museum – Page 2

Denver Check-in #2 (Chalk)

June 9, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver,

Today (the day I actually write this, not when it gets posted) marks two weeks of me being in Denver. My job is actually a 10 week appointment, but based on the way things fell I’ll be in Denver for just a little bit more than 10 weeks in total. Still, I’m just under 20% of the way through my time here. And while I realize I still have a long way to go, it is interesting to see how relatively quickly time has been passing. I am not complaining, don’t get me wrong. While I am enjoying my time here, and I do love exploring, I miss home. So a quick passage of time, filled with fun and challenging events is pretty much my preferred agenda.

So what has happening since Check-in #1?

Well, I put in my first 5 day work-week. Due to Memorial Day my first week was really only 4 days, so this was my first true Monday – Friday grind at this job. Monday through Wednesday were relatively slow, as I primarily focused on some broader issues. On Thursday things really picked up. I got back my first report, and the feedback was just “ok” – I made one relatively large error dealing with the Federal Rules of Evidence that brought the rest of it down, but it was really just that one mistake. I got chewed at a bit over it, but it’s a mistake I won’t be making again. As soon as that happening, I got hit with another project, and boy, its a doozy. I actually don’t fully understand the question, I’m hitting a brick wall with my research, and to make things even better the attorney that gave me assignment dropped it on my desk and then left for a week with no other instructions than “Have this on my desk when I get back.” So the start of this coming week stands to be fairly interesting, especially since I am waiting for feedback on a letter to opposing counsel I drafted – and if that goes poorly, then I’ll have to spend an entire day fixing that on top of everything else.

So yeah, the work week was definitely back-heavy, which I might actually prefer – though it did leave me very drained on Friday.

But, as mentioned before, work isn’t everything out here in ole’ Denver, I also have classes! They formally started on Wednesday, and boy they are eating up a bunch of time – which was the idea, but I didn’t anticipate just how much math would be involved. If you weren’t aware, me and math have a violent history and don’t get along so well. In fact, the only class I have ever failed in my life, and really one of the few things I’ve ever failed at in general, was Algebra I in high school (I failed the first semester and passed the second, go figure). Now, to be fair, my teacher, one Jeanie McBride, was pretty much the worst teacher you could ever imagine. But, to be even more fair, I can’t blame her entirely, I’m just bad at math. To the point that when I passed Algebra II with a D- it was a joyous day indeed. Oddly enough I seem to have gotten better at Math over time, I got a B- in my undergraduate math course, which is the best math grade I’ve gotten since an A in Junior High math.

Still, the math in these Harvard Business School courses is hard math, and it’s math that is being presented in ways that I am not used to. When this math is coupled with bad internet it makes for a pretty piss-poor experience overall. To the point that I’ve thought long and hard about just dropping the classes before I get charged. I technically have until the Wednesday of next week (not this coming week) to do so, so we will see how things pan out. I did finish my first tests in each class with 90%, 90%, and 80% – so it’s not like I’m currently failing or anything. I just don’t know if I have the patience to deal with it.

On the fun side of Denver, I stuck to my “Spend One Day Per Weekend Exploring” oath, and boy did I explore, in the end about 17 miles of walking and a lot of biking, busing, and even some training (like.. via train, not training for something) on top of that. I actually beat my all-time step record, even surpassing SB and I’s crazy day in Seattle last year. The day started off with a swim, which I’ve made a Saturday morning thing. Then it was off to explore the Denver Art Museum, because it was one of their free days (which I try to hone in on, for obvious reasons). On my way to the museum the sunny skies proceeded to promptly dissapear and it was pretty obvious that a storm was rolling in off the Rockies – just my luck.

Fortunately, 1L Roomie has let me borrow one of his B Cycle memberships and I was able to beat the ran thanks to the bicycle.

This is what a B Cycle station looks like, this is actually the one closest to the art museum. You just scan your card and are on your way! The downside is that you are limited to 30 minutes otherwise you start to get “overage” fees, but you can always just check a bike in and right back out again as a way of working the system. Also this picture took like 15 minutes to upload so revel in the bike-ness.

Once inside the museum its starting pouring. I mean like, crazy rain and wind. Then, somebody pulled the fire alarm, or opened a door, or the system malfunctioned, who knows. And so they started evacuating the building – right out into the rain. So I did the true Taco thing and hid in the galleries, because screw that noise. It turned out to be nothing, and I wasn’t soaked. After perusing the museum, which was a really cool building and layout (Joan Miró was the visiting exhibit) – even if the art itself tended to be a bit too contemporary for me, it was out into the new sunshine to explore the Denver People’s Fair, which had lots of music, food, stands, etc. I didn’t spend any money, because I’m cheap, but I did enjoy walking around. After that I walked up to the Larimer Square Chalk Art festival, which had some AMAZING artwork, even though many of the artists had to start over following the rain. Following that I realized I was very near the Auraria Campus Area, which is where University of Colorado – Denver, Denver Community College, and Metropolitan State University of Denver are (talk about close quarters!). It was a pretty cool area, if not initially underwhelming – but it got better the further south into campus you went. It was also freaking deserted, which was kind of creepy.

