On Beer and the Manner of Things, or: My Two Trips to Rochester

This was promised a long time ago, so it is vastly overdue and will probably disappoint.

I just arrived at my apartment in Rochester (for the second time) about 45 minutes ago. I'm sure I was unclear in my last post; I came out here earlier this summer to move in a back-of-a-minivan-and-U-Haul-trailer-full amount of my stuff into my apartment. This was part of a longer road trip with my parents. Now I am here for the beginning of the semester next week.

On our road trip we visited: my aunt and uncle at their cabin in northern Wisconsin (on a lake named “Papoose” to be more specific) and my sister, her boyfriend and family in Lansing. This trip took about a week (I think we left on a Wednesday morning in July and returned on a Tuesday evening in August). It seemed like we spent an at least equal amount of time in the car as we did out of it—discounting the time spent sleeping (mercifully not in the car) of course.

Despite the long hours of driving, the trip was overall good. I will recount one experience now as I don't have time to recount most all of the trip (you wouldn't want to hear about sitting in a car anyway) and it is relevant to my situation at the moment. While in Michigan I got to go to Bell's Brewery (or brewpub as it were) in Kalamazoo. Those of you familiar with Bell's know that it is a microbrewery that makes great beer; those who aren't will have to take my word for it. Anyway, besides the beer, the actual premises of the brewpub were excellent. It didn't seem great from the outside—or even from the inside initially—but after we got our beers we headed out to the patio. This was a large mostly grassy area that looked almost as though it could have been someone's backyard. This backyard feel was amplified by the fact that the burgers and other delicacies that could be ordered there were cooked right outside the back door on a regular, back-yard, propane (or at least I think it was) grill. My family and I sat at a picnic table underneath an arbor with hops vining their way all over it. Around the corner from us was another large grassy area with a small amphitheater at it's end. It appeared that on many summer nights a band would most likely play on the stage, drawing a sizable crowd of young concertgoers on the grassy area before the stage. As it was a saturday afternoon when we were there, the grassy area was instead occupied by a few tables, one at which a group of half a dozen aging yuppies (first Google hit) from Chicago appeared to be enjoying their sojourn in Michigan tremendously.

After sampling half the menu of beers I had chosen a smoked rye ale to enjoy. It was an interesting beer. At first the smoky flavor overwhelmed the rest of the beer, but after I became accustomed to it, I could taste rather mellow pale ale flavors underneath. It would have been delicious with a barbeque pork sandwich.

Now, I earlier said that this experience related to my current situation, and you are doubtlessly wondering how. While at Bell's I also picked up a sampler six pack of beers. I brought them along to Rochester and stashed them in my refrigerator once here, with the intention of enjoying them at an unspecified future date. Upon arriving once agin at my apartment tonight (now nearly an hour and a half ago) these beers remained (and still do) the only form of caloric substance in my apartment—besides that which under even the most dire of situations would not be considered edible. And so, as I began to scribe this post I decided to sample one of the beers stowed in my fridge. I chose a cherry stout. I had very high hopes for this beer, and I was a bit disappointed (I have just minutes ago finished it). The cherry flavor was, unfortunately, a bit syrupy, and overshadowed the more hearty roasted grain flavors. Alas.

I now realize that this beer had a rather healthy 7% alcohol by volume which, as I ramble on, may be affecting my post a bit. As it is now rather late and this post is teetering on the edge of bombast (and that seals it), I must retire.

If nothing else, I can now truthfully claim that there was a time that the only thing in my Frigidaire (I just checked, unfortunately it's not actually one) was a six pack of beers.

Let me get a new bib...

I like to think of my summers in terms of my favorite pastime: eating.

First, my drink: Well, they started classy and have only gotten worse… Started with Champagne and six packs of various brewskies at school, transitioned to Seven and Sevens as well as Gin and Tonics during the few times I drank during the hunk of the summer, and then settled for (prepare yourself) Natty Ice near the end.

The appetizer: Senior Week - what a riot that was. Remember those meatballs at prom? Me either.

