German People Dancing

Dopethrone!

2010-11-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

Electric Wizard is so good. Why can't everything be so sludgy?

Anyway I've basically abandoned this thing.

It was a failed experiment in all purpose blogging!

I realize now, that I am a terrible blogger. This thing is suspended until further notice.

pease

2010-05-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

so it occurs to me as I'm sitting here, utterly failing to muster the motivation required to complete my final Turkey exam (though not the final assignment) that I have had a pretty wild ride here.

It was a pretty gutsy decision to go all the way out to the middle of Iowa, to a college I had only heard of about a year prior, to a group of complete strangers WITHOUT a coherent idea of just what the hell I would be doing there.

I can't help but feel that a lot of my life has been dumb luck, and that many of the stories I could tell from this place would require so much back story that I am afraid they will be lost as I resign myself never to tell them.

My advice to any readers I might have, is to explore empty spaces. You never know where you're going to find places like Grinnell, where everyone is completely unaware of the outside world but somehow still connected to it.

I no longer feel constrained by this place, as I once did. It is sad that I must leave soon. Oh well.

Unknown Assailant

2010-04-25T21:45:00.000-07:00

It occurs to me, after a little hindsight, just how fucking ridiculous Unknown Assailant's (possibly) final show actually was.

It featured:
1. Wizard Humping
2. Me in a dress
3. Lots of feedback
4. Drunkenly imploring the audience to remove their earplugs at exactly the moment when we would be loudest
5. Inviting the crowd to touch Joel Coats, our sometimes lead singer.
6. Demanding the audience find me another guitar cable, then angrily grabbing one I saw on the ground anyway
7. Volume and aggression that drove away even my dearest friends
8. General drunken belligerence of the sort that made our actions completely unpredictable
9. A climactic feedback passage which ended in my dramatic disrobing, to absolutely no ones approval
10. Our drummer drinking a 1/4 of handle of Vodka during our 20-30 minute set.

And all of this was done on absolutely zero budget with NO ONE in the audience

Fun times, I wish I had started doing this thing earlier.

Grinnell!

2010-04-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Titular Head is almost here.

2010-02-21T19:43:00.001-08:00

So basically last night my friend Rick and I ventured out all over campus looking to score lots of booze in our bodies. We ended up drinking quite a lot by human standards.

Anyway we started the night off with the Boulevard's The Sixth Glass which comes in at a pretty mighty (well not anymore but no one can really afford/find this stuff anyway) 10.5% it set us both up for success at the Zombieland drinking game.

After that the night gets out of control and though I remember all of it I'd rather we just hit the fast forward button and move right to where I was waving Mardi Gras beads around and screaming at people to "show me their titties!" It was quite the adventure.

Anyway it was a shit show and I ended up having to walk a great distance to and from Phoenix House to make sure Rick was alright.

Also this is good news! Though it comes a little late for me I'm afraid.

Snuggie!

2010-02-15T20:31:00.000-08:00

So about a week ago I was complaining to my parents that Iowa is cold all of the time. At this point in my Iowa career all this means is that I'm in a pouty mood about nothing in particular and I need a concrete concept to latch onto, namely cold weather.

Now I'm not one to be particularly against the cold, as a matter of fact I take a rather masochistic pleasure in it. The colder it is outside, the more masculine I am for not complaining about it. The problem is I always do complain about it, primarily because I need something to complain about.

Well anyway my mother and I have a running joke that every time I complain about how cold it is in my room (which is my own fault for leaving the window open for hours at a time) she says she'll send me a Snuggie to help keep me warm but really it's to get me to shut up.

Well this time she actually did it.

I know, it's weird huh? Apparently these things are really cheap and easy to come by. I assumed from their notoriety that they were a ridiculous luxury reserved only for the truly stupid. Instead they are a ridiculously stupid perfectly priced for mothers with a well developed sense of irony and sarcasm to send to their smart ass sons.

But here's the thing, I fucking love it!

No seriously when I opened up the package it was in I burst out giggling. Yes giggling, not laughing like a normal person, giggling like I was 5. I kept this up even through German table where I had to explain to a math professor what a Snuggie even was. He looked at me strange and more than definitely judged me.

When I finally got back to my room to open it up and put it on I could barely contain myself. I had already excitedly shown it to a couple of my friends (and a stranger who isn't too much of a stranger) so I was dying to put it on. Needless to say the experience was ridiculous. Despite having about an hour to get over how ridiculous it was that my mother actually sent me a Snuggie I was still reeling from the giddiness. Putting on the Snuggie sent me into a fit of giggling that lasted about 5 minutes, which is really long considering no one was around to appreciate it with me. I immediately phoned my mother to thank her for the generous gift and to catch up (I am a terrible son who never calls his mother). She and I had a good long laugh and she ended up being late for a meeting (sorry mom). I sat around being unproductive in my room for a good two hours before I realized I was still wearing the damn thing, which brings me to my main point:

The Snuggie is a very dangerous thing to have around.

