Ben Shooner

Perfect Irony

2008-02-04T10:33:00.000-08:00

As I woke a little groggy this morning, I almost had to convince myself that it wasn't just a dream. A cascade of images rushed through my head: The words 'Perfect Season', the glaring double-digit point spread that I've had to look at on the odds page for the last two weeks, Tom Brady's smug toying with the media by wearing an ankle brace...but then these images gave way to others. David Tyree catching a ball over his head, Plaxico Burress open as church on Sunday, Peyton Manning jumping for joy in his skybox as his little brother authored one of the greatest drives in Super Bowl history..and finally, Michael Strahan's gap-toothed grin as he hoisted the Lombardi Trophy.

Had the Patriots closed the deal on a perfect season last night-it would have been historic. Instead, the team who had been more or less cannonized as Super Bowl champs after the first few weeks of the season gets to enjoy qualified plattitudes such as 'Still had an amazing year' and 'Nothing to be ashamed of'. In beating the undefeated Patriots when it mattered most-the Giants reminded us why the NFL is so great. The NFL is not the king of American sports because of dynasties like the Cowboys or 49ers of old-or the Patriots of today. It is great because it is a league of endless possibilities and opportunities-a setting where any team truly can beat any other team. To achieve the ultimate goal does not require perfection. It only requires that you win when it counts. As of 6pm Sunday-the Pats were in position to do something that no team had ever accomplished. As it turned out, they were not able to pull of something that is accomplished every year-the winning of the Super Bowl. In fact, they didn't even finish the game in that Coach Bellicheck left the field while there was still one second remaining on the clock.

The amazing part of this story is that the Pats were the clear Super Bowl favorites all year long-whereas the Giants lost 6 games this year and entered the playoffs as a wild card team. The irony is that those facts are now totally irrelevant. New England will now be remembered for the lousy sportsmanship exhibited by their coach and players in the waning moments of the game-as well as a new batch of controversy stemming from possible spying on the St. Louis Rams before the 2000 Super Bowl. Such is life in the NFL-which according to one sage coach, really stands for 'Not For Long'. The Giants, on the other hand, proved that defense truly wins championships...that it pays to stick with a young QB and give him time to develop...and more than anything else: In the National Football League nothing is ever impossible.

Jesus 'N G-Love

2008-01-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

I'd previously never heard of Kevin Kinney-but apparently the guy is no stranger to this event. Needless to say-I was not quite ready for neo-Christian musings delivered in Guthrie-esque fashion..but this is what we got with Kevin Kinney, and the whole room was better for it. His lone song, "My Jesus", was basicly a reminder that the famous handy-man from Galilee has more in common with long haired hippies, than he does with Bible-thumping moralists. While I've always believed this to be true as well-I had never seen it articulated in a concert setting. It was rather uplifting really-even if it did throw us for a loop.

The Consumate Professional

2008-01-11T18:30:00.000-08:00

Playing with the Grateful Dead, achieving Top 40 success, and all points in between- Bruce Hornsby has always seemed to be the definition of a professional performer. Great music without a hint of pretension. I must admit that I really was hoping for a Dead tune, but it wasn't happening tonight. It was quite alright though. 'Long Valley Road' really through me for a loop as it was severely re-arranged. It really sounded nothing like the original, but the familiar lyrics came out of nowhere. The medley of 'Fortunate Son' to 'Comfortable Numb' was truly epic. Never really pegged Bruce as one to be able to capture the 'bigness' of that tune, but he sure did. When Jackson Browne came back on stage and tried to deny Bruce the fact that he wrote "End of the Innocence", Hornsby was a gentleman and took it in stride. As Bruce and the band eased into 'Cadillac's Rainbow' to close the set, I thought for sure that it was 'Franklin's Tower'-it totally sounded like the intro. Upon further review-it sounded much like the studio version of 'Cadillac's Rainbow'-so it wasn't a cruel tease...but it does suggest that Bruce may have done some borrowing when writing the song. Whatever the case-we were in no mood to quibble-just to get down, and the set closer wrapped up a very well executed set by the 'other' Chairman of the Boards.

Jackson Browne Can't Get Down

2007-12-21T14:56:00.000-08:00

It would have been nice-after Stockholm Syndrome-if the next act would have seen fit to keep the party rocking. Instead, we got a sobering dose of Jackson Browne-who in lieu of his act-earned himself the "Buzzkiller of the Year" award in my humble opinion. I really like the guy, I grew up listening to my parents' JB albums-but at the Xmas Jam we heard nary a classic tune.

