The Ink Flows Like Wine: December 2009

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year and to all a Good Eve!

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010! Keep your eyes peeled on this site for some big changes and more content in the new year. Be safe tonight everyone!

Enjoy!

A Holiday Mix for Kicks...

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Off for the week, entertaining family... Happy Holidays to all, a prosperous New Year to all as well...

I'll leave you all with a gift in the spirit of the season....

Holiday Mix

1 . Song Away -- Hockey

2. Hannah -- Freelance Whales

3. Rounds and a Sound -- Blind Pilot

4. One Life Stand -- Hot Chip

5. Christmas In Prison -- Emmy The Great

6. Greensleeves -- Vince Guaraldi Trio

7. Late Night Classic -- Lymbyc Systym

8. Skirting on the Surface -- Thom Yorke

9. The Blizzard -- Camera Obscura

10. Swim Until You Cant See Land -- Frightened Rabbit

11. Silver Bells -- Bob Dylan

12. Rhinestone Cowboy, Glenn Campbell -- Radiohead

13. Please Come Home for Christmas -- Fiona Apple

14. Hourglass -- Small Brown Bike

15. Wandering Eye -- Dawn Landes

16. Back to Manhattan -- Norah Jones

17. Super Collider -- Thom Yorke

18. Citizen -- Broken Bells

19. Stillness is the Move -- Dirty Projectors

20. It's Thunder And It's Lightning -- We Were Promised Jetpacks

Enjoy!

Tis the Season to Pester Your Clients

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Pestering clients for pay is one of the worst parts of being a freelance writer, but it's a part of the job and one to take seriously. Here's an article from Freelance Writing Gigs about this issue...

Getting Paid for Your Freelance Writing

Enjoy!

Adverbs: To Use or Not To Use

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Words are my life, sadly at times, but I do enjoy the editing process. Here's a cool article about adverb usage from my favorite freelance writing site, Freelance Writing Gigs

In Defense of Adverbs

Enjoy!

Help For the Holidays: Budgeting For Freelancers

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Since its the holiday season and everyone wishes they had some more funds, I thought it appropriate to post this article I found over at Freelance Folder about budgeting on a freelancer's salary.

Budgeting For Freelancers

Enjoy!

LIVE REVIEW - Deck the Hall Ball 12/15/09 WAMU Theater Seattle, WA

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

After a good first evening at Elysian Brewing, we bedded down and prepared for the epic day ahead of us. I awoke at 8am and shot over to a nearby coffee shop to do work until 2:30, only to have my friend fill me in on my car's situation. The brakes were grinding, which meant the rotors were in danger of being done. We drove over to Midas and let them take a look, only to find, yes they need to be replaced, yes the pads on these foreign cars don't do the tell-tale squeal sound when they're almost used up, yes this will cost you over $400 to repair, no you can't leave with the car legally until it's fixed. Oh and happy holidays.

So we walked in the rain through downtown Seattle for awhile, stopping to get a beer and try not to think about how we'd afford this with my whole family coming in a week for Xmas. We grabbed the car shortly after, gathered our thoughts, and headed over to the Wamu Theater to see the Deck the Hall Ball.

We arrived as Vampire Weekend was playing, catching only three songs of theirs before the headed off. They were pretty decent, I'd never caught them while I was living in Brooklyn. The crowd seemed to like them a lot. We found a couple seats about level with the stage in the back, and reclined for the remainder of the show, my girlfriend loving it because she could see perfectly for once.

After Vampire Weekend came Phoenix. I'm not a huge fan, but I was interested to see how they were live. The crowd loved them, they went crazy during their 30 minute set. The band seemed really surprised and humbled by the whole thing, and played twice as hard. The set ended with the singer requesting the crowd to surf him over to the sound board so he could wish their FOH guy Happy Birthday, to which they relished in obliging.

Next came Metric, and they didn't disappoint, opening with one of my favorites, "Dead Disco". I really like the dynamic of the band and guitarist Jimmy Shaw's technique live. And Emily Haines is one of my favorite rockstars, she's energetic and a great songwriter (and not too bad to look at). They rifled through their quick set with mostly hits from their newest album Fantasies. Its funny because I've been listening to that album since January, yet most people still just found out about them. I'm happy they're getting a bit more recognition, though the majority of the crowd was unenthusiastic. I think that was because it was an all ages show and the kids aren't really Metric's main draw. I think they're more popular in the late 20's set.