While down there I checked out a CU-owned apartment complex I was considering (and I’m glad I passed up on, though I bet the internet was better) as well as got a sort-of up close view of Mile High Stadium. After that I role my first Light Rail up to Union Station, then took the free Mail Ride Shuttle back to a B Cycle station and headed home.

After a brief recharge (for both me and my phone) it was off to Argonaut liquor store, a HUGE liquor place about .8 miles away. I purchased my first bit of beer..

..(amounting to 13 bottles, lol) and then bemoaned that fact as I carried it all the .8 miles back. Of course I can’t complain too much, it was beer and I did beat the rain. I was really worried I was going to rained on the one time I wasn’t carrying my umbrella, but I was fortunate to stay dry, even if my arms really hated me by the time I got back to my apartment. I tell you what though, actually having an elevator after walking 17 miles is a very nice thing, and I can’t say I miss that aspect of my building back in Boston.

For the beer itself I went with a New Belgium sampler (New Belgium is located in Fort Collins Colorado) as well as a single of a peach wheat ale, which I had never seen before – and I love peaches.

Peachtree Wheat Ale – Crabtree Brewing Company

It was an interesting beer, the peach was strong, but the beer was really, really frothy. I’m not sure why. It was also massively unfiltered, which was kind of odd. Overall it wasn’t quite was I was hoping, but it was peach, so it gets points for that.

Then today (Sunday) was pretty much just classwork day, though I did get everything wrapped up for the week, so all is well moving into week three and all the craziness I am sure it will bring.

Until next time,
-Taco

A chalk artist hard at work at the Larimer Square Chalk Art Festival.

More Art, Food, & Beer (+BC)

May 6, 2015 by Taco

So I’ve been busy, but deep down some part of me knows that future me will really enjoy reading these posts (even if I don’t always enjoy writing them) so here is another post. I like to think of it as a successor to this post.

Anyways, I am happy to report that our march into Spring (no pun intended) is progressing nicely. In fact, we just broke a 186 day long streak of not hitting 70 degrees. In fact-fact, if my phone is to be believed, we are actually at about 80 some degrees as I type this. This means that all the pretty trees are continuing to bloom:

Of course, the warmer weather also means that construction crews are out in full force, so there is also that lovely smell of asphalt and dust in the air.

However, we don’t drive and none of it is super close to us, so its really not that big of deal.

The warmer weather also means it time for more beer, as is colder weather, or really any state of continued existence. A good while back I noticed a newcomer at Broadway, Ballast Point Brewery. Initially all that was being offered was one of their beers in cans, plus it was expensive, so I passed. Well, eventually Broadway caught up with the times and brought in some bottles. So I decided to try a couple of singles – both because it was new beer, and I liked their labels.

1. Victory At Sea Coffee Vanilla Imperial Porter – Ballast Point Brewing Company

2. Grapefruit Sculpin IPA – Ballast Point Brewing Company

I had the Imperial Porter first. I have to give some props to SB on this one, she was the one who actually noticed how interesting of a flavor this porter was (Coffee + Vanilla). I was distracted by the skeleton on the front, I guess. I’ve since learned that “Victory at Sea” actually refers to a whole line of Ballast Point brews, so you have to pay close attention to the subtitle and image to determine which variety you are getting. This was an interesting beer, and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’m not a huge porter person. So my palate isn’t the best for really getting into their nuances. It was a smooth beer, no real “bite” for a 10% ABV beer (low acidity), and had lots of subtle undertones. I felt like the coffee overpowered the vanilla on some drinks, which I think is common for coffee porters any ways. Its one I would drink again, but wouldn’t really go out of my way to get. (That said, notice the CRAZY GOOD Beer Advocate rankings, so you have no excuse not to try it).

The glass is low because I was sharing with SB.

Next up was the Grapefruit Sculpin IPA. First off, I had no idea what a Sculpin was. Turns out, its right on the friggin’ bottle – its the fish. This probably should have been obvious given Ballast Point’s overt nautical theme and the fact the fish is right there on the bottle, but I’m slow sometimes, what can I say. Anyways, as per the title, this is a grapefruit IPA. Unlike the porter, which I have little practice with, I’ve been on an IPA kick lately, so my palate was ready to roll, and roll it did. This beer was awesome. By far the best fruit IPA I’ve had (Sorry Dogfish Head Sixty-One). I love, love, love grapefruit and heck, anymore I’d say I love IPAs. So the combination was already on the right track for me. Of course that also meant that I’d be picky. However, this beer met the challenge. The citrus blend of the hops makes for a crisp aroma that smells (and tastes) like a freshly picked grapefruit. This beer rocked a level of tart freshness that I rarely experience. Definitely recommend this one. Even if you don’t like grapefruit and/or IPAs, this is just one of those beers that you must try (and at 7% ABV, you’ll feel just fine if you only drink one).

There was also another IPA I had this week.

Tristen and I drank it to celebrate the end of our first 8-hour exam of the semester.

While I’m no stranger to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company, I don’t think I’ve reviewed any of their beers on the blog yet. So I figured their iconic “Torpedo IPA” would be a good place to start.

