Dang, its been busier than a child labourer in sneaker season. My clients seemed to have all gotten together and decided that now is the time to try and get as much word done as possible. "Send it all to print" they chorus!
Heres a bit of a boozy roundup of the year, which saw me move even more towards the finer Craft beers. I Got back into white wines after a bit of a spell on the red's, I also sampled many wonderful cocktails. Props to fouriiiis for the idea. Best Craft BeerEmersons Pilsner This wee gem of a beer has lovely malts perfectly balanced against some distinctive Saaz hops. NZ's first organic Pilsner too. Most Disappointing Craft BeerHawkes Bay Independent Breweries Special Reserve
Supposedly honey sweetened and infused with cinnamon, this beer has a watery body, and is overly sweet. Rather unpleasant.
Best New/Seasonal Macs Sundance
Monteiths had this corner of the market nailed for a long time, but Macs go one-better with this sublty spiced wee gem. I can see a great few of these being sampled over the holiday break.
Worst New/Seasonal Steinlager Pure
Steiny had it right - their recipe could use some improving on. Unfortunately this isn't it. Flavourless, and dull. I guess I shouldn't have expected different from a 2nd rate Heineken knock off, but the marketing was so good.
Best of the Supermarket Six-ersMacs Hop Rocker Packed with flavour this outstanding brew has been a staple of 2007. Hopsy, great body, and a touch bitter this is a fantastic beer.
Worst of the Supermarket Six-ers Pirate Beer
Although not strictly a 6-er (Comes as singles or in a 4 pack) Pirate beer is easily the worst beer around. At 8%abv You expect something robust and with character. Instead you get a watery slop that makes Ranfurly draft seem good.
Best Wine Cable Bay 2005 Savignon Blanc
Newly opened on Waiheke, but grown in Marlborough, this distinctive Sav offers the best of NZ's whites. Fruity but with a reasonable body.
Worst Wine
So I don't hate any wine enough not to drink it, but Mcguigan Estate N/V Semilion is particularly nasty. Cooking Wine Only. Someone's booze-hag mum is probably thinking its the business, but she's a goddam booze hag who thinks nothing of drinking the cooking sherry when the Country Dry White cask runs out.
Best Cocktail
Old Fashioned
Recently usurping the title from an extra dry Vodka martini, straight up with a twist. Classy, Strong, Manly and damn fine. Props to Mea Culpa on Ponsonby for making a shit-hot Chocatini. Only place I'll drink one.
Worst Cocktail
Aussie Mozzie
Once again, I'll pretty much drink it if its got alcohol in it, but this is just nasty. 1 Part Creme De Menthe, 4 Parts OJ. Tastes like a cup of Raro after you've brushed your teeth.
I'm pretty interested in cocktails at the moment so if you've got any you'd like to share...
Nearly time for the big ol' wind-down that is the summer break. Since all the cool bloggers post end of year lists, I figured I'd keep with tradition and post my own. Musically, as far as 2007 went I think it was more important on a personal level, than overall. This year I discovered a swag of artists that I've come to love, heard some interesting new sounds, lauded some and loathed others. I've cringed as I watched the ongoing exploitation of the music industry and the manufacture of stars. I realised that I love americana and bluegrass, and loving something new is always exciting.
So... 10 albums that made this year a winner, in no particular order
Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer Solo work from the former singer from The Band. You can FEEL this music.
The Phoenix Foundation - Happy Ending Sam Flynn Scott and Luke Buda and co come back for their 3rd winning album. Possibly their best.
Jason Isbell - Sirens of the Ditch Former Drive By Trucker's solo album is part rock, part country, part awesome.
J Dilla and Busta Rhymes - Dillagence I love J Dilla, I never really got into Busta. This changed my mind, its a winner.
Pharaohe Monch - Desire Hailed by Critics, ignored by a lot of fans. YOU WASTED YOUR MONEY ON CLIPSE FOOL'S
Talib Kweli and Madlib - Liberation I nearly shit myself with excitement when this dropped in January. Talib AND Madlib on a release. Oh HELL yeah.
Radiohead - In Rainbows Not quite the return to form it was hailed to be, this album is the evolution of Radioheads experimentation rejoining with their song writing sensibilities. It is awesome.
Mad Caddies - Keep It Going Ska's finest, still making top notch albums.
Iron and Wine - The Shepard's Dog Coming to NZ in March, I can't wait!
