Taco – Page 30

“Top 10” – Albums

July 21, 2015 by Taco

Preamble:

One thing I’ve been asked about this blog is “Why don’t you cover more non-biographical stuff?” Well, I’d argue that I do, but it tends to be linked in some capacity to something ongoing in my life and therefore appears to be autobiographical when it actually isn’t. For instance, the entirety of my beer posts could be seen as topical, rather than about me, while at the same time beer is very much central to a lot of my activities.

Anyways, the point is, I don’t have too many posts that stand apart from my life narration, and while I don’t really intend to change that (I’ve always considered this blog a diary of sorts, see The Rules), I figure I might throw in a post from time to time that breaks this mold a little bit.

A few of things I’ve considered doing are video game reviews, movie reviews, or making a foray into the dreaded land of “Listicles.” I don’t care enough to do food reviews outside of brief descriptions of places I eat at. While I do enjoy eclectic food, I’m not a food blogger. Since none of these things have cropped up yet (at least not as a bonafide solo post), it’s obvious that it’s not something I’ve prioritized. However, I’ve recently found myself with the ever-so-slight itch to add in a different kind of post aside from my ongoing “Denver Check-in” series. More honestly, when running at 6:30am I get bored and think about things, and thus the concept for this post was born.

“Top 10” Albums

So a quick search of the internet will reveal thousands upon thousands of “Best of” music lists. For every typical “Best of” list you’ll find a wide variety of sub-lists, genre-specific lists, or “Worst of” lists. It goes on and on.

This is my take on the music list with 10 items. Except I’m not calling this a “Best of” list, or even “Taco’s Definitive Top 10 Albums” list. Because I think it’s kind of impossible to make such a list, in fact I’ve never understood how you can “rank” music in a static fashion. Sure, some people may have a hands down “favorite,” yet even that tends to change over time, let alone the more nuanced details between the other 20+ albums you listened to far more than you could ever recount. So, instead of making a ranked list, I’ve selected 10 albums that I think are especially good. None of them are necessarily my “favorite” and none supersede the others (nor does an album’s absence from this list necessarily imply anything). Each of these albums was very good at specific point in my life. Some of them haven’t retained the same level of influence, others have held steady and a few only increase with time. It doesn’t diminish the value of any of them, because they mattered in the moment, and regardless of when they were important to me, they all share the trait of being albums I can still listen to.

I’ll state that this is not a list of artists, nor is this a list of singles. This is a list of albums, as in, the entire album is being considered. As such, as a general rule, I’ve eliminated duplicate artists from contention. I’ll likely do an Artist and Single list at some point.

Also, this list isn’t here to convince you to listen to any of these albums, though I can assure you that you’ve heard some of them (knowingly or not, hated them or loved them), and that I’ll probably tell you to listen to them, but again, that isn’t the point of the list. I only seek to share some music that I greatly enjoy, or at the very least, greatly enjoyed at some moment in time.

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My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade

Track Listing
1. “The End.” – 1:52
2. “Dead!” – 3:15
3. “This Is How I Disappear” – 3:59
4. “The Sharpest Lives” – 3:20
5. “Welcome to the Black Parade” – 5:11
6. “I Don’t Love You” – 3:58
7. “House of Wolves” – 3:04
8. “Cancer” – 2:22
9. “Mama” – 4:39
10. “Sleep” – 4:43
11. “Teenagers” – 2:41
12. “Disenchanted” – 4:55
13. “Famous Last Words” – 4:59
14. “Blood” – 2:53

Why it’s Good:

While I wouldn’t count My Chemical Romance as being among my favorite artists, The Black Parade is a powerhouse of an album that, in my opinion, is the best rock opera to come out in the “modern” era of rock. The Black Parade is hands down, the pinnacle of MCR for me; it trumps their earlier works as well as everything that followed until their breakup in 2013. While they have an array of strong singles such as “Helena,” “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” and “Sing,” none of their other albums in their entirety even come close to matching the strength of The Black Parade.

As mentioned, The Black Parade is a rock opera. If you don’t know what a rock opera is, you should, because I can almost guarantee you’ve heard one. Essentially, a rock opera is an album that tells a story through thematic elements and with each song forming a “chain” that weaves a tale from beginning to end. To put it simply, a rock opera is a story, whereas a standard album is a series of disconnected songs. Famous examples of rock operas include Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Queensryche’s Operation: Mindcrime, and The Who’s Quadrophenia (but the list is far more extensive than this).

So, being a rock opera, The Black Parade tells a story, and it’s a story we can all relate to: death. The entire album is the story of a man who is dying, has died, and goes on to experience the afterlife (represented by The Black Parade itself). As such, there are some extraordinary emotions tucked both explicitly and implicitly through the album’s lyrics. The range of complexity is quite impressive, with songs such as “Dead!” being fairly self-explanatory, while “Teenagers” initially seems to have nothing to do with the story (but trust me, it does, you just need to think about it for a moment). Then, there are tracks such as “Cancer” and “I Don’t Love You” which highlight the perspective of the dying, rather than the living, which is something so many songs focusing on death seem to ignore. Sure, those left behind have a story to tell, but what of the dead? That is the crux of The Black Parade – to look into the mouth of death itself, and simultaneously reflect on one’s life while nervously looking forward into the unknown.

Of all the songs on the album, for me, the titular “The Black Parade” is the strongest link in the chain. In crafting this album, MCR used the (physical) Black Parade as a motif for death, but they did it in a very creative way that ultimately creates more questions than it provides answers. For instance, portions of the song (and album at large) seem to suggest that our protagonist has gone to Hell, and that the Black Parade is reserved for the damned. But it’s not as simple as that, we are all damned, damned to die. The Black Parade is neither good nor evil, neither Heaven nor Hell, and the bandleader alternates between God and Devil, saint and sinner.

In the end, the grand message of The Black Parade is that what exactly death is varies for us all, but regardless of our particular “death,” The Black Parade always marches onward. The best you can do is join the march having lived your life as best as you could have, which our protagonist fails to realize until he is already trudging towards damnation. What awaits you on the other side, at the end of the march, depends entirely on your own choices, but until then, the Black Parade awaits you.

Even if you can’t stand My Chemical Romance, The Black Parade is worth the listen for the masterfully written lyrics and profound themes of life, faith, living, loss, and death. And if you can’t muster up the desire to listen to the whole album, at the very least listen to “The Black Parade.” It’s worth it.

Disturbed – Ten Thousand Fists

Track Listing
1. “Ten Thousand Fists” – 3:32.
2. “Just Stop” – 3:44
3. “Guarded” – 3:20
4. “Deify” – 4:17
5. “Stricken” – 4:05
6. “I’m Alive” – 4:42
7. “Sons of Plunder” – 3:48
8. “Overburdened” – 5:57
9. “Decadence” – 3:25
10. “Forgiven” – 4:12
11. “Land of Confusion” (Genesis Cover) – 4:48
12. “Sacred Lie” – 3:06
13. “Pain Redefined” – 4:07
14. “Avarice” – 2:57

Why it’s Good:

Don’t let the name fool you, Disturbed is likely the most nuanced “nu-metal” band in existence. Well, formerly in existence, like all good bands they broke up (In late 2011). However, they have since announced their return in August of this year (2015), much to my own joy. But that is more about the artist and less about the album, Ten Thousand Fists. I am a true-to-life “Disturbed One” (fan) and enjoy all their work, but Ten Thousand Fists finds its way onto this list in place of their other albums largely because of its theme and when it came into my life. Ten Thousand Fists was released in 2005, though I wouldn’t discover it until 2006. This was not the best of times for me, for a variety of reasons that I won’t discuss here, but the important bit of information is that a lot of the themes of Ten Thousand Fists aligned with some of the problems I was dealing with at the time. In fact, Ten Thousand Fists was my first Disturbed album, despite it being their third album. So, you can say Ten Thousand Fists was the nexus from which my Disturbed fandom grew.

At its core, Ten Thousand Fists is an album of rebellion. Yeah, I know, not exactly wining points for originality, but the delivery is spot-on. The titular track “Ten Thousand Fists” sets the stage: We are many, we are mad, we are disturbed. From there you get into more the more atypical elements of a rebellion album, highlighting emotions aside from anger (“Ten Thousand Fists” & “Sons of Plunder”) such as loneliness (“Guarded”), hopelessness (“Overburdened”), hope (“I’m Alive”), to even a sense of spiritualism (“Sacred Lie”). The point being, while it might facially appear to be just another “angst-ridden metal” album, Ten Thousand Fists is a perfect example of not judging a book (er.. album) by its cover.

One hint that the album is more than it appears, is the inclusion of a cover of Genesis’ “Land of Confusion.” And if you are rolling your eyes at the thought, I have to say, Disturbed’s cover of this song undoubtedly goes down as one of the best covers I’ve ever heard and is one of those rare examples where the cover far surpasses the original song.

While all the songs on Ten Thousand Fists are independent, the running theme of rebellion is actually less of the point than you might imagine. The undercurrent to the album is that anger and hate are not the answer (this far in contrast to most rebellion albums and metal in general), and that only at a societal level can we make the necessary changes. Ten Thousand Fists is a perfect example of the Burly Biker Dude, covered in lude and violent tattoos, who is actually a pacifist and loves to say “You Collect More Flies with Honey than Vinegar.” Like any good album, the message of Ten Thousand Fists is not what it initially appears to be, don’t let the metal-head drones convince you otherwise.

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction

Track Listing
1.”Welcome to the Jungle” – 4:31
2. “It’s So Easy” – 3:21
3. “Nightrain” – 4:26
4. “Out ta Get Me” – 4:20
5. “Mr. Brownstone” – 3:46
6. “Paradise City” – 6:46
7. “My Michelle” – 3:39
8. “Think About You” – 3:50
9. “Sweet Child o’ Mine” – 5:55
10. “You’re Crazy” – 3:25
11. “Anything Goes” – 3:25
12. “Rocket Queen” – 6:13

Why it’s Good:

So I would be hard-pressed to make any album list that didn’t have a spot for Appetite for Destruction. In fact, before I even began really conceptualizing this list, Appetite for Destruction was in by default. While Guns N’ Roses is, in my opinion, the best hard rock band of their era, Appetite for Destruction’s placement has less to do with Guns N’ Roses, or even the individual tracks on this album, but rather with its placement within my life.

Appetite for Destruction, somewhat comically, based on title alone, is the album I associate with the combination of being a piddles and being with Meem. If I was corrupted by drinking Budweiser at the ripe young age of 3 or 4, then Appetite for Destruction sealed the deal. But as I turned out (decently) alright, I don’t think either of those things caused any noticeable real damage.