Next was the excruciatingly awful 30 Seconds to Mars set. I was so pissed they got a 45 minute set, taking away time from the rest of the bands. If they were excluded, this show would have been one of the best of the year for me. Jared Leto spent half the show swearing to try and rile up the crowd, which had no desire to hear his bullshit. At one point he sat on stage alone with an acoustic guitar, just bullshitting. He asked the crowd for requests, before ignoring them and playing some old song. The amount of "MOTHER FUCKERS!!!!!" that he yelled that night were too numerous to count, I mean, who says that nowadays? Was this the Up In Smoke Tour? 45 horrible minutes later, and really only like 5-6 songs later, they left the stage.

The excitement began to build for Muse, the kids were getting rowdy and people began chanting for the band. Before the set, I really had no idea what I was going to see. I'm a decent Muse fan, I like their tunes, their lyrics are lame but I feel like their cliche feel is to add to the affect overall. There's a couple songs of theirs I absolutely love, so I was hoping to hear those. Jenny is a massive fan, so she's the real reason I dropped $60 for each of us to see this. I had heard from others their live show blows everything else away, so I knew I had to see them, and to do so in such a small place, its max capacity is 7000, was a big deal. Especially because the rest of the tour they announced takes place in huge arenas. The WAMU was quite a piece though. It was really just a big warehouse with a circle of curtains around the outside of the perimeter from the stage to knock down the reflections. It didn't work well for most of the bands, so I was really hoping that Muse's sound was better.

After a loooooooong time, Muse finally showed up on stage to an ecstatic crowd. They immediately ripped into "MK Ultra" from their new album The Resistance and the sound immediately revealed itself to be pure and clean. Matt Bellamy's guitar tone was probably one of the cleanest and cutting tones I'd heard in a live setting ever. I was amazed at how well the band was mixed. I had read about how Matt is a purist when recording as well, using only one guitar amp and track per song to make it sound bigger than cramming a bunch of overdubs into a song.

The set list went like this:

- MK ULTRA

Interlude + Hysteria

Resistance

Supermassive Black Hole

Unnatural Selection

United States of Eurasia

Uprising

Starlight

Time Is Running Out

Plug In Baby

Man with a Harmonica intro into Knights of Cydonia

Muse had first formed around when they were 15, which is amazing in itself, so to see them play as one of the best live bands period was quite a treat. They basically played everything I wanted to hear, and stayed away from playing too much new stuff. Since it was an abbreviated set, I think they knew they had to play the hits, so we all won. Seriously, Matt is such a badass, shredding on his knees, guitar overhead, skipping around stage in the midst of a solo, and all the while belting out perfectly. The rest of the band was on point, the bassist and drummer in sync like nothing I've seen. That huge bass sound that held down every song was quite a thing to hear. The crowd was eating up every second of it, pogoing like mad and chanting the lyrics along. When they broke into "Supermassive Blackhole" Matt was writhing with the beat and the crowd did its best to match his falsetto. When they began "Starlight," one of my favorites and one of their best, the crowd lost it. Throughout the set, I just felt the stress melt away and I truly enjoyed every second, something I rarely feel in any show.

The last time I felt so impressed was when I first saw Radiohead in a similarly sized arena that shared the same name, WAMU theater in MSG, summer 2006. Comparing both shows and bands is completely unfair, Radiohead are like Gods, Muse are like the band that the Gods choose to play for them. The obvious similarities are really irrelevant. Radiohead shows are like going to church or something spiritual. Muse is like something completely different, it's more like an experience, an event, a rally if you will. They rock out, they go nuts, they shred and jam. Radiohead doesn't rock out, though Thom does dance like a maddened elf. Comparisons aside, I'll still take Radiohead over Muse any day, but seriously, you need to see Muse live. The best illustration I can give you: watching them is like standing in front of a 50 foot high speaker at full blast and loving every second of it. They're coming back in April, and I'm considering it already.

As the show started to draw to a close, my girl friend pointed out something that made the whole night come into focus a bit. Throughout the show, each band stated how amazed and humbled they were to be opening for Muse, which is kind of interesting considering the background and fans of each. During "Plug In Baby" I followed my girl's finger to see Emily Haines in her silver dress, dancing her ass off in the VIP area near the sound board. She was jumping and twirling just as, if not more, hard to Muse than she had for her own set. I honestly didn't expect that, but I guess that there are some bands that everyone has to appreciate, if not for the grandiose songwriting, then for the unbelievable and undeniable talent that some bands showcase without effort.