Instead he did a series of somber anti-war songs. Look, I'm against this war just as much as the next guy, but when I come to the show-I want to see a show. Maybe it's the escapist in me, but at a celebration such as Xmas Jam, I'd rather not be reminded of the sad state of affairs in the world today. Upon further conversation, our group concluded that Jackson Brown seems like a guy who "Couldn't get laid if he had $100 bills falling out of his pockets." Perhaps this is true-and perhaps this accounts for his rather uptight attitude. I know that JB is a concerned American, but on this night, he seemed to just take things-including himself-much too seriously.

He tried to loosen things up a bit as he introduced a rather striking young lady (can't seem to recall her name) in tight jeans to the stage as a backup vocalist. This provided us with further eye-candy, but did little to improve the set's dour tone. In what was one of the keenest observations of the night-my compadre Spauldazzio said it best:

"Hot Ass Nonwithstanding-We'd Really Like to See Some Jams"

In all fairness though-Browne's version of Dylan's 'Desolation Row' was a real treat. Dylan's imagery cannot be beat (especially that song), and it is very well-suited to Browne's sonorous voice. Also, the set closer of "Patriot" was very good. That has long been one of my favorite latter-day JB tunes, and fit the tone of the set very well-even if that tone was not what we were looking for.

The Greatest Band Ever

2007-12-21T13:41:00.000-08:00

"Blowing One's Dome" is a phrase that's tossed around quite lot these days. But make no mistakes-even in their brief four song set, Stockholm Syndrome did just that. It had been quite a while since I'd been this close to the stage for any show-much less the musical onslaught that we witnessed last Saturday night. I've never been an ardent WSP fan, but the thing I've always liked most about them are those driving bass-laden grooves, with the guitar to back it up. With Schools on bass, and Jerry Joseph on guitar, these guys most definitely had that. It only took a minute to realize that we were now into the meat of the show. It's truly hard to identify what these guys sound like, but the best bands are the hardest to classify. Suffice it to say that they seemed to have elements of WSP, Phish, and Little Feat. Really what they brought though, was pure dome-crushing energy. Granted-this was the first high-octane sampling of the evening. You could ride the same roller coaster a dozen times in a day, and that 1st hill will never be as intense as the morning's first ride. Still-these guys tore it up. Honestly, one of our only complaints of the evening was that they made SS stop playing at all. We would have done well to see them on the stage for a few more hours. Their set closed with a triumphant rendition of Climax Blues Band's "Couldn't Get It Right." I had never heard this song before-nor did I know it to be a cover. Familiarity with the material was no requisite for appreciation though. In fact, it's sometimes nice to be totally ignorant of a band's repertior-it definitely lowers your 'dork index' and helps you stay in the moment. All kidding aside though-every act of the evening was very good, but Stockholm Syndrome truly brought the noise. I would seriously do yourself a favor and check these guys out.

Long Cool Woman

2007-12-21T07:25:00.000-08:00

Before this evening, I was not too familiar with Grace Potter and the Nocturnals . I'd heard nothing but good reviews, and I tend to enjoy bands from Vermont. Still-this was my first taste of them. I must say that I was impressed. Can't really compare them to anyone-but they have a bluesy-rootsy feel to them that was very nice. It is also very cool to see a band fronted by a gorgeous woman who can truly wail. There are few things sexier than a girl who can play multiple instruments and also work her vocal chords. Her white boots seem to have a high approval rating among the male age 15-65 demographic..but those boots would be useless without that set of world class gams. Their set really got things going in the musical sense-but it's nice to let the guys have some eye candy for a change. Bernie Worrell put in some great work on the keys throughout the evening, and surely deserved the photo op with Ms. Potter. Really though-there are more reasons to see this band besides Grace's wardrobe. These guys are the real deal.

Initial Rumblings

2007-12-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

We weren't really sure what to expect in terms of who would play when-or how Warren had planned to kick this thing off. It started pretty mellow with Warren, Hornsby-and a backing choir opening with 'Soulshine'.

This is arguably Warren's signature song, and was a fitting way to start the evening. In the bathroom there was some jubilation among fans that we got this tune as an opener-and not as the closer. It was pretty sweet to see it performed with a choir-although it would have been nice to see the choir bust out into some more rockin' gospel tunes. Still, the somewhat slow start was a reminder that we had quite a long night ahead of us, and that the most bombastic was yet to come.

7 Hours of Goodness

2007-12-19T19:06:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, 'Team Christmas Fun' was born-in no small part due to Warren Haynes's Christmas Jam in Asheville, NC. It was six of us total-two other couples along with me and my wife. We were the noobs. We had never been to Warren's event, but the event came with the highest recommendations. So we rented a minivan and headed South on Friday night. Suffice it to say-the ancillary elements of the weekend were fantastic.