It’s actually kind of interesting, the vast majority of the themes and elements of Appetite for Destruction were completely lost on me until I was much older. For instance, while I can vividly remember listening to, and enjoying songs such as “Mr. Brownstone,” I obviously had no idea what the song was about (Hint: Mr. Brownstone isn’t a person, but good luck convincing piddles me of that). Then, other songs, such as “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and “Paradise City” are so deeply ingrained into my psyche that I’ll arguably forget my own name before I forget the lyrics to them.

While Axl and Slash may hate each other, and the modern iteration of Guns N’ Roses may be a hollow shell, the memories of Appetite for Destruction are as pivotal a part of my childhood as Barney, Teletubbies, Bible School, or Sesame Street might be for many others. And, in some ways, that says more about me than most other things ever could, but it’s something I wouldn’t change for the world. So I’ll keep on listening to Appetite for Destruction, both for past memories, and for sheer level of musical skill and awesome that Guns N’ Roses was able to embody in the album, and I’d recommend you do the same. Just watch out for the Nightrain.

Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard – Gladiator (Soundtrack)

Track Listing
1. “Progeny” – 2:14
2. “The Wheat” – 1:03
3. “The Battle” – 10:24
4. “Earth” – 3:01
5. “Sorrow” – 1:26
6. “To Zucchabar” – 3:16
7. “Patricide”– 4:08
8. “The Emperor Is Dead” – 1:21
9. “The Might of Rome” – 5:18
10. “Strength and Honor” – 2:09
11. “Reunion” – 1:14
12. “Slaves to Rome” – 1:00
13. “Barbarian Horde” – 10:33
14. “Am I Not Merciful?” – 6:33
15. “Elysium” – 2:41
16. “Honor Him” – 1:19
17. “Now We Are Free” – 4:14

Why it’s Good:

Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s 2000 masterpiece (your opinion is utterly invalid), holds two special places in my heart. First, it’s one of the best movies ever made. Second, it’s (lesser known) soundtrack was both amazing and my introduction to modern orchestral music [Though the original honor for such music in general goes to none other than Mozart, thanks Meem. And Mozart’s exclusion from this list is based on little more than the fact that I consider my appreciation of Hans Zimmer’s music to be a spiritual successor to my behbeh Mozart years].

In order to truly appreciate this soundtrack, I think you need to experience the music in the context of the film itself. I’d go so far to say that Scott would have fallen flat without Zimmer, and that likewise, Zimmer would have failed to evoke the power that he did absent Scott’s film. If you’ve never seen Gladiator, then you’ve legitimately failed at modern cinema (which may or may not bother you in the least). That said, there is no substitution for Gladiator. In other words, don’t go watch Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, it freaking sucks compared to the glory that is Gladiator. Go watch Gladiator, and pay attention to how Zimmer’s score is utilized, it’s quite masterful.

The album itself weaves in and out of Maximus’ story. With songs such as “The Wheat,” “Barbarian Horde,” and “Elysium” being pretty much verbatim ties into their respective portions of the film. Other tracks, such as “The Might of Rome” and “Earth,” while still having scenes, are used more thematically. While I am particularly fond of “The Battle” and “Barbarian Horde” (which are the tracks that bilaterally spawned the iconic, “Gladiator Theme” most people associate with the movie), I’d have to say that “Now We Are Free” is probably the best the album has to offer. Aside from uniquely having vocals, the composition stands alone. And “Now We Are Free” truly hinges on having seen the film. While it is a somber and gorgeous song by itself, having seen the end of Gladiator makes the track all the more powerful.

Overall, despite having went on to listen to a vast number of orchestral tracks, ranging from more of Zimmer’s work, to Two Steps from Hell, to Immediate Music, to X-Ray Dog, I’ve never found an album quite as powerful as Gladiator. It is the perfect blend of action, harmony, melancholy, hope, despair, and ultimately redemption. As such, it can offer music for pretty much any mood and is an outstanding introduction to modern orchestral music.

Green Day – Warning

Track Listing
1. “Warning” – 3:42
2. “Blood, Sex and Booze” – 3:33
3. “Church on Sunday” – 3:18
4. “Fashion Victim” – 2:48
5. “Castaway” – 3:52
6. “Misery” – 5:05
7. “Deadbeat Holiday” – 3:35
8. “Hold On” – 2:56
9. “Jackass” – 2:43
10. “Waiting – “3:13
11. “Minority” – 2:49
12. “Macy’s Day Parade” – 3:34

Why it’s Good:

Ok, if you rolled your eyes at the mention of Green Day, then I can’t say I blame you. The vast majority of people seem to have discovered Green Day’s existence with their “American Idiot” album, which is a whiny-bitch fest in all the wrong ways. In fact, I haven’t listened to any of their albums post “American Idiot” precisely because I just stopped caring. Now, that said, I think that Green Day was an amazing band up until “American Idiot.” In fact, despite their “discovery” in 2004 with “American Idiot” Green Day’s largest successes came in their earlier days, with albums such as “Dookie” (RIAA Diamond) and its hit “Basket Case.” However, their full transition from a true 80s/90s punk band to a modern emo-punk band started with “Warning.” Now, this might seem odd for me to list “Warning,” after having complained about “American Idiot” onwards. The thing is, for me, “Warning” represents the best blend of styles that Green Day has offered.

While their earlier works such as those found on “39/Smooth” and “Kerplunk” were rough and a bit raw, and the newer “American Idiot” was just plastic, “Warning” pulled from both where the band had been, and where they were going, in order to offer up a solid music experience. While the band definitely highlighted their punk-rebellion roots with tracks such as “Minority” there was a more inquisitive and intellectual side of the album, with tracks such as “Macy’s Day Parade” requiring a bit more thought than usual for punk music. Additionally, the album was a bit darker in tone with “Misery” weaving a fairly dark tale of murder and mayhem, though in a more punk-esque manner than the subsequent emo-laden tracks of “American Idiot.” Still, even with these more serious themes, it was a punk album at its core, as showcased by “Deadbeat Holiday” and the titular “Warning,” and there is even a bit of more light-hearted fun to be had in the track “Castaway.” While I am far from a punk purist, and those who are generally consider “Warning” to be Green Day’s downfall, this is an incredibly fun album that rides the line between garage-band and superstar. In my opinion, for what it’s worth, Green Day is best listened to starting with “Warning” and working your way backwards to at least “Kerplunk.” “American Idiot” onwards can be ignored without much issue.

Eifel 65 – Europop

Track Listing
1. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” (Radio Edit) – 3:30
2. “Too Much of Heaven” – 5:17
3. “Dub in Life” – 3:57
4. “Living in a Bubble” – 5:03
5. “Move Your Body” – 4:28
6. “My Console” – 4:13
7. “Your Clown” – 4:09
8. “Another Race” – 4:34
9. “The Edge” – 4:20
10. “Now Is Forever” – 5:44
11. “Silicon World” – 4:31
12. “Europop” – 5:28
13. “Hyperlink (Deep Down)” – 4:57
14. “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” (extended mix) – 4:46

Why it’s Good:

Ok, so this is one where if you are alive circa 1998/1999 then I am almost willing to guarantee you heard this band playing somewhere. You probably have no idea who they are, or what the song was, but I am fairly certain you heard it. The song was of course “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” which garnered so much airtime by the end of it that even the people who initially loved the track wanted to puke when they heard its iconic opening. Yes, “Blue (Da Be Dee)” was a song that people loved, hated, or loved to hate, but everyone recognized it. Now, most people look back at it in a rather comical fashion, wondering why in the hell it was so popular when it’s really not that great of a song. But it came, it saw, and it conquered.

However, “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” was only one track on Europop, and Italian group Eifel 65 offered up far better tunes on their debut album (which was Europop) than “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” though sadly pretty much no one ever heard them. In fact, most people didn’t even know what Europop was, as at the time the primary way of consuming “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” was either via the radio or via a dance/party/etc. compilation album. Actually, looking back, all of my peers owned “Blue (Da Ba Dee),” but I was the only I know who actually owned Europop, as opposed to a dance compilation including “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” and various other hits (or not hits) of the time. I remember going to purchase “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” and being very concerned that Europop wasn’t the right album, or for that matter, that Eifel 65 wasn’t that right band. It was funny too, because the dance compilations were sold out EVERYWHERE, but there Europop set, all by its self, still stocked. Well, I was obviously correct, and it turns out Europop was stronger (for me) than the specter of “Blue (Da Ba Dee).”

Europop is special because it was really my first foray into the techno/dance world, and it’s had a lasting impact, even if Eifel 65 has faded into obscurity. Particularly, “My Console,” “Your Clown,” and “Silicon World” highlight an especially good blend of techno, electronica, and dance music. “My Console” gets bonus points for being about video games, though the lyrics haven’t stood the test of time very well. Not to be labeled solely as a mindless dance mix, tracks such as “Too Much of Heaven” and “Living in a Bubble” are actually a bit more sophisticated than they might originally appear. Of course, tracks such as “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” and “The Edge” still offer up solid dance tunes, and if you want a blend of the more dance-oriented and vocal-driven, “Another Race” and “Hyperlink (Deep Down)” bridge that gap nicely. Overall, Europop isn’t an especially unique album, but it’s strong in a lot of ways. Sadly, Eifel 65 will likely always be remembered for “Blue (Da Ba Dee)” alone, and as such, most of the better tracks to be found on Europop will be largely lost to history. And although the album is now quite “dated” for the techno world, I still enjoy listening to it, even if it’s for equal parts nostalgia and musical enjoyment.

Loreena McKennitt – The Book of Secrets

Track Listing
1.”Prologue” – 4:22
2. “The Mummers’ Dance” – 6:07
3. “Skellig” – 6:07
4. “Marco Polo” – 5:15
5. “The Highwayman” – 10:19
6. “La Serenissima” – 5:09
7. “Night Ride across the Caucasus” – 8:30
8. “Dante’s Prayer” – 7:11

Why it’s Good:

My introduction to “The Book of Secrets” actually came through Meem, who I think was introduced to it by someone else, but I might have that chain of introductions broken. To be honest, outside of “The Book of Secrets” I haven’t explored a whole lot of Loreena McKennitt’s music, not because I dislike her (obviously) but because I’ve always been satisfied with this particular album. Loreena McKennitt performs what is known as “world music” with Celtic and Middle Eastern themes. I really don’t know what that means, though I personally consider this a Celtic album, broadly construed. Anyways, of all the albums on this list, “The Book of Secrets” is undoubtedly my “feels” album, in that I generally listen to it when I’m emotional. Not necessarily sad (though sadness and this album tend to crop up together a lot), but rather any real range of emotions/feeling, from being tired, to uncertain, etc. In other words, if I were to have a “Sit in a dark room and listen to music while drinking album” this would be it. It really is exceptionally good at invoking emotions.

