215 Beer: Crafty Move by Anheuser, but Not In the Good Way
More commentary to follow:
A few weeks back, I was at a hot rod show in upstate NY, where two of Anheuser’s other fake craft beers were being sold: 312 and Goose Island, which were recently bought out by the global industri-brew giant. Now, I don’t know how these beers tasted prior to acquisition by AB/Inbev, but my verdict two weeks ago was that both tasted HORRIBLE.
the crafty bastards are trademarking another dozen or more area codes, so be on the lookout for this fakery. Be an infomed beer drinker, and support real independent brewers.
i Gotta Start Carrying a Camera
This morning around 8:00 AM while ile driving Sam to camp, I passed a man who looked like life had beaten the shit out of him walking up woodland avenue toward the VA Hospital carrying a bag of piss. He looked half drunk, he was disheveled and unshaven.
From the bag, there was a hose that ran up the leg of his shorts. It was a catheter, and quite obviously still embedded in his dick.
Five minutes or so later, I was on 676 East when I saw another obviously drunk guy staggering up the breakdown lane toward oncoming traffic. I tried to tell myself the guy was a driver whose car had broken down, except I never saw a car, and I know there are several embankments along the expressway where Philly’s homeless camp out.
Last week, where the ramps to the Walt Whitman go over Front Street, I watched two totally shitfaced and beat-to-shit shirtless gentlemen arguing under the underpass, while an equally beat to shit woman watched from a distance. One of the guys finally shrugged his shoulders and resumed walking away, pushing a grocery cart with a queen -size mattress balanced precariously on top of it. I looked past the first guy, who was still yelling at shopping cart man, and saw the trio had set up an entire living room under the bridge, complete with two sofas and a coffee table.
i need to start carrying a camera.
I’m Still Alive.
hey folks, been busy with Sam. Light blogging, if any. Hope you understand.
Update
A few weeks ago I wrote briefly that I have joined the ranks of the unenjoyed, brightly noting “Sometimes opportunity doesn’t so much knock as it shows you to the door.”
Since then, my benefits have arrived. I’ve submitted a letter of interest to a job coaching position, a friend at a global document management corporation has helped my resume get some attention, and I’m working on a letter for an editorial assistant position.
While those positions are, for now, up in the air, I’ve also scored two volunteer positions: one at Woodshop Films, the guys who produce the brilliant Kenzo News, Scrapple News, and Sulimays Kitchen series; and another at the Dock Street Brewery, where I’ll be hopefully learn some of the skills I need to successfully apply for brewing positions in the future.
It’s true that sometimes opportunity doesn’t knock so much as it shows you the door. It’s also true that you have to grab the bull by the horns.
Guest Posting at Susie’s
I’m guest posting at Susie Madrak’s place this week. Drop on by!
Pathetic
I just wasted a half-hour of my life, 30 minutes i will NEVER get back, watching what was billed as a presidential Town Hall Meeting on the Debt Ceiling and Deficit Reduction.
The first question was about discrimination about atheists. Another wanted to know Obama’s biggest regrets. Another asked about compromise, what does it mean? And finally one person asked about Roosevelt’s epic fuckup that plunged the US back into the red in 1937. I swear, these questions were so thoroughly unrelated to the supposed topic, I had to wonder if they were plants, especially the young woman who wanted to shake the president’s hand because he is so awesome.
Along the way, the president informed me that Democrats only read the NYT and watch MSNBC, while conservatives and republicans only read the WSJ and watch FOX News. This is such a ridiculous and shallow characterization, i have to wonder if the president really believes it: if so, can someone please bring him out of his bubble?
And oh yes, much was made of the false and inaccurate analogy that governments, like families, must tighten their belts, as if families never deficit spend (ahem, college loans, mortgages, home equity loans, carloans) and when they do that they put credit card payments ahead of putting food on the table.
The whole thing was quite free of substance, and I’m sure the president was grateful that he had to answer questions about atheists facing discrimination rather than the prospect of senior and soon-to-be-senior citizens living out their old age eating cat food. I’m sure he was glad he didn’t have to talk too much about how cutting Medicaid would put the financial burden of caring for sick, elderly parents on families, not the government.
I did learn one thing though: the president may be sincere about his desire to gut these programs, but reading the comments at the linked Daily Kos article, you see an equally sincere group of activists getting angrier by the second. And you know, contrary to the claims of some people, we’re not all a bunch of upper middle class white progressives who just don’t get it. Some of us are counting on social security, medicare,and medicaid when WE get older, because our careers and paychecks have stagnated for years, pensions no longer exist, and there is no such thing as job security anymore.
I’d put the president’s re-election at 50/50. If these cuts go through, I’d put my bets on his challenger.
Noseless Pig Finds Truffle
Please grow a mustache Governor Christie
Mr. Creosote says medical marijuana law can go forward
TRENTON, N.J. – Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday that he will allow New Jersey to move forward in implementing its medical marijuana law despite his concerns over whether federal authorities could prosecute state regulators.
