A pompadour'd George Clooney on Facts of Life. Need I say more?
A fuzzy television picture in the wood-paneled basement from the '80s. TV channels playing holiday specials, holiday-themed shows, and vintage 1980s commercials. And, best of all, it is not static. It changes throughout the day! A "Diff'rent Strokes" cover of TV Guide in the upper right is your guide. Change the channel with the online remote control. The content actually changes throughout the day. Believe me, I've looked. In between brewing, cooking, and learning pharmacy topics today, BetaMaXmas was visited often.
Kimberly is frigging out of town yet again, so my day was kept quite busy to prevent madness from setting in. Observe:
Work from 8-4.
Go and browse Williams-Sonoma and pick up a soup cookbook, an immersion blender, and a lemon pound cake mix.
Stop by another of our pharmacy locations to pick up some prescription vials they're lending us.
Log on the computer for generalized surfing but mainly to set my College Bowl Game Pick 'Em league.
Meet two co-workers at P.F. Chang's for dinner at 7:30pm.
Hit the grocery store at 9:00pm.
Drop by my store at 9:30pm to deliver those vials I picked up earlier.
Come home, then spend the remaining hours in the kitchen. First, I make the Williams-Sonoma lemon pound cake.
Make a Funfetti yellow cake I got at the grocery store.
Transfer the Centennial Madness homebrew to the secondary fermenter.
Dry hop the Centennial Madness in secondary.
Clean the heck out of the gunky primary fermenter so I can brew tomorrow. Then rinse, and rinse, and rinse, and rinse, and....
Clean up the kitchen.
And now as this post ends just past 3:00am it's finally time for bed. Tomorrow's a busy day off with plenty of things planned: brewing a "Canadian Ale", making Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder using my new soup cookbook, smoking a huge ass turkey breast, logging on the computer for two hours of live continuing education in the evening, and maybe trying my hand at replicating personal Greensboro restaurant fave Taste of Thai's massamun curry. (Did you read that James? Possible homemade massamun curry.)
It's kind of a crappy photo, but the flash really didn't take from the view from my 3rd row seat at the High Point Theatre Saturday night for yet another performance of A Christmas Carol. Quite possibly my all-time favorite holiday play/book/movie. I take that back, it's EASILY my all-time favorite play/book/movie. It was the George C. Scott cinematic version on TV that got me hooked, and ever since I have strived to see whatever version I can.
Anyway, after work, it was a trip to Liberty Steakhouse and Brewpub in High Point for some Oatmeal Stout and a huge ass slab of meatloaf. Liberty is by far the least of our immediately local brewpubs: Foothills, Natty Greene's, then Liberty. I'd venture to drive the hour to either Carolina Brewery locations in either Chapel Hill or Pittsboro before Liberty. Most of their beers are subpar in my opinion, but their Oatmeal Stout and their seasonals are tasty. The current seasonal is a Light Carb Light Lager, so I passed. Oatmeal Stout goes better with meatloaf and mashed potatoes anyway. Besides, I was in High Point anyway, so why not?
After dinner, it was the quick jaunt from the brewpub to the other side of High Point University and the theatre. Another quality performance, although I was sad to see the theatre just a smidge over half full. Half full! It's opening weekend, people! Come on out and support the arts! That was a little disheartening to see, as I immediately worry that the plug will be pulled and they'll cancel it next year.
Between the Greensboro tree lighting last night, and A Christmas Carol tonight, the holiday season is truly underway for me. (And looking back on last December's posts, looks like I missed out on one year exactly (2007's performance to 2008's) by a mere two days: http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2007/12/business-establishment-of-scrooge-and.html)
Tapped into my inner resolve and suffered through the "bitter cold" of Greensboro in December to sing carols and watch the tree lighting in City Center Park downtown. After work, it was dinner at greasy spoon fave Fincastles then a few blocks walk northward to the park for the big 'on' switch for the lights.
'tis the season!
(The video took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to upload directly into Blogger, so I had to upload it to YouTube for all the world to see instead of just the 4 or 5 of you.)
"Prohibition made me want to cry in my beer, and then denied me the beer to cry in." -- Will Rogers
January 16, 1920: Prohibition officially begins. Ratification of the 18th Amendment occurred January 16, 1919 with the law going into effect one year later.
The lightning growth during the late 19th century saw a rapid rise in urban centers in the U.S. Large towns became industrial centers. Labor issues began in earnest. Non-rural work days saw the need to "unwind" and decompress after the new 8-hour workday.
Welcome the tavern. The saloon.
These places of social congregation in time gave rise to unsightly sins of debauchery: heavy gambling, adulterous prostitution, and a reckless irresponsible affinity toward alcohol. The early 20th century worker did not "know when to say when". Many associations and groups lumped the social ills of the day as a direct result of alcohol. The Anti-Saloon League (what a name!) and the Women's Temperance Union were powerful and effective lobbyist groups of the time. Brewers, tavern keepers, and the alcohol swilling public discounted the power of these groups with the government, and as a result stood silently by. Surely the government would never curb the public's thirst.
