Adventures in Alcohol

Maybe it's because I'm a geologist, maybe it's because I collect bottle caps, or maybe because it just goes so well with baseball, but the truth is, I drink a lot of beer.  And I think my parents noticed, since for Christmas they bought me a beer brewing kit.

So what did I do while that super exciting Super Bowl was on yesterday?  You guessed it, I brewed some beer!

Ingredients: grain, hops, malt, and yeast! (not pictured: water)

I thought I'd enjoy a beer while brewing.

Science!

And ready to ferment.

And now I wait.  In 3-6 weeks it should be ready to bottle.  Which means in 3-6 weeks I need to accumulate about two cases worth of beer bottles (as if I needed an excuse to drink more beer).  So check back here in 3-6 weeks to hear how bottling goes!  And a couple weeks after that, I'll hopefully have 5 gallons of delicious red ale (name TBD).

In which I review Hellacappella, 2013

As I did two years ago, I am reviewing/recapping Hellacappella, an acappella show put on by The Spokes, a group from UCDavis.  This year the show was held in the Mondavi Center and I went with my mom, sister, a cousin, and a friend.  Since two years ago I had trouble remembering the songs all the groups performed, this year I brought a pen to the concert to help me keep track.  At intermission I realized my pen was not working and the song titles I thought I had been scribbling down in the dark, were actually just dents in the paper.  I learned in the second half that (once my pen was working) I could barely read what I wrote in the dark anyway.

And now: the music!

Well, first the emcees.

Birdstrike Theater, UCD's improv comedy troupe, started off with a little sketch about acappella that was pretty entertaining and then introduced each group with some often over the top punny jokes about the groups name.

The Spokes (female, UCDavis)
The Spokes hosted the concert, so they started and ended the show.  They were overwhelmingly girly.  I'm not saying that in a bad way, they just were: their outfits, their dance moves, even their song choices, just super girly.  They sang a couple of songs I had seen them perform a few weeks ago, and then some new ones (to me, anyway).  They did a mash up with Taylor Swift's We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together and All American Reject's Gives You Hell that was kind of annoying only because I hate that T.Swift song and they had to do the dumb talking thing in the song.
Songs performed: Sweet Caroline, Us Against the World, No More I Love Yous, and a couple of other songs I can't remember the names of

UC Men's Octet (male, Cal)
Two years ago, these guys were my favorite, mostly for their excellent rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.  And they did not disappoint this year.  Every member was great and their choreography did not seem forced as most do to some extent.  Their version of Wagon Wheel was, while lovely, a bit underwhelming, but that might be due to how much that song was played at Carleton and the associations/memories/nostalgia hearing it brings me.  They really shined in singing *NSYNC, though.
Songs performed: I Want You Back, Wagon Wheel, Tearin' Up My Heart

Dil Se (coed, Cal)
They were my favorite group of the evening.  They mix Hindi Film Music with western music and it is both unique and very well done.  They made me enjoy a Justin Bieber song, and that takes real talent.
Songs performed: a song all in Hindu that I didn't know, a mash up with As Long as You Love Me, and a mash up of Party Rock Anthem and a Bollywood number I'm guessing is called something like I Hate Love Stories.

On the Rocks (male, University of Oregon)
These guys were fabulous in every sense!  They looked like they were having a blast, their choreography was fun, and they sure could sing!  Their first song was by far my favorite, which was surprising as I had never heard it before since it was country (I usually strongly prefer acappella when I know the songs the group is covering).  The other two songs were great too, and they blew Bruno Mars out of the water with their version of Locked Out of Heaven, in my opinion.
Songs performed: Natural Disaster, Can't Take My Eyes off of You, Locked Out of Heaven

Liquid Hotplates (coed, UCDavis)
They only sang one song: a mash up of The Cure and Adele.  It was a good thing they were mashed up, because otherwise, despite the nice singing, both songs would have gotten old before they finished.
Songs performed: Lovesong/Rolling in the Deep

DeCadence (coed, Cal)
They wore capes and were quite enjoyable.  I like how they made Ain't No Mountain High Enough their own, though I bet the jab at Stanford gets a better reception at Cal.  I don't care for Kimbra, but the girl who sang her song sounded great.  Their real masterpiece, however, was the Ke$ha/One Direction mashup.  I mean, it's Ke$ha. And One Direction.  But it's acappella and I don't have to pretend to have better music taste.
Songs performed: Ain't no Mountain High Enough, Settle Down, Die Young/Live While We're Young/Good Feeling

Overtones (female, Cal)
They were pretty solid.  I liked their song selection, though while Cry Me a River started out strong, the chorus sort of fell apart (and maybe it was just a bad arrangement).  The main girl singing Barton Hollow really stood out though, and that song was far and away their best.
Songs performed: Eye of the Tiger, Cry Me a River, Barton Hollow

Cloud 9 (coed, UC Santa Cruz)
They dressed as tourists (like the ridiculous over-the-top-socks-and-sandals type) and did a cute bit in the middle about taking a group shot at the Mondavi Center.  I didn't recognize any of their songs, except vaguely one.  But they were good and had some very strong voices in the group.  They utilized the entire stage for their choreography- much more so than any group except maybe Dil Se.
Songs performed: Nature Boy and two others I didn't recognize.

