Colorado Symphony - Show II

First show of the season.  Three pieces:  Beethoven - Overture to The Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43, Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op 15, and Holst - The Planets, Op 32.  Obviously the reason for this show was The Planets.  Always good to hear especially Mars and Jupiter.  This go around they played to a video showing the planets.  I thought the video could have been a bit more dynamic especially with the missions to Jupiter and Saturn but hey they aren't astronomers and heck Holst when he did the symphony was supposedly more into the astrology aspects of planets.  

Haiku Wednesday

Fall Colors

Season's ebb and flow
Tree's clocks sway with a rhythm
Time's up on Summer

R.E.M - Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

Not quite my favorite band, not quite really anything.  R.E.M is one of those bands that just plays in the background of my life, not really as an active participant but something that is meaningful.  My musical history start around 7th grade when I got some music as a birthday present (Quiet Riot and Def Leppard). Thankfully I didn't go down that road of head banging and what not.  When I hit 9th grade I would take road trips with the track team and the older kids had certain musical interests.  At the time, U2's Joshua Tree had just come out and R.E.M just happened to be a band from Athens, GA where most of the seniors on the track team were going to college.  R.E.M at the time represented that "I can't wait to get to college" feel that most seniors have.  Plus throw in the Inside/Out movie and R.E.M was one of those "bands"that every high school kid wanted to know about because it was a college "cool" thing.  Once I got over calling them  rem instead of R...E...M I got to know the band.

Didn't hurt that Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) and Document (1987) came out in my music formative years either.  Either way Lifes Rich Pageant has become one of my top 5 albums.  Just a simple album that when played takes me back to age 15-16 when the world was new and full of something to find.  R.E.M was prolific in their albums and they kept me company through 8 years of school (HS and college) by releasing five albums in that time.  Their last great album for me was New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996).  Not for sure but at the time I was spending a lot of time in the car due to my work being far away and so I got to listen to a lot of music.  This one kept me company and the album cover reminded me of where I lived!

So all in all a great band.  Not a "must see" but solid.  I did see them a few years ago in a small concert hall in Denver.  Great to hear the music, not so good to see Stipe having to suck on oxygen for almost the whole second half of the show.  Glad the band could go out on its own terms.  I do think that when their drummer, Bill Berry, left; R.E.M lost a step or two.  As another famous drummer, Larry Mullen, Jr said it best, "People say, 'Why don't you do interviews? What do you think about this? What do you think about that?' My job in the band is to play drums, to get up on stage and hold the band together. That's what I do. At the end of the day that's all that's important. Everything else is irrelevant."  Drummers hold bands together, drummers are the spine of the band...and I think R.E.M lost something back in 1997.  

Anyway top favorite albums:
1. Lifes Rich Pageant
2. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
3. Document
4. Green
5.  Fables of Reconstruction

Favorite Songs:
1.  Cuyahoga
2.  Superman
3.  So Fast, So Numb
4.  E-Bow the Letter
5.  Finest Worksong
6.  Driver 8
7.  The One I Love
8.  Half a World Away
9.  Let Me In
10.  Crush with Eyeliner
11.  Sweetness Follows

And finally one of the better websites ever on R.E.M and can be found here....

Haiku Wednesday

Beer Making

All about the yeast
Bubbles! Does its happy dance
Magic in bottle

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 1-5 week against the Brewers and Giants. The Rox currently stand at 70-82.  Seventeen and half games behind the D-Backs for the division lead in fourth place. Currently 38-40 at home and 32-42 on the road, the Rox have been outscored by its opponents 722-694 (expected wins is 73 versus historical wins at 70). On pace for 75 wins with 740 runs scored and 770 runs against. Playoff indicator (Runs scored/Runs Against ratio) is 0.96 (1.16 indicates high playoff potential).