Wrong.
13 years of a "dry" nation occurred.
Repeal was essentially a "quick" one, if you can count 13 years quick. Enforcement of Prohibition was spotty, with bribery and corruption running amok. Revenue from alcohol sales saw sharp declines, making government suffer as a result. The idea was that a larger sober workforce paying income taxes would offset any monies alcohol would produce. And a little something called The Great Depression cut income across the board with joblessness. Uh-oh. Once you start taking money from Uncle Sam, things are going to change. And change they did. Why not recoup some tax money with alcohol again?
December 5th, 1933: the repeal of the 18th Amendment. The 21st Amendment is ratified. That "noble experiment", Prohibition, ends. Essentially, the government could not effectively limit the populace to acquire a product they wanted. The costs of preventing the public from getting what it wanted were immense. Beer had been consumed for thousands of years. Thousands. Frankly, cutting it out of society completely was unnatural and counter to society.
This is the 75th anniversary of the Repeal, and a day truly deserving of a toast. A hearty glass of Gordonian ale will be most certainly be raised in celebration once pharmacy-type duties are completed today.
75 years.
Groups now rumble and murmur about alcohol's "sins" and the need to rid it from the face of the earth. Neo-Prohibitionists whittle away at our right to alcohol with blood alcohol limits connected to federal highway fund dollars, Sunday alcohol sales, legal drinking ages out of line with the age to die for one's country while in the military, package size restrictions, etc.
Never again. People are listening. Brewers and distillers and vintners are listening. The efforts of the holier-than-thou teetotalers will never again come to fruition. BUT, this is not a given. We must have resolve, we must be ever vigilant. But for now, we must enjoy a cold beer in honor of 75 years of forward thinking.
Baseball America Recognizes Grasshoppers with Bob Freitas Award
Greensboro, N.C. - The Greensboro Grasshoppers franchise has been recognized for its outstanding 2008 season and continued contribution to the Piedmont Triad and Minor League Baseball by being selected as the winner of Baseball America’s 2008 Bob Freitas Award for the Single-A level. The award was announced in the most recent Baseball America publication.
The Freitas Awards, in honor of longtime minor league ambassador Bob Freitas, are awarded to franchises that show sustained excellence in the business of Minor League Baseball.
Key contributing award elements consist of attendance, long-term consistency and commitment to the community. No franchise can win the Freitas Award until it has been in operation for at least five years.
“The Bob Freitas Award is one of the most prestigious awards in Minor League Baseball and we are honored and humbled to have been selected,” said Grasshoppers President and General Manager Donald Moore.
“It is a tribute to the tremendous support we have received from the community and our dedication to making NewBridge Bank Park an outstanding venue.”
In 2008 the Grasshoppers played host to a successful South Atlantic League All-Star game, drawing a crowd of 8,367 fans. The Grasshoppers finished the 2008 season with an attendance of 440,787 and have welcomed over 1,715,000 fans to NewBridge Bank Park, drawing over 400,000 fans in each of its first four years at the new downtown ballpark.
"Two of the most important things we try to honor with our Freitas Awards are franchise stability and commitment to the community,” said Editor and Chief of Baseball America Will Lingo.
"Greensboro made the best of its situation in War Memorial Stadium, which was one of the oldest ballparks in professional baseball. Opening the new ballpark not only energized the franchise but also the community and they have become one of the best draws in the minors.
"It was a great opportunity for us to recognize a franchise that has been a steady presence for almost three decades, yet has taken a quantum leap forward in the last few years.”
Moore will proudly accept the Baseball America Bob Freitas Award, South Atlantic League Club Merit Award and General Manager of the Year Award during a luncheon at the Baseball Winter Meetings next week in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Grasshoppers have welcomed over 1,715,000 fans to NewBridge Bank Park, drawing over 400,000 fans in each of its first four years at the new downtown ballpark. The team is the proud recipient of both the South Atlantic League’s Club Merit Award and the General Manager of the Year Award for the past four years.
Season tickets and advertising packages are now on sale for the 2009 season. For more information, please contact the Grasshoppers office at 336.268.BALL or visit www.gsohoppers.com.
Over 400,000 fans a year the first four years in the new park? Nifty.
When we moved down from Ohio, we were in the midst of selecting our seats for season tickets to the minor league Cleveland Lumberjacks hockey team. Then, in November 1996 when we finally moved to Greensboro, we discovered the minor league Greensboro Monarchs, who then folded in favor of the Greensboro Generals, who then moved away when the NHL's Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina and became the Hurricanes. Their home in Raleigh was not ready, so the Hurricanes played in Greensboro for two years. The head coach who oversaw the move? Paul Maurice.
Maurice took the 'Canes to the Stanley Cup in 2002 and we lost 4-1 to Detroit. Still, it was thrilling to have a local team play for all the marbles. After an underwhelming post-finals stretch, Maurice was fired and replaced by Peter Laviolette.
