Saturday, August 26, 2017

South East Craft Beer Fest

Zoe won tickets to the South East Craft Beer Fest so we made the drive over to Columbia, MO for some fun times. We've been on a low carb thing for a little while so we had to make a tough decision between beer and our health goals. We chose beer.


I honestly was not expecting this to be so awesome. I thought it would mostly be Missouri beers that I'd already tried but this was a lot of wild stuff from all over the place. Green chili beer stands out as one of the weirder ones.


This one had Icelandic moss in it. One of my favorite kinds of moss.


I guess this one was supposed to taste like pico de gallo. I didn't know at the time but Golden Road is an Anheuser-Busch company. They make all kinds of cool flavors.










PiƱa Agria was a pineapple sour that I was digging.


Birks on birks.








It was fun times.

Friday, August 25, 2017

Fancy Clothes at the Art Museum

Today we took a few friends with us to check out an exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum. Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715–2015 covered the history of men's fashion. I'll steal their explanation of it:

"Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear, 1715-2015 explores the history of men's fashionable dress from the eighteenth century to the present and re-examines the all-too-frequent equation of "fashion" with "femininity." Beginning with the 18th century, the male aristocrat wore a three-piece suit conspicuous in make and style, and equally as lavish as the opulent dress of his female counterpart. The 19th-century "dandy" made famous a more refined brand of expensive elegance which became the hallmark of Savile Row, London's celebrated street of bespoke tailors. The mid-twentieth-century "mod" relished in the colorful and modern styles of Carnaby Street, and the 21st century man—in an ultra-chic "skinny suit" by day and a flowered tuxedo by night—redefines today's concept of masculinity.

Drawing primarily from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's renowned collection, Reigning Men makes illuminating connections between history and high fashion. The exhibition traces cultural influences over the centuries, examines how elements of the uniform have profoundly shaped fashionable dress, and reveals how cinching and padding the body is not exclusive to women. The exhibition features over 150 looks, and celebrates a rich history of restraint and resplendence in menswear."




This one was one of my favorites because it's so clearly a blending of East and West cultures.

"The Inverness cape, a Scottish sleeveless overcoat with an attached cape, was introduced to Japan during the late Edo period (1615-1868). It was modified with enlarged armholes to accommodate the sleeves of a kimono. Popularly known as a tonbi (black hawk), the overcoats were made of imported wool and were fashionable among early 20th-century intellectuals, professionals, and the wealthy, who often added a Western-style hat to their kimono ensemble."






This swim suit was fantastic. It has a belt and a zipper if you wanted to remove the top half. I might need one.




Thursday, August 24, 2017

Cards Game With Matt

My buddy Matt shared some Cardinals tickets that he scored somehow.


He introduced me to a scam that I hadn't heard of: if you sign some designated driver pledge at a kiosk you get a free soft drink. Don't mind if I do!






Monday, August 21, 2017

Total Eclipse in Ste. Genevieve

I felt a unique amount of excitement and dread for the eclipse. I was excited to see a once in a.. long time event and I was nervous that I would screw it up. St. Louis maybe just barely missed the path of the totality. Lydia said her school was supposed to get like 97% of the sun covered by the moon and invited me to watch it there. But you know me. They don't call me "110% Milito" for nothing. I followed the path of the longest totality with my slender yet masculine finger and looked for a place worth visiting. Little wine country town Ste. Genevieve, MO was smack on the line so that was an obvious choice. I invited my parents and they were on board.


To Missouri, and beyond!


I had no idea what the traffic would be down there so we left pretty early. It ended up not being a problem at all. The traffic on the way back was pretty nasty but if it didn't interfere with my sky gazing then so be it.


I scrounged up some free eclipse glasses for us in the weeks prior. The library was a particularly good spot for it.


But even they couldn't handle the demand. Lot of fans of the moon and sun in St. Louis.


We stopped for a classy breakfast at the local Huddle House. Some of the customers there were wearing particularly hideous eclipse themed t-shirts.


This did not look like the picture.


The crappy little next door Microtel was magically transformed into an exclusive astronomer's club.




Some of the marketing attempts were pretty great.








Many of the big deal wineries were either closed (fail!) or had expensive events that were already booked up.


The little Sainte Genevieve Winery in the historic downtown area was open for business so we bought a few bottles of wine and set up shop outside under a grape-vined trellis.




I wandered around town a bit once we were situated.








I bought a fashionably questionable eclipse t-shirt of my own.






This was the first US coast to coast eclipse in 100 years, and no one really knew what sort of crowds to expect.




It's annoyingly difficult to take pictures of the sun. I tried both bare and through my paper glasses lens but nothing seemed to work.










While the actual totality was only a couple minutes long the whole process was nice and leisurely.








The light got dimmer and dimmer. It wasn't really like night but more like a the dim sickly sort of like before a tornado. When the sun finally went dark everyone took off their glasses and spirits were very high. A few fireworks went off nearby. I was so wrapped up in it that I didn't even try taking any pictures. It was pretty cool.