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Tearing Down Trees for a “Green” Building

Published on August 18, 2008 in Environmentalism. 2 Comments

I’m all for biking and green buildings, but Zane’s Cycles in Branford, CT has taken the cake. They have torn down a bunch of trees to build a “green” building for their bike shop.

The bike shop has been growing over the years. They originated in a nice storefront on Main Street in the center of Branford. They have since moved to a larger space in a strip mall on Rt. 1 with oceans of parking. Their new building is also going to be on Rt. 1, and because it’s not in a dense urban area, it will likely also be surrounded by a sea of surface parking.

Someone needs to inform the owners that if they truly want to be green, they would have renovated their current space or bought an existing building to renovate rather than tear down trees and add more blacktop.

Zane’s Cycles gets an F in environmentalism.

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Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weiss

Published on August 13, 2008 in Review, German, Ale and Beer. 0 Comments

I know I had previously said I would do a side by side, but that never happened. What did happen, however, is that I moved a bunch of beer from my pantry to the cellar for the summer (the pantry is much warmer than the rest of the apartment now, while the opposite was true in the winter). Because of that, I forgot I even had a bottle of Brooklyner-Schneider Hopfen Weiss. I pulled it out of the cellar and decided to pop it open. I had previously tried this at a couple tastings at Nikki’s. When the beer was fresh, it had a nice hops bite to it that fit perfectly. The beer has aged a few months and here are my thoughts.

The beer pours a cloudy grassy yellow/maize color with a huge head. Carbonation is more present now than it was fresh. The beer smells of yeasty breadiness and a nice hoppy grassiness. The flavor up front is some of that sweeter malt flavor along with some bready flavors. The hops are there, but more subdued than they were when the beer was fresh. They were a bit grassier now and not quite as in your face as they had been. This tastes much more like a German beer than an American beer. It’s got a nice mouthfeel, just ever so slightly chewy and bready. It’s still quite drinkable, though if I gave it an A before, I’d give this a B+ now.

I much prefered this beer fresh. In my opinion it has passed its prime, though it is still a very excellent beer (and this is coming from someone who isn’t a huge fan of wheat beers, especially those with lots of yeast). The whole idea behind the beer was the hops and with those more subdued, you aren’t getting the purpose of the beer. If you haven’t had it and can still find it, it is worth trying. It does taste more like the German version did fresh.

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Tina’s Jamaican Caribbean Restaurant

Published on August 8, 2008 in Review, Providence and Food. 0 Comments

Tonight, Susan and I decided to try something new for dinner and ended up at Tina’s Jamaican Caribbean Restaurant in the middle of Providence’s Little Italy (which is actually simply becoming the dining district with all the great food of various ethnicity). I had heard their food was good, but it’s always empty. I think they do a lot of take out business. The waitress was really nice. We started by splitting the coco bread (bread made with coconut milk) and a beef patty. They were both excellent. I ordered the curried goat and Susan got the curried chicken. Both meals came with vegetables (which was cabbage and peppers and some other stuff), rice and peas (peas are actually red kidney beans), and fried plantains (which were quite delicious). Both our meals were excellent. The chicken and goat were so tender, there was no need for a knife. I had never had goat before, but it was like a greasier lamb. It peeled right off the bone and was very tasty.

The only thing I didn’t like was sorrel, which is like a berry wine with rose petals (it’s not alcoholic). The rose petals added too much perfuminess to it that made it a bit unbearable, but it still tasted good. We both left very satisfied and Susan even took some home. I think we’ll be going back there again. It’s definitely worth a visit. Don’t let the lack of customers deter you, the food is awesome.

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Smoke and More Cherry

Published on August 8, 2008 in Review, Lager, Ale and Beer. 0 Comments

Tonight I decided to try one of the beers from, new to RI, Fort Collins Brewing. I tried their Z Lager, which is a rauchbier. It pours a darker reddish amber color with almost no head. It smells of caramel and other malts with a hint of smoke. The taste isn’t quite as smoky as I would have liked, but it is nicely smoked. It’s an easy drinking beer and worth a try as it’s one of those styles you don’t see very often. Fort Collins is likely a welcome addition to RI.

On Wednesday, I had Southern Tier’s Cherry Saison from their imperial beer series. I’ll start off by saying that I wasn’t crazy. It was a little dark for a saison. It had a cloudy orangy yellow hue to it. It smelled of spices and a slight hint of cherry. The flavor lacked the cherry, which wasn’t too bad, but it had too much of something and not enough of something else. I can’t put my finger on it, but something about this beer seemed off. I didn’t finish the bottle. It wasn’t overly drinkable and it is definitely not worth another try. In fact, if you have to drink the whole bottle yourself, it’s not worth the price. It’s worth trying if you’re going to split the bottle with 2-4 other people.

