AntSaint

A Beery Sunset Around Eugene

With some late sun on me, Sveta the green sidecar motorcycle and I made some beery rounds (buying, not drinking) around Eugene.

The Bier Stein and Oakshire Brewing
First off, the Bier Stein, where Oakshire Brewing (twitter.com/Oakshire) was having a tasting of their new, delicious and  approachable Hindsight ESB.

The Stein was packed, and I was impressed with the turnout. Oakshire's been getting some love and attention from the media and Twitter lately. It's good to see this extra attention and recognition for Oakshire, as the lads expand their operation (btw, if you haven't heard, Oakshire plans to bottle come summertime).

With the sun setting, I snagged a Leffe, Hoegaarden, Cinder Cone Red and Pilsner Urquell for the home stash, plus a box of empties for bottling our next batch of homebrew (a clone of Vermont's Magic Hat #9).

New Bottle Shop: Beer Nuts
From the Bier Stein, I swung Sveta down to Beer Nuts Bottle Shop, on 13th & Oak (right across from the Indigo District). Eugene's newest bottle shop sells until 10 p.m., and has been open for about 3 weeks as of this writing. It's good to see another bottle shop in the area though, and a dedicated bottle shop. I love the Bier Stein, but there's room enough in town for more go-to beer places. I also like that in Beer Nuts you can just easily swing by for a bottle or 10. Plus, like Bier Stein, all Beer Nuts beers are sold singly, so you can get whatever assortments you want.

Beer Nuts is starting small, and I think that's smart. There's still room on the shelves and in the coolers for plenty more bottles, and the current selection is mostly strong old faithfuls, from Deschutes Mirror Pond to Dos Equis, but with a few nice imports such as Belgium's Leffe too.

A few more for the home collection: Rogue Kells Irish-style Lager, dos Dos Equis, another Leffe... and the last Hoegaarden (one of my all-time favorite beers. If there's a Hoegaarden, I'm buying it).

And now I'm back home. The sun has set, and Sveta is in the garage, engine pinging as it cools. Our non-homebrew stash has been replenished — and you know what? I think it's time to crack me a Hoegaarden.

Chow: Eugene Food, Drink and Restaurant News

There's been a lot happening on the Eugene food and restaurant scene of late. Props to Eugene Weekly's Chow for getting the goods and making everyone's mouth water:

• Pizza in Progress
• Many Hands Make Network: Micro food systems in Eugene neighborhoods
• Froggy Folks Find New Home on Fifth and Pearl: Same food, new digs and a "church of booze"
• Easy American at Annie's
• More Ways to Grab a Cold One
• Holy Bakery!
• Zenon Watch

Izumi Sushi (and Appetizer Tip)

Jodie and I dined ridiculously well on sushi from Eugene's Izumi Sushi and Grill, located in Crescent Village. Service was cordial, and for the money, you ate very well in a setting with good ambiance. For us, we're seeing Izumi more as "special occasion" sushi, such as friends visiting, celebrating birthdays, etc.

Appetizer Tip: Here's the most important thing about ordering at Izumi. Order the calamari salad and split it as an appetizer. Vibrant greens are mixed with lightly battered calamari,and the flavor is balanced between a sweet dressing and shaved sauteed garlic. It's magnificent.

Enjoy.

Grand Opening for New Cornucopia Tonight

Cornucopia's new location, in the space formerly occupied by Chantrelle's at 5th & Pearl, is having their grand opening tonight. The lads from Oakshire Brewing will also be there, pouring beers including their new ESB, brewed not with their house yeast, but with English yeast.

The wise Samuel Rutledge has made a great point about this: "I'll bet [Oakshire's] ESB and their Espresso Stout would make a killer black and tan".

I'll bet he's right, and we plan on finding out this evening.

Editing a Rough Draft, or, Lots and Lots of Big X Marks on the Page

Envy not the novel writer, for it is their job to destroy most of what they have worked so hard to do.

And that's just the first draft.

These past weeks, I've been focusing hard on my novel, editing the rough draft and planning what needs to be drafted for the second draft. I'm nearly through the main part of this process — the editing, or, rather, the chopping and axing. It's amazing how many pages of manuscript are so easy to edit — I just skim the page, sigh, and chop a big X through the whole thing.

Next is the harder part, but one I'm looking forward to: mapping out the full arc, and what new content the story needs for that arc to happen.

How are the characters introduced? How does a minor character in this chapter need to play a larger role in a later, pivotal bit of action? Does the main character really —

Oh, sorry there, nearly gave that bit away.

Back to the editing. Here's what's been working for me so far:

• Set a timer for 20 minutes. That's the daily minimum.
• Have either a glass of water or a cuppa tea or coffee; booze I usually save for after the writing/editing work is done for the day.
• Open a legal pad to a fresh page — I like having this parallel bit of paper there, it's been very helpful in mapping out action and arc
• Follow my instincts and ax mercilessly. I don't fully know consciously where the story is going, and that's fine — my subconscious has a decent idea, and it's good at asserting itself.
• X, chop and shorten as needed.
• Grin. This is all to make a better story, and a better rewrite.