New Year, New Me
Back by no demand, my blog. I will probably cross-post between Tumblr and Blogger because I need to use the latter for my present job as a graduate assistant at UIC's College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. I've moved from book publishing to urban planning, though I still have a foot in the latter through the Urban Forum. My opinions here are completely my own, and I hope to use this space to practice my writing in a few areas of interest that might be unrelated. I don't imagine that anyone will read this, but I hope that anyone who does might leave constructive criticism.
Also, in the interest of data collection for my transportation concentration, I've begun linking my run and cycling (both commute and my all-too-infrequent fitness rides) to Strava. Go laugh at my "segments"! I did hold to my superstition, and started the New Year with a quick jaunt into the wind.
Prost!
Friday, January 1, 2016
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Everyone's a Hero!
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/24/80-arrested-as-financial-district-protest-moves-north/
I'm returning to the blog to keep my rants off of other social media. Now, where were we? Oh, protests. It's an embarrassment to Union Square that no one can protest there, anymore...
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Oh yeah, the coffee--a brief geek-out
So, I've learned a bunch about coffee roasting after just a few batches. I am by no means an expert, but after turning out a couple of batches which had an aftertaste that recalled Holiday Inn ashtray circa 1979, I managed to roast both the Brazilian and Sumatran coffees close enough to style. The Brazil didn't work as a single-origin espresso, but as a blend, these coffees were perfectly serviceable. I think that I could eventually dial in a roast for my low-rent pump machine.
Run through my Chemex, these coffees tasted downright delicious.
With the help of Kenneth Davids's Home Coffee Roasting: Romance & Revival and an investment of about $30, I was up and running. If you love coffee, and like me, can't afford Rancilio espresso equipment, this is a fun and cheap way of working on your palate at home.
Run through my Chemex, these coffees tasted downright delicious.
With the help of Kenneth Davids's Home Coffee Roasting: Romance & Revival and an investment of about $30, I was up and running. If you love coffee, and like me, can't afford Rancilio espresso equipment, this is a fun and cheap way of working on your palate at home.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Stunt beer and stunt politics
Putting fire in my belly: Sam Adams Imperial Pilsner. Jim Cook's beers, and more importantly, his fantastic marketing (those hops commercials are brilliant), have helped the cause of craft brewing. I've of late come home to the pilsner style, and I've been a hop head for a long time, so I really wanted to like Cook's tribute to Hallertau hops. Unfortunately, lacking a solid malt backbone the beer just overwhelms with hops to the point of astringency. Noble hops taste is all but lost.
And, man, here's some pork for you. We are in a economic downturn, and Oak Park is bringing up a pork barrel project that doesn't seem to die. I live close to the expressway, and would love to have less noise and air pollution around my house. And, I would think that adding greenery--both around the road and perhaps as overpasses filled with air-cleaning plants--might be worth the money. But capping the road seems like a colossal waste of resources. First, the construction would slow the already brutal traffic, and cause even more pollution and delays. Second, not only a road, but El train and freight train traffic runs through the corridor. It would seem that making the road into a tunnel would make work on any of these an expensive proposition. Finally, and most importantly, we just happen to be the richest neighborhood that the sunken expressway cuts through, so this extremely local project that benefits only a few would be effectively taking money from the poorer communities. If the Oak Park aging, affluent hippies really wanted to something for the environment, they should instead lobby for better public tranist, road improvement (more efficient traffic pollutes less), and clean energy.
And, man, here's some pork for you. We are in a economic downturn, and Oak Park is bringing up a pork barrel project that doesn't seem to die. I live close to the expressway, and would love to have less noise and air pollution around my house. And, I would think that adding greenery--both around the road and perhaps as overpasses filled with air-cleaning plants--might be worth the money. But capping the road seems like a colossal waste of resources. First, the construction would slow the already brutal traffic, and cause even more pollution and delays. Second, not only a road, but El train and freight train traffic runs through the corridor. It would seem that making the road into a tunnel would make work on any of these an expensive proposition. Finally, and most importantly, we just happen to be the richest neighborhood that the sunken expressway cuts through, so this extremely local project that benefits only a few would be effectively taking money from the poorer communities. If the Oak Park aging, affluent hippies really wanted to something for the environment, they should instead lobby for better public tranist, road improvement (more efficient traffic pollutes less), and clean energy.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
DIY coffee!
Today, I roasted my first batch of coffee, a Brazil Organic Fazenda Jacaranda from Sweet Maria's. The green beans arrived looking like this:
To the left, my sweet set-up: a scale; a hot air popcorn popper (really) to roast the beans, with a bowl to collect the "chaff," a parchment-like skin that gets blown off the green beans; a scale; and in the background, a colander for cooling the roasted beans. I'm warming up the water for my test brew on the stove.
...and here's batch one of Rudy's Roasting:
Tasting notes, rants, etc. to come.
Monday, October 15, 2007
What Ales Chicago
In many ways, I have fallen in love with Chicago, again--it's architecture, it's public spirit, it's wacky highways.
But this decent beer town has no excuse for not being a great beer town. Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (yes, and 3 Floyds in Indiana) are home to great craft brews, but I have to travel miles to find 'em. In Brooklyn, I lived within walking distance of a beer scene that surpassed all of Chicago's. Chicago's daring chefs, and Intelligentsia and Metropolis coffee roasters (NYC can't match this) prove that this town is no slouch when it comes to taste. So I lay the entire problem at the feet of the distributors, their lobby money, and the government that continues to legislate the infamous "three tier" system. Exhibit one, the sad case of Bell's Brewery, which remains unavailable in Illinois. Corporate welfare spoils our beer scene. At least we aren't one of those states where the government sells all of the beer.