Laviolette took the 'Canes to the Stanley Cup finals and actually won the whole damn thing over Edmonton in 2006. Hooray! Hockey fever gripped Dixie! It was pretty cool to see the celebrations and the general gaiety over Lord Stanley's Cup presiding in NC for a year.
Then, for the first time ever in the ancient National Hockey League, a reigning Stanley Cup champion misses the playoffs completely two years in a row. Two years. Ugh.
Things began to look bright for 2008-09: a promising team, some up and coming youngsters, a heady veteran to lead the way, and "Ronnie Franchise" Ron Francis as assistant GM. But an awful stretch in November leads to a paltry 12-11-2 record with a lackluster team that cannot score a power play goal and are always playing from behind.
So, gone goes Laviolette. The winningest U.S.-born coach gets the ax.
The new coach? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Paul Maurice. The story.
Odd.
Coaches are hired only to be fired. And sometimes, they get RE-hired.
Their 2nd game with their new old coach will be Saturday night against the Philadelphia Flyers and I will be there with tickets. I'll be interested to see if there's a marked increase in intensity.
Sing with me: Come on, come on, come on, let's go 'Canes!
The day after Thanksgiving, NPR's weekly program Talk of the Nation - Science Friday broadcasted a repeat of a May 2008 discussion concerning "the science behind this age-old craft" with Wisconsin brewmasters sharing their tips on beermaking.
Some topics: a) Led Zeppelin keeps Miller Brewing yeast happy. b) Brewers are just "Envirnomental Technicians": brewers just make wort, YEAST makes beer. c) The power of hops. d) Art vs. Science. e) Tasting beer f) The biblical events of the recent hop shortage g) "Beer is much more sophisticated, trust me." h) Foam is sexy. i) "Americans tend to chill their beer to insensibility."
Tuesday night saw a massive bottling venture in the kitchen. Both the "Obama Inauguration Holiday Ale" and the "Get In Mah Belly! Scotch Ale" were transferred from their respective secondary fermenters into their new 12-oz bottled homes.
Usually, the 1-2-3 Rule is in effect, where the beer sits in primary fermentation for 1 week, then transferred to secondary fermentation for 2 weeks, then carbonated in bottles for 3 weeks. Lately, ample carbonation has resulted after only a week or so in bottles. I find this out only because I cannot wait and try to open a bottle much sooner than the 3 week time frame. Once I get an audible bottlecap crack spray, and a healthy head on the pour, into the garage fridge they go! The Scotch Ale only had a 1-and-1 week's time in primary and secondary, only because it appeared to settle out and clear quite a bit with only a week in secondary, plus bottling is truly a pain in the ass, so I opted to forgo the 2nd week in secondary and just bottle it all in one fell swoop.
This time, for the Inauguration Ale, the plan is to not open any bottles until Inauguration Day in DC. This may truly try my patience and my resolve. The owner of the homebrew shop in Falls Church, VA where the ingredients were procured mentioned that when fresh this beer is "hot" and can stand to sit to acclimate the alcohol burn. If only for this reason from a trusted professional, the Inauguration Ale may indeed withstand a lack of Gordonian interference until January 20th. Give me strength.
So after Tuesday, 2 cases of each beer now sit in the Carbonation and Aging Center, i.e. the spare bedroom. Inventory reduction of the beer fridge's contents is right on schedule to allow their introduction to the garage in due time.
James and Monica, of Alexandria's James and Monica fame, came down for the holiday weekend to visit family. So of course, on Saturday James and Chris had to brew something. An India Pale Ale I dubbed "Centennial Madness".
One of my favorite, if not THE favorite, beers is Bell's Two Hearted Ale: an IPA brewed with nothing but Centennial hops. Delicious. Another tasty pair is both of Dogfish Head's 60- and 90-Minute IPA's: continuous hop additions throughout the brew for (appropriately enough) 60 and 90 minutes. So, the inspiration was to combine the two and make up an uber-hoppy IPA.
All Centennials, added in 7 minute increments for an hour. Why 7? Because I had 4 one-ounce packets of Centennials to add throughout the boil, and halving them into 1/2-oz additions left 8 additions. 8 x 7 = 56. Close enough to an hour.
1 oz Centennial hops, 9.1% alpha acid, at 0 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 7 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 14 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 21 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 28 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 35 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 42 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 49 minutes 1/2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA at 56 minutes
1 Whirlfloc tablet at 49 minutes to clarify
1/2 oz heavy toast oak chips added to the primary fermenter
WLP041 Pacific Ale yeast
Then, soon to be added to the secondary fermenter in a week's time, 2 oz Centennial 9.1% AA added to dry hop
Whew. My usual contemplative and zen-like state during the boil was broken up with a barrage of hop additions. In Food Network fashion, ramekins of hops were measured out and sprinkled in at the correct time. This was fine. This brew session required a clear mind to remember to add hops at the proper time. Granted, the Natty Greene's Red Nose Winter Ale (their first bottled seasonal offering) and Victory's Moonglow Weizenbock to keep us warm on a cold North Carolina afternoon muddled some of that clear thinking, but the hop additions went off without a hitch and almost on time every time.