What is great about the album is that it’s not entirely dreary. Sure, you want your “sad” music to be “sad,” but an entire album of downer tunes is well, just depressing. I also like that a lot of the songs tell stories, and while “The Highwayman” is the strongest example of this, other tracks such as “The Mummer’s Dance” also follow this trend. But not all of them are necessarily story driven, “Skellig” and “La Serenissima” are more about feeling the music itself rather than conveying any particular narrative. Then there are blends of both of these styles, such as the track “Dante’s Prayer,” which in my opinion is the strongest of the album and has brought an end to a long day on more than one occasion for yours truly.

“The Book of Secrets” also served to introduce me to Celtic music at large, and while I did go on to obtain a few other Celtic albums, none have really stuck with me in the way that “The Book of Secrets” has. In fact, for me at least, “The Book of Secrets” represents the pinnacle of this genre of music, even if I don’t fully understand just how to define what the genre itself is.

Charley Pride – The Best of Charley Pride [1969]

Track Listing
1. Just Between You and Me – 2:13
2. Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger – 2:16
3. Kaw-Liga – 3:00
4. The Snakes Crawl At Night – 2:46
5. All I Have To Offer You (Is Me) – 3:00
6. The Easy Part’s Over – 2:20
7. The Day the World Stood Still – 2:30
8. I Know One – 2:23
9. Gone, On The Other Hand – 2:29
10. Before I Met You – 2:26
11. Too Hard to Say I’m Sorry – 2:32
12. Let The Chips Fall – 2:40

Why it’s Good:

If “Appetite for Destruction” was the quintessential “Meem” album, then Charley Pride’s “The Best of Charley Pride” [1969] is the definitive “Dad” album, and if nothing else should showcase the variety of music that I was brought up on, then the inclusion of both these albums on this list should do it. I won’t beat around the bus, Charley Pride writ large, and more specifically this particular album, represent the best of country music. I could go on a whole tirade about modern country music being little more than southern rock, or country pop. But that isn’t the point of this list. What I will say, is that I’d challenge anyone to give me a better representation of true country music than Charley Pride. Yes, I will fully admit that like “Appetite for Destruction,” there is a heavy deluge of rose-colored glasses going on here (thanks John Conlee), but even removing the memories of listening to this album countless times while riding around with my Dad, this is still a perfect compilation.

Interestingly enough, as a piddles I pretty much didn’t understand any of the songs. For instance, I have no clue how many years it took me to understand that “Kaw-Liga” was a wooden Indian, despite Pride stating that fact verbatim in the lyrics. Further, I literally thought he was talking about potato chips in “Let The Chips Fall,” which is of course referring to poker chips, uncertainty, and infidelity (though that particular issue is unresolved in the song, much to its merit). In fact, likely one of my favorite songs of all time, “The Snakes Crawl At Night” also deals with adultery and the subsequent murder of the wife and her lover. Pretty dark stuff, and I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about at the time (some consider “The Snakes Crawl At Night” a follow-up, narratively, to “Let The Chips Fall,” I believe this is probably the case, but the ambiguity makes the tracks even better).

Of course, in some ways, that growing experience only makes the album stronger. Because as I grew, so too did my understanding of the album. This doesn’t diminish how much I enjoyed the album when I was little, as even if I didn’t get the meaning behind “I Know One,” what it means is that in some ways I grew up with Charley Pride, and Charley Pride grew up with me. This is probably the only country album that I can claim to know every single word to, and while Pride has gone on to release other albums, other compilations, other “Greatest Hits,” I’ve never found one with as strong of a line-up, ordered with the same strength, as the 1969 “The Best of Charley Pride.” If you don’t like this album, then you don’t like real country music.

Fleetwood Mac – The Dance

Track Listing
1. “The Chain” – 5:11
2. “Dreams” – 4:39
3. “Everywhere” – 3:28
4. “Rhiannon” – 6:48
5. “I’m So Afraid” – 7:45
6. “Temporary One” – 4:00
7. “Bleed to Love Her” – 3:27
8. “Big Love” – 3:06
9. “Landslide” – 4:28
10. “Say You Love Me” – 5:00
11. “My Little Demon” – 3:33
12. “Silver Springs” – 5:41
13. “You Make Loving Fun” – 3:50
14. “Sweet Girl” – 3:19
15. “Go Your Own Way” – 5:00
16. “Tusk” – 4:22
17. “Don’t Stop” – 5:31

Why it’s Good:

While “Guns N’ Roses” remains the first group I think of when I think of my younger years and Meem, Fleetwood Mac slides in a very close second. This is especially bolstered by Meem and I going to see them during their reunion tour, and our particular tour date was also Mick Fleetwood’s birthday. However, of all their works, newer and older, none synchronized with me as well as the live compilation album “The Dance.” I’m not entirely sure why, but something about these particular songs always felt like the best of Fleetwood Mac to me. For starters, my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, “My Little Demon” is found here. Besides highlighting the musical talent of Lindsey Buckingham just as well, if not better, than any other Fleetwood Mac song, “My Little Demon” is probably the first of their tracks I really remember making my “own.” Sure, all the tracks are good, but there really is something special about personally identifying with a song from a group, when you were introduced to that group by someone else (in fairness Fleetwood Mac was both a Meem and Dad group, though Meem tended to play “The Dance” more and my Dad their titular [and first] album “Fleetwood Mac” more).

“The Dance” is also unique in that it is probably one of the most technically sophisticated live albums I have ever heard. While many albums that are live feel a bit too rough for my enjoyment, it’s entirely possible to listen to all of “The Dance” without getting that distorted sound or weak vocals. I don’t know if it was simply good production values, or the strength of the group themselves, but “The Dance” is a shining example of how well done a live album can be. Of course, there is no better representation of this than “Tusk,” when the USC Trojan Marching Band joins Fleetwood Mac in their performance, taking the album from really good, to “one of the greatest of all time” good. While “Tusk” marks their powerful intro, “Don’t Stop” could hands down carry this album, but thankfully it doesn’t need to given the strength of the individual tracks ranging from “Rhiannon” (one of my favorite Stevie Nicks pieces) to “Landslide,” to “Silver Springs,” and of course “My Little Demon.”

Really, this album is just jam-packed with music that both makes you think and makes you want to move, and really the combination of those two things is an unfortunate rarity. Coupled with the (properly done) live elements of the album, in my opinion, there is no better Fleetwood Mac than “The Dance.”

Various Artists – A Very Special Christmas [1987]

Track Listing
1. “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” The Pointer Sisters – 3:22
2. “Winter Wonderland” Eurythmics – 3:36
3. “Do You Hear What I Hear?” Whitney Houston – 3:33
4. “Merry Christmas Baby” Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – 4:53
5. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” The Pretenders – 4:42
6. “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” John Cougar Mellencamp – 2:39
7. “Gabriel’s Message” Sting – 2:14
8. “Christmas in Hollis” Run-D.M.C. – 3:00
9. “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” U2 – 2:21
10. “Santa Baby” Madonna – 2:35
11. “The Little Drummer Boy” Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band – 3:32
12. “Run Rudolph Run” Bryan Adams – 2:43
13. “I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas” Bon Jovi – 3:54
14. “The Coventry Carol” Alison Moyet – 3:25
15. “Silent Night” Stevie Nicks – 4:37

Why it’s Good:

So here is yet another album whose “discovery” I owe to Meem, though this one I have taken and made my own. I’ll just come out and say it, this is one of those rare “best” exceptions in which I can definitively say that, for me, this is the best Christmas album that has ever been made and that ever will be made. Yep.

“A Very Special Christmas” is an ongoing series of Christmas albums with recordings by various artists from various genres, with the proceeds going to the Special Olympics (they have raised over 100 million dollars to date). While there have been 11 follow-ups, each coming out every few years since 1987 (the most recent being 2013), the original is the best. Have I listened to any of the other ones? Nope. But the original is still the best. Never before and never since has such a well put together string of artists been gathered together to sing Christmas music. While each of these songs is special in its own way, those of particular enjoyment to me are “Gabriel’s Message,” “Christmas in Hollis,” “The Little Drummer Boy,” and “Silent Night.” Of course there is no song on the album I dislike, but those are definitely the high-points for me, though “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” has a special place in my heart, because when you hear the first few seconds of that track, the first of the album, then you know that Christmas time has indeed arrived.

Since leaving Meem’s nest, I’ve largely appropriated this album for SB, Tristen, Valentino, Rig, Clifford, Little Friend, Bonsai Buddy Jr., the Three Amigos, and all the other family members. This was largely facilitated by Meem buying me the album one year, for Christmas no less. It is now one of the extremely few physical CDs I own, having sold 95% of my collection prior to moving to Boston. It is not Christmas until I’ve listened to this album, and since I am a rather adamant Scrooge in that Christmas cannot begin until the 12 Days of Christmas has started, my first listen to this album normally falls right about 12 days out from Christmas each year. Although other albums such as Trans Siberian Orchestra’s “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” have also joined SB and I’s holiday rotation, there will always be a special place in my holiday-heart for a “A Very Special Christmas.” And, if the fact that one of the greatest Christmas songs of all time is by Run-D.M.C. bothers you, then you can eat a bag of wee-wees.

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And so there you have it, a full-bodied list of 10 albums that are particularly meaningful to me and to which everyone will have listen to once I Tristen rules the world.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this musical adventure. Look for lists about my favorite Songs and Artists to come out at some point between now and eternity.

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #7 (Beer/Coors)

July 18, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver!

Time for a rare Saturday check-in.

So, while this is its own check-in, it is pretty much the spiritual successor to the last check-in, in that I’ll be covering the beer-oriented stuff this time around.

My off topic-preface to this post is that I absolutely hate my internet, it’s practically unusable tonight. It’s taken me 1.5 hours just to get to the point where I can type on my blog. No thanks to the lovely whatever that causes half my images to upload sideways these days. In fact, as I am typing I am continously seeing the “Connection Lost” popping up over and over at the top of the administrative screen. Fun times. I hate this apartment’s internet – a seething, virulent hatred.

Anyways, on to the beer! For the purposes of this check-in I will be reinstating a check-in word limit, unlike last time. Namely because there isn’t as much to cover, but also because my internet is really dragging down my desire to write. However, I am going to put it at ~2750, rather than the usual 1500, since I do enjoy talking about beer and there are less photos this time around (though still the second largest number for the check-in posts).