3. Torpedo Extra IPA – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

So, unlike the Sculpin above, this was just a plane ole’ IPA. Well, aside from the fact that it was an “Extra” which I actually didn’t notice until after I had drank the bottle. What does Extra mean? Well, it basically means “stronger than usual.” While not quite to the level of a Dopple or Tripple, its still more alcohol than is standard for that kind of brew, in this case it was 7.2% ABV. Now, 7.2% isn’t that much, especially not compared to the 20% ABV 120 Minute IPA I had. However, as you can see from the photo, this wasn’t a 12oz bottle. Nope, this was 24 oz. So it was really two beers hidden in one bottle. So yeah, after 24 oz of 7.2% ABV beer I was feeling pretty decent. Not drunk, not even tipsy, but definitely feeling better than I normally would from two ordinary IPAs. As for Torpedo itself, its a strong brew. It has a strong pine and herbal character that hints at this beer’s Californian origins. If you like IPAs, I don’t think you could pass up a Torpedo, but if you are on the fence, just go for the 12oz.

Stepping back from beer for a moment (there’s more to come, surprise surprise), I went down to visit SB at Boston College before one of her exams. I think this is actually only the third time I’ve been down to BC. I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go see her. I was even a big person and took the bus on the way down, all by myself.

A nice view of the Charles River from the Anderson Memorial Bridge, you can see one of Harvard’s boathouses (Newell Boathouse) to the left, and if you squint you can even see one of their men’s rowing teams.

After a surprisingly easy bus ride (complete with the stereotypical inattentive parent letting their small child roam the bus freely while they talked on the phone) I arrived down at the Chesnut Hill Reservoir station, where I hopped on a BC shuttle (complete with the stereotypical drunkard undergrads carrying 128 cans of Keystone Light while they talked on their phones) and from there it was only a short ride to campus.

Of course, like everyone in the world, BC was also celebrating the warm weather with construction.

They were also in the process of tearing up pretty much everything that is green, and then (literally) rolling out more green.

I’m actually not sure why Harvard doesn’t just use grass rolls instead of seeding everything, maybe they think it looks too green. Anyways, SB was happy to see me, and we got some coffee to share while she showed me around. While I had been to BC before, I’d mainly just seen some of the more obvious attractions (e.g. Gasson Hall). This time, she showed me a few of the off-the-beaten-path kinds of places, such as the Social Work library, which is in a basement and was being renovated and thus really wasn’t worth taking pictures of. However, she also took me to see the magical “Graduate Student Only” house that BC has tucked just a bit away from campus. The walk there was gorgeous.

The house itself “Murray House” was originally used as a meeting place for commuting undergraduate students when BC first acquired it in 1967. However, in 1997 they kicked out the undergrads (hahaha), renovated the house, and made it into a Graduate Student hangout (i.e. the “Coo-Kids Club”).

The house has some offices for BC staff, common areas, study areas, a dinning room, a computer area, and most importantly a kitchen with free coffee. Yes, if you provide coffee they will come. Its in a really nice, and very close to campus, area of Chesnut Hill.

Of course pretty much that entire area is Grey Poupon.

Aside from Murray House, SB also showed me a (itty bitty) classroom in McGuinn Hall (home to the Social Work program – as well as the aforementioned dungeon library).

According to SB this is a small example, they are not all so itties. One of SB’s classrooms was right next door, but there were people in there taking an exam so I didn’t get a chance to see it. I just enjoyed the straight-outta-highschool chairs. That said, I can’t say that the overtly hostile environment I’m used to is preferable, even if the room is nicer.

SB also took me to see the main bookstore, the main dining area – “The Eagles Nest,” and she tried to show me the Bapst Library, but they were closed to the plebs for some odd reason. After that we shared a sandwich and I started the voyage back home so SB could get started on her first exam.

Of course the trip back had to be complicated, given how easy the trip down was. The BC Shuttle driver decided to be a douche and not let anyone on the shuttle while he just sat there doing nothing for 10 minutes. So I had to take the next shuttle, which required me to miss the city bus. So I ended up taking the Green Line to the Red Line to get back home, which generally speaking is not an efficient process, especially near rush hour.

All things considered, it wasn’t that bad, though the Red Line was, as usual, like being in a can of sardines.

The very next day was Friday (woo!) which mean that it was time for our weekly night out. It was my turn to decide and I wasn’t feeling very decisive, so I picked our standby of Grendel’s Den so we could enjoy the half-price food. The obvious plus to Grendel’s is that the half-price food means we just have to get beer (no really, you have to get drinks to get the half priced food), not that I am complaining. SB went with the Cambridge Brewing Company Amber Ale (discussed here) while I decided to go with something new.

4. Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale – Berkshire Brewing Company, Inc.

I bet you can’t guess which was the pale and which one was the amber. (/sarcasm)

At first glance I thought “BBC” meant it was from the Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams) but it turned out it was a brewery I hadn’t heard of before (its located in South Deerfield, MA). On top of that, the name Steel Rail made it sound like this was going to be a beast of a beer. Nope, turns out it’s just a fairly tame (5.3% ABV) extra pale ale. It had a nice smell and texture, and it was definitely a clean and clear beer, very drinkable. That said, it wasn’t especially memorable. Not bad, but a good pairing with a meal that I’d certainly drink again, but not so good that I’m going to search out a six-pack.

