Boomer Finger-pointery

Even though this place is named after Generation X, I really do not directly yap that much about demographics (as it is all so deeply implicit) but this piece in the BBC caught my attention with its accusations of bad boomery:

Baby boomers like to trumpet their generation’s achievements. But their fondness for conspicuous consumption and foreign travel has led to many a modern-day ill, from rising debt to environmental destruction. This week, former US President Bill Clinton – perhaps the archetypal baby boomer – turns 60.

Great. So they now are turning 60 and get all the attention never mind that they sucked it up at 30, 40 and 50 already. Sooner or later there will be the second Gen X headline floating around but it will be something like “Last Gen Xer Likely Dead At 103…Maybe”.

Off-line-ish

As a result of the move, the same service has gone from solidly consistent to patchy.   No high-speed for the last 24 hours.   But maybe I bought the whole life package – so Bell Sympatico high-speed is reminding me there are other things in life.   So, thank you Bell Sympatico high-speed.  

I wonder if StatsCan check on the number of people cursing the dead screen as part of their internet stats update.

Is Rock Dead?

Thankfully, I no longer have to worry about what the young kids are listening to as I have reached an age where I am confident that I have experienced throughout the years of my life the very apex of rockdom. Yet it is still disconcerting to read this:

“It’s not trendy enough to do guitar solos,” suggests Mike McCready, lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. “Maybe people aren’t writing songs that they think need guitar solos, or people are telling them not to do that. I want them to come back.”

This is a dull musical era. There is no doubt about that. We all wait for the next wave of ska. We wait for the next garage band movement. In the interim, you might suggest the best guitar or, if ska related, trombone solo we might find comfort with until that good day comes.

Update of Reflection: do you really need another post today when the very existence of rock is the question? I think not.

My Cat Appears To Be Malfunctioning


“Explain myself? I don’t have to frikkin’ explain myself…I’m a cat!”

As far as I can tell, I think there are humans on one side of the line and then there are plants and animals on the other. Our cats were mousers. They were brought in for a job and when we moved three and a half years ago to a mouse-free lifestyle, the cats found a way into the luggage. They are pushing seven now and life most early middle agers are starting to show signs…even leak once in a while.

When we first moved we deal with his 12th floor anxiety and a vet prescribed a buck a day kitty-valium. And the other one, the she, proved the old joke “When is a cat like a dog – when she is a bitch”. We bought catnip instead. Kept them stoned until the angstity one straightened out a bit. Now we have another problem and I am bracing for the “overnight stay” recommendation. I wonder if that will trigger the big needle response. Don’t get me wrong, this is a pretty good cat as cats go. The only trouble is he goes all over the place…no, that is unfair – he goes where it is most distasteful. That is a skill.

But I have standards. I will not have a cat that wears a diaper. I will not pay $500 buck. There are too many young cats in the minor leagues waiting for their break.

Delaware: Golden Shower, Dogfish Head, Milton

An imperial pilsner. This is a sort of beer I never imagined I would need to concern myself with. Unlike stouts or pale ales with their history of bigness, surely no one would bother upping the game of brewing the steely king of lagers. No one told Dogfish Head from Delaware, however, and they went ahead and did it as they tell you about at no lack of length on their website, including this:

The big breweries are as guilty of any company in any industry of brainwashing the consumer through the sheer oppressive magnitude and breadth of their marketing efforts. They are selling a brand name and an image with such zeal that they have forgotten about the product behind all of this horseshit and hyperbole – the beer itself. Dogfish Head Golden Shower is the beer itself. A true Pilsner brewed with 100% Pilsner Barley, and impressively hopped using our self-developed continuing-hopping method. At 9% abv it’s also nearly twice as strong as the American, wanna-be pilsners made by the big boys.

