Meet the Master at Barrel and Keg

Every Thursday night from 4-7pm, Barrel and Keg hosts a "Meet the Master" event where you can stop by and partake in a free tasting of local wine, beer, or cider. I've been keeping my eye on their tasting schedule to see who they have up. I visited a few weeks ago for 2 Town Cider's release party for their new Pacific Pineapple cider (it's delicious!) and have stopped by for a wine tasting or two as well. My friend FamousWJ introduced me to Bryn Mawr wines and I love their Pinot Noir, so when I saw that they were the masters we could meet this past Thursday, I knew I had to go!

I got my friends FamousWJ, JAG, and BettyCrocker on board and we all agreed to meet up at Barrel and Keg after work.

I walked in to a very bustling scene! The place was definitely hopping with every table taken. Luckily BettyCrocker had snagged us a free table towards the back. Barrel and Keg is a friendly neighborhood taphouse with lots of beers, ciders, and wine on tap (yes, the wine bottles are tapped!) and a whole bottled section displaying treats you can take home with you too. It has a laid back, neighborhoody atmosphere where it's inviting to come and hang out and spend some time.

The place was crowded with a scene that was a little older than the downtown clientele; it was mostly working professionals in their 30s-50s. There were people with dogs (they allow dogs inside!) and people with kids (they allow kids inside!).

After some hellos, I headed up to the front to start the wine tasting with a wine steward from Bryn Mawr.

The first taste up was a Rose. I liked it!  It was sweet and light.

Next up was a Riesling that the billed as dry, but we thought it was actually pretty sweet.

Meanwhile, BettyCrocker and JAG decided that they wanted to try something out that was on tap. They had a lot to choose from!

JAG chose Mazama Mosair Egyptian IPA (what a name!). He said that it was a balanced, mild IPA with a good mouth feel. BettyCrocker gave Vagabond's Wolfhound Irish Red Ale a shot since she's into Irish beers. And as a bonus, Vagabond is a local Salem brewery! She enjoyed it.

One draw of Barrel and Keg is the fact that its parking lot out back is also the home of a food cart pod! Various food carts park there at various times, and you can even text your order in to the food cart of your choice and the will come into Barrel and Keg to deliver your order! I took a look at the menus laid out and saw that just one food cart was there that night, Gourmet Hometown Heroes. I took a field trip outside to check it out.

When you head out the back, first you come into the bonus room. I once attended a pre-wedding/rehearsal dinner hang out here that was fun!

I saw a list of upcoming events on the chalkboard, convenient!

Out the back door is the food cart pod. It was seasonally decorated with cherry blossom petals.

On my way back in, I checked out the sticker wall by the restrooms.

And then I took a gander at all the bottled beers on shelves and bottles of wines in the wine room. There are so many to choose from!! This would be a great place to come for a gift for the beer lover in your life.

Then it was back to the wine tasting! Next up was the Pinot Noir #1. I talked to the wine steward about this wine and she said that they produce 900 cases and it's made from a mixture of grapes from their property and a property nearby. 

This was the wine of theirs that I knew and loved already. It was still great.

Next up was Pinot #2. This one, I was told, is made from grapes on their prime property, called "Krista's Block," which is the highest elevation. The conditions make the grapes more complex. They make significantly less cases of this wine. I failed in my picture of the bottle, but we really enjoyed this wine. It had a rich flavor and was very smooth.

Around this time, while I was trying the Pinots, I had the really fun experience of running into another past Salem Takeover host, Victoria! We follow each other on Instagram and had seen each other's Salem Takeover weeks, but had never met in person. It was so fun to have Instagram merge with real life.

The last wine up was the Tempranillo. The wine steward told me that their Tempranillo vineyards were only started in the last 20 years. Tempranillo requires warmer, drier weather, and recent climate change has allowed these grapes to now grow in Oregon. (I guess there's an upside to climate change? Kind of...) I asked if the weather is good enough here to grow Tempranillo every year and she said yes, they make it every year. Wow! I gave it a try. The decks were stacked against this wine for me because I had just tried the expensive Pinot Noir, and Pinot is my favorite. I'd drink a glass of the Tempranillo, but it wasn't as complex or as tasty as the Pinot.

