On Monday (August 9, 2010) I saw Rush perform at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, CA. While the show was by no means perfect, the good – the great – far outweighed the bad. Rush fans of any generation should make every effort to catch the band this time out. They seem to be [...]
This past Saturday (August 7, 2010) I attended “The Bistro’s 13th Annual IPA Festival” in Hayward, CA. The event was like most of the Bistro’s beer festivals over the past few years – which means well-organized with great energy and a fantastic selection of beers to try. The two-sided tasting sheet (reproduced below – click [...]
I love the sound of the fretless bass guitar. Apparently the modern version of this instrument was invented in 1961 by Bill Wyman, bass player of the Rolling Stones, though it was popularized starting in the early ’70s by Jaco Pastorius, best known for his work with Weather Report. Jaco kicks of my selection of [...]
On Saturday (February 6, 2010) I attended “The Bistro’s 10th Annual Double IPA Festival” in Hayward, CA. This was my fifth time attending what has become a predictably wonderful beer event. However, the DIPA Festival has also become quite expensive! This year’s tariff was $35 for a souvenir glass and just five small pours (4-5 [...]
Wheat whiskey is becoming quite the rage. Spokane’s Dry Fly Distilling does an excellent job of fueling the fire with their newly-released, excellent and very-hard-to-find “Washington Wheat Whiskey.” Going back a few years, in late 2005 big Kentucky distiller Heaven Hill released Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey, which they (now incorrectly) call “The Only American Wheat [...]
The newly-released White Whiskey from Wisconsin’s Death’s Door Spirits is a great way to taste “white dog” (spirit fresh off the still, before it goes into barrel). It’s interesting and it’s very good, but it’s certainly not “whiskey” in the conventional sense. And it’s probably not worth $40 a bottle. I first heard about this [...]