I also branched out in my choice of food, ordering a Chicken Burrito (which somehow neither SB nor I even realized Grendel’s had before), though SB played it ~~boring~~ safe and went with the Sonoma Wrap (Turkey, bacon, sundried tomato-goat cheese, Guacamole, arugula, onion).

Both we very good and neither of us left hungry, as I’ve explained before, during the half-price period you can’t take anything home.

Of course, we weren’t so stuffed that we didn’t want dessert, and since we were in the area we headed to Mike’s for the third time. [First time & Second Time]. This time around I went with the “Espresso” cannoli while SB went with the “Oreo.” I have to say, of the three I’ve tried so far (Peanut Butter, Limoncello, and Espresso) the Espresso is my favorite, with Limencello just a bit behind, and then Peanut Butter trailing (due to its richness). SB’s Oreo was also yummy. Though to be fair, I’ve not had anything from Mike’s thus far that I didn’t like. We watched an episode of Breaking Bad, then settled in for some Jeopardy, cannolis, and coffee.

The next day, being Saturday, was Whole Foods day. SB had also promised Tristen that we would get some coffee while we were out. However, we also decided to finally visit the Fogg Museum. We’d been wanting to visit ever since we had journeyed down to the MFA and since it was a nice Saturday we decided this was a good time to visit.

This is the “Modern” side of the museum, the other side looks like you are walking into a colonial mansion.

The Fogg Museum is normally free to Harvard students plus one guest (as are all Harvard museums, I think), however, unbeknownst to us some “Arts First” festival was going on From April 30 – May 3, and the Fogg Museum had free entry for everyone during this period. While this meant the museum was more crowded than normal, the upside was that there was live music and dancing in the lobby.

The museum had actually been closed for six years for a major renovation and only opened just last semester. From what I can tell, the museum’s renovation has received nothing but praise. Now that I’ve been, I can see why, its a really cool blend of “old” and “new” (which can be said about Boston in general).

The central lobby.

The museum was designed so that all the galleries formed a square around the central lobby and a good portion of the museum utilized natural light really well.

As far as artwork goes, it seemed like they had a good collection going on. However, I am pretty much a piss-poor evaluator of art collections (I’ll stick to beer) so take my word with a grain of salt. I did see one Monet that I had never seen before and that I really liked:

Claude Monet – La gare Saint-Lazare [The Saint-Lazare Station]

I also saw a Picasso that I hadn’t seen before, and I really liked its darker tone:

Pablo Picasso – Portrait of Wilhelm Uhde

They also had a few of Jackson Pollock’s pieces. These always make me think of Meem for some reason. I like them, though I can’t claim to understand them.

Jackson Pollock – No. 2

They even had an Andy Warhol, which given its color and subject-matter (electric chair) you don’t even need to be an art person to spot from a distance.

Andy Warhol – Big Electric Chair

Then there was this dude, I have no idea who the artist is (its technically on the wall in the image, but good luck reading that – my camera isn’t that good). I suppose there is a lot of imagery and symbolism here, but to me it just looks like a dude shitting all over the place.

A bit more elegant (in my opinion) were some of the authentic Byōbu they had in their collection. I’ve always thought the artwork on these was so cool.

Since I really don’t know much about art, here is a sampling of some of the pieces that I appreciated and enjoyed throughout the galleries. I’m not going to identify them at this point, but if you are curious you can do a reverse image search, or conversely just let me know and I will figure it out.

As we progressed up the floors, you could see the transition from old to new a little better.

Eventually you get to the top, which as a big class roof (which assists with the natural lighting throughout).

The only thing you can really interact with on the top floor is their electronic shadow box display, which is a collection of digital screens you can navigate via a wireless remote. It lets you explore their entire collection (including things currently in storage) and view extremely detailed information about each one. It was pretty cool.

Also cool was that you could see all the restoration and working areas, I love when museums allow you to see these processes.

Of course, since it was a Saturday no one was working, but it was cool to get to take a peak regardless.

After that we started to head back home (well, to Starbucks – Tristen has needs). On our way our we noticed that a little robot (who is unfortunately hard to see in this photo) was just going to town and spraying paint all over the wall, letting it run down the two stories to the basement level. It was kind of cool, and I have no idea how we missed it the first time (there are at least two entrances to the museum, we came in the “back” way).

The next day (Sunday) we had plans to go to a Graduate Commons Program cookout that was going to have Tasty Burger and Harpoon beer for free (well, one sandwich and one beer free for person, for the first 300 people). However, it started at Noon and it was about a 30 minute walk away. Being Sunday, we slept in too late, and by the time we were ready to head that direction it was late enough that we figured we would be risking dropping in after the 300 person mark (which would have just been frustrating). So, we decided to just forgo the cookout altogether and go to Tasty Burger ourselves (which never of us had been to, remembering that I shunned my LRW party there due to weather). Well, little did we know that this particular Sunday was host not only to the final day of the aforementioned “Arts First” festival, but also Harvard Square’s 32 Annual MayFair – which included lots of store stands, food stands, food trucks, street vendors, live music, and most noticeably – a metric crapton of people. Still, our bellies hungered for noms, and so we decided to stick with it (and by we, I mean me – I’m the antisocial one).