I'm not one to lay about during the week, especially because I am a busy busy man, but something about the Snuggie seems to slip you into a dimension where time means nothing and the only valuable commodity is snuggles. It as if one is transported back to one's early youth when all that mattered was mother's loving embrace and the promise of cookies in the near future.

The Snuggie also encourages the same kind of interaction between people that a five year old would have. When Will came up to see if I wanted to go to dinner I couldn't stop laughing and jumping up and down for a solid 4 or 5 minutes. The new girl on our floor thought it was adorable. Everyone else thought it was just silly.

Anyway to help get a better grasp of the Snuggie I have decided to prepare a list of pros and cons of the Snuggie

Pros (before hoes):
1. It's a fucking Snuggie. It's sole purpose is to make you happy.
2. Sometimes acting like you are 5 is kind of fun
3. It actually is really useful up here, especially because I sleep naked and it gets cold at night.

Cons:
1. You can get the same result (and actually much more comfortably) by just wearing a bathrobe backwards and cutting off the tags.
2. Snuggies create a TON of static electricity. I mean a TON. Every time I remove the Snuggie it pulls at my hair. This is clearly a sign that the Snuggie is trying to bond with my symbiotically.
3. The fabric isn't really ALL that comfortable and is actually of fairly poor quality. I doubt this thing costs much more than a few dollars to make and will probably not last me all that long.
4. I am about to enter the professional world (more or less). Behaving like a 5 year old, while fun, is grossly inappropriate.
5. You look like a fucking idiot while wearing it. There's just no way around this. The Snuggie is a formless and ungainly garment clearly intended for shut ins and old people. Advertisements featuring its use outside are grossly exaggerated as there is no way any self respecting person would leave the house wearing a Snuggie. (Ok so that isn't true, but whatever. Fuck you People of Walmart).

So anyway, the Snuggie will enjoy intensive use for about a week or so until it gets mixed in with the general clutter of my floor and I forget about it.

whatever

Sugar Shock is definitely happening

2010-02-14T10:49:00.000-08:00

So because the dining hall does a better job of remembering Valentines Day than me (I'm kidding, I always know when it is so I know exactly when to whine about how I don't actually care about Valentines Day when I open up my mailbox to find exactly zero valentines) they had the traditional decorate your own cookie day. I hate the cookies they make here so I opted for my favorite parts of the frosted cookie, the frosting and toppings. I grabbed a bowl and filled it up with three kinds of frosting (red, white and pink) and all of the toppings that would fit into the bowl. Ironically all that happened was that every scoop became more revolting than the last. The frosting was watery and grainy at the same time and the lemon drops completely overwhelmed the other toppings.

Right now I'm passing in and out of a sugar coma, which I didn't even know was possible (it probably isn't) and struggling to find German articles about the iPad to incorporate into my lesson today.

Also Nathan Clubb, probably one of nearest and dearest friends, walked up behind me as I was sitting in my underwear today and thought it would be hilarious to spook me. Unfortunately for him he was still drunk (11:15 AM) and reeked of booze. He called me last night at 3:34 to see if I wanted to hang out, I didn't pick up the phone. We're keeping a tally of how often he shows up to work hung over. His shift at the library starts at 9 PM, he's already done it once.

2010-02-10T16:37:00.000-08:00

I can't imagine how this tastes. At that level of alcohol it would be dangerous to drink the whole thing, and at that price you couldn't afford to do it by yourself anyway. I think I've read about this particular beer before and I wasn't too impressed with the sound of it. As much as I like highly alcoholic beers (they have a taste you wouldn't believe) I think anything beyond 20% might be pushing it. Then again I've never had anything greater than 18% (to my knowledge) in beer so who knows. In any case it certainly isn't a session beer, nor is it an available one since it sold out quickly after only 80 or so bottles were produced.

Been speaking a lot of German lately, it's been pleasing me. My final semester at Grinnell has been going smoothly, I only have one real class to speak of (German Senior Seminar) and even that isn't too intense. It turns out I have a talent for coming up with fun activities for teaching Latin, despite not knowing any Latin. I'm not sure how this came about but I'm not going to start learning any Latin now. That would be silly.

Also I found a ton of good music blogs to read about metal and free jazz. The two are very closely linked in my head which is good because there's this band I found today called Shining which actually plays black metal and free jazz together. They're really good.

Avatar ripped off Dinotopia!

2010-01-20T23:28:00.000-08:00

So to counter the effects of Avatar's overblown scenery (seriously) I'm listening to Minutemen. Well not anymore, but they did provide a nice counterpoint. Double Nickels on the Dime was recorded for much less than Avatar's production and marketing budget. I would go so far as to say that DNotD could have been recorded at least a million times over on Avatar's budget.

But anyway that is immaterial.

What is material here is a serious discussion of how much Avatar disappointed while still staying somewhat of an enjoyable film. Sure the plot is flimsy, the imagery overwrought and the acting hammy but still somewhere beneath the mess lies at least the promise of an interesting movie.