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So this post serves as both an ode to the beers enjoyed and the beers long lost. It’s also a testament and reminder to myself that I need to write beers down as I drink them, because if I wait too long (e.g more than about 24 hours) I will forget what they are called. And, when I do forget them, it means I can’t add them to The Beer List, which makes Taco cry. So I need to get better about writing beers down if I know I’m not going to be able to make it to Dinosaur Bear anytime soon (which happens a lot out here, either due to being busy or due to crappy internet).

If I don’t record it, I’ll forget likely forget it.

So, lost beers, I apologize for your lack of inclusion in this post – the fault is mine, not yours.

My beer adventure started when Meem and Daryl 1 arrived. We had dinner at Park & Co., where I tried two different brews (and may have gotten mild food poisoning from eating a lamb burger, bad karma for eating lamb-chop I guess).

1. Park Rye Pale – Denver Beer Co.

This was the “house beer” so it’s only available on-site (similar to Grendel’s Ale), it was also my first beer from Denver Brewing Company, so I was pretty excited. As you can see from the mostly blank Beer Advocate page, this isn’t a widely disseminated brew, however, that doesn’t mean it’s not tasty! In fact, this was a solid rye ale (which I am relatively new to) with just a hint of the deep rye flavor that makes these kind of ales more distinguishable than their “colored” ale counterparts. At 5.6% ABV it’s a nice “with-dinner” beer and you could definitely put two of them away without much trouble, however for my second beer I decided to keep sampling.

2. Unknown

Sadly, though I may try, I cannot identify this beer. I remember it was fruity (in a good way) and a nice finish to the meal. However, I’ve looked over the menu and nothing matches up quite right. The bad thing about drink menus is that they rotate a lot (well, bad in the sense that if you are trying to find something it’s hard to do so). So, sweet beer in a class with a hamburger on it, I shall remember you in taste if not in name.

While at the aquarium restaurant (which, despite being cool and yummy, only had a mediocre craft beer selection) I dug into my Midwestern roots and went with:

3. Goose IPA – Goose Island Beer Co.

I don’t know if it is just that foamy, or if I had a bad pour – likely a combination of both. This is a pleasant IPA in that you get a lot of the standard IPA flavor without the bitter kick at the end. Of course this means it isn’t a “pure” IPA as the hop-laden blast is a trademark element of the IPAs. Lots of decent lacing and aromas, even if this just a middle-of-the-road IPA, it’s still a solid choice to pair with dinner.

Once we had made our way up to the mountains, I was finally able to get my hands on the highly touted:

4. Odell 90 Shilling Ale – Odell Brewing Company

This beer, one of the “Must Drinks” of Colorado (as determined by various people and magazines), is touted as both a cheap and a good beer. Well, it isn’t that cheap, at least not by Taco standards, but it is good, really good actually. It’s actually a Scottish Ale, that has been smoothed out, brightened, lightened, and generally all around made less “kick-you-in-the-ass” than most Scottish Ales (not that kicking you in the ass is a bad trait). So, while it is a bit less of a kicker than its ancestors, it becomes much more drinkable as a result. Plus, one of my fellow interns went to school with the two kids of the Odell family! Pretty cool! One of the better beers I’ve had in awhile.

Once we were back down in Denver, I was able to check out one of the three “beer rooms” at Mile High Stadium.

Since it is off season, the rooms were minimally stocked. Though lets be clear, “minimally stocked” in NFL terms is still a shit-load of beer.

They even had a complex keg system set up, I’d love to see it when the room is fully loaded.

While there were a good deal of craft beers on one wall (see three images up) the vast majority of it was macro brews, but that is primarily what they sell – you have to placate the desires of the masses, even if they aren’t good desires.

Down at Cherry Cricket I tried a very interesting beer:

5. Patty’s Chile Beer – Wynkoop Brewing Company

Now, when I say interesting, I don’t mean interesting in a crappy way like the Bluemoon Blackberry Tart Ale. This was actually interesting in a really good way. If it wasn’t obvious from the title this isn’t an ordinary beer, this is a golden ale with green chili peppers; and late in the brewing process Anaheim peppers and smoked ancho peppers are also added. Hey, don’t knock it until you try it. Spiced beer goes back into pre-history. This was my first go around with a chile beer (and also Wynkoop brewery, I believe) and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. The 4.2% ABV really allows you to focus on the flavor and there was just the right amount of balance between “beer” and a “chile,” and based on the Beer Advocate rankings I am not alone.

For my second beer at Cherry Cricket I had:

6. Unknown

This beer, pictured above with my second elk burger of the trip (the first was had in Estes Park at the Big Horn Restaurant) is another victim of my bad memory. I don’t even remember much about the taste. Now, in my defense, I had to ask for like three different beers before I finally got one they had in stock (they had just rotated their stock and hadn’t updated the menu) so by the third attempt I was mainly just listening for a positive response.

The real highlight of my beer adventures was my recent trip to Golden.

If you weren’t aware, Coors has called Golden its (primary) home since its founding in 1873 by Adolph Coors and Jacob Schueler. And while in 2007 Coors became a corporate blob with Miller, and was reborn as MillerCoors, the Golden plant is still a Coors-only facility. It also happens to be the largest single-site brewery in the world.

Ticket please.

The interesting thing about the Coors brewery, is that since its so large (basically a city in and of itself) you have to wait on a shuttle bus to get into the plant. Now, the entire tour, including shuttle – tour – and beer samples, is all free. However, on busy days (such as a Saturday afternoon – when I went) the line to get on the shuttle buses can be very long, I’m talking it was a 1.5 hour wait when I arrived. However, I wasn’t about to leave, even in the hot weather. But, the Beer Gods smiled upon Taco on that day. For after waiting only 3 or 4 minutes, one of the Coors employees came around asking for a “single” – to which I raised by hand and was granted the magical ticket seen above, skipping the entire 1.5 hour line – much to the gross rage of those around me (Beer Karma was on my side that day).

So that was pretty awesome.

In fact, the whole tour was awesome. It starts after a brief little side tour of Golden, courtesy of your beer shuttle. I got the Coors Light, rather than Colorado Native shuttle, but I wasn’t complaining after saving nearly 1.5 hours.

You get dropped off right at the front doors, well, one of the many sets of front doors.

Say what you will about Coors, they definitely picked a good location to found a brewery.

And yes, just like back in 1873 they still use the famous Rocky Mountain water for their brews.

The exterior was dotted with relics of the past.

Once inside you pick up an audio device for the self-paced tour and if you are 21 or over you get a wrist band that unlocks up to 43 OUNCES* of free beer samples, 43 OUNCES*.

The first part of the tour is primarily informational and historical, highlighting the founding, prohibition years, rebirth, the ingredients, etc. Before you take the elevators up to the production area you pass by a wall showcasing all the current Coors family brands (yes they make more than Coors Light people).

After a few more stops along the tour you come to the HUGE mashing room.

Which is right next to the “kettle room,” which are full of giant copper kettles brewing around 2 million gallons of beer.

Excuse me while I go pee myself.

But in serious, it was crazy, they even have a “Control Room” (think NASA) in the middle of the kettle room that has windows on all sides where the beer is monitored by 8 people, 24/7, 365.

I want that job.

The tour also takes you through some of the more “behind the scenes” area of the plant, such as the Quality Control Room.

I want that job.

After that, you are officially at the half-way point of the tour. You celebrate with a 3oz sample of either Coors Banquet or Coors Light, I think it’s obvious which one I chose.

Along the way to the bottling/canning area you pass by some more historical information, including sme of the earlier equipment and tools they used for sanitation and quality control as well as some really cool bottle collections.

The tour sadly doesn’t go through the bottling area, but you do get to see one of the canning rooms and I was lucky enough to see it in action (which isn’t guaranteed)!

The entire room is controlled by one guy.

Behold, I have become God.

I. Really. Want. That. Job.

At the end of the the tour, the real tour begins in the Coors Lounge.

Here you get to sample up to 40 additional ounces of beer (technically 30, but I will explain that in a second).

If you were thinking it would just be Coors Light, nope, try again. In fact, they had quite the selection, including two beers I had never seen before.

*So the way it works is that your wrist band allows you the 3oz sample at the half-way point, and then 3 more 10oz samples in the lounge. However, there is a non-alcoholic (0.5% ABV) beer “Coors Non-Alcoholic” that you can also try, and since it doesn’t have alcohol it doesn’t count towards your three beers. So technically you get 43oz of “beer” but its more like 33 of beer.

So, since I just mentioned it:

7. Coors Non-Alcoholic – Coors Brewing Company

This beer sucks. Don’t pay for it. Even straight from the factory it’s not good. It tastes funny. There are FAR better non-alcoholic beers out there. Only try it at the Coors plant in Golden, Co. Just so you can get the extra 10oz of “beer.”

8. Colorado Native – AC Golden Brewing Company

So I was super excited about this amber lager, especially since it only exists in Colorado, so you can’t have any, unless you visit Colorado. And yes, AC Golden is a Coors family brewery, in case you were wondering. As you can see from the Beer Advocate rating, this is a good beer. Yes, a good Coors beer. Its full of roasted caramel malts and two-row barley, which combine for a very distinct flavor palate that would be good for drinking alone or with food. I really want to try this beer again, but it’s probably ruined in bottles after having it straight from the source.

8. Coors Peak – Colorado Brewing Company

Coors Peak is actually a gluten-free copper lager. I don’t really care about the gluten aspect, though I do enjoy trying gluten-free beers since their flavor profiles are often different. That said, beyond Red Bridge, I haven’t had many gluten free beers. I have to say though, I was pretty impressed. The bartender/Coors-dude in the lounge didn’t sell it very well, referring to it as the “Best of a bad situation” (alluding to the lack of gluten), but it was actually not a half bad beer. It’s actually brewed with brown rice syrup, which adds an interesting flavor that goes decently well with the lighter profile of the beer. While this isn’t one I’d search out, I’d definitely try it again if I find it. It obviously wasn’t terrible, as you can see it was nearly half gone by the time I remembered to take the photo.

9. Blue Moon Belgian White – Coors Brewing Company

Last but not least, SB’s beloved Blue Moon. After a relatively mixed experience with their 20th anniversary sampler I was ready to try Blue Moon straight from the brewery, and I do mean straight from the brewery. The lounge feeds in from the final production kegs, in other words, prime beer. And.. it was everything I had hoped it would be, plus they even included an orange slice (pretty much mandatory for Blue Moon). It had all the regular tones of a witbier, but they were all just magnified 3-4x over the bottled product, and 2-3x over a standard draught. In other words, this was the best Blue Moon I’ve ever had and ever will have. End of story.