Is this the most disappointing team in Rox history?  To me there are eerily similarities between this team and the 2008 team.  In 2008, Rox were coming off their World Series run and besides having the same team intact went out and finished with 74 wins.  This year, with even greater expectations based on the Tulo, CarGo, de la Rosa signings, this team was certain to compete with Giants (4-11 head to head so far) and maybe win their first division title.  In both years expectations shackled the team and obviously this year's team has dealt with injuries.

Going into the season the expectations were that the offense would be OK.  This turned out to be wrong.  Team never seemed to get on track.  CarGo struggled out of the gate, Dex again spent time in the minors, Stewart was a complete bust, second base a black hole, and Smith, a very average player, did OK but Rox need more power from their outfield.  Tulo had his moments and frighteningly still had a monster year, imagine some consistency and some consistency around him in the batting order (?). In the end only Helton had a year worth remembering.

Pitching was to be the mainstay with U-Ball, de la Rosa, Chacin, Hammel, and Rogers/Cook.  And for the most part pitching was the reason for the monster start with some timely hitting.  But U-Ball never got on track, de la Rosa got hurt, Chacin still too young to be anchoring a staff, and well Hammel is Hammel.  He will get you 10-12 wins and lose 10-12.  Rogers/Cook never really settled in due to injuries.  In the end this year will be blamed on the Staff and injuries due to this Staff.

Bullpen was OK.  Had a rough patch middle of the season and of course the roller coaster ride that is Huston Street but at least in the off season management doesn't have to worry too much about the relief corp. As a fan this season hurt the most.  2008 we were still feeding off the World Series.  It has been a long 4 years now and this season was supposed to be different...problem is will 2012 truly be any different?

Haiku Beer #1

Haiku #1 was from a beer kit from Brooklyn Beer Shop.  An Everyday IPA (6.8% ABV?, not verified) loaded citrus hops made with the following ingredients:

1) Malted Barley Blend

2) Columbus Hops

3) Cascade Hops

4) Safale US-05 Yeast (dry)

Used C-Brite sanitizer which isn't very user friendly.  

The Mash

Heated 2.5 quarts of water (refrigerator water which is carbon filtered) to 160 deg F.  Add grain and mixed.  Cooked for 60 minutes at 144-152 deg F and stirred fairly frequently.  Once heated, heat can be removed and then added again around 30 - 40 minutes.  I love the smell at this stage of the process.  It smells earthy.

The Sparge

Heated additional 4 quarts of water (refrigerator water) to boiling then transferred to gallon fermentation jug.  Set up the strainer over the second pot and added the hot grain mash.  Then poured the heated water from the jug over the grains and into the second pot.  Once done recirculated the wort back through the grain once more into the original pot.

The Boil

Heated the wort until it began to boil at approximately 210 deg F.  This was done with just the middle heat on the inside burner on my stove.  Boil lasted 60 minutes with Columbus Hops at the start of the boil then added 1/5 of the Cascade Hops every 15 minutes after with the second to last batch going in 55 minutes into the boil.  At the end of the boil added final fifth of hops.  

The Fermentation

Placed the brew pot into the sink with ice allowing the temperature to decrease to 70 deg F.  While it is quicker to cool with stirring this causes the sediment to resuspend.  It is probably best to just let it settle and thus not allow a whole lot of this to transfer into your fermentor.  When pouring into the fermentor it should be strained into a larger pot then transferred to the fermentor has it is tough to filter and pour through the funnel.  After the fermentor is full, the yeast should be added and throughly mixed to aerate the liquid.  Note:  After transfer I had more than a gallon of liquid, so perhaps I did not have a big enough rolling boil?  

After about 7 hours, the yeast began fermentation and a fairly consistent burp began.  Upon settling there was approximately an inch of sediment.  Primary fermentation lasted for about 36 hours.  Transferred beer to the basement and put in the airlock.  Allowed to sit for 2 weeks.

The Bottling

Using honey and dissolving this in 1/4 cup of water, I siphoned the beer into a pot and then bottled into 6.5 500 mL bottles.  Lot of sediment.  Allowed to sit for another 2 weeks.

