Here is a fascinating article about the future of beer in America, making an analogy to the history of the wine market. We can only hope the author's predictions come to pass.

In the spirit of Jake putting up old pictures, here is a vintage one of him from Jan. 8, 2000:

Miller Brewing Co. patented bland beer. No joke:

"...there is a substantial number of persons who presently do not drink beer because they dislike its characteristic taste. These persons are potential consumers of a bland beer."

"These persons" should stick to Boone's Farm.

I'll take the 40" canvas version in the Da Vinci Gold frame, please.

Don't make Ann or I angry: "Left-handed people may be better equipped for close range mortal combat than those who rely on their right hands, according to researchers."

This is the ultimate in hypocrisy.

This is about the extent of my attention span for the internet right now, but it's really funny: Iraq Adopts Terror Alert System.

Baby's here!

Ann and I saw Sideways tonight - probably our last date for a while. Good movie - a 40-something Swingers is probably the best way to describe it. Not quite as funny, though.

The Sports Guy has a cartoon! It's pretty funny.

Also - a throne made of AOL CDs. Why didn't I think of that?

Jeff Tweedy is great:

A piece of art is not a loaf of bread. When someone steals a loaf of bread from the store, that's it. The loaf of bread is gone. When someone downloads a piece of music, it's just data until the listener puts that music back together with their own ears, their mind, their subjective experience. How they perceive your work changes your work.

Monkey Diving. Disturbing, yet fun!

The Baby Blog has arrived.

This would be even funnier if it wasn't true.

Yes, I realize it's lame that my only blog posts involve links to The Onion.

At least The Onion is still funny. "God Puts His Tool Back in Office" indeed.

Maybe I shouldn't have said this.

Vote!

I always believed:

We did it! World Fucking Champions!

I keep thinking that I am going to wake up and none of this will have happened, but Ann assures me that I'm not dreaming.

You all probably have seen Get Your War On. But have you seen the Red Sox version? This one is particularly funny.

This is insane.

This is great:

Unbe-fucking-lievable!

Whoohoo! (Sorry, I had to take down the mp3).

2 more!

Some random reading in honor of the rainout of game 3.

Salon asks: would you rather see the Red Sox win the world series or John Kerry win the election? (Inside my head right now: "How bad, really, could 4 more years of Bush be?")

It's official: being a Red Sox fan is bad for your mental and physical health. Be sure to click on the graphic!

Also, the ugly truth about the curse.

I went for a short hike yesterday up Gile Mountain (more of a hill really) in Norwich, VT, mostly to check out foliage but also to test out a hydration pack I picked up at the LL Bean outlet. There is a 75 foot fire tower at the top - check out some pictures of the absolute peak foliage.

Afterwards I went to Dan & Whit's General Store and purchased the following items: a beer, the New York Times, a replacement valve for a toilet, a mug and some ibuprofen. The motto of Dan and Whit's is "If we don't have it, you don't need it." It's definitely true.

Ann and I got a new camera (5.0 Megapixels!) for taking pictures of baby. I thought there would be no better way to celebrate the fact that fall is here than this:

Classic Bill Simmons: "Then again, we're not even sure Manny realizes that there's a difference between the regular season and the playoffs, or that they're keeping score during games."

Go Sox!

I have finally made it to the Mug Club on BeerAdvocate.com. It was a lot of hard work drinking and reviewing beer. You can check out my profile here. Only 7000 more beer reviews (give or take) until I become a Grand Pooh-Bah.

Does it make me lame or nerdy or an alcoholic that I'm so proud of this?

So I'm trying to make a science Mix on iTunes, using a pretty liberal definition of science (either lyrical content or title or ideally both). Anyone have any tips for songs that I may have missed? Of course Ween is heavily represented, no surprise.

• Race For The Prize (Remix) The Flaming Lips
• Spinal Meningitis (Got Me Down) Ween
• The HIV Song Ween
• Golgi Apparatus Phish
• Zoloft Ween
• Astronomy Domine Pink Floyd
• Orbits Medeski, Martin And Wood
• Clone Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon
• Waves Phish

Happy birthday to Ann!

DSL is back! In honor of this fact, I give you The Periodic Table in Haiku. (And yes, I am a nerd.)

