Manchester: Literary Locations, Libraries and (Some) Libations

Chetham's LibraryDespite a not-fun health wobble, we managed a quick weekend trip to Manchester recently, for music and literary purposes. As ever when traveling, I have to take a Professional Interest in not just all the unique local bookshops, but in any unusual or historic libraries. And although I spent a lot of time in and around Manchester in the 1990s, nearly everything looks so vastly different now that it felt like visiting a new place. Indeed, apart from the big Waterstones and Affleck’s Palace, so much seemed either completely unfamiliar or strangely uncanny…there was a hint of a memory, but the general appearance in many places around town was (mostly) so different that it felt like a false one.

I won’t dwell too much on the fact that Manchester has a Uniqlo (attached to the Arndale Centre, no less! Only some of the tiling that made it look like a toilet from the 1960s remains!) while we here in Dublin, a European capital, still lack one; while most of what I look for anywhere is a wealth of independent shops, pubs and restaurants, I do go through a lot of Uniqlo basics and rain gear, so I feel the need to stop in whenever I spot one elsewhere. New rain jacket acquired, we enjoyed browsing and tea-drinking at the delightful House of Books and Friends and at Social Refuge, the café inside Queer Lit. But while book-buying was a key part of the agenda (I finally picked up Ghosts of the British Museum), looking at libraries was the main focus.

Inside Chetham's Library: information card about a previous Librarian removed for theftAnd again, despite the considerable time I’ve spent around the area, I’d never made it to Chetham’s Library. It’s all too easy to think of Manchester as springing into existence largely fully-formed during the Industrial Revolution, Roman foundations notwithstanding, as there simply isn’t much (at first glance) to see of medieval Manchester, and finally getting around to taking the tour of the c.1420s building went a long way to rectifying that. The library is gorgeous – not dissimilar in some ways to Marsh’s Library here – and it’s a fascinating tour. I especially enjoyed the notes showing what previous Librarians had got up to – some were bad ‘uns!

Statue of Enriqueta Augustina Rylands in John Rylands LibraryWe also took in the John Rylands Library, and it was heartening to see that there was a queue to get in; more people wanting to do library tourism can only be a good thing, if managed properly. In addition to the beautiful building and core collections, there was an excellent exhibit called ‘We Have Always Been Here,’ exploring marginalised communities and how library and archival collections are never neutral…not news to those of us who have worked in them, but probably something that the broader public needs a lot more education to really understand. There’s to be considerable renovation in the near future, so it’s well worth checking out now to compare and contrast down the line.

While we didn’t get to try as much local beer as planned, thanks to the whole surprise illness thing, I did enjoy a couple of cask bitter and pale ale halves here and there, and a mix of good and less-good non-alcoholic options – the AF version of Track’s Sonoma was very good indeed, and the taproom was lovely. Also lovely was the much-recommended Marble Arch Inn; a beautiful, calm pub ideal for a chill afternoon of cheese boards and those lower-key (and much appreciated) cask bitters.

A half pint at the Marble Arch Inn, with the gently-sloping floor clearly on displayThere was also a musical element to this trip, so there is at least one variable that has proven as constant in most of my past trips to Manchester. In this instance, however, it was to see Wesley Stace, the Philadelphia-based Englishman many of you may have known as John Wesley Harding. This was his first UK tour in many years, and without an Irish date or two, Manchester was our closest option. He put on a great gig in a tiny pub – I hope a good time was had by all, we certainly enjoyed seeing him after such a long gap since our semi-regular shows during our Philly days. We did feel that we were not cool enough to be out and about in the Northern Quarter after the show, though…the whole area seemed to be in good hands with the crowds of hip Young People, so we left them to it.

We also had not realized when we booked that it was the same weekend as the Great Manchester Run, and while I was in no shape to be running a 10K (well, I did do one a week later, and only mildly crashed again after), much less a half marathon, it seemed like such a great time to be in town – oddly, hotel prices didn’t seem to have been pushed up for the occasion – that I’ve penciled it in to my race calendar for next year.

Now that I’m mostly recovered, it’s back to training for the Great North Run in Newcastle later this year…finally, an entirely new-to-me city to explore!

A Eurovision Pilgrimage, with Beer Side-quests

Katie and Lisa with a locally-brewed Eurovision beer in SwedenAt long last, a quick summary of a Eurovision-themed trip to Malmö and Copenhagen, complete with beer side quests – this was rather delayed by life/an unexpected hospital visit/work/some fun travel, but finally, it’s ready for your perusal. While I’ve spent a fair amount of time in Denmark in the past, I’d never had the chance to cross the Øresund Bridge to Sweden, so for a transit nerd like me, this was an exciting opportunity. I set off with my fellow Beer Lady/Eurovision nerd Katie on an early-morning flight from Dublin – we skipped the airport pints in favour of tea – and began the adventure.

