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Monday, November 29, 2010

Yuck!

"Off-centered stuff for off centered people."

Sam Calagione gets his mission statement from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”


I saw the first episode when they were brewing Bitches Brew and it did not impact my mind as this second episode I watched; it is not the second episode but the second episode I watched. I am all up for off centered people because I am one. However, I don't like drinking other people's spit. I like Peruvians and their culture. There is a great awe for rustic crafting of food without modernized technology. Before they drink it, they pray. There is nothing more simple than simply thanking God for your food.

Amylase is an enzyme fount in saliva that breaks down starches and turns them into sugars. Peruvians some how understood that chewing on the corn would break down the starch in the corn. The thing is they spit it out into these jars and I guess let it dry, it looks like corn meal, in yellow and purple coloring. What they do next is boil it up and add spices. They then drain it in baskets of straws. They let the liquid concoction ferment. They call it Chicha and it contains about 1-3% alcohol.

I heard of Dogfish before. I heard of it a few years ago when I use to actually drink liquor; I don't drink liquor much these days. So here they are with their own television show called Brew Masters pitched by the founder of Dogfish and Mr. Ford Motor Company/Levi's Jeans pitchman Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe.

Dogfish is making Chicha authentic as possible. It's gross. They bring back Peruvian spearmint type flowers, cinnamon sticks and baskets. They get to work by having all the staff members spit into viles and making jokes like "we are going to clone you." They test each staff member of Dogfish for the most amylase in their saliva because the higher the amylase in one's saliva, the faster it breaks down the starch in the corn. Throughout the episode you have the workers chewing and spitting to create cups and then buckets of the saliva like cornmeal. Wait, I have to say yuck before I continue, as a matter of fact they were saying it also. A few of the staff members had terrible crooked yellow and black stained teeth. A slithering of saliva came out of several staff's mouths with the corn. Then they brewed it. Think of the equipment. Not only did the episode gross me out, it made me want to not drink any Dogfish ever because the spit from the crooked yellow and black stained teeth of some of the staff went through the equipment. What the hell, why not find some HIV or Herpes and throw it in the batch of beer along with the spit. That's sick that the corn spitmeal came from like 30 different people. Isn't there some Health Department regulation against this?

At the end you see people in a bar drinking the beer from a tap in glasses. Hell, after you drink the beer, please throw those glasses away, then the entire tap please and then the equipment it was brewed in. I could understand when you go out to eat, essentially you are using the same silverware and plates someone else has eaten off of but then it's washed, but the way they made Chicha is a whole other ball game. During one of the brief interviews, the people drinking the beer said it was good. One staff member said something like she would not drink anything with someone else's spit in it.

I would not drink it.

But the episode did make me want to visit Cusco, Peru.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)

"Padme Amidala: It must be difficult having sworn your life to the Jedi.
Not being able to visit the places you like or do the things you like.

Anakin Skywalker: Or be with the people I love.

Padme Amidala: Are you allowed to love? I thought it was forbidden for a Jedi.

Anakin Skywalker: Attachment is forbidden. Possession is forbidden. Compassion, which I would define as unconditional love, is central to a Jedi's life, so you might say we're encouraged to love.

Padme Amidala: You have changed so much.

Anakin Skywalker: You haven't changed a bit. You're exactly the way I remember you in my dreams."

--- --- --- ---

"Yoda: Blind we are, if creation of this clone army we could not see.

Mace Windu: I think it is time to inform the Senate that our ability to use the Force has diminished.

Yoda: Only the Dark Lords of the Sith know of our weakness. If informed the Senate is, multiply our adversaries will."

Friday, November 26, 2010

Criminal Minds - The Boogeyman

"Elle Greenaway: You know, when I first joined the team, I couldn't figure out why you never, ever smile. Now I think I'm actually gonna miss that."

Aaron Hotchner: (after Elle has walked away) I'm gonna miss you too."

Criminal Minds - Aftermath
(Rightful Justice by a Beautiful Martyr)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

The Godfather: Part II (1974)

"See, all our people are businessmen. Their loyalty's based on that. One thing I learned from Pop was to try to think as people around you think. And on that basis, anything's possible." -Michael Andolini Corleone

Saturday, November 20, 2010

I am Saul

Every once in a while I play this song played at an old friends wedding registery:
It is my favorite in the category of: Soothing and Love

"Jingle...

There's no combination of words I could put on the back of a postcard
No song that I could sing but I can try for your heart
Our dreams and they are made out of real things
Like a shoebox of photographs
With sepia tone loving
Love is the answer at least for most of the questions in my heart
Why we're here and where do we go
And how come it's so hard
It's not always easy and
Sometimes life can be deceiving
I'll tell you one thing it's always better when we're together

It's always better when we're together
Yeah, we'll look at them stars when we're together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together

Jingle...

And all of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight
But I know that they'll be gone
When the morning light sings
And brings new things
For tomorrow night you see
That they'll be gone too
Too many things I have to do
But if all of these dreams might find their way
Into my day to day scene
I'd be under the impression
I was somewhere in between
With only two
Just me and you
Not so many things we got to do
Or places we got to be
We'll sit beneath the mango tree now

It's always better when we're together
Mmm, we're somewhere in between together
Well, it's always better when we're together
Yeah, it's always better when we're together
I believe in memories
They look so, so pretty when I sleep
Hey now, and when I wake up
You look so pretty sleeping next to me
But there is not enough time,
And there is no, no song I could sing
And there is no, combination of words I could say
But I will still tell you one thing
We're better together

Jingle"

Monday, November 15, 2010

Wagyu

I'm not Japanese but I like certain aspects of their culture.  I'm Chinese.

I wanted to name this blog after the yellow and black Onitsuka Tigers worn by Beatrix Kiddo in the movie Kill Bill Vol. 1, which is of course in tribute to Bruce Lee because I will be getting a pair similiar to them but by Puma, but the name was taken.

Only a minor sector of consumers know about Kobe beef or can afford it, as I was trying to come up with names for this blog, I wanted to name it for the cattle it comes from.  This is the third blog, the first was on MySpace and the second was on Wordpress; the first is still active but cannot be viewed except by myself and the second on Wordpress has been deleted.  It was started in Decmber 2009 and deleted November 2010 because of personal reasons.  This is my third blog.