So you are all probably wondering why I haven't been posting as of late - well, I've been running around learning all about what the Dartmouth campus has to offer and also trying to get professors to agree to let me work in their labs. And also, our damn DSL line is down, so all of my home internet use is over dialup. I had forgotten how much dialup sucks...the slow-ass speed, the random hanging up of the modem, and, best of all, that ear-splitting sound made by the modem as you dial in. I know, I could turn the sound off, but some sick part of me actually has a bit of nostalgia for it.

Wimps.

VH1 is streaming the new MMW album - sounds damn good. Check it out.

Amen. Ann and I were discussing the same thing earlier today.

We are officially in New Hampshire and on the internet!

This was the funniest thing at Coventry.

[Part 2; Part 1 is below]

We woke up pretty early on Sunday because we had the 9AM-1PM shift at the House of Live Phish. It was a beautiful morning and we were amazed to see that most of the mud had dried out a bit to form a sticky clay. The HoLP was running pretty smoothly - the most common question people had was "how do I get my CD out?" because iMacs don't have a button on the drawer. In case anyone reading this was there during those times, I was the narc walking around the tent with a clipboard making sure you didn't hang out forever on the computers. The job wasn't really in my nature, but someone had to do it, and it did get Ann and I VIP access so NO COMPLAINTS.

After our shift, we checked out the commons a little bit since it was finally dry enough to walk around there. It had gotten hot during our 4 hours in the air conditioned tent. We went back to our tent, cooked up a little lunch and got ready for the last Phish show ever. We went back to the venue, and I grabbed a couple beers at the beer garden (mostly for the souvenir cups and the blackberries in the Long Trail Blackberry Wheat). Nice selection of beer - Long Trail, Harpoon, Magic Hat (and of course, Bud).

For the first set, we picked out a spot way back on the lawn and just chilled out. Mike's Groove was a nice opener, although Hydrogen could have been a little tighter (but then again, I don't think Trey's nailed this song for YEARS). I actually enjoyed Anything But Me in for the first time in my life - the slow slightly down tune fit my mood nicely. I was thrilled that they did the whistling at the end of Reba - it was fitting to play the old school version at the final show. Chalkdust had a decent jam, and during Wolfman's Trey had several interjections explaining the song - Fishman is the Wolfman's brother, Liz is a real person, etc. The band then brought their moms on stage, then the brought out Paluska and Trey and Mike did a grinding dance on each side of him. Following this was a Trey/Mike duet/duel, again illustrating musically some of the tensions involved with this breakup.

Following the set, we made haste to our campsite and put on a bunch of warm clothes for the final two sets of Phish EVER. We went back to the venue and got a little closer than we had been first set, dead center. Then we felt it. A couple of drops of rain. I looked to the west and saw a dark cloud. Ann and I could sense it was getting close to showtime, but I made the decision that we needed our raincoats. So I hiked back to camp. As soon as I got there, I hear the bass noodling that can only mean one thing - DWD. I grabbed the coats and stumbled through the ruts and mud back to the venue as quickly as possible. I got back to the area where we were watching the show, and I couldn't see Ann. Everyone was standing watching the show and the house lights were off. During DWD I stumbled through the crowd, goose-stepping around tarps and toes and creening my neck looking for her. I wasn't worried about Ann, but I was worried be apart for the SECOND TO LAST Phish set ever. I took a break from my search to listen to the start of Wading in the Velvet Sea. Page started to sing and then he broke down in tears, and Trey had to take over for him. I think for everyone there, this was by far the saddest moment of the show, and probably the most memorable. It was so heartbreaking and beautiful and astonishing to think that after all of these years the band still cares about each other that much.

Thankfully Ann saw me during Wading, and called out to me as soon as the song ended. Reunited, we hugged and started bouncing around to Glide, and I was hoping the show would end with a ton of old school favorites. Glide of course contains the lyric "we're glad glad glad that you're alive." After the song, Trey talked about how much the fans meant to the band, and then each of the band members chimed in with their own thank yous - except Page, who was still overcome with emotion. Then after the all look around at each other as if they are going to burst into tears, Trey announces that they are going to blow off some steam, and they kick into a very rocking SOAMelt. The jam was hard, fast, disjointed and excellent, IMHO. Kuroda was at the absolutely top of his game on the lights during this jam. The Ghost that followed was a bit of a let down after the great SOAMelt, but this was a good set.

