The Dedly Blog

Just in case you only read this blog and don't follow my PR blog (Launchpad) or my "news feed", my short story collection, We'll Watch the Sunrise from the Bottom of the Sea is now available in print from Amazon and CreateSpace. What's the difference? For you, nothing. For me, quite a bit.

CreateSpace is Amazon's indie print publishing platform. They offer higher royalties to me without charging you more money. The problem is that no one goes to CreateSpace to buy books; they go to Amazon. Amazon has a far easier to navigate site, a recommendation engine, free shipping, (when you buy enough stuff) and sells more than just indie books, films, and cd's. Buying my book there means less money in the short run but potentially more down the road as word of mouth spreads.

As for e-books, you can only get it on the Kindle for right now but I will be releasing it in other formats over the summer. Kindle Select, in and of itself, isn't some magic spell that you can cast to make sales appear. I'm under contract through the end of June so we'll see what happens.

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Just in case you only read this blog and don't follow my PR blog (Launchpad) or my "news feed", my short story collection, We'll Watch the Sunrise from the Bottom of the Sea is now available from Amazon.

A tiny star appears in a little girl's bedroom. An alien's first encounter with an Earthling is a dog. A couple find themselves adrift upon the Pacific Ocean in their hotel room. A trio of friends journey to Neptune to mine diamonds. These are just some of the stories included in this speculative fiction collection.

You can only get it on the Kindle for right now but I will be releasing it in other formats over the coming months. Paperback is next.

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From the weird brewery names file comes Clown Shoes Beer. You can read their story on the website. As an avid fan of both pecan pie and porter, I knew I had to try this one.

On the pour, I got a dark brown body that was almost black with an ample brown head on top. The aroma wasn't there. I inhaled deeply, hoping for the pecans but all I got was standard brown porter, which is not a bad thing mind you, I was just expecting more.

It had a roasted malt taste with a slight tingle from the hops. There was an average sweetness in the middle that carries through to the end. There's only a slight hint of pecans, far less than I expected. Although it's 7% ABV I didn't notice the alcohol.

Perhaps I had it too cold but others who've had it on Beer Advocate had similar results.

Unfortunately I think the label (that's Genghis Khan hurling pecan pies at turkeys) was more interesting than its contents. Maybe I'll try it again at cellar temperature, but its out of rotation so it may be a while (if ever) before it comes back.

I had much better luck Breckenridge Brewery's Vanilla Porter. Like Flying Dog Brewery, these guys are based out of Colorado and are enjoying wider distribution, lucky for me.

On the pour, the beer has a brown body with an ample cream-colored head which offers fine Belgian lace as you drink more and more of it. Hold your glass up to the light and the beer instantly turns ruby. It has a faint classic porter aroma.

When it hits your tongue, vanilla is there from the start, but well-balanced. The body is smooth and lighty sweet which carries through to the finish. At 4.7% ABV I could drink this one all night and with the taste I'd want to.

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You would think that a meteorite exploding over one's country would elicit some kind of emotional response. Nope. Not in Russia. The Daily Show found out why.

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It's been a while since I've reviewed any beer but I hope 2013 will be different. For Christmas, my wife got me a bucket of beer, most of which I haven't had before, from a new liquor store that opened in an old department store down on the coast. I sense a road trip coming on.

First up is Hobgoblin, the flagship brew from the U.K.'s Wychwood Brewery. It's classified as a Dark English Ale, which it is if you're comparing it to the sickly yellow swill that's so common. It has a reddish-amber body, "ruby", if you prefer. It has a slight hop aroma that arises out of a solid tan head. For me, it tasted like a Bass Ale, when it was still a good beer. The beer finishes with a hoppy bite at first, but then it fades. 5.2% ABV

The website states that they use a blend of Styrian, Goldings & Fuggles hops, which I would expect from an English Ale. The chocolate malt and crystal malts provide the sweetness and color, though there isn't too much of the former as this would be a darker and sweeter beer. I don't notice the "toffee" or "biscuit" taste notes, but as I don't my beer at the recommended 60°F maybe that's why.

Overall, this is a good solid session beer (for me at least). The English are good about that. I'd drink it again and will try others if the price is right. Sales of Bass (now owned by InBev) declined 64.6% from 2001 to 2010 (see, I'm not the only one that noticed the quality dropped). If you're feeling nostalgic about it how it used to be, try Hobgoblin instead.

