dionne found the funniest damn SNL clip and threw it up on her blog. it's a rap video called "lazy sunday." i think we watched it like five times in a row last night. i laughed so hard i almost pissed myself.
well, the indianapolis colts finally lost today, meaning football fans will go yet another year without seeing a team finish 16-0 (the colts made it as far as 13-0 before the san diego chargers beat them this afternoon). anyway, you'll undoubtedly hear many references to the 1972 miami dolphins (the only undefeated team in modern NFL history) and the oft-repeated story that the living members all get together and pop champagne to celebrate the last undefeated team's loss. i heard an espn anchor make a reference to this just a few days ago. well, in reality, it's just an urban legend. don shula himself has said he'd be the first to call the coach of that undefeated team and congratulate him. so if you hear someone mention champagne and the '72 dolphins, tell him or her that it's just a tall tale.
you may have heard about this, but the ultra-connected investment company The Carlyle Group is the major investor in the acquisition this week of Dunkin' Donuts. the carlyle group of course appeared unflatteringly in "Farenheit 9/11", but more specifically, it's the company founded by people very, very closely connected to the white house, major fortune 500 boards and the council on foreign relations. i don't mean to sound like a tin foil hat-wearing loon, but i don't like this. when you control the nation's coffee supply, you control the nation! if i'm on the trilateral commission or a member of the illuminati (like tupac!), then i'm thinking of slipping some kind of mind-altering chemical in the coffee... something to make us docile!
the great blog daily kos thankfully has a whole page devoted to the subject. in the meantime, i'm making my own coffee!
slate has a nifty little story about the film "layer cake" today. it's about cockney ganster films and why they seem to do so well on DVD, but not in theaters. apparently, people like to be able to rewind scenes a few times to pick up extra bits of that jumbled mess of english language. i think people just have a hard time finding movie houses near them that show these flicks. but what do i know...
i do know that the straight up smoothest, most sophisticated cockney gangster flick of all time would have to be "gangster no. 1" starring paul bettany and malcolm mcdowell. this one is just buttery smooth. the gangsters just have strut and style that makes this film so alluring. 
for those of you not prone to following such trivial or not-so-trivial things, the indianapolis colts are 12-0 in this NFL season, meaning they need four more wins to attain the perfect 16-0 season. no team has ever gone 16-0, although the 1972 Dolphins were a perfect 13-0. i keep asking people if they'd rather see their team go 16-0 or win the super bowl. so far everyone i know has said something like, "all that matters is winning the super bowl." but they say it in this sort of zombie-like way... like they've been indoctrinated by years of NFL marketing. my point: the 16-0 season is a far bigger feat. you may not remember who won the super bowl in 1998, but the first 16-0 season will not be so easily forgotten. a writer at slater had many of the same ideas on this question.
brewing update...
wow it's been a busy two weeks. last weekend jay and i bottled the IPA and racked the porter to secondary. we have REALLY high hopes for the porter, which used a very good liquid yeast strain and lots of specialty grains like chocolate malt (it doesn't actually have chocolate in it, it's basically a slightly roasted barley malt), black patent malt and roasted barley. should be scrumdiddlyumcious.
so the IPA has been in bottles for a week now. i couldnt' resist trying one today while watching the pittsburgh steelers pathetically lose to the cincinatti bengals. it was only slightly carbonated and the maltiness really hasn't coalesced yet, but it has a VERY interesting hoppy flavor to it (we used centennial hops, which are very bitter) and it was just a beautiful color... bright gold and very clear. this is gonna be a good beer, but it's not there yet.
yesterday we bottled the porter. should be so good. i can't wait to try it. we also decided to brew our fifth batch, a basic english bitter (albeit with american hops). we used just basic malt extract and crystal malt (which gives it a nice amber/brown color and plenty of sweetness and a combination of amarillo hops (a very new and trendy hop variety) and mt. hood (a classic pacific nw aroma hop). the best part was that we reused the london ale yeast from the porter. jay checked on it today and said the thing was churning and foaming like crazy. check out da video.
sorry for the lack of posts lately. i've been a bit distracted lately with work and all sorts of other stuff. to update everyone who i haven't talked to in the past few weeks, here's the scoop:
di and i are having a "70s-themed" christmas party at our house on dec. 17. should be a good time. we're gonna have fondue, lots of disco music and cocaine. mounds and mounds of the fine colombian. ok. everything but the cocaine part is true. we've also got the house all decorated with a christmas tree (fake) and plenty of lights. the cat likes to go after the ornaments. (yes! shiny round things!)
