What is the common theme in these list items?

[fancycwabs]

• I've got no shortage of Twitter detractors on my friendslist, and given that tweets typically range from mundane to inane I can mostly agree (even if I'm a perpetrator myself). Twitter, is, however, the ultimate expression of millions of monkeys with typewriters, and as the saying goes, eventually they'll come out with Hamlet. How will we recognize it? Odds are it'll be picked up by favrd. In the meantime, it has a great signal to noise ratio. Check it out--even if you don't like Twitter. (If you are on Twitter, it's not going to pick up your favorites unless you tell it to, so don't forget to sign up.)


• My replacement laptop has a Blu-Ray drive, and Amazon had a decent sale on some movies over the weekend, so I picked up a couple of them. Blade Runner looks quite good, but honestly, I don't need to see the film grain and Ray Liotta's makeup in higher resolution on Goodfellas. Actually, you can kinda see makeup everywhere older films, so unless it was shot in 70mm like Lawrence of Arabia or Hamlet I wouldn't worry about spending the extra money on a Blu-Ray version if the DVD version is available.


• Monday night I picked up a four-pack of Delirium Tremens, thinking it was less expensive than it actually is. It's quite good, but neither three times as good as Newcastle nor 4.75 times as good as Yuengling, so I'll probably stick to the more budget conscious beers. Also, Hamlet.

Comments

[redtheblue.livejournal.com]

I think Twitter should be up to the individual and the state should never get involved. Johnny C's is perfectly justified, for example. I look forward to his brand of lunatic gibberish. That's only because he's about the only person I find myself obsessively wondering what they're thinking about at 3 a.m., because he's the only one that makes me feel better about what I'm thinking about around that time. I love/hate him, in a good way.

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Ah, there are others (http://twitter.com/soupysales)...

Oooh, Belgian beer!

[phonemonkey.livejournal.com]

A lot of those superstrong Belgian beers, especially the ones with comedy names, aren't all that great really, they can be kinda sickly.

If you ever happen to spy Orval beer for sale, then be sure to get some, because that's great. Chimay Bleue is even better though.

I think the famous Westvleteren has become a bit of an Antarean Parakeet Gland On A Stick, and you're never going to find it at a reasonable price outside Benelux, but it's extremely good.

I think my favourite of all Belgian beers is probably a really good kriek (sour cherry lambic), like this one. The words "NIET ZOET" at the top mean "NOT SWEET" in Dutch, because a proper kriek should be fruity and dry, but not sweet-tasting at all. I don't know how easy it is to get a good artisanal kriek in the US though - Bellevue and Lindemans are not the right thing at all.

The thing that I love about beer, as opposed to wine, is that you can drink outstandingly good beer for a relatively small capital outlay.

Re: Oooh, Belgian beer!

[fancycwabs.livejournal.com]

Yeah--Tilburg was probably my introduction to the Syrupy Beers of Europe Detractors Club. Our local brewery-restaurant is firmly in the high sugar content club, as well.

Delirium Tremens (and Nocturnum from the same folks, which tastes of nothing so much as toasted marshmallows) is fortunately relatively light and clean for a beer with a high alcohol content.

You can get Chimay in Memphis, but I don't know if I've ever spotted Bleue in the wild (mostly because it hasn't been on my "must-try" list until now).