The Albums That Always Bring Me Back For More, Part 2

In part one, I listed ten of my favourite albums that I can't get enough of. If you haven't read part one yet, you should obviously start there.

Before I get into the top ten, what about those albums that didn't quite crack the top twenty but were damn close and are at least worthy of a brief mention?

Honourable Mentions

The following albums are presented in alphabetical order by band name.

Collective Soul - Collective Soul (1995)
Essential Tracks: "Untitled," "The World I Know," "Where the River Flows," "Gel"
Filler Track: "Bleed"

Copeland - You Are My Sunshine (2008)
Essential Tracks: "Should You Return," "The Grey Man," "On the Safest Ledge," "What Do I Know?"
Filler Track: "Strange and Unprepared"

Extreme - III Sides to Every Story (1992)
Essential Tracks: "Warheads," "Stop the World," "Rise 'N Shine," "Who Cares?"
Filler Track: "Seven Sundays"

Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape (1997)
Essential Tracks: "Monkey Wrench," "Hey, Johnny Park!" "My Hero," "Everlong"
Filler Track: "See You"

Galactic Cowboys - Space In Your Face (1993)
Essential Tracks: "You Make Me Smile, " I Do What I Do," "Blind," "About Mrs. Leslie"
Filler Track: "Space in Your Face"

Incubus - A Crow Left of the Murder... (2004)
Essential Tracks: "Agoraphobia," "Talk Shows on Mute," "Southern Girl," "Here in My Room"
Filler Track: "Priceless"

Mae - The Everglow (2005)
Essential Tracks: "We're So Far Away," "Someone Else's Arms," "The Ocean," "Mistakes We Knew We Were Making"
Filler Track: "Anything"

Pixies - Doolittle (1989)
Essential Tracks: "Wave of Mutilation," "Here Comes Your Man," "Monkey Gone to Heaven," "La La Love You"
Filler Track: "Crackity Jones"

Radiohead - The Bends (1995)
Essential Tracks: "Fake Plastic Trees," "Just," "My Iron Lung," "Street Spirit (Fade Out)"
Filler Track: "Bullet Proof...I Wish I Was"

The Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream (1993)
Essential Tracks: "Cherub Rock," "Today," "Disarm," "Mayonaise"
Filler Track: "Sweet Sweet"

Without Further Ado: The Top Ten

10. Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)

Dream Theater is composed of some of the best musicians on the planet, so impressive musicianship is expected. But their song writing is hit and miss, so this can lead to excessive noodling and showing off, and songs that are three times longer than they need to be. James LaBrie's vocals are sometimes thin and he is easily the band's weakest element. All of these issues arguably apply to Scenes from a Memory, but it is still 77 minutes of pure heavy metal magic and Dream Theater's best album by a wide margin.

Scenes from a Memory is an elaborate concept album about past lives, illicit love, and murder, opening with a session of hypno-regression and ending with an unexpected jolt. There is no album that I've listened to from start to finish in my car more times than this one. It's an awesome album for a long drive.

Essential Tracks: "Overture 1928," "Strange Deja Vu," "Home," "Finally Free"
Filler Track: "Through Her Eyes"

9. Porcupine Tree - In Absentia (2002)

I remember the first time I heard Porcupine Tree's "Blackest Eyes," album opener to In Absentia. It was a bizarre blend of heavy metal with REM/U2-style pop rock, and I wasn't sure if I liked it. This was another Amazon.com recommendation, and I had purchased it entirely unheard on the strength of the rave reviews. Fortunately, second song "Trains" was an instant classic, soon becoming one of my favourite songs of all time. And I now love "Blackest Eyes," too.

In Absentia is a diverse progressive rock album, with no two songs sounding alike. It is arguably a concept album about social deviants, but that's not a major factor in my enjoyment of it. It is musically adventurous, unendingly interesting, and, like all Porcupine Tree albums, even better in DVD Audio surround sound. I'm also a big fan of Steven Wilson's atmospheric, layered vocals.

Essential Tracks: "Trains," "The Sound of Muzak," "Gravity Eyelids," "Heartattack in a Lay By"
Filler Track: "Wedding Nails"
Runner-Up: The Incident (2009) - "The Incident"

8. Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance (2000)

What is amazing about The Swiss Army Romance is that it is only Chris Carrabba and his acoustic guitar (plus awesome use of female backing vocals), but it never feels like anything is missing. His guitar playing is brilliantly rhythmic and almost percussive, providing a surprisingly complete soundscape for his passionate vocals to soar over top of. I was doing similar things with my acoustic guitar before I knew Dashboard Confessional even existed, but I was never even close to this successful at it.

Most importantly, every song on The Swiss Army Romance is something special. There are few albums that are this emotional, this powerful, while being so deceptively simple.