02/27 - Atlanta, GA @ The Arena at Gwinnett Center *
03/01 - Fairfax, VA @ Patriot Center *
03/02 - Philadelphia, PA @ Wachovia Center *
03/05 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden *
03/06 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden *
03/08 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Center *
03/10 - Montreal, QC @ Centre Bell *
03/12 - Chicago, IL @ United Center *
03/13 - Auburn Hills, MI @ The Palace *
03/15 - Nashville, TN @ Sommet Center *
03/17 - Forth Worth, TX @ Forth Worth Convention Center *
03/18 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
03/29 - Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place *
03/30 - Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome *
04/01 - Vancouver, BC @ Pacific Coliseum *

04/02 - Seattle, WA @ Key Arena *
04/03 - Portland, OR @ Rose Garden Center *
04/05 - Salt Lake CIty, UT @ The E Center *
04/06 - Denver, CO @ Odeum *
04/09 - Phoenix, AZ @ US Airways Center *
04/14 - San Francisco, CA @ Oracle Center *

BREW REVIEW: Elysian Brewing

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Fresh back from a journey of ups and downs, I returned from Seattle last night after a horrible drive in teeming rain the whole way. In fact, it rained non-stop in Seattle the whole time I was there, while in Portland it was not only warmer but less rainy. So for all the peeps that say, "Why would you move to Portland, all it does is rain," well, BS, Seattle is worse. But getting back to the point of it all, here's what happened:

We left Monday for Seattle, and after a quick 2.5 hour drive in the rain we coasted into Capitol Hill to stay with a friend of a friend. We hung out for a bit and then made our way over the nearby Elysian Brewpub to taste some good beer and grub out.

They had a couple good beers I had the pleasure of tasting, and their pulled pork sandwich was pretty solid. I tried the Dragonstooth Stout first upon recommendation. I think I'd actually had it before, but it was pretty smooth and flavorful. It had a slight chocolate taste to it under the malt. I liked it overall, but it wasn't my favorite stout. It seemed a bit too -- something, I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Next I tried the Perseus Porter, which I liked a bit more. Lately I've been really into Porters for some reason. This one I could taste a bit more chocolate, though it was very smooth and smokey at the same time.

Both beers had a good consistency and I really enjoyed the food at the brewpub, which is rare. If you're ever up in ole Seattle, definitely check out Elysian, good food and beer to be had by all. They also co-sponsored the Deck the Hall Ball, which was what I went to Seattle for in the first place... Post on that to come...

Deck the Hall Ball Happening Tomorrow

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Heading to Seattle today to see the Deck the Hall Ball there tomorrow. It's starring Muse, 30 Seconds to Meh, Metric, Phoenix, and Vampire Weekend. I'll do my best to blog a bit while I'm there since I'll be working each morning.

Enjoy your week kids!

A Canadian Beer Blog for Your Reading Pleasure

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

I stumbled upon this Canuck's blog randomly, but it's a good read for all things beer and related. Or if you're just looking for something a bit different to read, give a looksie...

A Good Beer Blog

Enjoy!

Home Recording Studio Resources

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

I've spent the last week or so putting together an article on setting up your own home studio for a well-known blog. This gave me a chance to search around the web a bit and do some research on modern home studio techniques. Here are some of the good blogs or resources I found:

Tweak's Guide to Home and Project Studios

Your Home Studio

About.com's Home Recording Page

Home Studio Tips

Home Studio Corner

Acoustic Treatment for Home Studios

Your Home Recording Studio

Check out 50+ Resources for Writers, Bloggers, and other Freelancers

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

My friend sent this to me a while back and only today did I check it out. It's a great resource for the freelance community. It's at Freelance Folder...

50+ Resources for Writers, Bloggers, and other Freelancers

Enjoy!

Vertigo Brewing Is Local and Awesome

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

So the guys over at Vertigo Brewing, the ones that brewed my favorite beer of this past weekend's Holiday Ale Fest like my write up on their beer and mentioned it on their site. Their Arctic Blast Porter is truly a super tasty brew. I took a look around it and found that not only are they less than a year old, but they've got their brews in many bars around town. Guess I'll have to get out there and try the rest of their offerings.

Check out their website for more info about this great new local brewer!

BREW REVIEW: Portland's Holiday Ale Fest

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

Portland’s 14^th Annual Holiday Ale Fest came to a close last night, and while I wasn’t there for more than two of the five days, I felt like I had experienced the full scope of the festival collective spirit, (pun indelibly intended). It was surprisingly my first time in Pioneer Square at all since I arrived in town around 6 months ago. Whenever I do happen to make it downtown, I usually stick to the Northern side of Burnside, an area where the taste isn’t so classy in comparison. Since my first festival here, I had been lamenting the fact that there were never any Winter beer festivals, leaving the dark leaning ales to wallow on the shelves in the cold season. However, a random commenter pointed me towards the Holiday Ale Fest, reminding me of why I so love this town.

