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The members of Boris are like characters from a movie, or a comic or something -- you have the intense and dark Takeshi, the beautiful and mysterious Wata and the energetic and crazy Atsuo. They're all gorgeous and Japanese and have great hair. Boris isn't always my kind of music. I like it, yes, but it's not always something I want to listen to. But the band is amazing live. I go to plenty of shows and a lot of them are good, but last night, Boris just seemed so in focus. I can't really explain it. The band just felt so present to me and seemed so sharp in front of my eyes. They are loud and passionate and incredible. You can't help feel their music and get into the spirit of it, even if it's not your thing. I can't find a good live video, so I'll just go with the official video for "Rainbow." Yeah, a lot of other Boris doesn't sound like this, but I love this song. Love it. Here's "Statement" so you know what they sound like when they're louder.
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If you know anything about me, you know I like beer. Well, maybe you know I like comic books. But you still know I like beer. I had heard mixed things about the documentary Beer Wars and somewhat, those mixed opinions are justified. But it's still worth watching. The filmmaker, Anat Baron, is plenty likable and fun, and probably a good person to have made this doc. But I'm sorry -- Mike's Hard Lemonade is not beer. Yes, it kind of falls into the same category as beer, in a way, but it's not beer. So yes, she was in the beer industry, but well ... OK, I am not normal. I can't really remember the last time I bought anything from the big three beer makers (well, maybe Blue Moon every now and then). But I know I exist in a reality where craft brews are all there is. I'm the sort of person who will always insist that if you say you don't like beer that's just because you haven't had the right one for you. So the takeaway that Anheuser-Busch is kind of evil? That's a given. Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head came across as someone you'd want to hang out with. This documentary is a great commercial for his beer, and I don't even think that was intended. I think I'd take Jim Koch of Samuel Adams a little more seriously if his beer wasn't ... well, so boring. I mean, OK, if it's between Sam Adams and a Bud Light, I'm going to take the Sam Adams. But I don't really consider it "craft" beer. It's not interesting. I liked that the documentary did feature plenty of women who are making beer. The filmmaker is a woman and Carol Stoudt and Kim Jordan of New Belgium Brewery had prominent screentime, and one of the storylines followed Rhonda Kallman of Edison Beer. I think women's contributions to beer get overlooked much too often. But: If you like beer, there's not much new here. Yes, the distribution system is a mess. Yes, big breweries overrun little ones. It is not a bad documentary, but I think if you're watching it, you already know which side you fall on. It's not going to change your mind but reinforce opinions you already have. And maybe that's not bad because I do want to run out and buy more beer by Dogfish Head. Just because.
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Not content with making crazy beers, Dogfish Head also makes some liquors. They mostly can't be found outside of Delaware. I had tried the gin before (which they call "Jin") and loved it and needed to have it again. I am not even a big gin fan but this is excellent and wonderful. So my roommate took a trip up to Rehoboth and I told him to pick me up a bottle, which he did. I asked how much I owed him and he said "Happy birthday." Now, I'm a nerd and I couldn't help notice that both my early birthday presents so far involved the word "Jin" ( this is the other one. Much like my bottle of Jin, no, you cannot have it). I like Lost. I like Daniel Dae Kim. I am greatly amused he seems to be doing Hawaii Five-O so he doesn't have to move (I mean, I wouldn't want to move from Hawaii, either). I decided to make a drink in tribute of Jin, of Hawaii, of Lost (and yes, since Kim did get a DUI, this is maybe a little wrong, but since it seems like half the cast of Lost seemed like they got a DUI at one point or another, maybe not a big deal). So yes, this is my creation, the "Jin." I suppose you can sub whatever gin you like in this.The goal was to make the gin the star, for the most part, while still making something that was mighty tasty. 1 part pineapple juice concentrate 1 part gin 3 parts club soda/seltzer squeeze of lime splash of pomegranate juice ice Mix the gin and pineapple juice concentrate together in the bottom of a glass (I have pint glasses so that's what I use). Add ice (not too much, but enough) and fill with the club soda. Add your lime and pomegranate juice and drink with a bendy straw. (The bendy straw is important.) Enjoy. (Oh, and in stupid full-circle-ness, it's Tara McPherson that got me interested in Dogfish Head since she did the label for my beloved Fort.)
