Monday, March 31, 2008

AB

I've just been reading through Anheurser-Busch's beer fact sheets and find them to be an amazingly frank description of their beers. I think maybe these descriptions are for stock-holders and not beer drinkers?
Introduced in 1955, Busch has a smooth, light taste. The brand is the country's largest-selling subpremium-priced beer in all major demographics.

I mean, who calls their own beer subpremium?

In other news, the Pirates just blew a five run lead in the ninth inning on opening day. All is normal in the universe.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Yeah Bro!

So we did in fact end up playing the SIGBOVIK pre-party last night. I have to say I enjoyed myself. One of the great things (in my own, unbiased, opinion) about Sick Ridiculous is that our songs are all pretty short, so you don't have to invest too much to watch us play. If we happen to suck, well then it's not really going to be all that long until you get to go back to the party.

I was a little bummed when we forgot the melody of the chorus of our brand new song, Theme From SIGBOVIK, but later on we remembered it and had a special encore for those who were still loitering in the basement. Which reminds me; we plan to record and release an MP3 of Theme From SIGBOVIK some time this week so that you can begin to get pumped up.

In other news, I'm currently reading a pretty interesting book about the history of beer in America entitled, Ambitious Brew: The Story of American Beer. Definitely a read for all you self-identifying beer snobs out there. One of the most interesting parts of the book thus far has been reading about German immigrants to the US. It's particularly amazing how WWI and the German-American's association with beer was used by the temperance movement to further their goals. Here's a quote:
A Methodist* Bishop denounced beer as, "the most brutalizing" drink available. " The unthinkable barbarism of the German armies in this present war," he wrote, "is, in all reasonableness, to be accounted for largely by their centuries of beer drinking, which has deadened their moral sense and coarsened their moral fiber."

Wild, huh?

(*Also interesting to me because, given our tendency to use grape juice to this day at communion, I had long suspected the Methodists played some role in the temperance movement.)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Ridiculous de Sick

There is a definite possibility that Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous will be playing at the SIGBOVIK party tonight, FYI.    

Monday, March 24, 2008

This Weekend in Music

This weekend there were some fun music developments:

Friday Night Cappy-oke:
Friday night I joined Marcus et al. at Cappy's for their weekly karaoke extravaganza. I sang two songs. Neither of them actually went all that well:
Graceland, Paul Simon. I had been looking for this song at Karaoke for a while now. Finally found it. Sang it. Great song, but doesn't work too well for me for karaoke. First off, it's a little too low. Second, it's a little too long, and there are too many parts where I don't sing.

California, Phantom Planet. I sang this song with Marcus, and we were both convinced it was going to kill. It did not. Again, this song was too low, but this time way too low. Considering how slow the song was playing, I suspect we had some version of the song that was actually lowered in key. I remember singing this song in my car, and it went a lot better than this attempt. Oh well...

Monday Night Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous:
Tonight, my band Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous went to open mic night at the Rex Theater on the south side. It was fun. We played two songs, 737 and Two Mellow Bros. (or whatever we call it). For our first time ever playing live, we both thought it went pretty well, and we even had a few people tell us that they enjoyed it. If you're pissed because we didn't tell you, don't worry. We're just trying to get a little bit more comfortable with ourselves and our live persona.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Did you know about this?What about this?Why didn'...

Did you know about this?

What about this?

Why didn't you tell me?! This is huge!!

In unrelated news, I will never finish my PhD.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

In Deference to XKCD...

My Hobby:
Editing wikipedia articles to change references from "The Bay Area" to "The San Fransisco Bay Area."

No Soap?

I am so happy that there is a wikipedia entry for the No Soap Radio joke. I like how they call it "anti-humor" and a "sociological experiment."

Rand, this one's for you.