IAnd that was it! t was a fun night! I really liked getting to try the different Bryn Mawr wines since I've been a fan of their Pinot. It was nice to be in a laid back environment with my friends. It was fun that it was busy with so many people enjoying themselves. I will keep checking their Meet the Master schedule and drop in again, I'm sure. I hope you will too!

Trivia Night at West Side Tap House

West Side Tap House is a great little location in West Salem. (And that is saying a lot because I don't usually like braving the bridge!) It opened a few years ago in the little strip mall on Edgewater at the end of Eola. I've enjoyed hanging out there over the years, especially on summer evenings when the side patio is the prime seating location as the sun goes down and the day cools off.

I've always liked the vibe at West Side Tap House. It has a kind of industrial/modern feel, which is nice and somewhat classy in a way, but still laid back. The clientele is usually a mix of ages (which I tend to appreciate), and pretty tame and relaxed. There are a ton of taps with so many choices including beer, of course, cider, and even kombucha. They also have a few wine selections. I always enjoy hanging out there with family or friends for a tasty drink with good conversation.

So when I recently found out that West Side had a Monday night trivia night, I was in! I'm not great at trivia, but I still have fun trying and having a night out with friends.

I had tried out the trivia night two times in the last few weeks, and this week was my third. I arrived early, about 6:30pm, to attempt to secure a table for our group. But, I found that 6:30 was too late as all the tables were taken. I should have known because I had tried 6:30 the week before and had some problems too. I threw my stuff on a couple chairs at the bar to save some seats, and then checked out the tap list.

Well, actually I was checking it out for the second time because I had already checked out the tap list at home :).  My brother, who is the ultimate planner, taught me that tip. West Side has their entire selection on their website, complete with bar graphs showing how full each keg is!! That is one of my favorite parts about this place! I hate making decisions in the moment, especially when I sometimes need to research ingredients (...food allergies...), so browsing before I go is perfect.

I had been considering Wandering Aengus's "Wanderlust," which I saw had just been tapped that evening. Sidebar - Wandering Aengus is a local cider company in Salem! Note to self - schedule some time to go do a tasting there ASAP! I researched it to see that it was made up entirely of apples and no other added crap, but I wasn't quite sure if I would like it, so I asked for a sample. I totally recommend sampling! It's free and then you don't end up with a huge glass of something you don't like! Wanderlust was my jam, not too sweet and not to dry, so I ordered a pint and set in waiting for the rest of my crew to show up.

I started filling out our paperwork and made the executive decision of naming us the Concurring Penguins (since no one was there to object!).  I had brought along a book to read while I waited, but instead I decided to do some last minute cramming for trivia. They always release the trivia topics on Facebook on Sunday night. I'm not on facebook, but luckily I have a friend who is great about telling us the topics so we can study. So I sat at the bar and scrolled through facts about Spring, the one topic I thought I could perhaps cram successfully for.

Pretty soon Friend #1 showed up and perused the tap list herself. I was feeling a bit iffy about the spot I had secured for us at the bar because we were going to both be squished, yet paradoxically not close enough together to be able to discuss our answers well. But right about the time that I was fretting, I noticed a couple pick up their belongings and move to leave. I quickly sat at their table and yelled at Friend #1 to move her stuff over. I was happy :) And next time I will arrive earlier to be safe!

Another thing I should mention about West Side Tap House is the fact that they do not serve food (besides containers of nuts and pretzels, etc that are free for the grabbing), but they allow you to bring any food you'd like in. This means that (if you're like me) you can even cook your own dinner at home and then brown bag it to the tap house! Or you can stop and grab something along the way. OR, you can do what it seems like the majority of people there do - have a pizza delivered to you right there in the tap house! I actually really like this feature. I don't really like eating out (...food allergies...) and sometimes that hampers my fun or keeps me away from an establishment. But this way I can bring my own food and have a good time!

So I pulled out my homemade dinner and started to dig in. As 7:00pm rolled around, Friend #2 & Friend #3, our last two teammates rolled in at just the right time for the game to start. They both grabbed drinks to go along with their dinners they had brought along, and the first category was on! We started out with five questions about "Southern Rock Classics." While we weren't totally knowledgeable, we managed to do ok, mostly because you get to decide how much each of your answers are worth, from 1-5 points. That let us put our most sketchy answers as just worth 1 point and 2 points.