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Providence #4 Hard-Drinking City in USA

Published on August 8, 2008 in Fun Stuff and Providence. 1 Comment

According to Forbes, Providence is the fourth “hard-drinking” city in the country. It seems they get their rankings by taking the percentage of residents who had at least one drink in the last 30 days, the percentage of men who had at least two drinks per day and women who had a least one drink per day, and the percentage of residents who had five or more drinks on one occasion.

I don’t know why I care, but I like seeing Providence ranked high on lists. We were beat out by Austin, TX; Milwaukee, WI; and San Francisco, CA. The only other area city on the list was Boston, which came in ninth. Keep drinking Providence!

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Cream Crème Cherry

Published on August 5, 2008 in Review, Ale and Beer. 1 Comment

I have a few beers to write about (it seems as though I will always have a beer to write about, there are so many different beers out there). I’ll go in reverse (based on the title).

Tonight, I had Haverhill/The Tap’s Haver Ale, a cream ale. It pours a pale amber color with a small head and ample carbonation. It smells light with a little grassiness to it. The taste is light, but somewhat creamy, even with all the carbonation. It has a slight grassy bitter hops aftertaste, but it’s just for balance. The mouthfeel is pretty creamy as well, but light. This is a great warm weather beer and a style you don’t normally see very often. It was very tasty and definitely worth a try.

Last night for dessert, Susan and I split a bottle of Southern Tier’s hot new imperial beer, Crème Brulée. They call it an Imperial Milk Stout. I would call it an imperial vanilla stout. Either way, this is one very different beer. It pours a very dark mahogany brown with no real head. Upon popping open the bottle, the smell is strong. It’s very a very sweet vanilla and heavy cream scent. It’s nothing I would have ever expected from a beer this dark. Upon first sip, you can tell this is a sipping beer. It’s very strong in flavor. To be honest, it tastes just like creme brulee. It’s creamy, it’s sweet, and there’s a lot of vanilla and cream flavors in it. It has an aftertaste of roasted malts that don’t necessarily fit in, but also don’t ruin it. The only issue is that it is slightly boozy (no shock there at 10% ABV). This is not a beer to drink on your own. I split the bottle with Susan and even then it was tough for us to finish (in fact, we ended up pouring a little down the drain not because we didn’t like it, but because it was tough to finish). This is a beer to be split between 2-4 people and have as dessert. It would pair well with anything chocolate, vanilla, or creamy. I have a second bottle that I plan on aging for a year to see if the alcohol will mellow and the roasted bitterness will lighten up a bit. This would be one awesome beer if the sweeter side was more prominent throughout.

Finally, last night with dinner, I had Smuttynose Hanami Ale. The label says it’s an ale brewed with cherry juice and other natural flavors. From what I could tell, it’s an amber ale brewed with cherries. For a fruit beer, it’s a good one. It pours a nice amber color with a small head. It immediately smells like cherries, but not overwhelmingly so. It has a nice cherry flavor, but it tastes like there are some spices mixed in as well. I imagine that’s the “natural flavors”. It’s a very easy drinknig beer, though not overly light. It’s worth a try. I’d buy it again.

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Coddington Brewing Co.

Published on August 4, 2008 in Review, Ale, Food and Beer. 0 Comments

After we left the Folk Festival on Saturday, we headed to Middletown to get dinner at Coddington Brewing. I had heard it was good. The interior feels like a cheap family restaurant, like a Chelo’s or Gregg’s. The waitstaff also seemed like people who would work at one of those. Our waitress didn’t seem all that interested in serving us. I ordered their IPA, an English style IPA. It was actually quite tasty. It has a nice hops flavor, but a really nice malt profile as well. Neither was overpowering and it was quite drinkable. Susan got their Nut Brown, which was similar to Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown. It had a nice roasted nutty character. We both got fried seafood. I had scallops and Susan got fish and chips. I wasn’t as impressed by the food. The fries were nothing special, though the scallops were cooked well. Susan really liked the fish and chips. They were lightly coated and not overly greasy. We then headed home. I think that one trip was enough, though some of the other menu items looked really good (we didn’t want to spend a lot or overeat and fall asleep driving back to Providence).

I have now been to RI’s 4 brewpubs (Trinity Brewhouse and Union Station in Providence and Mohegan Cafe on Block Island are the other 3). Trinity is still my all around favorite, though the beer at Coddington was solid. I wasn’t impressed by the atmosphere at Coddington. Union Station’s beer tends to be watered down, and Mohegan Cafe was just OK (though I’d go back there again if I find myself on the island).

