A quick history of beer in America
February 14, 2012
I haven’t posted anything about beer on here in a while. If you know me or have read this blog for a while, you know that I’m a homebrewer. I also love to evangelize craft beer as much as possible, because the typical American palate for beer is pitifully narrow and ignorant of all the amazing styles the world has to offer. The mass-produced, cheap style known to most Americans is known as “American adjunct lager.” The style uses a lot of corn and rice to cut down on the amount of barley used, and very minimal hopping. (Budweiser, Miller Lite, Coors Light, etc…) It’s way too fizzy, watered down and bland for anyone who’s been introduced to the world of craft beer to enjoy. Once you taste REAL beer, you’ll never go back. So my message is this: go forth and find craft beer. It’s everywhere, even in convenience stores. It’s WELL worth the money. Here’s a quick, well-illustrated video that gives you a rundown of the history of brewing in America.
Kepler finds earth-sized alien planets/Some amazing volcano photos
December 21, 2011
Credit: NASA
The Kepler team at NASA announced yet another exciting discovery yesterday: the first confirmed earth-size alien planets, Kepler 20f and 20e. The mission has found other exoplanets that pretty close to earth-size, but these two are by far the closest yet. What really befuddled me about this announcement was that that in addition to those two smaller, rocky worlds, there are three bigger gas-giant or super-earths in this system as well. No only that, but all five of these exoplanets’ orbits would fit inside our own Mercury’s orbit around our sun! That’s a lot of planets crammed into a tiny area! Of course that also means that these planets are scorching hot- far too hot to be habitable. But, it’s very reassuring to confirm that Kepler can positively identify alien planets that are earth-size and even tad bit smaller (Kepler 20e is about 87% the size of earth). As usual, Dr. Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy has a very good explanation of the whole thing. And I’ll also point you toward this article on space.com about the likelihood of us finding a true earth-twin within the coming year.
And now I will simply tell you to go take a look at this amazing set of volcano photographs and have a a few eyegasms. You’re welcome.
Monday videos: cats and space
November 14, 2011
Few words today, simply two videos to entertain you for different reasons.
HD timelapse footage of earth from the International Space Station. This has been making the rounds on the interwebs already, so you’ve probably seen it, but it’s just too good not to post. The city lights combined with the aurorae make this simply jaw-dropping/drool-inducing. Be sure to set HD to “on” and make it fullscreen!
And now let us take a quick look into the exciting new world of “catvertising”…
(Via yewknee’d)
Closet Case Vintage fall/winter 2011 lookbook
October 4, 2011
Take a gander at yet another impressive video/photo lookbook put together by Seth Graves (video) and Bradley Spitzer (photo) for my friend Carmen who runs Closet Case Vintage here in Nashville:
The whole deal with photos and all can be seen on the CCV blog. Among the models involved is the lovely Nikki Lane, who I just photographed performing at the Basement last friday for the Scene. I haven’t had a chance to check out her album yet, but her live show was quite impressive. She has a good “neo-classic” (to steal a phrase from the Spin review) country voice and a cast of Nashville indie/Americana staple players backing her up. Keep an eye and an ear on this one.
Burgers Fall 2011 Mixxxx is here
September 20, 2011
My Fall 2011 mixtape has arrived. This one’s a little longer than the last few but I had a lot of great new tracks, as well as some older gems that I recently dug up, to throw in there. I couldn’t resist the urge to kick it off with the new Sammy “Saxy” Bananas’ saxtastic remix of Chromeo’s hit “When The Night Falls.” Clearly the artwork reflects that. 😉 And dammit, just when I think I’m gonna be able to squeeze out a mixtape that doesn’t include Bit Funk, he goes and releases a masterpiece like “Rap Music.” I give up. The man can do no wrong. Also included is Viceroy’s brand-spankin’ new disco house banger “No Ending.” Enjoy:
Tracklist:
Chromeo-When The Night Falls (Sammy Saxy Bananas RMX)
Kimbra-Cameo Lover (GLOVES RMX)
Stephanie Mills-Put Your Body In It (Gigamesh RMX)
Chic-Le Freak (Le Principle Brooklyn Fire RMX)
Mustang-Shooting Love (FAT Club Mix)
Midnight Star-No Parking On The Dancefloor
Bastille-Wide Open
Makeup & Vanity Set-Charles Park (Disco Version)
Bag Raiders-Sunlight (GLOVES RMX)
Together Robots-Heaven (Death In Paris 1983 RMX)
Bit Funk-Rap Music
Viceroy-No Ending
Craze-Dance Alone (Ft. Wreckonize)
Flight Facilities-Foreign Language (Extended Mix)
Two amazing pieces of imagery
August 22, 2011
- Good design can be defined different ways, but it almost always means organizing and presenting information in an engaging and/or innovative manner. The Weather Wheel created by Bard Edlund is an outstanding example of this, and I dare you to not stare at it for at least 10 minutes. (Hint: the size of the blue dots changes to represent how much rain the given city recieves, the orange circle’s intensity represents temperature, and the speed at which the arrow passes by the city represents how much wind it gets.) Via Kottke.org
- Cinemagraphs are photographs in which one small part of the image is animated to create continuous motion. This new technique creates surreal and sometimes slightly creepy images the blur the line between video and still photography. The technique is being pioneered by photographers Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. Fascinating.