Tasty Burger wasn’t too packed, but holy hell they were slow. We ended up waiting 17 minutes in total just for 2 items. Still, when the food did finally come the burgers were wrapped up really cool, so all you had to do was fold over the wrapping and you could hold your burger without getting it all over your hands!

For reference, I went with the Kahuna Burger (pineapple, grilled red onion, and teriyaki sauce) and SB went with the BBQ Chicken Sandwich. I think we were both in agreement. The burgers were definitely better than McDonald’s but weren’t quite up to par with homemade (or restaurant level) burgers (I realize the chicken wasn’t a burger, deal with it).

Despite the wait, we got to sit at the bar which looks out on Winthrop Square, and subsequently to the masses of people moving about for the MayFair. There was this one bus, I couldn’t help but laugh. I think it must have taken the poor guy 5 minutes to finally make the turn given how many people kept walking out in front of him.

The traffic situation was bad, because they had closed off several main streets, and the street they were flooding people onto was half-torn up so it was only at 50% capacity. Again, I don’t miss having a car here.

Afterwards, our bellies full, we decided to walk around and explore the MayFair a bit (at the time we still didn’t know what it was).

At first we didn’t quite realize how big it was, but then it just kept going:

And going:

YAY TRAIN!

After some very heavy deliberating, we decided to save money and not visit any stands (namely the Ben & Jerry’s truck that SB was eying).

On our way back home we passed by more of the “Arts First” activities in the Science Center Plaza. Of course we also passed by this:

Which to her credit, SB resisted once again, I was quite proud of her. Though immediately afterwards we kept running into people carrying Ben & Jerry’s, it was pretty comical. We took a detour through the Memorial Hall, then decided to check out a cool looking little Church that we’ve been by countless numbers of times but never visited.

The door was open, but when we went in it looked like they were in the middle of some ceremony, so we didn’t hang around. We did however notice the nifty little door on the side of the church, which SB took a photo of and I present here, because its a door that SB took a photo of:

After that, it was back home for some chores and “getting stuff done” time. However, not all was boring, there was plenty of beer waiting for us!

Yep! SB and I and broke down and bought a 12 pack sampler from Harpoon Brewery (thus providing us with everything [and more] we missed at the cookout). While I’ve had both the UFO and IPA before (discussed here and here) I’ll revisit everything here, plus welcome the two newcomers! All beers are from Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall. [The lighting in some of the photos is odd because one of our florescent kitchen lights burnt out – which has now been fixed by maintenance.]

5. IPA

6. UFO White

7. Big Squeeze UFO (Shandy)

8. Summer Beer

First up, the IPA:

This is a strong “standard” IPA, in a similar vein to the Sierra Nevada reviewed above. However, unlike the Torpedo, this is not an Extra so it only clocks in at 5.9% ABV. Not a light weight beer by any means, but far more downable than the Extra. This IPA has a nice hop and malt balance, and has a nice touch of smoothness compared to a lot of baseline IPAs. Some people (beerfags) say that this is too “easy” of an IPA, but I appreciate it for what it is, a good baseline/starter IPA.

UFO (Unfiltered Wheat Offering) White is probably one of Harpoon’s most well-known staples, and for good reason, its a solid witbier. It manages to form a nice citrus-filled balance that not many witbiers are able to achieve. While I may have passed my wheat-ale-mania stage, I still appreciate a good wheat beer (and SB all the more so). However, some of them are just too heavy and malty. Not UFO, it keeps up the tartness that I like to see in a witbier, yet manages to stay mild on the palate, probably due to its 4.8% ABV.

Here is a variation on UFO that I had never tried (or seen) before, and keeping with the grapefruit theme, I really liked this one. Maybe I’ve just been getting lucky with shandy lately, but they’ve really been impressing me. I’ve discovered that I am not a big fan of overly sweet shandies. So, this being grapefruit flavored, I was hoping that Harpoon had erred on the side of tangy rather than in-your-face sweet. Fortunately, they had done just that and the result was a strong shandy showing. While it definitely was sweet, the aftertaste of mild bitterness helped to offset the sugar. This would make a great summer beer (well, duh – its a shandy) as it finds a nice balance between being alcoholic and being refreshing, the 4.5% ABV probably helps keep the scales from tipping towards the “too much” side of things.

Last up (but not least) was Harpoon’s Summer Beer, which is actually a Kölsch variant. Being a summer beer, the ABV is sub 5% (4.8%) to increase drinkability and the fact that it’s a Kölsch keeps the bitterness down. The Summer Beer was actually what SB and I originally set out to get (just a six pack) but when we saw the variety pack, which included the Summer Beer and UFO White and IPA and especially Big Squeeze we knew we had to go with that instead, so we did. I’m actually not super well versed on summer beers, namely because I haven’t had that many of them and because I drink them so far apart that I tend to forget about all the flavors, scents, and appearances. That said, this was a good beer. Very crisp, with a slightly unique twang to it, that reminded me of their IPA in a very faint way (you could tell that Harpoon has a “theme” running between some of their lines) and actually added to the complexity of the Kölsch base. It was a very clear beer, with ending hints of coriander, which is actually common spice for summer beers.