The Main Course: This wasn’t an Italian wedding meal with 5 courses. One big entrée. So it had to be good. This summer it was Camp Pendalouan. Friggin loved it. Got paid for teaching self defense, canoeing, archery, and swim lessons to 7 year olds, making inappropriate jokes that go over the kids heads but make my co-counselors laugh, going kayaking or sailing around for a whole afternoon, going on hikes, mountain bike rides or making the biggest bondfire I have EVER seen.

But that’s over now. It was a LONG summer camp season and it always ends at the perfect time. Don’t know how good I would have been at my job if another group of teens had come in this week. So now I’m home, decompressing and preparing for what lies ahead…

DESERT! Chillaxing time. Watching movies, seeing my friends off to college, hanging out in beautiful summertime Chicago. Also, my grandma’s 90^th birthday is during labor day so I’ll be up at a relatives’ lakeside cabin for a few days before school starts. And somewhere in between all that, I’m hoping to make a few hundred bucks working a week at a raspberry farm in ND, and I’m hoping to go on a camping trip with my some of my OP buddies… So we’ll see.

And then on Sept. 14^th, the restaurant known as Summer closes for the season. And then my junior year of college.

To All You Physics Guys

So my mom drew my attention to this article about a strange Russian High Voltage Cascade Transformers. They are apparently the only outdoor installations of this type in the world. They're in some random city outside Moscow. Russia is so awesome.

It burns!!

Glenn Beck apparently feels he and his fragile white culture is being oppressed by Obama and his cohorts (I don't know, Mona Sutphen?)

I know I shouldn't take notice of anything that Beck says, but I just can't help feeling like...



I can't imagine why any member of a racial minority could hate a white guy like Beck...

summer update

Ok, I haven't posted in a while again. I guess it's mostly because my summer has been fairly uneventful. I didn't bother trying to find a job for two months between reunion and my first semester at Rochester and I thought I could have a summer like we used to when we were around 12 years old. It's been only moderately successful since of course all my friends are working so the days are fairly lonely. My parents put me to work doing some landscaping stuff around the house, but otherwise I have enjoyed my last summer of freedom.

A couple weeks back I participated in something called a Tri-Loppet. It's like a triathlon, but begins with a paddle in a canoe or kayak on the lakes in Mineapolis from Calhoun to Brownie, then has a run and a bike (which is largely on mountain bike trails) in Wirth park. I did the paddle with my dad, then we split up for the rest of the loppet. The paddle started out in a downpour, so the trails were nice and muddy for the run and bike. I got incredibly wet and muddy, but the race was a lot more fun, in my opinion, than a regular triathlon--especially the mountain biking rather than road biking. If anyone is living in Minneapolis in the next few years I would recommend checking it out.

Tomorrow I'll be heading out to Wisconsin, my first stop on my way out to rochester to move my things into my apartment in Rochester. I'll try to keep you all posted.

On an entirely similar musical note...

We all know who Radiohead is. We all know who Jay-Z is. But who knew about Jaydiohead? Yes, yet another album mixing Jay-Z's Black Album with another artist has been released. I was never a huge fan of The Grey Album, and it hardly needs to be said that I hated Linkin Park + Jay-Z. But something about mixing Radiohead and Jay-Z was very appealing. And it's unbelievably great.

Like Illinoize, these songs sound like they were originally written for each other, which is rather hard to accomplish with Radiohead songs like "The National Anthem," "I Might Be Wrong," and I have to say that the "Black Swan" mix is unbelievable. On the second album, there are 2 fantastic mixes of "There There" and "Backdrifts."
There are 2 albums for free download.

On an entirely different music note...

...(no pun intended).

Usually when I hear new music it takes me a few listens and then I generally think a few tunes on an album are pretty "dece".  Rarely, if ever, do I fall in love "at first sight".  However, with what I'm about to introduce you all to, that is exactly what happened.

