Inauguration Week Day One - Sun 1/18

Drove up from Greensboro rather early, making good time even with Maxie requiring TWO stops for whatever reason. Got to the Brannons' in Alexandria, unpacked, decompressed, then hit up Old Town for a mid-afternoon lunch/brunch somewheres.

First stop: Stardust Lounge. Cocktails and lounge. Sounds fun! Closed at the time we got there. Drat. (At least a James Carville sighting, James's FOURTH, occurred in a flash on the street.)

Next try: Bilbo Baggins for some fare. Again, closed at the time.

Curses! We don't want to wait for dinnertime, so we try yet a third spot in Old Town: Overwood. FINALLY, a spot open for our oddly timed meal. Delicious.

Then a leisurely walk around the waterfront and finally back to the Brannons' for a quiet evening. Ahhhh.....

The big day

Look at the time on this post! I have comandeered the computer at the Brannons' to let you know it is 3:15am and I am about to shower and catch that first Metro train into DC-proper and find myself a spot on the Mall.

Inauguration Day.

3:15am.

It's finally here.

This is so exciting it could not wait until I returned to NC to post.

Wow.

Off to D.C. for the week!

It's off to bed now after a work-related get-together at Natty Greene's. (multiple pints of their hoppy Full Moon Pale Ale plus Jameson's Irish whiskey?....whew.) So the alcohol buzz will help me sleep well for an early morning rise to hit the road with the pooches for yet another DC trip. The focus this time?....the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.

Wow.

Super cool awesome.

Gordonian bloggishness will be sparse for the week until I return to NC, but I assure you a full report will occur ASAP early next week.

Later gators.

Hot Stove: Peter Gammons on the Indians

Ah yes, the venerable Peter Gammons. So knowledgeable and worldly, our nation saw fit to use his likeness on the $20 bill. Really! Take a look at one. His recent report on the off-season moves of my beloved Cleveland Indians ooze with promise. But for some reason, there are too many "if this" and "if that" possibilities to occur before an upcoming dominant season is in order. What do you think?



Still, no matter what, I'll be worshipping at the altar of the Cleveland Indians once again. Go Tribe!

Browns humor

Got this in an email today.

Apparently with the awful Ravens/Steelers championship game this weekend, there was some chatter on cleveland.com about what in the world a Browns fan is to do concerning this terrible matchup. This was posted in some "Comments" section:

Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden and Art Modell are in a room with a Browns fan. The Browns fan has a gun with just two bullets left. What does a true Browns fan do?

Simple: He shoots Modell twice.

Classic.

Go to hell, Art. (Asshole.)

The Reader

It was difficult to find a movie poster online that could be copied on our hard drive, so the book cover plus a film still will have to do. Today's day off cinematic experience? The Reader.

The trailer:


The film begins in 1995, then flashes back to youth in 1958. Young 15-year-old Michael falls into a steamy summer affair with 36-year-old Hanna, and as usual with things hot and flammable, it burns itself out quickly. An interesting twist, Hanna is enamored with Michael's schoolwork and yearns to be read to. So, with each tryst, Michael reads to Hanna from classics of all sorts. By summer's end Hanna is gone, and Michael is left to ponder his novel sexual deflowering for the remainder of his days.

Bump up to 1966, and Michael is in law school in an advanced seminar class. The professor brings the troupe to Berlin to witness a trial of historic proportions. Six women are on trial for being SS guards in World War II and the eventual murder of 300 Jews. Michael's interest is piqued when he hears the name of one of the defendants: Hanna Schmitz.

The gentle lover who longed to be read to was at one time a monster.

This is just not another WWII Nazi film per se. This is a film of innermost secrets. As a young 23-year-old law student, Michael holds a secret that could possibly acquit Hanna of her awful charges. Does he come forward, bringing his own name into an unsettling light? Or does he keep quiet, knowing his silence could sentence his one-time lover to the abyss? The knowledge he holds suddenly makes a lot of sense with his relationship with Hanna. What to do?...

As time goes by, it is 1977 and divorced Michael has lived a life of relative introversion and shyness. The weight of his guilt and shame is a tremendous burden. Upon moving, he organizes his books. Constant daily thinking of the woman who took his virginity becomes too much, and the reader takes up his books once again to send tape recordings of the classics to Hanna in prison. This is his only correspondence with the former Nazi. Until....

Classic German guilt? Self loathing? Maybe. But the underlying point is how many times do humans just follow along and go with the flow; to NOT do what's right because that would cause a ripple in the routine? Hanna could have done the right thing. Michael could have done the right thing.

What would you do?....

A healthy Matinee score here...even with all the soft core porn for the first 45 minutes or so.

The, like, Star Wars Trilogy, or something...

A side-splitting, happiness-inducing video of someone recording their friend who has only seen bits and pieces of the original Star Wars movie trilogy, then trying to explain what happened.

Absolutely classic.

Another gem to assist me in my marital doldrums battle.

Enjoy. It's my day off today, so I'm off to the Bar Planet later.



Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

2009 World Baseball Classic

16 teams. One true "world champion" on the baseball stage.