During set break I could see in all the faces around me that we were all coming to the end of a long journey together. Rather than the typical celebratory atmosphere that surrounds a festival show, with everyone wondering what will be next, people seemed almost content to let the set break go on forever - because if they didn't start the third set, then we would always have more Phish in our future.

But the house lights dimmed, and I heard the opening riff of Fast Enough for You and immediately got a lump in my throat. My favorite slow Phish song, the one I had put on every mix tape I ever made for a girl in high school (who the hell knows why - it's not exactly a happy song). "If time were only part of the equation..." Ann and I looked at each other, started to weep than put our arms around each other and swayed to the beat. It occurred to me for a second that I must look like one of those people I used to make fun of at my early Phish shows - and then it occurred to me that I had a hell of a lot to learn about life back then.

A fun Seven Below followed, with Trey yelling "Seven Below!" to the beat in the latter part of the jam. Then Simple...the whole crowd was singing along and having a blast. The conspiracy theorist in me noted that they didn't sing the "We've got bebop" line (the line that everyone always said corresponded to Trey). The jam dissolved into Piper which in turn had a kick ass jam into the hilarious Bruno and Dickie Scotland improvs. The Wilson that followed featured the loudest crowd chant I have ever heard, with some of it probably a little hostile towards Trey. Me, I just had fun screaming my ass off. After Wilson was a sublime Slave, not perfectly executed, but impeccably placed. The band then left the stage.

I truly had no idea what they would play for an encore when they came back out. But when I heard the opening notes of The Curtain, I knew it was perfect (and I knew it would be "With"), and I felt like it was written for me:

As he saw his life run away from him
Thousands ran along
Chanting words from a song
"Please me have no regrets"
"Please me have no regrets"
Came from the baby's mouth
We follow the lines going South

Trey, Mike, Page and Fish - I have no regrets. Thank you for an amazing 10 years.

Coventry Pics

Most people grow out of adolescence so gradually that they don't even notice it. Some people cling to it forever. Last weekend, at the final Phish concert ever, I saw the last part of my childhood die.

Sounds cheesy and melodramatic, I know. But maybe a little bit of background is in order. I've being seeing Phish concerts since I was 16 - nearly 11 years ago. Some of the happiest times of my life involved going to Phish concerts - with Jake and Doug at first, then with Beth, and especially my wife Ann (and Kristin who made it out once!). I've told the story before how Ann and I met because of the Phish sticker on my dorm room door freshman year. That one sticker changed my life forever. Phish changed my life forever. Now I'm married, we just bought a house, I'm starting graduate school and we are expecting our first baby on Dec 1st - I'm hoping for the 2nd, since it would be the 21st anniversary of the first Phish concert. It just would seem appropriate.

So with all of these things going on, I hope you can understand why I might get the feeling that I'm not a kid anymore. But Phish concerts always have something that brings me back: brings me back to the subzero temperatures of Portland, ME on 12/30/93, brings me back to my first encounter with the lot scene at Great Woods in 1994 playing frisbee with some hippies; brings me back to the epic 40 minute Providence, RI David Bowie; brings me back to my first two-show run with Jake and Doug from Great Woods to Sugarbush in 95, smoking half a pack of butts among us, watching the show from the 5th row on a ski slope, Jake not making it back on the shuttle bus for an hour; brings me back to the Clifford Ball, standing in a field with 60,000 other people who were obsessed with a band that most people had never heard of, drinking cheap beer and eating 3 foot long twizzlers (ahem) at our campsite; brings me back to dancing in the luxury box at the Fleet Center in our socks on 12/31/96, my first show with Ann, and the first time I told her I loved her; brings me back to the Lemonwheel, Big Cypress, IT, NYE. All of these great memories, and all of them due to four guys who played some of the quirkiest music ever.

As soon as they announced their breakup, Ann and I knew that we needed to be at the final show. We felt like we owed Phish so much that we needed to be there, cheering as they walked off the stage for the last time. I worried about Ann being 6 months pregnant at the show, but she was as desperate as I was to be there.

