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Where the Sidewalk Ends
If you have not read Where the Sidewalk Ends, or have not read it in a long time, I highly recommend you do. Shel Silverstein is in possession of a unique brilliance and this title, in particular, is evidence of that. It is a literary treasure. Read it aloud cover to cover. I have a few Silverstein books that I read to my daughter at night. This is my unquestioned favorite. It is a bit dark and long winded in some places for a three-year-old, but she definitely enjoys it. When you have finished that I advise you to look up the musical credits for Silverstein.
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The Metric System
I do not want to dwell on this too much, but I want to note that the Brew Druid uses the metric system for the recipe program and process analysis. The reason is mostly because fluid flow and heat transfer models are among the things we want to explore, and the mathematical principles of those subjects are just easier to apply with metric units. For those who may have forgotten or are unfamiliar with the difference, the metric system is based on mass (grams) while the British gravitational system is based on force (pounds). Mass and force are not the same. The difference is significant. I remember in junior high…
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America, Fuck Yeah! Imperial Red, Wheat and Blueberry Ale
Honestly, I was opposed to making the first official Brew Druid recipe a wheat ale. I probably won’t ever post that opinion on the actual Brew Druid site, but it’s the truth. As noted in an earlier post, a rather unremarkable discovery of an old home brew bottle cap was presented to me by my collaborator as an omen regarding the direction we should go with our brew project. It was a green cap with an “A”. See that former post for details but suffice to say that we could not find exactly which recipe that the cap came from. In all likelihood, it was probably a wheat of some…
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Hastings Delta Corporation
The Panda, Zebra, Dalmatian story that I am working on is close to buttoning up. There is one last creative hurdle to clear to draw it all to a close. There will need to be a few rounds of self-editing after that, of course, but the heavy lifting will be done. I have found that often there is a fine line where upon a thing passes from enjoyable to tedious. Writing has such a line and I do not want Panda, Zebra, Dalmatian to cross it. The story is very near completion now. All that is required is one good day of focused attention to finish bringing it to life. …
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Writing Competitions
It struck me at one point to look into writing competitions. I figured if I were already writing short stories, it isn’t much more effort to submit one to a contest. It doesn’t really matter if I win anything. If I get a chance to write half as much as I plan this year, I should have a surplus of material for a while. It’s not like I’m expecting to get paid for everything out of my keyboard right now. I thought it might be a fun opportunity as well as a means of getting in front of an audience. What I found, however, is that there are often…
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The Hawkline Monster Recap
I finished Richard Brautigan’s The Hawkline Monster some time back and have been procrastinating writing a review of it. It’s a fantastic piece of literature and I want to share my impressions, but I’ve been struggling to find the right words that capture how and why I like it so much. It was written by a poet and it shows. The use of imagery is magnificent and it’s very efficient in its use of words. The narrative is at different times dark, whimsical, gritty, humorous, intelligent and coarse. Despite that, the voice is steady an evenly paced. I have been guilty of grossly misjudging the tastes the general public before,…
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The Homebrewer’s Companion – Mash Calculations
What follows might be among the most boring and scope limited book reviews of all time. If you should happen to take up home brewing. There is a pretty good chance that you will learn from Charlie Papazian’s very excellent book, The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. I would recommend it to anyone. If you get through that and want to learn more, you could end up with a copy of The Homebrewer’s Companion by the same author. It is also a very good book that I would recommend. However, if you are like me, there is a chance that you will end up with your head in a knot while…
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Song of Achilles reminds me of something…
The first 100 or so pages are a combination of Clash of the Titans, Blue Lagoon and Brokeback Mountain. I hope I don’t have to clarify to anyone that that’s a good thing. I think that is kind of what the author was going for. I still can’t shake the feeling that homosexuality was not as taboo in ancient Greece as it is being presented here. I could be wrong, of course. Admittedly not an expert on the subject.
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Song of Achilles – Did I already know Achilles was gay?
One of the first things I remember thinking is that the book seemed a little homoerotic. There seemed to be a little extra effort describing men and boys in a way that seemed to accentuate physical attractiveness. At first I thought it might be just me. I thought maybe there was something that triggered imagery from the movie 300. It is told from the perspective of Patroclus as a young boy. At least the first several chapters occur during his adolescent years. Then I started thinking about The Illiad. It occurred to me that it was Patroclus’ death that drove Achilles into violent and remorseless madness, and it struck me…
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Moving Toward All-grain Brewing
I unintentionally quit brewing beer a few years back. I was determined to develop some all-grain recipes and hit a few big bumps that got me temporarily derailed. For those who are not familiar with the brewing process, the alcohol and flavor in beer comes from fermentation of barley sugars. Homebrewers get their barley sugars in one of two ways, either with a ready-to-use malt extract or by mashing malted grains. Either way is fine and capable of producing great beer. The extracts are far easier to work with and are often where most brewers start. Extracts are added to water, boiled and ready to go. The alternative method of…