Australia
Canada
China
Chinese Taipei
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Italy
Japan
Korea
Mexico
Kingdom of the Netherlands
Panama
Puerto Rico
South Africa
United States
Venezuela

This is the 2nd incarnation of this tournament, the first occurring in 2006 with a "final four" of Cuba vs. Dominican Republic, and Japan vs. South Korea, with Japan defeating Cuba to win the inaugural WBC. One team again will survive the tournament and emerge victorious. First Round games in 2009 begin around the world on March 5th: Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto, and San Juan. Then the next round occurs in San Diego and Miami. And finally, the championship bracket occurs at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday March 21-23. Hmmm....my 3-day weekend occurs at that very time. Let's put in for the following Mon-Tue off and see what happens....

What? The time was approved? Are you shitting me? I am, as they say, so THERE!!!!

Tickets for all 3 finals games along the first base line (watch out for wicked line drives), airfare, and a hotel literally 200 yards away from Dodger Stadium are all in hand. A little treat just for me in lieu of the marital strife that is trying to ruin my mindset. What better tonic for me than baseball?

I already have my official WBC Dominican Republic cap for the games. I bought it at mlb.com specifically for the upcoming DR medical mission trip, but it will work just fine for Los Angeles and Dodger Stadium in March. Sure I'll root for the USofA, but my money's on the DR to win the whole thing.

I am so excited!!!!

Foothills Brewing Co.'s YouTube tour

I didn't film this, I just mercilessly culled it from the interwebs.

Jamie brews at my favorite brewpub. Well, my favorite LOCAL brewpub. Great Lakes Brewing in Cleveland takes the all-time honors. Observe where the magic happens....

Final Dominican Republic meeting last night

(I really took that picture. Really. An amateur!)

Our final get-together before our medical mission trip to the DR occurred last night. Final logistical ramblings: getting 1000 pounds of medical equipment down there, having to buy all of our drugs and bring them this time around, where we'll be staying, etc.

The hotel we're staying at in Barahona is different from last year. This year we'll be at a "prettier" spot on the coast, with basically the entire hotel for the 32 of us. Phone service is nil. Um, what? Cell phones won't work where we are and the land line in the hotel office does not work for international calls. Hope nothing awful happens in the states because it will be a circus to get a hold of one of us. Comically, more important than the phone situation, the group wanted to make sure the new hotel will be able to handle and supply us with our vast Presidente beer habit. Nothing beats returning from the mobile clinics all dusty and dirty and sweaty than downing an ice cold Presidente beer or six.

Sadly, some faces will not be making a return trip this go 'round. They will be missed, especially at our late night pow-wows after everybody else has gone to bed. One of their replacements unfortunately has a history of "suck" so that doesn't bode too well for me. However, fraternity brother Duke will be making the trip with me this year, so all will be well. All will be more than well in fact.

Duke and Flash in the Dominican? Watch out. At customs entering the country. we may be over the limit in our declaration of "sarcasm".

Synecdoche, New York

"Everybody's disappointed the more you know someone."

Today's matinee adventure was Charlie Kaufman's latest mind-fuck. The writer who brought you Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind now toys with your synapses with Synecdoche, New York (sin-ECK-duh-key). Two hours and I am spent. My brain hurts.


But first, the trailer:


Wow. Where to begin?

Abstraction, alternate realities overlapping with the current one, wrinkles in the fabric of the time continuum, it's all a little overwhelming. Honestly, I need to see this again to fully absorb it and give an ATTEMPT to understand it fully. And maybe go to the theater absolutely HAMMERED on some chemical indulgence. That may help.

Time is compressed for Philip Seymour Hoffman's sickly character. (Have I ever mentioned PSH is a man-crush?) A week is a year. His seemingly 4-year-old daughter is now 10, then 20. I mean, 3 months elapse just during the opening breakfast scene. Three months!

A playwright who focuses on revivals of already-established plays, he struggles to "make his OWN mark" in the world of theater. Create something truly HIS. After his artistic painter wife leaves him for Germany to make her own mark alone, he manages to win an endowment grant. What to do with the influx of artistic cash? Make the great epic play. And make it before the fates draw him to his grave.

The play grows and confounds you. Actors are characters, the character's actors are involved in the play. Actors who play actors who play actors all "rehearse" life in real-time on a mammoth soundstage replicating real life. Follow me?

Yikes. Basically, PSH's character, in focusing on his OWN story, has an epiphany and comes to realize that EVERYBODY is a leading role in the play of their own lives, and no one is a minor character.

With my own recent tribulations in the field of relationships and love, some elements of the film truly spoke to me. You cannot force someone to love you, force someone to stay. From their perspective, THEY are their own leading role and will leave you at their whim. Their story continues on. Without you if it may.

A soliloquy by a minister on the soundstage mourning the death of a character portraying PSH's role struck a chord. Searching Sony Pictures Classics for the script allows me to share it with you here:

Everything is more complicated than you think. You only see a tenth of what is true. There are a million little strings attached to every choice you make; you can destroy your life every time you choose. But maybe you won't know for twenty years. And you'll never ever trace it to its source. And you only get one chance to play it out. Just try and figure out your own divorce.