A far different beer is Peg Leg Imperial Stout. It's been a while since I had any of Clipper City Brewery's Heavy Seas line and this was a good way to come back to it.

On the pour, a chocolate aroma arises from the glass. An ample brown head covers a black body. A bright light will reveal hints of ruby color hiding within. It has a robust taste, coffee mixed with chocolate.

The website states that Warrior, Simcoe and Fuggles were used, with the Fuggles used for dry hopping. Warrior is a recent creation so I'm not familiar with it, though the website says that it was the primary bittering hop. Simcoe is no slouch though.

Despite this beer's robust character it has a very smooth finish. Just as the last molecules leave your tongue, it reminds you that this is an Imperial. Until this point, you'd be forgiven for not noticing that this is an 8% ABV brew. And after a couple more you might not notice at all.

Definitely a really good beer and one that I'd get again.

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Three blogs have been brought to my attention over the last few weeks:

1. 666 Days of Metal: The blogger is posting an album review each day. And the guy really knows his stuff. Warning: Not for the faint of heart. If guys with lots of hairspray and neon colored spandex are what pops into your head when you think about metal, then DO NOT visit this site as it will crush you. Most of the albums listed so far are too heavy, even for me.
   
   
2. Mösh N' Höps: This blog mixes two of my favorite things together. No, not chocolate and peanut butter (though that's good too). I'm talking about metal and beer! Their taste in metal is heavier than their beer preference, but neither sucks so it's all good.
   
   
3. Beer Man: The Beer Man reviews the frothy stuff for some newspaper in Wisconsin. Considering how the cheese state wallows in sucky domestic swill from the time of our fathers, his sampling extends far beyond the state's borders.

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Here's the list of books that I've reviewed over at the New Podler Review of Books in the second half of 2012.

Trust by Mary Sisson. The sequel to her sci-fi debut Trang. Good old school soft sci-fi.

We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson. The bizarro author's second short story anthology. A fantastic collection of work that sublimely comments on the everyday monsters (and a few slimy ones) that compel us to do very bad things.

"Quantum Fashionistas" by Libby Cone. A sci-fi short story by a co-reviewer at the blog. Blends multi-verse travel with high fashion. Clever.

Little Deadly Things by Harry Steinman. Three "friends" spar over how to shape the future with biochemistry and nanotechnology.

Blackened Cottage by A.E. Richards. Solid gothic horror/suspense story set in the winter of 1875 in England

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10 miles.

A 3 hour walk, half that for a jogger. 10 minutes on the highway, 15 to 20 if you take the state roads. A half gallon of gas for some cars, a third or a quarter if you drive a more efficient one.

Light takes 0.000053763 seconds to traverse that distance (in vacuum). It takes sound 46.875 seconds.

There are many ways you can look at it but there's only one way I can look at it right now. It's the distance from Sandy Hook Elementary School to my house.

Newtown is a lot like Bethel: a small New England town in Western Connecticut. Our towns play each other in school sports. Their kids play on the regional hockey team with our kids. I'd argue that their town is a little quieter than our own. The highlight of social activity there is the Edmon Town Hall Theater where you can see movies (if you don't mind waiting a couple of months after they've had their run in the main theaters) for $2.

What I'm trying to get at is that what happened there could very well have happened here. I know it. Everyone in our town knows it too. We're thankful that the horrific tragedy missed us, but we feel terrible for them.

10 miles.

I think that tragedies don't really hit home, until they hit close to home.

Our town's schools were in lockdown. One advantage we have is that all of the schools are located in an "education park" (much like an industrial park) and there are limited access points so it's easy for our police force to establish a defensive perimeter. Nobody gets in or out.

But while we knew our kids were safe, we wanted to get to them and hug them. We had to wait and any parent knows how agonizing that can be.

I'm not going to politicize this. Plenty of people already are doing that on TV, radio, the internet, and even the telephone. I listen to them and ask, "What the hell do you know about us? You're not from here. You're just using this to push your own agenda." But apparently there's no waiting period for that.

10 miles.

In the coming days and weeks we'll learn more than we care to about what happened. I know I'm not alone in wanting to push the images away. All parents are doing what they can to block out the unthinkable. But it just keeps coming back.

10 miles.

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Here's the list of books that I've reviewed over at the New Podler Review of Books for the first half of 2012.

Superliminal by Andy Kaiser. An information technology private investigator (ITPI) thriller/comedy. A fast-paced story driven by a protagonist whose IT knowledge is matched only by his wry sense of humor. Highly recommended.

