Sam betrays his essential cheapness

As a frugal boozer.

Maple Stout, Cannery, BC

Cannery Brewing - Maple stout, tried at the Alibi room - but only a shot glass. Way too mapley, not so good.

Red Racer Imperial IPA, Central City, BC

on tap at the alibi room

Thor's Hammer, ??, ??

Thor's Hammer - Barley Wine, drunk at the Alibi

Le Nez Rouge, Yaletown Brewing, BC

Yaletown Brewing Le Nez Rouge - Belgian Trippel

Dances for a Small Stage 20, BC

Saw the program B, most of it, of Dances for a Small Stage.

Not great. In fairness, showing up after 3 hours at the Alibi room sampling the taps was ill-planned, its hard to focus, and the darkness puts me to sleep.

Still, the pieces, not so great.

1. Cori Caulfield - not sure what the point was, it seemed to be "I'm really hot, and I have a tiny top", which is true, but not such great dance, mostly a prolonged wiggle.


2. A piece not on the online program, choreographed by Crystal Pite?, also not too sure what the point was, maybe "pink wigs with four foot hair are cool, and I'm beautiful", which is true, but the movement was only a bit more interesting than the first.


3. Tedd Robinson - he's weird! Budha statues in suit cases! Fans, blowing blue feathers, strange oriental kimonos, and done by the time he walked to the center of the stage. WTF? But who cares, not boring, not pretentious, then its over!


4. Wen Wei Wang- "I've got a rose sticking out of my pants like a hardon, and I'm rubbing little pink shoes up and down my crotch - are you wondering what's going on?". Uh, yeah, I am.


5. Chengxin Wei - "I can dance". Ok. Why?

Mostly, I don't ask "why", because the answer should be "why not?". Not everything needs a purpose. But once I'm bored, I start to. Its not clear why some people are on stage. Dancers are a pleasure to see, they move well, they've years of training, incredibly fit... but thats not enough reason to show up on stage. Or maybe it is, but not enough reason for me to watch.

Extreme Carting!

The NFB is starting to go online! Extreme carting... how fast can you coast a shopping cart?

Lets find out...

Red Racer Winter Ale, Central City, BC

It's a limited edition, so you can't find it on Central City's web site.

I like it. Its warm and tasty, a bit spicy on the finish, which clears out the sweet start. Got a 6-pack of cans. Be better on tap. I have to make a field trip out to Central City, try some of their beer.

Bah Humbug, Wychwood, UK

Can barely taste the cinammon (i.e., after being told its there, I can imagine I can taste it).

Basically, a bit sweet, but only 5.0%ABV. Its OK.

Augustijn Grand Cru, Van Steenberge, BE

The grand cru of the Augustijn that I've tried before.

What can I say, sweeter and higher alcohol content.

Lots of flavour, I'd have to confess, but whatever its called, this particular style of beer is not my favorite. Maybe with the right food? At the right time? Just before bed, by a warm fire, with the intention of getting drunk, eating sharp cheese, and a gentle back massage by my sweetie?

Biere des Ours, La Binchoise, BE

"Bear Beer", made with honey. I got a few bottles for Christmas.

Sweet, heavy, and high alcohol (8.4%ABV). Its OK, but not a favorite style of mine.

Slipstream Cream Ale, Phillips, BC

Summary, it went bad.

