Vince Vaughn, son of Vernon, brother to Valerie and Victoria, V for Victory; fresh off a successful role as Sgt. Howell in Hacksaw Ridge, teams up with S. Craig Zahler to produce the greatest prison movie since Cool Hand Luke in 1967. This is a grinder of a movie where hard luck, bad luck, and no luck leads Vaughn straight to jail without passing Go, with Vaughn playing his part with the reticent verve of Charlie Brown crossed with Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bradley, not Brad, Bradley (Vaughn), starts off the film with a bad, no good, awful day by first getting laid off his lousy paying, tow truck driving job followed, in short order, by broken locks, a trashed out yard, and a cheating wife, culminating in a one round boxing match with his wife’s car.  The car lost. Bradley calms down, keeps his wife, and goes to work for a drug dealer.  All is peaches and cream until a drug delivery goes bad, involving Bradley, not Brad, in a shoot-out, his subsequent capture and arrest by the local police.  The arrest quickly manifests itself into a 7 year prison sentence for Bradley where matters progress from bad to hellish in the blink of a black eye.

This is a well directed, written, and acted, virile, manly movie that provides all the testosterone you will need for the week. The only weakness in the film is the music; R&B tunes that just don’t fit; Jimmy Page and Johnny Cash would have been the right choice; thanks for asking.  Ignore the music, open a beer, kick back and enjoy this flick.

Spies Along the Wall

21 November 2017 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Atomic Blonde  (2017)  Rated: R  Runtime: 115 minutesM Atomic 2017

Genre: Action-Adventure-Mystery-Suspense-Thriller

els – 6.0/10

IMDb – 6.8/10

Amazon – 3.4/5 stars

Rotten Tomatoes Critics – 6.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes Audience – 3.5/5

Metacritic Metascore – 63/100

Metacritic User Score – 6.5/10

Directed by:  David Leitch

Written by:  Kurt Johnstad (Screenplay), Antony Johnston (Book-Author), Sam Hart (Book-Illustrator)

Produced by:  A.J. Dix, Eric Gitter, David Guillod

Music by:  Tyler Bates

Cast:  Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman

Antony Johnston, an artistic overachiever: author, graphic novelist, game writer, talk show host, and musician; wrote the 2012 graphic novel: The Coldest City, providing the foundation, if not the whole building, for the 2017 Atomic Blonde movie.

B Coldest City 2012The novel and movie begin near the final gasps of communism in the late 20th century along with subsequent fall of the wall separating Berlin from East Berlin. A British spy, possessing a list of every spy playing spook in Berlin is killed and the list disappears. Lorraine Broughton (Theron), a British MI6 operative is brought in to recover the list, kick a few butts, possibly chase down a double agent, and segue with feminine ease through the twists and turns of this wonderfully sculpted action thriller.

Atomic Blonde is a British Bond flick without Bond.  A great romp of visual action worthy of Skyfall and a storyline that keeps you guessing for a good portion of the movie, although you should be able to put most of it together before the ending credits roll. Theron is simply superb in her role and was the spot-on, perfect actress to play the lead.  Goodman turns in a very solid performance as Theron’s foil, with his character providing enough twists in the narrative to totally mess up your plot assumptions.

A refreshing, fun movie of action and thrills with a screenplay that holds together to the very end.  Well worth seeing.  Expect a sequel in 2019 or more likely, a prequel, given that Antony Johnston has already published a graphic novel, The Coldest Winter, which takes the spies and their craft back to a slightly earlier time; to a Berlin of snowy cold, and the cold war of the early 1980s.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Merlot 2013

15 November 2017 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

W St Michelle 2013Merlot from Columbia Valley, Washington

89% merlot

11% syrah

13.5% alcohol

Opened 14 Nov 2017

els 8.7/10

Wine Enthusiast 89

Chateau Ste. Michelle, the oldest winery in Washington, traces its beginnings back to the end of the prohibition era in the mid-1930s, with the formation of the Pomerelle Co. and the National Wine Company. These two companies merged in 1954 as the American Wine Co., and in 1967 initiated a premium line of wines known as Ste. Michelle. In 1972 a group of investors bought out the American Wine Company and renamed it Ste. Michelle Vintners. In 1974 the company was bought out by Altria. In 1976 Ste. Michelle Vintners built a French style winery, about 15-20 miles northeast of Seattle, in the Woodinville Tourist District, and changed its name to Chateau Ste. Michelle.

W Columbia Gorge

Columbia River Gorge by etliebe.

Today, Chateau Ste. Michelle consists of 2 wineries, the Chateau in Woodinville which makes the company’s white wines, and its reds are made at the Canoe Ridge Estate winery in Eastern Washington.  The vineyards on the Canoe Ridge Estate were planted in 1991 with Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Syrah grapes on the steep sloping, arid hills of the Columbia River Gorge. The winery followed in 1993. One interesting aspect of this vineyard is that the grape varieties are grown from their own vinifera rootstock, apparently indifferent to the phylloxera aphid.

