bahl tuddies

2009-06-28T14:23:00.006-05:00

Saw the Gourds at Gruene Hall on Friday night. As always, a great show. It's really the perfect venue to see them in. They are self described as music for the unwashed and well read. The venue is the oldest operating dance hall in Texas. No a/c, just fans. Creaky wooden floors. Screen windows. Cheap beer... and a Texas heatwave. They did more covers than normal, including the bluegrass version of Michael Jackson's Don't Stop. What? Too soon? It was one of the more musically brilliant things I've heard recently. They have a new set of artwork for the band. As much of a nerd as I am, I just didn't see myself wearing the t-shirt, which is kinda' Conan the Barbarian meets Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and plays Dungeons & Dragons. Of course I got the bumper sticker, and "Luddite Juice" coozy. Here's the killer Gourd, you can imagine the rest:

On Saturday we worked our way out to the Real Ale Brewing Company 13th Birthday Party. On our way out we hit the new Wimberly Brewing Company for a taster. It's owned by a former SF 49er, Bruce Collie. Unfortunately, I've got to say I'm not impressed.

That's the beers in order. The one that they don't make, is the Real Ale Fireman's #4. Second from the left. You'll notice that it's the only clear one. I don't mind the hefeweizen being cloudy, but most of the rest should be clear. So, here's the blow by blow:

The hefeweizen: Actually, it's not too bad. I'm not a huge wheat beer fan, but it's a decent hot weather beer. Not the SN Kellerweis by any means, but not bad.

Fireman's #4: This is a good light drinking beer by Real Ale Brewing Company. Balanced, not over hopped. Not made by WBC.

The "transitional": He should be embarassed to serve this. Kill it. Kill it with fire. Now! This doesn't even qualify as a bad homebrew. Tons of lactobacter, maybe some acetobacter also. Yuck. Use it as feed for a compost heap. I couldn't take more than a few sips.

The Sunset Blonde: Meh. It's a little sweet. Drinkable I suppose, but again he's got issues with the clarity of his beers.

The IPA: Again with the cloudiness (see below). Beyond that it's seriously off balance with the hops. It seems like he used hops that would be good for aroma and floral notes as bittering hops. It needs a good dryhopping and some lower note bittering hops. I love super hoppy beers, but this is way off. The malts seem o.k., but it's ruined by the way he chose to hop it.

The Porter: This is actually their best beer. It's got some good chocolate flavor. I have to wonder given the rest of the beers whether he got this one right by accident.

I really hope he gets his act together, as I love breweries and want to see them succeed. I think he's a homebrewer with a lot of money. I don't think he actually knows how to brew all that well, or at least he hasn't figured out how to upscale a homebrew setup to a business operation. He needs to hire a good brewer and let them have at it. It's not really here nor there, but he apparently has 13 kids. The oldest is 16. Do the math. That poor woman. He needs to spend more time brewing and less time fucking.

Then it was on to Real Ale Brewing Company. The word of the day was HOT! It was a fun event, but they need to rent a few more tents for an event like this. The owners and brewers were all friendly. We took a brewery tour with their head brewer (Eric "the Tyrant"). There were some over zelaous homebrewers in the crowd, and it was the end of the day, so he got a little sidetracked, but it was fun. There is no such thing as too much stainless steel.

The Rio Blanco Pale Ale was good as always. I got to taste a couple of brews I haven't seen in bottles. I hope their Lost Gold IPA ends up in bottles, because it is the awesome. For now, it's only on draught. Best beer of the day. Up there with the best. They had a dark german wheat-rye that was decent (Dunkleroggen) which was pretty good. Also only on draught. Maybe I needed a lemon wedge with it. The 13th Anniversary Ale is a Belgian, and I guess it's good for a Belgain, but they aren't my thing. I missed out on two of their cask ales, which sucked. I was looking forward to that. All in all, it was a good party, and I'm glad they are doing well.

2009-06-26T18:08:00.003-05:00

So we've been having more than a bit of a heat wave. That means summer beer. I'm not generally a wheat beer fan, but the Sierra Nevada Kellerweis may be the best hot weather beer going. Not overhopped. A little flat in the finish, but its a wheat. That's how they are supposed to be.

The Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock is pretty good. A bit more malty than I like without much floral hops. Still a nice hot weather and easily drinkable beer.

I generally like the Mendocino Brewery beers, and I've liked the White Hawk in the past, but either this batch wasn't treated right or there is some variability. I recalled it having more floral hops, but all I got was the bittering hops on tasting these.