I’d solidly recommend all of the Harpoon beers mentioned above, and as always, welcome donations 😛

Anyways, that catches us up to the present. I hope you enjoyed me being all cultural and sophisticated as I explored both art, food, and beer! (and BC)

Until next time,
-Taco

Art, Food, & Beer

January 12, 2015 by Taco

Its been pretty cold here in Boston, the coldest since we moved out here by a long shot. For a few days the high was something like 6 degrees, which is just not awesome. Since I walk to school, its been a lot of fun getting half frozen on the way there. Its mainly due to Reynaud’s that the walk is fairly crappy. My core body does ok, but my fingers and toes really tend to eat it (and that’s with two pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves). On the really cold days even my eyes hurt its so cold, but you gotta walk to school one way or another, so I just bundle up and deal with it.

Speaking of school, if you remember from last time, I’ve started the beloved “Problem Solving Workshop” that 1Ls are forced to take. I have to say, it sort of split itself between being just “OK” and “My Expectations” (which were obviously very bad). On one hand, I got a decent team that is (mostly) easy to work with. There are five of us and only one person seems to be a major slacker. On the the other hand, the projects are even more time consuming than I thought they would be and the class time itself is pretty terrible. Its made worse because we have no breaks. Basically the class is divided into two portions. The actual class runs from 9 to 12, then you work on your project from 12 to 5. Well, from 9 to 12 we have no breaks, no bathroom breaks, nothing. We also take attendance, Jr. High style. There are two professors (well technically, one professor, the other guy is a practicing attorney), and their assistant comes to class and uses a seating chart to make sure we are there. Its all pretty stupid for a professional course. One nice thing is that my group divided up the projects into pairs, so while we have 13 classes, I only actually have to do anything other than come to class on 6 of those days.

But enough about that.

Aside from the group project fest that is PSW, this was a fairly good week. I secured a summer position and SB secured an internship for the second year of her MSW program. Both of which are very awesome things. So, to celebrate we decided to use a gift card that Meem got us to a place called John Harvard’s Brewery & Ale House.

Its a bit of misnomer, since it has absolutely nothing to do with John Harvard or Harvard University, so they are capitalizing on that a bit, but I had heard that they had good food and beer. The thing is, like most places around here, its a bit above our price range. Enter Meem’s Christmas pressie. Thanks to our gift card we could actually afford to eat there and get some beer, can’t beat that!

I liked the interior, its actually in the lower level of a building so it has a sort of brewery/basement type feel, which I guess is pretty much spot on. After thinking for a bit, we went with a pitcher of the Brattle Blond Ale, which doesn’t appear to have a Beer Advocate page yet, which might mean its fairly new or a limited batch. Either way, it was pretty tasty, even SB liked it. It was a fairly low ABV beer (4.5%) so it was a good one to get a pitcher of when there are only two people (and by two people I mean 2/3 of the pitcher normally goes to me). The food was also good, SB went with the Dunster Burger and I went with the “Old Fashioned” Chicken Pot Pie, which was actually pretty dang awesome for a pot pie.

We also decided to take in a bit of culture this weekend.

That is the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Now, I’m not a huge art person, but I do enjoy walking around art museums. I did quite a few of them in Europe and so I figured it was worth visiting one here in Boston as well. The good news is that its free for students. Well, to be fair, its free for some students. This actually confused us a bit at first. Entrance is actually really expensive (like everything else out here). For instance, standard Adult tickets are 25$ a piece. Then, standard 18+ Student tickets are 23$ a piece, which is of course way out of SB and I’s price range. However, there are what are called “University Member” student tickets, which are free. Basically these are agreements between the MFA and certain (almost exclusively New England) universities where those students get in free. Fortunately both SB and I’s universities were members, so we were free. We’d wanted to visit the MFA since moving out here, but getting busy (and initially being unsure whether or not it was actually free) kept us away until now. So we headed out on Saturday.

And apparently so did the rest of Boston. I have never, ever seen a museum of any kind this crowded. Not even the free day at the Boeing Museum of Flight was this packed. When we first walked in, the line at the ticket counter was huge! I’m pretty sure we spent about 15-20 minutes in line, in an art museum. We actually doubled checked to make sure something wasn’t going on that day, and there wasn’t anything. It must have just been a good day to go see some art. The Goya exhibit was also still there (until the 19th) and since SB had studied Goya in Spain, that was one of the big things that finally drew us out to the museum. But, I’ll get to the Goya exhibit in a minute.

When we first came in we started off in the “Contemporary Art” section. (The museum was divided into five areas, with a special exhibit area [Goya] – Contemporary, Asia-Oceania-Africa, Europe, The Americas, and The Ancient World). There were some odd floating/jumping people in the contemporary area.

We then progressed into the European area, which was much more typical of what you would expect from an art museum.

They had a bit of everything, from Picasso, to Van Gogh, to Monet. One temporary gallery in the halls between sections was a collection of World War I posters. Of course the famous Uncle Sam poster was there, but there were also some I had never seen before, such as this rather grim one.

They even had some from Germany, which I’m not sure if I had ever seen before.

From there we moved onto the Americas area, which had a ton of beautiful old furniture, with lots of paintings to boot.

