The Beer Traveller

Was invited to Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley to help celebrate a friend’s 21st birthday.

Carrie & I arrived early to find that we were the first one’s there.  The atmosphere was amazing; dimly lit 2 story venue with candles at every table.  Food was marginal & overpriced, but the service was great.  Entertainment for the night included Mose Allison & Larry Coryell.

This was my first time to this club & actually my first time watching live jazz.  Needless to say I’m not much of a jazz fan & this night didn’t exactly change that.  Although Larry was the opening act, I found him more entertaining (& lively) than Mose.  Mose had a habit of pushing the mike away when he wasn’t singing…it soon became evident why.  Even when he wasn’t singing, there seemed to be a constant hum emanating from him (think poorly grounded amp).

Draft beer selection was limited; they had 4.  I started w/ the Leavenworth ‘Whistling Pig’ wheat ale.  Lemon in the 1st one & lemonless in the 2nd.  Needless to say they both tasted flat & lifeless.  For my next 2 rounds I switched to a porter.  Much better!

The night was finished @ the Cheesecake Factory, where I had a couple of Mac & Jacks.  Go figure…you think a place like that would be able to whip up a cement mixer for the B-day boy; they had no idea.

I took advantage of a last minute invitation & hit Fremont’s Summer Solstice Parade this past Saturday.  After getting a late start & spending a ridiculous amount of time looking for parking it was obvious we were not going to see the full show.  We soon begin to wonder if we would be seeing any of the show; the crowd was about 15 deep along the parade route & with our combined height of about 10 ft, it wasn’t looking too good for seeing over anybody.

Due to a required traffic lane, we found we were able to pop a squat between outgoing traffic & a “Move!” nazi.  Needless to say with as small of a footprint as we took, we were still unwelcome in our newfound seats.  I was ping-ponged between a stressed out photographer trying to get the perfect shoot & a 10 yr girl saying “hey mister, I can’t see”.  Unfortunately this left no room for the soon-to-be shrink that I had come with.  I would have to make due without Ashley’s professional commentary & we would have to debrief after the parade.

It was soon unclear whether the parade or the spectators were most interesting.  I have lived in many parts of the country & I can honestly say that Seattlites can be some of the rudest people.  This is based off of more than the “Move!” nazi, but her actions strongly support my opinion.  Understandably you don’t want people in front of you during a parade, but when the crowd is 15 thick from the parade route to whatever structure is behind, there’s really nowhere else to go.  The only time people moved was when there was a lull in the floats (i.e. they thought the parade was over).  I will say that her SOP of yelling “Move!” & spraying their feet w/ a water bottle proved quite successful.  She’d make a great cattle herder!  I would like to see her try this technique in NYC or Boston; the outcome may be a little different.

One of the funnier moments was when her husband/friend lectured the near-by cop on the dangers of letting cars out of the parking lot, via through the crowd.  ”Excuse me…Officer…why are you letting these cars through the crowd?”  To which the officer calmly replied “cause that’s what I was told to do”.  Evidently Mr. Safety was not happy w/ his lack of results & decided to focus his effort on getting the officer to move out of his line of sight.  After barking “officer” & “sir” about 20 times, the realization that the officer was not going to respond finally kicked in.  Now I ask…where exactly is a crowd control/traffic officer suppose to stand in order to be out of everyone’s way???  Apparently Mr. Safety didn’t care as long as the officer wasn’t in ‘his’ way.

I could go on about the sights, but will spare my dialogue & re-direct you to the photos.

The good news is I’ve got all my marketing materials (sounds rather corporate, eh?) on order, but they won’t be ready till mid next week.  I’m still working on some website things & have a local concert coming up on 7/3; therefore it looks like the earliest I can hit the road will be around 7/5.  No worries though, I can start blogging about the local breweries.

After starting one screen all day yesterday, I thought I’d switch it up & stare it the one that doesn’t require any thinking.  Watched “With Honors” for the 1st time & wasn’t too impressed.  There were 2 quotes that stuck out & amp’d me up a little about this adventure I’m about to partake in.

“How could he die…he ain’t live” & ”Graduate life w/ honor & without regret”

The second quote resurfaced in my head as I finished the night watching CMT’s ‘My Big Redneck Wedding’. The bride & bridesmaids were in Wally World picking up camouflage for their wedding outfits.  It got me thinking…some people will never regret anything!

Ok, for the 3 people that are probably reading this at this time, you can probably tell that not a whole hell of a lot is happening.  There are a couple of reasons for this…unless I count as just one!  Procrastination & lack of knowledge are preventing me from travelling.  I am awaiting the final draft of my logo so I can get some marketing materials (i.e. swag) made.  I am also working through issues w/ the website; would like to have a map, advertising, & a way to contact me.

There lies the lack of knowledge.  My experience in computers is pretty much limited to point & click (i.e. porn web surfing).  When it comes to designing a website & troubleshooting code…I’m a lot like a toddler sitting in his high chair at feeding time.  Both hands are banging in unison hoping something will change!

Could not have asked for a better day for the Washington Brewers Festival; the sun was shinning & the beer was flowing.  I’ve determined that beers fests are great for trying numerous beers/breweries and providing the perfect venue for legally getting bombed while walking around w/ an open container.  On the flip side to that, the tokens & kiddy cups are a pain in the ass.  The downside to the tokens is standing in line twice; once to get ‘em & once to use ‘em.  The upside is you don’t have to wait for a busy bartender to cop some change.

Depending on your speed of ingestion & quality of brew you want to try, the basic procedure consists of filling up & getting in line to fill up.  A good portion of the drinking happens while in line.  This is where you may be asked your favorite brew, but more likely are offered the favorite brew of the yahoo that keeps bumping into you.

Although a great place to tip one back, probably not the best to rate a beer.  Something about having 13 completely different brews in the same glass without being rinsed tells me there may be some cross contamination happening. Kudos to the ladies @ Skookum Brewery as they were the only ones who proactively rinsed.

The main attraction appeared to be a fairly young brewery called Laughing Buddha. Unfortunately I was unable to try their beer as I would have needed at least 10 of those sample cups, filled, to wait in the line leading up to their spot @ the tents.  Good news is that I did run into Carole (PR for Laughing Buddha) & crew; she was nice enough to go into a little more depth on their brewery & invite me to stop in.

One more to add to the list.

Hit the King Cobra Club in Capitol Hill last night.  Saw a ‘never before had’ beer on draft & had to try it; turns out it was Venom Ale by Pyramid.  Bottom line is I soon found this ‘undrinkable’.  This was confirmed by Morty, who stated “tastes like it’s from one of those beer trays under the taps”.  Very rarely do I not finish a beer due to taste (passing out is a different story), but after getting almost a third done, I asked the bartender to dump it & get me the Pyramid Hefe Weizen.

As you can probably tell this is my 1st website; still in progress.  I figured what would be a more appropriate 1st WTF post than complaining about html code.  Everything about this blogging software is suppose to be just plug & chug.  As you can tell from the appearance…there’s still a few things to be worked out.