Pale Ale with a Snobby Aftertaste

As if Lauren Neighbor weren't reason enough to want a beer, allow the New York Times and some French guy to further whet your palate. (Those who don't speak French will find the Altavista translator particularly illuminating. An exerpt: "On the lips already this sparkling gold, freshness amplified by scum, then slowly on the palate happiness filtered of bitterness. How it seems long, the first mouthful!"..)

Remember that the South Street Seaport Music Festival starts tonight. If the rain holds out, Ollabelle at 7 sounds like a perfect opportunity to experience freshness, amplified by scum.

bizoston

I'm outtie. I'm bouncin', like I did from the bar I went to last night called bounce. It's aptly named after a key movement of a key attribute of the waitstaff, but it might also be called "biznatch," for all the dudes in business suits, or "b. to the o." for that one guy who stank. I bounced to a bar closer to home called copperfields which has a delightful selection of beers and a bartender with a penchant for giving you other peoples bills and accusing you of underpaying. Among the fine selection one finds several brews from Goose Island of Chicago Illllanois (shout out to Craig, who I'm sure is reading angrily).

But seriously, I'm going to Boston today for the weekend. It's going to be too hot here, and my wonderful cousin is having a graduation party which should prove to be a raucous family affair. I had an interesting week, with some poker (came out even), some smoozing with important rich people (came out ahead), and some electrodes attatched to my head for money (I'm not prepared to assess this experience). As always there were many fascninating people in distress who are unfortunately dying of cigarettes they smoked in younger days.

Next week the bloggers should meet up for a drink (virtually). No, I mean in real life, even if only 2/3rds can show up. We can even invite neighbor lauren, though she does live at 410.

Sharing Is Caring

They say even a broken clock is right twice a day. Today's 20% chance of showers has turned into a 100% chance of me waiting out a thunderstorm instead of biking to class, nearly convincing myself that the storm has had its fun before another cloud bursts and puts me 5 more minutes away from leaving (not unlike the thunderclaps/distant trucks that we'd listen for as lifeguards, accumulating the 20-minute delays until we could summarily close the pool for the day). I've taken this time to track down a song from the Decemberists' recently completed tour, The Advance of the Picaroons. The track is a cover of Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights" and features a solo vocal performance by Petra Haden, otherwise known as the Decemberists' violinist. Ross and I and others saw the song performed on May 26th at the Warsaw in Brooklyn; this recording was taken from an NPR webcast on May 6th.

The Decemberists - Wuthering Heights (Live)

2-for-Tuesday

I have it on high authority (Mikey, and corroborated by some newspaper in Ohio) that in celebration of the Summer Solstice (it's today, y'all...how high the sun) Chipotle is giving away free burritos when you buy one. They're clever about it, too, so you don't have to cram the iconic silver torpedo in your pocket until you're hungry again. Your receipt from today's purchase will garner mas burritos anytime before Sunday. Find your nearest Chipotle here, for those unhappy suckers who don't already know. (Incidentally, Burritoville's giving away absolutely nothing today, but their site still rocks that spicy intro.)

There's a two-for-one sale on male sexuality these days as well. It's a good thing a smart logo and tight posts don't make a blog gay-vague, or we'd be forced to start posting about sports. "The jeans were right, the loafers were right, and he had a good body," she recalled. "But the shirt was completely untucked, and I think it was Old Navy." Google t-shirts were safe, until Urchin came out in camo...

A sommelier, Ross?

A sommelier, Ross? Not only did I learn that it has nothing to do with somnolents and somnambulates, but I can also buy them cheap (now!) on eBay. So I'm learneding -- what's your "school" got on me now?

Also. A sommelier? I do not think it means, what you think it means.. You're more of a wine steward.

The Next Big Thing

I proudly introduce to the electronic world Ian Chin, a bright shining star waiting to explode. If you've ever wondered what would happen if a 15-year old Chinese-American with a flair for musical theater was pent up at a military academy in Georgia for a year, the following track will satisfy your curiosity. From The Mrs. McGee Soundtrack, please enjoy Let's Go Buy a Drink. (Click to play, right-click to download.)

Dan's new picture

What is Dan doing in his blogo-picture? After much deliberation, I've settled on this theory: He's manipulating a crab.

An Image From The Mordecai "Three-Finger" Brown State Park of Dreams, Like Waterfalls, Fallen

Hot News

If blogging is an art, its muse must be television.

I was doing a little bit of musing yesterday (during my Ulysses lunch-induced coma) when I saw what could be the most important thing to happen to your microwave since electricity made sense of it. Be prepared. Clear your schedule for the weekend. Hot Pockets makes subs.

