Mike Nichols' beer commercials

Varg went and found all the youtubes.

Can't even go back to killing our brains with beer

The Shutdown just got real.

But the shutdown poses problems for the far smaller craft brewers, who build their businesses by introducing new and unique-tasting seasonal products, said Jay D. Ducote, the Baton Rouge blogger who the state hired to write the tour guide for the Louisiana Brewery Trail that leads tourists on visits to the state’s beer-making operations.

“As long as the government is shut down, there won’t be a way for brewers to get those labels approved and moving forward, which means they can’t release any new beers to retail establishments. They’ll be able to keep rolling on their already-approved products, but new beers will be delayed or postponed,” Ducote wrote Wednesday in an email responding to questions.

Catching up

Sorry. I took the weekend off to fix a bicycle and watch a bunch of nature documentaries. Did some random other stuff.
 
Saturday night we went to City Putt for the first time.  As one would expect, it's pretty crowded there once the sun goes down and it's possible to endure the outdoors for longer than five minutes at a time.

 There are two courses. One is themed after the streets of New Orleans and the other is places in Louisiana.  Because New Orleans only cares about New Orleans, the line for the "streets" course was substantially longer.  Frankly, I didn't see what the big difference was anyway since the "theming" is mostly in the signage.



Oh and they also play a lot of Mardi Gras music for you while you putt.

Back on the plus side, though, they sell beer. But then, minus, you're technically not allowed to bring it on the course with you.  But, plus again, we discovered they aren't very strict about enforcing that.  Would be nice if they put some more trash cans out, though. That way you won't have to carry flattened beer cans around in your pockets while you play.

Let's see what else? Well I tried NOLA Brewing's new Mecha-Hopzilla.  It's probably not as bad as the name makes it sound... but I couldn't get past the name. It was pretty hoppy, just as the Mecha-Zilla on the can promised it would be.



Oh and here's something fun.  Mayor Landrieu spent the weekend at the Aspen Ideas Festival exchanging "ideas" with some of the world's most important people.  In 2011 Salon's Alex Pareene called for having Aspen "nuked."

The Atlantic discovered not long ago that putting on little parties for America’s ruling elite — carefully disguised as important intellectual gatherings to ensure the attendance of the most self-important members of the political and media classes — is a much better way to make money than “producing a magazine full of good journalism.” From that knowledge, the “Aspen Ideas Festival” was born. The festival, happening right now, is like South by Southwest for people who are willing to pay Thomas Friedman money for his thoughts.

Sadly, no such action was taken and thus Mitch Landrieu has had an opportunity to participate in the last two.  Here he is on stage with Goldman Sachs criminal Lloyd Blankfein,  Former Bush administration Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, and celebrutante media parasite Ariana Huffington.

The topic is "public-private partnerships" which, depending on your point of view, are either the new model of responsible governance and corporate citizenship or the new way political patronage and corporate welfare circumvent transparency and democracy in the 21st century.  This may spoil the video for you but no one on the panel represents the latter view.  If you want to watch it anyway, here it is.



This morning it was pointed out that Walter Isaacson lays out a real whopper of an unintentional punchline at about 35:30. So you might fast forward to that.

No doubt Serpas will want one

We all know how much he loves high-tech crime-fighting applications. Or anything else that allows him to sit on his ass while someone (or something) else shoots, tases, beats or spies on somebody.

The unique dangers of domestic drones, which I documented last week, exist completely independent of their weaponization potential, but weaponization nonetheless must be considered. Police officials are already speaking openly about their desire to weaponize their drones with “nonlethal weapons such as Tasers or a bean-bag gun.” Anyone who doubts that this is going to happen should just consider what the drone manufacturing industry itself is saying. They continuously emphasize to investors and others that a major source of business growth for their drone products will be domestic, non-military use.

Domestic drones, indefinite detention of US citizens without due process, a censored internet, and, of course, Bandit Blonde Ale. 2012 is going to be amazing.

Sorry, I've been momentarily distracted by bullshit

Nothing like following ridiculous Tweeter Tube rumors all morning to snap you out of your malaise. The sugar high never lasts, however, and once the thing has run its course without validation you're just kind of left there grasping for meaning much like you were before it all started. Oh well.

In the meantime try to think about something else. Here's what else has been going on while we've been chasing rainbows:

City Council redistricting is almost finished. Tomorrow they'll be making a decision between two competing maps... or just pulling several other possibilities out of a hat at the last minute.

As with any proposed ordinance, council members are not restricted to an up-or-down vote on either plan and could offer amendments from the floor. That process likely would create headaches, since each new change would have to maintain the rough balance of residents in each district while also complying with the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Perhaps most challenging will be satisfying the desires of district council members, whose competing interests in neighborhoods, public amenities and commercial corridors tend to drive the way the map gets carved up.

BP and the Feds are still disputing flow-rate estimates. This will continue to be important as the National Resource Damage Assessment process determines BP's future responsibility to repairing the gulf coast.

Oh shit the lockout is ending!

Oh wait, maybe not.

Ditto that on the Debt Ceiling negotiations

Finally, from the "They're only just now thinking of this?" dept:

LSU to brew and sell its own beer

I think I remember seeing something about SEC schools considering lifting the ban on beer sales in football stadiums. Is this a sign?

Update: Oh good heavens!

Because Varg is being a twat about this.



We have preserved the twitted rumor and placed it here basically for his benefit although we're nearly 100 percent certain it is worthless bullshit.







We hope the universal balance has been restored.