From failblog.org:

2009-06-01T15:39:00.006-05:00

Update: Well, apparently, MTV didn't like people posting their video... That didn't take long. As a replacement I give you "Guido Beach", just in-case anyone wonders why I might have a problem with New Jersey (family members not withstanding). I claim no heritage from that shit-hole. The last minute is pure comedy gold.

Now fixed with the link from MTV...

Sacha Baron Cohen as Bruno at the MTV awards. Eminem is so pissed off he leaves the arena. Brilliant. This should happen to all homophobes...

Update #2: Maybe it was staged, but it's still funny...

MTV Shows

2009-05-26T01:52:00.004-05:00

I just found out yesterday was Towel Day, in honor of Douglas Adams. Read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Every year on May 25th. Carry your towel with you. Why?

A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you - daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

- Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Happy Towel Day!

2009-05-21T22:37:00.001-05:00

wow...

2009-05-17T12:41:00.001-05:00

Because it never gets old:

2009-04-13T14:07:00.001-05:00

It'll get you drunk! (in that 70's style...)

2009-03-19T18:33:00.000-05:00

File this under "had his mind on other things"...

2009-02-26T15:40:00.002-06:00

Maybe I haven't ruined my ears with the years of rock'n'roll....

Created by Train Horn

2009-02-26T15:29:00.004-06:00

And she's a nerd too.... Neko Case's new album comes out on March 3. Get yourself a listen here. The final track is 30 minutes of frog chirping. Redhead. Cusses like a sailor. Nerd. She's my celebrity crush.

2009-02-25T19:17:00.004-06:00

More poky things....

Local wildlife....(Gray Fox)

Yes, there are live armadillos sometimes....

If you are ever driving through West, TX you need to stop here. The Czech Stop. Its about 30 min north of Waco on IH35. It's a little Czech community, of which there are many in Texas. The Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner is another Czech institution. (Shiner Bock for those familiar with Texas). The Czech and Germans were some of the first immigrants to the area. There are often two types of breakfast road food in Texas: either tacos, or kolaches. In West they do kolaches and all of the assorted pastry dishes. They do more sweet kolaches than many places, but they do plenty of sausage and cheese in a baked dough. They also sell a lot of summer sausage. I forget when I found this place. I think it was when I lived in Bonham, and was coming back from a bike race in Waco. Go. On a busy travel weekend there will be a line around the building.

2009-02-24T23:37:00.008-06:00

Don't give me any shit. I know it's empty. It is that good. The Hacienda Sotol mescal is the best cactus squeezin's going. It's better than any premium tequila and much cheaper. Seriously, if you can find it, try it. It WAS their añejo, but the blanco and reposado are both good in their own right, too. Sotol generally has a bit of a bad name, as do most mescals. It is made very similarly to tequila, but from a different cactus. Remember, tequila is a mescal also. It's an appelation (mostly from the state of Jalisco) and requirement that it be from a specific cactus (Blue agave). Sotol is just a different agave from a different region (Chihuahua). Definitely on point.

The Basil Hayden's is a nice drinkable bourbon, and is currently my favorite. It's strong without being overbearing. A somewhat scotch like bourbon.

Zaya is my favorite premium rum. It's from Guatemala. It's a little sweet, but not too much so. Very smooth. It's for drinking, not for mixing. It's in the same league as the Barbancourt 15 or the Fleur de Caña 12.

Believe it or not, Texas makes some good vodkas. I'm not really a vodka drinker, but I like Tito's. It has beaten much more expensive vodkas in taste tests. I think it's grain based and not potato based, which is somewhat of a heresy, but it's vodka. It's not supposed to taste like anything except clean alcohol goodness.
There is also the Dripping Springs vodka, which is a little more rough around the edges. Sometimes, that's a good thing.

2009-02-15T12:57:00.003-06:00

Apparently, the Russians invented break-dancing sometime around 1918... That, or Run DMC figured out time travel...

mash-ups are so much fun...

2008-12-26T21:20:00.005-06:00

We had a small dinner for the baby jebus day. I don't go much for the holiday, but I do love the food. If you are tired of dry cornbread I have two tips: 1) Cook it in a cast iron, and 2) use this recipie: Texas Home Cooking, Jalapeño Cornbread (Jamison and Jamison, 1993, p. 318). It needs no extra oil or butter. It's moist. It's cheesy. It's full of sweet corn. It's yummy. It's the best stuff ever.