(Note - if you've done trivia here in the past, they've switched the rules! The first time I went, you had to turn in each answer slip right as you answered it, and you had to give it a point value at that time. That made it difficult because you were blindly guessing how hard the future questions were going to be! Now you have one whole answer sheet per category, and you get to hold onto it until the end of the category. That makes strategizing which question is worth what point value much easier! And you don't have to run every answer up to the quiz master each time either! I love that they changed it!!)

From there we moved onto the category of "Spring." I found that my random facts weren't much help, but again we managed to hold our own. At least I knew spring happens in September in the southern hemisphere! At the end of the first half, we were in the middle of the pack.

After a short break, the second half started. For this half, the questions were now worth double (2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 points). Unfortunately the first category of the second half was "Quentin Tarantino Movies," and none of us felt good about that. I myself have seen approximately zero of his movies so I was no help...besides moral support. While Friends 2 & 3 had seen some of his movies, we still struggled and got few points. Last up was "Pot Luck," which I guess is just the trivia way of saying what Jeopardy calls "Potpourri." We had to take some guesses here and again struggled.

When the scores were read, we were sad to hear that the Concurring Penguins were in last place, especially since last week we got second place overall and won a $10 giftcard! The last stage of trivia night is the final question. You can wager anything from zero points up to all the points you have. We tend to be the "all or nothing" group. And this night was no different...especially since we were in last place...even though the category was, again, Quentin Tarantino movies! Arg! I turned in our wager and we awaited the question. It was, "According to two Tarantino movies, where's the worst place  on the body to get shot?" We had no idea and debated various places. We finally settled on "anywhere" and turned in our guess.

Well, the correct answer was the kneecap. Dang it, that was one of our options we discussed. We ended up with zero points, but lots of other teams failed too, so we were in a four way tie for last place.

Last place does get a consolation prize though. You get to pick from a grab bag (well, we didn't actually get to do that this time, I bet because there were too many losers), but even better than that, you get to pick one of the topics for next week! The first week I went, we also lost (go big or go home, right?) and picked the topic of "Downtown Salem" for the next week - which ended up being really fun! This time we mulled it over a bit and decided to pick "Children's Lit," because I feel pretty good about that category and we're hoping our teacher friend who will be on spring break next week will join us!

We wrapped up the night, gathered our things, and headed out. I drove up the hill to my parents' house to grab some flower seeds from my dad (seriously, when you're in west Salem, get all your West errands done at once! It always feels so far away even though it's not), and headed home. If I manage to actually get those flowers to grow on my back patio, it will be a miracle (I did not inherit my dad's green thumb) worthy of instagram. Follow me there @urbanlivingsalemor

Even though we lost, it was a fun night as always. We will be back! I hope to see you and your trivia team there too :)

Revamping the Blog

Wow, it's been awhile!  I (obviously) lost my blogging drive last year, but I'm back!  And here's why. 

This past week I was the host on the instagram account "Salem Takeover," where a new Salemite takes over the account each week and shows their view of Salem.  I had so much fun planning out local places to highlight and running around like crazy each day to cover as much as I could.  And equally as good was the interactions I had with other Salemites.  I loved meeting people out in the real world who had been watching my stories and getting messages from people who said things like "I go there/like that too!"  My favorite thing was when someone would message me to say that they were excited to try a place I highlighted, or had some more questions.  My goal with my instagram and my blog has been to get myself to embrace Salem more and to then pass that on to other people so that they can embrace it too.  So this week left me feeling energized and fulfilled.

I want to continue that.  I don't have the stamina to keep up my Salem Takeover pace and do something fun every lunch hour and evening :) (it was so fun but tiring!).  I do, however, have the stamina and the time to find cool things to do about once a week and tell you about my experience so that if it appeals to you, you can give it a shot too.

If you read my first post when I started this blog, you saw that I had an original vision for the blog and some rules for myself.  Those guidelines, like only covering things within walking distance of my apartment, don't really make sense anymore because my life has changed.  After living in that downtown loft for 2 years, I (with sadness) decided to move to a more affordable apartment right on the edge of north downtown.  (BTW - I still consider myself to live "downtown" :)).  While I still love downtown the most out of any part of Salem, now that I'm not in the heart of downtown, I'm ready to open up my scope a little more.  So, here is the revamped blog's details:

Vision for the blog:  This blog will chronicle the things I do and ways that I embrace urban living in the city of Salem. This will encourage me to embrace Salem and give me a creative writing outlet, but I also hope it will encourage others to go out and do something fun in the city or to provide ideas for things to try out.