The Tasting

Looked like an IPA, tastes more citrusy then hoppy.  Minimal carbonation.  Turned out of the 7 bottles half had no carbonation while the other half did.  She photo.  I image the honey wasn't sufficient.

First beer adventure

Went IPA, Kind of flat

More citrus, then hop!

Please Ignore - Personal Rant

Sometimes when I read various things, I just get bummed.  For instance, one article was about  a job offer for an investment manager whose potential salary was $150,000.  It just struck me that was a crazy sum of money for someone who is basically a gambler.  No difference in trying to determine what the stock market might do in comparison to whether the Broncos are going to cover the spread this weekend.  It is disheartening that so much value is placed on someone who really does nothing of value.  Then of course this leads to the entitlement society we live in where people expect to make this type of salary without doing anything useful.  Which then got me thinking about the Republican debate the other night when one of the candidates was asked about how an uninsured 30 year old should pay for an unexpected hospital stay and the audience at the debate starting laughing and then cheering when one candidate indicated government shouldn't have to pay for it.

Again it is a sad indictment of our society when we can't care for all.  I understand it is about choices but when did we just become so wrapped up in our own lives that we can't care for one another.  Really do some of these people need another car, gun, 4-wheeler at the expense of making sure everyone has a cushion when it comes to medical care?

Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol

Really?  Call me a book snob but this book was just plain silly.  I mean it feels good to read a no brainer once in a while but after going through this it just makes me believe that anyone can write or if you do throw a thousand monkeys in a room that eventually they could produce something of coherence!

Too bad because his previous books were good this one was just a bastardization of his previous works...sometimes you have to wonder if he actually wrote it or someone just through American heresy into the his previous works...

Haiku Wednesday

Branes

Planes of existence
Strings with rolled up dimensions...
Sci-Fi or Physics?

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 3-3 week against the D-Backs and Reds. The Rox currently stand at 69-77.  Fifteen and half games behind the D-Backs for the division lead in fourth place. Currently 38-36 at home and 31-41 on the road, the Rox have been outscored by its opponents 683-671 (expected wins is 72 versus historical wins at 69). On pace for 77 wins with 745 runs scored and 758 runs against. Playoff indicator (Runs scored/Runs Against ratio) is 0.98 (1.16 indicates high playoff potential).

With the white flag officially raised, late 2011 (or really early 2012) Spring Training is in full swing.  Newcomers Pacheco, Rosario, and Pomeranz will see significant playing time in preparation for next year.  With the Tulsa Drillers (Rox AA affiliate) in full review, is this a positive or negative?  The biggest negative is this year's squad, as constructed, couldn't get it done.  A Fowler, CarGo, Smith, Helton, Lopez, Tulo, Stewart, Iannetta lineup with Jimenez, de la Rosa, Hammel, Rogers, and Cook staff did not have sufficient talent to get to the playoffs (I still question where did that April team go?).  Hard to believe, with the loss of one pitcher, the Rox season was derailed.  So essentially the loss of de la Rosa started to expose the core that led to the dismal output of what is projected to be a 77 win season (10 games off what was expected as a minimum).  So if 2011 lineup and staff couldn't get those extra 10 wins does Pomeranz, White, Pacheco, and Rosario going to provide that something extra?

So the 2012 lineup at this point is probably Fowler, CarGo, Mr. X, Helton, Ellis, Tulo, Pacheco (?), and Rosario with a staff consisting of Chacin, Pomeranz, White, Millwood (?), and Mr. Y (or Hammel or Rogers) with de la Rosa and possibly Nicasio coming in late in the Summer.  Pitching would seem to be stocked although can Rox really rely on an inconsistent number one, two rookies, a cagey veteran, and some makeshift fifth starter? With such inexperience I could see the Rox sinking into no man's land until the cavalry comes in.