I did up a duck for dinner. It came out fucking awesome. I just put some lime, and sage in the body cavity, and surrounded the quacker with red and fingerling potatoes, carrots, shallots, and chicken stock. I did it in the cast iron so that I could use the drippings for gravy, which may be the most wonderful gravy ever. Before:

During:

After 3 hours:

I don't have any pics of the gravy, or Naomi's avacado pie, but they were amazing. It's a good thing I don't eat like this all the time....

As if a picture of gravy would be any good....

2008-12-20T14:25:00.003-06:00

I was out in the field last week, and most of the fish we caught were about this size. This was a darter from the San Gabriel River. I forget exactly what species.

Then we got this one. This was a 1m flathead catfish that we got in a shallow little eddy. It doesn't seem like a river this size should have very many of these. The pics below are of it's mouth, which was huge, and of the little sunfish which was nearly eaten. I would have liked to get a sample from him, but I couldn't bring myself to take this fish for the less than 5 grams of sample that I needed. I should have clipped the adipose fin, but didn't think of it in time...

At the final site for this week's sampling, we found this. What would 14 boxes of pseudoephedrine, with no more than two boxes of any given brand be used for? Hmmm, I wonder. Meth anyone? I will not miss Tehuacana Creek. I feel violated every time I go there.

There's something in the water in Waco (well lithium, but I'm not so sure there isn't something else). I can see a West and South or East and North, or another combination of 90° off direction highways. But really, North and South on the same stretch of road, when you are travelling either due North or South?

2008-12-17T18:50:00.003-06:00

Back in the dark ages, when I rode a BMX bike, this shit wasn't even dreamed of. Check out about 3:15 in where he pulls off a front flip-tail whip. Insane.

2008-12-04T23:07:00.010-06:00

We are in the middle of a drought here in central Texas. A bad one. They keep putting rain 4-5 days out in the forecast. Maybe 5 drops fall out of the sky. Last summer not withstanding (where it rained almost every day in June and July) we are approaching the drought of the '50s.
That red in the middle of the state. That's us. We've gotten about 6" all year. Normal is about 35". And people insist on watering their lawns...

One of the good things about a Texas drought in the fall and winter is the great weather. I've recently been able to find the time to go mountain biking for first regular time in a couple of years. It turns out that there are a few nice trails here in San Marcos. We've got our own version of the Austin Greenbelt. The last couple of weeks have been amazing.

One of the nicer spots on the Upper Purgatory Creek greenbelt

It varies from wide open

To fun through the trees

Back to the open...

In and out, tight and twisty...

Then there are the rocky sections. Yes there's a trail there. There was a time when I'd work on riding that. Not so much anymore.

Oh, and it's Texas, so there are the requisite poky things. It's not a teddy bear cholla, but it wouldn't feel good...

Fall in Texas...

I helped get Kris a bike earlier this year and we actually got her out on a trail that didn't bite her. This is on an un-named trail in town.

A view from the ridge over the Hill Country. There's lots of rocks out there. Not a lot of trail, but a lot of rock.

I may have to start climbing again, Purgatory has a bouldering area. It may turn into the San Marcos Dualathon. Or better yet the San Marcos Tri: mountain bike, climb, float the river.

So far I've found three areas to ride in town. Another couple of weeks and I may shoot for a Sunday trifecta ride....

Hooray Beer!

2008-11-25T22:24:00.007-06:00

Now that the political season is over, it's time for other interests... Here is what I've been drinking lately:

Lagunitas Censored Ale = Dangerously good. It's a great copper ale. Not too sweet. Not over-hopped for the style. Yummy.

Deschutes Brewing Company Black Butte Porter: Nectar of the Gods. This is the best porter EVER. Period. Perfectly balanced. Not too heavy. Recently available in Texas. Now if we can just get AVBC into the state...

Another CA beer recently available in Texas. It's a good example of a Marzen. I'm not sure what makes it different than a Bock, but it sure goes down nice.

It's for a good cause, so I had to pick up a sixer. They are a relatively new brewery out of Fort Worth. A portion of the proceeds goes to protection of endangered and native species. The Texas Blind Salamander is both, and local to where I live. It's o.k., a little sweet and underhopped for my tastes. I want a pale ale to have some bite. Maybe I'm spoiled by my time in NorCal, but Sierra Nevada is a proper pale. It's almost has a belgain flavor with how underhopped it is. Don't be afraid of the hops!