Essential Tracks: "The Sharp Hint of New Tears," "Turpentine Chaser," "A Plain Morning," "Age Six Racer"
Filler Track: "Living in Your Letters"
Runner-Up: So Impossible (2001) - "Hands Down"

7. Alice in Chains - Dirt (1992)

Alice in Chains was the best thing to come out of the Seattle grunge scene of the early 90s (even though it is tough to compare their distinctive sound to other great Seattle bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana), and Dirt is their undisputed masterpiece. Lyrically dark and honest, musically eerie and unique. Years before I was doing the Dashboard Confessional thing with my music, I was trying to do something more like this, but with none of the life experience and absolutely no understanding of real pain. (And no guitar skills anywhere near Jerry Cantrell, who was my guitar hero until Ty Tabor came along.)

Essential Tracks: "Them Bones," "Rooster," "Angry Chair," "Would?"
Filler Track: "Hate To Feel"
Runner-Up: Jar of Flies (1994) - "Nutshell"

6. Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

I was a pretty big fan of Green Day during the Dookie era, but they dropped off my radar in a big way in the mid-90s. When American Idiot was released, it received mostly rave reviews, but I was skeptical and held off checking it out until the release of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" as a single. When I finally listened to it, I was definitely impressed. Green Day had come a long way from Dookie. "Jesus of Suburbia" was an amazing achievement for the band. But I still didn't really care. I didn't give the album the time it deserved.

Fast forward to 2009 and the release of 21st Century Breakdown. Impressed again by Green Day's growth, I gave American Idiot another listen. And, holy shit, this whole album is fantastic! Where previously I had fixated on "Jesus of Suburbia" and the singles, and hadn't really paid attention to the through story, I was now recognizing the album's depth. Every song adds to the whole. It is not only one of the best concept albums in my collection, it has become one of my favourite albums period. I don't even really consider myself to be a Green Day fan, but... probably I should.

Essential Tracks: "Jesus of Suburbia," "Give Me Novocaine," "Wake Me Up When September Ends," "Homecoming"
Filler Track: "She's a Rebel"

To be continued... again... sigh.

Sorry, due to time constraints, I am saving the top five for part three, hopefully going live later this week.

Three of the top five have already been sussed out by my brother in the comments to part one, if you are curious. My brother isn't really familiar with 5 and 3, so it's not a big surprise that he didn't figure those out.

Edited to add: part three is here.

Money and Happiness

This is a rare spur of the moment blog post. On this fine Friday night, I have absolutely nothing to do. I'm all caught up on my TV, except for the shows I'm saving to watch with Christina. I took care of some brewing tasks, but those details will be saved for the next Brewblog (spoiler: another sour beer?!) which I guess I could have written right now instead of this--but no!

I'm sitting outside on my patio swing, patiently waiting for my ThermaCell to scare away the mosquitoes, blogging while drinking an amazingly delicious Honey Nut Brown--we made this, you guys!--and enjoying every minute of it. Daisy and Duke are frustrated; I think they just want to go downstairs and relax on the couch, but fuck them.

I've recently realized something profound that I need to blog about. The realization was triggered by a raise at work that bumped me into six figures (one milli--er, no, that's just one hundred thousand...). And it was the following: holy shit, I'm rich! And then: where the hell does all my money go?

Actually, I know very well where all my money is going. I don't know anyone that budgets and records expenses as thoroughly as I do. So this allows me to say with 100% confidence that I have been led astray by the motherfucking American dream for far too long.

Of the five thousands of dollars that are deposited into my bank account every month, a large portion (approximately 35%) goes to my non-voluntary living expenses (mortgage, property taxes, utilities, etc.). That's life. Approximately 10% goes to Christina (down from nearly 20% last year), but that's actually far less than the amount that went to her when she was my wife, so I'm not too annoyed by that. That leaves... hm, let me see... 55%? What? Seriously?

That's a lot of money. But I'm not writing this post to brag about how much money I have. Because I don't have lots of money. More than half of that discretionary spending money is put towards my stupidly large debt every month. Dammit, Past Scott, what were you thinking?

Past Scott was a sucker. He believed capitalism's lies that having stuff will make you happy. "I will take all of my money and buy stuff," Past Scott said, "and then I will be happy." Sadly, happiness still eluded Past Scott. But capitalism had a solution. "I can't quite afford this super awesome stuff right now, but I will pay for it with credit and then I will be happy."

Now Scott wishes he could punch Past Scott in the face. Now Scott knows that buying stuff can not ever make you happy. So, what does make Now Scott happy? Experiences!

I am greatly reducing my spending on stuff. And when I say stuff, I mean consumer goods. I don't need to buy that new Blu-ray movie; I can just pira--er, I mean, rent it through legal means, of course. I don't need a new TV. I don't need a new car. I don't need new anything. I have everything I could ever possibly need when it comes to stuff.