On Saturday afternoon, we played the very cool Richmond Hill Disc Golf Course , and hoisted a few cold ones at one of the many local purveyors of very good beers. For our purposes though-Ill try to stick to the show itself. It was-after all-quite a good deal of music. It clocked in at about 7 hours all told-and believe me-it was well worth the price of admission.

Atlantic 10 on the Rise

2007-12-08T14:00:00.000-08:00

While not quite near the caliber as a few years ago-The Atlantic 10 is showing early signs of greatness this season. Earlier today, the Dayton Flyers went to Louisville and knocked off the #11 ranked Cardinals. While it is no small feet to take down Pitino's team at Freedom Hall-this hasn't been the first strong showing by an A-10 squad this year. Notable results include Umass over Syracuse in a high-scoring affair , as well as Charlotte defeating ACC stalwarts Wake Forest. Of course, the sweetest upset was when my very own Xavier Musketeers took down then #8 ranked Indiana. The massive thwomping that IU is now handing the UK Wildcats speaks to the strength of that victory.

It will be curious to see how things go once these teams start playing each other. In the meantime, it is great to see that teams from the power conferences have realized the value of scheduling games like these. For the favorite, it's a good win, or a not-so-bad, early season loss. For the dog it's a great chance to sneak into the top 25 with an upset. Another such matchup will be when Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Vols head north to Cincinnati to take on Xavier at the Cintas Center on December 22.

Apfelwein Revolution

2007-12-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

In my limited experience of home brewing beer, I've found it to be very enjoyable, often times rewarding, and sometimes frustrating. The argument is often made that it can be less expensive to brew your own than it is to buy commercial brews. While this may be the case for experienced brewers who have their process down to a science-For me it has been a break-even endeavor at best.

This was until I was introduced to German Apfelwein. While the stuff is more wine than beer-it tastes very similar to champagne, and is utterly easy and inexpensive to make. It is much drier than commercial ciders available in the states-but very tasty. The recipe I've used was concocted by 'Ed Wort' a home brewer who lived in Germany for some time and became fond of the beverage. The recipe is rather simple:

Ingredients:

5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (No preservatives or additives)

2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar) in one pound bags1

5 gram packet of Montrachet Wine YeastEquipment

5 Gallon Carboy (I use a Better Bottle)Carboy Cap or Stopper with AirlockFunnel

Procedure:

First sanitize the carboy, airlock, funnel, stopper or carboy cap.
Open one gallon bottle of apple juice and pour half of it into the carboy using the funnel.
Open one bag of Dextrose and carefully add it to the now half full bottle of apple juice.

Shake well.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3, then go to step 5.
Pour in the mixture of Apple Juice and Dextrose from both bottles into the carboy.
Add all but 1 quart of remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.
Open the packet of Montrachet Yeast and pour it into the neck of the funnel.
Use the remaining quart of juice to wash down any yeast that sticks.

You may need to be patient to let the foam die down from all shaking and pouring.
Put your stopper or carboy cap on with an airlock and fill the airlock with cheap vodka. No bacteria will live in vodka and if you get suckback, you just boosted the abv.There’s no need to worry about filling up a carboy so full when you use Montrachet wine yeast. There is no Kreuzen, just a thin layer of bubbles (see here).

I'm able to fit all but 4 oz. of my five gallons in the bottle. Ferment at room temperature.

It will become cloudy in a couple of days and remain so for a few weeks. In the 4th week, the yeast will begin to drop out and it will become clear. After at least 4 weeks, you can keg or bottle, but it is ok to leave it in the carboy for another month or so. Racking to a secondary is not necessary. It ferments out very dry (less than 0.999, see here)If you want to bottle and carbonate, ¾ cup of corn sugar will work fine. Use as you would carbonate a batch of beer.

Not too difficult, and you end up with 5 gallons of tastiness at about 8.5% ABV. It is the one homebrew that makes clear economic sense in terms of material cost, labor required, and final product. This is probably why over 6,000 gallons of this stuff has been made, and the number keeps on climbing. Join the revolution and start a batch for yourself!

St.X Fans 'Screwed' by Irate Neighbor

2007-12-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

While acts of vandalism to cars is nothing new to high school football-it's rare to see a 60-something year old woman carrying out this sort of destruction. In this case, a Springfield Township local had had enough of the old white and blue and took matters into her own hands. Some pretty harsh tactics. I am impressed that an older woman like that could inflict $40,000 worth of damage. Must have known what she was doing.

Happy Birthday

2007-12-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

Well that sure was easy. I suppose I have a blog now-we'll see how this goes. If nothing else, it'll be a place where I can ramble on and no one can tell me to shut up.