Oscar Schmidt OU26T

Last April, I was on the Big Island of Hawaii. While shopping in Hilo, I walked into what I thought was a rather unusual establishment, Agasi Furniture and Music. In the back of the furniture store was a music section with a rather good selection of ukulele's. The store wasn't busy, and one of the owners spent a great deal of time talking to me and didn't seem overly troubled when I picked up rather expensive, vintage ukuleles and banged them around.

The standout for me was a used Kamaka 6 string tenor, which I could not hope to afford, even though it was quite a bit less then a new one. Then I picked up an Oscar Schmidt OU26T, a Chinese 6 string tenor which I could afford, and I almost bought it, but decided to check eBay and maybe buy it when I planned on being back in Hilo (we were staying in Kona) sometime before we left. Of course, we never made it back, and it bummed me out the whole flight home.

With the handmade strap
from Anacapa Ukulele

So I surfed eBay, and was about to buy one. Then I noticed that the Oscar Schmidt was available for my credit card bonus points. The majority of those points I earned while I was in Hawaii, so it made sense to use some for something that I really wanted but didn't buy myself.

Six strings-should be easy

When it got to my house, I was totally bummed. It sounded utterly like crap, and I couldn't figure out why. It was strung in some funky way, and I tried tuning the strings in different ways, but nothing worked. Finally, I found some good pictures of the Kamaka online, and noticed that it was strung completely different then mine. A new ukulele shop had opened here in Ventura, Anacapa Ukulele, and I brought the ukulele in so they could have a look at it. Immediately, they figured out the problem. It was strung totally wrong. It wasn't even close, strings were out of order and crossed over one another, as if the person stringing didn't have a clue as to what the uke was supposed to sound like. They recommended I buy a new set and string it again. Anacapa had one set of the 6 strings left, and I bought them and a handmade ukulele strap. I took it all home to string my uke over.

I have some experience with guitar stringing, and wasn't anticipating having any trouble stringing a uke. Six strings, geared enclosed tuning machines, seemed pretty straightforward to me. The first thing was remembering the order of the strings. Some pictures on the internet solved that. Then I noticed that I needed to knot the ends myself. No problem, I found a video on You Tube.

What I didn't know was that nylon strings take forever to stretch out properly. For two weeks, I couldn't keep the uke in tune at all. I kept tuning it and tuning it. The two A strings were a nightmare, trying to get them an octave apart and stay in tune just didn't seem to be happening. Back to Anacapa, who explained to me that it takes about two to three weeks for the strings to stretch out properly. So I kept at it, and sure enough, the strings stayed in tune.

It still sounded like crap.

Initially, I just thought it was my playing, but I'd pick up my old Regal that I bought on the Goodwill Auction site and I wasn't playing that bad. More internet research told me that the wood itself needed to settle, and that could take some time. So I kept on playing it, and after a few months the sound become better. Now it sounds pretty good, actually. I've pulled it out for the first time in about a month, and it's still pretty much in tune, and the sound is getting brighter.

The Oscar Schmidt website says that this is a mahogany tenor size ukulele with a satin finish. I found the finish to be a bit rough. The uke seems a bit on the heavy side as well. Everything else, though, seems reasonably well made, and I especially like the binding on the fretboard. The weight means that I don't feel like I'm going to break it anytime soon.

The main thing about a 6 string uke is that the sound is much fuller, and that's what I appreciated when I first picked one up in Hawaii. The 6 string Kamaka sounded amazing and I seriously thought about plunking down the cash and feeling the wrath of my wife, but couldn't do it. I played around with the 8 string uke, but to my ears, that sounded crowded-and I was playing a $1400 Kamaka, so if I couldn't get that to sound good, I figured the 8 string wasn't going to be for me.

Until such time that I can afford a Kamaka, or I become a much better ukulele player, the Oscar Schmidt fills the niche of the six string. I have it tuned gCEA, with the C string doubled an octave apart and the A string doubled and an octave apart. Unlike the Yamaha Guitalele, which is tuned like a guitar but up a fourth, the OU26T still sounds like a uke.

If you check on eBay, you can find them for around $100, a price that I'd be willing to pay.

Taco de Mexico de Ventura

Tacos de Mexico de Ventura

Taco Truck

Oxnard

October 12, 2012

I love a good taco truck! I look for the ones that are clean and well lit, where I can easily look inside the windows and see everyone working.

Tacos de Mexico de Ventura is generally parked on the corner of Gonzales and Ventura Rd. in the evenings, tucked behind the gas station in Oxnard. I've been stopping in for about a year, shortly after I noticed the truck there. Back then, there was always a yellow Hummer nearby with an old man sitting inside, and people said that it was the owner, watching his business, adding to the mystique of the suddenly appearing truck. Tacos with a variety of meat, burritos, tortas, quesadillas and a couple of other things are on the menu. There's always a line, which is surprising in Oxnard, where there seems to be a place serving tacos on every corner.