Avatar isn't bad per se, it's just not very good. I'm not a huge Cameron fan, but he has his worth. His previous films have all shown that throwing a lot of money at a film doesn't have to necessarily mean it sucks, and I think that with time we'll view Avatar differently than we do now. Cameron halfheartedly tosses a bunch of themes (anti-war, environmentalism, orientalism) into a pot and boils them with a big helping of cgi nonsense, but he clearly does it with some kind of passion. Cameron wanted very badly to make this film good, but he just had too much on his plate to make it worth. For starters the film carries so much detail it almost requires a separate primer. The Na'vi society had the potential to be a very interesting account of a culture, and if the film had concentrated on one man's process of self-discovery in said culture it would have been a much better film. However Cameron has already established that the film's humans must antagonize the natives and rather than balance the two ideas equally Cameron fast forwards through the former and focuses intently on the latter. The idea of humans living on the frontier, especially one as supposedly harsh as Pandora, could have also made for an interesting film. The way humanity relates to its environment, both peacefully and forcefully, would have also provided an interesting (and much leaner) film.

Instead Cameron tries to shove both (and more) into 162 minutes of insincere lushness and mediocre acting. I've read that sequels are more than likely forthcoming, but really I don't see how the story has any place to go.

Oh and Avatar's theft from Dinotopia is totally real. If you really care you can ask me about it, I don't really feel like going into it here.

2010-01-16T22:30:00.000-08:00

Jeffrey Lewis is coming to my campus and you are jealous to the point of murder

MY MURDER

I'm going to play bocce with my dad tomorrow, I can't wait. I love afternoons lazing about in the sun hurling large balls at smaller ones and drinking beer, then riding back home. It will be good times.

The River by Jeffrey Lewis and Diane Cluck is a very good song.

I'M DRUUUUUNK

2010-01-13T23:18:00.000-08:00

So I totally finally met some sane friends of my brothers tonight it was AWESOME.

they were nice, and jewish, which is good because let's face it if you have to have a good group of friends from a single social group it needs to be jews.

anyway Peter Fox ist fucking toll. Er schnopft die Asche wie Koks, oder wieso man es buchstabiert.

guten morgen Berlin du kannst so heßlich sein und so weiter

I think it's an ß and not ss, you should learn German and tell me FUCKING I AM A GERMAN MAJOR YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT I AM DOING

oh man we had so many free beers and gardettos tonight guys it was awesome

a stranger commented on my blog, I am getting famous, I might have to delve deeper into myself in order to preserve my INTEGRITY. It would be a shame if I pandered to an AUDIENCE

shit I need to go back to Berlin, it was my favorite city in the world by far

oh shit this song is so good, how do I put my shit on stumble, not my blog but my shit, my actual feces that goes into the toilet. please tell me

YYAAAYAYAYYA JACK DANIELS

ok so for new years I was a fucking idiot, there is a Jack Daniels Green which is totally a different thing than the regular Jack Daniels, sorry Nathan I guess I screwed up. But what I bought was about 3 dollars cheaper AND COULD YOU EVEN TASTE A FUCKING DIFFERENCE I THOUGHT NOT

This is a pretty good article

also this guy seemed pretty exciting

2010-01-05T00:32:00.000-08:00

I think if I was ever to become a hobo, or one who rides the rails, I would not be a singing hobo, or even a killing hobo. No, I would be a dirty hobo with shit in his pants rather than a song in his heart. Instead of friendship and camaraderie with other hobos I would go out of my way to ride in cars by myself and bite anyone who rode with me. I'd break whatever hobo code there is, and if it doesn't exist I would create it just so that I could break it.

If anyone asked I would explain what it is I'm all about, but I would never explain it to other hobos. My catchphrase would involve something about breaking all the rules or not doing anything by the book. I imagine that I would think of myself as some sort of rogue hobo/police detective from the 70s who is a reckless driver.

I think what I'm trying to say is that I would be a pretty bad hobo. Definitely not the worst hobo though.

I managed to get through all of today without any alcohol. It was my brother's 21st which makes it even weirder. I guess I just really wanted that iced tea at dinner I guess.

2010-01-03T21:48:00.000-08:00

So I had some beer today, it was pretty good. I drank a Stone IPA, which my brother correctly identified as being the same as Hop Stoopid Ale. I also drank a Paulaner wheat because I wanted it and the Stag's Head pub had it. When I got home I had a bottle of coffee porter from Real Ale, followed by a swig of Jack Daniels. At dinner I had 3 glasses of wine.

I say all of this because my brother, who I found out is a hophead like myself (my father's words not mine) celebrates his 21st birthday. He has pledged to begin the night with 2 100 oz drums of (hard) liquor purchased from the Velvet Melvin pub. I sincerely hope that he survives if he does not end up in jail. I worry about him from time to time.

