29 March 2013

Peter the Pie Guy Pie Academy

You too, can craft delectable pie art with the help of Yours Truly

Opening Sunday, April 7, 2013 and running until Sunday, June 16, 2013


It's Friday, March 29th which means it's almost that time of year again for High Pie Season at the Clark Fork River Market here in Missoula, MT.

The Clark Fork River Market begins five weeks from tomorrow, Saturday, May 4th.

In the meantime, beginning next week I will be offering Peter the Pie Guy Pie Academy classes in my kitchen on every Saturday and Sunday beginning April 7th and then switching to Sundays ONLY from May 4th running up until Sunday, June 16th.  So if you have any desire to learn the art of baking pies from Missoula's #1 Pie Artist, you'll have to take advantage of this academy for this limited three-month window only.

Here are the Pie Academy parameters:

  • I will be teaching as many as/no more than three classes per day.  
  • These classes will run for two hours.  
  • Academy attendance will cost $50 for the class for one person 
  • Groups will be limited to three people.  
  • The two additional people in a given group can attend for an extra $25.  
  • So for a group of two and/or three people you'd be looking at $75 or $100 respectively.  

What your payment entails:

  • PPG Perfect Pie Crust instruction & construction
  • The Original PPG Perfect Pie Crust Recipe in one of my three varieties: Traditional, Gluten-Free or Vegan
  • One PPG original recipe of your choosing that we (you) will practice and work (bake) with.

I will provide all requisite baking ingredients and materials.  Therefore, you just show up ready to bake and I will be sure to send you home with a concoction of your own preference.

So to summarize, for one person you pay $50 and you get two recipes and two hours of pie crust/pie instruction and one pie (9") to take home.

To book a Pie Academy class, please contact me through this website's contact tab, or here by blog posting, or through Facebook per usual.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peter-the-Pie-Guy/146144544227

Scenes from the Pie Guy's Rhubarb Patch (March 28, 2013)
Lastly, please bear in mind the first Sunday, April 7th the Academy Kitchen/Pie Lab is already fully booked but there are plenty of open spots going forward.

Otherwise, my rhubarb patch is sprouting and I am beginning to warm up the pie machine...

Spring Greetings to all my pie peeps!

-PPG


20 March 2013

a serving of cherry pie to go with your big dance

Well it’s that time of the year again people.  March Madness.  Yes, that illustrious time of the year where thirty-two games are played in the following two days as men and women alike across the country track scores and stream games online or head to the bars on their lunch breaks to get a taste of the Madness.  I definitely fall in with that crowd although with each passing year I find myself more and more out of touch with college basketball and the actual teams that are playing out on the floor come the beginning of tourney time.  Yet I should say I did win my bracket pool last year so I’m no sack of rocks when it comes to picking the winners.
  
Senior Guard Will Cherry will not be denied
This year marks the first year I haven’t watched a single college game all season until this past Saturday when I attended, for the second consecutive year, the Big Sky Conference Championship at the Adams Center here in Missoula.  My alma mater hosted, and the University of Montana Men’s basketball team didn’t disappoint.  Honestly, I could care less about Griz football, one of the best perks of successfully matriculating through the University of Montana is finally having a bona fide rooting interest for March Madness, i.e. a school capable of participating in the tournament given that my undergraduate institution (Bloomsburg University) is Division II.

This year’s Griz squad features two players, Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar, who are key to their success in winning the Big Sky Regular Season and Conference Championships as well as any future Big Dance success.  Cherry plays point guard, or the 1, while Jamar plays shooting guard, or the 2.  Truth be told, I intended to begin writing my blog a year ago at this time and the first blog was to be dedicated to the prowess of Cherry.  That never got off the ground for various reasons but one year later I have finally righted my blogging ship.  As far as the Griz go, one year later Jamar is now the ascending star of the program.  I say that simply because Cherry is now a senior and while he was largely responsible last year for all things backcourt (with help frontcourt from bigs Brian Qvale, Derek Selvig and Mathias Ward), this season he has battled the effects of a foot injury suffered in the preseason and has missed some action. 