And they say there is no fate, but there is: it's what you create. Even though the world goes on for eons and eons, you are here for a fraction of a fraction of a second. Most of your time is spent being dead or not yet born. But while alive, you wait in vain, wasting years, for a phone call or a letter or a look from someone or something to make it all right. And it never comes or it seems to but doesn't really. And so you spend your time in vague regret or vaguer hope for something good to come along. Something to make you feel connected, to make you feel whole, to make you feel loved.

And the truth is I'm so angry and the truth is I'm so fucking sad, and the truth is I've been so fucking hurt for so fucking long and for just as long have been pretending I'm OK, just to get along, just for, I don't know why, maybe because no one wants to hear about my misery, because they have their own, and their own is too overwhelming to allow them to listen to or care about mine.

Well, fuck everybody.

Amen.

Powerfully mesmerizing film. And really an abstraction that I struggle to comprehend. I need to see this again. But even so, the score is a smidge below Full Price, Matinee Plus for me. Maybe when I see it again (and try to follow along a little better) the score may rise.

Pass the aspirin.

Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout release!

Be still my heart! My work schedule actually jives with a local special beer release. Usually when the frivolity occurs, my chain to the pharmacy counter is short. Not this time.

Saturday February 7th.

Foothills Brewing Co. in Winston-Salem, NC.

The Sexual Chocolate Imperial Stout bottle release.

YES! The scoop from Scott the uber-sales guy at Foothills:

Thanks for your interest in Sexual Chocolate Weekend 2009! Foothills Brewing would like to invite all fans of beer--from the casual to the extremely dedicated--to celebrate the release of Sexual Chocolate 2009 on FEBRUARY 7TH @ 11:00AM...

Once again, Foothills would like to invite everyone to PRE-SEX FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6TH beginning at 6pm in the mezzanine at Foothills homebase...Please bring your cellar treasures to share with all...Complimentary hors d'ouerves will be served--as well as a few special brews we've been workin' on! Sexual Chocolate '09 will be tapped Friday afternoon...This preparty was the highlight of the weekend for many of us at Foothills!

Now for the details on the bottle release Saturday morning...

$15 per bottle (don't know who's sayin 20)
NO RESERVING SPACES IN LINE for spouses/friends
Bottle limit is 4, any left--2 per person
Please park on 4th St or in our rear lot on Holly Ave
If you are planning to drink on the street, please be discreet and courteous with empties

In case of rain or extreme cold, lineup will occur inside

In other words, almost the same as last year.. Hope to see as many of you as possible in Winston-Salem...

I always get this chocolatey nectar on-tap at the brewpub, but missed out last year on the bottled version. Tasty stuff! I'm VERY excited.

I'm Not Crying

Ladies and gentlemen, to explain my situation via song, I bring you Jermaine and Bret. The Flight of the Conchords.

Doubt

Saturday March 22, 2008, I saw the play "Doubt" at Triad Stage. It was a masterful performance and honestly one of the best plays we had seen there in quite some time. The original post concerning the theatrical performance was http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2008/03/doubt.html Last night, the cinematic version was the reason for this blog post today. The trailer:



Intense trailer. Sadly, the film did not hold up the intensity for the full 1 hour and 44 minutes. Don't get me wrong, the film was splendidly made, but frankly there were lulls where you could audibly hear the audience fidget in boredom. I was sad. After such a fantastic play, I looked forward to a fantastic film. It was good. It was thought-provoking. It was entertaining. It just didn't captivate me like the play did. Which in the end was odd as playwright John Patrick Shanley actually directed the film himself.

Man-crush Philip Seymour Hoffman was spectacular. Meryl Streep was unflinching as the principal. The subject of the film is not so much priestly infidelities with boys, but rather it makes you think deeply concerning the confrontation of certainty and doubt. Rigorous grips on the constant versus the unknowing detour towards the new. As Hoffman's Father Flynn says in the opening sermon, sometimes doubt creates a stronger bond that certainty.

In many ways indeed.

Score? A stout Matinee rating. Not quite Full Price, there was just something missing...

Milk

"Without hope, life is not worth living."

Sean Penn is really some kind of actor. The spectrum of roles he portrays is mesmerizing: Mystic River, I Am Sam, Dead Man Walking, Carlito's Way, The Falcon and the Snowman, and the eponymous Fast Times at Ridgemont High. His newest film, Milk, was the latest on the docket for Gordonian movie adventures. The trailer:



Harvey Milk, closeted businessman in New York, breaks free to San Francisco in 1970 to freely express his gay lifestyle. Upon coming out of the closet, a riveting urge for political activism also awakens. Multiple failed attempts to secure public office ensue, but with each loss a greater following results. The Castro district of San Francisco becomes a hotbed for gay men and the fight for gay rights. Finally, in 1977 he wins public office, then organizes and energizes the gay community to protest and fight for their civil rights. All the while, anti-gay legislation passes in Florida, Minnesota, and Kansas. When Proposition 6 is on the ballot in California, allowing schools to fire gay teachers or even those who support gay people strictly on the basis of their sexuality, Milk truly works within the political arena (and outside in the protest arena) to make sure the proposition fails. Milk's work succeeds, banning work-based discrimination based on sexual orientation. Sadly, within a year of becoming elected and the subsequent Prop 6 victory Milk, and the mayor of San Francisco, are both shot dead.