Much to my surprise the Westboro Baptist Church was out protesting in front of the Houston Jewish Community Center this afternoon. I don't know why they were there at that point in time, the JCC has been there longer than I have been alive, as has the Westboro Baptist church. They were waving the standard God Hates Fags signs, as well as some that claimed the Jews Killed Jesus. Though I'm sure the JCC is accepting of all sexual orientations I was not aware that it had any specific homosexual agenda, and we all know that the Jews didn't kill Jesus, I did. (KIDDING).

Anyway they had to leave before 3, because that's when the Jews for Jesus guys set up shop. I don't even want to know how those two groups would have gotten along. At least I'm assuming that's why they had to leave. Who knows, who cares. I'm just worried that we'll get more protest groups in our quiet little Jewish neighborhood.

Also the Menil was pretty cool, if you haven't already you should probably see the frescos in the Byzantine chapel. Rumor has it they were stolen from someone way back when and are being shipped back to Greece or something. I can't verify this but my father seems to think it's true. He's usually pretty reliable so whatever. Even if they aren't being shipped back they're really cool and if you're already in the area it's just a short walk to see them.

Also fuck Cy Twombly. All I'm sayin

Speciality Review #2: Avery's Hog Heaven Barleywine style Ale

2009-12-30T19:33:00.000-08:00

Astute readers may notice (hey Nathan what's up) that instead of the term "extreme" I've used specialty. I'm still going to maintain the numbering system I started in the last review because I wan to maintain my continuity. I'm going to give the term a spin for a while, if it doesn't work I'll go back to extreme, if only for a lack of a better term. I don't know, maybe I should frame the discussion in terms of specialty beers antithetical position in relation to the more commonly enjoyed session beer and calling it event beer or something. Anyway, that's not important right now, what is important is the beer I'm reviewing, in this case actually a barley wine, Avery Brewing Company's Hog Heaven Barleywine Style Ale. Now I'm not sure if this is actually a barleywine or just an ale that is made like a barleywine or if there is some geographic protection on the name barleywine (sort of like champagne), but I'm going to treat this as a beer anyway. This is of course problematic but for the sake of my blog (and the fact that only one person reads this blog) and the fact that in this country a barleywine is more or less a speciality brew I will treat it as a beer.

Anyway, I bought this one yesterday because I was in the mood for a "fancy beer" from Belgium. Of course this meant a "Chimay" but I couldn't find a bottle smaller than a 750 so instead I ended up with this bad boy at about the same size.

I hate to keep going back to Dogfish (the next review I do won't allow me to, hopefully) but this beer reminded me strongly of Dogfish 120. The connection is obvious, for all intents and purposes Dogfish 120 is a barleywine, and actually a much stronger one than this one, which only comes in at about 9.2% abv. I really liked this one actually, despite both my father and Nathan sort of dismissing the form altogether. I don't know what Nathan's problem is, but I know my father has had a long history of drinking beer (longer than I've been alive) and whatever his issue was it was probably important. Interestingly enough my father also liked this one, and despite his insistence that he would probably pour most of what I gave him back into my glass he drank all of it. I guess that gives you some idea of quality.

And another thing, I like Avery a lot. I've had their Salvation ale, which is 10%abv and one other which was about 9% abv. Colorado is doing a lot of exciting things with beer, so is Belgium, so is New Belgium. Ok New Belgium is actually just producing a lot of quality session beer, but who ever said that was so bad? Not me that's for sure.

Authorial voice comes through

achh I'm tired of things. Listening to Converge on my new noise canceling headphones, it's pretty intense I feel so disconnected from my typing because I cannot hear it.

Also New Year's celebration coming up, super excited!

Extreme Beer Review Number 1

2009-12-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

So here goes the first in a series of reviews on extreme beers. In the coming weeks I will be consuming many of these beers, and also trying to formulate a better terminology.

For my first review I've selected, or rather my father has selected because he paid for it, Lagunitas' Hop Stoopid Ale, which as the title suggests is a rather hoppy beer. It's rated at 102 IBUs (International Bitterness Units) and comes in at a pretty lean (for a beer of its type) 8% abv.

What most pleased me about this beer was its fruity aroma, which comes in as a result of heavy hopping. Lagunitas makes really good stuff, their IPA is basically a mini version of this if I recall correctly (I probably don't). On thing my brother remarked on was that it tasted remarkably similar to Stone's IPA. Though I am familiar in general with Stone's products, I haven't had the IPA so I can't say one way or the other whether my brother's comparison is apt. As far as very hoppy beers go, this one wasn't as bitingly bitter as the 90 minute IPA from Dogfish, which my limited beer knowledge forces me to bring in as a comparison. I liked this beer, I would probably buy it again, but not right away. I guess I could say that for any extreme beer though, the thing that makes it extreme also turns it into a kind of singular experience for me.

Anyway, stay tuned for more beer updates. A new Spec's just opened up and it has a fairly wide selection (for this part of the country) of Dogfish I haven't tried yet.

Extreme beer!

2009-12-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Man every time I come home I get excited, and not just because I haven't seen my family for about 4 months, or that the weather is warmer, or that I have access to all sorts of delicious food on the cheap (free), but because it means I can finally start drinking extreme beers again.