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Watch this video. I'll wait. That is probably my favorite Broken Bells song. And I love Christina Hendricks (but who doesn't?). But that's not the point here. The video is about a woman who is literally selling parts of her body to get something that's not going to be worth it in the end. Yes, maybe it's a little obvious in terms of allegory, but it's still effective. It's still something that symbolically goes on every day. And I think Hendricks probably knows a thing or two about that. Yes, Esquire has said she's the sexiest woman alive, but I imagine that has something to do with her breast size more than her incredible talent as an actress. And let's face it -- some people have called her "fat" (which she's not -- she's curvy, sure, but "fat" isn't the word I'd think of when I think of her). Because the thing is, a lot of men believe women exist only for their pleasure. Male bloggers may get called "stupid" but female bloggers get called "ugly." And yes, I think we all agree that Sex and the City 2 is god-awful, but how many comments about Sarah Jessica Parker's "horse face" have you read? What does that have to do with anything? And this is just every-day stuff for a lot of women -- walking down the street and being catcalled, being told to "smile" or whatever, being expected to put out because you're a "nice guy" and that's obviously our purpose. Look, women can be hot and sexy and attractive, but they're still people. They're more than just bodies. And all too often, they get treated like they're just bodies. I think it's pretty important that the video was made by dudes -- it's a song by two men, directed by a man (as far as I can tell) and featuring a woman a lot of men think is hot (of course, a lot of women adore her too, because she's awesome). Like I said, no, it's not the most original sentiment, but that men get it -- even NPR-loving dudes like Brain Burton & James Mercer -- is pretty cool to me. And may mean that more guys will stop to think about these things. (And hey, I already know that most of you do, so it's not directed at you.)
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After months of being told I needed to see it, I finally watched Between the Folds. It's not ... bad. And certainly, there are some amazing things shown in this documentary (although I think some of the "origami" is more "sculpting" than "folding" and to me, origami is just paper folding -- as in, you make a crease and not a curve. But this is possibly just my personal opinion). Still, as I reported on Twitter, I have a couple of problems with it overall, and it could just be I disagree with the perspective and aesthetic. The filmmakers seemed to be going for this sort of "extreme" thing -- more and more complicated models. This sort of one-upmanship was kind of mentioned -- I think Robert Lang (who is AWESOME, by the way, and I have no quibbles with his inclusion in this doc) mentioned that one year, someone made a beetle, so the next year, someone else made a spider. And then the year after that, someone made a scorpion. Everyone wanted to outdo everyone else. And yes, there are some incredible things made from one sheet of paper, but I tend to like the origami that suggests rather than replicates. I think Lang's stuff is beautiful because he seems to use as few folds as possible (but yes, they're still very complicated). It's about the spirit and the essence of what he's creating and not how convoluted the process is. He was the only one in this documentary that I feel really got it. But more importantly to me, there was almost no women featured. The one woman they briefly talked to was a teacher in Israel. Yes, teaching is awesome and noble, but it's hard to ignore that the woman was presented in a motherly role when the men got to be mathematicians or scientists or artists. She wasn't doing origami for the love or beauty of it -- she was doing it for the kids. Off the top of my head, I can think of two amazing women doing origami. The first is Tomoko Fuse (who did get a brief mention in the doc -- they showed one of her creations) who helped pioneer unit or modular origami. But she's done a ton of other stuff too -- yes, a lot of her stuff is "pretty" -- boxes or flower or whatever -- but it's also all amazingly engineered. I have several of her books and I love every one of them. Unit Origami is probably the essential work on modular origami and I recommend it. Floral Origami Globes seems to be out of print in the U.S. (I have the Japanese version) but it's also amazing. Maybe she wasn't available. Maybe the filmmakers didn't want to go to Japan. I don't know. But she's done more than 60 books on origami. I would've liked to have seen more about her. The second is Meenakshi Mukerji, who yes, also does unit origami, but is much more mathematical about it. She has degrees in electrical engineering and computer science. I like her work a lot -- I have one of her books and her style has taken some getting used to (both in terms of diagrams and construction) but what she does is innovative and beautiful. (There was also Florence Temko and Ligia Montoya, but I'm not quibbling with their lack of inclusion. And no, I didn't really need to look either of them up.) I get that the filmmakers were going for something and that the world of origami is huge and not everyone can be included (because, also no Kunihiko Kasahara?) but after being told by several people that I really needed to see this doc, that it was amazing and I'd love it, I can't help feeling a little disappointed by its scope. I'd love to see another documentary on origami that covers more than this one did. Tags: visual
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