US House Hates Bush

In a move that will hopefully be seen as a harbinger of hostility to come, the House of Representatives today voted to strike down a part of the PATRIOT Act that allowed investigators access to library records of suspected enemies of the people. While it never bothered me that some government official could know that I've had The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on loan since mid-November, this does explain why Vehicle-Borne Explosive Devices for Dummies has been gathering so much dust lately. (see IHT for PATRIOT act info, Random House for Pants.)

WHAT PARALLEL COURSES MIGHT ITHACA HAS GORGES FOLLOW COMMEMORATING?

From Ulysses, Episode 17, Ithaca:

What anagrams had he made on his name in youth?

Leopold Bloom
Ellpodbomool
Molldopeloob.
Bollo edoom
Old Ollebo, M. P.

What acrostic upon the abbreviation of his first name had he (kinetic poet) sent to Miss Marion Tweedy on the 14 February 1888?

Poets oft have sung in rhyme
Of music sweet their praise divine.
Let them hymn it nine times nine.
Dearer far than song or wine,
You are mine. The world is mine.


Have a couple of pints (in Ross' case, a few rounds of medical examination) and respond in kind in the comments section. Our names are very anagrammatic.

Save The Peking

This year's Seaport Music Festival lineup is now posted here. It's a lot like Bonnaroo without the mud and stink, plus this one comes in eminently manageable doses. (A dictionary.com search of "managable" asks me, "Did you mean mana gable?," then informs me that mana gable isn't a word either, idiot.) Saw a pint-sized Erin McKeown perform last year and commented that she's a little firecracker; Mikey describes former New Schooler Sufjan Stevens' show last year as "haunting." (He's hung over, and Bob Barker's been 'haunting' him for the past hour..)

The critical information: outdoors, free, sea-cooled. I'm penciling in Ollabelle and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Gothamist interview here). Any thoughts on the rest of the lineup? Anyone up for repainting the side of the boat to reflect the more culturally sensitive "Beijing"?

4 NYC Eyez Only!

Y'heard Nate? Just look away.

As the literary bastard inside all of us knows (and has known for weeks, please) Thursday marks the celebration of 101 years of Bloomsday. I've looked through my schedule, and as it's a day ending in -ay I should be completely free. I'll be making my way downtown to Ulysses, ideally in time to hear Colum McCann. Quit your jobs and join me. Note the complimentary beverages.

"...and sure, we ought really to rest thankful that at this deleteful hour of dungflies dawning we have even a written on with dried ink scrap of paper at all to show for ourselves, tare it or leave it." ~James Joyce, Finnegan's Wake

where my bloggaz at?

At least two third of the constituency of this site doesn't have a proper job, and the other one third works in a crazy, multi-colored fun zone. Blog damn you! Blog!

Here's a topic. Cornell's new president (who I considered to be the bomb-shizzle) resigned in a very abrupt and dramatic manner calling out the board of trustees. He sited a difference of opinion with the board over how to achieve the same long term visions, but here's an explanation that might align with Dan's current course of study. It's from a poster on the Daily Sun's webpage:

"In Lehman's defense. Last year I heard Lehman wanted Cornell to go on record against anti-gay discrimination by military recruiters on campus, but Meinig said no, because that might annoy conservative friends in Washington and having a lesbian provost was already more than enough. Whether true or not, it's probably not enough to resign over, but it shows who really runs this university. Meinig is bad news for the university, and his central role in Enron II doesn't help.

Meinig was on the board, and even on the audit committee of Williams, the Tulsa energy company when it was using Enron type lies to prop up its stock just long enough for the insiders to make a bundle on their stock options. When the company crashed a couple years later, it wiped out thousands of jobs and pension funds, threw Tulsa into a tailspin, and there have been billions of dollars of law suits against Meinig and other insiders from lenders, investors, and former employees over the fraud. Meinig is not the only problem case Lehman has to deal with. Cornell Medical School Chief Trustee (and namesake) Sandy Weil's company, Salomon Smith Barney, was one of Williams' investment bankers, and it has paid out over a billion dollars in law suits for giving inflated stock ratings on Williams and a few other companies to prop up their values.

All this mutual back-scratching with no regard for the law or ethics is bad enough in industry, but even a 140 year old world class university can be destroyed by these kinds of games. I don't see how Cornell can possibly hire a competent president until someone breaks up that clique of businessmen that have been running Cornell with their above-the-law attitudes. The university needs a real board of trustees, not the huge 60 member board it has now, where the few people with the real power are the ones that shouldn't have any.

JS"

What's going on in Ithaca/New York/Qatar/China?

how do we overcome?

http://nytimes.com/2005/06/14/politics/14heritage.html

the 408 411

First things first. We need profiles.