Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Why I will vote against my current state rep

Published on October 28, 2009 in Politics. 6 Comments

My current state representative, Joanne Giannini, has helped out our neighborhood greatly. She works with a neighborhood group with which I work (and also run their website). However, she has recently gone crazy with the fight against indoor prostitution. She has sponsored a bill to band indoor prostitution in Rhode Island, where it is currently legal only through a loophole. She wants the police to be able to arrest prostitutes and throw them in jail.

I don’t support prostitution. I don’t see a reason why anyone would want to pay for sex. However, I do support the right for people to pay for sex and for people to sell their bodies for sex. I understand that some people are forced into the business, some even brought here from overseas for the sole purpose of being used as prostitutes. I don’t support that. I don’t see a problem with people who are willingly doing this to continue to do so.

What the RI General Assembly should be doing is legitimizing the sex industry. Regulate where brothels are allowed through zoning laws. This will prevent them from opening in residential neighborhoods. Regulate the business with random visits by social workers and health inspectors. This will keep the business clean and allow the employees to come forward to someone other than a cop if they are being forced into prostitution.

Most of the prostitutes in Rhode Island are doing it because they need the money. They are supporting their families. In a state with one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country, it is horrifying to think that the General Assembly is so heartless to force hundreds more people into unemployment. And not only will they be forcing them into unemployment, they will be forcing them into a life of crime. Putting these people in jail will cost our state and communities more than leaving the law as it stands. However, if we regulate and tax the sex industry, we will be putting money in the state’s coffers… money that the state desperately needs.

Shame on your Rep Giannini. Shame on all the members of our General Assembly who are buying the garbage spewed by the likes of Donna Hughes, the URI Women’s Studies professor who has made the sex industry her #1 enemy. I will be voting against Rep Giannini (and possibly Senator Maryellen Goodwin, if she also votes in favor of this) in the next election, not because she has been a horrible representative, but because she is putting her own personal moral beliefs before the needs of the state, including the needs of my community.

Getting Ready for Festival 8

Published on October 28, 2009 in Music, Phish and Travel. 3 Comments Tags: .

I’m sitting here prepping some stuff for our as yet to be announced group costume (though if you follow me and the people I’m sharing the RV with, you can probably figure it out). I’ve got a lot going through my head for this weekend. Tomorrow is my last day of work until next Wednesday. I’m leaving Thursday morning for Indio, by way of Philly and Vegas. An awesome guy I follow on Twitter offered me a ride to the airport. I figured since this trip is all about Twitter, I’d take him up on the offer. You may have heard of him, or better yet… heard him. He’s Mike Sheridan of Traffic Net in Rhode Island. Yes, he’s a traffic reporter. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow him @TrafficMike. He’s saving me almost $30 in cab fare by doing this. So be nice to him.

Once I get to Vegas (the Philly stop is just a long layover), I’ll be meeting up with 6 other people I follow on Twitter. They’re all worth following: @UNOlker, @mdubno, @Grill_Meister, @coffeewithian, @mberde, and @MountainLaura. From Vegas we’ll be in the RV and on our way to Indio for the festival. The trip will be pretty epic. Based on what Phish has announced through their site and what I’ve heard through the grapevine, the band has quite a bit planned for us. If you’re interested, check out the following links.

Phish Festival 8 Official Site

Phish Festival 8 Halloween Cover Album Teaser [Jamtopia]

The Phish Festival 8 Poster Gallery [Jamtopia]

The site is supposed to have wifi available. Depending on how good it is or whether or not I can get an AT&T data connection through my iPhone for tethering, I’ll probably post a few updates from the site.

If you’re going to the festival, you should check out the past few episodes of This Week On Lot. They discuss the festival, rumors, and give tips on what to expect and bring with you.

Now back to preparations… like putting music on my iPhone for the flight.

Theobroma at 1 Year

Published on October 28, 2009 in Ale, Beer and Review. 1 Comment

The other night we visited with some friends. I brought over a couple bottles of beer to share with them. One of those was a bottle of Dogfish Head Theobroma from the first batch. The beer had originally been a bit drier with the chili pepper coming through a bit more in the back. The aged version had changed quite a bit. The heat from the pepper had subsided, though was still there just enough to give you a slight tingle. The beer had sweetened up quite a bit. I remember when we first tried it, someone suggested that it wouldn’t be a good one to age. I disagree. It was nice and malty with a hint of cocoa and that slight tingle from the pepper. If you have some bottles of this, I suggest aging one or 2 of them. It’s a great beer and I thought it was even better aged. Susan did not like it at all when it was fresh, but she loved it aged. Of course, she doesn’t like peppers or spicy things, which would explain that.