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Newport Folk Festival Part 3: Overall Thoughts

Published on August 4, 2008 in Review and Music. 2 Comments

Overall, the Folk Festival was a ton of fun and definitely worth attending. I do think the ticket prices were a bit steep. Supposedly, at least according to the Boston Globe, there were only 8,000 people on Saturday and 7,500 on Sunday. I find that hard to believe as there seemed to be a whole lot more people there than that (and I’m not including the boats). Regardless of how many people were in attendance, the festival was a great time. I got to see a lot of new artists and a lot of current favorites. A lot of people were upset by the fact that it wasn’t folk music. However, the vast majority of the performers were influenced, at least in part, by folk music. Some were folkier than others, but most of them definitely had a noticeable connection to folk music.

There was a little shopping area with lots of vendor tents selling their wares. I wish they had invited more local artists rather than people from other states. This would have been a great opportunity to showcase some of RI’s own artists who sell their stuff at the Providence Open Market and other local events. The event was mostly corporate-free, though the whole VIP thing kind of bugged me. There’s nothing worse than a bunch of yuppies showing up in their nice clothes hanging out in a special section. Or having a section roped off in front of the soundboard that remains mostly empty because the VIP’s don’t care about the performers on the stage (though it was full for Buffett, and only Buffett). I understand the need to support the festival and selling super expensive VIP tickets is one way to do it (and avoid seriously corporatizing the event), it’s not cool to prevent the real fans from being able to have the good seats by roping off a special VIP section. It was empty with the exception of about 2 people during the Black Crowes set. It’s that kind of thing that pisses me off. Music has become too corporatized, even the most revered events, such as the Newport Folk Festival. I did get a laugh out of people ruining their $300 shoes (no exaggeration) in the mud trying to escape while the true music lovers were enjoying the music and having an all-around good time regardless of what the weather brought.

Other than that, it was a good time. I would definitely go again so long as the lineup is just as good. I have also decided that I don’t care if I ever see Jimmy Buffett again. This was a great show because of the opportunity to do things differently and collaborate, but it was too similar to the show I saw last summer. I can understand the people who go every year to have a great time, but it’s not worth the price of his tickets. I was able to get a 2 day ticket for the festival for just $50 more than the ticket to the Buffett show at Gilette (though I didn’t get the cheap tickets for his show because I wanted to have some chance at seeing the stage).

My favorite performances of the weekend (in no particular order):

You should check them out if you haven’t already.

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Newport Folk Festival Part 2: Sunday

Published on August 4, 2008 in Review and Music. 2 Comments

When Sunday came, we were so exhausted from the previous day that we ended up sleeping in a bit, but I still wanted to get on the road. We left a lot later than I had planned, but still made it to the festival site much earlier than the previous day. We actually had a great parking space in a lot much closer to the site than where we parked on Saturday. I imagine this was because the majority of the people wanting to attend Sunday’s show were only going to see Jimmy Buffett, which, in my opinion, was quite sad because they missed out on a ton of great music.

We got there and settled in and listened to Willy Mason, a local musician from Martha’s Vineyard. We were so impressed by his music, we bought one of his CD’s and got his autograph (and I told him he had to play Providence soon). He had kind of this folky/country/rootsy sound with someone playing the saw. He’s definitely family oriented with his brother on drums and he brought out his parents to help sing a song (his mother told him to remind everyone that they were selling CD’s).

After that, I wanted to see The Honors on the Harbor Stage. They were nothing special. In fact, I wish I had skipped their act to see all of Brandi Carlile. She had an amazing voice and a great band. We were able to catch a couple songs and her encore after we decided The Honors weren’t worth hanging around for (even their stage presence was awful). Susan ended up buying the CD from Brandi Carlile and got her autograph as well.

We were wandering around and I decided to check out Richard Julian while we ate our hot dogs. He was on the smallest of the 3 stages. He reminded me a bit of Paul Simon. His voice was great and his music fun, with some nifty lyrics. He had a great song about traveling the world and never being able to get away from the United States. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any albums at the table.

We left his tent to see the end of Calexico, which had this mariachi/latin feel to it. They were a lot of fun, but really freakin’ loud (I don’t know if it was just the guy on the sound board or the band itself, but it was loud).

Following Calexico was Gillian Welch, probably the only truly folk singer of the entire festival. She was just awesome. Lots of folk, a little bluegrass, and a great voice.

Following her, I wanted to catch some of Son Volt. We ended up listening to some of it. They were good, though I don’t know why they were invited (other than to draw people). I enjoyed the few songs I heard before headed back to the main stage for Levon Helm.

Levon was the highlight of the festival for me. He was spot on. His band was spot on. He had his daughter singing and playing drums when he wasn’t. He had Larry Campbell on guitar, Teresa Williams on acoustic, and brought out pretty much everyone from earlier in the day. He brought out Little Sammy Davis for a few songs. He played some of his newer stuff, some traditional stuff (”Deep Elem Blues”), and a bunch of stuff from The Band (”The Weight,” “Rag Mama Rag,” “Ophelia,” and some others that I can’t remember).