Jezebel's Ladder by Scott Rhine. Would make a good series for the SyFy Channel.

Standing Alone by Martin J Dougherty. Sci-Fi novel set in a future where the EU dominates the world. And there's mechs.

The Godhead Machine by Thomas Carpenter. The sequel to The Digital Sea. Highly recommended sci-fi thriller.

Just Before the Dawn by Bonnie Kozek. Honey McGuinness has fallen off the wagon (several of them in fact) in Small Town USA. But that's only the beginning of her troubles in this raw, unexpurgated noir thriller.

Shaman, Friend, Enemy by M. Terry Green. Livvy is back and her Techno-Shaman career has taken off. Unfortunately her success has drawn the jealous ire of a dark shaman. Highly recommended urban fantasy.

As before, a mix of genres, formats, quality and style.

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Over at the New Podler blog, Rob Steiner and I offer our thoughts about what Ray Bradbury meant to us. Plus there's a link to NSFW fan video. =)

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My friend Jim and his family came to visit us last month. They live in New Jersey so we only get to see them once or twice a year. I offered him my homebrew while he brought up some intersting strong beers that I can't get around here.

The first up was Skull Splitter Ale from Sinclair Breweries. This ale is brewed over in Scotland at Orkney Brewery, located on the Orkney Islands. Yes, this is Viking country. This particular brew was named after Thorfinn Einarsson, who was the 7th Viking Earl of Orkney. You can research the rest of the history on your own.

Anyway, as befitting a viking, this ale clocks in at 8.5% ABV.

Now if you go to their website, you'll get the professional assessment of this ale's characteristics. My description differs.

On the pour, I received an ample tan head that remained stable. It had a spicy, hoppy aroma but not like what you'd get from an IPA. The body was reddish-amber in color and clear. There was a lightly sweet taste to it with fruity esters making their presence known. Hops and malt were well balanced. It had a smooth finish. Despite the high alcohol content, this wasn't an ale that smacked you in the face. The alcohol crept up on you from behind. It would be easy to drink too many of these and before you knew it, you'd be surrounded by vikings. Well, actually you'd be drunk, but you might swear to your spouse you were ambushed by vikings.

Next up is Dirty Bastard, from Founders Brewing Company. Yes, Founders is located in Michigan. The Scotland connection is the fact that this is a Scotch style ale. What? That's not good enough for you? Too bad! Making up cheezy blog post titles is harder than it seems.

This is another potent beer, clocking in at 8.5% ABV. Again, my description differs from the one on the website. In both cases, I performed taste tests on two bottles.

On the pour, I got a light tan head. It was a little weak but stable. It had a faint aroma that told me it was a scotch ale. You know, that sweet peat smell. Anyway, it had a clear amber body and tasted rich. Again, as the Scots didn't have access to hops, their brews were malty. Founders feels that they've got the right amount of hops but the amount I detected was no more than you'd expect for the style. Still, this is a good beer and it finishes sweet. Unlike the Skull Splitter, the alcohol was more noticeable. You really wouldn't be fooled that this beer had more of a punch to it.

In the end, I preferred the Skull Splitter over the Dirty Bastard. It probably wasn't fair as these two ales, while both high in alcohol, were different styles.

Now I've just got to find a store that'll accept the empties.

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1978 marked the beginning of the end for Disco. People grew tired of the hedonistic lifestyle that accompanied the shallow, vapid music. But while Disco would retreat from its dominance over the airwaves, it didn't completely go away. Elements of disco live on in Hip Hop, House, New Wave, Techno, Rave, and Dance Pop. And that's fine. Just so long as it doesn't try to take over the world again. :)

The release of Who Are You by The Who was overshadowed by the death of Keith Moon, three weeks later from an overdose of clomethiazole. While the album was a commercial hit, the band was falling apart between grueling tours, drug and alchohol abuse, and internal friction.

As Who albums go, this one is a bit of a bust for me. Sure, the title track was huge (and is now forever associated with CSI), but nothing great stands out for me. The synthesizers and orchestral arrangements are a bit thick, and too prominent in the overall mix. It's not that I hate either, it's that there's a right way and wrong way for them to be used and on this album, Townsend gets it wrong more often than right. Of course, that's just my opinion. He and everyone else can tell me to sod off.