Eddie Vedder - Into the Wild So underrated, Eddie's Solo effort, and the soundtrack to Sean Penn's movie is memorable, haunting, striking and just fantastic.
Overall I felt that this year lacked for decent hip hop releases, but other than that wasn't too bad. Any that I've missed?
Pondering, as I do, I occasionally am struck with the absurdities of modern life. The way things are done. The way things are said. Common phrases amaze me, why do we put certain words together? Why are we ever simplifying our vocabulary, using broader meanings for fewer words? Why do we tolerate media that feeds us this blanched mockery of our language?
Probably because its easy, but thats no excuse.
Why would we assure someone that our relationship was purely platonic? Do those words belong together or are we just used to the statement being phrased that way that we emulate it happily like lexicon-sheep? Why am I asking so many questions? Hopefully to encourage you to think for yourselves.
Advertising is even worse. Often not even written to be read, just to meet marketing approval or validate some plebs right to a corner office by making sure the BRANDNAME® is written enough times. Cast the language of advertising aside. No more "NOW WITH…" or "MAY DIFFER" or "NEW AND IMPROVED". How the fuck can something be both NEW and IMPROVED???
Impersonal printed material attempting to "speak to me" just annoys me. No, you don't know me. Don't presume you do. Those products are NOT my favourite, how the fuck would you know.
They're clever though. They create the impression that they connect with me. That I should identify with their demographic. That I should use their brand image to define myself. All part of their enslaving of humanity. Corporations are evil. DO NOT FORGET. DO NOT TRUST.
So lately I've been getting into Drive By Truckers a whole bunch. I got their 2nd album "Pizza Deliverance" off a mate a while back and quite liked it. Nice toonz, a little country but very rocking. Then I stumbled across a little bootleg of theirs called "Dirt Underneath Iowa" which is an acoustic set and also mucho goodness. Thats when I started to find out more.
DBT are considered cow-punk for some reason. To me they're more like 70's southern rock. They're more than decent songwriters led by Patterson Hood. They have a pretty hard rocking sound courtesy of 3 guitars (The 3 Ave Attack, as its called in the trade) and I'd guess a fair amount of time listening to Skynard, Neil Young, AC/DC and other rocking music from the late 70's and early 80's. They're rather stomping. They started out pretty garage, had a bit of a line up change, recruited a young upstart called Jason Isbell and recorded some kick ass albums. They're most well known for an ambitious double concept album called "Southern Rock Opera" which is basically a tribute to growing up in the southern states in the 70's and 80's.
After tracking down Jason Isbells awesome album "Sirens of the Ditch" and loving every minute of it I was hooked. (Yeah, we all know I'm a music addict, but its always great to come across something that gives a new kick) I hit amazon and got "Dirty South" and Pattersoon Hood's solo joint "Killers and Stars". Now "Killers and Stars" isn't amazing, its acoustic, very personal - dealing with his break up and low times following - but its a worthy effort. Its touching, if not rocking. "Dirty South" on the other hand is fucking amazing. Go get it, right now. Its that good.
If you don't like rocking country, you're entitled to your opinion, however wrong that opinion is. I'm not gonna call you an idiot, because you're clearly smart enough to read this blog. I am gonna suggest you give it a bash. You MIGHT like it.
Anyhoo, heres a killer little track from "Dirty South".
Well, clearly I've been absent. I know I stated that I would be updating most days, then straight away I disappear. I know this ain't cool. Deal with it.
I went on a course which served to educate me on 2 things. Photoshop and Human stupidity. I'm going to assume that by reading this you don't fall into the broad and growing category of "Human Stupidity". Maybe you're familiar with Photoshop, but thats not important right now.
Some woman deemed it fit to pose a question to the speaker. Thats great, usually with questions you get more info than in a goodly chunk of the speakers speal. Fine.
"How do I make that black and white?"
Um WHAT?
Oh fuck no. You didn't just ask that. Besides the fact that the lecturer was talking about something entirely different, if you don't know that you need to make all your objects black and white, make sure your text is in the black channel and export it to a pdf on one plate, you shouldn't be here. You're in the wrong fucking seminar retard.
Maybe she should have just pushed the black and white button? Fuck. If you want something to be black and white when it goes to print YOU GOTTA MAKE IT BLACK AND WHITE FROM THE START.
Emersons Pilsner
Hawkes Bay Independent Breweries Special Reserve
Macs Hop Rocker