If you have read my reviews here before you know I have questions about my relationship with pilsners. I respect the fact as much as the next guy that it is a noble and traditional style but then there is that metallic zing…or is it a zang…that fills my mouth as if I was chewing a quarter pound of four penny nails that have been laying around the shed. So I approach this beer with some trepedation. And some of the low rating BAer reviews are backing that up – like this one:

…Not drinkable at all. Really sad for such a great brewery. I dumped the remainder of my $12 bottle in the toilet, where it belongs. Don’t waste your money on this golden shower…

Yikes. I only paid $8.99 for mine but still. Intersting to note, however, that the highest BA raters consider many of the same elements but like them. I don’t know what to expect now.

The beer pours a very attractive bright burnished gold with a white head that resolves to a rim what with the low carbonation. When you shove your nose into the glass there is plenty of sweet apple and pear concentrate. The first thing I think of when I sipped was triple. It is sort of like a Belgian triple – candy-ish sweetness and all – but also with a fall fruit aspect like calvados. It is also thickish and does not have the overly metallic hop profile I feared – the hops are tightly herbal as much as anything. In fact, it is far more pale malty than anything else. And that is a remarkably well hidden 9%. The beer is not hot in the mouth but it certainly does warm otherwise.

Where does this beer fit in? It is a near neighbour to Belgian golden strong ales like Duval or triples like Chimay Cinq Cents with the white label – but without the bubble gum or candy floss notes Belgian candi sugar provides. A beer to contemplate the coming autumn. A beer to eat apple pie and vanilla ice cream along with, oddly enough. It would be interesting to have this beer condition in a wood cask as there is that butter and/or vanilla richness that could be umphed one notch for experimental purposes.

Friday Chat From The New HQ

A while ago I wondered about the point when a move is really made as opposed to finished. Turns out it is not the beds or the telephone but the stuff on the walls. As soon as you put the framed stuff up, your interior is yours. Forget about the TV. That just costs you an hour of sleep and night.

  • And speaking of losing sleep, if the Red Sox lose both the AL East and the wildcard and miss the playoffs blame this week. They have gone 1 out of 6 against Tampa and KC, two teams who are a combined 57 games back. This is a complete embarassment.
  • We forget sometimes that in all the concerns of the day that there are still the legacies of the last sentury to deal with including Conrad Black. Apparently he has to find more money to give the court confidence he will show up:

    Conrad Black’s bail was raised Thursday by another $1-million (U.S.) in cash, but the erstwhile media baron managed to score one important legal victory: His wife won’t be forced to reveal her financial affairs under oath.

    An interesting morality play.

  • Personally, I avoid technologies that make me feel like I am going to be sick – parachutes, roller coasters and Imax.
  • I find it odd that I am not entirely caught up with the liquid bomb story. I think Al Queda has lost me thanks to the skill of the British police’s anti-terrorism unit. I do not assume all will be well. But they are pretty good at making sure all is well. Maybe Al Queda will be content with reverse psychology as its resources thin and its manpower fades.

Must make coffee. Maybe more later. What stories are you following anyway?

Beer In Japan

I saw this short but somewhat jam-packed story on beer culture in Japan today during my sweep of the entire internet¹ for new amazing tales of beer:

After-hours beer binges are a mainstay of corporate communication between salarymen, bosses and business partners. Red-faced executives, their neckties yanked open to one side, are a fixture of late night train stations. Beer girls with “backpack kegs” rush down the aisles at baseball stadiums to refill fans’ cups. And though the official drinking age is 20, nearly anyone with enough spare change can buy a cold brew at beer vending machines.

Sounds like a land gone mad but I wonder how a Japanese paper might sum up Canadian beer culture in a couple of paragraphs – how would a sports bar fill of people sucking on pitchers look, all staring at the same big screen TV? Or the imaginary line at the doors of bars beyond which beer cannot be carried? Or having to buy it only at the government store or other legally authorized monopoly.

¹ OK, I use Google News like everyone else but the effect is entirely the same as it I had swept of the entire internet for new amazing tales of beer.

Angstity Beer Blogging

The good guys at Beer Advocate posted this…

First, we hate blogs as much as  this guy. (Actually … we hate blogs more.) That’s why this is not a blog.

…and then proceeded to announce their new blog…which isn’t a blog…yet works exactly like a blog. This is good and will likely be a great read and place to comment on thoughts from the Alström brothers about beer culture. But it is a blog.