My playlist last night was pretty thorough. Some new originals and some touches on old drinks.
First off I kept it simple and had 2 jiggers of Anchor Genevieve with ice shaken/strained/poured. I was feeling a little hungry but didn’t want a full dinner since I came back late from the workplace. I know it’s sacrilege but I put in two jalapeno stuffed olives in it.
Using that as a solid foundation for inspiration I got down and started making some originals.
You know the drill… drinks first meanings later.
(Continued)
I went to the restroom for the first time in the night. They had a restroom attendant. When I first saw him he was playing a word search. It was earlier in the night. We talked about Sudoku and how difficult it is and he mentioned his wife and how he got him into these mind sharpening games.
I went back for the second time and he was done playing the word search. I noticed he was sitting in front of a large framed reprint poster of Jackson Pollock’s Convergence.
I mentioned to im the painting he was sitting in front of was a very famous one. I talked to him a little bit about it. I pretty much explained that I don’t know a single thing about art. We stood in front of the painting me and him backs against urinals, and I was telling him the feelings that the painting gave me. I pointed out how some areas had more smeared or muted areas etc. I don’t know anything about art, but for me, art in the form of paintings like these are just about acceptance of whatever emotions are evoked by observing it.
He was totally blown away about the painting since he’s been sitting in front of it for about 3 months or so.
I went in the final time and gave him his tip. I finally asked him his name and his name is Herbert. He said that his mother would call him Herbert with a French accent and call him what sounded like air-bear. He said that he’s originally from Louisiana in a city called Morgan City. I explained how New Orleans is still at the top of my list on places I want to go.
I reminded him about the painting and he said he’d definitely look it up.
Went to Busby’s in Santa Monica to partake in some refreshments. The night wore on as follows:
The play list for me was:
- Hennessy sidecar
- gin and ginger ale with lime
- vodka pineapple with lemon
- jack and coke with lemon
- then I gave instructions on how to make an El Cantarito
- airplane bottle size bottle of tanqueray at the liquor store around the corner
- mojito
- whiskey sour (maker’s mark)
People I was with were convinced I was a bartender of some sort. I assured them I was not. At one point the waitress asked us: “Do you always order jazzy drinks?” I like jazzy drinks.
(Continued)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
One of the worst feelings has to be missing a concert of a band you like a lot. Fundamentally it’s an issue of “missing out”. This year I missed being able to see Murder By Death (Perhaps the greatest band ever), and Thursday (lyrically sublime).
What a contrast to the previous year when I posted a long while ago about my experience meeting Geoff Rickly. I got to see Thursday twice and Murder by Death twice in a year. I was also super fortunate to meet Adam Turla and
…Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. Three: If you graph the numbers of any system, patterns emerge. Therefore, there are patterns everywhere in nature. Evidence: The cycling of disease epidemics;the wax and wane of caribou populations; sun spot cycles; the rise and fall of the Nile…
(Continued)
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Scenario
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to mix drinks for about a total of 10 people or so. It was my first “gig” or making drinks for total strangers. There were some interesting constraints I had to work within. Here’s what transpired.
Priorities
The priorities were arranged as follows:
- Budget. When times are tight…
- Taste. They didn’t want to taste the liquor.
The audience: The people wanted maximal coverage. They didn’t want to taste the liquor. Not heavy drinkers.
The Goods
- 1 x Seagrams 1.5 liter
- 1 x Squirt
- 1 x Tonic
- 1 x Ginger Ale
- 1 x Rose’s Sweetened Lime Juice
- 1 x Ralph’s Brand Orange Juice
- 2 x Plastic Lemon Juices
- 2 x Plastic Lime Juice
- 14 lb. bag of ice
This was all had for just at exactly $30.00 USD.
Non Purchased:
- There was a pre-existing bottle of Smirnoff Vodka.
- Later an individual brought: Jose Cuervo Especial.
(Continued)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I have taken to the world of home bartending. Like I said in my previous post: “When times are tight, you must do what’s right.” Another would have to be, “In times of toubly we turn to the bubbly.” That’s really the best I could come up with right now that would rhyme. Essentially what I’m saying is that when times get rough, people turn to what certain cultures may deem vices. The reason why I say, “certain cultures”, is because things like booze and cigarettes are by no means seen as vices in certain countries, but just something you do. Without getting into a trivial and nebulous discussion on that topic, let’s get to what all none of you readers are reading this post for.