I want to spend my money on experiences. I want to travel. I want to spend time in places that I love. And I want to see places that I've never seen. I want to drink expensive beers that I love. And I want to drink crazy beers that I've never drank. I want to eat expensive foods that I love. And I want to eat crazy foods that I've never eaten. I want to live. Having stuff is not living. Doing stuff is living.

Now Scott is going to live, dammit! And maybe happiness will follow...?

The Albums That Always Bring Me Back For More, Part 1

As I mentioned in my previous Month in Review post, I don't blog nearly enough about music considering how hugely important it is to my life. The concept of this post, a discussion of my favourite albums of all time ("desert island discs," if you will), has been banging around inside my head for a few months, but it was only recently that I started putting it down on "paper."

The following list would be somewhat different if I took a Soundtrack to My Movie approach to it, but what I wanted to do was actually talk about my favourite albums now, not albums that were awesome in their day. If I can still listen to the album as a whole today and love nearly every minute of it, it belongs on this list. I had one simple rule, only one album by any given band, which gave me a hell of a challenge at times.

The list is more or less presented in opposite order of preference--so the best is saved for last, of course!--although that is a little absurd when they are all albums I love. I will attempt to justify each album's placement in the list with a short discussion of its merits. After each entry, I have also listed: the four best songs on the album, in order of their appearance; the one song that I could take or leave (ignoring short instrumentals and hidden tracks); and, if I had a tough choice picking only one album from a given band, I cheated and listed that band's second best album along with its highlight track, just to confuse the matter. You should not be surprised to see a lot of overlap with the Soundtrack to My Movie (and I do strongly recommend starting with that post before reading this one).

20. Avenged Sevenfold - City of Evil (2005)

I only started listening to Avenged Sevenfold in 2009. Every other band and album in this list has been a part of my life for years. This made it tough for me to decide whether they deserved a spot in the top twenty. Will I still be listening to Avenged Sevenfold in the years to come...? The recent release of Nightmare is good evidence for "Yes, definitely."

It was Avenged Sevenfold's 2007 self-titled fourth album that first got my attention, and for the longest time, I preferred its straightforwardness to City of Evil's progressive thrash metal sound. (Their previous two thrash metal albums do little for me, so they are irrelevant.) But over the course of 2010, I have found myself going back to City of Evil much more than the self-titled album. It is something truly special. The last half of the album, in particular, is insanely good.

Essential Tracks: "Bat Country," "Seize the Day," "Sidewinder," "Strength of the World"
Filler Track: "Blinded in Chains"

19. Third Eye Blind - Out of the Vein (2003)

There was a time that I hated Third Eye Blind. Stephan Jenkins has a unique vocal style that took me a while to appreciate. "Semi-Charmed Life" was such an overplayed song that it was years after its 1997 heyday that I actually appreciated its brilliance. But, in 1999, 3eb released awesome single "Never Let You Go" from their second album and I decided that maybe I should check them out. And I was shocked to learn that their self-titled debut album was actually fantastic from beginning to end. Songs that I had never wanted to hear ever again on the radio sounded perfectly acceptable in the context of the complete album. Their second album, Blue, was also quite good, although much less consistent.

Third Eye Blind's popularity had waned by the time Out of the Vein was released, but sales never reflect quality. Out of the Vein is unquestionably 3eb's best album, diverse, never boring, and frequently catchy and singalong worthy. I didn't even really appreciate it until a few years after its release, when I listened to it again on a whim and was blown away. Although it starts off strong with "Faster" and "Blinded," the album really hits its stride with "Crystal Baller" and especially "My Hit and Run," which is arguably the best 3eb song.

Essential Tracks: "Crystal Baller," "My Hit and Run," "Misfits," "Palm Reader"
Filler Track: "Can't Get Away"

18. Our Lady Peace - Gravity (2002)

Before Gravity was released, I was sure that Our Lady Peace's best days were behind them. I was a big fan of OLP from the very beginning when "The Birdman" and "Starseed" took MuchMusic by storm. Naveed and Clumsy were both awesome in completely different ways. But the two following albums had been mostly disappointing.

Gravity was like a rebirth for a band. Original guitarist Mike Turner had been replaced with Steve Mazur, and a new guitarist meant a new guitar sound. And what a great new sound it was. "All For You" and "Not Enough" are the best examples of Mazur's influence.

Essential Tracks: "All For You," "Innocent," "Not Enough," "A Story About a Girl"
Filler Track: "Made of Steel"
Runner-Up: Naveed (1994) - "Naveed"

17. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (2000)

There are times that Amazon.com's recommendations are shockingly good, such as the time that the site recommended that I check out Modest Mouse's The Moon & Antarctica. I sampled a couple of tracks, was intrigued, and bought the album mostly unheard. This was my first exposure to Modest Mouse's unique guitar sound and song structure. And, for me, it is still the best album they've ever released.