Here is an ESPN profile piece on Cherry and his recovery:

Coach Tinkle advising Kareem Jamar on the fly
In his absence, Jamar handled the role of ‘star of the show’ well.  Good enough for second on the team in scoring (points per game).  Yet after another injury scare for Cherry against Davidson a few weeks back, the smooth as silk point guard from California has come back with a vengeance.  This was on full display in their two tournament games where Cherry totaled 39 points (to go along with four steals) in the two victories.  He also nailed a crucial three point shot to put the Griz back in command with a five point lead with little more than a minute remaining in the championship game against Weber State.  Not to be outdone, Jamar matched Cherry's scoring output in those two games and further contributed fifteen rebounds and nine assists.

Yet Cherry remains very much the straw that stirs the drink while Jamar is a more battle-tested weapon than the player last March who was still growing into a supporting backcourt role on the squad.  Now instead of the obvious comparisons to Batman and Robin, this dynamic duo is more like 1 and 1A.  As such, with these two stellar guards, who very much possess pro potential, the Griz stand a markedly better chance at making some noise Thursday night in San Jose when they take on the Orange of Syracuse University.

Montana’s team is coached by Wayne Tinkle, a former Griz graduate and player as well as owner of a lengthy overseas career playing hoops.  Tinkle came back to Missoula in 2007 and has built a program over the past seven years that is becoming something special going 141 -77 overall (.647) and 85-31 (.733) in Big Sky league action.  This was on display Saturday night against Weber State.  This year’s Griz squad is incredibly deep unlike years prior.  Their power forward and leading scorer (and Academic All-American) Mathias Ward is out for the year with a foot injury suffered against Davidson.  In his absence, players like Spencer Coleman, Michael Weisner and Kevin Henderson have stepped up to shoulder the load in the paint.

Under Tinkle’s daft leadership, the entire squad has overcome injury adversity this year and proven no worse for the wear as evidenced by their 19-1 Big Sky Conference record (25-6 overall).  Watching Tinkle roam the sideline is a sight to behold for a few reasons: one is that he is 6’10” and towers over everybody else on the court including the uniformed athletes.  Second is that he is a personable dude and treats his players like any great coach should – he can be seen on the sideline after a player makes a dumb play beginning to loudly admonish him, then he resorts to correcting the player’s technique or specific decision and then ends the process by wrapping his huge wing around his player’s shoulder, consoling, cajoling and reassuring him of his deserved place out on the court.

Pie Guy Photo Archive: The Griz celebrate the 2012 Big Sky Title
This approach has led to two consecutive Big Sky regular season and conference Championships and three Big Sky Championships/NCAA Tournament appearances in the past four years.  The only thing “Tinks” has yet to accomplish is to produce a magical Big Dance victory.  Last year the Griz were clobbered by the University of Wisconsin, known for their physical and stifling defense.  This year they draw Jim Boeheim and his Syracuse squad who have reached the tournament for the 30th time during Boeheim's tenure. 

Needless to say, the Griz have their work cut out for them but count me among the believers.  Guard play is absolutely critical when it comes to the tournament and specifically tournament upsets and while the Griz program may be devoid largely of the Division I talent floating around this tournament, Cherry and Jamar are very much among the most talented players in all of college basketball.

Here's a link to the local Missoula newspaper's feature on the dynamic duo:

Cherry at 6'1" has been named a Mid-Major All-American and Mid-Major Defensive All-AMerican, leading the Big Sky in steals in his sophomore and junior years) and he can get to the rack against the biggest of bigs and  he can also stop, pop and shoot against any opposing point charged with covering him.  Jamar at 6’5” has game that is similar to Lebron James in that he is just as comfortable setting up a teammate for an easy two as he is stroking a three or taking it hard to the glass.  Jamar also has a Carmelo Anthony-like smoothness when it comes to scoring and uses his physical frame to get shots off against guys who are often four or five inches taller.  These allusions to pro players (and two of the best) are no accident.  I will stop short of guaranteeing Cherry and Jamar’s NBA career success and surely they can go overseas to Panathinaikos, Zalgiris, CSKA Moscow or Real Madrid and any other of the talented European squads and have solid ten to fifteen year careers. 

Jamar taking it to the opposing D as Cherry watches on
But I will leave final judgment up to you my readers, college hoops fans and those in the national television audience who will tune in tomorrow night.  Cherry and Jamar are two players that Syracuse must neutralize if they hope to squash the underdog and advance to the second round.  In the end, I will make the safe assertion that I fully expect the Griz to make it a game and if it does come down to a final Montana possession, Syracuse (even in their famous 2-3 zone with man-to-man principles) will be hard pressed to stop Cherry and/or Jamar from getting the game-winning shot off. 