Rules:  Anything I feature on this blog has to be in the Salem area.  I can either walk or drive to them, but I should really make an effort to walk when I can!  Most of the places or events I cover should be in the city limits, but as appropriate, I may cover things that are in the outskirts of Salem (like Keizer, etc).  I will keep in mind that the goal of my blog is to highlight our city, not my own life, so if I do cool things in Portland or somewhere that is pushing the definition of "outskirts of Salem," I will control myself, remember my vision, and not blog about it (unless of course I one day revamp my blog again and title it "Urban Living in the state of Oregon").

I hope you come along with me!  And if you want to follow me on instagram, I'm @urbanlivingsalemor

Ready. Set. Embrace Salem. Again.

TEDxSalem

A few years ago, I went through a period of time where I was somewhat obsessed with TED talks and watched countless videos online to expose myself to interesting ideas and new ways of thinking. During that time, I became aware that little old Salem, Oregon was the site of an annual TEDx conference - an independently organized, local event that brings together the innovative thinkers in our area to share their ideas. I hadn't realized that Salem was so cool! I jumped at the chance to attend, and absolutely loved it!

Now two years later, I'm still hooked on the event and was excited to attend my third TEDxSalem. I failed to buy my ticket early for the discount, but did manage to buy it before the event :). Tickets were also available at the door, FYI, but I wanted to be sure to have a spot and a fancy pre-printed name tag.

Given the winter we're having, of course snow was scheduled for the day of the conference. Luckily, the organizers decided to stay the scheduled course, and lucky for me, I live downtown and and only had about a two block walk to the venue.

I bundled up on that Saturday morning and headed to the Salem Convention Center. I arrived and queued up in line to get my name tag, then grabbed by goodie bag with the most important part - my commemorative mug :)

(my hallway to the outside world :))

The convention center

There were quotes from past speakers decorating the lobby area.

The morning started out a little bit disappointing. They had advertised that breakfast would be provided, but all that was available was bread (and toasters for you to toast your own) with peanut butter and jam, Kind bars, and coffee/tea/water. Hmmm. Not that appealing, especially for the gluten free crowd. Oh, and the first year I went, I was happy to see that they served locally roasted coffee, but this year it was just run of the mill coffee, but maybe that was the agreement they had with the convention center.

I grabbed some coffee and a Kind bar and entered the auditorium to find a seat. When I walked through the doors, I loved it! Last year the conference was downstairs, and the room just felt off; it seemed too big or something. This year it was upstairs, and it looked just about perfect. The space was just the right size, the blue mood lighting was awesome, there were couches up front, and it felt like a real TED event. I found a seat in the middle near-ish to the front next to another girl who appeared to be there alone. As I settled in and perused the agenda for the day the girl in front of me turned around and exclaimed, "You're my doppelganger!!" We both had curly hair and glasses. (Btw - Her curls looked way better than mine that day, so I totally took it as a compliment :)) And that just sort of exemplifies how TED events are and the feeling of the whole day. Everyone's there to have this shared experience and kind of connect with humanity (maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but that's how it feels) and it's common to just strike up a conversation with someone you don't know.

The day was broken into four sessions with "recess" between each. The sessions were made up of (mostly local) speakers, videos from the big annual TED conferences, and performances. I used my handy dandy notebook they provided to take notes on everything (I'm a habitual note taker), but don't worry, I'll just highlight my favorite things :)

Please note - they did not totally keep to this schedule.

The first session started with an intro to the day. The theme of "Revolution" was introduced as meaning a "sudden and complete change." We were invited to hold the opposing mindsets of curiosity and skepticism, openness and critical thinking, and inspiration and action. This year's artist in residence, Kathryn Cellerini Moore, took the stage and explained her artwork installation which was inspired by the Wizard of Oz. She explained that Dorothy had the tools and experience she needed in order to achieve what she wanted, and that for us, with each challenge and memory, we place a brick in our own roads. The wheelbarrows in the installation are to remind us of the hard work that it takes to maintain our yellow brick roads.