While the beer was free, the snacks were not, and since all I packed on my voyage to Golden was a Kind bar (not the smartest thing, I know) I decided to partake in some beer nuts. Bringing the grand total of my beer adventure (including transit) to like $1.50.

There were no shortage of sweet or salty snacks to be had in this beer mecca, we accept credit cards too.

In addition to the beer, snacks, and lots of people, the lounge was adorned in Coors family advertisements from this year and yesteryear.

Maybe it was all the beer, but I think I’m seeing gnomes.

There were also some mostly forgotten oddities, such as Zima.

Oddly enough, according to one of the Coors-dudes, since cancelling production of Zima in 2008 the beverage has reached a cult-like status and petitions to bring it back are ongoing.

E.T. reminding you that when you get blasted on Coors Light (you trashy people you) to phone home, also don’t do drugs (excluding alcohol of course).

There was also an entire wall dedicated to the various awards Coors has won at the national and international level over the years (more than you would think, actually). One such display that I thought was really cool was the first bottle of Blue Moon to roll off the assembly line, post-Coors purchase.

Vintage Blue Moon, probably tastes like shit at this point.

After that, I head to Starbucks for a couple of iced coffees (yay free refills!) to re-energize myself after all that beer. Then I walked 2.7 miles to the train then headed home to Denver.

All in all, my Coors trip made me appreciate Coors a lot more. Yes, Coors Light still sucks. Don’t argue, it sucks. I mean, I drink it from time to time, but it sucks, just accept it and move on, it’s ok.

That said, Coors, despite what their advertising campaign and word of mouth might have you believe, does make good beer, and they make a decent amount of it. Now I need to go check out the Miller brewery tour in Milwaukee, WI, and the Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis.

I hope you enjoyed my little beer adventure, I know I certainly did!

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #6 (Meem, Mountains, & Lawyering)

July 14, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver!

So, if you didn’t notice, there was no check-in last week. In fact, as of this posting it’s been 15 days since a check-in. Why’s that you might ask? Well, I’ve been very busy. Actually, that really doesn’t cut it, I’ve been swamped, totally swamped. But the swamp hasn’t only consisted of work or classes (speaking of classes I got my first 100% on a test! Promptly followed by a 72%, but still, we won’t focus on that one, or the one I failed a bit ago 😛 ).

As I mentioned last time, Meem and Daryl 1 were on their way out here to see me. Then, right after that, I had two back-to-back work trips, so I just haven’t had much time to visit ole’ Dinosaur Bear. In fact, I’ve missed so much that it would simply be impossible to really highlight everything in detail. So, in order to catch up, I’ve decided to divide my summary of everything that happened into two posts, this one – about everything but beer, and a yet-to-be-written one about beer. Makes sense.

The downside is that like any summary post (see the Boston Pre-Game post) I really only have room for highlights. So, unfortunately, the vast majority of photos, events, details, etc. will be left out as I blaze through a ton of events. But nevertheless, it will be a “bird’s eye view” of what I’ve been up to, if nothing else.

Also, to say I spent hours getting the images for this post ready is no an exaggeration. Not only did I have to download them, organize them, upload them, and rotate most of them 90 degrees (thanks laptop) I had to pick them out of the larger batch in the first place! Either way, enjoy those that made it. This is the largest number of pictures in awhile and likely the last time I’ll do so many in a Denver check in (but I had some extra time after finishing my Business Analytics work for the day earlier than expected).

[Note: I’m waiving my 1500 check-in word limit for this post. While the goal is to keep it brief, keeping it too brief would result in a largely pointless post.]

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So, after their arrival Meem, Daryl 1, and I’s first event was Afternoon Tea at the Brown Palace, undoubtedly a Denver tradition (and recommended to me by tons of people, including first and foremost, my boss).

It was quite an amazing experience! The hotel itself was a 4 Diamond Hotel, none of us thought we’d ever even been in one with that rating before, let alone dined in one.

While they were visiting we also had some time to tromp around Denver, such as when Meem and I visited the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art and had some snacks at their rooftop garden cafe.

Also on the Denver agenda was the Botanical Gardens, which I had been wanting to go to and everyone enjoyed, even Daryl 1.

Of course a lot of Daryl 1’s enjoyment came from our new buddy Griswald the Squirrel.

I want your noms. There will be blood.

Of course, even without Griswald the gardens alone would have been worth the visit.

After taking in the gardens we went and ate at the aquarium. Yes, Denver has an aquarium, and yes, you can eat there. However, unlike most of such venues, the aquarium has a full service restaurant. In fact, we didn’t even see the actual aquarium, we just had dinner. But the cool thing was that you get to dine next to large tanks complete with fish and mermaids.

Told you.

Soon enough it was time for us to be off to the mountains (yay!).

Tristen was pretty much our navigator, using his dinosaur senses and all.

There’s dinosaurs in them thar’ hills.

Before too long (and without plummeting to our doom) we had arrived at our lodging.

We had a nice little cabin on a hillside, nothing fancy, but it had everything you could need (surprisingly even wi-fi, which while not the most reliable was better than what I have here, which is freaking sad on so many levels).

Tristen didn’t take long to make friends (or enemies?) with the local fauna.

It was actually the Centennial Celebration for the Rocky Mountain National Park, which none of us had realized previously, talk about timing!

Little known fact: Only 55 people are allowed in the 415 square mile park at a time.

While our big tour was the following day, we did drive into the park ourselves to do some exploring.

We eventually found our way to Bear Lake (yay Valentino!) and did hiking the loop around it.

Some of the views were magnificent!

On the way back to Estes Park (the “Gateway to the Rockies” and the town closest to our cabin) we passed by the Stanley, which was looking rather ominous.

And perhaps it was looking ominous for good reason. The Stanley is the hotel Stephen King stayed at (Room 217) right as it was closing for the season back in 1974. While there he had “the nightmare of his life” which ultimately resulted in King writing “The Shining” which of course is the best-selling horror novel of all time, spawned the 1980 film version directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Jack Nicholson, as well as a 1997 TV version (actually filmed at the Stanley) produced by King himself, as well as a 2013 sequel novel entitled “Doctor Sleep.” And, to top it all off, the Stanley has a long, long history of paranormal activity, extending far back beyond King’s visit (some would say all the way to its opening in 1909).

So, needless to say, it might look spooky for a reason. And, in fact, it was spooky that drew us to the Stanley (in addition to Meem and I being avid King fans) and we had signed up for a ghost tour.

A lot closer, better weather, still has some spooky vibes.

Ok, little less spooky this close. Just don’t look too closely at the windows.

Prior to the tour starting however, we had some dinner in the Stanley’s restaurant (not realizing that there was a far cheaper cafe down in the basement). The food was good (if expensive) but the real highlight was Meem and I having some REⱭЯUM.

While I actually enjoyed the cocktail (which was secondary to just ordering REⱭЯUM), I’m not a liquor drinker, so by the end Meem probably drank 1/4 (or more) of mine to help me finish. And while I’m not going to go out and try to replicate it anytime soon (give me beer, thanks) it was worth it partake of some REⱭЯUM in the Stanley itself.

Soon afterwards the ghost tour started.

When it comes to ghosts, I’ve always considered myself a “Skeptic Who Wants to Believe” (so basically a Mulder-Scully Hybrid). That said, no “HOLEE SHIET” moments happened on this tour (save for a door that may or may not have closed itself). However, that being said, some officially weird stuff did happen. And I’m not talking about things that the hotel staff could have fabricated either. For the sake of brevity I’ll simply say that something odd is going on at the Stanley, and I’d be happy to discuss my thoughts and experiences more in depth if anyone is interested, possible with it’s own blog post.

Even absent those creepy-ass twins, the hall ways were odd and mostly deserted (which was really weird considering how packed the place was).

So, we all really enjoyed it, though I think it might have freaked Daryl 1 out just a bit (or more than a bit, by his own admission). I’d love to return to the Stanley during a less busy time, though my guess is that I couldn’t drag SB within a mile of the place.

Speaking of oddities, there is no filter on the above photo, I took it as we were leaving and it came out like that, scout’s honor, I have no idea why, my guess is a combination of a cell-phone quality low-light filter, my sudden motion, and an attempt of the cell-phone quality camera to focus on the porch light.

The next day we were off on our privately guided tour of the park, courtesy of Alex (a Texan who lives in Colorado in the Summer). We headed up the Old Fall River Road (which is dirt and had just opened three days prior) and the first stop was Chasm Falls.

Old Fall River Road offered up gorgeous scenery at every turn, complete with ongoing stories/commentaries/and trivia courtesy of Alex.

The larger-than-normal amount of rainfall, while being annoying, made the place very green.

As we rose higher and higher, we soon entered the tundra.

“I declare ris’ rand to berong to Tristen.”

Eventually we hit Trail Ridge Road, which is the more well-known (and thus far more busy) paved road.

Trail Ridge is on the “exposed” side of the mountain, so seeing the contrast between the densely-forested Old Fall River Road (which by the way is only uphill and one way) and the wind-swept Trail Ridge Road was pretty cool.

Those little blips are a large herd of elk.

As you descend down Trail Ridge Road, the trees and greenery begin to return as the “Mummy Mt. Range” comes into view (they were called such because they appear like a sleeping mummy – at least to some people, I don’t think Meem, Daryl 1, nor I really saw it).

The next day Daryl 1 and I hiked up to the largely popular Alberta Falls (Meem was unable to join us due to altitude issues).

No that is not Alberta Falls, well it is, but it’s just the top-most portion of what is actually a 30ft waterfall. The falls in their entirety were oddly difficult to photograph from the side of the river we were on.

A view looking outward from the top of the falls.

On our way back down (after seeing lightning in the distance) we had a Close Encounter of the Elk Kind™.

He was noming whatever that bush thing was, and fortunately didn’t block the path for too long. It was pretty cool to get so close and because we were only the 3rd and 4th people to encounter it, we were able to get away before the MASSIVE group of people (let’s be real, mostly rude people, as usual) began to blob up on the trail. Or at least I was, I ran ahead and just barely outpaced the rain, Daryl 1 caught up soon after.

That night we watched fireworks over Estes Lake. We actually watched them from the hill right in front of the Stanley (eating dinner at the much cheaper cafe this time, including a REⱭЯUM chocolate bar).

The following morning it was time to head back to Denver.

But not before we stopped from a quick hike around Lily Lake, where Tristen continued to make friends (or enemies) with the local creatures.

In addition to interacting with the locals, Tristen also tried out some of the climbing tactics Valentino had taught him (when he wasn’t busy being friends with a little girl hiking the trail who became obsessed with him).

Don’t mind the dinosaur in the tree.