Which brings me to CarGo's announcement about "needing help"  He succinctly put it that him and Tulo have had a statistically wonderful year and yet the team find themselves 8 games under 0.500. What sort of help might that be and what could the Rox legimately go after in the Fall?  Look at the Brewers...they surrounded their two monster bats with mostly pitching.  Problem is the Rox have never been overly successful at luring decent pitching to Coors.  Free agent pitchers for next year include C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle, Edwin Jackson, Hiroki Kuroda, Roy Oswalt (options remaining), Ryan Dempster (options remaining), Aaron Harany, Jeff Francis (!), Javier Vazques, and Paul Maholm.  Nothing jumps out to me as a possibly Mr. Y.  Of course Rox have some trade bait and some money so we shall see.

As far as Mr. X -- the early prediction appears to be Michael Cuddyer but with the Pujols and Fielder sweepstakes who knows what the Rox can steal?  Anyhoo they have six months to figure it out before next season starts.

Remembering 10 Years

Hard to believe 10 years has passed.  When I was 8 years old (?), my grandmother took me into New York City.  For a young boy the enormity of the city sticks with you.  Part of that enormity centered around the towers that anchored the south part of the city.  Sometimes I wondered how such two large buildings could raise out of the tip of the island like they did.  With my disc camera (!), I shot the following image on the ferry ride to the Statue of Liberty.

Remembering the Towers

As I have mentioned in past,  the New York skyline is just empty to me.  To me they defined the City and I won't ever forget that.  Sometimes I wished the City had just rebuilt them but as with anything we need to move on so says Longfellow,

"Nor deem the irrevocable Past,

As wholly wasted, wholly vain,

If, rising on its wrecks, at last

To something nobler we attain."

Haiku Wednesday

September

Slight chill in the air
Football starts and Baseball ends
Next break? Months away....

Comic Splat

Captain America and Bucky #621
Stories from the past
Old school tales, the early years
Just not dynamic

Flashpoint #5
It all starts/ends here?
Flash launches fifty two books
Creates a new world

Justice League #1
New character looks
Some banter, some mystery
What does the Bat know?

The Amazing Spider-Man #668
Juxtaposition
Who is amazing this time?
How about Carlie

Rox Talk

The Week That Was

A 2-4 week against the D-Backs and Padres. The Rox currently stand at 66-74.  Fourteen games behind the D-Backs for the division lead in fourth place. Currently 35-33 at home and 31-41 on the road, the Rox have been outscored by its opponents 636-653 (expected wins is 68 versus historical wins at 66). On pace for 76 wins with 736 runs scored and 756 runs against. Playoff indicator (Runs scored/Runs Against ratio) is 0.97 (1.16 indicates high playoff potential).

And that is the end of the 2011 season.  Not that the Rox really had a chance but being swept in Arizona ended any remote possibilities that the Rox could sneak in.  With 22 games remaining, the 2012 campaign gets a looksee.  September call ups sweep in and hopefully add some bright spots to an otherwise forgettable 2011 season.  As a fan this season more than any other one since at least 2007 was the worse ever.  It also eerily parallels the 2008 season.  This one is probably worse because of the off season signings, the April dominance, and finally just the complete collapse of the starting pitching.  Without going too far into an end of season posting, I guess the Rox really need to look at what it is that they are missing.  Tulo and CarGo are both going to walk away with fine seasons.  Two potent weapons make the Rox at least competitive on paper but I think management needs to take away from this season is that two players can't elevate a team to win.  Young position players can't make a leap and contribute and that team needs to start truly evaluating what it has.  I think we saw that with U-Ball trade.  Let's hope they continue this Fall.

Lisa Randall - Warped Passages

My latest attempt to try and keep up with the crazy world of physicist.  Fascinating account of where physics has gone.  I always found it fascinating right up to the duality of light with it being a particle and wave. After that it got kind of weird and Randall's account is just wacky.  String Theory and Multiple Dimension, oh my, and now it has taken us to a situation where we can't even test what we have dreamed up.  

Things seemed pretty crazy way back when and it took years to become common place.  Could so many physicist have taken a wrong turn?  How many physicist are just praying that a Higgs Boson could be found?  Please...