A couple of weeks before the show, I got word of a chance to get VIP camping passes in exchange for volunteering to cover the first shift at the House of Live Phish through the Mockingbird Foundation. So, VIP parking permit on the dash, Ann and I left Lebanon, NH for Coventry at around 10:30 AM on Thursday. We made a quick pit stop in St. Johnsbury and then took off down the home stretch to the festival. Our VIP pass enabled us to take some back roads to the site and we were probably about the 15th car to park in the campground (this turned out to be a lifesaver - without VIP access we would have been stuck in a day long traffic jam - any complaints that I might have later are in full recognition that they are small compared to the people who hiked in or took the threats of the police seriously and didn't even get to see the concert). Then the rains came.

We set up our campsite as quickly as possible and then retreated to the car. And there we sat for 2 hours, waiting for the rain to subside. It didn't. We had to make our way to the House of Live Phish for our shift, so we put on our coats and flip flops (we didn't bring boots) for the long slog uphill to the tent. It took approximate 45 minutes for us to walk what must have been about a half mile, and we were completely drenched as a result. And then we find out the the tent won't even be opening that night! To tell the truth, we were relieved - we were so cold and wet that 5 hours of telling stoned people how to burn CDs wouldn't have been much fun. So we made our way back to our campsite, changed our clothes and got into our tent with our books and radio and zipped it up tight, since the DJs on the Bunny were warning us to batten down the hatches. It rained and rained and rained some more, but at least we were able to listen to the Camden show on the radio. Thank God for Sierra Designs, though - our tent never leaked.

Friday was more of the same. Off and on downpours. The one time it was looking a little bit brighter, we trekked through the mud to the shuttle bus stop to check out the commons where food and other interesting items would be for sale. Of course, as soon as we got on the bus, the sky opened and we just decided to ride it in a loop around the site and go back to camp. We got drenched again, and decided at that point to not venture from our camp again until we saw the sun.

Saturday morning came and we got our wish! It was a beautiful partly cloudy day; perfect weather for a concert, dry and not too hot. We put on the radio with our breakfast and heard a disturbing announcement from Mike. In a extremely depressed tone, he announced that the band had discussions with the State Police and they determined that due to the mud, the venue couldn't safely accommodate any more cars. People would be turned away if they hadn't yet reached the exit off I-91 and given refunds. After the literal damper on our spirits from the previous two days, the metaphorical one was just as sad.

But we still had a concert to go to; after lounging around in the open air drinking beer and non-alcoholic beer (I'll leave it to the reader to figure out who was drinking what) we packed up our stuff and made the short walk to the venue. We got in pretty early, so we hit the Ferris wheel, the balloon walk and the little art installations scattered about. As 5PM approached, we decided to sit on our newly-purchased Coventry camp chairs to save out spot. A little before 6 the audience spied the band walking towards the stage from the backstage area, and the place erupted.

Walls of the Cave is a good song, but maybe not a rocking enough opener for the scale of the event. Runaway Jim was more appropriate, and the Gotta Jibboo that followed was one of the best I've heard. Then YEM. The quintessential Phish song. Silly lyrics, amazing composed section, incredible jam. This was the song where it really hit me that this whole wild ride was coming to an end. Specifically, Page's first solo in the song brought me to tears - not because it was better than usual (it was great as usual) but because I knew it was the last time I would be hearing this amazing piece of music performed live. And then they gave away the trampolines - such an amazing symbol of how much this band loves their fans, and how much they have given to us over the years, musically and otherwise. The rest of the set was rocking, with the appearance by Tom gaining a huge amount of applause. We tracked down Phillip Zerbo between sets and expected to find the rest of the Mockingbird crew with him, but they weren't there. It was great to catch up with Phillip, however.

Second set started with an amazing AC/DC bag with a great jam that lead into a very short 46 Days. Ya Mar featured some Trey/Mike interplay that was to become a feature for the weekend - almost as if they were expressing the differences about the end of the band through music. Trey was extremely talkative on stage the entire weekend. The complete opposite to his mute ways of the past few years. It was nice to see, even if a lot of the banter was basically just a thousand ways to tell the fans "thank you." He (and the rest of the band) seemed deeply touched by the fans that had hiked into the show after the announcement had been made. David Bowie was great, and the idea that Trey wrote it as a test to see how complex a song people could dance to gave it new meaning for me.

