In which Becky eats a shackburger

 I used to go to the original Shake Shack in Madison Square Park back in the day. And by back in the day, I mean 2004 and yes, I was probably listening to Interpol or Spoon on my headphones at the time. I thought it was good.

In 2020, Sac got a Shake Shack. It had instant lines and seemed like a COVID hot spot, so I avoided it. I gave some money to the local LGBT+ center on big day of giving and in return I received a coupon for a free burger. This is brilliant, and I knew I should use it so that Shake Shack would know that this marketing opportunity had worked. Yes, that's right, I ate a burger because I'm sooooooo altruistic.

I had June 28 off for the Juneteenth holiday (yay UCD you rule in so many ways) so I decided to use my coupon. I got a regular Shackburger which has: "shack sauce" not to be confused with "donkey sauce", tomato, lettuce, American cheese. 

Firstly: too salty. I love salt so if I say something is too salty most would agree. Secondly: bun is gross. It's like the saddest, squishiest version of a Wonder Bread bun. The texture is not recognizable as a bread texture. Thirdly: needs pickles or something acidic. Fourth: of course the tomato was orange and gross. 

This is a terrible burger. For a similar size and style of burger, the Suzie Burger one is better. I also got a chocolate shake which was immediately not thick enough.

I'm not sure if Shake Shack was never good, or (more likely) that upsizing from one cafe to hundreds there is no way to keep something tasting good. I shall not go back unless someone tells me the shroom burger is good.

Show me the horsebreaking

 

Without realizing it, I embarked on a Western masculinity mini-seminar, and I'm digging it. It started with paying for The Killing of Two Lovers on Amazon Prime (yes, I wish I could quit Amazon, and I mostly do, except for the streaming). I tried to go see TKOTL at Tower, but on the day I went, it said online that Tower was showing it (a Thursday) when I arrived, the theater was closed. It is open 3 days a week, unless that has changed in the last couple of weeks. That Angelika website is A MESS. And now that the Bee doesn't have movie listings any more, it's hard to figure out.

Anyway, I show up, ready for movie, no movie. So I rent it. The director went to grad school at UCD, and an earlier movie of his (God Bless the Child) is set in Davis (you really wouldn't be able to tell unless you already knew, it's just suburban streetscapes and parks). I watched God Bless The Child after TKOTL, but it's just kids (his real kids) being feral and if you like kids it would be awesome, but....

So TKOTL is set in some stark area, like, IDK let's say Montana. It's about a stoic beardy blue collar worker guy hurting over his marriage breakup. But with the scenery, the camera work, and the performances it's more than the sum of its parts. And there is one really unforgettable scene. It stuck with me (enough that I watched that other movie) and I really wish I had seen it in the theater.

Then, I decided to watch The Rider, the prior movie from Chloe Zhao before she won the Oscar for Nomadland. I remember seeing the big standup poster for it, I think at Tower, and just having no interest despite all the raves. I don't care much about Westerns. Wow, that movie is fucking incredible. It's a real family (that's the dad and son above, with the director) playing thinly veiled versions of themselves, and the protagonist's scenes with his  disabled friend are just beautiful and heartbreaking. And his real, non-neurotypical sister is in it and she's so good too.  And the scenes of South Dakota are gorgeous. There's a lot of horsebreaking and rodeoing scenes. My high school had a high school rodeo, and I don't know how many times I went but I enjoyed it. It's undeniably exciting. I always rolled my eyes when they played Lee Greenwood "proud to be an American" but ya know, there wasn't a lot to do in my town.

So this was just coincidental, but then I needed a book to read and I marveled that although we've had a copy of All The Pretty Horses forever, and I've read I think most Cormac McCarthy books, I had never read it. I am just loving it, I'm about a third done. It is so funny and man I wish I was riding horses across Mexico (not really, but I'd love to go anywhere, especially Mexico). I wonder if the Matt Damon movie is any good.

There's some extended horsebreaking in All the Pretty Horses Too and I don't even like horses but somehow I love to see/read about the art of breaking them? Maybe it's a new fetish, who knows.

After years of books by women, mostly about women (ever since #metoo and me realizing my own internalized misogyny), maybe I can let some male energy back into my media life, I guess. 

Viva Heckasac

 Trump's blog is dead and mine is alive, which inspired me to post.

I was out of town the last 3 weekends in a row, which is definitely something that hasn't happened since 2019 and is a sign of me getting back to normal: overscheduled and loving it.

Weekend one: Pinnacles National Park. This was on a Sunday/Monday since those camping spots are hard to book for weekends. Pinnacles is interesting, I definitely recommend it for a visit, but maybe not a revisit. There is pretty much just hiking (which is spectacular) but other than that the campsites are stark. The kids in the group loved the pool, and I have never before experienced a dip in a pool after a hot 15 mile hike which really can't be beat. Oh yeah, Pinnacles has pretty extreme temps, so you either have to prepare for that or only visit within a few months.

Weekend 2: Burner-style campground "Raven's Landing". On the road to Clearlake, again, pretty stark and hot. But unique and worth a visit. It has it all (imagine this in Stephon voice): snakes, tame deer, dusty communal kitchens, silent discos, and thanks to Elon Musk, a launch of a 100 satellites that had all of us (who had no cellphone reception) convinced we were seeing the end of the world. Luckily their were youngs wearing fur bikinis (see also: silent disco) to slur "Elon Musk" at us as we freaked out.

Weekend 3: Memorial day at Crabber's Cottage in Trinidad. The more expensive of the 3 options, but also the coolest, weather-wise and prettiest. I visited the beach in Trinidad during the pandemic so I had never seen the actual "town" of Trinidad (pop 350) and the harbor is so cute. The crabber's cottage is two blocks from it, which was a treat. The local market had anything we needed to make meals in the makeshift kitchen, which was too makeshift for much. I had anticipated we would eat out more, but the restaurants were too slammed. I did not want to wait in line for mediocre fish and chips. I don't know if these lines are typical for that holiday weekend of if this was a post-pandemic rush.