Last Friday, I went with a burrito, with cabeza, rice and beans, for $5. It was a good, fat burrito which is exactly what I looking for. My son had asada tacos at $1.50 a pop. There was a generous serving of meat on the usual small corn tortillas. I've had the tacos before and thought they were good.

A worthy stop in the middle of Oxnard.

Santa Cruz Market, Ventura, Follow Up

In a follow up to my previous entry, I had lunch at the Santa Cruz Market. Though I should have had one of their many Mediterranean specialties, I opted for the Tri-Tip sandwich, which was on special today for $3.99.  I also picked up bag of chips and a bottle of Mountain Dew to go with it.

I ordered my sandwich and once again found the service to be excellent. The bread was fresh and the sandwich had several large pieces of tri-tip in a pretty good barbecue sauce. I asked for smoked gouda cheese, onions, pickles and pepperoncinis, which were added without question.

They don't have a soda fountain, but there are some tables over in the liquor area of the store that will soon be used for wine tastings. I sat there comfortably and enjoyed my sandwich. I make a pretty good tri-tip myself, and so seldom order one when I go out. I find that I can make a tri-tip better than most restaurants, using my big Weber charcoal barbecue and a slow cooking method. When I do order tri-tip, the categories are worse than mine, as good as mine, or better than mine. This was as good as mine, and when cost was factored in, it turned out to be a good lunch.

I was offered a sample of their falafel, which I tried and found tasty. Next time, I definitely try one of the Mediterranean dishes.

Pete's Breakfast House, Ventura

Afternoon-No one in the lot

Pete’s Breakfast House

2055 E. Main

Ventura, CA 93001

Pete’s Breakfast House is a long time Ventura breakfast café, and I’ve never met anyone who has said anything bad about it. In fact, most people will tell you a favorite story, or list a favorite breakfast item. It’s also been featured on “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.”

If you aren’t familiar with Pete’s, everything I’ve ever had since I first went there 15 years ago is good. The food is served quickly, the servers are friendly, there’s free coffee for those waiting for a table, and on the weekend expect to wait. The restaurant occupies two store-fronts, and seating is limited. Most tables seat no more than 4, so my family of 5 rarely eats there together, but if one of us is missing, it’s great. Prices can be a touch higher than most, but certainly worth it.

This morning, I had a waffle sundae, a waffle topped generously with frozen yogurt, granola, strawberries, bananas and chocolate syrup, and some coffee. My son had the same, and the tab came to $21 without tip.

So now my story. Pete’s is why I bought my current house 15 years ago, and one of the main reasons I live in Midtown Ventura.

When I first moved to the area, I lived in Oxnard. It was in the middle of El Nino, and it rained so hard that school was cancelled-the only time in my career that I’d been at a school that had a weather related day off. Some teachers had still managed to slosh their way in, and I suggested breakfast to a small group, including a coach that I though was so good looking that I had a hard time looking at her, much less talking to her. She suggested Pete’s.

I followed in my car and parked on Main Street. While walking toward the restaurant through the rain, I found a $20 bill! Score! A day off and $20! Could the day get any better?

It turns out that it could. Though the electricity was off, Pete’s was still serving breakfast and inside I got to sit next to the good-looking coach. Of course, I couldn’t look at her and eat at the same time, but no matter.

The following weekend, my fiancé and I were going to breakfast, and I suggested Pete’s, We drove there from Oxnard, and I missed it on my first pass, necessitating the need to circle the block. We found an estate sale at a small house, and decided to take a look. The renter had just passed away, and the owners, who lived in Arkansas, were looking to sell. We were actually about to buy a condo in Oxnard, but the house was only a little bit more, and in a place where we actually would want to live. We got out of the condo, and bought the house where, with some modifications, we still live.

So Pete’s got me to where I live today. And they still serve a good breakfast.

Visiting Downey, Exotical and Bionicos Natural

            In 1977, when I was 14, I thought my family had arrived. We moved from Bell, which was definitely on a downward spiral, to Downey.

            At the time, Downey was the home of white, middle class, suburbia, a marked difference from Bell, and the idea of going to Downey High School excited me to no end. I liked living in Downey and what it meant.

            Still, when my parents divorced and moved away in about 1985, I didn’t go back into Downey very much. Most of my friends had moved away, and without my parents there I had no place to stay. I almost got a job teaching at Downey High in 1995, but had already accepted one in San Gabriel before Downey came through. And again, Downey is a suburb, not really a destination, a place passed on the freeway.

