Stool Boom
Jonathan mentioned to me yesterday something about the doctor wanting to do stool tests on him. I immediately thought of this great song from Waiting for Guffman which is (somewhat) related.
That’s just bad politics
In a recent speech Republican nominee John McCain promised to veto every beer. What would this mean for America? I have no idea. I didn’t know beers could be vetoed. But I don’t think I like it. You can see the video slip-up here.
P.S. He was actually just trying to say “bill earmarked.” So… there’s that. But it’s still fun blowing it out of proportion.
Blogging it Out
Two weeks ago during the NCAA championship game Directv had an AMAZING ad. I’ve been scouring “the net” ever since trying to find it. It’s part of a series of commercials directed by Christopher Guest (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman) and features the usual cast of characters from his films. You can find the other ads here (all of which are funny) but my all time favorite is the one that came on during the game.
Why is it so funny? The first irony of the situation is that John Michael Higgins who plays the cable executive in the ad has previously played a hollywood publicist in Guest’s last movie (“For Your Consideration“). One of the stellar lines of the film in a discussion about something on the “internet” he responds with “the internet, now that’s the one with e-mail right?” It features that line in the preview. So anyhow, with that backdrop I find it particularly humorous that he is the executive touting everyone to “go viral” and “blog it out.” Amazing. I guess I also find it entertaining when put in the context of recent studies about the influence of blogs:
Marketers need to better understand the changing dynamics of the consumer media market and develop new marketing plans that integrate new media to replace the erosion of traditional media for influence to purchase. Marketers who can?t tap new media options for their influence to purchase will suffer a decline in advertising ROI.
The sad part of the whole thing is that I bet there are a LOT of presentations very similar to this ad based on some executive reading the above quote and telling his team that they need to”go viral.” I have actually sat through one or two of them. Hopefully you find it as funny as we do. Kudos to DirecTv for a killer ad.
MNB vs. CNYBrew: the video
A Beer War has been a-brewing. Travis and his shady CNYBrew gang threw down the gauntlet and then promptly picked it up again, admitting defeat in the face of our superior brewing prowess.
We’re still waiting on tasting results from Alan up in Canada, Brad out in California and Ted in Chicago, but we thought we’d post our own informal results early, before Travis’ IPA grew legs and walked out of the fridge. Take a look at what is surely one of the most entertaining videos we’ve ever put together. Joel even used iMovie!
There’s more than one way to drench a Joel
Ah, conical fermenters. Ever since we bit the bullet and bought 2 stainless steel conical fermenters from Blichmann about a month ago, we’ve spent probably 30 minutes of every day staring at their shiny surfaces. I’ve actually given up looking for a wife and have settled for Gertrude, Stainless Steel Conical #2.
When it came time to drain the yeast off the bottom of the fermenter for the first time, we thought we’d capture it on video. It’s a good thing we did, because Jeff screwed up royally. There are 2 valves on the fermenter ? one to drain the yeast and one to sample beer. Jeff opened the wrong valve and… well… just watch the video.
Sorry Joel. Our bad.
Donut learns some manners
Okay, not beer-related. But check out Donut’s new trick. She’s ready for a formal dinner!
Gravity reigns in our sparging setup
A haiku dedicated to Isaac Newton:
Sir Isaac Newton
You invented gravity
So that we could brew
Hopefully we’ll be getting a pump soon, but until then, we rely on gravity. At least we have a rotating sparge arm, unlike the lame stationary setup that Travis made. Those New Yorkers can’t do anything right…