For example, "New Song" is a "fuck you" to commercial radio but the synthesizer makes it sound silly and trite. "Had Enough" has its own rebellious qualities but the string arrangement makes it sound like they're trying to sweeten the song. "Guitar and Pen" comes across as witty but "Trick of the Light" is a bit dull. "Love Is Coming Down" is unlistenable and the strings only make it worse.

On "Music Must Change" the synths are there to rescue the song. Moon couldn't play the song's 6/8 time (something I just learned) so the synths keep the song moving along. Entwistle's "905" is an example of getting it right. It's a sci-fi tale and the synths help to set the mood, getting bits of robot chatter to dominate the background. It also works on "Sister Disco", where the synths give you the feeling that you're in a 70's discotheque.

If Moon had been healthy, this would've been a different album. Instead, it heralds the beginning of the end for The Who. As it stands, the title track is what draws people to this album, plus the fact that it's Moon's last.

With Led Zeppelin in decline after Presence and Aerosmith's drug use becoming a performance issue, the scene was ripe for something new: And Van Halen was it. Their self-titled debut is a landmark album in rock history.

Eddie's guitar work spawned a generation of imitators. Legions of teenage boys mimiced him with air guitar solos. And there were plenty of professional copycats too. David Lee Roth got almost as much attention for strutting around the stage and his caterwauling vocals. The man was a human peacock. Still is. While Michael Anthony and Alex Van Halen never enjoyed the celebrity worship that the other two enjoyed, their work on this album was meritorious.

"Runnin' With the Devil", "Eruption", the cover of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me", "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love", and "Jamie's Cryin'" have all enjoyed ample air play. But the other tracks were decent too. "Atomic Punk" and the slow number, "Little Dreamer", stand out. And my favorite is "Ice Cream Man".

You'll be surprised to know that this is the only Van Halen album in my collection. I never got around to picking up the other albums as there were other bands I was more interested in and spending money was limited. As VH were always on the radio, it wasn't like I was missing out. I picked up 5150 and thought it sucked. I didn't mind Sammy Hagar solo; I just didn't like him in VH. I went with friends to the concert for that tour and was so bored I drifted off to sleep. They avoided playing all but a couple of DLR songs, to break with the past I guess. To this day, it's probably the worst concert I've ever been to. By the time money was no longer a factor, I hated them. Their egos were just too much.

The Police debuted with Outlandos d'Amour. They were the first New Wave band to really break into commercial radio, although that didn't really happen until the following year after touring the US in an Econoline (Can you imagine Sting traveling around the country in van?), the transportation of choice for countless punk and garage bands. It all started with "Roxanne", a plea to a prostitute to quit her profession. The next single was "Can't Stand Losing You" wherein a despondent man considers suicide as a means of revenge on his ex-girlfriend.

But there was a question as to whether there was any "punk" in this band that acted as if they were punks. They certainly didn't fit in with The Ramones or Sex Pistols oerve. While songs like "Be My Girl - Sally" and "Born in the 50's" were there to give the finger to the mainstream (love songs for blow up dolls, anyone?), the instrumental closer, "Masoko Tanga" showed surprising musical sophistication. They also had love songs like "Next to You" and frequently incorporated reggae rhythms in their music ("So Lonely", "Can't Stand Losing You"). But for all the mugging for the camera, their music had an infectious bounce to it that was the hallmark of punk and early New Wave.

My favorite album from 1978 has always been Hemispheres by Rush. The title track, an 18 minute opus is the sequel to "Cygnus X-1" from the previous album. The suite features a clash of ideologies, reason vs. emotion, and the struggle to decide which should rule. Ultimately, balance is achieved. While such a concept may sound pretentious to some, I fail to see why rock music can't do something besides calling for people to shake their booty.

The other three tracks on the album are just as strong. "Circumstances" is a short number, reminiscient of "Fly by Night" in verse and length. "The Trees" became a hit and showcases Peart's lyrical abilities in addition to his percussive strength. Musically, it heralded songs to come. The album closer, an instrumental entitled, "La Villa Strangiato", is fabulous. The song starts with Lifeson noodling on acoustic guitar and then the other instruments fade in. It's a piece that swirls and whirls all over the place and is one of my favorite Rush songs. Each member is at the height of musical prowess.

Oh yeah, since I disparaged The Who for their use of synths I should point out that this album was an example of the good that they can do. Rush kept their synths in the background on this album. They added texture and mood and supported the melody. While this wouldn't always be the case down the road, on Hemispheres the band found the right balance.

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