East bound-West bound

EAST BOUND SUCKS!

WEST BOUND SUCKS!

Have you ever travelled to a sporting event in St. Louis via the Metro-Link? If you have and then had to take said public transportation home, you probably have witnessed and possibly joined in the standard parting remarks between the two opposite platforms waiting for trains going in different directions. It starts with a few people as the crowd builds, but eventually grows as more people join in the chant to establish the dominance of their respective direction by castigating the other side's destination. This is done as you might have guessed by chanting the inferior direction sucks. The sides engage in a verbal sparring match. East bound unites under one banner and their battle cry is "West bound sucks!". West bound rebuttals with "East bound sucks!". The only break in this heated contest comes when the sound of an approaching train gives everyone the hope of realizing their hopes of seeing their journey's end while making them forget the battle at hand. After which one side rejoices and the other laments depending on who is going home.

I was reminded of this pleasant exchange of opinions from my youth recently at a trivia contest. I was my mother's replacement on the team which my parents were on. At this contest of trivia there was a spirit award and so many teams would display their dominance by cheering and being "spirited". Our team's motto towards spirit was apathy, but all the revelry reminded my father of the exchanges we had witnessed many years ago in St. Louis.

I cannot say whether this happens in many cities or not, and it happens despite each side being united under the same banner at a sporting event. I guess we can see this as a metaphor for life. Yes, there is a higher meaning in learning about East bound or West bound sucking.

In life we find ourselves at a station waiting for our train to take us to our next destination, but at this platform we see friends, acquaintances, and people on the other side who have just come from the same place we have. However, we feel we must inform those bound in the opposite way that they suck. Of course, our friends, acquaintances and the like tell us the same. We eventually depart only to meet again someday to forget about our past distaste for the other person's decision and unite under a common banner.

But should we really be chanting to those whose path does not match ours that they suck? Can we not recognize that our East or West bound brothers do not suck? Okay, so this is not a metaphor for life or at least not a realistic or good one. And since I was always heading back to the great state of Illinois after a game...WEST BOUND SUCKS!

Death Star

Yes, this blog entry is titled Death Star, and I think everyone at this point has a good idea of what the rest of the blog should entail. I would expect everyone to ponder if I will share my thoughts on the battle station, not a small moon, from the most popular sci fi trilogy of movies ever. Upon reading this title I doubt anyone would have thought, "Death Star? is that a large cube of death...or maybe it is actually a scientific term...Death Star is confusing, please be more precise.

How in the Sam Hill can anyone not know what the Death Star is? And for that matter what happened to it?!? No, the Death Star is not Darth Vader's star ship. You know what, I do not think I am at the root of the possibility of someone not knowing what the Death Star is. How could anyone not be familiar with Star Wars pop culture references? The enormity of the situation of someone not being for sure that Darth Vader is (Spoiler alert for everyone who has been living under a mountain for the past 30 years!) Luke's father baffles me.

Now, I know not everyone is a Star Wars fan, and that is alright. However, I still cannot grasp how a person, be it a man or a woman, would not know what the Death Star is! Wikipedia says this on its page about the Death Star, "The Death Star is one of the better-known concepts from the Star Wars universe and is widely recognizable outside of that context". It is apart of our nation's pop culture, everyone should know about it.

If you feel alienated from this post or you feel this post was directed at you because you do not know what the Death Star is. You probably should feel this way because how could you not know what the Death Star is?! I will not mention names...even if said people would deserve public ridicule. Its the Star Wars franchise, learn it! When good people do not take the time to learn about their culture's popular movie's references, what is happening to that culture, and what is wrong with those people? Take me for example, I have not seen or read Twilight, but I still know its about vampires and werwolves. I do not want to live in a world where the Death Star could be anything from what someone calls the winner of American Idol to a toaster.

Parents, family and friends make your children and friends respectively, go see the original Star Wars trilogy so we can all be on the same page, please!

One thing I really enjoy is the smell of citrus. I especially enjoy the smell of citrus on my hands after eating a cutie clementine. These clementines satisfy so much more than just the smell of citrus on your hands, however. They among many other things bring joy to my simple life. Yes, I get very excited about how great these clementines are, and no, any look I may have in expressing my feelings towards cuties is not in curiosity or surprise. No, the looks I give are in an excited enthusiasm of recognition of a great product.

I will not keep boring you, but will finish with a concise list of the goodness of cuties.

1. They are super easy to peel requiring less effort than it takes to put on your boots.

2. They taste awesome. Sweetness and juice pack these little guys creating a pleasant eating experience every time.

3. They leave your hands smelling citrus-y.

Aspen, where the beer flows like wine.

Does anyone know the movie from which the title of this blog is taken from? If so feel free to comment or just be proud you do.

About a month ago a friend of mine told me I should write a blog about beer drinking or dark beer. Now, this entry is not about a boasting of how much consumption a person should, can, has or whatever do or done. No, this entry is about fine tastiness of nice beers from my novice perspective in the great wonderland of beers. Disclaimer: if you started to read this entry because you thought it was about Aspen, stop now, because it is not.

I believe every man, woman and child could like beer. In fact, I would even go so far as to say every man woman and child would like dark beer...if given enough time. There are many great lighter beers out there, and no I am not talking about bud light or any of the likes. I would be talking about your wheat beers, maybe a finely crafted lighter ale, or say the boston lager, I couldn't tell you because I am not an expert, but in my opinion they pale(not to be confused with pale ales, ha! a poor joke I know) in comparison to the mountain top of viscous flavors experience one receives from dark beer.

How can one go through life thinking dark beer tastes burnt and bad? Someone most have abused your taste palette as a child if you think a dark beer like guinness tastes terrible. Guinness has a fantastic flavor of like roastedness sure. No one would say a roasted pig tastes burnt and bad. I know guinness is the poster child for dark beers, and I do not wish to give the impression that I do not drink or have not enjoyed many other dark beers. Why just the other night I enjoyed a brew made out of Louisiana called the Turbodog ale. It was great. It had a nice smooth full body and finish with a light bight at the end. I also have recently had the Maudite brewed by Unibroue a Canadian brewery in Chambly, Quebec. This is not the time for beers tasted measuring though. I am here to bring light to one of the most important issues of our age which is getting all peoples to enjoy dark beers. I am forced to ask though how can one not enjoy a fine porter or ale after building a relationship with the style of the brew? A question that will perplex the great minds of our age and ages to come.

I was not blest with the gift to enjoy excellent beers-dark and otherwise. No, I acquired this taste. I started my journey with wheat beers. This is important. I did not start with Bud or Miller, or any of that other beer flavored water they try to pass off as being good. Most of that stuff better relates to what the human body releases then nice beer, but I digress. I moved from nice wheats to lighter ales, and beers that are say redder. Then one day, one glorious day, I had a porter and I thought this is strangely, you guessed it, fantastic. I couldn't tell you why, but it was. Can you really explain the feeling you get when you feel the sun shining on your face, or the experience one has when you go on a roller coaster or you are viewing the Sistine Chapel for the first time. It was like all those things were happening in my mouth.

Since this time I have been trying to get my mouth on any beer that looks finely crafted. One day a friend of mine and I stumbled upon a barley wine. It is a beer aged much like wine, but since it is barley that is being aged it is in fact a beer. We ordered a pitcher of this 11% ABV beer to split between the two of us. Tasting this beer which was aged in brandy barrels was beyond words, and in fact the beer took me by surprise. I was not ready for the vanilla, nuts, caramel, wood, and brandy flavors to crash onto my taste palette like roaring yet smooth wave of, yes, fantasticness.

So there you have it, dark beer is awesome, and you are not if you do not think so.