Beer and football IX — playoffs, week four (bye)

The beer: Proclamation Derivative Vic Secret Pale Ale The commentary: Some people lose front teeth. Others lose old blog posts. (Transition: smooth.) My relationship with the Biff! Bang! words you’re reading is troubled, and if the Pats weren’t such a goddamn winning machine I might have signed off altogether following the Beefheart crowning achievement. It’s […]

Andy Dufresne and Anatoli Boukreev walk into a bar

Updated: January 1, 2020 Continuing, for some reason, to chronicle every book and short story I’ve read since The Lord of the Rings in the spring of 2017. Volume 1 (2017) | Volume 2 (2018) | “Selected readings from the Old Lady Book Club” Critical remarks are avoided while ratings are reserved for “Library Book Club” selections and other significant achievements/shame […]

Beer and football IX — playoffs, week three — AFC Championship

The game: Patriots at Chiefs The beer: Clown Shoes La Bestia Furiosa Mexican-Style Imperial Stout The result: Win, 37–31 The commentary: At eighty-eight miles per hour we copyedit last week’s thrilling conclusion: “With Edelman likely unsuccessfully neutralized I’m looking to James White, Sony Michel and Chris Hogan’s cloak of invisibility impressive athleticism and hands to […]

Don’t gimme no affliction: 25 years of “Moonlight on Vermont” and other bush recordings

“It’s very gratifying to say that Captain Beefheart’s [Trout Mask Replica] is a total success, a brilliant, stunning enlargement and clarification of his art. Which is not to say that it’s in any sense slick, ‘artistic’ or easy.” – Lester Bangs, Rolling Stone “If one is to enjoy Trout Mask Replica’s twenty-eight songs on a […]

Hey, how do I know, Connie?

This might be a June thing from now on. “June thirtieth” has a nice ring to it. June thirtieth, June thirtieth, noon girly plinth, poon whirling myth… let’s keep this short. (Too late.) If someone had told me in August 2005 when I drafted my first post—which had no resemblance whatsoever to what is purported […]

Tessie Hutchinson and Cancer Boy walk into a bar

Updated: January 1, 2019 Continuing, for some reason, to chronicle every book and short story I’ve read since The Lord of the Rings last spring. Volume 1 (2017) | “Selected readings from the Old Lady Book Club” Critical remarks are avoided while ratings are reserved for “Library Book Club” selections (noted in red to represent the spectre of […]

Beer and football VIII — playoffs, week one (bye)

The beer: Maine Mean Old Tom Stout The commentary: In honor of the MBTA refusing to look forward—with excuse-ridden complaints of “last week’s historic tidal surge” delaying and outright canceling countless commuter trains ever since—and also of Commissioner Rico finally paying out, here is the closing set of knockout-pool statistics that interest only me… and […]