WILD RUMORS OF REALITY: IN HIS DREAMS

"The galley slave stayed between his sea and sky.  In his dreams.  The dreams parted for just that long, then they resumed their course.  He watched and he saw sea monsters, storms, moonlight, the bustle of port towns, markets, and fairs; walnuts as fat as a man's head, ivory and eels.  No, this couldn't be real."

—page 272, The Galley Slave by Drago Jančar.

PINK PEPPERCORN IPA

Pink Peppercorn IPA (Trip XII), an India Pale Ale by New Belgium Brewing and Elysian Brewing.

22 ounce bottle served in shaker glass.

7.5% alcohol by volume.

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The pour is clear orange.  The head is a finger's worth of white.  There is almost no carbonation.

The nose is of pepper and Fruity Pebbles, which is rather enticing.

Each sip is peppery spiciness on the front, followed by citrus peel bitterness and caramel maltiness, and then finishing with a faint echo of the opening pepper.

Medium mouthfeel.

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I like this for its mystery and subtlety.  It could have been overdone but it isn’t.  Rather, it is nicely restrained.

I’m not thinking IPA when I’m drinking it, though.

In fact, this is sort of the flavor profile I was hoping for in Elysian’s Fallout Cardamom Ale.  If it had been, then Fallout wouldn’t have made the dump bucket.

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If I close my eyes and dream a bit, then I can imagine some A-1 steak sauce on a nice hunk of meat, and that, my friend, is a damn fine thing.

As it warms, I am reminded more of A-1 and begin to hunger for a juicy steak and another pint of ale!

SUNRISE OPA

Sunrise Oatmeal Pale Ale, an American Pale Ale by Fort George Brewery.

16 ounce can served in a shaker glass.

5.2% alcohol by volume.

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The can looks like an energy drink.  The word SUNRISE makes me think morning.  I'm imagining some kind of dawn kick-in-the-butt to get me out of bed before I even open the can.

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The pour is a hazy yellow-orange body that says, "Perhaps I'm a hefeweizen."  The head is a finger's worth of thickness.

The nose is orange citrus and flower petals.

The flavors are orange and lemon citrus bitterness, with a floral background.  It's bitter, but less so than I expected, which is likely due to the oatmeal included in the brewing process.

A smooth, medium mouthfeel transforms into a long, long bitter (yet pleasing) finish.

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This is excellent.  If I had a stable of beers,* then this would be one of my anchor beers.  It's that good.

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*I think I need to "build" a stable of good sessionable beers.

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As to the idea of morning, I think this is one of those beers that transcends season and time of day.  I can imagine myself drinking it morning, noon, and night.  This is a sitting around with friends ale, a mowing the lawn ale, a accompanying dinner ale.  In other words, this is an anytime ale.

ECS NO EQUAL AMBER LAGER

ECS No Equal Amber Lager, an American Amber/Red Lager by Redhook Brewing.

22 ounce bottle served in Samuel Adams glass.

5.2% abv

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It probably seemed as through TWT retired from public beer reviews and/or tasting notes, since nothing "taphandle" has been posted since The Twelfth Beer of Christmas.  It surely appeared as such to reader (and TWT friend) B.  In fact, he decided to do something about it.  He purchased a bottle of Redhook's latest addition to their Blueline Series, which was bottled in collaboration with Emerald City Supporters  (a fan club of the Seattle Sounders Football Club), and delivered the same to TWT for tasting and review.

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It's amber!  The pour delivers a red-orange body with an orange-yellow aura.  It's capped with a thin white head and is very lightly bubbly.

The nose is what I think of as "classic lager" and therefore hard to explain.  The primary aromas I catch are vines and cardboard and a bit of broth.  Perhaps that cardboard note is better described as "cereal box grains," whatever that means!

The flavor is a bit better than "classic lager."  I detect broth, a hint of white raisins, caramel, and cereal box grains.  There is a bit of nuttiness on the finish.

The mouthfeel is a bit light, being just a smidgen on the watery side, but nothing to complain about.

It's better than I expected and very drinkable.

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I tend to drink more ales than lagers, so I don't have a lot to compare this to.  It was a bit like a Märzen/Oktoberfest, only with more caramel than I associate with that style.

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ECS No Equal Amber Lager isn't going to win any awards, but it's a sessionable and solid beer.

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Thanks again to B. for the bottle and the push.

BOOK BUDDIES

Atticus, one of two bookstore cats at King's Books of Tacoma, decided to jump onto my shoulders today and ride around while I perused the shelves.

It surprised me, even though I watched him walk up to me, crouch, and ready himself to spring onto me.  He did it with the agility of the greatest acrobats.  He stayed perched up there until I removed him, which he wasn't too happy about.  I believe he was hoping to take a nap.