So we all know Sufjan Stevens.  Over the past few weeks I've come to really appreciate his incredible talent - multiple instruments, incredible voice, thought-provoking and mind-blowing lyrics, etc etc etc.  And we all know a variety of popular hip-hop artists as well - guys we've listened to like Outkast, Grand Puba, Aesop Rock, and Blackalicious (Gift of Gab).  Enter in a little-known Montreal-based producer named Tor.  So pedestrian, in fact, that he doesn't even have a Wikipedia page to which I can link.

Yet, what Tor produces when he mixes said hip-hop artists with the musical genius that Sufjan embodies is something of the gods.  Illinoize is pure genius - so impressive a mix project that I, quite literally, fell in love immediately.  It just sounds so natural - "it's hard to imagine either track any other way".  Critics rave.

Best part? Download it for free. You can even get the lossless CD-quality Flac file format.  What more could you ask for?

Spectrograms

So as all of you know I listen to way too much music and take my music collection wayyy too seriously, so I doubt that you'll be surprised to learn that I've been experimenting with some music analysis programs this summer, and I've made some cool discoveries revolving around spectrograms of various songs. There are a few computer geniuses in the music world, and two of the top ones are Richard James (Aphex Twin) and Trent Reznor (NIN). Check out some of the images I found in spectrographic analysis of some of their songs...
This first image is from the end of Nine Inch Nail's "The Warning," off of Year Zero.
Pretty cool, if you guys have the song just listen to the static in the last few seconds, that's what the image represents.
Next is the end of Aphex Twin's Windowlicker.
This is the little swirly sound at the end of the song. I'd also like to suggest that you all watch the music video for the song, it's quite fucked up but also pretty funny and cool.
By far the coolest image I found is in the song:

which is typically just called "equation." This is the second track off of the Windowlicker EP.


Yes, that is Richard James' face. This is also at the end of the song.
So I'll definitely keep looking for more stuff like this, but I can't really think of other artists who are technically as ridiculous as NIN or AFX.

Wrap-Up of Russia

Well, I've been putting this post off for far too long, but I guess it's high time to write it. The tale of my final 2 weeks of adventuring through Russia.
As many of you know, I decided early on that I wanted to travel to the Solovetskii Islands in the far north of Russia. Now, many people, Russian and non-Russian, were puzzled by my choice. Let me explain my reasoning: the Solovetskii Islands are in the White Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. They are less than 100 miles from the Arctic Circle. The Solovetskii Monastery was a major fortress in the 1800s and served as the very first GULAG in the 1900s. Basically, Solovki (the shortened form) is one of the most historical, and most remote regions of the planet.
So my train left at 1 am, and I spent most of the ride reading Cryptonomicon, which I actually finished on the train ride home. The train was the Moscow-Murmansk train, and I freaked out a little about how I was on the train to Murmansk (Murmansk is the main Russian naval base and sea port). I arrived in Kem at 1 am (24 hour train ride) and the sun was still up. I took a cab to the hotel, sun was still up. I shocked the people at the hotel by speaking Russian, cuz they knew I was an American and assumed I'd be completely lost. Score 1 for me and my Russian skills. I got to bed around 2, and the sun was up.
The next morning I got up bright and early (7 and the sun was definitely up high in the sky), ate breakfast, wandered around a bit, and then got on the boat. The boat had about 70 people in it. The ride to Solovki was smooth, and lasted a little over 2 hours. The ride into the islands was unbelievable, once the onion domes of the monastery began to stick up over the island, I was unable to tear my eyes away until we docked.
Once on land, I went to my hotel and checked in, and then went on a tour of the monastery. It was built in 1481, was a very holy site, and then was used as a fortress and prison camp.

That night I ate dinner and went to bed early, I was very tired from the lack of sleep I got the night before.
I woke up early the next morning to see what tours were offerred, but it was another monastery tour so I went to see the labyrinths on the island. They are thought to be from the bronze age, so they were pretty cool. Then that afternoon I went on a tour of the canals on the island. In the 16th and 17th centuries, monks built a long and elaborate system of canals that connected the nearly 700 lakes on Big Solovetskii Island, so I got to go rowing through them.