By no means am I a bartender or proclaim to even be something like a mixologist. The reason why I treat the two differently is because I believe their definitions to be different.
Mixologist – Someone who understands flavour profiles, subtle nuances in different of liquors, someone who basically understands what works and what doesn’t. “What works and what doesn’t” is always going to be a relative term, but what I mean is that someone who can create drinks according to the the audience’s preferences. What this means is not only catering to someone’s or a group of people’s tastes, but also subtly expanding their tastes to enjoy other types of liquors or drinks. I suppose it’s a delicate balance between being resourceful, attentive, and innovative. I know, I know, what a crock.
Bartender – I believe this to be someone who can do certain things that a mixologist can, but also brings other things to the venn diagram of the two. Bartenders bring in a lot of people skills and can work quickly, has a good memory, a therapist. Ah who knows, it’s all just fluff at this point to increase the length of these posts.
(Continued)
Thursday, February 26, 2009
I’ts been awhile since I’ve done a few things. I haven’t been pulling at all lately. I’m taking more of a relaxed stance on these posts, simply to get something going. I had articles written up but nothing is really building momentum.
A good resource that I found for lifting weights the real way (Oly lifts and classical movements) can be found here. Dan John has written up a really good, easy to read, and most importantly FREE book called “From The Ground Up!”. This book has something for everyone. I highly recommend it. I’m trying a variation on his “rapid ascent” program which is extremely simple:
3 movements:
- Power Cleans
- Military Presses
- Front Squats
Bang through these movements going 3 sets at 8,6,4 reps. I believe it to be minimal rest from my interpretations of the text. Once you can complete out the reps add weight!
Simple and effective. Do it 3 times a week. It’s obviously simple and can have a lot of variation added to it and acts as a really good foundation.
As you all (all 0 readers of this site) have noticed from my previous posts that I never mentioned owning a barbell. Well, I still don’t. In the immortal words of someone I know,
When times are tight, you must do what’s right.
So I’m doing a variation of his workout with dumbbells. I really need to get that going just to get something going.
I just upgraded to wordpress 2.7.1. I wonder why I would even do that since I haven’t posted in over 6 months. Perhaps I should utilize the “R” word and get to posting things other than workout updates.
Today I wasn’t able to ride to work as I had some toof stuff to take care of. Only did the following maximal strenf routine. I really need to build out some dumbbells. These 50lb-ers are not cutting it.
Routine looked like:
3 minutes of jump rope for warm up.
- 3 x 50 lb dumbbell clean and press per arm
- rest 90 seconds
- 6 x 50 lb dumbbell in each hand clean and press (I found that the 50 lb c&p was too easy and not strenf oriented).
- rest 90 seconds
- Repeated the 50lb in each hand c&p 2 more times with 90 secs of rest.
- rest 90 seconds
- 4 x 50 lb dumbbell snatch per arm. I did these as fast as I could. I know I can snatch more than 50 lb (must build dumbbells!)
- rest 90 seconds
Repeated the snatches 3 more times with the following rest intervals 60, 30 seconds. I really need to build some dumbbells.
At this point I did some complex pair work
Tried to do some sort of 1 legged squat. I ended up doing step ups as describe on beastskills. I did the following:
- 5 x step ups per leg (tried to eliminate non-supporting leg as much as possible, need to find better alternative)
- 50 lb dumbbell in each hand straight leg dead lift
- rest 60 seconds.
Repeated the above 4 times through.
I did some more complex pair work which was:
- 5 x 25 lb around waist PVC pullups. PVC pullups is where you hang two PVC pipes vertically and grip them and do pullups with them.
- 10 x ring dips
- rest 60 seconds
The ring dips turned out to be more maximal strenf than anything. Why am I saying strenf?? I did the just-described routine 4 times through.
To finish things off I did 100 double unders. These were performed as: 30, 10, 10, 10, 10, 7 and random numbers until 100 was complete.
Morning
bike to work ~9 miles
Evening
bike home ~9 miles
Interval training today.
Went to the local track and ran some intervals in my Vibram Five Fingers. I did 800 meter repeats. Mentally I was running hard and trying to finish hard, but I know I was moving really slow. This is actually the first time I ran in a long time since I broke 30 minutes for a 5k time. The routine looked like:
I didn’t do any post-work. I think I may do the secondary parts of the work as the days progress.
