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Showing posts from June, 2011

Lickspittle

  lick·spit·tle    noun  /ˈlikˌspitl/    lickspittles, plural     1. A person who behaves obsequiously to those in power   How did I survive this long in the era of Fox News without having used this word before.

Under Utilized Albums

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Over the years I've bought a lot of albums.  According to iTunes I have 536 albums and this doesn't count the music I've deleted nor the records, tapes and CDs that never made the move to digital. Within this collection of albums there are a lot of memories.  I can still remember flipping through albums at the record store in the Village Street plaza in Marblehead, looking at the endless possibilities and wondering what to buy.  With a little luck and the help of a school friend who played in a band I made some good choices that have stood the test of time. American Beauty, Physical Graffiti, Decade, Exodus. I've also bought my share of stinkers.  I'm not immune to the fashion of the day.  I bought a Loverboy album once.  I had a couple of Fog Hat albums.  I've also bought music to impress girlfriends and I freely admit I've bought more than one album just because the artwork looked cool. But this post wasn't inspired by albums that fit either of

Just watched: Falling Skies

Supposedly 'Falling Skies' is a new sci-fi series on TNT.  I say supposedly because I just watched it for 45 minutes and I saw nothing new at all.  It was one cliche leaped upon another with a dollop of trite military nostalgia added in for flavor.  Not a sprig of a fresh idea was to be found.  Barf. The whole post-apocalypse suburb genre is tired - I'm looking at you Walking Dead.  Using empty suburban sets has become the modern TV equivalent of the substituting the California desert for an alien planet.  Both scream budget constraint. And this being a Spielberg production it's all about the kids.  We gotta save the kids.  This is the sort of show that will add a cute robot in the second season - Biddi, biddi biddi.  No, wait that was another sci-fi hack job.  Forgive me, there's been so many they all run together. I admit a few minutes of satisfaction as the various troops of surviving humans marched out to raid the same grocery stores in central MA that I s

White Birch Tavern Ale

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After my American Craft Beer Fest experience that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago, I set out to try more of White Birch's beers.  I found a nice selection at Colonial Spirits in Acton and picked up one bottle each of Wrīgian, Dubbel, Belgian Style Pale, Hop Session and Tavern Ale. I drank them over a couple of weeks in that order.  I enjoyed each of them but none stood out till I tried the Tavern Ale.  I didn't think I was a fan of smoked beers but this brew has made me a convert.  I've tried a few German beers and some American smoked porters but hit the spot like this balanced brew.  The smoke was very noticeable but not overwhelming.  The malt sweetness nicely contrasted the smokiness. The name makes it sound like a weak session brew but this bad-boy has a bit of backbone.  It's not kick-you-in-head heavy but at just 8.0 ABV there's a punch. Unfortunately, Tavern Ale is not one of White Birch's regular brews so I don't know whether I'

When a Daredevil Dies

R.I.P. Ryan Dunn (Actor/Stuntman from Jackass, etc) but honestly I'm not surprised you're dead.  I'm more surprised that A. You lived as long as you did and B. More of your cohorts didn't precede you to the grave. Don't take me wrong.  I like risk takers.  They are a fun group.  I wish I had more guts to do some of the crap they do.  I'm just not surprised when they die. I can't even mourn that much for their friends and families.  A Daredevil seldom dies a tragic death.  It would have to be something really ironic for it to be tragic - like slipping on a banana peel.   A drunken, speeding car crash is not ironic.  On a scale of tragic deaths I'd say a Daredevil's (non ironic) falls somewhere between that of a Volunteer Soldier's and a Mercenary's. People had to have seen this coming - at least as a distinct possibility  They were delusional if they didn't.   When a loved one is living the lifestyle of an adrenaline junky you better

My Dad

In honor of Father's Day I sat down too write a post about my father, John Francis Lyons, who died in 1997 at the age of 78.  I figured it would be easy since he had such a strong impact on me; but I find I'm struggling.  In my memories the things that made him such a awesome Dad stretch across the years into a web that defines the shape of my youth but is made of such fine thread I can't find any single anecdote or story that does the man justice. I can tell you this.   Everyone called him Jack.  I don't think I ever heard someone call him John, my mother included. He was whip smart, a lot smarter than me.  He was a poor Cambridge kid who got a full boat  R.O.T.C. scholarship to M.I.T.  Graduated class of 41. He spent WWII in Panama defending the canal.   Even at a young age he had white/gray hair piercing blue eyes.  Women always commented that he looked like Henry Fonda. He loved to sail, hike and ski and dragged the family all over the place doing all thos

Just Watched: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

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This movie surprised me.  I had heard it was good but that's faint praise.  This movie was awesome.  It's funny, beautiful and unlike any other stop motion film I've seen.  I like animated films and they've certainly been enjoying a Renaissance lately, but I don't get as excited about them as a lot of my film buff friends.  I think Pixar does a nice job but I never like their films nearly as much as they do.  The one exception being Toy Story 3 which I loved (I've not seen Up yet but I have hopes for that too). The films of Hatao Miyazaki are also quite popular but I've seen so many and they all kind of mush together in my head.  Recently I tried to watch Ponyo and though the animation is stunning I found it rather boring and didn't finish watching it. So it was with this background that I sat down to watch Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I'm sure at some point previously I had heard it was directed by Wes Anderson but I didn't pick it up while watch

Some thoughts on Game of Thrones

I've been loving the HBO series Game of Thrones.  I'm bummed the season is almost over.  As a fan of the books I've been pleasantly surprised by the faithfulness of the adaptation.  Even though I know the overall story arc I'd forgotten enough of the details that I've been enjoying many fun moments of re-acquaintance as the story unfolds.  I'm going to be following the off season casting news of Stannis and Brienne of Tarth with great anticipation. As for the greater story, while reading some of the online chatter regarding the series and the books I stumbled upon a theory regarding Jon Snow's birth that I'd never entertained before.   If you enjoy speculating consider this.  Jon Snow is the child of  Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.  Ned never had an affair but instead was protecting his nephew from Robert Baratheon's wrath.  This means Lyanna probably loved Rhaegar and didn't want to marry Robert at all.   It makes perfect sense in so many

American Craft Beer Fest 2011

I attended the 2011, Saturday evening session of the American Craft Beer Fest at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston last night.   My session wasn't sold out but it was the largest crown I've seen.  This may have been because I usually go on Friday nights.  We changed over because last year there were quite a few booths where the brewers didn't arrive in time to setup.  I hear that was an issue again this year for at least one brewer but perhaps the tradeoff of shorter lines is worth it. I wasn't interested in standing in long lines to try beers I've already tasted from the major brewers so I spent my time among the lesser known and local companies.   I didn't keep notes so I'll just report on the brewers that had enough of an impact on me that I can remember their names. White Birch Brewing.  These Hooksett, N.H. guys are quickly rising on my list of favorite N.E. brewers.  They brew very small batch interesting beers.  I had a bottle of their Hook