Jenny and I piled into the Saabaru, and snagged a couple friends along the way in the spirit of the Holiday to take along on our sure to be crazy night. Upon arriving we were greeted with a line wrapping around the square, which we were privy for around 20 minutes before finally getting in the tents and grabbing a cup. With ten tickets a piece to plunder, we headed off to the first beers we saw, thirsty as humanely possible (kind of).

The first beer I saw that immediately peaked my interest was the Vertigo Brewing Arctic Blast ’09 Vanilla Porter. This robust offering was hands down my favorite of the festival, so odd that I found it first. It’s four different malts gave it a sweet and smooth flavor, with a delightful vanilla taste that stayed with you well after a sip. I’m a big fan of vanilla porters, and I think it may be my next home brew if I can figure out a good one.

The next beer I took refuge in was the Firestone Walker Brewing Velvet Merkin oatmeal stout. This was probably my second favorite, very, very smooth and oaty. It uses Fuggles hops and a bit of roasted barley. Jenny told me that Firestone Brewing was near by where she grew up, supposedly it’s the same company that does tires.

Next was a Chocolate Huckleberry Stout from Laughing Dog Brewing. This beer was kind of gross, honestly. I let a friend taste it and she did not approve at all. It was just a kind of sweet that I can’t hang with, I’m guessing it was the berry sweet mixed with the smokey malt that just didn’t please my palate at all.

Jenny snagged a couple beers worth trying in this time period, Hopworks’ Kronan the Barbarian Baltic porter. At 8.3%, this beer was ballsy and smokey, with a little hint of chocolate. Not bad for a cold evening. She also tried the Ninkasi Unconventionale. This Herbed imperial stout would be the bane of my of my friends over the weekend. At a crazy 10% alcohol, it meant business, and but it was pretty smooth for having such a high content.

Next I tried MacTarnahan’s Imperial Chocolate Stout, and at 7.4% I was starting to feel a bit of the other tasters as well. It was a smokey and strong taste, but there was a nice undertone of chocolate throughout.

Dogfish Head Brewing’s Chicory Stout was a robust beer. It smelled mostly of coffee, but the chicory flavoring gave it a bit more of a sweetness. It wasn’t my favorite, but I’d enjoy a bottle worth at least.

Later I tried Eel River’s Spiced Baltic Porter. It supposedly had a hint of vanilla along with cinnamon, but I mostly tasted the 8% alcohol. It wasn’t as smooth as I’d liked it to be, but I did like the fact that the brew was specially made just for this festival.

Laurelwood’s Polska Baltic Porter was even stronger, at 10.1%. Most of Laurelwood’s beer is smooth and refreshing, and this beer was surprisingly smooth for such a high-octane beer. While it was a belly warmer, there’s always a place for that type of beer in the winter.

That was the majority of the beer that I was able to procure with the amount of tickets available to me. Of the three festivals I’ve now been to here, it’s probably no surprise that this was my favorite. Not only is it the perfect time of year for dark beers and hearty strong ales, Christmas time has long been a favorite season of mine. It’s just sort of a comforting feeling, seeing the lights, it being so cold, and a cold beer just makes it so perfect. Plus I loved the huge tree sticking out the complex of heated tents. While it had the draw of the Oregon Brewer’s Festival, it had the stronger beers of the International fest. People were sloshed, and it was no surprise that would occur. Having just completed it’s 14^th year, I now find myself counting the days until December 2010 comes around.

Homebrew Round 1 - Bottled and Carbonating

-- A Taste from TheInkFlowsLikeWine.com

In between the two days I headed over to the Holiday Ale Fest, I took the afternoon to bottle my first home brew. The fermentation process had passed over the last two weeks, and I went as far as keeping the heat on in the house while we were in Hawaii to make sure the beer came out right. Upon tasting the beer while I bottled, I believe that it was worth it. Upon comparison from the first batch done with assistance, I believe after being carbonated, this batch will be a close second.

After spending a long hour washing and sterilizing all the bottling gear, and plenty of bottles, my friend Carlos and I sat trying to siphon the fermented beer into a bottling bucket to get the process going. Anyone who knows me knows that my lungs are not my strongest point, so sitting on the floor sucking a thin tube as hard as possible to get the flow going was tough. I was about to pass out from lack of air. After many mouthfuls of sediment and questionable liquid, I finally got the flow going and we were bottling. The bottling process went fine, I sort of ran out of bottles at the end, but only really lost a couple bottles worth.

Overall I'm pumped to see how they taste when carbonated, and I'm glad I took the time to brew with plenty of time to spare until my family arrives for the holidays. I'm keeping my eyes out for January's recipe, and the first home brew of 2010. I hope it will be a monthly event from here on out.