Cheap Beer in Crisis

From an article on declining beer sales at Slate:

Millions of consumers have in recent years become connoisseurs (that is, insufferable snobs) when it comes to coffee, cheese, chocolate, you name it.

Demanding quality should never be something that gets one tarred with the epithet “snob.” Unless of course people are demanding quality only because everyone else is doing it, and passing themselves off as faux connoisseurs. But I suspect that, given the economy, people would be less likely to pay the extra bucks for quality beer, coffe, cheese, etc., just for the sake of appearances. I’m sure it happens but I wouldn’t think it would happen often enough to affect Anheuser-Busch’s bottom line.

Anyway, life is too short for bad beer, coffee or cheese, dammit. And I’m certainly no connoisseur. Shame on Slate for assuming that Americans are drinking less beer. They’re not. They’re just drinking less bad beer. And that’s cause for celebration. Why must the media always see the pint glass as half empty…rabble-rousing bastards.

VH1 Classic: The Great Equalizer

One of the many great things about Vh1 Classic is that very often all sense of context is removed. While watching the All Request Hour the perky hostess actually used New Kids on the Block and The Church in the same sentence. It’s as though all semblance of genre or demographics has been completely cast aside.

In short, it’s how I would like the world to be.

I spent almost the entire weekend in the house, recovering from illness. I watched Billy Wilder’s Irma La Douce (mmm Shirley MacLaine circa 1963) and finished reading Steve Martin’s beautiful novella, Shopgirl. Katherine brought me some Vietnamese food last night, which was so good. Today I took a walk around the neighborhood in a warm light rain. I stopped off at Juan and Heather’s to say hi; their daughter Tori just passed the one year mark. I worked in the yard a bit, and washed the car. Matt ordered a pizza and we watched The Big Bounce.

And last but not least, Odie joins the ranks of the Pointed Stick blogs.

These Are the Sites I Live For

Once every year or so, a new site comes to my attention that brings me such joy and revives my interest in the Internet. I find a place I can spend hours exploring. For reference, previous contenders are Engrish.com, SecretFunSpot.com, Lightningfield.com, and GhostTownGallery.com.

Today’s new find: Lileks.com. This site features, among other things, pictorial histories of 70’s Ozark travel destinations, the Gallery of Regrettable Food, and a personal favorite of mine, Matchbook-o-Rama.

The site in general covers a lot of things I’ve found a fondness for in the last few years: old advertising and graphic design. It’s a warehouse of oddities and curiosities. Enjoy.

Highway 64 Visited

Last weekend Superflux had a gig in Tulsa. It went pretty well; we made some new fans with the Women’s International Bowling Congress. I drove over to Fayetteville on Sunday to catch soul/funk legends Tower of Power at George’s Majestic Lounge. I have to say it was one of the single greatest musical experiences I have ever had in my life. Real soul music the way God (i.e. Otis Redding) intended, with the tightest horn line anywhere in the world, plus my all-time number one rhythm section: David Garibaldi on drums and Rocco Prestia on bass.

On the way home I took the scenic route along Highway 64 in search of interesting photos, so that’s the new plog today. I only drove from Alma to Russellville, as the remainder of the route I covered last June.

Welcome Arkansas Times Readers

So now the harsh light of publicity will shine upon this site and not inconsequential numbers of people might actually read this stuff. Some of the golden anonymity I usually enjoy will wear off, at least for a few weeks. By all means, click the icons at left to take a look around the site, and nevermind the fact that this page looks a bit different from the rest. Heath recently installed WordPress for me, and it’s so much more convenient than duct taping the site together as I previously had been. Be sure to check out the Photolog (Plog) and thanks for visiting. Oh and in case the Times doesn’t credit it, the “Rock” picture is courtesy of Brian Hickman Photography.

And for the musicians in the audience, please check out the forum at LittleRockMusician.com

This is the Sound of Your Brain Expanding

I stayed at work a little late, playing with Google Maps (see the entry below), and as I drove home, I experienced a sort of mental jetlag; switching from outer space eye-views of the Earth to my more immediate, pedestrian surroundings gave me a profound sense of irrelevancy and insignificance. A half hour in front of satellite imagery that comprehensive gives one a perspective previously available only to astronauts. It’s a massive shift.

A poem I read in 5th grade talked about aliens looking at Earth and assuming the major lifeforms to be the many cars moving about constantly. Looking at Google Maps, it’s a natural assumption. The little limbed blobs inside the cars are hard to see.

Anyway, I then thought about a 5th grader today having access to the vast amount of information in Google Maps. All I had when I was a kid was a globe and my imagination to switch between it and a US map or an Arkansas map. And those were just representations. Satellite photography shows reality. Seeing the true scale of this country and this planet…if you spend several minutes exploring the vastness of this place, you can practically feel your mind being blown.

More Fun with Google Maps

Here are some interesting places to see from the sky:

Hamer, Idaho

Somewhere south of Las Vegas

Somewhere north of Las Vegas

Not that this is a big surprise, but I found it amusing that the area near Los Alamos National Laboratory is pretty blurry. Here’s a well-carved housing development outside Albuquerque, though.

More obviously, the US Capitol Building has been pixelated out.

Here’s the massive strip mine at scenic Butte, Montana.

In a similar vein, here is the near-surreal ugliness of Gary, Indiana.

Some colorful fields near the appropriately named Happy, Texas.

And of couse, the Statue of Liberty