The alluvial soils of Canoe Ridge Estate are well-drained, thick Pleistocene cobblestone, sandy silts at approximately 900 feet above sea level, deposited on top of the eroded Miocene Columbia River Basalts.  The April through September growing season sees highs of about 90 and lows of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  Rain is sparse, averaging from 0.2 to 0.75 inches per month during the growing season.  Hard freezes during the winter months are rare.

This wine has a clear garnet to ruby color, subtle aromas of strawberry and dark berries, with a touch of vanilla. A medium body with a medium finish. The tannins are smooth and easy. A nice wine but rather unadventurous, timid even.  Best served as a sipping wine along with small berries and nuts.

A good wine. Decant and aerate for at least one hour.

$16.99 wine.com

Do Evil — Do Good

14 November 2017 By in Books Fiction Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Proteus B Proteus

Written by:  Morris West

Originally Published by:  William Morrow & Co.

Copyright:  © 1979

Morris West spins a tale of combating evil within the confines of the Old Testament God: an eye for an eye, a wrong to beget a wrong. Victims of evil can forgive, but a witness to evil must act.  When the legal structures of the western world, the democracies of the free, fail the meek and the weak who shall rally for their cause, raise and carry their banner, storm their Bastille?

John Spada, the righteous, millionaire industrialist, protagonist, and leader of the secret international organization: Proteus; saves the meek, rescues the innocent, teaches morality, one evil deed at a time. Spada and Proteus pick up where governments fail; achieving the freedom of the weak through the commission of criminal and immoral deeds.  Spada wants to free all the prisoners of conscience, the political prisoners held by the depraved and savage governments of the world.  To bring about their freedom murder and the threat of genocide are tools that he and Proteus are willing to use and do.  Inhumanity opposing inhumanity achieves what?  In this book it brings Spada only his death and infamy.

West produces a sophomoric and almost comic plot of moral paradoxes, matching evil deeds with evil deeds, opprobrious acts with no yin to balance the yang.  Ouroboros’ cycles of life and death sans a meaningful life. A novel, opening with a decent plot but poorly executed and a truly abominable ending, but maybe West didn’t have any answers in the struggle against the ever encroaching darkness; just pinpricks of light in the far distance.

Chateau Francs Magnus Bordeaux Superieur 2014

12 November 2017 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , Leave a comment

W Francs2014Bordeaux Red Blends from Bordeaux, France

Proprietary red blend

13.5% alcohol

Opened 11 Nov 2017

els 9.0/10

James Suckling 91

From the winery and vineyards of Arnaud Roux-oulie, complete with limestone quarries and Gallo-Roman silos.

This wine has a clear garnet to ruby color, redolent of plums and dark berries, with a touch of licorice. A medium body and finish, with smooth and easy tannins. A nice, unpretentious everyday wine, enjoyable with simple fare such as pizza or cheeseburgers. Decant and aerate for at least one hour.

$11.99 wine.com

Explorations 8: Sporting Tigers

10 November 2017 By in Trivia Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

While delving into logos for a possible new business venture I landed up researching the big cats. In the process I stumbled on just how common they are used in the wide world of sports.   Parenthetically, The Wizard of Oz has a cat, but he was a coward so I guess that rules him out for a spot on a team.

Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Man meet the Lion along the Yellow Brick Road: Lions, tigers, and bears! oh, – my.E Oz Lion

Dorothy:
Do – do you suppose we’ll meet any wild animals?
Tin Man:
Mmmm – we might.
Dorothy:
Oh –
Scarecrow:
Animals that – that eat straw?
Tin Man:
A – some – but mostly lions and tigers and bears.
Dorothy:
Lions!
Scarecrow:
And tigers!
Tin Man:
And bears!
Dorothy:
Oh! Lions, and tigers and bears! Oh, – my –
Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man:
Lions and tigers and bears!

All sporting teams have a mascot.  In these days of PC, animals are a safe branding trademark or label. Birds and bees, cats and dogs, horses, goats and bears; all figure prominently in North American sports.

Big cuddly kitties occupy 5 of the top 10 mascot names in US sports (MascotDB.com). The list below show how the cats rank among the top 10 US team names along with a listing of  some of the better known pro-teams and colleges that use that particular family of Felidae.  Bears are a topic for another time.

  1. Eagles
  2. Tigers — 1391 TeamsE Tiger 1
    1. Cincinnati ‘Bengals’ (NFL)
    2. Detroit (MLB)
    3. Auburn University
    4. Clemson University
    5. Colorado College
    6. Grambling
    7. Louisiana State University
    8. Iowa
    9. Illinois
    10. Princeton
    11. Tennessee State University E Panther
    12. Texas Southern
    13. University of Memphis
    14. University of Missouri
  3. Bulldogs
  4. Panthers  —  1145 Teams
    1. Carolina (NFL)
    2. Florida (NHL)
    3. Georgia State University
    4. University of Pittsburg
  5. Wildcats —  1019 Teams
    1. University of Arizona
    2. University of Kentucky
    3. University of New Hampshire
    4. Villanova
  6. Warriors
  7. IndiansE Lion
  8. Lion  —  759 Teams
    1. Detroit (NFL)
    2. Loyola
    3. Pennsylvania State University
  9. Cougars  —  664 Teams
    1. Brigham Young University
    2. University of Houston
    3. Washington State
  10. Knights