Monday

• We first noted the sinkhole on the corner of Carondelet and Third streets back in July. At the time, I jokingly told Menckles that it will make a fine parade trash and bead receptacle when it's still there come Carnival time. And so here we are less than a month away from parade season and the hole is still waiting a ready.
  
  
  
  It's even got a little starter trash going which will doubtlessly make it a more inviting refuse bin for passers by.
  
  
  
  Right now I'd say it's even money that somebody pees in it.



• On Saturday Night we attended the Pussyfooters' Blush Ball at the Howlin Wolf. The space there much smaller than the old Mardi Gras World location and this definitely makes the room feel more cramped. At one point I was standing about three feet away from Steve Zahn, and yet, somehow didn't jab a plastic fork in his neck. Must have been in a good mood.
  
  
  
  The good news, though, is that the crowd can spill out into the side bar and also the street. All in all it makes for better milling about and socializing than the old set up. At the same time, this also enables one of the worst hazards of events like this. It's gotten to where I can't go out to anything anymore without having to fight through four or five volleys of "Hey you're our librarian". It's only marginally an exaggeration to say that, next to the show Treme, the frequency of these assaults is slowly stifling what remains of my ability to enjoy New Orleans the way I used to.
  
  To begin with, I'm technically not a librarian. There was a time when I, my family, and my co-workers expected that I would eventually go ahead and get the degree but I'm not so sure that's in the cards anymore. As jobs go, this has been by far the most tolerable I've ever had. But after several starts and stops, I'm starting to see that I'm never really going to be able to suffer through the belittling tedium of grad school. Besides that the idea of belonging to a particular club or profession always seems so... I don't know... limiting, in a way that makes me too sad to contemplate. I don't mind doing my job. It's the idea of being my job that implies failed personhood, I think. Plus whenever someone accuses me of being a librarian, it's an implicit insult to the actual degreed librarians I work with or near and who take the title very seriously. This always makes me uncomfortable. It's not fair that people's perception of me should reflect badly on others.
  
  But what I really hate about being recognized at parties by Uptown Mommies is I know what they're doing. They're meticulously counting the "respectable" people and professions they encounter at such events. Sure they're there to wear silly costumes and drink and all, but they're going to make damn sure they're doing these things with the right sort of crowd. From time to time you'll hear such persons remarking to one another about how it was their family's doctor or their neighbor's boss they saw drunk off his ass and dressed as a penis and that's what makes it okay.
  
  Myself, I'm not very big on costumes and not much in need of the pretense of an organized pseudo sorority party to facilitate or validate my idle drinking. But there was a time when I didn't mind showing up at these things anonymously if only to bear further witness to their odiousness. But now, as "our librarian" I'm feeling a little too much like a prop. In a few more months the weekly festivals will start popping up all over town. I get to fewer and fewer of these each year for pretty much the same reason.



• This weekend, there were two second line parades in the neighborhood. I was feeling pretty cranky already (see above) so I didn't see either one of them. I did hear what sounded like six gunshots go off a few short blocks away from the parade, however, and went outside to investigate. According to neighbors and passers by, there was indeed a shooting on Baronne Street. The police came and blocked off the corner of Baronne and Fourth for a while.
  
  
  
  I couldn't find anything about this in the news anywhere. Anyone else see or hear it?
  
  On Sunday, the mayhem continued as a man crashed his motorcycle just outside the apartment on a slick Carondelet Street. He walked... limped away okay but the bike didn't look like it took things so well. At least nobody fell in the sinkhole.



• Finally, this morning's episode of Beer in the Bookdrop was brought to us by Abita Strawberry Harvest Lager. Much to everyone's chagrin, I'm sure, I didn't get a photo. Instead, enjoy this photo of several cases of Abita Strawberry I spotted recently at Breaux Mart.
  
  
  
  By the way, isn't January a bit early for "Stawberry Harvest" lager? I thought strawberries were harvested during the springtime.

Blessings abound

In one week the Super Bowl Champion New Orleans Saints (From now on SBCNOS or occasionally HFS) will take the field for the first time in for real football. I hope they sit Morstead out of tonight's fake game, you know, just in case.

And just this morning I learned that scientists have finally isolated the fried beer gene.

Excuse me while I grin for the rest of the day.

Abita Satsuma

Pro: Yup, they managed to make my beer taste a little bit like satsumas.

Con: I'm not so sure that's a good thing.

Pro: It's not a bad summer idea, theoretically.. like a Hoegaarden with a slice of orange, or an Abita Wheat with lemon.

Con: I think I'd rather have either of those two than this.

Okay NOW I believe it's March

Spotted moments ago at your local grocer

On today's episode of beer something unusual in the bookdrop

Boss came in an hour early today and took care of this herself so I, unfortunately, don't have any pictures. What she found in the bookdrop this morning was one large empty Crown Royal box plus one Crown Royal bottle. The bottle contained a suspicious liquid which I am told was clearly not Crown Royal.

The kicker is, it was just yesterday morning that I repaired the sign which reads, "Please do not throw trash in the bookdrop"

Previous episodes of "Beer in the Bookdrop" here, here, here, and here.

On today's episode of Beer in the Bookdrop

Woodchuck Cider. Red label Amber. Mmmmmm.



Previously on "Beer in the Bookdrop"

Beer in the bookdrop

This morning we were treated to cool Rocky Mountain refreshment with our book return.



Below is the obligatory accompanying photo of the sign begging people not to bestow such gifts upon us.



This has been yet another exciting episode of Beer in the Bookdrop.