After the second set, Ann was freezing and I was a bit chilled myself, so we headed back to our campsite to listen to the 3rd set. We had heard the soundcheck loud and clear Friday night, so we knew that we would be able to hear the show and warm up at the same time. Highlights included Twist, the Stash>Free and the phenomenal, rocking jam out of Drowned. This was by far the best jam of the festival. Then they played Friday, about which the only good thing was that it wouldn't be played the next night.

The Harry Hood encore contained a lot of banter by Trey about how far they were from the audience in this particular stage setup and how he and Mike were going to come down closer to see if the interaction with the audience changes the jam. There was some wacky stuff in there about Mike playing sexy notes as well - I didn't quite catch it all. The Hood was good, although from my vantage point, the jam didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

But then at the end of the song, as the jam was winding up I heard one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life. Instead of the band singing the final segment, the haunting sound of 60,000 voices in unison came rolling across the cornfield between our tent and the stage:

You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood
You can feel good, good, good about hood

I'm getting choked up just thinking about it. Part 2 tomorrow.

"You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me, there are ways, Dude. You don't want to know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon, with nail polish."

John Kerry likes microbrews. Dubya likes starting unnecessary wars, drilling for oil in the wilderness and cutting down trees that will never be sold. I report, you deicde.

So you're sitting at home, wondering where the fuck Wilco got the sample of that lady at the end of "Poor Places" saying "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot." Never fear, I have your answer (registration required).

This is hilarious.

Kenny G better watch his back.

I had yet another amazing experience today - Ann's first ultrasound. Even after hearing the heartbeat, there is always that unconscious feeling in your head that there can't really be a baby in there. Well, now we have visual proof - I've annotated the first picture of the baby's face and the second is a profile view of the head and torso.




To answer the first question everyone has been asking us, we still don't know if it is going to be a boy or girl, and we don't want to. Also, we found out today that the first estimate of Ann's due date was a month too late - she's now due on December 1st!

This guy says what we've all been thinking about kids who soup up their Honda Civics. I can't wait for that trend to end.

That thing got a hemi? Thanks, Slate, for answering a question I've always been afraid to ask for fear that it would somehow refect poorly on my manhood.

Home Sweet Home for the next 5-7 years:

This is what happens when beer snobs go to their college reunion and the free beer is Bud and Bud Light:



We pulled out our wallets and made it right.

We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time on Thursday. It was as amazing as everyone told me it would be! It did sound a little like a dishwasher as Ann said (more of a whoosh-whoosh than a thump-thump), but considering the heart is probably the size of a thumb tack, it makes sense.

Oh yeah, in case anyone reading this doesn't know, we're having a baby! Right now they are telling us January 3, but they could be wrong. We think (and for tax purposes, I hope) that it will be a little earlier.

The best thing about it was that it took my mind off the collapse of the Olde Towne Teame against the Evil Empire. Trade Garciapopup!

I pitched a complete game for Antigenics tonight in the Mass Biotech Softball League against Cubist, only giving up 8 runs. Luckily we scored 9!

Of course there are no balls and strikes, so I guess it isn't that impressive.

Congratulations to Lolly and Jenny for graduating college! Here's some advice from David Berman:

Advice to the Graduate (for Zoe)
© D.C.Berman, Civil Jar Music

If you got a message leave your name and number
& we'll get back to you.... Sleep on your back,
ash in your shoes & always use the old sense of
the words. Your third drink will lead you astray
wandering down the backstreets of the world.
On the last day of your life don't forget to die,
the things that you do will always make your momma
cry - Oh I know you got a lot of hope for
the new men x2. So you got no friends and
you wander through the night, now you watch the sun
rise through a rifle site. Well don't believe in
people who say it's all been done, they have
time to talk because their race is run.
So get in some licks & hold your head up
& soon you'll be drinking from that crystal cup.

(Repeat chorus)

Good morning to the new world.......

And always remember what Trey wrote in Alumni Blues: "I'm alright - 'cause I got a degree."

This is the funniest Onion article in a long time: "Suicide Letter Full of Simpsons References."

Here is an article that Ann would post if she had seen it before I did.

Anyone who sees the new Harry Potter, tell us if it is good. We'll probably go see it even if it isn't, though.

You all are probably expecting me to post something, but I don't want to talk about this.