After that, I went and ate dinner, and then hung out till midnight. Then I went to take pictures of the monastery at midnight.

The next day was my last day on the island, and I went out to this small island that was about a 30 minute boat ride away. It was called Bolshoi Zayatskii Island, and it had some labyrinths and an old church on it.

It was on the last day that I began conversing with people. There was this very nice young couple that ended up doing just about everything I did, so we talked a little bit. They were surprised that I was an American, and also that I was traveling alone. After the boat ride back to the mainland, I had a good conversation with the girl who was working registration at the hotel, she's from Irkutsk and doesn't think that her hotel is as good as a Marriott. And then on the taxi ride to the train station, my cab driver was from the Ukraine, didn't want to live in one place for too long, and wondered why I wasn't traveling with a girl. On the train, I was in a car with 2 guys, but at separate times. One guy got on at Petrozavodsk and got off at Petersburg, but he didn't talk at all. Then another guy got on at Petersburg and off at Moscow, and I talked with him a bit about how I like Moscow and why I'm in Russia. He was a sushi chef.
The last week I had planned to travel the Golden Ring, but hadn't planned on being so lonely in Solovki (no cell phone and not knowing anyone, and being a foreigner is tough). So I stayed in Moscow with a friend for a week, and it ended up being one of the best weeks of my life. Tango concert, good food, seeing friends one last time (till next time)...
So, I already miss Russia. A lot. I want to be back very badly. I miss speaking Russian, I miss going to Red Square, I miss my friends, I miss the Metro, I miss cool cab drivers, I miss Georgian food, I miss crazy drunks on the street, I miss my host mom, I miss buying lavash near the Uni, I miss the Modest Charm of the Bourgeouisse, I miss drinking legally, I miss drinking good beer, I miss the constant sense of history, and I miss having an adventure EVERY DAY.
So, was the trip a success? A resounding yes. My time in Russia has allowed me to make several judgments about the life that I want to live. I want to live in Moscow, maybe not forever, but I want to be there often. Russia isn't just a weird interest anymore, it's become a huge part of my life and it will always be there.
Hopefully I get a chance to call all of you within the next few weeks, I'd like to hear all of your voices soon! I missed you all very very much and I am anxious for the time I get to see you all next!

Some New Music

The Norwegian I lived with last summer spent about an hour a few days ago constantly sending me links and band names I would be interested in.  I trust him with music taste - he's always on the cutting edge of his listening and picks up new stuff before other people.  This stuff basically continues in the RJD2-LCD Soundsystem-MGMT-Ratatat-Justice-Hot Chip fusion that I was into towards the end of the term.  I guess a lot of people say "electronic" but I don't really feel like that captures the essence of a lot of this stuff - it's a lot more dynamic than plain "electronic" music.

First, I direct you all to Flying Lotus.  Perhaps the best of Flying Lotus is shown in his 2 hour epic "BBC Essential Mix".  Highly recommended - it's a seamless mix that integrates a bunch of sweet tracks - makes great background music at the very least.

Second, I direct you all to Quetzal. Classified as "Latin/Rock/Alternative" on myspace, but classified as "Funk" in my iTunes, I'm really not sure what you'd described it as.  Maybe all of the above?  Anyway, decent, chill tracks.  Just sit back and relax.

Third, we're going to move into the "dance" side of "electronic" with our good friend Calvin Harris as our guide, confidant, and chaperone.  Recommended tracks: "This Is The Industry", "Acceptable in the 80s", "Neon Rocks", and "The Girls".  Fresh beatz, yo.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, I direct you all to Nosaj Thing.  This shit is dynamic, funky, electronic - it's the god damned cat's pajamas.  I can't say much more.  Start with "1685" and explore from there.

Lastly, I would like to put in a plug for Yael Naim.  Her cover of Britney Spears' smash hit "Toxic" is perhaps one of the most skillfully rendered covers that I've heard.  It captures her own style, while almost mocking Britney at the same time.  Find it.