Anyway, it was a unique experience in many ways.  I even ended up purchasing the book I was pulling off the shelf when he joined me.  I considered it quite the omen that I needed the book—Birds of America: Stories by Lorrie Moore—since Atticus showed as much interest in it as I did.

PIYP, PART 2

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Poem In Your Pocket Day wasn't a complete bust for TWT.

[1]
The Child carried a copy of "Three Field Poems" around all day and has prominently displayed it upon The Child's headboard.

[2]
The Child gave a copies to two teachers at The Child's school.  Both teachers were disappointed that they didn't know about Poem in Your Pocket Day and planned on observing it next year.

[3]
Troy's Work Table was able to hand out poems to people throughout the day, mostly to friends and acquaintances.  It counts!

[4]
Troy's Work Table built a small display stand out of card stock and left FREE POETRY in Frost Park while he chalked today.  A few fellow chalkers took copies.  One wrote "I was also pretty impressed by this citizen-initiative FREE POETRY kiosk" and "Let's see more of this kind of thing!"

All of the above made Poem In Your Pocket Day (and the day after) worth it.

FROST PARK: AMERICAN PASTIMES

Blank canvas.


Outlines.


Almost there.


"Pursue, Consume, Illumine" by Troy's Work Table.

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This week's theme for the Frost Park Chalk Off (5:4) was "American Pastimes." Where many chalkers headed down the road of baseball, TWT could only see whales. So that is where he went—from harpoon to whale to oil lamp.

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View all of the Frost Park Chalk Off 5:4 entries HERE.

POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY

Troy's Work Table wandered the streets of downtown Puyallup beginning at 6:00 a.m. today, trying to hand out small booklets of his own poetry.  The commuters of the Sounder train were having none of it.

Unlike the teens of Puyallup, who were willing to at least listen to what World Book Night was about, their parents and aunts and uncles and neighbors were rather reluctant to find out about Poem in Your Pocket Day.

TWT was consistently rejected by one person after another.  Most at least feigned some sort of response, although a few people actually just stared at me as though I was a ghost, or as though they hadn't really heard me.

I left a few copies on the counter of the post office, at the return boxes of the library, and in the alternative newsweekly boxes.  Then I licked my wounds and went home to get ready for work.

WORLD BOOK NIGHT

Troy's Work Table and The Dog sit on a bench in the Altrusa Plaza of Puyallup's Riverwalk Trail. Photograph by The Child.


Tulips and daffodils alongside the Riverwalk Trail.


World Book Night pin about to be retired.

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TWT was a Book Giver for World Book Night USA.  I had twenty paperback copies of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, specially printed for WBN, to hand out to strangers.  When I applied to be a Book Giver, my plan was to give the books to teens hanging out in Pioneer Park in front of the Puyallup Public Library.

The evening was perfect: warm but not too warm, and mostly sunny.  However, there weren't too many people out in the park.  I did end up giving eleven copies of the book to teens in the park.  They were each initially reluctant but warmed to the idea of their own FREE book once I explained the goal of World Book Night getting books into the hands of one million people in the United Kingdom and the United States in one day.

The next stop was the Puyallup Skate Park, where I was able to give away another six books.  One teen informed me, "My school counselor keeps telling me I need to read more for college. Now I have a book to do so."  Yes he does.

There weren't that many teens hanging out at the Skate Park for such a nice evening, so TWT, The Child, and The Dog headed down the Riverwalk Trail to hand out the final three copies, which we did.

The final two copies went to two teens hanging out under the Puyallup River Bridge on the banks of the river, chatting, singing, and playing guitar.  One of those initially reluctant teens said to her friend upon receiving the book, "Cool. We're part of something!"  Yes, you are.

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It was a great night to wander Puyallup, to hand out books, to be part of something, to engage strangers in conversation, and to break down stereotypes.  As to the latter, I think that worked both ways.  I got to see through some of the rebellion and bravado that the teens often wear, while they got to speak with an adult that wasn't telling them not to smoke and swear, that wasn't nagging them, but merely trying to give them the gift of reading.  Even if only for a few moments, it was a wonderful experience.  I hope to be able to participate in similar events in the future.

WAYZGOOSE 2012

Letterpress shenanigans, inside King's Books.


Members of C.L.A.W.


Steamroller printing press.


Revealing the 3' x 3' print.


The 2012 C.L.A.W. Wayzgoose print.

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Today was the annual Wayzgoose event at Tacoma's King's Books.  The Wife and I stopped by to check out the various letterpress printers, book artists, and the ever-popular steamroller press.  Members of C.L.A.W. (The Cartoonists' League of Absurd Washingtonians) were present both inside and outside of King's Books, providing assistance with the steamroller printing and selling wares at their booth.