A back and forth mix of Milk's tape recorded will ("this tape is to be played only upon the event of my death, especially if by assassination"), archival footage, and a stunning performance by Sean Penn make this film a wonder to behold. Best Actor stamped all over it.

Milk is not a gay-only movie. All orientations can take something away from it. The crusade to fight for your civil rights is close to the heart of any type of oppressed minority. And the discovery of some eye-opening knowledge that the ignorant majority may have previously failed to see is something that can stir debate and instigate discussion. California's recent 2008 Proposition 8 legislation banning gay marriage is a modern parallel to the civil right oppression of 1977. What's old is new again.

Fantastic film. A solid Full Price. Mark it down, Best Actor.

Rename my brewery!

At first, it was messy partial boils on the electric kitchen stove. Then, upgrading to a propane burner, it was (and is) full boils in the garage/driveway. Via either method, 27 batches have been brewed since 2000 under the monikers KC Draught Haus, and then the KC Brew Haus (owing to the fact that no beers were ever on draught). 2008 was indeed a banner year for homebrewing, with a remarkable 13 batches brewed just since July!

Maybe a banner year for brewing, but an awful year for marital bliss. As my close friends are now aware, quite possibly the shittiest weekend of my entire life has just occurred, and as a result there is no reason to continue on with the "K" in the KC Brew Haus name. I believe you could surmise what the K and the C stood for, and the K has horrifically made decisions to no longer be a part of the KC. Consequently, the resulting C Brew Haus just doesn't have a good ring to it. Days of numbing despair have subsided somewhat, but only just ever so slightly as the heart does not heal completely after a blow such as this.

Anyway, I have some ideas, but want to hear yours. Click on the comments link underneath this post (immediately to the right of the Posted by Flash at 10:34pm) and offer your own ideas. Offer more than one if you'd like. One lucky brewery name voted on by the house brewing staff-of-one will usher in a new era of Gordonian homebrewing. The winning name will have an outstanding grand prize consisting of a case of whatever ale style you wish brewed for, and named after, you. Now is your chance to go down in history in my BeerSmith brewing log with a batch named after you.

Some of my own ideas:

- Southern Campaign Brewing Co.
(You know I'm a junkie for revolutionary war general Nathanael Greene history.)

- 408 Brewing Co.
(Shoeless Joe Jackson's 1911 rookie season batting average with the Cleveland Indians; a rookie record that still stands to this day.)

- Blue Darter Brew House
(The nickname given to Shoeless Joe's wicked line drives.)

- Lajoie Brasserie
(Cleveland Indian great Napoleon Lajoie and a Frenchy sounding word for brewery.)

- Wookiee House of Ales
(I'm not explaining this one.)

- Dr. Hans Zarkov's Fermented Beverages
(The slightly mad scientist in the Flash Gordon serials/strips/films/TV shows.)

- Casey's Mudville Carboy House
(An homage to the old "KC", incorporating a love of baseball and the fermentation vessel of choice.)

These are mine. What are yours?

Only 5 people read this blog anyway, so the chances of you winning a case of named-after-you homebrewed beer is insanely high.

Show me how creative you can be. Let this be an interactive blog post. I anxiously await the trickle of responses that will rush in with all the power of a leaky faucet. Let's set a deadline for January 25. With the currently saturated homebrew inventory and an upcoming week spent in Washington, DC for the inauguration, I won't be brewing a new batch until February at the earliest. January 25. Three weeks from tonight. Let's hear those names...

I'll post occasional reminders throughout the month if the votes don't even trickle in. Let's say a minimum of 5 names must be submitted before votes (or rather just my one vote) are cast. And feel free to vote for one of my own ideas, I rather like some of them. A vote for one of mine will still count towards your submission tally.

Good luck!

Midnight toast

Last April during the annual trip to Jacobs Field and Great Lakes Brewing Co. for Cleveland Indians opening day festivities, growlers of their phenomenal Blackout Stout came home to NC. One remained after all this time. It fulfilled its duty quite well for a New Year's midnight pint.

8 months old, and still carbonated like a champ. A touch of oxidation in the flavor, but nothing off-putting. Liter swing-top growlers kick the daylights out of screw-top growlers.

Happy New Year's!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

New Year's Eve. Time for a matinee. The Oscar buzzworthy film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the subject today, based on the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. 2 hours and 48 minutes of Brad Pitt in fantastic makeup from old man to handsome man to young boy. As always, the trailer:


"I was born under unusual circumstances..."

I should say so! The story is told in a hospital as old woman Daisy allows her daughter to read Benjamin's diary so she can know the man who courted her so many years ago. Hurricane Katrina bears down on the hospital, but instead of fleeing, the daughter wishes to say a proper goodbye to her dying mother. So they bond over the readings of the diary, learning (or in the case of the dying woman, revisiting) the life of this odd man.