Anyway, I could promise a nice prairie home to the following breweries:
--Bell's, of course
--Oskar Blues. Dale's in a can, baby! Rock and roll! Why hasn't Chicago joined the "craft in a can" movement?! Sly Fox did it for Philly, It'll work here.
--Penn Brewery
--New Glarus (in all fairness, these guys have remained Wisconsin-only on purpose. But they just built a bigger brewhouse. So, c'mon...)
But this decent beer town has no excuse for not being a great beer town. Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin (yes, and 3 Floyds in Indiana) are home to great craft brews, but I have to travel miles to find 'em. In Brooklyn, I lived within walking distance of a beer scene that surpassed all of Chicago's. Chicago's daring chefs, and Intelligentsia and Metropolis coffee roasters (NYC can't match this) prove that this town is no slouch when it comes to taste. So I lay the entire problem at the feet of the distributors, their lobby money, and the government that continues to legislate the infamous "three tier" system. Exhibit one, the sad case of Bell's Brewery, which remains unavailable in Illinois. Corporate welfare spoils our beer scene. At least we aren't one of those states where the government sells all of the beer.
Anyway, I could promise a nice prairie home to the following breweries:
--Bell's, of course
--Oskar Blues. Dale's in a can, baby! Rock and roll! Why hasn't Chicago joined the "craft in a can" movement?! Sly Fox did it for Philly, It'll work here.
--Penn Brewery
--New Glarus (in all fairness, these guys have remained Wisconsin-only on purpose. But they just built a bigger brewhouse. So, c'mon...)
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Gates of Paradise, snapshots of perdition
I can find the unicorn hidden in the painting after...a Two Brothers Heavy Handed IPA, the Beaujolais Nouveau of beer. This local beer is brewed once a year with fresh hops (as opposed to the dried hops usually employed) immediately upon the hop harvest. The biggest difference for me was a piney resin taste and mouthfeel that gave the bottled beer a cask finish.
A few days ago I visited the Art Institute, mainly to see Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. I saw the replica panels in situ in Florence while the originals were being restored, and man, did they do a great job! I caught most of a docent's talk, and really enjoyed it.
I then went downstairs for the Richard Misrach On the Beach photo exhibit. I'm a fan of large format photography, and I thought that the curator put together a good program. The copy made the obvious and necessary link to the post-apocalyptic novel and movie of the same name, but one passage (follow the link above) continues to bother me:
"Although sunny and colorful, these photographs are informed by the events of September 11, 2001. They evoke a postapocalyptic world; the title On the Beach explicitly references Nevil Shute’s Cold War novel about nuclear holocaust. In some images, individual poses reference hostages or people jumping from the World Trade Center buildings, while in others, lone figures or clinging couples appear to be the last people on the planet."
The 9/11 reference here is contradictory and lazy. I was living and working in NYC at the time and I don't remember anyone outside the media business saying that we were on the brink of the apocalypse. It was an act of terrorism, which by definition uses an act of limited, intense, and horrific violence--thousands of lives on 16 acres in the case of NYC--to spread fear to millions of people in a massive nation. Above 14th St, the city did its best to get back to business by the end of the week. In On the Beach (or more recently, Cormac McCarthy's The Road), the destruction of civil institutions, and humanity, is all but inevitable, and the narrative deals with how the characters choose to live out their remaining days. I certainly believe that academics, artists, and policy-makers should continue to consider the causes and consequences of 9/11, but employing it for cheap points, whether on the election trail or in even in a museum, at best hinders clear thinking about an important event and further contributes to fear and poor decision-making.
A few days ago I visited the Art Institute, mainly to see Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise. I saw the replica panels in situ in Florence while the originals were being restored, and man, did they do a great job! I caught most of a docent's talk, and really enjoyed it.
I then went downstairs for the Richard Misrach On the Beach photo exhibit. I'm a fan of large format photography, and I thought that the curator put together a good program. The copy made the obvious and necessary link to the post-apocalyptic novel and movie of the same name, but one passage (follow the link above) continues to bother me:
"Although sunny and colorful, these photographs are informed by the events of September 11, 2001. They evoke a postapocalyptic world; the title On the Beach explicitly references Nevil Shute’s Cold War novel about nuclear holocaust. In some images, individual poses reference hostages or people jumping from the World Trade Center buildings, while in others, lone figures or clinging couples appear to be the last people on the planet."
The 9/11 reference here is contradictory and lazy. I was living and working in NYC at the time and I don't remember anyone outside the media business saying that we were on the brink of the apocalypse. It was an act of terrorism, which by definition uses an act of limited, intense, and horrific violence--thousands of lives on 16 acres in the case of NYC--to spread fear to millions of people in a massive nation. Above 14th St, the city did its best to get back to business by the end of the week. In On the Beach (or more recently, Cormac McCarthy's The Road), the destruction of civil institutions, and humanity, is all but inevitable, and the narrative deals with how the characters choose to live out their remaining days. I certainly believe that academics, artists, and policy-makers should continue to consider the causes and consequences of 9/11, but employing it for cheap points, whether on the election trail or in even in a museum, at best hinders clear thinking about an important event and further contributes to fear and poor decision-making.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
