Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Beer & 43 U.S. Presidents in Song
So the beer is coming along nicely. It's pretty clear and has nice brownish/red color that is quite unique. Since this is a variation on on another recipe, I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to get, but I'm sure looking forward to it.
I'll continue to look forward to it. The hardest part of transfering the beer to the secondary was not drinking the sample I took to take a gravity reading. You only use a small amount for a sample, about a quarter of a cup, and since I can't throw it back in with the rest of the beer, I usually drink it. Besides not being wasteful, it's valuable to taste a beer as it ferments, you get an idea of where it's going and what the finished product will taste like. But down the drain it went with the sludge at the bottom of the primary. Don't tell anyone, but I shed a little tear.......
I finally bought some guitar strings yesterday. I was taking my mic to my dad who was waiting at the orthodontist for my niece. The music store is just a couple of blocks away, so I stopped by and picked up two G strings. Insert stripper joke here. I put one on (that is, on my guitar) as soon as I got home. I noodled around for a little while then had supper.
After supper I was on the computer and listening to Mp3's when a cool song came on. I'd wanted to learn how to play it for a while, so I sat down and figured it out. So now I've chorded out a song that was written in a minor key. I thought I was in over my head for a while, but I eventually got it. It only has three chords in it, and capoing it on the 7th fret allows me to sing it as performed with out having to attempt to play the evil B chord.
The chords were pretty easy compared to the words. The song is called "I Know All the Presidents in Order" and contains the names of all 42 men who had been US President when the song was written in 1999. I had to re-write the last verse to contain GW Bush (and I think I improved the Clinton referrence). I also had to re-write a couple of lines in the chorus since there have now been 43 US Presidents and that is referrenced and rhymed.
Now I'm working on memorizing the lyrics. I had memorized the Presidents for my appearance on Jeopardy!, but less than a year later I had lost it. I suppose it's still in the back of my mind, as memorizing the lyrics hasn't been too tough. I get a little screwed up after "Andrew Johnson U.S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes - Garfield who was shot so Chester Arthur took his place," but I'm getting there. The song is actually really well written and flows easily given the subject matter and obvious forced rhymes due to having to use historical names. That's also helped in my learning this song. Now I only wish I'd have heard the song before I was on Jeopardy! so learning the Presidents would have been more fun. And it would have been cool to have to come up with a piece of information on the show by quietly singing to myself "Bill McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, the biggest President that's ever been......"
BOJ
I'll continue to look forward to it. The hardest part of transfering the beer to the secondary was not drinking the sample I took to take a gravity reading. You only use a small amount for a sample, about a quarter of a cup, and since I can't throw it back in with the rest of the beer, I usually drink it. Besides not being wasteful, it's valuable to taste a beer as it ferments, you get an idea of where it's going and what the finished product will taste like. But down the drain it went with the sludge at the bottom of the primary. Don't tell anyone, but I shed a little tear.......
I finally bought some guitar strings yesterday. I was taking my mic to my dad who was waiting at the orthodontist for my niece. The music store is just a couple of blocks away, so I stopped by and picked up two G strings. Insert stripper joke here. I put one on (that is, on my guitar) as soon as I got home. I noodled around for a little while then had supper.
After supper I was on the computer and listening to Mp3's when a cool song came on. I'd wanted to learn how to play it for a while, so I sat down and figured it out. So now I've chorded out a song that was written in a minor key. I thought I was in over my head for a while, but I eventually got it. It only has three chords in it, and capoing it on the 7th fret allows me to sing it as performed with out having to attempt to play the evil B chord.
The chords were pretty easy compared to the words. The song is called "I Know All the Presidents in Order" and contains the names of all 42 men who had been US President when the song was written in 1999. I had to re-write the last verse to contain GW Bush (and I think I improved the Clinton referrence). I also had to re-write a couple of lines in the chorus since there have now been 43 US Presidents and that is referrenced and rhymed.
Now I'm working on memorizing the lyrics. I had memorized the Presidents for my appearance on Jeopardy!, but less than a year later I had lost it. I suppose it's still in the back of my mind, as memorizing the lyrics hasn't been too tough. I get a little screwed up after "Andrew Johnson U.S. Grant and Rutherford B. Hayes - Garfield who was shot so Chester Arthur took his place," but I'm getting there. The song is actually really well written and flows easily given the subject matter and obvious forced rhymes due to having to use historical names. That's also helped in my learning this song. Now I only wish I'd have heard the song before I was on Jeopardy! so learning the Presidents would have been more fun. And it would have been cool to have to come up with a piece of information on the show by quietly singing to myself "Bill McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, the biggest President that's ever been......"
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 12:33 PM 