Born the day The Great War ends in 1918, Benjamin emerges from the womb an old man. As the years progress he becomes YOUNGER. Fraught with the "monster" his wife died delivering, Benjamin's father drops him off on the steps of an old age home, where he is taken in and over the years fits in with the elderly crowd. Benjamin watches the residents die off as he slowly becomes younger.

As children, Benjamin and Alice, the granddaughter of a resident, forge a friendship that lasts over the years. Rites of passage for Benjamin while away seeing the world on a seafaring vessel (first drink, first trip to a brothel, and first affair with a married woman) occur, then Benjamin returns to Louisiana and eventually rekindles his relationship with Alice. Their trajectories are polar opposites: Alice grows older, Benjamin grows younger. Eventually they "meet in the middle" and consummate their relationship. A child of their own is brought to bear, and Benjamin is torn with the fact that Alice would now have to care for TWO children as she ages. Distraught by this fact, Benjamin leaves to grow younger and eventually die. The pair's relationship comes full circle as they both end up in the very old age home where they met: Alice as old woman, and Benjamin as youngster and finally a dying infant.

The mortality of life takes center stage here. Not a cautionary tale, but rather one of introspection. What does it mean to grow old? How does one face their own mortality? How do relationships evolve during the aging process?

A few slow spots as we see 17-year-old Benjamin take to the high seas, but once we get through those scenes the film picks up again and it is truly a delight.

Long, but The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a solid Full Price.

This post is solely to get the dander up for fraternity brother Bones

Jealous?

That is all.

Maple Pumpkin Ale v.2.0

Maple Pumpkin Ale
Brewday info posted August 20, 2008: http://thehouseofgordon.blogspot.com/2008/08/maple-pumpkin-ale.html

Maple Pumpkin Ale v.2.0
Brewed December 27, 2008.

Both were pumpkin beers brewed with actual pumpkin. The caramelized flesh gives some fermentables to the homebrewing process, and the gourd's innards supply actual, gasp!, pumpkin flavor to the finished product. Some pumpkin ales call themselves that due to their spicing. It tastes like pumpkin pie. You could achieve that by brewing an auburn-colored pale ale and adding appropriate spice and nothing more. Me? I went for actual bona fide pumpkin in my homebrewed beer.

MPA Version 1 was brewed way ahead of time in August. The amount of time required for the solids to settle out was incredible. One week in primary fermentation, transfer to secondary for one week, then transfer yet another time to sit for 2 weeks. Then, allow it to sit in the bottle and carbonate for 2 to 3 weeks. An August brew for an October consumption.

It was a winner within our circle here. A tasty libation that many were unaware was a homebrewed concoction. Seriously. It was a staple at sunny autumn Sundays for Browns games, and the last bit of it was saved for Thanksgiving get-togethers.

For Christmas? No more to be had.

This was an outrage. How could this nectar be no more? Surely something could be done about it! Surely the brewer could be enticed to brew another batch out of season. The brewer REALLY wasn't going to wait until August 2009 to brew another batch, right?

Rules are meant to be broken. Maple Pumpkin Ale v.2.0 will indeed be ready for drinking in February 2009, the perfect month methinks for a pumpkin ale.

I won't re-post the recipe here. You can see it in the original August 2008 post. Minor modifications to v.2.0 include:
- 5 cans of pumpkin instead of 4 were caramelized
- more maple syrup now: 8 oz at 90 minutes, 8 oz at 20 minutes, and 4 oz at 2 minutes
- 8 gallons of water boiled to compensate for the liquid loss due to pumpkin absorption
- California Ale yeast WLP001 used instead of American Ale yeast WLP060

A full diary is to be seen with each Flickr photo over on our Flickr account, but for the purposes here on the HofG, here are some pics:

Maxie Gordon. Hooligan.

Nothing is safe under the tree. Nothing. Chewable heroin, um, I mean, Snausages were the most sought-after treat to tear open while the humans were away. She would not be deterred.


Immediately upon this garish discovery, the most common nickname for Maxie is uttered with contempt and maybe just a little bit of pride: Maxie Damn Doodle.....

December 24, NPR Morning Edition - Christmas beers

4 minutes and 36 seconds of beer geekiness heard on NPR just this morning:
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=98621620&m=98674073

Christmas Beer Yields Christmas Cheer
by Neda Ulaby
Morning Edition, December 24, 2008 ·

Consider the libations of the season: Spiked eggnog. Mulled wine. What about a nice frosty Christmas beer?

What might have seemed terribly declasse just a few years ago is now a full-fledged trend, thanks to the past decade's explosion of fine craft beers. At Tria, a Philadelphia bar known for its meticulously curated beer and wine lists, a half-dozen winter or holiday beers can be sampled.

The beers range from the Sly Fox Christmas Ale, brewed in nearby Royersford, Pa., to the potent Scaldis Prestige from Belgium, which might be the most expensive beer in the world. (It costs about $350 a case; a 5-ounce pour at Tria will set a person back $11.)