at the end of the month dionne and i are going to visit her parents in their new home in nashville, tenn. they just moved there from lakeland, fla. should be fun. pretty much her whole family will be there. this would have had me nervous a few years back, but at this point, we're all on extremely familiar terms. (basically, they know how crazy i am.)
we're going to probably leave on friday morning the 23rd and make the drive straight down there. should be fun.
graceland here we come....
di's parents just moved to nashville from florida. we're gonna drive down there to visit them. unfortunately, my car is a stick shift... and di refuses to learn how to drive it. that means 17 straight hours of driving for me. and i hate driving! fortunately, di's mom (the world's greatest cook) said that if it drive, she'll cook whatever I want when i'm down there. that means i get to at least pig out on oxtail, lamb curry, rice and peas and her special sweet-and-sour chinese-style meatballs. i can't wait.
jay and i bottled the IPA yesterday and racked the porter to secondary. we also saved the yeast from the porter batch to re-pitch into our next batch. we're probably going to use that yeast for another batch... some type of english ale (maybe a bitter or ESB). right now the yeasties are hibernating in a sanitized jug in jay's fridge. sleep well little yeasties.
i think this story might have some legs... apparently a memo has surfaced that shows bush considered bombing the al jazeera cable network earlier this year. (thanks to keagan for the tip.)
Da Brewery is up and running. check out the website jay is buildingto document our homebrewing adventures. it's still a work in progress, but stay tuned. we'll probably have pictures up soon.
the beer goggle effect has finally een researched. there's actually a mathematical formula to determine the extent of the beer google effect... it involves coefficients and multiplications of factors such as amount of alcohol consumed, smokiness of the bar or club you're in, etc.
there's a brewery in belgium called A Chouffe, click here to hear its theme song. i think it was performed by multilingual brewing elves.
any out there looking to run an authentic english pub out there should come see me. you bring the capital. i bring the management know-how and killer people skills. let's make this happen people!
jay and i brewed again on sunday... which provided a welcome respite from the horrible season the eagles are having (they lost another humiliating game to the giants that day). anyway, we ended up brewing James Bond Porter (an english-style porter, for lack of a better name) and transferring batch #3, Badass IPA into the other carboy for its secondary fermentation/conditioning.
anyway, we're really optimistic about both of these beers. the porter will be great, we hope. for this batch we used a combination of malt extract, chocolate malt, roasted barley and black patent malt to give the wort a nice black color. then we added fuggles hops for bittering and two additions of east kent goldings hops for bittering and aroma.
we also used a liquid yeast... white labs WLP013 London Ale, which should give the beer a nice "english" character and complexity. we also did our first yeast starter, which is the process of adding the yeast ahead of brewing day to a small wort, which allows the viable yeast cells to multiply and results in a better fermentation. it must've worked, because when i talked to jay yesterday, he said the porter was bubbling away like mad.
there's even the possibility that we might go for batch 5 right away. we might actually repitch more wort right on top of the yeast cake from the porter. yeast are living critters, so as long as they're still viable, you can reuse the same batch of yeast for multiple beer batches. professional brewers some times reuse a yeast cake as many as 10 times before pitching fresh yeast.
sorry for the lack of blogging lately. things have just been kind of hectic lately.
i posted a week or so ago about my search for new sneakers. damn i love sneakers -- the more retro the better. i ended up picking out a pair of blue ponys. pony is a brand that, like kangaroo and saucony, really nose-dived after the 80s. but they re-issued a bunch of old shoes recently and they definitely look good.
here's a poem that britney spears (aka mrs. kevin federline) posted on her website recently. It's about their honeymoon. I think she's this generation's robert frost, frankly.
A honeymoon at last, to get away from it all
My assistant Fe gave me the call.
I remember it well, as she was smilin'
She said it was called Turtle Island.
I packed my bags light and quick,
Then grabbed my pink dress & favorite lipstick.
We hopped on a plane and took our flight
I slept really well, all through the night.
As we arrive, I turn and look out the door,
People are greeting us right at the shore.
A meal, a shower and some ice cream
Then I threw my man down, you know what I mean!
Magical nights filled with stars
Silence is golden, no running cars.
Private dinners, romantic fires
Little piece of heaven, whatever your heart desires.
Friendly "hellos" and never goodbyes
When you're having fun, oh, how time flies!
As we sit and prepare to make our part
I thank you, Turtle Island, with all my heart!
~ Britney
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