Upgraded Site

Published on October 17, 2009 in Meta. Closed

As I’m sure you can tell, my site is quite different. You’re going to have to bear with the look while I figure out what I’m going to do about the theme. The old theme I used, K2, seems to be a bit buggy with WordPress 2.8.4. I may just be stuck waiting for the K2 developers to update the theme to fully support the newest version of WordPress. Until I find a fix, the site’s gonna look pretty blah for a while. The content will continue to be the same quality that it has always been.

Update: I got the theme working properly. Please bear with me as I customize the CSS a bit to get the look of my site back (or perhaps change it).

Update 2: I think I got all the CSS customized. I still have the Blogroll and some other customizations to make before it’s back to pretty much exactly what it used to be (though it will never been exact). It seems as though when you export the blog to an XML file, it doesn’t backup the Blogroll, which is unfortunate, and a bit surprising. I’m likely going to do away with my Links page and just put all the blogs I read in my Blogroll instead.

Why You Should Boycott Monster Energy Drink

Published on October 14, 2009 in Beer and Politics. 3 Comments

It’s rare that I call for an outright boycott of a product or company, but this is one of those cases where it is most definitely called for.

You see, up in the very small town of Morrisville, Vermont, there stands a very small brewery, producing only about 3,000-3,500 barrels of beer per year. This brewery started in the owners’ basement and grew to this small industrial building. It employs only 7 people besides the husband and wife team that owns it. This brewery is called Rock Art. They produce some awesome beers, some of which are very creative. They sell their beers at a very reasonable price (less than what they could get for them if you ask me, but I’m definitely not complaining). On their 10th anniversary, they made a 10% version of their flagship beer, Ridge Runner. They named this new barleywine The Vermonster

In another part of the country stands this giant beverage corporation. They are in the soda, juice, tea, and energy drink business. They do not make beer, but they are large and have a lot of money. This company is called Hansens Beverage Company. They own the popular Monster line of energy drinks.

Recently, Rock Art filed for a trademark for The Vermonster name nationally (it was already trademarked in Vermont since its creation). Shortly after the filing, they received an impersonal cease and desist order from the lawyers representing Hansens. The order told them that they must stop using the name as it infringes on their trademark of “Monster Energy Drink”. Now, the term “monster” is by no means trademarkable. The way trademark law works is that you have to protect your trademark or you lose it. Once confusion exists, the trademark is nullified. Examples of this are Kleenex tissues or Bayer’s trademark of the term Aspirin. Those words became so commonplace for any tissues or for any headache medicine that the trademark was dilluted. While I understand Hansens right to protect their trademark from becoming dilluted, they have lost all PR points in their methods.

The reasoning Hansens gives for the trademark infringement is incredibly weak. They claim that there is major overlap between the energy drink market and the beer market. Perhaps that is true if you consider beer as being only Bud, Miller, and Coors. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Rock Art’s market does not overlap with the energy drink market. They also claim a type of synergy between the beer market and the energy drink market. Again, this is all marketing lingo and completely false. There is absolutely no mistaking a beer which comes only in a 22 ounce brown bottle for an energy drink that comes in a large can. There is no mistaking the different labels. Finally, there is no mistaking the term “Vermonster”, a play on the name of a state, for the term “Monster”.

This whole thing reeks of Monster Cables and their frivilous lawsuits against anyone and anything they can go after. They have lost many of these because the justice system decided they were too ridiculous in their claims, but they knew they were the big guys in the case and could probably bully the little guy around. That is exactly what Hansens is doing here. Rock Art is a small brewery. It takes a lot of time and overhead to run a brewery. Rock Art only distributes to a couple of states with the vast majority of their distribution being in Vermont. They don’t have the reach that Hansens has.

So, because of all this and because Rock Art is such a great brewery owned by some great people, I urge you to boycott Monster Energy Drink. In fact, I would extend that boycott to all of Hansens’ products. This is purely corporate bullying and greed. Rock Art has a case, but doesn’t have the wallet to defend their case. In a country founded on justice for all, they should get what’s theirs and not have to fight a long expensive legal battle.

How can you help?