Lily Lake was a beautiful area south of Estes Park, and we were all glad we stopped (plus we got there early enough that we beat the crowd).

There was a guy fly-fishing there, talk about a good spot.

On the way back I (er, I mean Tristen) routed us to a different road for a change of scenery.

When we returned to dinner I achieved my mission of convincing Meem and Daryl 1 to go to Casa Bonita.

Now, Casa Bonita has a really interesting back-story, it’s own cult-like status (seriously, it’s a historical landmark because people went batshit crazy when it was going to close). However, most prominently, it was the basis of an entire episode of South Park (as a reminder for those of who you have never seen South Park, hate it, or both, South Park was created by two natives of Colorado and is based entirely in the fictional Colorado town of South Park, which is actually based on a region of Colorado, rather than an actual town).

Really, all I will say about Casa Bonita, is that it’s so bad – so campy, it’s good. Where else can you queue up in a line theme park style to eat mediocre Mexican food (awesome sopapillas though) while watching a man dressed as gorilla run around the place, with a 30 foot waterfall, cliff-divers, (mock) gun-fights, glowing swords, and mariachis all in the background – all while siting in a gulf mansion, mine shaft, 1920s vaudeville theatre, or cliff overlook? Casa Bonita is where.

The place is freaking HUGE, and you should seriously watch the South Park episode linked above if you want to even begin to understand. It was one of the coolest/weirdest restaurant experiences I’ve ever had.

The next day we took the light rail out to Mile High Stadium for a tour (the rental car had been returned).

Although our good-luck streak with the weather had run out, the tour was still a lot of fun, especially learning about all the little cheap “home-field-advantage” tricks that are employed throughout the NFL.

“Reyton’s House”

After our stadium tour we headed back downtown the 16th street mall where we enjoyed some Rocky Mountain Chocolate and Starbucks (ok just me on the Starbucks, but everyone got chocolate).

Later we headed down to the Cherry Creek Shopping center so that Meem could go to a Sephora. After that we had dinner at Duffy’s Cherry Cricket, known for having amazing burgers.

I think all three of us agreed with the “amazing burgers” part.

Then for dessert we Ubered (or Lyfted, can’t remember) over to Sweet Action Ice Cream.

Salted Butterscotch and Peanut Butter Butterfinger!

If you remember from a previous check-in, I had also visited Littleman Ice Cream. Based on what I’ve been told, Sweet Action and Littleman are the heavyweight contenders for “best” ice cream in Denver. Now that I’ve had both, I’m not sure which I prefer. Littleman has more flavors on the whole, but also has ludicrous lines. Sweet Action has fewer flavors, but the flavors they do have are more unique. I think it will require more testing before I can come to any real conclusion. 🙂

After Meem and Daryl 1 departed it was back to work for a couple of boring office days, and then I started two solid days of work trips. The first was right back up to the Rocky Mountain National Park to investigate a damage site from a company being very naughty (about 12 million dollars naughty, to be exact). Unlike when I had visited the prior weekend (lots of sunshine) this time it was cold, foggy, and rainy.

“Trail Ridge Road is looking a bit different this time around.”

Of course I wasn’t complaining, I actually appreciated getting to see the mountains in two completely different weather patterns.

Of course the thing was, it was a long hike to where we were going, 20 miles (round trip) to be exact. We were so deep into the boonies that we actually had to get a permit to go there, but when you are a bunch of lawyers such things don’t pose much of an issue, especially when the lawyers that are with you are the ones who won the park 12 million dollars. We also had three people join us from the park, a Civil Engineer (A fellow Boilermaker!), a Botanist, and an Ecologist. All three of which are part of the team fixing the damage that was done to the park.

The idea was the follow the Colorado River Trail for a bit and then branch off into “backwoods” (which is a fancy way of saying there is no trail). The problem was that the snow melt, coupled with the rain (past and present) had turned the trail into this:

Yep. That “stream” is the trail, and in some places the trail was under as much as two feet of water. So most of the hike found us trekking across hills, valleys, ravines, and meadows.

Now, as you can see, the view isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was just the mud and the rain. My god the mud. I had mud up to my knees, and its not like I had hiking boots in my suitcase or anything. That said, I did really enjoy the hike, even if my legs did not.

Eventually we got to the upper-mid zone of the damage, then decided to call it a day due to lightning strikes. Oh, and in case you were wondering, that photo above is all man-caused damage. None of that was there before – and that is only a fraction of what got destroyed when the ditch broke.

Naturally, after having turned around because of weather, the sun came out.

As did some elk buddies.

Of course I was not to be deceived by the change of weather. While everyone else took off their fancy expensive rain gear, I left my 2$ poncho (e.g. basically a garbage bag with a hood) on, and sure enough the rain came a’pouring again before too long – but the brief reprieve was nice.

On the way back we saw something that made the ENTIRE muddy hike worth it, a moose and her calf!

They ended up getting really close, largely because the calf wanted to play with us (no seriously, he was actively trying to get us to play with him).

So we had to hide in some trees, because in case you didn’t know, moose are FREAKING DANGEROUS. More people are killed by moose than bears, true story. But I didn’t die, and so the experience was AWESOME. In fact, a lot of natives were pretty amazed as most people can go their entire outdoor lives without seeing a calf. Yay me! A little further down the trail we also encountered a deer, who was all of about 5 feet from us, but was too busy nomin’ stuff to care much about the humans.

The next day (and next work trip) weren’t quite as exciting, but we did get to go out with the EPA and do some field inspections on some oil and gas facilities. In other words, I was one of the “Annoying Government People Who Semi-Trespass On Your Property So They Can Fine You.”*

The coolest part was getting to use the EPA’s Infrared Camera (100,000$ – made me so nervous to even hold it) to search for vapors escaping (which can be deadly, and has killed people on multiple occasions). As these were newer facilities, we didn’t spot any active leaks, though the one older facility we checked out did have a leak – gonna be a bad day for that owner. It was crazy to see how it looked so normal to our eyes, but then the camera made it look like a field of noxious death.

I obviously can’t show you pictures of the IR feed from the 100,000$ camera, but I can give you an idea of the kinds of places we were checking out.

[*So funny note about the trespassing thing. When we first pulled up to one of the facilities, I asked “Are we trespassing” to which the lead EPA investigator chuckled and said “I dunno.” I thought he was joking, but it turns out he wasn’t. I was surprised how funny everyone found this, considering they were all government employees. That said, even if we were trespassing, you would be amazed at how much power natural resources branches of the government have – see generally the DNR]

After doing our field inspections we headed up to Fort Collins to Colorado Statute University’s (CSU) energy lab, which is ran by a former expert witness in one of my boss’s massive settlement cases.

The entire facility (which works on the pressing energy issues of our time for such clients as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Denmark, Toyota, and various other big-name public and private entities) is actually housed in an old power plant which has since been remodeled and brought up to LEED Platinum Certification, which is pretty impressive.

We saw a bunch of cool stuff while there, from clean-burning stoves for remote villages, to hydrogen powered cars, to almost entirely self-sufficient toilets (seriously, they nearly power themselves from the poo they consume), to solar panels operating at near 99% efficiency.

The roof also afforded good views of Fort Collins, which coincidentally are not shown in the above image.

After that it was off to lunch at Rio Grande (a Mexican restaurant much more normal than Casa Bonita, but which is known for amazing margaritas – I passed, went with a beer, of course). It was actually a really enjoyable lunch and I was able to get in some good conversations with my boss and fellow interns, in addition to some of the EPA and CSU people. After that it was a (sleepy) trip back to Denver.

That evening some crazy storms rolled into Denver, of which I got some cool photos.

After the storms had passed I went out with 1L Roomate and his girl friend for a drink and some oysters at a local restaurant (no not Rocky Mt. oysters – though those do exist, Denver is also known for having good normal oysters as well). He actually ended up paying for my beer and oysters, which was cool, but then again, I’m fairly positive I’m paying like 90% or more of the rent.

The next day I decided to head out to Golden, CO. The prime goal was the Coors Brewery (but that will be covered in the upcoming beer post).

Golden was a cool little mountain town. Ok, so it wasn’t super little, but it’s tiny compared to Denver – and it was historic.

It also had some gorgeous views.

Of course, what Golden did not have, was a very good engineer when it came to deciding on where to place the light rail station. In fact, the light rail is 2.7 miles from downtown Golden.

That wasn’t much of an issue on the way out, as I had road the bus (never again, there were 72 f*cking stops along the way) which goes right downtown. So, having decided not to do the bus, and with no other way to get out to the station aside from methods that would cost money, I decided to take in the gorgeous day and just walk the 2.7 miles (which somehow pretty much all ended up being uphill, go figure).

Despite the uphill nature of the walk, I passed a lot of cool stuff and pretty scenery. First up was the Colorado School of Mines.

And while I’m not sure what the school does, outside of, you know, mining, but they do have a beautiful campus and even the campus streets offer up good views of the distant foothills.

My walk quickly took me through the Grey Poupon area of town, and suddenly I envisioned myself living in Golden.

After the nice houses, then a golf course, then a country club (seriously) I found the Golden Trail, which would carry me onwards to the train station.

And even though it was nice and toasty outside, the views made the long(ish) walk worth it.

After that, I caught the light rail back to Denver (and evaded the fare for one zone, shhh) then rode a bike the rest of the way back to my apartment. After that, I chilled for the rest of the evening.

Today (Sunday) I worked on classes, and made a really dumb mistake of sitting on the balcony with my white-boy feet exposed and now they are freaking fried. The downside of a farmer’s tan is that it’s easy to forget that not all of you is actually accustomed to the sun, and yeah, my feet are burnt pretty bad (my left one is even slightly swollen). But I got some ibuprofen in me and slathered on the aloe vera, so hopefully they are at least a little better before I have to put on my dress shoes and socks in the morning (because we all know how comfortable dress clothes are).

Anyways, I’m going to wrap this post up. I hope you’ve enjoyed my whirl-wind summary of all the stuff (minus beer) that has been going on lately! As always with these summaries, I have far more photos than I have listed here and more stories to tell, so if you are curious about anything in particular, just ask!

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. The Starbucks in the building where I work gives away free coffee ground remnants for gardens, how cool is that?

Denver Check-in #5 (Storm)

June 30, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver,

It’s time again for a check-in from yours truly. Of course as I write this I am sitting here listening to the distant lightning as well as to the slow death of my laptop. Well, that might be an exaggeration. I don’t know if the laptop itself is dying, but one of its fans is sure going to shit. It sounds like someone stuck a card in their bicycle spokes. Unfortunately, my laptop’s warranty expires on 7/7/15. And, you guessed it, I can’t spare it right now because of my classes. So I’m just having to sit by and watch the warranty slip away. It sucks, but there isn’t much I can do about it. Samsung doesn’t have on-site service, so you have to ship it in. Which means I’d be without my laptop for at minimum, about 10-14 days. Not really an option when I have weekly assignments (and as a reminder, if I do bad in my classes, I have to pay for them – 1,800$).