I'm a huge fan of extreme beers, though not so much the term. To me extreme calls forth memories of adderall and mountaint dew fueled sugar freakouts and bland corporate attempts at alternative guitar rock, which I hesitate to associate with my new beverage of choice.

Needless to say, extreme in this case definitely means a deviation from the norm more than a high energy turbo crash.

Extreme beers are characterized by their unwillingness to conform to our notions of what beer should be, going even so far as to violate the sacred tenets set forth by the Bavarians in their Reinheitsgebot. I mean a lot of beers do that, namely any beer from Belgium, but you get my point. The German model for beer, a beverage made of malt, yeast, water and hops has dominated the american scene for so long (though we introduced rice into the equation because it diminishes taste, at least that's why I think it's there) that Americans often forget that other kinds of beer exist and have existed for longer than German style.

This is not to trash the German style mind you, I grew up on it. With such limited ingredients the Germans created an amazing variety of flavor that I can still hardly believe. It's just that extreme beer offers something more. It offers beer fermented with raisins or algae, or beer that has been hopped for 2 hours and then dry hopped for a month! It offers stouts that are so dark no light can escape them. Now how could I, as a burgeoning beer snob, ignore such exciting developments in the field of beer? Let's not be mistaken either, though the Belgians were often freer with their beer than the Germans, even they are being surpassed by us now. We are taking their models and pushing them to extremes, because we have the technology and the know how to be the greatest beer producing nation on earth and by GOD WE ARE

I am not at all sorry that this entry turned into a rant about America. I love this country's beer and frankly I think we get a bad rap because certain corporations have been shoving the same swill down our throats for so long that the rest of the world associates our beer with horse piss.

anyway

I'm going to use this break to drink extreme beers, and not just made by Dogfish either. Reviews to be forthcoming.

2009-11-30T22:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry Internet, some things are too personal. Even for you.

I know this is hard, but I think we should just not talk for a couple of weeks. A combination of laziness, depression and general frustration with people has led me to believe that you are the cause of my problems, and not the excessive drinking.

Internet, you're a bitch and I hate you.

also I'm not done with you, or this blog. I just can't really talk about my life up to this point on the internet (too many people watching you see). Even writing about this seems dangerous, oh well I do it anyways because I DO NOT CARE ABOUT A SYSTEM OF TUBES DESIGNED TO EASE MY ACCESS TO THINGS I WOULD RATHER NOT HAVE SEEN.

blah fuck hell weeks and finals.

Thanksgiving was nice, surprisingly.

2009-11-08T23:57:00.001-08:00

What kind of person gives away their otherwise perfectly functioning microwave because the light inside no longer works?

Apparently someone at Grinnell, because that is exactly what I found and claimed this afternoon as I was walking home from the library. It had a note attached that said in big capital letters, "Free" and underneath, "Works great, the light doesn't work"

I figured, well I mean there is really no other good reason for that microwave to be there and if I don't take it someone else will. It doesn't matter that I already have access to a perfectly good microwave on my floor, and that I don't have room for a microwave in my room, and that something clearly exploded inside of this one, how often do you find a free microwave?

I would venture to guess almost never of the time, which is a meaningless phrase to be sure.

So I grabbed the (surprisingly light) microwave and brought it back to my floor, where I ran into my friend Joel. Joel was as impressed with the find as I and we decided to test it out immediately. The only thing we had on hand to microwave was some left over pancake batter from the previous night. I figured what the hell and tossed it in. After some mild confusion and worry that by "light doesn't work" they meant, "the timer function which actually makes the whole thing start is broken," I set the timer for 1 minute and waited patiently.

Much to my surprise not only did the microwave work, but the pancake batter actually sort of turned into a pancake. I mean it wasn't the same color, but it was mostly the same consistency.

Thus I have learned two things:
1. Some idiot just tossed out a perfectly good microwave that instead of giving away for free they could have sold to a consignment shop or something, AND
2. You can make pancakes in the microwave.

Truly my life has been changed.

Also I still don't have a place for the microwave. I'll probably have to get rid of it, which is depressing. But instead of simply giving it away I will attempt to sell it.

Also tomorrow (or I guess today) is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall. Regardless of your opinion on the matter of German Reunification (a lot of people hate that term) you cannot deny that it is an incredibly momentous occasion in German history. I hopefully be celebrating with my fellow German majors by getting irresponsibly drunk, partly on expensive imported German beer, and partly on Hawkeye Vodka, which is a chilling reminder of the dangers of drinking Hawkeye Vodka.

2009-10-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

Somehow drinking Rum and Coke while I did research for my German paper seemed like it would be relaxing.

I was right, but in all the wrong ways. I am way too into this Sugar song right now. For those of you who are ignorant, Sugar was Bob Mould's band after Husker Du (umlauts omitted because I am not on a mac) and was for the most part a pretty good band.

Basically right now I am looking for a canonical work on modernist architecture and am failing pretty hard, though that might not be my fault.

Modernism is confusing, besonders auf Deutsch.