Of course it wasn’t just North American displays, they also had Central and South American items, including some cool stuff from the Mayans.

By this time we were starving, since we seem to chronically plan our meals poorly on our days out. Or maybe we do it on purpose as an excuse to eat while out and about. Either way, the MFA has plenty of food, four places to eat in total. One of them was in the big atrium in the near middle of the museum, adjacent to the outdoor courtyard (which was currently closed due to the cold).

But, these places were all very expensive. So we followed the sound of crying children and the smell of grease down to the poor people cafeteria in the basement (literally) where we got some over-priced hot dogs and chicken fingers. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either. It was pretty clear that the two cafes and the actual restaurant (the image above is one of the cafes) are where they put most of the effort in, and they are priced accordingly.

After lunch we were feeling much better and went on to explore the ancient world area. Like most museums, the ancient world area starts with Egypt.

We were actually surprised by how many displays their ancient world area had. For an art museum, they had quite a bit of stuff that you’d expect to see in a natural history museum. But then again, “art” is a very broad term.

SB got a little nervous in the room with all the mummies and sarcophagi. I enjoyed that. After Egypt we moved onto Greece, which was really cool. They even had some battle gear, including a shield (hoplon) that was still in outstandingly good shape.

Next to the shield were some Hoplite helmets, which were also in really good condition. Most of the one’s I’ve seen before have been quite oxidized (like the hoplon above).

Rome was well represented as well, especially in regards to their pottery (which was blended in with Greek pottery and I’m not smart enough to tell the difference, at least not superficially).

There were also more than a few statutes, ranging from some famous Emperors to this massive statute, which admittedly I can’t remember who it was since we were in a bit of a hurry at that point since the museum closed rather early (4:45).

There was also a fun exhibit called “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles,” which featured exactly that.

I thought my Dad would probably have liked this room.

The Train displays weren’t quite as big, but they did has one slick looking one.

Outside this exhibit were some huge, very detailed modeled boats. I don’t think they were actually part of the exhibit, but they blended in well with the theme of the adjacent room.

As the museum closing time got closer we circled back through the upper levels of a few places, including the contemporary area. I’m glad we did since we saw the hands down coolest display of that part of the museum, a bunch of bottles. No seriously.

It was a four sided box of glass, mirrors, and glass bottles. Each side was a different arrangement but all four sides appeared to extend into eternity. It was way cool. Then, as we were leaving I noticed a cool painting that I had actually missed the first time around (I was on the great bathroom hunt the first time).

So, about Goya.

SB and I were quite excited. I like Goya’s works, especially his Black Paintings. The museum had also built up the exhibit, talking about the items they had acquired from the Prado, Louvre, the Galleria degli Uffizi, and even some other US museums. The cool title “Order and Disorder” seemed to allude to following a path from Goya’s earlier works to his darker later works. Apparently a lot of other people were excited too. The line to the Goya exhibit was HUGE. It was really more of a theme-park kind of line, I didn’t know art museums generated lines like that. Anyways, we decided to do it, since SB was excited to show me some of the paintings she had seen in Madrid (and I wanted to see them). So we waited in line (watching the Museum members pass us by in their high speed Grey Poupon line). Once we were done with that line, we went downstairs.. to another line.. yes theme park style. Eventually we got inside the exhibit and it was PACKED. I mean, sardine level packed. It was pretty horrible actually. Then, to make matters worse, the collection was.. ehm.. lackluster. They had loads and loads of pieces, but at least 80% of them were just his sketches for the paintings. Sure, these are important, but I imagine you need to be a real art connoisseur to fully appreciate an exhibit like that. To be fair, they did have a few really cool paintings, such as his self portrait in the workshop, and the final painting of the exhibit which was The Last Communion of St Joseph of Calasanz. However, they were very much lacking in the Black Paintings department, all they really had were a couple of sketches of his black paintings. In the end, SB and I both left a bit disappointed, especially since the line was so long and the exhibit so crowded. I mean, I’m glad we waited in line for the Goya exhibit (though if we would have waited a bit later there would have been much less of a line, but we didn’t know that and closing time was getting closer) since I had never seen any Goya stuff before (or maybe I did in Europe but have since forgotten, that is quite possible). However, on the whole, the rest of the museum was actually more enjoyable for us.

We actually stayed right up until closing time, to the point that the people were coming around prodding everyone out of the museum like cattle. The sun was going down and so it was getting extremely cold. We decided to walk the couple of blocks up the street to Northeastern University to get some Starbucks. Well, we never found the Starbucks and kept getting colder so we just decided to head back. Then the Green Line took forever to get there, so I was pretty much an ice cube by the time it showed up. We then went all the way up to Whole Foods to do some shopping. By the time we got home, I was very, very glad to be there.

So all in all, its been an enjoyable weekend. Good food, good beer, a bit of culture, and even ample amounts of football (as well as some awesome cold-brew coffee from our new French Press). I just wish I didn’t have to return to the Problem Solving Workshop tomorrow morning, but such is life! 🙂

I imagine that the next art museum I will be checking out is Harvard’s Fogg Museum, which just recently reopened after six years of major renovations and is closer to us, as well as being free (for us).