            Tonight, though, I was back in Downey for the Oxnard/Downey football game. I arrived early to look around the city and see how it had changed. Now Downey is crowded, lots of cars, lots of stores, a growing suburb of Los Angeles. The ethnicity has changed as well, with only a handful of white people around. I remember white flight beginning as my brown family moved in, and now it seems fully in effect. The size of Downey High’s enrollment has almost tripled since I was attended, to 4400 students, a huge school population.

            It was interesting to see what was still around, too. A random hair salon would trigger a memory, as did Golf ‘n’ Stuff or the liquor store that was around the corner from my old house.

            I actually went into Exotical, which I remember as kind of a tacky Hawaiian store. It had Hawaiian shirts and bamboo furniture and took up several store-fronts back in the 70’s, but now had shrunk and carried mostly Hawaiian clothing, shirts, dresses, skirts, and hula dancing supplies.

            Looking at the rack, I found not one but several “Go Barefoot” brand Primo Beer Hawaiian shirts that looked exactly like I remember them in the 70’s! They were brand new and only $49! Generally, that would be more than I would be willing to spend, but I’ve been eyeballing the Primo shirts when they come up on eBay, and used ones are going for that price.

            The kid at the counter, (a Warren High graduate, but still nice enough) who had greeted me with a hearty “Aloha,” when I walked in, came over and asked how I was doing, and I told him that I remembered the shop when I lived in Downey 30 years ago, and I thought the Primo shirts were out of print.

            He said that they were, and his grandfather, who had owned the shop, would buy dead stock when it was available and so they had several new old stock shirts. We chatted about the shop and how Downey had changed and how excited I was to get the shirt. With a little nudge from the kid I went with the brightest color they had, a chartreuse over the blue, (which I still might buy at some future date), and left the store a happy camper, with the sound of "mahalo" ringing in my ears.

            If you’re in Downey and need a Primo Beer shirt-or some other Hawaiian shirt that isn’t one you’d find at Macy’s, swing by.

             Across the street from Exotical is Bionicos Natural, a Mexican juice bar. I wasn't going to get anything, but when I paused to take the above picture across the street from Exotical, I noticed they were open. It was very hot in Downey, and the idea of a fresh smoothie suddenly was very appealing.  I had the coconut-pineapple smoothie that was just fresh coconut, fresh pineapple (not canned), ice and cream, I think. The woman who was running the place didn’t seem to speak much English, and my Spanish is hit and miss. She said cream, but it could have been yogurt. It was $3.50 and delicious, cold and fresh on a very warm night.

             A nostalgic night in Downey; too bad Oxnard lost.

Santa Cruz Market, Sticky Finger Bakery, Stephen's Market and Grill, Ventura

Three new places have opened up in August around my house, and I’ve been in all three already, but haven’t had enough to call for a full fledge review. These are just first impressions of people trying hard to get their businesses off the ground, and I intend on visiting them all again soon.

Those who have lived in Ventura for years remember Jues Market, on the corner of Main and Santa Cruz. Walking distance from my house, it did play a small part in my deciding to move to the Midtown area of Ventura. Dorothy was always at the register, and her family had owned the market for decades. They had a great meat counter, fresh vegetables, a decent wine selection, a selection of food staples, and some Asian food supplies befitting the family culture.

When the family retired, they sold the store, which then went through a few owners, losing something of the store flavor, until finally, the store turned into an overgrown liquor store. The neighborhood people who would by fresh meat or veggies, or people like me who would send the kids to the store to pick up some missing item for that night’s dinner stopped coming in. The name changed to Green Market, thankfully divorcing itself from the Jues legacy. The store’s food was overpriced, and would often go bad on the shelves, and finally it shut down.

Changes started to happen in the store a few months back, and walking by I could see the improvements going on inside. New refrigerators, shelving and a meat counter all came back, and the interior, which was dreary even in the Jues days, was spruced up. The parking lot was redone, the exterior painted, and like the rest of the neighborhood, I looked forward to the opening.

Now, Santa Cruz Market, the store looks great. Like Jues many years ago, it has a meat counter and fresh vegetables. They have a sandwich counter, which uses Boar’s Head Meat, and it looks like they’ll be doing several more things with prepared food. Now, the Asian food-stuff is gone, with some Middle-Eastern staples coming in. Everyone is friendly and again I stop in for fresh vegetables or other odds and ends that I don’t feel like running to Vons for. On two occasions I’ve bought hamburger from the meat counter to barbecue, and both times it was excellent.

Sticky Fingers Baking Company opened across Main Street from Santa Cruz Market, and I want to like it, but on my first impression it was only okay. The owner has been doing baked goods for some time, and has being looking for a storefront in the Midtown area. The space is cute and smells good, but my girls and I tried a cupcake, a scone and some cookies, and found them somewhat uninspiring. I wouldn’t spit them out, but at this point I wouldn’t go back on the strength of their taste.

I had some coffee as well, and though it was good, it wasn’t great or even worth the wait. The owner brews one cup at a time, so it came well after I was into my scone. A dry scone without coffee or tea certainly loses some of its flavor.