On a recent nippy December evening, Don Russell — better known as "Joe Sixpack" — hosted a Tria happy hour dedicated to Christmas beer. Russell is a former investigative reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News who now writes a popular weekly beer column.

Russell explains that Christmas beer has a reputation for big, malty, spicy flavors, but it comes in hundreds of variations. He urges doubters to experiment with the Dupont Avec Les Bon Voeux ("an awesome holiday ale") and the De Struise Tsjeeses (a cult beer created by a couple of Belgian jokesters whose playfully sacrilegious label had to be toned down for the U.S. market).

After making the rounds — and flogging his new Christmas Beer book — Russell hops in a cab with Tria co-owner Jon Myerow and sets off for the School of Fermentation. Originally started to instruct Tria's servers in the subtleties of the cafe's various beers and wines, the school is now open to the public.

A sold-out classroom awaits Russell's evening seminar on Christmas beer. Russell explains that Christmas beer predates Christmas. For millennia, he says, farmers around the globe marked the winter solstice by brewing particularly potent beer, heavy with fruit and grain.

His discourse touches on the ancient Egyptians, Saturnalia, the wassail tradition and St. Nicholas. Russell says Christmas beers have been common among small European brewers ever since the Middle Ages, but he credits San Francisco's Anchor Steam for reinventing Christmas beer for the contemporary market.

The class tastes a number of Christmas beers, including Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome Ale, and Samichlaus, from Austria. Russell says it's brewed just one day a year in a huge batch.

"They actually have a Mass to bless the beer," he said. "There's a chapel in the brewery, and they have a priest come in."

Russell has one suggestion for those looking to add a little religious pluralism to their holiday tippling: Try HeBrew Jewbelation from Shmaltz Brewing Co.

A recent industry study shows that beer sales are up and wine sales are down — a finding that makes plenty of sense to Russell. Beer, he says, is recession's champagne.

Following the story, listed on the NPR website, a Christmas beer Top Ten....

10 Christmas Beers, From Soup To Nuts
by Don Russell

Smuttynose Winter Ale (New Hampshire), a sweet dark beer with notes of cherry and chocolate. Pair with snapper soup.

Stille Nacht (Belgium), a sweet, very strong pale ale. Pair with a washed-rind cheese such as Limburger.

Troegs Mad Elf (Pennsylvania), a strong dark ale brewed with cherries and honey. Pair with bacon quiche.

Mahr's Christmas Bock (Germany), a classic, malty Bavarian bock. Pair with a sausage plate.

Anchor Our Special Ale (California), a spiced winter warmer with a spruce aroma. Pair with cranberry salad.

Samuel Smith's Winter Welcome (England), a classic unspiced winter warmer with mellow roasted malt. Pair with roasted turkey.

Anderson Valley Winter Solstice (California), a spiced winter warmer with warming vanilla notes. Pair with pumpkin pie.

Baladin Noel (Italy), a Belgian-style strong dark ale with a vibrant, spicy yeast character. Pair with those red-and-green-wrapped Hershey kisses.

Samichlaus (Austria), a smooth, brandylike triple bock. Pair with a cigar next to the fireplace.

Gouden Carolus Noel (Belgium), a strong dark ale spiced with herbs. Pair with salted pecans.

December 23rd - Happy Festivus!

A Festivus for the rest of us!



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus

Thai Massamun Curry

(blogger's note: James in Alexandria will officially go bonkers over this recipe)

One of our favorite haunts is Greensboro's Taste of Thai restaurant. A staple? Massamun Curry. A yummy dish of coconut, peanut, and potato with chicken over rice. Outstanding. In a fit of experimentation, I searched online for some recipes, then found what I believe to be a fair representation of the dish.

Literally a block down the street from my pharmacy is the Dynasty International Food and Gifts grocery store specializing in Vietnamese and Thai items. After work one day I stopped in to acquire the specialty ingredients...and spent a whopping $3.63 in doing so. Crazy.

3 chicken breasts, massamun curry paste, 2 cans of coconut milk, two potatoes, one yellow onion, brown sugar, lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes, 1/2 cup peanuts, and the kicker...fish sauce.





Basically, mix all of these together at intervals and simmer. Easy. And delicious. Add a bowl-shaped mound of rice onto a plate then spoon the goodies onto it, and the flavor of Taste of Thai can be had at home. Minus the entertaining idolatry.

Kimberly remarked how much it looks, smells, and IS the real deal from the restaurant. A quality experiment and a successful rip-off if I do say so.

Now what to do with all this extra fish sauce?....

Holiday season Hungarian Nut Roll

Every Christmas I make, if I do say so myself, some astounding nut roll. An old Hungarian recipe is used, however I use a Kitchen-Aid mixer and not my hands to mix this sticky dough. Every time I make this, I marvel at the fact that my Hungarian godmother would make these with only her hands time and time again.

In order to share this goodness with the world, I am here to post the recipe and the step-by-step instructions. You'll thank me.

Sprinkle one packet of bread yeast into 1/4 cup lukewarm water with 1 teaspoonful of brown sugar and let multiply.