A 6.5 gallon carboy is used for a 5 gallon batch. The extra headspace allows for ample CO2 release and the inveitable rise of frothy krausen once fermentation takes off. The sheer amount of hop particles and particulates that transferred over to the primary fermenter was astounding. Once it all settled, hop sludge almost made it to the 1-gallon mark on the carboy. To compensate, we tried to salvage as much liquid from the brew kettle as we could. Later that night, a healthy krausen did indeed form. The yeasties did their valiant task. Upon inspecting the Fermentation Center (i.e. the downstairs half bath) on Sunday morning, the airlock was full of murky hop liquid and streams of sticky goodness trickled down the carboy and pooled on the floor. Sometimes there are explosions of airlocks off the carboy (see Chocolate-Vanilla Stout). So to prevent another pop-off of the airlock and subsequent mess, I decided to pull off the airlock to clean it out and assure free-flowing openings for the escaping CO2. Once the tip of the airlock broke free of the confines of the carboy, I was greeted with a violently audible WHOOSH! and a healthy spray of liquid. Good thing I wear eyeglasses as my lenses were painted with a hoppy coat of gunk. I didn't mind cleaning up the bathroom that morning because it (and I) smelled just so good.
An afternoon off during a long holiday weekend resulted in the viewing of the next James Bond film, Quantum of Solace. The new theater in Burlington with a wine bar was the destination. (The wine bar was underwhelming and you couldn't take anything into the theater, but it did have Sam Adams Winter Lager so it wasn't a total loss.) Before my thoughts, the trailer:
Fueled by rage and the thirst for revenge (see 2006's Casino Royale), Bond returns to make even the score. The discovery of the secret organization Quantum, seemingly all around and bent on controlling the world, is a twist.
This Bond film diverts from the "usual template": no gadgets, a Bond girl who has no intimate interaction with the hero, and a further stretch from the Bond who uses violence only when he has to. Sure, the Daniel Craig version is a darker, more ominous Bond, but are box office figures so flat for the franchise that they must thrust Bond into a "Jason Bourne" idiom: shaky camera angles, thrilling rooftop-to-rooftop leaps, personal marital arts bust-ups?
For the Bond virgin, this film wouldn't be a good standalone movie to see. This film obviously requires Casino Royale and the upcoming film to completely tell the tale and have Bond "make sense" to a newbie. That being said, we are seeing before our eyes the transformation of Bond from rogue-ish killer who acts in his own self interest to one who devotes his actions to Crown and country. Just a few more pieces to eliminate before Bond has nothing to work for but his nation.
Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone, and the days and nights of visiting friends and seeing movies and watching football and playing games has ended. Oh, and the food. The metric ton of food consumed.
And the pies. Dear god, the pies.
Apple, pumpkin, chocolate cream, marshmallow (2 kinds), sweet potato, pumpkin cheesecake, ugh...it may take until NEXT Thanksgiving to recover.
After a long weekend blog-less, let's carry on shall we? Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
I love the Browns. It is a blessing and a curse. The amount of character-building occurring just by being a Browns fan is immense. Sure I bitch about their shoddy play, their inept skills, their ability to rankle me on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon, but they're MY team. MY heroes. MY gaggle of plain-helmeted warriors.
Be that as it may, it gives me permission to scream and bemoan their recent (well, not so recent) stretch of ineptitude. The latest gem? Hometown (well, a town a smidge under 2 hours south of Cleveland) boy Brady Quinn gets to play quarterback for his beloved Cleveland Browns. Every young boy's dream. Played through a broken fingertip on his throwing hand and ended up damaging a tendon. Giving rise to possible surgery and a definite end to his season. Sigh....
At least he's already been named the starter for 2009!
Today, and every day, I am truly thankful for the Cleveland Browns, but am frankly tiring of the bad tidings that accompany my team.
Way back in April 2008, we had the bright idea to get in ahead of time to try and get Inauguration tickets for January 2009. We were that confident. Before the NC primary, before the general election. So I contacted our Congressman, Mel Watt of the 12th District of North Carolina, and asked for two tickets. We were informed via phone call that official distribution notices would not occur until after the election.
OK. We'll wait.
So the day after the election on Wednesday November 5th, another note was sent to Rep. Watt. We were told they know of our request and we were already "on the possible ticket list".
Fingers crossed.
We just received an email stating that tickets are slim. So slim in fact that a total of 27 tickets are distributed in Guilford County, our residence.
Mel Watt's 12th District is one of the most racially gerrymandered districts in the nation. Seriously. I mean, look at it:
A sliver of darker skin tones all along the I-85 corridor. Charlotte to Winston-Salem? Rep. Watt needs TWO local offices? One in Charlotte and one in Greensboro? Unreal.