We shall see.  Thus the beauty of the sports and the beauty of March Madness.  Schools big and small across the nation meeting up to settle who's best out on the hardwood.  Until then, if you’re in Missoula, you can find me at Flipper’s sipping a PBR watching the big game.  Should be entertaining...

Go Griz!

-PPG

14 March 2013

Ç, audioslave & the ides of march

Music plays an incredibly large role in my life.  Without knowing how to play a single note of anything on any instrument it still informs my approach to life on a daily basis. So much so that I earned my Master’s Degree in Literature at the University of Montana in large part by focusing my thesis project on the role music plays within literature.  It’s a passion that’s become a professional pursuit.  I listen to every kind of music and that diversity extends into my kitchen every Thursday and Friday nights when I’m baking for Saturday’s market.  Listening to Patsy Cline or Charlie Parker is a great way for me to relax starting off when my nerves are frayed from worrying about the task at hand.  As I work my way into a flow, I tend to usually cue up some harder music like Wu Tang or Jimi Hendrix and on those especially longer evenings, heavy doses of Black Sabbath or Audioslave.  I’ve seen all of those hard rock acts live actually, save for Jimi, and my life is much richer for it even if my hearing is not.  Of those performances one stands out the most if only for, shall we say, the murky circumstances surrounding that evening and this time of the year...

The following is an excerpt from a short story I read this past Saturday at the Crystal Theatre here in Missoula as part of the greater 6th Annual Ç (pronounced sa-dee-ya) literary arts journal release party:

I always get jittery come the beginning of March.  Perhaps I read Shakespeare at too early in life when my brain was still soft in the cotton-brained infancy of the emotional bewilderment that is pubescent American life.  Though with most of my early Shakespeare experiences, the meanings my 9th grade teacher Ms. Cadwallader tried to impress upon me were mostly lost on me until some years later.  The madness of March has perpetually imposed great consternation, trials and tribulations upon me.  One such experience dates back nearly ten years ago to the day when I was a punk 24 year old paralegal living and working in D.C. and otherwise trying desperately to break out of my shell. 

my boys
One place I always honed my shell-breaking was rock and roll music.  In those days my bread and butter was hard driving music, the louder and more aggressive the better.  My favorite band at that time was Audioslave.  Surely you all remember Audisolave.  They were comprised of the lead singer from Soundgarden, Chris Cornell matched with the musicians from the then newly defunct Rage Against The Machine, lead guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk.  As a devout fan of both of those two previous bands, Audioslave from the jump was a musical match made in heaven for me.   
This super group hooked up in the late summer of 2002 and dropped their self-titled debut later that fall to much fanfare in the world of hard rock.  Me and two of my best friends, ZigZag and Wilson, were a part of that wider audience thirsting for a new totally kickass record and performing act.  Audioslave, the album, was a platinum-selling masterpiece, blending driving and bullying rock with delicately soulful ballads for twelve tracks.  To put it mildly, this band was everything we dreamed it could be.  So when tour dates got set up, we naturally went ‘all in’ to attend. 

Our motley crew consisted of ZigZag & Dub.  Zigzag was my childhood friend and oldest child born to a Pakistani family living just outside of Baltimore.  His given name was the same as his father’s, Zulfigar, and while that is a truly great name, we could never comfortably abbreviate it, so we borrowed the nickname from the Wu Tang Clan’s Rza which was ‘Rulah ZigZagZig Allah’, and shortened it to ZigZag.  For a Muslim, ZigZag sure did love to drink and smoke.  Then we had Wilson, better known as Dub.  Dub and I hooked up while working at a firm just off DuPont Circle a few years prior.  Dub hailed from Blue Grass country, raised on the mother’s milk which around those parts meant none other than Kentucky Bourbon.  He was a decade my elder but if you got him wound up on the milk there was no telling where that spinning party top might stop.  As a child Dub was tossed out of elementary school for sipping moonshine on his lunch break – I kid you not. 

So, Audioslave first announced two exclusive shows before they would hit the road for an official tour later that spring.  The first was a Thursday night jam at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City while the second was appropriately placed in Philadelphia’s Industrial District at the Electric Factory.  As epic as the New York City show would be, we couldn’t really get the time off work so we decided it’d be easier to just bop up to Philly.  Dub was a professional concertgoer/ticket haggler so when I gave him the green light for me and ZigZag, it was only moments later he was printing off electronic tickets from his office computer.  Our three way date with rock and roll history was set for Friday, March 7th.