Fall Break

2009-10-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Men at Work fucking rock my world right now

seriously

2009-10-13T07:40:00.001-07:00

Midsems can go fuck themselves

I get a break in a week!

10/10

2009-10-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

So basically if you asked any Grinnellian what his favorite time of the year was, he would probably tell you it was 10/10.

Why?

Well the most obvious answer is because he imbibes a truly horrendous (and for most other people clearly fatal) amount of alcohol in a roughly 4-5 hour period.

But this isn't really why.

No, the reason why is much more complicated and difficult to articulate. It might be helpful to get an understanding of what 10/10 actually is before I go into what it means.

Basically 10/10 is a celebration occuring on the nearest Saturday to October 10th as possible. The reasoning behind this is that back in the old days students would get their first pay checks on the 10th and subsequently blow the contents of these checks on as much alcohol as they could get their hands on. Today the pay schedule is different but the party still remains. There are other origin stories to 10/10 and it is mostly likely that 10/10 is actually a product of all of them rather than just the first weekend students could blow their paychecks.

In any case 10/10 is a progressive party which starts at Norris, which is the northernmost dorm on campus and slowly makes its way to Gardner Lounge, which is the basement of Main Hall, the southernmost dorm on campus. Few people actually make it that far though and for most the night actually culminates in the campus wide shot at midnight, truly one of the most beautiful things about Grinnell in my opinion. 600+ (probably much more) all taking a shot more or less at once is no easy task I assure you.

10/10 is such a uniquely Grinnellian event not because it we get super trashed (to be honest I've been more trashed on other occasions, at least I that I can remember) or because it's a progressive party. No 10/10 is more than that, it's a celebration of all of us, Grinnellians of all walks of life (meaning people who live on North Campus, East Campus, South Campus and off Campus) get together and celebrate who we are. We have something the rest of the world cannot possibly understand, we have a deep and well developed mythology surrounding a party that basically should have killed us all right now.

So if I call you tonight, and I probably will, sounding impossibly intoxicated and enthusiastic understand that I am celebrating what is possibly the finest of Grinnell traditions.

10 MOTHERFUCKING 10

silly firefox

2009-10-03T14:07:00.000-07:00

I had a pretty good entry detailing my life last night, but Firefox decided to crash and I lost it all. So instead I will simply say this:

I drank .375 L of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, a liter of Leinenkugel's creamy lager, an Oatmeal Stout from Goose Island and two steel reserves.

Plus other stuff I'm not dumb enough to talk about on the internet.

I spat on things a lot. It was pretty cool.

2009-09-28T22:36:00.000-07:00

So it's finally started to get cold, though I don't want to jump the gun on that one.

I've been really exhausted as of late, like pass out and sleep through late morning classes kind of exhausted.

Joel and I have decided to set aside the hours of 10-midnight on Sundays to sit and be metal. We will listen to From the Depths on KTRU and contemplate all things metal. It will be good times.

Not much else to report I guess, I mean there's a ton of stuff going on but I don't want to keep revisiting it here.

I haven't showered in a while, is a phrase I utter quite frequently. I also have picked up this habit of not changing my clothes either.

This entry was kind of depressing

2009-09-22T08:44:00.000-07:00

I am sick and I am tired. Apparently whatever virus is having its way with the rest of campus decided to pick me up at a party and ditch me before breakfast. Now I feel like shit and I got applications due. I'm basically done except for one last little thing but man is that thing taking its sweet time to get done.

Don't worry though, the health center pumped me full of drugs and so now I'm feeling better. I've bought myself some time on some assignments and later on I'm probably going to actually go to bed at a reasonable hour.

Kids this might just be a blessing in disguise.

Also this is blatant nostalgia.

2009-09-11T12:56:00.001-07:00

Last night I couldn't sleep because I was sick so I went down to the Kum&Go (seriously guys that's what the place is called for realz) and bought a pretty white trash meal of microwaveable burrito and chili cheese fritos. I then returned to the dorms where I enjoyed both items late at night after losing a shirt and gaining a beer.

A guy who lives down the hall from me came up to me and, basically assuming I was high, started talking to me about drugs and how they make you better when you are sick. He was of course talking not about prescriptions but about the myriad of illegal and controlled substances flowing through his veins at the moment. He then sneezed on his arm and wiped it on his face while commending me on my patience in buying a product that required microwaving.

Afterward he wandered downstairs to find a friend and reappeared shortly thereafter to go back to his room where I assume he passed out.

There really isn't a point to that story.

I left Berlin for this?

2009-09-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Seriously though it's great being back I guess. My friends have changed but I guess I have as well.

My friend Rick and I went to see Heart/Journey at the Iowa State Fair and I kid you not I actually enjoyed myself. I never saw myself as actually liking Heart but damn if they didn't just rock the fuck out. I mean I know they're mostly just pumping out a formula but I'm finally starting to learn that sometimes that can be ok and I can just shut up and enjoy something that everybody else likes. Plus they played Magic Man, Barracuda and Crazy on You, how could I have not enjoyed myself.