Anyway, the email reads thusly:
On November 12, I was informed that each member of the U.S. House of Representatives would receive 196 tickets that we could distribute to the January 20, 2009 inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama. When we stopped taking requests for tickets at 5:00 p.m. on November 14 we had received requests from over 5,000 people for more than 15,000 tickets. This, of course, made it an impossible task to satisfy all the requests.
Here’s what we decided to do:
· We decided to allocate no more than 2 tickets to any person who had made a request;
· We decided to allocate 70 of the tickets to elected officials and community, organizational and religious leaders from throughout the 12th District who had made requests; and
· We decided to allocate the balance of the tickets (126) between the 12th District counties based on the relative populations of the counties in the District and conducted a separate lottery drawing for constituents who had made requests from each county. This resulted in the following division of tickets:
Mecklenburg – 44 tickets
Guilford – 27 tickets
Forsyth – 26 tickets
Davidson – 15 tickets
Rowan – 12 tickets, and
Cabarrus – 2 tickets
We are in the process of contacting each individual who was selected to receive tickets based on the above process to confirm that they still plan to attend the inauguration and wish to use the tickets. Some may have changed their mind or may not wish to use the tickets because of the two ticket limit or for other reasons. Tickets not claimed will be distributed based on the county lotteries we have already conducted.
Sigh....granted the inauguration does not technically require a ticket, but to be guaranteed a spot among 240,000 ticketholders when approximately 4,000,000 people will go anyway would have been nice. I still have the January week off work, will still go to DC, and will still stand among the unwashed masses and watch history be made.
At Thanksgiving, ticket in hand or not, I'm just thankful to have a visionary forward-thinking president-elect to help us get through these trying times.
Every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and generally all throughout late autumn and wintertime, famous Pumpkin Dip is unleashed unto the world with great delight and much fanfare. Ridiculously easy to make, ridiculously delicious to consume. Observe:
The ingredients:
Blend the two cream cheese packages and the can of pure pumpkin:
Yum, smooth cream cheese and pumpkin:
Add a clump of dark brown sugar, and healthy sprinklings of cinnamon and nutmeg. There are no standard measurements in my recipe. It's all eyeballed and guesstimated. I'll use the generic, "Add to taste." Experiment!
Blend again until smooth:
Place it in a container and refrigerate. It tastes better after a day of sitting and flavor-melding, so make it the day before you need it for best results. And as a rule of all rules, this MUST be served with Anna's Ginger Thin cookies for dipping. No bulky gingersnaps. Ginger Thins. You will be rewarded.
The usual Gordonian Sunday morning lineup of scrambled eggs (with cheese, onion, Hungarian paprika, and garlic), Johnsonville breakfast sausage, and waffles has been upended.
Bacon.
A hunk of double-smoked bacon was recently brought back from the German Gourmet market in Alexandria, VA if you remember. The hunk was adequately sampled this morning.
Salivate.....now. Wow does the house smell wonderful....
Wake up Friday, and what do we see in central North Carolina? Some strange white substance dotting the landscape. Odd. Quite odd.Anyone with any clues what this mysterious stuff could be please let me know.
FedEx received a 19.7 lb. box of beery goodness to ship down to Columbia, SC yesterday. It should arrive sometime today. You see, Saturday December 6th is the 10th annual Palmetto State Brewers' Open, a homebrew competition. The deadline for receipt is this coming Monday November 24th.
Judged homebrewing competitions look at beers as they fall under strict style guidelines. There are 28 BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) style categories with plenty of subcategories included. Waver or stray at all from the set guideline and your beer score suffers.
Some beers, i.e. my Chocolate-Vanilla Stout are by all accounts an "American Stout", but the BJCP flavor descriptions in this kind of stout do not include any actual cocoa or vanilla notes, so it has to be entered in a catch-all "Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer" category. Even if it's a tasty beer worthy of accolades, as an American Stout it would absolutely tank because it doesn't follow the rigid style guidelines. Similarly, the Honey Molasses Porter is in essence a "Robust Porter", but the addition of neither spice nor herb nor vegetable with the honey and molasses thrusts it into the "Specialty Beer" BJCP category for a proper scoring. It's a porter! But there are no sweet honey and molasses characteristics in a porter.
Some argue the guidelines limit creativity. The guidelines are too structured and rigid for an experimental hobby (and for some, a profession) like brewing. I waffle. The guidelines give you a good base for classic styles. Different brewers aiming to meet the same goals set forth for a particular beer; who can successfully make a consistent stylistic classic? But as homebrewers, and more often than not brewers themselves in this era of "extreme brewing", we often just "throw whatever in the kettle" and see what comes out: a nomad beer, not having a proper "home" within the hierarchy of the Beer Judge Certification Program. So as a result, even with the rigidity, I'm sincerely hoping for good style scores. But more importantly, I'm looking for unbiased honest feedback on the aromas and flavors I'm trying to achieve. Sure, maybe the beer doesn't fit into a particular rigid style, but did you enjoy it anyway? How did it make you feel?