Essential Tracks: "3rd Planet," "Gravity Rides Everything," "The Stars are Projectors," "Lives"
Filler Track: "I Came as a Rat"

16. Queensryche - Rage for Order (1986)

Rage for Order is the oldest album on this list, and Queensryche is one of only four bands in the top twenty that even existed before the 90s. If there are older folks out there reading this, you may now be grumbling about all of the awesome albums from the 60s, 70s, and 80s that I am missing out on (there's nothing good before the 60s), but it should be no surprise that the music that sticks with me is the music that I have grown up with. The only older albums that were in contention were something from The Beatles and some classic Rush (see next entry!), but there ultimately isn't a single The Beatles album that I enjoy from start to finish. And it should also be no surprise that most of the music I listened to in the 80s is not worthy of this list, because it was mostly garbage. (Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet and Def Leppard's Hysteria came closest, almost making the Honourable Mentions section in part two--yeah, I copped out again and made this top twenty an unofficial top thirty.)

And now I have to somewhat embarrassingly reveal that the first time I heard Rage for Order was in 1996, ten years after it was released. (So, none of the music that I listened to in the 80s made the list.) Actually, this is a testament to its quality. It is an unapologetically 80s metal album, but unlike nearly all of its peers, it hasn't aged miserably. It definitely helps that the subject matter is never partying and rarely girls. It is political. It is dramatic. It is awesome.

Essential Tracks: "Walk in the Shadows," "The Killing Words," "Neue Regel," "Screaming in Digital"
Filler Track: "Gonna Get Close to You"
Runner-Up: Operation: Mindcrime (1988) - "The Mission"

15. Rush - Counterparts (1993)

It's a bit blasphemous for a Rush fan to give the top nod to Counterparts, Rush's surprisingly successful reinvention of their sound for the 90s (technically, this reinvention started in 1989 with Presto, but that's a minor detail), over their numerous classic albums from the 70s and 80s. But that's simply the way this Rush fan feels. I can't pretend that this doesn't have a lot to do with the fact that it was Counterparts that made me a Rush fan.

It's even more blasphemous to then give the runner-up nod to their newest album instead of Moving Pictures or Hemispheres or Signals. But, shit, Snakes & Arrows is awesome, the best thing Rush has released in more than ten years, and it very nearly bumped Counterparts off the top.

Essential Tracks: "Cut to the Chase," "Nobody's Hero," "Double Agent," "Everyday Glory"
Filler Track: "The Speed of Love"
Runner-Up: Snakes & Arrows (2007) - "The Way the Wind Blows"

14. Anberlin - Cities (2007)

Cities is the newest album in this top twenty. If you haven't heard it, this may seem like a bold choice on my part, but it's really not. There are a few minor missteps in the first half of the album, but everything from "Alexithymia" on is breathtaking, and you may recall that its amazing album-ending "(*Fin)" made my Soundtrack. Anberlin's Stephen Christian has one of the best voices in alternative rock, and I mean that both in terms of his strong (albeit Christianity-infused) lyrics and his unique vocal tone.

Essential Tracks: "The Unwinding Cable Car," "Inevitable," "Dismantle. Repair," "(*Fin)"
Filler Track: "Adelaide"
Runner-Up: Never Take Friendship Personal (2005) - "Paperthin Hymn"

13. Brand New - Deja Entendu (2003)

Deja Entendu is the second album on this list that I discovered because of Amazon.com's recommendations. Like with Modest Mouse, I bought the album mostly unheard. (Lest you think based on two examples that this practice always turned out well, there are just as many times that a recommended album was a disappointment. This is also a practice that I've long abandoned in these days of easy access to free downloadable music.)

Unlike Modest Mouse, Brand New isn't really a unique sounding band. They have a pretty standard alternative rock sound, with a couple memorable song exceptions. Deja Entendu is awesome mostly because of the quality of the song-writing. The song titles are ridiculously long and pretentious but still somehow work, and the songs are all fantastic in their own ways.

Essential Tracks: "Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades," "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot," "Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis," "Good to Know That if I Ever Need Attention All I Have to Do is Die"
Filler Track: "Tautou"

12. Weezer - Weezer (1994)

Weezer's "Blue Album" is a classic. Everyone owns it; everyone loves it. And we all shit our pants the first time we saw Weezer interacting with the cast of "Happy Days" in the brilliant "Buddy Holly" video. While Pinkerton is arguably the better Weezer album, I'd rather listen to their debut on most days.

Essential Tracks: "My Name is Jonas," "Undone - The Sweater Song," "Say It Ain't So," "In the Garage"
Filler Track: "Surf Wax America"
Runner-Up: Pinkerton (1996) - "Butterfly"

11. Pearl Jam - Vs. (1993)

I don't know if there's a band that has squandered more of their potential in my life time than Pearl Jam, but once upon a time when I was in high school they were the shit. Vs. was my favourite album for a long time. It has slipped a little over the years, but it's still a great goddamn rock record. "Go" is the perfect album opener, clearly establishing what type of album it is going to be, and that energy rarely lets up.