There are a few really good Texas beers which I will get to at some point (Real Brewing Company, Independence Brewing Company, St. Arnolds) and some which I won't since they only serve at the brewery or at bars (wierd Texas laws... Live Oak, North by Northwest, Draught Horse...) and believe it or not, Texas makes awesome vodka (Tito's, Dripping Springs...)

Happy drinking...

2008-11-04T23:42:00.004-06:00

'nuff said.

I believe this is from stevemb. If someone knows who to give credit to, I'll gladly correct.

2008-10-17T20:33:00.003-05:00

I don't know where this one came from, but Obama as Lebowski... Brilliant.

2008-10-09T11:27:00.004-05:00

I've been buried in school so haven't posted anything for a while.
Got this off of DailyKos. I think it summarizes the race pretty well.

2008-06-16T22:56:00.004-05:00

So, I hate the horror movies like The Saw or Hostel. Gratuitous violence is not my thing. However, I do like a good sci-fi thriller or something so campy that it's funny, and as such, I was really hoping the new M. Night. Shyamalan movie, The Happening, would be good. It's not. At all. I'm glad he got away from his twist at the end, but at least Unbreakable was fun. If you have even the slightest bit of scientific knowledge, then you will be nothing but frustrated by it. Is it a plant revolt? Is it the government? Fucking tell a story. Groan. Plants don't cause wind. Plants don't "evolve" on command. arrrrrgh.

2008-05-29T08:18:00.004-05:00

Finally, a biofuel that doesn't use food crops: Sapphire Energy uses algae to make "green crude" which can be refined to gasoline or diesel, and unlike other biofuels the green crude can be shipped in existing pipelines. Read about it here or here. Competition with agricultural land is one of the problems with standard biofuels. That, and even cellulosic ethanol requires growing large stands of switchgrass, which is a highly invasive non-native plant in most areas. I don't know how much dinojuice could be replaced with this process, but it is a start, and should have the potential to be upscaled more than other biofuels.

Since $5/gallon gas isn't that far off, maybe people will start driving less. I think it is going to fundamentally change how we live. Much of the development in the US has been in exburb sprawl. At $5/gal. people will have to live closer to work, and consider other forms of transportation. It screws people who live in rural areas, and those that have to drive, but for the vast majority of people who have made the choice to commute 40-100 miles per day because housing was cheap in the exburbs, it changes that choice, and urban center areas are going to be a lot more desirable, even if there isn't the same amount of space. Europe has been living this way for years. Now is not the time to own in a bedroom community. I think it will fundamntally change San Marcos. Currently we've got just shy of 30K students. The school plans for a full 30K within 5 years. Right now, at least 30% of the undergraduates commute from Austin or San Antonio. That's not going to be economically feasible anymore. Rentals are going to be a hot commodity. Maybe it will get more people in this town out of their SUV's and onto bikes. I think it's already happening... I see more bikes here than I did 3 years ago.

2008-05-23T10:21:00.002-05:00

I know this is old, but fuck it's funny. Shakira and "Danzig" mashup....

Digging out....

2008-05-22T18:37:00.002-05:00

Whew. I am one (re)signature away from the M.S. The graduate college approved my thesis earlier today, but because they didn't like the fact that I put "Dr." in front of my committee member's names on the signature pages I have to get it resigned. I've got all of the signatures except one committee member. He'll be back on Tuesday. Maybe now I can get back to things like working on the house and riding my bike. I'm already starting work on my PhD project, and I have a NSF fellowship going in. This means I don't have to teach labs (which I do actually enjoy, but is time consuming) I do have about 15hrs per week commitment for the fellowship, but it's for more money and less hours than teaching at the university. Actually, I will be teaching, but it will be working with high school teachers and students, and I won't be grading or dealing with discipline. The teacher I'm paired with is already almost done with her MS in Biochemistry, so it will be mostly working with her to work on better ways to get students excited about science.

Anyways what this means is that I actually have a weekend off. I'll be spending the summer doing fieldwork, reading, and developing my PhD project with my advisor, at least on an educational level. The rest of the time I hope to spend riding my bike and climbing. Hopefully, I can also make it to my cousin's wedding and my 20yr high school reunion. Maybe even a vacation, although I do have to deal with a seminar class associated with the NSF grant over the summer. Maybe I'll even make a non-political post or two.