I entered 7 beers, 2 bottles each:
a) Carolinian Slightly Smoked Porter Category 22B - Other Smoked Beer
b) Gordon Lightfoot Porter Category 12B - Robust Porter
c) Joe Jackson Tripel Category 18C - Belgian Tripel
d) Maple Pumpkin Ale Category 21A - Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer
Sadly, these were the last bottles in Gordonian inventory of the smoked porter, Edmund Fitzgerald clone, honey molasses porter, and tripel. Hopefully they'll go out with a bang. We'll see what happens. Stay tuned.
Tuesday night was the next lecture in our Guilford College lecture series. This time, "America and the World" with CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and her husband, former assistant Secretary of State James Rubin.
The discussion was America's place in the world, the world's view of America, and the changing relationships between America and the world.
Amanpour spoke for about 30 minutes, then Rubin for 30, then a Q&A for about 30 minutes.
It was interesting to say the least. Amanpour is truly a world traveler and has interviewed many heads of state and common citizens throughout the world. Her travel resume is extensive. However, it seemed that she was rushing to squeeze in any interview anecdote she could within her time frame. Not too much detail. She could have expounded more on some topics instead of hurrying on to begin the next "Oh and then I interviewed so-and-so...."
Rubin, more reserved and stately, spoke of his experiences in the State Department and the goings on with that cabinet position. I'd hoped to hear more from him about his thoughts and stories, but Amanpour is the face on TV and the star of the night, so it was her voice heard most. A fascinatingly mesmerizing voice, but a little too much grandstanding for our tastes.
Paying homage to that cinematic wonder from the Austin Powers film, Fat Bastard, I brewed up a malty Scotch Ale Tuesday. Appropriately enough, I called it "Get in Mah Belly!" on a blustery and cold 39 degree North Carolina day sitting in the garage performing that magical rite known as brewing.
The muse? Scottish Bagpipes. Bagpipes on the iPod. The music library is indeed immense.
The recipe:
8 oz. Crystal Malt 60L 4 oz. Chocolate Malt 1 oz. Roasted Barley
1 oz. Glacier hops 6.0% alpha acid at 60 minutes 1/2 oz. Glacier hops 6.0% AA at 5 minutes
1 Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes (to clarify)
WLP028 Edinburgh Ale yeast
Use your best Scottish brogue to roll that yeast name off your tongue.
In preparing the yeast starter a few days ahead of time (as usual), the corresponding "step up's" to grow the yeast cell population really took off this time. The highest cell count I've had in quite a while. A good healthy slurry of yeasties settled to the bottom: Fermentation began in earnest within 2 hours once again. With using a yeast starter, gone are the days of the wort sitting and sitting and sitting all night long until the following morning when fermentation activity would begin, giving the opportunity for bacterial infection to take hold and choke out the yeast. Now, within mere hours a frothy head occurs and there's no chance of bacteria to thrive. Nice. As you can see, there's even one cluster of pre-yeast-pitching aeration froth that hadn't slid completely down off the glass yet, and fermentation has kicked up enough to visibly see its progress: Looks to be another success. Weighing in at a starting gravity of 1.040, it won't be a thick huge malt bomb, but rather should be an easy-drinking slick smooth Scotch Ale. Can't wait.
(Photo taken by yours truly at the Dogfish Head Alehouse in Falls Church, VA.)
Sometimes it pays to be a lefty liberal beer geek. The New Yorker magazine arrives at the house each and every week, and this latest issue has a rather lengthy article about brewer Sam Calagione and Dogfish Head Brewery.
Read it. But set aside a good chunk of free time. It's long. The article.
Over on Facebook (yes I am indeed on Facebook, and actually one of the last of the ONU pharmacy group to sign up), regular HofG reader and commenter "Duke" wrote:
Come on Flash...hows about a picture of the $500 money shot from your concert a few days ago?
The Dresden Dolls tune Coin-Operated Boy is funked up and disco-fied to a bass-thumping rave beat while the $500 breasts appear. Hazy and fuzzy, but technically NSFW (that's "not safe for work" you n00bs!)
Saturday night, I drove over to Winston-Salem and the outstanding Foothills Brewing to meet friends Greg and Louise for dinner. Hunter's Pie, with beef, ostrich, buffalo, and I forget whatever else gamey meats thrown in. Pretty good, been wanting to try it for some time now, but in the grand scheme of things the meat was rather bland. Garlic mashed potatoes and broiled mozzarrella cheese on top gave all the flavor. Oh well. Next time it'll be the beer brats with saurkraut.
After dinner and schmoozing with Scott the Foothills sales guy, we made our way a little further into downtown to view "light painting". What's this you ask? Arts students from University of North Carolina School of the Arts have "painted" the Millennium Building with color. Pretty damn cool. Read the story here.