Essential Tracks: "Daughter," "Glorified G," "Rearviewmirror," "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town"
Filler Track: "Leash"
Runner-Up: Ten (1991) - "Black"

To be continued...

I'm--of course!--saving the top ten albums for part two, which should be up early next week. For a tease, the top ten includes five albums from the 90s and five albums from the 00s, where: 10 begins with hypnosis; in 9 the summer is always slipping away; 8 has no percussion; 7 ends with a question; 6 is from a band that didn't have any representation in my Soundtrack, not even the honourable mentions; 5 feels that it's at 45 degrees; 4 is from a band that made the honourable mentions in my Soundtrack with a song from a different album; 3 pretends to have ten songs by splitting one long song into two tracks; 2 has an album-ending track that refuses to end; and 1 is the best album from 1994.

Edited to add: part two is here.

The Big Move, 2010

It's done. Christina has moved in.

Er, no, not really. Not quite yet. Yes, most of Christina's stuff has been relocated from Calgary to Regina, but the majority is still occupying my garage, and Christina won't be back in Regina to start unpacking until Monday. She's back in Calgary cleaning her old place right now and is going to spend the weekend with her mom in Hanna before heading back.

The move itself went reasonably smoothly. I drove to Calgary on Tuesday, leaving Duke and Daisy in a kennel in Regina. With some help, and over the course of a few hours, we packed most of Christina's stuff into her mom's horse trailer on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning, we finished the last of the packing, and then hit the road. Christina came with me in my car, and Christina's mom drove the truck and horse trailer with one of Christina's younger cousins that came along to help carry the heavy stuff. (Aside: I did not appreciate the "Here's something light for Scott to carry" meme.) In Regina, we unpacked most of the trailer into my garage. And while Christina and her cousin assembled her bed, her mom and I sat outside and enjoyed a fire pit.

When I first mentioned that Christina was going to move in with me, I noted at that point that it could only be derailed by something crazy. And something pretty crazy did happen in the last week. But it derailed nothing. Our arrangement is on solid ground until September of 2011, which not coincidentally is the same time that my financial obligations to her will end.

So, what does this all mean for me? For the next year, I will benefit from the following life improvements: more diverse and interesting meals, because left to my own devices I eat sandwiches and hot dogs almost every day; someone to watch my daily TV with, which helps it feel a lot less empty; a dogsitter for Daisy to minimize her destructive tendencies; a partner for exercise activities and ballroom dancing classes; and a subject matter expert of sorts to help me once again navigate the soul crushing world of online dating. On the negative side, there will always be a part of me that is frustrated that we can be such good friends yet fail at marriage.

I will have no shortage of alone time, something that I think everyone needs every once in a while, because Christina will be spending a third of her time not in Regina. I will, more or less, spend both my alone time and Christina time doing the exact same things I've been doing over the last year. There really wasn't much difference between the last year and the one before, other than population. I'm ultimately completely content with the ways I choose to spend my time at home.

I am less content about how much time I spend at home. And I don't mean just getting out of the house to go to a restaurant or bar or club or whatever. What I really need to do is get the fuck out of Regina more often.

So, as silly as it seems to drive to Calgary one day and drive back the next, I actually quite enjoyed the trip. And I definitely made it worth my while. While in Calgary, I visited Zyn, an awesome booze store near downtown, and spent $140 on thirteen big bottles of beer (including one growler). I picked out ten beers from Rogue, two from Tree, and one from Cannery. I've had a couple of them before, but most are beers I've never seen in my life. I'll work my way through them slowly over the next few weeks. Awesome.

A Month in Review, Jul 5 to Aug 7

I don't normally blog on Saturday nights, but I'm also not usually this sober on Saturday nights. As much as I adore brew days and was fucking bored today (so bored that I spent a couple hours rearranging kitchen cupboards and cleaning the fridge), not being hammered drunk on Saturday night is a pleasant change. Well, then, don't drink so much on brew days, dumbass!--yeah, yeah, fuck you.

The Month in Music

As big a part of my life as music is, I hardly mention it in the Week in Review posts. My bad. Err, no, not my bad; there simply doesn't seem to be much new music coming out lately that is worth mentioning.

But Avenged Sevenfold's "Nightmare" is worth mentioning. It's awesome; not quite "City of Evil" awesome, but damn close.

And Broken Social Scene's "Forgiveness Rock Record," which was released way back in May, is pretty fucking sweet, too, possibly their best album to date.

To make up for the dearth of music-related content on this blog, I have a new blog post in the works focused entirely on my favourite albums of all time. Coming soon... I hope.