Sticky Fingers is close by, and I’ll try them again to update this report. At the moment though, there wasn’t anything that makes me want to race back in.

Stephen’s Market and Grill seems a bit confused still. It occupies the huge space that was once Chuy’s at 2632 Main, and they haven’t really warmed up the space. It’s open with a handful of tables, and gave me the feeling that I was eating in the middle of a basketball court. They have some Greek market items in the front of the space, cheeses, olives and such, which I’ll try at some point in the future.

They have dinner items which were in the $15-20 a plate range, which looked and smelled delicious. But I’d say that I wouldn’t spend that much to eat in that space.

When my son and I went, we just wanted something to snack on before playing pool at Stix, so we split the Greek Burger combo. It was surprisingly good! A large burger, a good size salad and a healthy portion of fries, all tasty and fresh made for a good late night snack. Not quite enough for a full meal for two, it certainly was a good size for one person.

Again, I plan on visiting all these places again and I’ll give a more detail report.

Rainbow Snow Cones & Juice Bar, Santa Paula, CA

Rainbow Snow Cones & Juice Bar

933 Yale Street

Santa Paula,  CA

Santa Paula is an interesting place. 15 minutes from Ventura by freeway, it could be a different world, reminiscent of the small western towns my family would drive through on our way to some national park or other on a family vacation when I was a kid.

My family and I go there every few weeks because of the Regency Santa Paula 7, which shows first run films and who’s matinees are only $5. The large popcorn has free refills, and we always sneak in sodas, so I can take the whole family to the opening weekend of something without having to get a second mortgage.

Place with ping pong

A few weeks back, after we gorged on popcorn watching “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days,” I told the kids we needed to take a walk and we drove the short distance to downtown Santa Paula.

No Signage

Many of the buildings date back to the turn of the 20^th Century, when Santa Paula was a booming oil town-Union Oil of California was headquartered there, along with being in the middle of a good farming and ranching area. Now, the buildings are generally a bit run down, and have shops that I’m not quite sure what they sell. The clientele now is mainly Mexican, with Mexican restaurants, tattoo parlors and junk stores, along with a handful of  "98 cent+" stores all run by Asian families. The majority of the businesses are geared toward people far more Mexican than I. Still, the area is trying to get back on it's feet, with many of the businesses appearing relatively new, and some rather high end restaurants sprinkled the town.

Fresh fruit in the cooler

While visiting one of those shops on our walk, we walked into a place with a friendly proprietor, a ping pong table, and stock of what seemed like work pants and shoes, along with other seemingly random items in a store that was probably a haberdashery or shoe shop 60 years ago, and the proprietor asked if we were enjoying the evening. I said that we had just gone to the movies and now I thought a stroll was in order. He asked if we had headed to a nearby Baskin-Robbins, and I said that I was thinking about going to a Fosters Freeze for a dipped cone after we were done walking around. Then he said we should check out the ice cream place around the corner, that they made their ice creams and were pretty good.

Our Order

We thanked him and followed the directions he gave. There were no signs outside the building, but there was a line, which we stood in. It had been a hot day, which made the inside of the shop just about unbearable, and I wondered if I really needed to stand in line for this. Most of the people in the shop were speaking the Spanglish of the area, and the menu was written mostly in Spanish. People were ordering fruit drinks, which looked fresh and natural, unlike the Jamba Juices of the world, and fresh fruit bowls with chili powder sprinkled on. There was also a noisy shaved ice machine. There were two tables inside, and no place outside to sit.

Finally, we got to the front. There were 10 or so flavors of ice cream, and all were made on site. I went with a coconut-pineapple, which had both chunks of pineapple and coconut in it. My daughters had vanilla and cookies and cream, while my son had a shaved ice.  

Like Coldstone, the server would mix in a topping, which we all took advantage of. The ice cream was good, not quite as heavy as the super premium Ben & Jerry’s, but certainly with a lot more natural flavor than Rite-Aide, and a better taste then Baskin-Robbins. I picked up a card, which identified the place as Rainbow Snow Cones, Home of the 50 Flavor Wagon. The ice cream with the toppings mixed in was $1.95, and the shaved ice was $2.

I went back again yesterday, and this time was craving the ice cream-always a good sign. I had pistachio, which was very good. My kids went with either cookies and cream or vanilla, and were also happy to go back too.

If you’re looking for ice cream in Santa Paula, I’d definitely head here. I’d like to try their fruit drinks, which also looked good, and I’ll report here.

Sept. 8, 2012 Update

It was warm today, so I tried the shaved ice. Good shaved ice should have the texture of snow, and when it does, it absorbs the flavors. This was good shaved ice, and for $2, a good value. Next, I'll have to try one of their fruit drinks.