Greg got some new nifty camera lenses and whatnots so he went to town while Louise and I watched the master at work plying his craft in the cold. He took some really outstanding shots. Incredible.
Shamelessly stolen (I guess it's not "stolen" if he knows about it) from his online Flickr account: One of the artists saw (how could you NOT?) Greg's mammoth photographical equipment display and came over to chat. Cameras can be used as a great pickup line: "Hey what kind of lens is that?" Anyway, Alex Fogel came over to talk with us about the displays. Pretty interesting guy. Graduating this year. And of course, Greg had me pose in the street with him while his display was lighting up. Notice the contemplative pose peering away from the camera that Alex gives. I mean, he KNEW where Greg's camera was at. You couldn't miss it. What's he looking at? He's so artsy, pondering life and the goings on. Not content to look directly at the camera and into your very soul, but rather, looking (literally) down the road wistfully into the future, wondering what promise is held for tomorrow.
Whereas I am just a big oaf and smile grandly directly into Greg's lens like a frickin' groupie. Once the final display was over at 11:00pm, we made our way BACK to Foothills for a nightcap and a great North Carolina blues band, WSNB, "we sing nasty blues". So true. I first saw them a year or so ago at the Hickory Hops beer festival over in (appropriately enough) Hickory. Loved 'em. Every time they played Foothills on their usual bar circuit, I always had to work or was out of town. Last night however, I was off and they were there. Couldn't miss them.
We hung around and listened to some really heavy bluesy bass lines, some wicked harmonica, and just generally had ourselves a good time. Foothills Mug Club mug #17 certainly got a workout. Chatted with Jamie the brewer for a little while, learning that he's really good friends with one of the band members, which lends itself well to having WSNB play Foothills so often. Louise liked them so much, she asked me to burn a copy of their CD for her.
My musical tastes are all over the board as you may well know. And blues may be a revelation to you. But this band just "clicks" with my head. I love listening to them.
Jedd Ferris • published November 14, 2008 12:15 am
Amanda Palmer wanted to make her debut solo album a personal bedroom-style affair - just her quietly banging out some songs at home on her piano.
But then the singer of the punk cabaret group the Dresden Dolls got an unexpected call from Ben Folds expressing admiration and offering his Nashville studio to make the record. As a result, “Who Killed Amanda Palmer?” - a reference to the ‘90s serial drama “Twin Peaks” - turned into a much more multi-faceted artistic expression than initially expected.
With Folds producing and lending his talents on a handful of instruments, the disc jumps from whimsical indie pop to mellow piano ballads to moments of orchestral bombast. Palmer is about to release a companion book to the album with the help of graphic novelist Neil Gaiman, and she is currently touring behind the disc with some visual enhancement from the Danger Ensemble theater group.
Palmer visits the Orange Peel on Friday night. She shared some thoughts on a variety of subjects.
On Ben Folds
“The disc evolved into more than I initially anticipated when Ben called me up and asked if he could produce my record. It was a blessing that came at the right time. As soon as he got involved, the project really took off. It was going to be short and simple and uncomplicated, but it blossomed into a full production monster. I just started saying ‘yes' to spontaneous randomness that Ben was suggesting. I was up for anything.”
On recording in Nashville
“Nashville treated me just fine. I was living in a straight line between Ben's studio on Music Row and a yoga studio. I was planning on recording at home, but Ben's studio had a really inspirational vibe. It was old school and storied. It felt like walking into a church. I felt honored to be there.”
On the Danger Ensemble
“I'm bringing a crazy theater circus with me. It's been hard to try to describe to people what exactly it is. It's like a weird Madonna show meets 'The Wall' in three dimensions. There are definitely moments of solo piano in the show, but interspersed between every other song there are four actors on stage doing beautiful choreographed theater. It feels like a live music video. Some of it is very slow and reflective, and some is fast and furious. Every show feels like we're really putting something on.”
On the companion book
“It came about just as randomly as everything else. I had a collection of photos I wanted to use for the album artwork, but the record label cut the packaging budget. In typical Amanda Palmer style, I decided to do it myself and put out a book. I asked Neil to write some text, and miraculously he said yes. I wanted a touchable piece of art to go along with the music. It's exciting, especially in these times of trying to figure out where the income is going to come from, now that the chances of selling a CD, even to one of your fans, is slim.”
On enhancing music with art
“I was brought up in the early MTV days, when every artist was a multimedia artist and wore cool costumes. I was also started doing music theater when I was a little kid. I put music and theater in the same box, and I think they enhance each other naturally. I'm excited about things that add to the atmosphere of a band. I'd be bored just writing songs and delivering them.”
Friday was a busy night. I worked 8-4, raced home to let the dogs out, feed and water them, then hit the road for the 2 & 1/2 hour drive over to Asheville for a concert.