The Month in Books

I did it! I finally finished Steven Erikson's House of Chains, book four of the super awesome Malazan Book of the Fallen series. What do you mean there are another six books to read in the series, not to mention a few novellas and a second interlinked series from a different author? Motherfucker. House of Chains was my least favourite entry in the series to date, but that's like saying that The Two Towers is my least favourite The Lord of the Rings movie. It was still amazing. I have now moved onto book five, Midnight Tides, which introduces a bunch of new characters on a whole new continent while also providing the backstory for a character that was introduced in House of Chains. This series isn't hugely concerned about linear storytelling, which is cool with me. House of Chains was a direct sequel to book two, Deadhouse Gates, and took place more or less concurrently with book three, Memories of Ice. Midnight Tides happened earlier, possibly concurrently with Deadhouse Gates, I don't know; I'm sure I'll find out shortly. I always find it tough to initially get into a new Erikson novel that isn't Memories of Ice, but once you make it around halfway, suddenly it's hard to put the fucking thing down. Problem is, at halfway, you still have a good three to five hundred pages left to read. I'm nowhere near halfway into Midnight Tides yet, but I am reasonably confident that I can now meet my read two Malazan books goal for summer 2010. Maybe I can read three? Forget I said that; that's ridiculous.

It was just over a year ago that a friend gave me two books written by Charles Bukowski to help ease the pain. I started reading Love is a Dog From Hell (1977), one of many collections of poetry written by Bukowski, last year, but as it was a book of poetry, it was easy to pick up and put down numerous times over the course of the year. I finally finished it in July, fitting in a few poems between each chapter of House of Chains as a breather. And then I read Bukowski's novel Women (1978) this week. There is a lot of overlap in content between Bukowski's poetry and novels. His work is very autobiographical, and his poetry is narrative style, not at all flowery and with no rhymes in sight. Bukowski's alter-ego Henry Chinaski, not coincidentally a poet and a drunk, is the protagonist of Women, and you can easily picture Chinaski writing many of the poems in Love is a Dog From Hell as the story proceeds. For me, Women was a lot more enjoyable than Love is a Dog From Hell--but I'll always choose prose over poetry--a quick, entertaining read, endlessly amusing despite its blatant misogyny. The lesson I take away is that writing and performing (good?) poetry is a gateway to an endless parade of women, no matter how much of an ugly, old asshole you are.

And now I understand Modest Mouse's "Bukowski" a whole shit load more:
"Woke this morning and it seemed to me
That every night turns out to be
A little bit more like Bukowski
And yeah, I know he's a pretty good read
But God, who'd want to be
God, who'd want to be such an asshole?"

The Month in Video Games

If it wasn't for coffee breaks at work (World of Goo--fuck, yeah!), I don't know if I could even call myself a video gamer lately. I've barely touched Mario Galaxy 2 and have tons of Mass Effect 2 DLC to play, but I've been focusing my spare time on TV and books this summer. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Winters are long in Saskatchewan; video games make winters tolerable.

But I did play the Special Edition of Monkey Island 2 with my brother. Monkey Island 2 was a big part of our childhood, so this was a fantastic nostalgia trip for both of us. Awesome.

The Month in Television

I am now almost caught up on Eureka. I had never seen a single episode of the series previously, and frankly wasn't interested based on its silly premise, but with its currently airing fourth season came a Warehouse 13 crossover and a Wil Wheaton guest appearance, so I decided to finally give the series a shot this summer. And it's okay. The premise of a small town full of scientists causing weekly science disasters is silly, and the average episode is at best dumb fun, drawing upon thoroughly cliched and overused sci-fi plotlines. But every once in a while, the writers find a fun twist on those classic cliches and make watching the series worth my precious (ha!) time. In particular, "I Do Over," a third season time loop episode (almost always awesome--think Groundhog Day) was pretty fantastic. And even when the plot is retarded, the characters can usually be counted on to make it at least palatable and sometimes even enjoyable. Like the show itself, the characters are all pretty middle of the road; there are no characters that I love, but there are also no characters that I hate. Eureka is not a series that I would recommend to anyone, but I don't regret my time with it. It's pretty fitting that the Warehouse 13 and Eureka universes are now overlapping, since both shows are so similar in so many ways.

I've also started watching the ridiculous British comedy series Peep Show. I didn't realize that it starred David Mitchell and Robert Webb, also stars of hilarious sketch comedy series That Mitchell and Webb Look, or I probably would have watched it earlier. Peep Show is filmed in a quite unique way, placing the audience right inside the heads of the two main characters, and is awkwardly hilarious--so awkward that sometimes you just wish you could look away and pretend this shit wasn't happening. It is regarded by some as the best British comedy series of all time. I've only seen series one of six so far, so I'll reserve judgment.