One might say a harbinger of things to come was the night four days prior to the show when I slid my car into a curb making my way home from work in the driving snow.  It wasn’t too damaged but the alignment did require some shop time.  Graciously, my insurance agency comp’d me a replacement I was to pick up the day of the show.  So, on my lunch break that day I walked down to the rent a car spot to claim my ride.  I looked forward to and even romanticized the possibilities a rental car may afford me outside my daily functional reality of a Nissan Maxima.  Turns out they had me pegged for a goddamned Lincoln Continental, indeed befitting of its own continent.  At this point there was no turning back, I asked for compact economy and I got the four-door Executive.  While at the helm of this massive land beast at no point did I feel too big to fail. 

I cruised down L St feeling self-conscious and insecure.  When I got close to Wilson’s office I called up and requested he hightail it downstairs: “Dub my man, hustle your ass ‘cuz I’m afraid I’m going to need landing signals to parallel-park this mofo.”  With Willie in tow, I swerved down Connecticut Ave and did the same for Zulfigar at his office: “Yo Z’s, get down here pronto ‘cuz I may have to wait for you at the bus stop.”  After a few end arounds, a couple of hazards otherwise known as wayward hot dog cart vendors and only one roundabout, we had finally made it on the beltway to Philadelphia. 

Once we cleared the district, we took the first highway off ramp to pick up the few remaining outstanding rock and roll roadie essentials.  These essentials came in the form of a twelve pack of Miller High Life, two packs of smokes and a pack of cigars.  Before we could get to the register, Dub impatiently ripped open the fresh cigar pack and one’s end off , chewing it up, spitting it out then smiling maniacally as he made our final impulse grab of the afternoon - a 24 oz can of Steel Reserve.  He was positively (and oddly) giddy about that Steel Reserve.  Back now in the Executive, Dub as elder statesmen of our delegation took the back seat.  The distance between us from drivers to back seat was nearly six feet.  This gulf made me feel like we were transporting the head of state of rock and roll fandom and as ZigZag rode shotgun beside me I also felt as if I was now in some fucked up Driving Miss Daisy trip. 

We now had 140 miles to go in a sailboat with the wind at our backs.  After we hit full speed on the interstate, I lit up the twelfth letter and we all cracked open the first of our fresh cold ones to celebrate.  I leaned back to pass the freshly lit J to Wilson but he was so far away I had to throw it to him.  The trip up was some kind of exhilarating.  The best part aside from the celebratory smoking of everything smokable and the drinking of the cheap cold beer was rocking out to a host of albums from Vol. 6 Dylan Live 1964 to Audioslave to the Very Best of Deep Purple. 

Approximately two hours later we arrived triumphantly at the Electric Factory high on rock and roll and actually we were just high.  Once we got to the parking lot, we ripped our final few puffs of the Mary, had a quick cigarette and made our happy way into the club.  The Factory scene was grungy and intimate, just the way we liked it.

The crowd buzzed with anticipation chattering amongst themselves: How’d they sound in NYC last night? Did they cover any Rage or Soundgarden tracks?  Soon the rock gods came onstage heavy on swagger and light on banter.  Brad mashed the drum twice, before Tim struck the pulsating bass line followed by Tom leaping in the air as high as he could, synchronizing his descent back to earth with that of his right arm across the guitars face.  Cochise was kicking in and Cornell stoically paced the front of the stage. 

The show was incredible.  They played every song on the album and even covered Rush’s Working Man, and hell I don't even like Rush.  It was loud, it was intense, it was 90 minutes long and it was everything we hoped it could be.  Yet now the show was over and our night was just beginning...  

===============================================

I'd like to thank everybody for coming out this past weekend and if you weren't there, well you just missed a literary party like no other.  The 6th Annual Ç literary arts journal release party showcased twenty poets and writers, two photographers, one musician (thank you Eric Bostrum for setting the mood, kicking ass and also for covering Townes Van Zandt), one keg of beer as well as three tables of food catered by two of the best chefs in town who operate under the radar, Alex MacKay and Fred "The Machine Gun" Dealaman, Jr.  