And that was it!  All in all a very enjoyable performance with a lot of good vocal cords present.  The proceeds from the show went to Teach For America.  While I applaud The Spokes for the gesture and supporting education, I have mixed feelings about TFA, mainly from my sister's much more educated views on the program and why it might not be the best (though for that, you'll have to ask her over at Elementary, My Dear.)

A recent history of my life in photos

Boston has a lot of US History.  There are a lot of statues of Paul Revere.  I even saw his grave.

I found the nearest ship... 

...also the nearest penguins.

The Williams-Mystic reunion started out on a boat, so you know it was an awesome weekend.

Here is Jim Carlton auctioning a narwhal puppet.

Back to California, here we are in Golden Gate Park watching The Head and the Heart at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

And then The Head an the Heart were at Sophia's in Davis.

Then I went to Colorado to visit Grant, Colin, and Lauren, and apparently some penguins at the Denver zoo.

We went on the Coors tour.  Golden was lovely.

We toured SLAC in Palo Alto and got a crash course in particle physics.

The Baylands Preserve was nearby and pretty.

The Giants won the Wold Series and San Francisco went crazy.  I was there and very happy.

Amy and I were both historical figures (in a way) for Halloween.  We also made a devil-chicken scarecrow.

Our pumpkins! Can you guess which two are mine?

President William Jefferson Clinton

Bill Clinton is the most famous person I have come into contact with, literally.  Today I shook his hand after a rally at UC Davis supporting four democratic candidates for Congress (Garamendi, McNerney, Hernandez, and Bera).  It was pretty exciting.  I almost wish I lived in Congressional District 10 so I could vote for a real, live astronaut to represent me.

It's time for another Williams-Mystic Reunion Weekend!

Today I head to Boston where I'll visit some Carleton friends before heading to Mystic for my 5 year Williams-Mystic reunion!

I wonder if the current class will be as welcoming as we were?

More when I return from the East Coast!

New Favorite Song

Mayer Hawthorne put on a great show and Foster the People put on a phenomenal one following it.

Everything came from rocks

I have a lot of, well, stuff.  In an ongoing quest to not have so much of this stuff, a few weeks ago I went through the 8 boxes of pretty much everything I did ever in school, from kindergarten all the way though college, and recycled a large mass of papers.  For some reason, at one point in time, I felt it necessary to hold onto the following things:

• AP Chemistry tests.  These are tests from a class I was failing and dropped out of in high school.  Needless to say, most of these tests read something to the effect of 43/80 or D+ at the top; why I had wanted to ever be reminded of this class is beyond me.
• Mostly illegible french notes, as if one day I'd want to relearn french from some smeary, scribbled pages ripped from a notebook.
• Acceptance/rejection letters from colleges I didn't go to.
• Pretty much every worksheet I ever filled out in elementary school.  I mean, I enjoy seeing some of my original art projects, but I don't think I need to keep proof I could do basic addition or connect-the-dots in grade school.

I also kept a myriad of notes and handouts from various classes, vocab workbooks, spelling tests, scrap paper I drew smiley faces all over, and this list I entitled "Rocks" and wrote on May 27 of an unknown year (I left in my spelling errors):

• Everything came from rocks
• 3,000 (a little over) minirals 14,000 names
• 9 classafacations witch minirals are grouped in
• 3 groups: Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic
• 9 common Elements: O, Si, Al, Fe, CA, NA, K, Mg, Ti
• 250 named rocks
• Eat rocks for breakfeast, lunch, and dinner
• Glass comes from quarts
• pencil lead = carbon
• kitty litter is made of a rock called Vesicular Tuff because it was absurbant.

As far as I can tell in the context where I found this list, it wasn't actually for a class.  I guess there was a little geologist in me as a kid and Geo in the Field wasn't my first introduction to the subject.  Also, I like that eating rocks for every meal made it on my list.

Kitchen Epiphanies

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen these days and it was there I discovered an exception to my general rule that everything tastes better when made from scratch.

Food better when homemade:


pizza, carrot cake, banana bread, ice cream, any type of pie, waffles, salads, quiche, french fries, stir-fry, and basically everything I cook/bake ever


Why? Taste, quality of ingredients, saves money, ratios, etc...

Food not better when homemade: 


polenta


Why? It takes like a year and a day to make (ok, I may be exaggerating a bit) and it tastes exactly the same as the pre-cooked blocks you find in the stores.  Plus, most of the flavor you enjoy from eating the polenta is from the sauce you douse it in (which of course tastes better when you make it yourself; I'd recommend yellow squash, eggplant, sauteed onions, peppers, tomatoes, spices and an assortment of grated cheese).


Conclusion to this post: unless you like grits, just buy the pre-cooked polenta.

You have to stir constantly for way longer than it's worth