A variety of good stuff:


Books: Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem, Drop City by TC Boyle, anything by Haruki Murakami (especially Hard Boiled Wonderland at the End of the World)
Music: Far From Enough Viktor Krauss, Mylab Mylab, Live Phish Vol. 19: 7/12/91 Phish, Good News for People Who Love Bad News Modest Mouse, Chutes Too Narrow The Shins
Television: Colonial House PBS
Beer: Smuttynose IPA, De Ranke XX Bitter, Magic Hat Thumbsucker

Random Big Lebowski quote generator.

Ann and I watched "Trey and Dave go to Africa" last night on VH1 and came to the following conclusion: there is no one in the world with a bigger shit-eating grin than Mr. Ernest Joseph Anastasio. Pretty good show, if you like Phish or DMB you might as well watch it. Anyway, the only reason I am really posting this is to try out the new version of Blogger.

Ann and I have seen a couple of great movies recently: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Big Fish. Eternal Sunshine was written by Charlie Kaufman - the same guy who wrote Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, and it is every bit as entertaining as those movies. Big Fish was directed by Tim Burton and it is much better than Planet of the Apes but maybe not quite as good as The Nightmare Before Christmas. Ewan Macgregor's souther accent is a bit suspect, however. I know it came out last year, but I consider a movie premier to be when the movie opens at the discount theater in Arlington.

If you get a chance, check out the new Wilco album - they are streaming it for free. You can listen to it and hope along with me that Jeff Tweedy kicks his painkiller problem.

Seacrest out!

Seems some people aren't quite up on the fact that The Onion is fake news. Maybe we'll see Fox News wish Donald Rumsfeld a happy Secretary's Day next.

A great article about the greatest movie of all time.

Here is today's art project (click for a bigger version):

Last night Ann and I went out to see The Bad Plus at the Regattabar. They are a pretty kick-ass piano trio that has been getting a lot of press lately - mostly for the fact that they play some unconventional covers. Last night's encore was Iron Man by Black Sabbath, and it was excellent. I've never heard anyone bang on a piano that hard and I believe the drummer was certifiably insane - he was smacking the cymbals with his bare hands.

What I was wondering the entire time I was listening was "where were these critics when MMW was playing 'Crosstown Traffic' in 1995?" Besides that minor quibble, the show was great, and I definitely recommend catching these guys if you can. I picked up their first album at the show, and it is well worth it. I love buying CDs at shows - usually they are cheap, I don't have to pay sales tax, and I think that more of the proceeds find their way to the artists. Enough rambling for now...

In 27 years
I've drunk fifty thousand beers & they just
wash against me like the sea into a pier.....
-David Berman

This spam is just about the funniest thing I've read in a long time:

From ???@??? Mon Mar 22 20:18:41 2004

From: "Thespians O. Careering" 

To: Dan 

Subject: Up to 80 pnceret off on meedication only here, Dan.

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 17:16:36 -0800



Of whom do I have the honour? :)

Of all base passions, fear is the most accursed.

Dan, searching for a place to purchase medicatiGoFn?

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Your easy solution is here:

http://www.w3e4ds.com/

You are absolutely anonymous!

Part of courage is simple consistency.

Any port in a storm.

I think I'm changing my name to Thespians O. Careering.

Back to school...back to school...to prove to dad that I'm not a fool.

For those of you who I may not have told, I'm going back to Dartmouth to get my Ph.D. in Immunology next fall. So if you don't hear much out of me in the next 5-6 years, that's where I'll be.

This article is an important read - it's written by an ousted member of Bush's bioethics panel. I think it's safe to say the Dubya is the most anti-science president in American history.

Are you a Democrat or Republican? Kinda fun, but also kinda stupid.

God Hates Shrimp! Makes you wonder if the evangelical Christians are living by all parts of the bible, or just the gay bashing parts.

I'm married to a terrorist! As if I needed another reason not to vote for Bush...

Just when I was contemplating a leap off the Tobin bridge over this A-Rod deal, the Sports Guy has talked me back from the edge. My favorite line:

"It's official: America has its greatest sports villains since either the Russian Hockey Team in 1980 or the Iron Sheik in the mid-'80's, depending on your perspective. They're like a cross between Cobra Kai and the Nazis in Victory -- everyone hates them now, no matter where you live. How is this a bad thing? Isn't it better that we all have something in common now?"