Show starts at 9:00pm, doors open at 8:00. Got to downtown Asheville by 7:00. Time for dinner! But where? Hmmmm....I vote Barley's Taproom and Pizzeria. A good choice. 55 taps of good beer, great pizza, and walking distance to The Orange Peel. Big win. Huge score. Catawba Valley Brewing's Uber Pale Ale and Hyper Monkey Coffee Stout were consumed. Tasty wares from a western NC brewery.
Then it was off to the show. The Orange Peel was a warm and personal arena. Standing room only, outside of some tall tables with swiveling bar stools in the back. Bar stools because The Orange Peel had a full bar....open throughout the entire show. Western NC's Wedge Brewing's Porter and Pisgah Brewing's Pale Ale, plus Sweetwater (GA) Brewing's 420 Pale Ale all quenched the thirst just fine in the venue.
Two bands opened with 30-minute sets each: the sister cabaret act Vermillion Lies and then The Builders and the Butchers. Vermillion Lies was kitschy and intriguing, but just odd enough to not want to buy anything off iTunes to add to the collection. One of the sisters (Zoe) was just pretty enough to gawk at, and became even prettier when she worked the crowd and hugged me. (I am a starfucker.) The Builders and the Butchers was rocking and hippie enough to warrant a $9.99 purchase online for the iPod. Thunderous percussion as a backdrop for banjo and ukulele. Enjoyable.
Then at 10:00pm, the beautiful Amanda Palmer took the stage with the "Danger Ensemble". Four performance artists from Australia who would, appropriately enough, perform during some numbers. Solo works from Who Killed Amanda Palmer? plus older works from The Dresden Dolls were played for 2 hours and 45 minutes. One of the encores was Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer, which was interrupted for an onstage deconstruction of the lyrics: "It doesn't make a difference if we make it or not" followed by "take my hand and we'll make it I swear". Well, which is it Jon?
The Danger Ensemble is unabashedly a "street performance troupe", coming on tour with Amanda for no pay. This is no big budget tour. There may have been 800 people total at the show. 800. So the troupe made their way through the crowd with their boots off soliciting donations for the tour. Amanda made the proclamation that if someone gave $500 she would show the audience (her words) "[my] tits".
Someone gave $500.
The final encore was a mini-rave onstage which ended with Amanda doing a burlesque routine and removing her top. She is a woman of her word. There was thunderous approval.
An intimate performance. Great sound coming from just a piano (plus the occasional accompaniment by a violinist).
Then, it was the 2 & 1/2 hour drive back home to Greensboro. 3:30am and I fall into bed with the dogs. Kimberly is out of town in Florida for yet another healthcare PAC conference so she missed out. When we saw The Dresden Dolls open for Nine Inch Nails on a small club tour in Chicago a few years ago, Kimberly wasn't that impressed. Chris was. So it worked out well for seeing Amanda perform once again for those who enjoy her.
A great time in, according to Amanda, "this blue oasis in a red sea".
One can wallow in self-pity and wonder what in the world one has done wrong (even though it has been verbally documented that one is not indeed the offending party, introducing a good portion of confusion to the proceedings), or one can suck it up, say fuck it, and go on living. Indulge in what brings one joy. Trump what brings sadness with what brings joy. Never mind that one's relative status or rank in life has sunk to depths unheard of and unseen before, this will be overcome with head held high. This blog, though ultimately unimportant and quite minor in the grand scheme of things, brings your fair blogger joy. So it shall go on. Regardless of what forces try to plunge the blogger into depths of despair and sadness, it shall go on.
The funk (though still hanging overhead) is, for the purposes of this blog, over.
Flash is back.
I'm sure all 4 or 5 of you are happy as clams. (And what makes a clam so goddamn happy anyway?) You may be scratching your head, wondering just what the hell is going on. Wondering what sort of angle this is coming from. Suffice to say, you'd have to ask others involved just what the hell is going on. Choices made that adversely affect my mood have not been mine.
Some changes have been made to the blog's online description. As I, your fair blogger, am the only one to really contribute to the posted goings-on in this rather riveting existence, the content and focus will be on the pharmacist portion of this healthcare household.
I hope you'll still read this unimportant and minor use of interwebs bandwidth. I hope to post as regularly as I had previously. I apologize for being cryptic, for being coy. Suffice to say, the wildly exciting edge-of-your-seat antics of this fair blogger will be reported in earnest once more.
Sorry to have been so long in between posts. The inspiration to type on these pages has dulled considerably. An official "funk" has occurred.
I'm sure the process will revert and blogging will return in earnest, but for now it's just not there. The House of Gordon will try to trudge through the fog and dark clouds, so hopefully all 4 or 5 of you will check back occasionally for updates.
In the meantime, what we've been doing this past week or so: - Triad Stage's performance "Bell, Book, and Candle" - sampled the carbonated Chocolate-Vanilla Imperial Stout and declared it awesome - weekend jaunt to Alexandria, VA - Nine Inch Nails concert here in Greensboro - bottled Razzmatazz Raspbeery Ale - bottled Vintage Hop (2007) Pale Ale