Another Big Catch-up

Loved: Futurama (7x4-8), Penn & Teller: Bullshit (8x5,7), Sherlock (1x1), True Blood (3x7)
Liked: Entourage (7x3-5), Hung (2x2-5), Mad Men (4x1-2), Penn & Teller: Bullshit (8x6,8,9), Sherlock (1x2), So You Think You Can Dance (7x12-21), Top Gear (14x3-6), True Blood (3x4-6), Warehouse 13 (2x1-5)
Meh: Entourage (7x2)

That looks like a lot of shows, but other than Sunday nights--really, does every fucking show have to air on Sunday night?--my TV schedule right now is pretty light overall. And I actually have to download all of those Sunday night shows, so it's really my Monday night that is packed. And then the rest of the week is pretty boring. But I prefer this to what is coming in September. Well, then, don't watch so many shows, dumbass!--yeah, yeah, fuck you.

The best thing I watched on TV in July was the fantastic pilot to the BBC's new Sherlock series. Despite having little to no interest in Sherlock Holmes stories, I checked the series out because of creator and writer Steven Moffat, current head writer on Doctor Who. And it was bloody brilliant. Goddamn, that was good! Episode two--or should I say movie two, because each of the only three episodes is an hour and a half--wasn't nearly as good, but not much can be. I don't know who Benedict Cumberbatch is, but his Sherlock Holmes is genius--almost Doctor Who genius. And Martin Freeman always plays a good everyman.

Some Futurama fans have complained that the reborn Futurama is not as good as the first four seasons before cancellation, but those people are ungrateful assholes. I have thoroughly enjoyed every episode so far, and would present episodes six, "Lethal Inspection," and especially seven, "The Late Philip J. Fry," as more than worthy of the Futurama legacy.

For the first time ever, I am watching Mad Men and True Blood as they air this season. So far, so good. Mad Men is rarely a show that I love, with the odd exception (the third season finale, for example); I appreciate the quality of the show more than I enjoy the show. True Blood's third season is definitely shaping up to be better than its second, with last week's seventh episode being a particular gory highlight. I am also watching Warehouse 13 as it airs for the first time, but that's less of a big thing since it's only in its second season, and also it's a much lesser show than those two. Still, it keeps me coming back for more, somehow.

The two stand-out episodes of Bullshit this season (so far; next week is the finale) for me were "Easy Money" and "Criminal Justice." I know tons of people that need to see "Easy Money" for a reality check on the futility of multi-level marketing, and "Criminal Justice" just made me sad. The latest episode, "Self Esteem," was pretty timely as I am currently struggling with serious self esteem issues. Affirmations are bullshit, so here's my personal affirmation: "What the fuck, dude?--get your shit together."

After a slow start, Entourage has improved throughout this current seventh season and is actually quite entertaining again, something it hasn't been in a number of years. Hung also had a slow start to its season, but its last few episodes have been very strong, balancing the drama and comedy very effectively.

In my amateur opinion, Top Gear had a good season this summer. I loved the silly Caravan segment the most, and enjoyed the recurring Reliant Robin gags. I don't tune into Top Gear for the cars nor the car reviews, because, hey, I couldn't care less about cars; I tune in for these three hilarious guys doing stupid shit together, and this season had a lot of good material there.

And that's more than enough talking about TV.

Brewblog, Entry Six

Tasting Notes

I meant to have a section in the last brewblog to discuss how some of the beers we've made recently have turned out. But with four brew days to cover in that post, I forgot the tasting notes.

Promising beers going sour has been the biggest frustration of the last four months for me. I'm mostly annoyed by the disgustingness of the soured 112, ruining our attempt to make a simple experimental beer with only Goldings hops. The remaining bottles of 112 will be around for a very long time. The soured Belgian IPA is not quite as unpleasant as the 112, but will also have plenty of time to age. Simon's Sour Blonde was actually quite drinkable and vanished weeks ago, and Anniversary Bitter 2 is mostly gone and only a tiny bit sour. It's too early to judge what will happen with the Sour Strawberry Wheat.

But that's enough about fucking sour beers; everything else we've made lately has been good to excellent and met my taste expectations. Trevor will say that the best thing we've made is the excellent Trevor's Blonde. Simon was a surprisingly big fan of our very good Blackout Stout, amusingly mistaking it for the Bushwakker Imperial Stout from ALES' Big Brew Day. While I understand Trevor's point of view, because Trevor's Blonde is a very good example of the style, I rarely reach for one in the fridge. And Blackout Stout is pretty great considering that I made the recipe by throwing in whatever black malts we happened to have in the pantry. But I am quite confident that Blackout Stout 2 will be even better.

I am very happy with the newest iterations of our Brewniversity, Scott's Stout, and Matrimonial Ale series. The 114, where I took the 124 recipe and replaced the hops with Willamette, is an interesting bitter brew that always hits the spot for me. The 224, where I took the 124 recipe to the next level, could turn out to be a citrus masterpiece, but it's too early to really judge. Scott's Stout 4 is an evolution of the Scott's Stout 2/3 recipe, roasty and toasty and right up my alley, but not the revolution I thought it could possibly be. Matrimonial Ale 5 is pretty fantastic, crisp and refreshing despite its 8% abv, and just the right amount of piney hoppiness; however, I agree with Trevor that Matrimonial Ale 6 should return the series to its citrus hops roots.