Journey was basically just karaoke, they've got this new lead singer who sounds like Steve Perry but doesn't have any of the charm, and it just felt fake, not that the audience seemed to care. More often than not they would drown him out.

I will give Journey some credit though, they have the all the cliches of a 70's/80's stadium rock band down pat. At all the right moments the lead singer climbed on top of a speaker/the drum stand and jumped down exactly when he was supposed to and he never hesitated to point at the audience and encourage them to clap by mimicking the motions with his hands. On level it was some kind of bizarre performance art because it did seem so constructed but really it was just midwesterific. Ultimately I was happy enough to say that now I have seen Journey and no one can force me to see them again.

I had plenty of state fair food but it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped. Sure they had all the usual suspects: corndogs, pork chops on a stick; fried snickers; fried oreos; continuously peeled potatoes covered in nacho chees as well as some foods that I wasn't expecting, such as the pickle dawg, a truly delightful concoction consisting of a pickle slathered in cream cheese or wrapped in either pastrami or ham. It was all delicious and incredibly heart stoppingly unhealthy but it wasn't the chocolate covered bacon or beer on a stick that I had hoped for. Rick and I were there on the last day of the fair so that might have affected it somewhat. We missed out on a lot of the quintessentially Iowan stuff that you only find at the state fair but we did find free parking and discounted tickets so that was a win.

I have homework to do, which is kind of an alien concept. I turned in a paper the other day that I might have to apologize for later on. Oh well.

Anyway, just got invited to a bluegrass jam that happens weekly so I'm excited about that.

2009-08-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

I'm just stealing things now.

I've had to eat some of her recipes, they were kind of bland and eh.

and actually that article isn't about rachael ray at all so fuck it

I hate Rachael Ray, a lot of people do, it ain't even a thing any more

I don't think she actually hates America, but this ad I found suggests otherwise.

I realize it's been overdubbed, but that's not the point!

Rachael Ray is the devil: Proof!

I know that doesn't prove anything.

This article might prove to be something.

My favorite is the last one, "She recently told an autograph seeker, "There is no Rachael Ray, only Zul."

Brilliant

Flying Saucer Pie Co.

2009-08-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so Freepress Summerfest, despite only happening about a week ago, is already a distant memory in my head but because I said I would talk about it here are a few brief points:

Houston bands by and large are very good and we are very lucky to have such a diverse and fruitful group of musicians making music in our fair city.

Austin has some very nice bands that came down to help out, though I kind of wish some more Houston bands had been allowed more time than they got, especially Los Skarnales who have been around as long as I can remember (which actually is through most of high school)

Some guys started a fight during Broken Social Scene's set which doesn't even make any kind of sense. Kevin Drew stopped the set to yell at the two guys. His solution to the problem was one dick go one way and the other dick go the other way. The crowd cheered afterwards. The band picked up more or less where they left off, which for 8 or 9 people is very impressive.

Explosions in the Sky were definitely the best show I've seen in quite some time. It was a balmy summer night and the sun was setting, it was all very dramatic. I would highly recommend seeing them under these or any conditions.

It was really hot, but the vitamin water was free and beer was only 5 dollars.

There was a lot of weed, and the cops didn't seem to mind.

Devin the Dude was fucking fantastic, though whomever was working sound wasn't really on their game. The bass during "She Want that Money" completely overwhelmed the sound system and the hook got totally lost in the mix which is a shame because it's a good hook.

All in all it was great to finally see Houston with a music festival. We're a great city with a great scene and it was great to see all those bands assembled in one place for so cheap. If I can offer only one praise for this festival (not that I don't have more) it was that the whole thing seemed as non-commercial as possible. Beer and water were both plentiful and cheap and security allowed attendees to bring their own water. Despite the big names performing prices for weekend passes never rose above $20 which would have been enough to see any of the national acts alone.

It was a spectacular festival and despite the heat I had a really great time. I really hope to see something like this happen again next year.

Anyway, on to the main event, an institution Nathan and I have been trying to visit for at least 2 years, the Flying Saucer Pie Co. This has been difficult due to its opening hours, which end at 6 in the evening and Nathan and I constantly forgetting that we wanted to visit. Well a few months ago I discovered a program that emails your future self and reminds you to do something you've promised yourself to do in the past (it also does much more than that, also that last sentence was a little confusing but whatever you just deal with it ok). We both sent ourselves emails and were finally reminded of our duties to flying saucer.

Now unlike House of Pies, which is open 24 hours a day pretty much everyday except Christmas (where it really isn't open I don't think), Flying Saucer Co. is only open till 6. Also unlike the House of Pies it does not make a wide variety of pie, and once they run out of a particular variety they will not make any more for the day. So naturally working around their conditions for pie are a little difficult but not impossible. As it turns out they make more than enough pie to last them to 6 and even if you get there at around 3 or 4 you'll have more than enough to choose from.