Mix 6 cups (that is not a typo: SIX cups) flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 cup sugar.

Cut in two sticks of butter a la pie dough. Mix in 3 eggs, 1 cup of milk, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 2 teaspoonfuls vanilla. Add yeast.

Allow the dough to rise in a quiet, warm spot until doubled. Then chill overnight.

Make the filling with two pounds of ground walnuts, 8 whipped egg whites plus 1 cup sugar until soft peaks form, 1 teaspoonful cinnamon, and 2 tablespoonfuls honey.

This recipe makes THREE nut rolls, so divide the dough and filling into three. Roll out the dough and spread your filling.

Roll and prick the top with a fork with each roll to vent. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. And if you want, do what I do and go overboard and make THREE batches, which equates to NINE nut rolls. NINE. (With enough extra trimmed dough to make a TENTH...experimentally using pecans on that one).


Delicious.

2008 version of our live tree

The plan was to ride out to Boone and/or Blowing Rock, NC on Saturday, December 13 to acquire our Christmas tree from the "farm". Throw the Cherokee into 4WD and head up the mountain.

Change of plans.

Kimberly returned home late, late, late Friday evening the 12th from, GROAN, yet another political fundraiser. So late in fact that she slept until noon on Saturday. NOON, I say. Which in the grand scheme of things was OK as I had some live online Continuing Education programs to listen to that morning in order to renew my license. So when she woke up....headache. Come on!!! It's our only chance to nab a tree! Our only mutual weekend day off in eons! Headache.

Grumble frigging grumble.

So anyway, once the pain relievers do their job, and a shower is had, we run and do all of our Christmas shopping in one fell swoop. Done. Easy. Well, the shopping anyway that we supplemented our German souvenirs with. On the way home, in the dark of night, we stopped at the empty lot 0.5 mile away from home at the nearest corner to our house and nabbed a tree. Some A Christmas Story scene reminiscing occurred, but no haggling was in fact needed...although they did tie it to the Jeep for free.

We have a tree. A mountain tree without the trip to the mountains. Anti-climactic if you ask me, but what are you gonna do?

And speaking of German souvenirs, an authentic Steinbach nutcracker adorns one of the end tables. You may know of my unnatural fascination with nutcrackers, so a trip to Germany (the land of Christmas decor) to bring home a way cool nutcracker occurred. A Steinbach was almost purchased last year at a Washington, DC ballet performance of The Nutcracker, but the asking price was $500. I passed. Needless to say, one purchased this past September in Germany proper was much, much cheaper....if you ignore the flight and travel costs...

Dave Matthews Band tour

OK, so I'm a member of the Dave Matthews Band fanclub, "The Warehouse". Their concerts kick some serious ass. The jams and riffs and improvisations are spectacular. Songs that take 12 minutes to complete? Awesome. Second-hand marijuana smoke? Sure, I'll take it.

So anyway, they're coming out on tour this spring supporting a new CD. Locally! Or should I say, "locally"? Outdoor arenas in Charotte and Raleigh. Me? Well hell, I'll put my name into the fan club lottery for primo pavillion tickets for both.

Wednesday April 22 in Raleigh.
Friday April 24 in Charlotte.

Put in for both. It coincides with work schedules as I work 8-4 each day. I am so, as they say, "there".

For both.

Kick ass.

Bittersweet though as these will be the first North Carolina concerts since the death of Leroi Moore, the uber-horn player, whether it be sax, trumpet, horn, whatever. It will be emotional to see who takes on the torch of DMB horns. I for one am just glad they're trudging on and going forward after his tragic death.

Who else sings about the plight of Native Americans and their removal from tribal lands? Seriously. "All I can say, to you my new neighbor, is you must move on or I will bury you.....Don't drink the water, there's blood in the water." (Appropriate the YouTube snapshot below shows Leroi bellowing on his sax...)


Giddy.

The official word hits the street in early January. Can't wait to hear where my seats are...

Christmas dreams DO come true

Citizen Kane

I usually only review current films seen in the theater. But I finally watched a film last night on Turner Classic Movies recorded eons ago on our DVR that merits attention.

Citizen Kane.



Wow. Why did I wait so long to see this?

The 1941 film concerns the rise of newspaper mogul Charles Foster Kane: from simple upbringing in cold Colorado, to boarding school eastward, to newspaper mogul, to failed governor's candidate, to failed marriage, to a lonely death in an unfinished mansion. The film begins with Kane's dying last word, "Rosebud", then sets off a moviereel about his life. The story then crisscrosses acquaintances and friends and lovers to try and unwrap the mystery of the media man's dying word. Who, or what, is Rosebud? What would make him utter such a term with his last breath?

You witness the ambition. You see the power. You observe the man attempting to mold others into not what they want, but rather what HE thinks they want. You see the man, success in the eyes of others but methinks a failure in his own heart, yearn for that return to innocence before the wildly flamboyant ride he lived. A yearning for Rosebud, when all was safe and carefree.

The film, for 1941 or any age for that matter, depicts vivid scene framing. The foreground, the background, the lighting, the dark shadows, the fact that you never see the face of the primary interviewer who traverses the country searching for answers. all these intermingle and weave a film that unlike any other just leaps from the screen.

