Beer and football VIII — week thirteen

The game: Patriots at Bills The beer: Long Trail Ale The result: Win, 23–3; Chargers win, 19–10 The commentary: Nothing more about the knockout pool until people start getting knocked out again. Three straight weeks at eleven with the playoffs likely coming into play? Gimme a break. In the spirit of “nothing,” I’m a bad […]

Beer and football VII — week fourteen

The game: Ravens at Patriots The beer: Northampton Conundrum Black Lager The result: Win, 30–23 The commentary: It’s always satisfying to beat up on the Ravens. This was a blowout all the way—those fluky fumbles had me emailing my dad the next day with an understated “It would have been a tough one to get […]

What the shit was and what wasn’t the shit

There are forty-eight planets and moons in our solar system and one hundred ninety-five visible stars in the universe. And there it is. Longtime readers (!) tripped up by last year’s abbreviated playlist, tallying “only” thirty-six songs at a brisk two and three-quarter hours—and down almost three thousand words from 2014—will surely find comfort in […]

In which we multiply by three and divide by four

This may be my shortest playlist essay yet (“more probable than not”). I poured everything into those goddamn Super-Biffys after we lost Chloe. Considering the starts and stops since that post’s infancy in 2014—I’d originally planned it as a literal January 10 anniversary piece to 2010’s wasted clickbait opportunity—I’m pleased with the results. It was […]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

2013 and 2014 have seen progress with the purge. The purge! As part of this… process… I’ve become reacquainted with much of my music collection, listening to the likes of Helmet and Gang Starr for the first time in years. Some of this history will pop up below, to the point where an unheralded decade […]

Beer and football IV — playoffs, week two

The game: Colts at Patriots The beer: Berkshire Scotch Ale The result: Win, 43–22; Seth-Aaron, 5–0 The commentary: Quickly, here’s what I loved this week. Turnovers. The defense is trending in the right direction, even if they’re still lousy. But turnovers are the great equalizer and more Brady drives can only help against Manning and […]

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Six minutes. At three hours and nine minutes I was six minutes short this year until, before noticing, I swapped out a two-minute pop song for some krautrock. German breadth escorted us to the cherished three-and-one-quarter-hour length we’ve all become accustomed to here. Once again, internet, I apologize… for nothing! Lots of things take longer […]

Beer and football IV — the draft

The beer: Battle Road 1775 Tavern Ale The commentary: Michelle, who early on seemed overly confident for no good reason (certainly not from a talent perspective) only to turn things around when it counted, won season XI of Project Runway. She deserved it, I suppose, after Stanley went all “What do you mean it’s tomorrow? […]

Alright, is everybody ready?

“Since the football season ended I’ve needed an excuse to run off at the mouth, and forcing myself to comment on forty-eight songs seemed like a solution. Maybe next year, if I’m able to actually enjoy any music and/or write complete sentences with a son or daughter to worry about, I can try to control […]