So anyway I pick up Nathan from his house and we make our way to the loop. The trip was filled with discussions of my brother's idiocy and Devin the Dude. Eventually we find Flying Saucer Pie Co. The sign outside encourages visitors to try the pecan and strawberry pies, and had ample parking. Once inside we saw that there was no place to sit and everything was to go. So Nathan and I got slices of pie, I got the pecan and he got the strawberry The pecan pie was really good, the insides were gooey but not too runny and the pecan layer on top was nicely caramelized. Nathan's strawberry pie was made with whole strawberries and also looked quite good. We both raved about our pie and proclaimed that it was worth the trip which really hadn't taken that long.

I go back to Iowa in less than a week, I still need to pack.

2009-08-16T14:39:00.001-07:00

So I am currently drinking my first durian smoothie. For those of you who are still unfamiliar with this very unique and interesting fruit, Wikipedia exists for a reason.

Anyway it definitely seems like an acquired taste, as all I can say about it right now is that it's creamy goodness sandwiched between two farts. It kind of smells like my cousin Sam's apartment, which isn't to say his apartment smells bad, it just smells like durian.

Anyway I should probably move onto more interesting territory shouldn't I?

Next Post: Free Press Summerfest!

2009-08-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

So I guess it's time to kick this thing off up right, but first a little disclaimer I forgot to include in my last entry:

If you are offended by vulgar language, sexual or suggestive language, depictions of copious drinking, poor spelling and punctuation and all around poor life choices please don't read my blog. Also please don't tell my mom about it either.

Anyway to kick this thing off right we have a couple of links:

http://beernews.org/2009/08/dogfish-head-and-sierra-nevada-brewing-form-epic-collaboration-for-life-limb/

http://www.thebeerinme.com/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?5646.0

I didn't really have anything smarmy to say to put in place of those links so they just get a straight up nude posting here.

I for one am incredibly excited for November to roll around. Both of these breweries are some of the best in their league, for entirely different reasons of course. Sierra Nevada produces straight up class beer, that is to say its beer isn't anything crazy it's just damn good. It's one of the few good beers I can get in Grinnell that I still buy at home. The folks over at Sierra Nevada have been bolstering and encouraging the craft and micro brew industry for almost 30 years now and this collaboration is sure to open a new chapter in what is already a venerable brewstory (get it history + brewing? eh eh well fuck you it's a good joke).

As for Dogfish so much has already been said about how they're completely revolutionizing the industry, or trying to. While most of what has been written is true I can't say they're making much of an impact, which is something that New Yorker article I read last year also said. That aside I haven't had as much Dogfish as Sierra Nevada. I had the 90 minute IPA (that's 90 minutes of continual hopping, yeah it is way more than usual) once and it knocked me off my feet both in terms of taste and abv (9.0%). It is definitely not a beer for the casual beer drinker, but for the truly adventurous among us it is certainly a treat. Dogfish is doing all sorts of crazy stuff that has nothing to do with IPAs and for many years has been working on becoming more than just a novelty in the beer community.

I for one am excited about this collaboration, like most other people. You don't really see a lot of collaborative brews. If you can get your hands on it, Life&Limb (the 10% beer) comes out in November and Limb&Life (5%) comes out in October.

Here's a brief description of the 90 minute IPA:

2009-08-10T15:40:00.001-07:00

so this thing is dead, at least in the way I originally planned it. I was originally going to post pictures of people in Germany dancing, mostly because its funny but also because it's the kind of quirky idea that seems to dominate the blogosphere these days, or at least did when I formed my conception of the blogosphere (do people even say that anymore?).

Anyway I have changed my mind about this blog but have decided to keep the title because I like it. Instead I'm going to use this blog as a general non-project specific blog. Some of you may have read my other blog on blogspot, Ich steh' auf Berlin! which was about my experiences in Berlin for the spring semester of my Junior year. I may continue in the vein of project specific blogging in the future but for now nothing especially noteworthy is going on in my life. I stand at a key point in my life, I am about to leave that liminal state known as college that seperates the worlds of childhood and adulthood. I want to use this blog in part to record my experiences in dealing with the transition which has already begun to emerge in my mind if not necessarily my life. Apart from that I also realized that after years and years of having a livejournal I missed having a public place on the internet to write about my life, especially because I'm doing all sorts of neat stuff now. I wanted a place on the internet to just be me, without the expectation of a specific topic, such as life in Berlin (which to be honest is pretty banal to hear about sometimes when you don't have a lot of money, not that there's anything wrong with that) but that also didn't have the stigma of highschool poet turned full-fledged amateur whiner that is livejournal.

Thankfully I am not alone in my endeavors, my old friend Nathan recently relaunched his website in blog form and the results have been encouraging for me. Nathan found a fresh start with his website and now I've found mine with blogspot.

As for general topics, I plan on writing about the things I love like beer, music, food, grilling, the Astros, the Dynamo, my dog, German(y) and of course Grinnell.

I'm looking forward to writing in this thing fairly regularly, though like my Berlin blog updates will vary in frequency. If you want more regular contact I have facebook and email and a telephone.