After saying last month that he wanted assurance from the U.S. Justice Department that it won’t pursue criminal charges against state-sanctioned medical marijuana programs, he pivoted Tuesday, saying he was drawing upon his seven years of experience as New Jersey’s U.S. attorney in anticipating that federal prosecutors have more important crimes to pursue.
“It is my belief, having held that job for seven years, that there’s a lot of other things that will be more important as long as the dispensaries operate within the law,” he said.
He never received blanket assurance from the Justice Department. But in making his announcement, the governor said that allowing the program to move forward was “a risk I’m willing to take as governor.”
The Republican governor also cited comments Barack Obama made in 2008, when he was a presidential candidate, in which he said he would not “use Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” preferring to focus instead on fighting violent crime and potential terrorism.
What’s especially funny about this is that the Obama administration has decided to go after medical marijuana, which the ACLU describes as “a complete reversal of the policy the administration outlined just two years ago”. It is a broken promise to the sick.
Sometimes, you gotta love a wingnut. Christie’s doing the right thing, albeit probably for the wrong motivations. Get the weed to the sick people. I’m gonna call the Governor tomorrow. It will be the first, and only, time Chris Christie gets a thumbs up from me. Sadly, this will not be the first time I’ve given the president’s administration a thumbs down.
FDR Schools the Republicans. Food for Thought
This may be the best thing I have seen this year:
Hi, can someone on our side talk like that and mean it?
Hot Thoughts
It’s ridiculously hot outside. I’ve been up since about 7:00 AM, and it was already baking.
Why does the news always get your hopes up with statements like “chance of rain today”, when the chance of rain is around 0%? Joanne Allen, I don’t care how badly you wish it would rain, STOP SAYING IT’S GOING TO WHEN IT WON’T. All you do is mislead gardeners.
I need to write two cover letters, but it is SO FUCKING HOT I can’t think straight. For that matter, I have to do some vacuuming and general tidying. I also have to venture out for some scallions and other veggies for the cold soba and tofu salad I’m planning to make for dinner. But it’s too fucking hot to do anything but hide in my air-conditioned room.
On the other hand, shit’s gotta get done. So I’m putting down the computer, hitting the shower, and (at the very least) getting the groceries done before working on those two letters.
Hot damn, we need some rain.
Changes
Light posting lately. Sam was visiting for the past three weeks, and I was more constructively occupied. The beginning of his trip was really chaotic, in a beautiful way. I had a one night stand gig with Delco Nightingale in Winston-Salem on July 2, and had to spend the day before driving down. As a result, Sam spent the 1st and 2nd of the month at my parents place, and then headed up to Destination Greenpoint USA to chill with Christina. I spent the 3rd hightailing it to the city, and the next day our friends the Roats came up to watch the fireworks from the roof.
While he was up there, Christina or her parents (who were also visiting) bought Sam a Lego digital camera, which is exactly what it sounds like. We saved his photos, and here are a few.
And here’s a portrait of the artiste, rockin’ out on the Fourth:
That was before the mohawk:
So yeah, it’s been a busy month. Sam’s back with his mom for the next couple of weeks, and then he’s here again for the first three weeks of August.
Meanwhile, I’m in the middle of some significant transitions myself. As I mentioned, Christina’s living in Brooklyn now, so there’s been a lot of commuting. As it turned out, neither of us really took into account the ramifications of the move, especially me: it’s a pain in the heart and the ass for both of us, and I’ll leave it at that. Meanwhile, I’m out of work myself, and while I had previously objected to moving to New York, it’s now on the radar as much as Philadelphia. I recently refinanced to do some renovations to my house, which are presently underway, and there are worse things than being a landlord.
I don’t mean to sound flip about being unemployed, by the way. I hate looking for work, the insecurity of no guaranteed income terrifies me, and I want to get back to work as soon as I can. That said, after six years of grant writing for human services organizations, I am burnt out. I’m happy to provide direct service -a friend may have a contact at an organization that provides job coaching to people with intellectual disabilities, the current euphemism for mentally retarded people- but no more begging for money from rich people and corporations that simply don’t get it. Grants for arts and culture, community development corporations (CDCs), that kind of thing is OK, but even then on a part-time basis. And really, I’d rather be making beer. I also have some freelance stuff coming up, and I’m keeping busy with scrapple news (here’s one I forgot about, written a few weeks back, by the way). Sometimes opportunity doesn’t so much knock as it shows you to the door.
In closing, I can’t promise how active this blog is going to be for the next few weeks, which is what i always say before a spasm of obsessive blogging. I’ll try to keep up, but if there are absences, well… I’m a busy fuckin’ guy with a busy fuckin’ schedule.
Oh, and not-so-confidentially: I’m not sorry for anything I have ever said, or ever WILL say, about Tom Corbett. The man is a soulless piece of shit, who doesn’t so much have a heart as he has a calculator in his chest.