Camping in Manning Park, BC

Nous sommes allés faire du camping d'hiver à Manning park vendredi denier. Nous avons eu beaucoup de plaisir. Nous avons commencé par faire du "tubing" avec remontée mécanique! Des vrais pachas... On the photo you can see me, then Alex, Thomas and the 5th one is Mike. Sam is ahead taking the picture! Plus tard, nous avons loué des patins et j'ai joué au hockey pour la première fois de ma vie. Yes, for the very first time. You might think that it is weird, knowing that I am from Québec but I just have bad memories of people playing hockey on the ice and being or too good for me to join, or just too passionate to include a beginner. A group of people asked if we wanted to join. They just waned to play and we did a friendly game with special rules : "shoot near the net only" so you have to do more passes and more collaboration. That was good. After a bit, even if it was -20 degrees, we where very warm! Après, retour au campement pour la fondue au fromage. C'était très bon! Mais il fesait de plus en plus froid. Nous avons terminé la soirée dans le "hot tub" du complexe hotelier de Manning... Après tout les campeurs aussi sont des invités non? Once we where warm enough we jumped in our triple sleeping bags and did not move for the night. There was frost at the top of my sleeping bag, in the small opening where air was coming in! In the morning, we had a high calories meal: bacon, sausages and veggies and we left to go for a 3 hour cross country tour. Alex et Thomas sont partis faire du ski alpin. We left for Vancouver around 4 pm and it was snowing, on the way back, all the way to Vancouver. Yep! Still snowing here! 

Beers and Booze

Chris is beer blogging, too, with a goal of dominating the BC beer blogging market! I'll try to think up enough to say about a beer to write some reviews for it.

Palo Santo Marron, Dogfish Head, DE

The New Yorker had an article that it introduced by discussing Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron.

It was thick and sweet. Its called a "malt beverage", so I suspect it isn't brewed with hops, and it definitely tastes malty.

We split a 12 fl.oz. (about 350 ml by modern measures) bottle among three. I don't think I could drink a pint, and I don't think I'll buy it again, either, though it was fun to try. The New Yorker article is better than the beer!

Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout, North Coast Brewing, CA

I really, really, like this, despite not usually liking high alcohol beer. I agree with this review:

"These folk don't fool around with their beers. Very big, very complex, and downright kick-ass."
-The BrewGuide

I want to try the special aged Rasputin, but I can't! Life is hard. :-)

On Wednesday, November 26, North Coast will bottle the long-awaited Old Rasputin XI to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of the first bottling of Old Rasputin. This special batch of Old Rasputin has been aging for a year in oak bourbon barrels, and it is truly amazing—even more depth and complexity than we had hoped for. Old Rasputin XI will be available only at the Brewery retail store in Fort Bragg beginning on Friday, November 28—the day after Thanksgiving. (How about that for perfect holiday timing!) It will be packaged in a 500 ml. bottle with commemorative labels and a cork and cage finish at $12.95 per bottle. Limit is one case per customer. Some for now, some for cellaring. Sorry, we are unable to ship beer to consumers. Don’t be left out of this milestone event. When this batch is gone, it’s gone.

Roman says the Russian on the label says "A good friend is not born".

Vive le vent / Jingle bells

J'ai fini mon premier livre de leçon d'accordéon. Ça finit avec Vive le vent! Alors voici les résultats!

Puppet theatre in progress

Now we will paint and add the decorations! Hans is doing a fabulous job!

Chocolate Porter, Phillips Brewing, BC

I like Phillips. Reasonable beers, well-made.

And one weird one, the chocolate porter! Julie and I walked over to the Locus for a pint tonight (Julie's idea to cool down after some vigorous yogging). The chocolate was on tap, and it was pretty tasty! Definitely tasted of chocolate, but not too strong or weird. Very enjoyable!

Porter, Okanagan Spring, BC

OK Spring was the first craft beer I remember in BC that was sold by the bottle. It was also the beer of choice for many treeplanters in the late 80s, early 90s. So much so that I once walked into a BCLD store in Vernon, and the woman behind the counter said "sorry, we're out of okanagan springs. where are you planting?".

Anyhow, at that time craft breweries were called microbreweries, because they were, and they all had enough pride to make a range of beers that actually TASTED different (no honey brown, brown lager, pale ale, crystal ale, gold lager, etc.). Granville Island Hotel, I'm talking to you!

So, OK's was the first porter I drank. I found it a bit thick and soupy at the time and preferred their stout, but when chilled to mountain stream temperature out back of the tent, it was perfect. Not refrigerator cold, not room temperature either. Good at the end of a hot dirty day.

Anyhow, they have a porter again. Its pretty tasty, but 8.5%ABV, and you can feel that!