Singer/Songwriter/Musician Eric Bostrum
The event also included original promotional posters painted by artist B Stew and most importantly 105 copies of the baddest literary journal around that you've probably never heard of unless you know me personally.  Last but not least, I'd be remiss if I didn't thank the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center for sponsoring the event (we could not have it done it without your support) and the Rhino bar for donating a delicious keg of Blacksmith Brewery's Amber Ale.

Here's a bit of local press from the run-up to last weekend's party:

and some post-game from the previous year's event:
http://www.kpax.com/news/missoula-celebrates-poetry/

If you'd like to read the rest of the story, stay tuned to Pie In The (big) Sky for further details on Ç 7 to be published sometime this Summer 2013 under the editing stewardship of Alex MacKay.  More details to follow and if you'd like to submit a poem or a piece of prose, please send your submission or any questions to cedillavii@gmail.com.  Submission deadline is May 15, 2013.

Guest Editor, Dr. Casey Charles
Dr. Lisa Simon
Many thanks again to all who attended.  Thank you to all the readers who presented as I am honored to have shared the stage with all of your beautifully diverse and talented selves.  Tim, Casey, Lisa, Mark, Alex and myself cannot thank you all enough for contributing to such a special evening.

-PPG

04 March 2013

while you were out drinking (the official PITS weekend in review, vol. 2): revisiting the women's suffrage movement

Suffragists marching down Pennsylvania Ave.
In case y'all missed it, this past weekend marked the 100th anniversary of the Women's Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC.  The parade was staged from March 1st through March 3rd and highlighted the lack of political enfranchisement (i.e. voting and running for public office) for American women.  While the 19th Amendment wouldn't come until seven years later, this Parade served as one of the first nationally organized protests.

You can read further about it and see more cool pictures from the events of that weekend here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/03/100-years-ago-the-1913-womens-suffrage-parade/100465/

I bring this up because it is historically significant and important to note given the political stance of some of our less progressive federal and state representatives.  For example, we can look at the state of Texas where draconian family-planning budget cuts to planned parenthood are now thankfully being reconsidered.  Seems some conservatives are rethinking their defunding stance in the name of fiscal sanity and it strikes me as funny how social conservatives parade as fiscal hawks:

"In the fiscal crunch of 2011, the Legislature cut the state’s family-planning budget by two-thirds, with some lawmakers claiming that they were defunding the “abortion industry.”  Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, found that more than 50 family-planning clinics had closed statewide as a result.

Now, amid estimates that the cuts could lead to 24,000 additional 2014-15 births at a cost to taxpayers of $273 million,  lawmakers are seeking a way to restore financing without ruffling feathers."

You can read the entire article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/texas-may-restore-some-family-planning-budget-cuts.html?_r=1&

Beyond protecting women and their reproductive rights and the long term fiscal benefits of such a political stance, we've also recently had to endure the congressional debate for reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.  This measure was mercifully approved, most graciously advanced by the wholly reluctant and largely culturally backwards House of Representatives last week.

It's important to raise these issues because living in a patriarchal society as we do, it is easy to dismiss claims about discrimination against women as invalid or otherwise commonplace and therefore, not newsworthy.  Which is exactly what this fine Princeton administrative official does here, in defending the University's policy to not publish the findings of a study that find 1 in 6 women at Princeton claim they have been sexually assaulted:

"I don't know that there is a real benefit to releasing it," Sandoval added. "I think if we had found something very different from the national average, that would be one thing, because that's a real story. A story that Princeton's rates of students who have been assaulted is on line with national averages is really not a story, but I mean in this news environment, people would make a big deal about it."

No, of course not Ms. Sandoval, routine sexual assaults are never newsworthy?!  The results were ultimately leaked outside of the official administrative channels because the University seems entirely disinclined to actually raise awareness.  These are precisely the conditions that contribute to social and cultural amnesia when it comes to addressing social justice in modern day America.

You can read the report of the survey's findings and see the actual data summary here:


Lastly, the above report lends itself to further exploration into the issue of sexual violence on college campuses and there are notable events happening right here at the University of Montana that I will have to follow up on later.  

For now, time is running out on this blog post so I leave you with this final graphic for y'all to consider the present state of affairs for women's earnings compared to their male counterparts in present-day America. 


While great progress has certainly been made in the past 100 years, there are clearly more steps to take to advance the protection of Women's rights and aid their total enfranchisement in the United States of America today and into the future.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

-PPG