While the fan is annoying, in the context of this blog and my crap internet, the fact that my laptop seems to love to upload images sideways continues to baffle me.

Anyways, revisiting something I discussed last time, the work has continued to spread like the plague through the ground floor of my office building.

The photo is blurry because I took it while walking, I didn’t really care enough to get an HD quality shot of construction. But yeah, as you can see, the temporary walls and missing roof have now been joined by inexplicable scaffolding. I am very glad my office itself isn’t part of the renovation, though I wouldn’t mind if they made it not -200 degrees in my area.

But construction always finds a way to be a bane to our existence. While I’ve mostly dodged the bullet when it comes to the renovation (aside from loosing the table I eat at when it rains) I’ve been ravaged by ongoing street construction in this one particularly bad spot.

You can’t see it in that photo, but down at the end of that street (17th) construction reduces the entire road down to one lane. And, here’s the great part. I have one of three buses I can use to get home – and every single one of them goes through the congestion point. On good days it might only take me 25 minutes from the moment I get up from my desk to the point I am walking in my building. On the bad days, this construction has made it 90 minutes. Yes, 90 minutes to go 2.1 freaking miles.

So why don’t I walk or ride a bike? Well, some days I don’t have a particularly good answer to that question, other than just not wanting to deal with it in the 90+ temperatures and business clothes. On other days, well, the sky unleashes hell.

I’ve already alluded to the rain and storms, but this past Wednesday (6/24/15) took the cake. In order to explain this storm I need to put you in the scene…

*wavy flashback screen*

So imagine yourself as a slave baby lawyer, tucked away in your freezing office late in the day on Wednesday. 2 of the 4 interns are already gone, so it’s just you and the other remaining intern. Naturally, being late in the day you are talking try to waste time. Suddenly you notice it’s time to catch the bus, just like any other day. As you go to leave you happen to notice that it looks almost pitch black outside. Then you hear an attorney say “Be careful out there, it’s a downpour!” No matter, you think, I have my trusty umbrella.

As you go to leave the building, you quickly realize that the apocalypse is at hand. It’s not just a downpour – when Gaia woke up that morning she mistakenly placed the ocean above Colorado. It’s near-blackout conditions – from rain and wind. So you sprint to the bus stop, but it’s too late, you’re already soaked to your underwear and your shoes are visibly leaking water. Tiny fish are now evolving in your shoes. You joke to the lady waiting next to you that you are glad you have your umbrellas, you laugh together in your misery as the umbrellas do nothing. You see the bus far in the distance.

Tornado sirens.

Wind goes crazy, lady next to you’s umbrella breaks, yours doesn’t, because it is a fancy storm version – of course it is serving no purpose anymore, so you go ahead and close it. Bus shows up, praise Baby Jesus. You are on your way home, more tornado sirens, your phone pushes you a “Seek Immediate Shelter Warning” thanks phone, brofist. You decide the bus is adequate shelter. Bus hydroplanes. Yes, the bus. Bus gets re-routed by police. Sirens still going.

Cars are being washed away. Small band of squirrels goes by in miniature version of Noah’s Ark.

Bus is about 3 blocks from your house, you decide to run for it. Running through water above your knees, the cars headlights in the middle of the street are now underwater. Jaws eats the person wading next to you.

Eventually you make it home, completely drenched. Your trusty phone tells you that the world is flooding. You climb the 11 stories to your apartment, then watch the world sink below the tides. You become last person on Earth and then write this blog post to an imaginary audience to stay sane.

*wavy flashfoward screen*

Ok so maybe I dramatized a little bit, but seriously, that storm was insane. The cars were literally being washed away in the middle of freaking downtown. It turns out there was an tornado out on the east side of town, but more-so than anything, the flash flooding was just bat-shit crazy.

But the next day I got to go to a baseball game!

Coors field – home to the Colorado Rockies, who happened to be playing the Arizona Diamondbacks on this particular day.

This was my first ever MLB game, which was cool. Even more cool was that it was an office trip, so I didn’t even have to pay for my ticket. Plus, only having to work a half day (the game was at 1:10) after the previous day was very nice.

We had pretty decent seats by my standards.

What made them even more awesome was that we were only being blasted by the sun for about 15 minutes, then the glorious shade saved us.

It was a deceptively nice day. There were no signs that the doom storm had fallen less than 24 hours prior.

Eventually it was time for some beer, I’ll talk about the kinds I got in a moment. But it was 7.25$ (at minimum) for a beer. However, my boss actually bought my second beer for me! Yay! I had brought my own snacks, so I saved myself the 3400$ that a hotdog or hamburger cost.

I don’t have much to compare it to, but Coors Field seemed like a really nice stadium. Many parts of the arena had nice sweeping views of downtown Denver (the park itself is in Lower Downtown (LoDo)).

Despite most people here telling me the Rockies aren’t good, they won the game, 6-4. They were actually trailing but had an explosive 8th inning with 5 runs. Tristen was especially pleased because the victory meant that Dinger came back out and waved the Rockies’ flag around.

If it wasn’t obvious, Dinger is the mascot, he also happens to be a Triceratops. Apparently when they were building Coors Field they found a Triceratops skull under and very near what would eventually be home plate, and thus Dinger was born.

In other office news, my boss actually just got back from doing Ride the Rockies, and he has been in full-on “pay attention to us” mode now that he is done training. This means he does more with us, such as the very next day he took the two of us in EES/EDS out to lunch, then took us to see the 10th Circuit Federal Court.

It was really cool (the place was still abuzz due to the SCOTUS decision on gay marriage that had came out that same morning), and that was the only picture I got, because you weren’t supposed to take pictures, but you know me. Probably the highlight was getting to hear about the “Lady in Red” the federal court’s resident ghost. At first I thought my boss was just messing with us, but then one of the Federal Marshall’s immediately knew what he was talking about. Haunted courts, must be one bored ghost.

Of course the flip-side of my boss being more focused on us, is that my work EXPLODED on Friday, I mean I went from “almost done for the week” to deeply buried in the course of about 15 minutes.

Because Meem and Daryl 1 are coming to see me this week (yay!) I didn’t do much exploring this weekend, mainly I just worked (see explosion above), and I do mean I worked a lot, as in almost 20 hours between Saturday and Sunday (gotta make up those job and class hours somehow).

However, today (Sunday) Tristen finally talked me into going to see Jurassic World (and also the internet was out, surprise surprise). The theater near Cherry Creek that we saw Mad Max in wasn’t carrying it, so we went to the downtown theater instead. It is located right on the 16th Street Mall.

The 16th Street Mall is Denver’s walking street, with only free Mall Shuttles and bicycle taxis taking up any space beyond pedestrians. Since it’s full of shops and tourist stuff, this street is better referred to as “Slow Tourists, Beggars, and Unattended Tween Highway.” It’s pretty, with a lot of cool stuff, but I generally avoid it like the plague.

That said, it does have its cool qualities, like the public pianos that dot it’s sides. Yes, public pianos.

Eventually we found our way to the Denver Pavilions, which is like an outdoor shopping mall that also houses the movie theater.

We then got our tickets (matinee of course) and headed in and had our minds blown. The seats were electric recliners with built in tables.

So, that picture is really dark (it’s a movie theater, give me a break), but the chairs were AWESOME. And because they recline (and I mean seriously recline, Lazy Boy style) the aisles are larger. It ended up getting PACKED, so I appreciated the extra space.

Jurassic World was much better than I was expecting, especially the ending. The “Military Dinosaur” subplot was pretty stupid, but the homages to the original Jurassic Park, including the return of the same T-Rex from the original movie to kick some Indominus Rex ass was worth the price of admission. Tristen got so excited during the movie he puked, starting roaring, and biting people. It was good times.

Then I came home and got back to work on various things. My roomate is gone for two days, so I have the entire place to myself which is nice. But mainly I’m just excited for Meem and Daryl 1’s visit. Of course I have to get through half the work-week first!

Anyways, I’m over way my self-imposed (and poorly enforced) check-in word limit, but I still have to talk about beer! So I’m going to just tack on a beer blurb here at the end:

Nevar forgit that Upslope can that fought the good fight.

As I mentioned, I had picked up the 20th Anniversary Box of Blue Moon, I was excited to try them, plus as a local beer, Blue Moon is common here. Well, the time has come to review these bad boys! I’ll cover my baseball park beers at the end.

All Blue Moon beers are from the Coors Brewing Company.

Blue Moon Belgian White

The original and still decent Blue Moon Belgian witbier. Crafted by a guy who went to Europe get to a PhD in brewing (seriously) then returned to Colorado to share the love. It was good enough to promptly be bought by Coors and that was all she wrote. A good macro beer, and one of SB’s favorites.

Bluemoon Blackberry Tart Ale

Ok so I was super excited about this beer. In fact, it’s really the one that drew me to the sampler. Welp, it sucks. It has a fake-sweetness to it, and the blackberry is practically non-existent. Definitely one of the biggest beer disappointments I’ve had since Boddingtons. I still have one more bottle to try, but I’m not expecting much improvement.

Blue Moon White IPA

I wasn’t sure what to expect with a Blue Moon IPA. They played it safe and went with a white IPA, which as a company that started with white beers, makes sense. It was actually pretty good! Lots of lacing with classic IPA flavors. It was oddly frothy (notice the picture) but overall a strong macro IPA.

Blue Moon Cinnamon Horchata Ale

Ok, I wasn’t sure what to make of this one. A horchata beer? Well, it isn’t bad, but it isn’t really good either. It’s just kind of neutral. Whereas the Blackberry was just terrible, and the Farmhouse Red Ale (next) was really good, this one is more memorable from it’s name than for it’s taste. Worth a try to say you’ve had horchata beer though. [It’s like 1/3 gone in the picture because that was my Wednesday beer and it had been a long, stormy day.]

Blue Moon Farmhouse Red Ale

This part Red Ale, part saison was a true gem. I didn’t know what it would be like, being a red ale from a white beer company, but it balanced itself so well that I have to give them props for it. Definitely worth checking out. The red and saison elements are nicely balanced with the traditional characteristics Blue Moon is known for.

Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat

This one was another disappointment, though not NEARLY to the level of the Blackberry. The reason this beer was a bit of a let-down is because it’s two distinct types of beer in one bottle, and it doesn’t mesh right. It’s a honey ale, blended with a wheat ale, and while that sounds great on paper, they didn’t balance it well, so the result is just a wheat ale that tastes too sweet. Not bad, but sadly far from its potential.

So, overall the Blue Moon 20th Anniversary Sampler is a bit of a mixed box. I’m glad I tried it overall though.

And not to be be forgotten, the baseball park beers (of great value, at least based on the price):

Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy – Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company

This shandy has popped up on the blog at least once in the past, but here is its formal beer blurb. One of the original macro shandies, Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy has everything you’d want from a macro shandy, not too sweet, and not too sour. Overall a good “starter” shandy, especially on a hot day at the baseball park. However, it’s not worth the 7.25$ I paid for it. But I mainly got it as part of the “experience” of my first MLB game.

Dale’s Pale Ale – Oskar Blues Grill & Brew

This was a surprisingly good pale ale. Being from a can, even a 7.25$ can (my boss paid this time), I wasn’t expecting a whole lot. But the boys/girls up at Oskar Blues Grill & Brew (in Lyons, Colorado) really know their pale ale, at the very least. Lots of crisp hops and just the right touch of bitterness. Don’t let the can stop you should you get a chance to try it!

And that official wraps up this (very long) edition of the Denver Check-in.

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #4 (Big Gay 5k)

June 23, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver!

Things have been busy here in the Mile High City, which is precisely how I like them to be. This week was pretty low-key as far as my classes go, I had hit them hard in anticipation of a 5k I was going to be running this weekend. That said, they are getting ready to kick up into overdrive again next week. The way the course is designed you can’t really “get ahead” which displeases me greatly.

Work has also been busy, but it’s been a bit more interesting this past week. Basically I have two ongoing assignments. One is fast paced and very interesting, the other is slow and arduous. I’ve been continuously pushing off one of them, I’ll let you guess which one. Sadly I think this week I’ll have to pay the piper on the slow and arduous project, I just hope I don’t miss too much on the other project that is a lot more interesting, but as an intern slave I don’t have much choice in what I do.

Also speaking of work, the construction on the building continues. I had though I had mentioned this previously on the blog, but a cursory search didn’t reveal anything. Basically the first-floor lobby/common/retail area of my building is being gutted. No really.

Yep. They’ve built all sorts of temporary walls, the escalators are gone, and a lot of the shops are temporarily closed. It’s kinda janky. But it’s far enough away from me that it only bothers me when I have to walk through it. Supposedly it will make the place much more smexy when it’s done.

On Friday around 3pm one of the other interns in the NRS (Natural Resources Section) got an email that her section was doing a happy hour at 4pm. Score – beer and a reason to leave work early on a Friday. We went to a place that I honestly don’t even know the name of, I was just following people. One of my supervisors bought my beer because I had turned something around so quickly that week. Once she offered I changed my selection to an 8.50$ beer instead of a 6$ one, haha.

Weihenstephaner Vitus – Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan

I’ve had many of Weihenstephaner’s offerings before, including some while in Germany. However, I’d never had the Vitus before. What I didn’t realize when I ordered it was that it was going to come in a big glass (I’d already drank a fair amount in the picture above) and that it was 7.7% ABV. Not terrible, but I’m at a higher altitude and I’m with a bunch of work people. But I held it together for the most part. Vitus was a strong and flavor-filled weizenbock, it had a long tangy finish that was a bit dry, but complimented itself well with the aromatic overtones. A bit strong, but recommended.

And while I did hold myself together, part of what helped was this:

Yes, this place put paper down on the long-tables and passed out crayons, so I created a masterpiece (and I may have taken a bite of one of the soy crayons, maybe). And no, this was not a kids place, this was a 21+ pub/restaurant, so I wasn’t stealing some child’s crayons. My drawing was quite popular with my coworkers.

On my way home from the happy hour, I spotted a cool contrast of old and new in downtown Denver.

Outside of work, I’ve mainly been chilling at home this week, given my ever-so-slight headway on my classes. Tristen finally got to watch the original (1993) Jurassic Park (since SB is scared of such movies) as preparation for going to see Jurassic World (which ignores the other sequels) at some point in the near future I am sure.

Then came Saturday, our big race day! Denver Pridefest was this weekend and part of the festivities was a “Big Gay 5k” – yes seriously that is the name. In fact, the name is pretty much what got me to pay the 30$. I wanted a t-shirt for the Big Gay 5k (which I got).

However, this was to be my first 5k in six years. As anyone who knows me, or has read this blog for awhile knows, I have some rather serious pain in my legs that as of yet has not been formally figured out – let alone fixed. So, for me to run a 5k again was a really big deal, “Big Gay” or not. But I’d been doing some light running since coming to Denver, and I put my mind to it. Thankfully, I wasn’t running alone, Tristen was right there with me (not many people can say they’ve run a 5k with a dinosaur on their back).

We got there early (it was at 10am on Saturday) to get some stretching in. The forecast high for the day was 96 degrees and by 9:50 or so it was already in the 80s. However, people were in pretty high spirits, this was after all, more of a “fun” race than a serious one – which I greatly enjoyed.

Before too long it was race time, and we were off!

Now, I obviously didn’t take that picture, but that is my race starting. I am in there somewhere, but I’ve haven’t been able to spot myself.

The race went well! As the photo above hints at, this was the largest race I’d ever run. Because of that, I actually undercut myself a bit and started way too far back. They also (being more of a “fun run”) didn’t divide people up based on estimated-pace or walker/runner status. Which mean A LOT of slow people were ahead of me. In fact I estimate I passed between 200-300 people, while I was only passed twice. Had I started closer to the front, my time might have been even better. But I’m not complaining, I had fun! I finished in the top 20 for my age group and even beat my old times before my legs started hurting! The only downside was that my legs ended up pretty bad that night (and the day after, and the day after that), but I have no regrets.

Especially because they had animal friends right at the finish line to meet us, no really.

After checking out Pridefest for a bit, it was back home for some lunch and a (much needed) shower. Then I went back to Pridefest briefly to catch a large drag dance, and then it was back to Argonaut Liquors (my new favorite booze emporium) for my second Denver beer run.

I got the Blue Moon 20th Anniversary Sampler containing six varieties of beer (2×6 the BEST 12 pack) as well as a six-pack of Upslope Brewing Company’s Craft Lager. Both items were on sale. I’ll review the Blue Moons in an upcoming check-in.

I was very excited. And this time I took a bike to prevent having to carry a ton of beer 10 blocks! Great idea right!? Not really. Because of Pridefest a bunch of stupid-out-of-town people were out driving. So, in one unfortunate incident (of many) I had to slam on my bike brakes and one of the cans of beer flew out and busted open. In a moment of sheer terror at the beer gore before me, I drank as much of the foam as possible that was coming from the can, getting road grit in the process (don’t judge – the first rule of Fight Club is don’t waste decent beer, ever). I ended up salvaging it to the point that it was drinkable once I got home. Warm, exploded beer, mmm.

Craft Lager – Upslope Brewing Company

Notice the carnage.

Now, the exploded beer actually wasn’t terrible. But I’m mainly basing my opinion on the second unadulterated can I had later in the day. Despite being almost impossible to take a good picture of, this was a surprisingly good lager. Upslope is a Boulder brewery and apparently they use snowmelt and Czech hops in most of their brews, maybe that is why it was more than just a “ho-hum-average” lager (which are common these days). This would be a good summer lager in the same way a Budweiser is, but your money would be going to a smaller brewery instead of a global corporation. Worth checking out.

[Extra Beer Note: I finally learned what a “session” beer is, after having them several times. They are low ABV versions of another beer (for example a wheat ale) that are meant to be drank during a “session” e.g. they are lower in alcohol so you can drink more of them. Makes sense!]

The next day I decided to go check out Sloan’s Lake (which has a really interesting history in the link) in the Highlands area of Denver. It’s about 5 miles from my apartment, with no easy way to get there without a car (and during Pridefest which shuts down a lot of downtown’s streets) so I took my feet, a bike, a bus, and a train to get there.

On our way out there we passed Mile High Stadium, or as Tristen calls it “Reyton’s House”

The wacky public-transit route took me about 75 minutes (including walking and biking) but it was worth the trip!

When I first arrived it was cloudy, but before too long the blue skies broke free! Which meant it got very hot (90+) and my decision not to bring sunscreen was instantly one I regretted (yes I got burnt, but my farmer’s tan saved me from getting fried – except my forehead, it got roasted). The path around the lake is ~3 miles, so it’s a bit of a walk (especially if you just ran a 5k the day prior). I was told around 80,000 Geese frequent this area. I have no idea if it’s 80,000 or not (I don’t think it is all at once anyways, at least not during off-migration season) but the amount of goose shit here is legendary.

A nice view of the front range from the eastern side of the lake.

And a nice view of distant downtown Denver, from the western side of the lake.

After completing the loop I stopped at a McDonald’s for a drink and a salad. Almost as soon as I walked inside a huge-ass fight broke out and the cops got called. Just another day at McDonalds. Manries.

I then retraced my route back to Union Station (downtown area) but then walked back into the edge of the Highland neighborhood across a couple of pedestrian bridges to get some ice cream!

Along the way I passed a cool graffiti of “Reyton.”

Just a short walk from there was the destination, Littleman Ice Cream, which had been recommended to me.

Yes, the building is a giant milk can. I quickly noticed that it was very busy. In fact I ended up waiting in like 25 minutes for ice cream. But hey it’s a Sunday. They actually had an “Express” line that was limited to their 8 most popular flavors, but screw that noise, I wanted the whole experience, complete with miserable line-waiting in the sun. Besides I wanted flavors they didn’t have the in the express lane.

I went with “Cookie Monster” (on the left) which is a cool mixture of all sorts of cookies. According to the guy at the counter, whenever they are making cookies (for one of their various flavors, or ice cram-cookie sandwiches, or just cookies) they take all the left over cookies, or cookies that break, and blend them into this ice cream and call it “Cookie Monster” it was pretty boss. The other scoop was “Salted Oreo” which is exactly what it sounds like. Both were awesome, especially the Cookie Monster. Though the portions were larger than I was expecting, which is good or bad depending on your mindset. Was it 25 minutes of waiting in line awesome? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m glad I went.

And I see I’ve grossly exceeded my self imposed check-in quota, so I’m outta here.

Until next time,
-Taco

A pretty evening sky I was able to enjoy from my balcony a week or so ago.

Denver Check-in #7 (Beer/Coors)

Denver Check-in #6 (Meem, Mountains, & Lawyering)

Denver Check-in #5 (Storm)

Denver Check-in #4 (Big Gay 5k)

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