Then we had a short yoga experience guided by Mikki Trowbridge from Indigo Wellness. The yoga was meant to put us in the right mindset to receive the ideas we were going to hear and engage with the day ahead of us. I think it worked! (Or at least I liked it!) It was a calming experience but also a shared experience with everyone in the room. I don't think I've ever done any yoga before, and it reminded me that I really should fulfill my goal of getting over to Indigo sometime soon to try out a beginning yoga class (maybe watch for a future blog!)

The highlights of session one for me, besides the yoga, were a video we watched about urban gardening (check it out here, it's quite good), and a talk by Karen Holman, a local chemistry professor. Hers was probably one of my favorite talks (but I heart science). She told us about a metallic element, ruthenium, which has shown lots of promise as a cancer treatment. You could totally tell that she's a teacher, because she explained the concept in a way that was very understandable. She taught us that healthy cells have a few "hands" that will grab onto ruthenium (thinking it's iron), but cancer cells have a bunch of "hands" that will grab it, and those levels of ruthenium in the bad cell's environment will cause it to self destruct. Meanwhile, the healthy cells don't really get harmed, so the cancer patient has very few side effects. Karen told us that this treatment has been stuck in clinical trials for 15 years, and that there are many other helpful drugs that are stuck like this one is because they just can't get funding. She encouraged us to crowd fund medical research like this. And, she suggested we donate through consano.org because they have a vetting process.

As you can tell, I totally forgot to take pics during session one. Well, I thought about a yoga pic but my arms were otherwise occupied. Blog fail!

After session one, there was a recess. While I really enjoyed most of the day, recesses seemed a little haphazard/chaotic this year. Last year I knew what was happening and when and enjoyed participating in some fun activities. This year, I wasn't sure which activity was happening and where it was. There was no real schedule or anything posted, and some of the activities just seemed to not be going on. During this recess I first admired the snow that had begun falling, then tried some tasty Krave Jerky at their free sample table. I liked the cherry/pork variety the best. Then I watched the taping of a music video that RiverCity Rock Star Academy was hosting (TEDx participants could sing lead in a song about revolution - then they showed the finished product during session 4). There were no snacks served during this recess :(, but there was more coffee, so that was a partial win. Book Bin, a downtown business, had a little booth there too with books that catered to the TED crowd.

Session 2 soon started. During this session, we watched a video about a girl and her banjo...and China!  It was interesting! The highlight of this session for me was Jerry Braza (whose bio says he's a retired WOU professor) who spoke on mindfulness. I really appreciated what he had to share. He explained that as we get busier and our minds are full of more things, we consume more (in various ways). Mindfulness is living in the present moment. It's about moments. Moments make up the quality of our lives. He encouraged us to cultivate those moments by stopping, breathing (uniting body and mind), and calming (focusing what's happening in the moment and lingering longer). He said that bells are reminders for us to stop and pause, and that "bells" of mindfulness are all over. They are everything and everyone we connect with. He asked, "What do you see or hear in the world that could be a bell of mindfulness?" As an example, he told a story of he and his wife simply noticing the Super Moon together. They stopped, paused (breathed), smiled, and lingered longer. The super moon can be a bell of mindfulness. I really enjoyed his ideas on this.

After session 2, it was time for lunch. There were a few huge buffet lines set up downstairs in the big lobby/foyer part of the convention center. I had signed up for a gluten free lunch, but none of the food was labeled gf. I did ask one of the employees who assured me some stuff was gluten free, but since it seemed a little sketchy and my apartment was just a short walk away, I chose the safer option and walked home through the snow that had been falling.

Snowy view from inside my apartment.

When I got back people were milling about and session 3 was about to start.

I found a seat and pretty soon, an older couple sat next to me. The wife struck up a conversation with me she asked if I knew any of the speakers and I said nope, I just really like TED stuff. She said that they were there to see her daughter who was going to speak during the next session. The mom was super nice and momish and told me about her daughter and said normally she lets her mom read her work, but for this speech, she wouldn't even tell them what it was about :)

One of my favorite speakers of this session was Yesenia Gallardo who spoke about insects as a sustainable protein source. Insects emit less greenhouse gases than traditional livestock, take less water per pound, have a high feed sufficiency (the insects don't have to eat much to gain weight), and insect farms can be located in urban areas. The MC even mentioned that there had been crickets available to try during the lunch recess, but my field trip home must have made me miss out on that culinary delicacy.