#1 on the American Film Institute's list of all-time best movies? I would heartily concur. I would venture to say I would even purchase this on DVD to watch over and over again. It was that good, and worthy of the hype.

A solid Full Price.

Spicy Chicken Corn Chowder

I love chowder.

New England Clam and any sort of Corn will suffice. (But screw that unnatural Manhattan!)

After my trip to Williams-Sonoma yesterday, with frankly the sole purpose of buying a soup cookbook, I gathered the ingredients and threw together the Spicy Corn Chowder in the book. Now if you know me, I cannot just follow along, I must individualize it. It needs chicken. Dammit, it needs chicken. So, during my barbecued turkey breast smoking whilst brewing beer, I threw on two chicken breasts for the soup.

The goods: one yellow onion, one jalapeno, two potatoes, one stalk of celery (I despise celery, and the fact that you HAVE to buy it in huge stalks annoys me, so I used one teaspoonful of ground celery seed instead), one teaspoonful of roasted minced garlic (found in those tiny jars), 4 cups of milk, 1 cup of heavy cream, three cups of corn, 3 strips of bacon, and a sprinkling of red pepper flakes. Oh yeah, and those two cooked chicken breasts.

In a food processor, pulse the quartered yellow onion, the seeded jalapeno, the celery seed, and the roasted minced garlic:

Cut the strips of bacon then crisp it for 5 minutes max in the large soup pot (mmmm, and it's the double smoked thick bacon from the German Gourmet in Alexandria, VA too):

Remove the bacon then saute the onion/jalapeno/celery/garlic in the bacon grease for a few minutes to brown it up.

Add the peeled potatoes (cubed bite size), cooked chicken (cut bite size), milk, and heavy cream. Bring to a boil then cut the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-tender.

Now add the bacon and the corn. All that delicious corn. That succulent corn. That orgasmic corn.

Simmer it for 5 more minutes or until the corn is tender. Then, with a slotted spoon, remove two cups/16oz/5oomL of solids. With an immersion blender, a regular blender, or a food processor, puree these solids well. Reintroduce the puree to the pot and add the red pepper flakes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then just continue to simmer until it's serving time. It will indeed need some salt, how much is up to you. Tasting it before any S&P, I thought it just needed a little "boost".

Holy crap. Delicioso. And relatively quick to prepare. A new Gordonian staple. The jalapeno gives a bit of insidious heat in the throat. Nothing overtly HOT, but you know it's there. If you're adverse to a warm mouth and gullet, I suppose you could eliminate the jalapeno, or go with a milder heat pepper. Me? This rocks as it is.

Try it.

And in the immortal words of Lois Griffin, "Who wants chowder?"

Canadienne Bière Brassée dans le Garage

Hey look! The sawhorses are out and there are plumes of smoke streaming from the smoker. Chris must have a day off or something. Canadienne Bière Brassée dans le Garage was brewed up today, a hunk of turkey breast was smothered in barbecue sauce and smoked, and two chicken breasts were smoked for addition in a new soup. More on the soup in the following post. But for now, the beer session...

Literally, via iGoogle's translation tool, the beer means "Canadian beer brewed in the garage". Novel. A trip to Triad Homebrew Supply yielded a perusal of the pre-packaged kits they have. One, "Canadian Ale" caught my eye for whatever reason so it came home with me. Brewed in the vein of "eastern Canada and Quebec" style. None of this Saskatchewan crap here! BJCP lists commercially available styles as Labatt Canadian Ale and, one of the muses (besides Canadian prog-rock band Rush on the iPod) for today's brew session, Molson Golden:
Yes, I will in fact occasionally drink a yellow mass-produced beer.

The recipe:

(no steeping grains this time!)

3.3 lb Light Liquid Malt Extract (LME)
5 lb Extra Light Dry Malt Extract (DME)

1 oz Willamette hops, 5.8% alpha acid at 60 minutes
1 oz Willamette hops, 5.8% AA at 5 minutes

1 Whirlfloc tablet at 15 minutes to clarify

WLP001 California Ale yeast

The kit only came with 2 lb of DME, but me, not one to sit idly by when there's recipe tinkering to be done, added an extra 3 lb bag of DME.

Done. Easy. And quick. No waiting for the water temp to hit 150-156 degrees to steep grains for 20 minutes, then re-heating to boiling. Add water, begin heating, add LME and DME, then hit boiling in one fell swoop.

The yeast starter in the growler took off this time for whatever reason. Past photos here show a layer of yeast settling to the bottom and then it froths up when shaken. This time? Huge ass frothing. Observe. One good shake before work, then 8 hours later I come home to this:

That's 8 hours+ of sitting. No shaking. Email correspondence with Ken at Triad Homebrew (including photos) settled my mind when he told me that everything looks good. Whew...

So now it sits in the Fermentation Center, ahem, the downstairs bath, beside the freshly dry-hopped Centennial Madness.

And did I mention I smoked some meat too (non-sexually)?

Mmmmm....fire.....