Like a fine puerh, the ’Chunk has only gotten better and better with age.
New tea for sep 2011
Earl Grey Supreme. I always like to have an Earl Grey in my cabinet, but lately I’ve just been buying Upton’s perpetually-on-sale “Earl Grey Crème Caramel” blend. I’m kinda tired of it, so this time around I just got a normal blend.
Samovar OP-A Blend. This is some kind of new Upton blend. They claim it “can be infused for a long period without becoming bitter”, which intrigued me. It smells like a Keemun, and I’m thinking it’ll replace the Keemun in my weekly routine. At least for a while.
Singalila Estate SFTGFOP1. I always like to drink Nepal/Darjeeling-style tea on tuesday and thursday mornings! This is something new that should fit into that category nicely.
China Oolong Se Chung. I haven’t had oolong tea in my cabinet for a while! I’ll probably start taking this to school on monday and wednesday mornings, in place of the flavored green teas I’ve been drinking.
China Lapsang Souchong. I always like to have a lapsang souchong around for saturday mornings. I haven’t had a good China souchong for quite some time! I’ve been drinking the Formosa variant for the past few months, which has a much smokier flavor, so the China stuff will be an interesting change.
Organic Pai Mu Tan. I like drinking a plain white tea on friday mornings, since I don’t have to go into school that day and can usually spend more time on delicate brewing. I don’t think I’ve had any white tea since the spring, though, so this will be nice. Can’t go wrong with a pai mu tan.
James Joyce with Augustus John, London, 1925-1930 [at the time of John portrait] -nd
from beinecke
James Joyce is a huge mustache inspiration to me. And he is killing it with those round sunglasses, which can look slightly effeminate on men with less stunning facial hair. Well done, sirs.
Originally reposted from
chagalov
What I did this week (22 sep 2011)
- Saw Jeremy for the first time since spring and did an ink-wash of him. (The man has lost weight!)
- Went on a field trip with my science class to look at/smell/touch cadavers.
- Stuck my ad team’s semi-comps onto foam core boards for presentation; was derided as a kiss-up.
- Spent a good hour and a half during a lull in my ad class taking an exhaustive “Which Hogwarts house are you?” quiz, but still can’t decide whether I’m Ravenclaw or Slytherin.
- Went to a stellar concert and still managed to get my homework done.
- Painted a watercolor self-portrait in illustration class and felt ashamed for having cheapo paper.
- Shot an entire roll of film in the span of three hours, and recorded boring details about each shot.
- Processed the negatives and discovered that they actually look pretty good.
- Took my first science test and seemed to do pretty well on it.
They Might Be Giants at Southgate House (20 sep 2011)
Tuesday night I drove to Cincinnati to see They Might Be Giants! It was at this venue called the Southgate House, which turns out is like this old Victorian mansion on the riverfront. It was really cool venue: the inside still had rooms and hallways like a house, and even had spooky period furnishings. A flight of stairs inside the house led down to the actual venue, an oddly-giant room that felt kinda like the Newport, but much more comfortable. And, as it turns out, possessing pretty decent acoustics.
First was Jonathan Coulton! He was great, as expected. The set was a good length and had a nice mix of older songs and new stuff from Artificial Heart. The choice of JoCo to open for TMBG seems so obvious and natural. You could tell the audience was very engaged, and a lot of people were familiar with Coulton’s music. That was really cool.
And then TMBG came on! I was standing in the second row back from the stage, on the right side of the house. For the first few songs when JL played accordion, he stood right in front of me. That Main Squeeze accordion is even prettier in real life (I was very jealous). Anyway, after the accordion set was finished, JL moved over to the keyboard stage-right and Dan Miller stood in front of where I was standing, which was cool. Danny Weinkauf also came over at one point and played a bass solo two feet away from my head, which was great. I was kinda sad because JL’s keyboard was directly in my line-of-sight to Marty, so I couldn’t really see him at all. I just imagined his drumming face.
There was this older couple in front of me, at the very front row of the stage, probably in their early-60s, who were very cute. During the last song, Dead, I looked over and they were both singing all the words to the song. It was awesome.
The show itself was just great. Top-notch everything. One of my favorite things onstage were the giant human-operated spotlights. The setlist was really good and balanced. I didn’t get to hear Canajoharie, so that was a little tiny bit of a letdown, but they played a bunch of other great songs so it was ok. Being a part of “Battle for Planet of the Apes” was odd; I felt like I’d taken a time machine back to the late 90s. Yeah! It was great. This was a fantastic show that I’m so glad I got to see.