  1. Buy Rock Art beer if it’s sold in your state or nearby (this is the most important).
  2.  If you’re on Twitter, tell @MonsterEnergy how shameful this is.
  3. Tell @RockArtBrewery how great they are and show them some support.
  4. Use the hash tags #monsterboycott and #ISupportRockArt in your tweets.
  5. Join the Facebook group Vermonters and Craft Beer Drinkers Against Monster.
  6. Contact Hansens and tell them what you think.
  7. Contact Monster Energy Drink and tell them what you think.

Since you’re probably looking for more information on this debacle other than my simple blog post, here are a few links to various news outlets reporting on the story.

Associated Press

Burlington Free Press

Rutland Herald

Finally, here’s a great video of Matt Nadeau, the owner of Rock Art, explaining the situation.

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Phish Musical Halloween Costume Thoughts

Published on October 2, 2009 in Music and Phish. 8 Comments Tags: .

All the buzz around Phish is now about their new flash site that has them killing off albums until the last one remains. Supposedly, the last one remaining will be the album that they play for their musical costume on Halloween at Festival 8. The site has 99 albums, and so far, they’ve killed off 15 of them.

Phish has always been a band that likes to mess around with people. I don’t buy this whole “last one standing” bit they’ve got going. After all, the previous Halloween shows they’ve done were surprises to the audience. I, for one, want it to be a surprise. It wouldn’t be as much fun if we all knew what they were gonna play. That’s the fun of a Phish show. What I do think they’ll do is play the first song or part of the first song off the last album alive and then play something completely different that’s not even on that list (or perhaps one of the albums that died).

The list of albums includes some great albums, some albums I’ve never heard, some bands I just don’t like, and some true classics. It ranges from Bob Dylan to Radiohead to Frank Zappa to MGMT to Kiss to the Violent Femmes. They’ve played songs from some of the albums. Some of the albums are from bands they’ve used at previous Halloween shows (or that special Dark Side of the Moon show). Jamtopia has a great post with the albums and a day-by-day list of the albums that have been killed off.

My thoughts are pretty similar to the thoughts of many. The band will not play an album from one of the bands whose albums they have covered in their entirety. That knocks off The Who, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, Talking Heads, and the Beatles. They’re not likely to play an album full of mellow songs. This knocks out Radiohead, which a lot of people seem to want to hear. I’ll admit to not being a Radiohead fan. I just don’t like Thom Yorke’s voice and the music is way too mellow for me (though I like that song “Creep” that came out in the ’90′s and In Rainbows isn’t a horrible album). I don’t think they’ll play Frank Zappa. Too many people have been hoping for it. They’ll really want to throw people for a loop.

One of the things I don’t think they’ll do is play an album that people don’t recognize. While it may not be as mainstream as The White Album, it won’t be as obscure as some of the albums on the list. I also don’t think they’ll play anything from a current group, knocking off MMW, MGMT, Arcade Fire, and, again, Radiohead. Also, some of the albums on the list are so out there that they’re only on that list as a joke. I’m looking at Chicago, Kiss, Hall & Oates, and the Bee Gees.

My real hope, if they play something off the list, is that they play Appetite for Destruction. Everyone knows the album, but no one will be expecting it because it’s such an oddball choice, but not too out there. It’d be fun. The crowd would go absolutely nuts. Many of us will piss our pants in excitement.

What I think they’ll do is play an album from a California band, which includes GnR, The Eagles, The Beach Boys, the Dead, etc. Playing a Southern California band would be even better, especially one that fits the whole desert scene, like the Eagles.

My ultimate dream would be for them to play Bat Out of Hell from Meat Loaf. I doubt it’d happen as Meat Loaf is one of those acts that many people hate. I, on the other hand, love Meat Loaf. While he didn’t write most of the songs, his partner, Jim Steinman, is a great writer. Meat Loaf’s voice is powerful and the songs are epic and fun. I think Phish could pull it off and it’d be awesome.

Update (because I forgot this part): I forgot to add in the original post that watching them play the Grateful Dead’s American Beauty would be sick. They’re playing an acoustic set on Sunday. I would not be surprised if we heard some Dead tunes then.

Best Super Mario Bros. Theme Ever

Published on October 1, 2009 in Fun Stuff and Music. Closed

This has got to be one of the best renditions of the Super Mario Bros. theme song I have ever seen (and I’ve seen a bunch of them on all sorts of instruments). The band is from Brazil and calls themselves Gameboys. This is a live performance. You actually need to watch it. There’s a part about 7 minutes in where it gets completely awesome.