Ann received free tickets to an IMAX movie, Volcanoes of the Deep Sea, just for being a teach. We checked it out on Tuesday night. It was an amazing movie - we're both suckers for IMAX so we loved it. The movie is about the deep sea vents where some really strange forms of life exist, generating energy from Hydrogen Sulfide.

Anyway, there was a Q&A with the director and a couple of the scientists afterward. It turns out that because there is a scene in the movie describing the creation of the solar system and many references to evolution, theatres in the South won't show the movie. Unbelievable! We should have let them secede.

So I was watching Bush get interviewed on Meet the Press this morning, and I found it hard to believe how much he believes that he is right - that there is no possible way the world could be any different from how he sees it (or how he is told it is). This article from Slate really has a great line:

"Bush isn't Clinton. He doesn't change his mind for anything, whether it's polls or facts. And he always tells the truth about what's in his mind, whether or not what's in his mind corresponds to what's in the visible world."

Does Mitsubishi realize that another line in the Flaming Lips song "Do You Realize" that they are using for their new commercial is this:

"Do you realize - that everyone you know someday will die"

Great song, just not sure if it's what I would pick to sell a car. I guess I'm more partial to Ween in car ads.

Go Pats! What a great game.

This Saturday, Ann, her sister Jenny, Jenny's boyfriend Kevin and I went to the Beeradvocate.com Extreme Beer Festival. What an amazing selection of beer! My personal favorites were:

• Sam Adams 3 Weiss Men (9.7%ABV) - a double-strength Hefe-Weizen
  
• Sam Adams Utopias (25%) - the strongest beer in the world
  
• Harpoon Barleywine (10.3%) - a very mellow barleywine, not as hoppy as most American versions
  
• Magic Hat Nailbiter (7.8%) - imperial stout aged 18 months, according to the pourer, will be available as Thumbsucker in early spring
  
• Rock Bottom Framboise - a much more sour Lambic-style brew than I would have expected from this subpar chain brewpub
  
• Rogue Smoke - just an excellent smokey amber/brown ale
  
• Cantillon Vigneronne - a grape lambic, as delicious as all of Cantillon's beers
  
• Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine (9.6%) - this was the 2001 vintage, and was probably my favorite beer I had all night. Well, except for the Utopias, but that goes without saying
  
• Smuttynose Oak Aged Barleywine (11.25%) - really delicious, the oak barrel contributed a lot of flavor
  

So, you probably think that I was pretty drunk after all of those beers. You're right. But I wasn't nearly as drunk as Jim Koch, founder of Sam Adams - his speech was hilarious. His motivation for creating Utopias? He wanted a beer that he could set on fire. You could really tell that he was a beer lover at heart, which may not be obvious from the slick marketing campaign that SA runs these days, with their emphasis on Sammy Light. I just wish some of their more adventurous beers could make it into bottles, and that Utopias could cost $15. Anyone who is in the area should make plans to hit the Beeradvocate.com Belgian Beer Fest in the fall. If this festival was any indication, that one should be incredible.

Man, the Pats are damn good. It's always fun when your team beats Hunter S. Thompson's.

I tell you, it's a weird feeling for this New England sports fan to be confident going into a championship. And I'm not the only one - the region probably hasn't been this cocky since the days of Larry Legend. Maybe it will come back to haunt us, but I doubt it. The Pats are just too well-coached.

Another weird thought that just popped into my head - isn't it going to be wierd in two years when Super Bowl 40 rolls around and they have to use XL as the Roman numerals? Do you think that the average American knows what that means, or will they just think it means "extra-large"? I can see it now: "Super Bowl XL - played on a 150 yard field! Only on Fox!"

Curt Schilling (yes, that Curt Schilling) is answering questions on a Red Sox message board that I like to read. It is fascinating stuff.

Okay, I did the math, the BMW thing would be more expensive. But the first two would work.

Here's a great analysis of why a moon base and a manned mission to Mars are a very bad idea. Hmm...maybe we should try making sure all Americans have health care, eradicating Malaria, or giving a BMW to every person in the country - or maybe all three, since it would be a hell of a lot cheaper than Dubya's hair-brained scheme.