What’s up this weekend?
May 20, 2011
There is not shortage of good music to see this weekend in Nashville. Here’s what made a blip on my radar.
FRIDAY:
Social Distortion w/ Chuck Ragan and Sharks @ the Ryman. 8pm. $35
John Vanderslice w/ Damien Jurado @ the Basement. 9pm $12
SATURDAY:
Bad Cop, The Growlers, Majestico, Mom & Dad @ The End. 9pm $5 (Certain out-of-town media will be there filming, so… you know, it’ll be the place to be.)
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. w/ Generationals @ the Basement. 9pm $10
Mogwai w/ Errors @ Exit/In. 9pm $18 adv/$20 DoS
Another few things to note:
–Musician’s Corner in Centennial Park is off to a good start for its second year of existence.
-fEASTival is a new FREE food/music/art festival being held this Saturday the 21st in the 5 Points area of East Nashville. Check out their website for a list of yummy food vendors, beer vendors, and stage lineup which includes such notables as Majestico, Cheer Up Charlie Daniels, the Grayces, and Tiffany. Yes, THAT Tiffany… who a) apparently lives in Nashville now? b) recently starred alongside Debbie Gibson in Megan Python Vs. Gatoroid c) is now doing country music. Whoa.
Have a great weekend!
It may take many more days before NWS survey teams can finish their assessment of the damage from the April 27th tornado outbreak, but being the weather nerd that I am, I want to go ahead and share a collection of links where you can find preliminary reports on the tracks and intensities of some of the many twisters that touched down. Note that there is at least one EF-5 (the highest intensity with winds over 200 mph) tornado confirmed, and there could be more upgraded to that status as more damaged is inspected. NWS Memphis survey– covering parts of northern Mississippi. NWS Jackson, MS survey. NWS Hunstville, AL survey. NWS Morristown, TN survey. And finally, this graphic from the NWS Birmingham, AL survey. The most complete graphic I’ve seen:
So that’s the bad. Please make a donation to the American Red Cross or any other legitimate organization providing relief for those devastated by this natural disaster. Now for some good things to lighten the mood.
I will call the news of Osama bin Laden’s assassination good, but I certainly will never rejoice the death of any human being. While I am relieved somewhat, and do feel that justice has been done, I’m quite certain that the assassination itself as well as the celebrations will only give the rest of al-Qaeda even more reason to attack the US and its allies.
In even better and much much much lighter news, Moustache May has begun its final year of activity. I participated back in 2008 and am doing so again this year. Due to some very important meetings happening last week at my work, I was unable to start my stache until Friday, so I’m basically starting with a clean slate. Right now I look utterly creepy but hopefully we’ll get past that stage very soon as it fills in.
I came across this absolutely amazing new music video for the Supermen Lovers’ track “Take A Chance” and decided that it was the best thing to end this post with. Enjoy. (Via Too Many Sebastians)
Burgers: Spring 2011 Mixxxx
March 7, 2011
I decided to release my spring mix a little early, mainly to coincide with this weekend’s 80’s/robot themed La Paz Late Night– ROBO BOOGIE. Plus, we can all agree that spring could use a little encouragement to get the fuck HERE. This mix has a deliberate 80s tinge, for obvious reasons. Enjoy/download:
Tracklist:
Gabriell-Giovanotty
Golden Bug/Rodion ft. Lavina Claws-Washing Machine (Bottin’s Spin Cycle)
Breakbot-Shades of Black
Talking Heads-Girlfriend is Better (Bit Funk Edit)
Jensen Sportag-Everything Good
The Human League-Never Let Me Go (Aeroplane RMX)
Chilly Gonzales-You Can Dance (Robotaki RMX)
Cassian-Getting High
Tyson-Die on the Dancefloor (Mickey RMX)
Yelle-Safari Disco Club (HLM RMX)
If you’re a Nashvillian you no doubt know about the massive snowball fight that occurred in Centennial Park Monday night. Snow is somewhat of rarity around here, so the young (and the young at heart) never miss the chance to enjoy it. Luckily technology has advanced to the point that it’s quite easy to make gorgeous imagery, both still photography and film, even in such low-light conditions. Behold this awesome slo-mo video created by Winston Hearn. I know, I know, using a Jonsi song is so obvious for slo-mo footage of hipsters throwing snowballs… but it really hits the perfect mood and sometimes you have to throw the snark out window and enjoy something for what it is.
I must also mention the great set of photos from the event taken by Lance Conzett over on Dixie Downturn.
In other news, local indie rock/punk staple club The End has finally joined the 21st century and gotten a website. You can also pre-order tickets to some select shows. As much as we Nashville rock promoters/musicians love owner Bruce Fitzpatrick, the guy is very old-school. The venue has been around for 30 some years, and as far as I know, he’s been the owner the whole time. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong about that.) I’m just happy that it’s now relatively easy to see who’s playing there and when. (Via the Cream)
Nashville’s Dead became a bonafide record label a few months ago, and their first two releases are now up on the webstore. They are both 7″ singles, one by Useless Eaters and the other by The Paperhead (formerly known as The Looking Glass). (Via Nashville’s Dead)
steve cross loves music and science 