Until next time,
-Taco

Visting the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek

June 17, 2012 by Taco

Today started out pretty bleakly, it was cold and grey outside, and it looked like it could start raining at any second. Since I slept a lot yesterday I couldn’t really sleep in much today, even in spite of the perfect conditions for doing so. I decided that it would be a good day to head to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, an art museum which holds the former private collection of Carl Jacobsen (1842-1914), the son of J.C. Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg Breweries (which was named after Carl). The museum is primarily focused around statues, but there are some paintings as well, with Picasso, Monet, and van Gogh all being represented.Sunday was the best day to go not because it was raining, but because Sunday is the one day of the week where entrance is free, so naturally that’s when I went.

Of course things can never be easy, and as soon as I left the kollegium it started pouring outside. My cheap umbrella did as good as it usually does (i.e. not very) and I made it to the bus stop where I waited.. and waited.. and waited. Until I finally realized that for some reason, which is still unknown to me, the buses had been rerouted. This is problematic because this is the only way for me to get to class, without walking 15 minutes to a train station, that doesn’t even get me that close to class. But I figured it out, via a different route. Right as I got to the museum it stopped raining (of course).

After entering through the massive glass revolving door, I noticed that the air was a little warmer inside than I might have expected. I didn’t think much about it at first, especially since while I was depositing my backpack in the lockers things were much cooler. But as I progressed back up to the main lobby, I noticed why things were so warm, the “center” of the museum is a giant tropical greenhouse, complete with a cafe and multiple fountains. I was naturally drawn to the small, semi-hidden statute of a hippopotamus.

Proceeding from the central garden area, there were several wings to the museum, which had themes from ancient sculpture (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, etc.) to French Impressionists, to Danish Works. It was a little confusing, but every museum I’ve been in thus far, with the exception of the Museum of Danish Resistance, has had a confusing layout. The first portion, the ancient art, was undoubtedly my favorite part of the whole museum. I got to see loads of extremely old sculptures, including several Roman Emperors, a bust of Alexander the Great, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, and even pieces of the Babylon Gate! Several of them you could even touch, which was way cool, I think the oldest thing I touched was about 4500 years old! In the center of the ancient area was the “Great Hall” which was home to statues of a vast array of Roman dignitaries and Gods. I got a picture of me chilling out with Marcus Aurelius, one of my all-time favorite Romans.

After walking around amongst naked statues, disembodied heads, and all sorts of other pleasant things I proceeded onto the paintings and more modern works of art. There was a lot of really fascinating stuff, especially some of Rodin’s work, but I was still most impressed by the ancient area. The final exhibit was devotedly solely to Danish artists, and while a lot of this was relatively new (past 250 years onwards), there were still some really awesome statues. My two favorites of this area were “Death and the Maiden” and “The Panther Hunter,” the later seen here.

By this time I was especially hungry, so I headed out, having seen every single room in the entire museum, which took about 2.5 hours I would imagine. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon, and here most things start closing around 4 or 5, but mainly 4 on Sunday (if they are even open). So I took off in search of food, and literally every place I found that was still open was catering to tourists, and therefore was crazy expensive. So, I decided to just live with my hunger and start working my way home, as the weather had improved (it was bright and sunny the entire time I was in the museum). I decided to head to the University’s Botanical Gardens, the largest in Denmark since it was free and it was sunny. Well, by the time I got there, which included walking and taking a bus, things had clouded up, got windy, and got cold. Naturally, within 15 seconds of me entering the gardens it started pouring, and I couldn’t even go in the vast greenhouses because they were all closed due to issues with the alarm system. So I found a small open glass shed, and waited for the rain to calm down a bit so I could head home.

Having resolved myself to return to the Botanical Gardens on a nicer day when I’m not quite so hungry, I boarded the bus, made a quick stop at the store for some milk, then plopped down here. Naturally the sun came back out once I was inside, and has pretty much been out ever since, its one of those frustrating days where it starts to rain the instant you go to do something, then is sunny as soon as you go inside.

Tidbit of the Day: The Danish Flag

Since it works its way into a good amount of my photos, I figured it would be nice to share the story of the Danish flag. Unlike many flags around the world, the Danish flag has a name, its called Dannebrog, and it has its own “mythical story” which is pretty cool.

The legend dates the origin of the flag to the Battle of Lyndanisse, in Estonia (against the Estonians), on June 15, 1219. The battle was going badly for the Danes, and defeat seemed imminent. However a Danish priest on top of a hill overlooking the battle prayed to God, which meant that the Danes moved closer to victory the more he prayed. At a one moment he was so tired in his arms that he dropped them and the Danes then lost the advantage and were moving closer to defeat. He needed two soldiers to keep his hands up and when the Danes were about to win, ‘Dannebrog’ fell from the sky and the King took it, then showed it to the troops and their hearts were filled with courage and the Danes won the battle. According to the legend the flag, Dannebrog, was given to the Danes from God himself, and from that day forward, it has been the flag of Denmark and the Danish kings.

Christian August Lorentzen painted this iconic event in 1809, the painting below is the original, which I saw in the National Art Museum. The Dannebrog is also the oldest state flag in the world still in use by an independent nation.

-Taco

Denver Check-in #2 (Chalk)

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