My other favorite speaker of this session was Gina Ochsner, the daughter of the mom I sat by. She talked about examples of revolutionary people in the Romanian and Czechoslovakian revolutions. She pointed out the importance of words and suggested I ask myself if I'm using my language to build bridges or to build fences. When she finished her speech, her mom and I gave each other a knowing smile.

Also during session three, members of the crowd were brave enough to join in on some middle eastern dancing!

Then it was time for our final recess. I didn't do a ton during this recess, but did enjoy some local Kettle Chips and a Kind bar and admired the snow.  I thought about trying to get in on a chair massage, but I finally realized that there were sign up sheets and I should have signed up well before now if I wanted a slot! I also saw some posters where you could vote for what talk you wanted the mayor to hear.

I failed to mention earlier, but Pedal Power was a sponsor and they had two stationary bikes up front. Anytime you wanted (including during the talks!) you could get up and take a turn pedaling. The bikes were supposedly supplying some of the power to the stage! I thought it was a great idea, and a good way to help people listen (since some people need to be active!).  These people below were giving it a spin ( :) :) :) ) while they waited for session 4.

Pretty soon session four, our last session, was ready to start. I really enjoyed this entire session!

We watched this video by Ken Burns called "Bring on the Learning Revolution." I really liked this video and it's worth the watch. He talked about how human resources (talents) are buried deep. You have to go looking for them. You need the right circumstances for them to show up. He argued that education doesn't currently work to find people's talents. Education is based on linearity - do this and you're set for life. But really, you find your talents organically in relation to your circumstances. He pointed out that human communities depend on a diversity of talents.  I love that point so much. And he thinks that local education should be able to adapt to local circumstances and not be standardized. Our goal should be uncovering aptitude AND passion in students. Where those to converge is where the sweet spot is.

All the speakers in this session were great. First was a local speaker, Warren Binford, who covered the topic of pornography and how it is negatively affecting the actual wiring of the brains of young people who are exposed to it. I found her talk really insightful as to why we have some problems (criminal problems!) that are so prevalent today.

Next up was Alia Braley who traveled from Massachusetts to be there! I loved her talk and she brought up ideas I had never considered. She talked about using non-violence to create a revolution. For her master's thesis, she set out to answer the question, "Can we use nonviolence against ISIS?" She found that ISIS always grows in correlation with violent warfare. War gives ISIS a purpose and helps them recruit people. One of her main points was that protesting isn't the only non-violent revolutionary action available to us, and in fact, it's the weakest option! Government depends on business, education, media, religion, and armed forces to keep it stable and in tact. Non-violence can be used in all of these realms. Then she gave some great examples. Business - In one part of the middle east (I think..), when the government kept shutting off the power intermittently, all the businesses banded together and closed until electricity was consistent. Social Media - groups make parody videos to counteract the ISIS propaganda. Religion - Imams refused to pledge allegiance to ISIS. And, when ISIS put "N"s on the homes of Christians (for "Nazarene"), non-Christians put "N"s on their own homes. Education - families chose to keep their kids home from school. The problem is that we understand the power of violent action more than we understand the power of non-violent action. What if we put money towards those who are already doing these non-violent actions instead of towards war? Non-violent actions are twice as likely to effect change than violent actions. Unless we become more literate in non-violent actions, we'll just recreate what we expect to see, which is violence.  If we were oppressed, we wouldn't want people to drop bombs on us. We'd want them to give us materials to help us break free.

The last speaker was Renee Mitchell. I think she was also from out of state. She told the story of her life and how she rose above hard circumstances and followed her heart. She shared this quote with us, "You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level." She started the talk just telling a story, then changed over to telling it in poem, which I enjoyed.

Once all the speakers were done, the MC got back up on stage and was joined by those who made the event possible. He had us think about what our own revolutions are and then picture what is standing in our way. Then he had us get out our keys and jingle them at our opposition, like the Czechs did to their oppressors as they left :)

What a great day it was!  I'd recommend taking part next year. TEDxSalem 2018 will be January 6th and the theme will be "Through the Looking Glass."