There is a lot of potential greatness in the Honey Nut Brown and Wee Heavy, but those have yet to be bottled, so I'll revisit them with the 224 in the next Tasting Notes.

It's tough to rank our beers due to the diverse styles in play, but I've done it before and I'll try it again. So, as of this moment, the top 5 of all time from my perspective, faulty memory and all:

1. (Tie) Matrimonial Ale 4 & 5

Despite coming from the same series, Matrimonial Ale 4 and 5 are very different beers. 4 is citrus hops, 5 is piney hops. 4 is 6%, 5 is 8%. 4 has awesome aroma, but hop gunk; 5 has pleasant aroma, and no gunk. Both are fantastic, big and bitter, arguably the best beers we've made, and my hand will always gravitate towards them when they are in the fridge. The goal with Matrimonial Ale 6 will be to capture the best aspects of 4 and 5 in one awesome bitter beer.

3. Scott's Stout 3

I've liked all of the Stouts and Porters we've made, but Scott's Stout 3 is the current king. When we made Scott's Stout 2 and it turned out very, very well, I was overjoyed, especially since Scott's Stout 1 had been an early, mostly failed experiment. Scott's Stout 3 was theoretically exactly the same as Scott's Stout 2, but it has a little extra something something that I can't really describe. For Scott's Stout 5, I will be attempting to recapture this magic, but without abandoning the important changes in 4 that made it officially a Stout and not a Porter. Actually, a new Scott's Porter might be a good idea for carrying on the Scott's Stout 2 legacy...

4. 122 American Pale Ale
5. 124 American Pale Ale

The 122 is the only beer to maintain a spot in the top five list since my first ranking. Of all our Brewniversity beers, it still stands in my memory as the best we've made, perfect in every way that counts. When there was a 122 in the fridge, which sadly there never will be ever again, it was always the first thing I pulled out, because drinking it made me happy. Some other people that shall remain nameless ridiculously prefer the 124. Bah! Okay, it's pretty good, too. And there are actually a few competition bottles of 124 still around, so it's not gone for good like the 122. But the 224 (and Honey Nut Brown?) will hopefully boot both off the list shortly.

August 1, 2010 - Brewed Radical Saison (RS)

I have had a Wyeast Saison yeast in my fridge for months, so this brew day was definitely overdue. Saison is a style that I am unsure about as a whole. I have never had a Saison that was "holy god, that's awesome," but they have all had interesting elements and were very drinkable. Our brew club made a Ginger Saison during our first month of all-grain brewing, and it was definitely decent, and after a year of aging, the last bottle was quite pleasant.

Lately I have been creating my own recipes, or modifying recipes from our previous batches, for almost everything we've brewed. With BeerSmith Brewing Software as the ultimate beer recipe creation tool, I feel quite comfortable creating my own recipes for India Pale Ales, American Pale Ales, and Stouts. With a little internet research, I am also now comfortable creating my own Brown Ale and Scottish Ale recipes. But there was no way I was going to try to make up a Saison recipe. And I wanted to create something more interesting than the old Ginger Saison, so I went to one of my favourite sources: Radical Brewing by Randy Mosher.

I did, unfortunately, have to change one major component of that recipe, substituting Pale for the expected Pilsner Malt, because we are out of Pilsner. It remains to be seen whether this substitution was a mistake. In general, we have had better results with Pilsner than Pale, but this recipe is quite complex in unique ways that will likely disguise the limitations of the base malt.

The recipe also used Wheat Malt and Munich Malt for the mash, Northern Brewer, Saaz, and Goldings hops for the boil, and--here's the fun part!--one sour orange peel, twenty grams of coriander, and a gram of pepper for spice. I freshly ground the coriander and pepper and added them to a hop bag with the orange peel for the last five minutes of the boil. If my hydrometer sample of the unfermented wort is any indication, this beer is going to be a spicy bitch.

I haven't discussed our process in a while, so some brief comments are warranted. Earlier this year, we successfully introduced a 30 minute mash to our process, but we haven't actually had that many 30 minute mashes in the interim. We have had a lot of 45 minute mashes lately, including this Saison, usually because it took 45 minutes to bottle whatever previous batch was ready that day. And for big beers like the Wee Heavy and Matrimonial Ale 5, I still insist on at least 60 minutes because of the quantity of grain. Also earlier this year, we started boiling for 90 minutes regularly, theoretically to improve caramelization, but we've noticed little change and have now pretty much abandoned the 90 minute boil, with the notable exception of India Pale Ales where the extra minutes of boil give you extra hop bitterness. The Saison was boiled for the typical 60 minutes and I know it will be fine.

Next time on Brewblog

No brew day this coming weekend, so... that sucks. Boring Saturday. I might still get drunk. A little. By myself. Pathetic.

Next weekend, Matrimonial Ale 6?