Finally, came Jimmy Buffett. The crowd grew in size and the Parrotheads were all over the place (that means lots of frat boys and middle aged people acting like frat boys). They must have passed out Landshark Lager flags to all the boats because they all had one. This was a much better setting for Buffett than Gilette Stadium. He opened up with just him and his guitar playing “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw”. He seemed to have a great time and played all the usuals, as well as some other tunes I was glad to hear, including “Come Monday” and “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes”. He brought out Jake Shimabukuro, a ukelelist from Hawaii who had played the smaller stage earlier in the day, for most of the set. The encore was “One Particular Harbor” followed by the band leaving the stage and Jimmy telling a story about how Dylan plugged in and was boo’d at the festival many years ago and how he was honored to hear that Dylan had played “A Pirate Looks at 40″ in Hawaii. So he was going to play acoustic for us and do a tribute to Dylan. He played “Blowin’ in the Wind,” a fitting song considering the lyrics and what this country is going through. That was the highlight of his set for me, though a close second was “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” played by Shimabukuro and the steel drummer.

We left and headed straight home afterwards and just got take out in Providence for dinner and then passed out.

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Newport Folk Festival Part 1: Saturday

Published on August 4, 2008 in Review and Music. 3 Comments

As anyone who reads my tweets knows, I attended the Newport Folk Festival this past weekend. I skipped the opening night on Friday with Brian Wilson, but attended both Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, I was not able to see all the performances, but I did catch a lot of them. Please excuse the fact that I can’t remember setlists or any real details for many of the performances as I took in a lot of music over the course of the 2 days, in addition to lots of rain and sun. I’m writing this review in 3 parts. The first will be a general review of Saturday, the second will be of Sunday, and the third will be of my overall impression and any other thoughts

We arrived a little late on Saturday, arriving at the gates at 11:35, 5 minutes into the Cowboy Junkies set on the main stage, one I wanted to see (not having known anything about them other than that they’re supposed to be pretty good). I was very impressed by them and plan on buying some of their albums. The music was more rock-ish, though kind of an alt-folk/alt-country sound. The lead singer has a killer voice. We setup our chairs and settled in at the main stage where most of the performances I wanted to see would be held.

Following their set, we went over to the Harbor stage to check out Jakob Dylan. Unfortunately, his set started late (as we had wanted to see half of his and half of Richie Havens). His voice has come a long way since the first Wallflowers album. He sounds more like his father, though with a more melodic voice. He was awesome and the crowd seemed to love him. I didn’t recognize anything but “Three Marlenas” and a Bob Dylan tune, to which I can’t remember the name.

Headed over to the main stage to catch Richie Havens. We got there just as he was finishing up his set with “Freedom,” the Woodstock staple. Luckily, he came back to play an encore, which was a medley of something I can’t remember and “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. Richie Havens is a staple of folk fests and an absolutely enthralling performer. I managed to get his autograph on his latest album and my picture taken with him.

Following his set, we decided to find some food and wandered around and ended up at the Greek stand to get gyros, while we waited for Trey to come on. He came on and got the crowd going. Read my tweets for my version of the setlist (which isn’t completely accurate, but close). My favorites from his set were the Phish tunes. I’m not very impressed by a lot of his solo stuff. It’s just not quite as good. The best tunes were “Bathtub Gin,” “Wilson” (which had everyone chanting), “Sample in a Jar,” and “Chalkdust Torture”. He seemed to be having a great time, but didn’t really get things going until halfway through his set. He played a new song called “Peggy” and an old one he write with Tom Marshall many years ago that had never been performed called “If I Could Be a Sailor”. He said he had to sing it because of all the boats he was staring at from the stage.

During his set, it began to rain a bit and following his set, it was a torrential downpour with lots of heavy wind and lightning. Susan and I decided that we would stay (it was actually my decision), but would grab our stuff and bring it to the car to stay dry (didn’t want my camera, phone, or wallet to be soaked). We walked it to the car because the line for the shuttle was long. Dropped it off and just as we got there, the shuttle was just getting to the lot. We took it back and enjoyed the rest of the day. The Marleys were supposed to be on next, but their bus got stuck on the bridge and the brought the American Babies up on stage. I really enjoyed the couple songs I heard from them, kind of a rootsy rock. When the Marleys made it, the rain had started to die off and eventually it was nice again. By the time The Black Crowes took the stage late, the sun was out. Unfortunately, they couldn’t play an encore, but their set was awesome.

We walked back to the car, having dried of a bit, but our feet were sore and wet. We decided to go out to dinner and went to Coddington Brewing in Middletown. I’ll give that its own post.

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