The trip from Copenhagen airport via train was speedy and inexpensive; the special transit pass covering all travel in and around Malmö during the Eurovision period was most welcome, and while my particular part of Dublin is relatively well-served by buses, it’s nothing like the array of trains, trams and buses available in Copenhagen and Malmö, nor do we have the same wide, clean footpaths and bicycle lanes; perhaps we will, some day. In any event, the trip was a perfect excuse to explore the beery options on offer in the region, and we began with an initial visit to Malmö Brewing Company, located in an old brewery building, appropriately enough. These days, they brew a wide array of the usual hazy IPAs and fruited sours you find in most craft brewery taprooms, but they also have a few more meads, ciders and cocktails than you tend to find in Ireland or the UK. They also serve a BBQ menu – this seems to be ‘a thing’ in Scandinavia at the moment, though I confess I’ve never been a particular fan of BBQ in general – but others were happy enough with the food offering. That said, I did rather enjoy their Tiny IPA – hardly tiny, really, at 5% ABV, but quite pleasant.

In the Carlsberg cellars: Old Carlsberg Porter in a glass with a bottleWe wandered back to Copenhagen to do the Carlsberg tour; while I had previously visited some years ago, it was closed on my last work visit (and had been under renovation for some time), so it was fascinating to go back. I was thrilled to see the horses again, and they have thoroughly amped up the ‘brand experience’ end of things at the Home of Carlsberg – lots of interactive activities that you can save via your wristband, which I geeked out about from a professional perspective, and a surprisingly coherent narrative about Père et Fils Jacobsen, complete with lots of ACTING, and the history of the Carlsberg breweries. We followed up the tour with a tasting in the cellars, which have been beautifully tidied up, and while most of the offerings were fairly pedestrian, the Jacobsen Yakima IPA is always a nice choice, and the Old Carlsberg Porter was lovely. There’s a lot to see and do at Carlsberg, and it’s well worth a visit, even to the most anti-big-brewery person out there – even if just for the horses and the bottle and can collection.

We also managed to find some excellent cask ale at The Bishop’s Arms – one of a chain of English-style pubs across Sweden, with two locations in Malmö. For once, the food was not BBQ, but more standard pub grub, with an excellent burger and chips. And while I had a little taster of a local Maibock – so local it was brewed in the cellars under the pub – it was the English cask bitters I was going for – an excellent and well-kept selection from Marble (which I’ve had even more recently – another story to come), Red Willow and Rudgate. 10/10 no notes.

Katie and Lisa at the Mikkeller Beer Fest, in their finest Eurovision garbIn the midst of the swirl and glitter of Eurovision, we took a bit of time out to head back into Copenhagen for the Mikkeller Beer Fest, because there’s nothing better for your overall well-being than going to a beer festival at 10 am in a week when you’ve barely been sleeping, but hey ho, needs must. Perhaps ironically, I didn’t end up having that much beer…the long queues were all for what I can only describe as Barrel-aged Nonsense or Pastry Stout Silliness, so, with the exceptions of tasters of a few white whales (the Focal Banger from The Alchemist was very nice, just not earth-shattering), I largely stuck to small pours of some really rather pleasant pale ales and low-key dark lagers, with a lot of water – and no waiting! By far, my favourite beers of the festival were Pedes pale ale from Ebeltoft Gårdbryggeri – a Danish brewery I’ve enjoyed before when visiting Odense – and Toska Bryggj, a Scottish ale from OY Brewing in the Faroe Islands. We also stopped in just around the corner from the festival site at WarPigs for (more) BBQ and a surprisingly straightforward bitter called Hogshead.

Adorable mural at Hyllie BrewingUpon our return to Malmö, we also discovered Hyllie Bryggeri, and this was much more to my taste than some of the more hipster-fied options elsewhere: yes, an industrial taproom with some local art flourishes, but a warm welcome and some excellent beers all around. The Hapi Pils, described as a Pacific lager, was absolutely top-notch: crisp and grainy, but clean, and with some flavourful New Zealand hops – a proper banger, and something I would have as a regular go-to, were it generally available to me. All in all, a highly-recommended spot to sit and relax.

In summary, a trip to Eurovision is exhausting – you can see I’ve barely included anything around the shows themselves (though HUZZAH to Bambie Thug for absolutely SLAYING for Ireland), nor the many, many Irish fan meetups we attended in and around the multiple Irish pubs on offer in Malmö, but they were all top class, and we met so many wonderful people on the trip – we Eurovision fans were easy to spot at the beer festival, of course, so it was simple to Find Our People in the crowd. It would be an absolute delight to do it again, ideally in a year with a bit less controversy, though Switzerland is not going to be cheap, nor will their beer selection be as varied, and yet…well, we’ll see what happens next year!

Annual 2022 Year in Beer (and Life), Part 2

Welcome back (or, if you’ve joined in media res, simply welcome) to the second part of a beer-y and life-y roundup of 2022.

In April, we discovered that our little beer podcast not only had listeners, but they had voted for us to be included in a card game, which is a very specific kind of internet-based fame, but a welcome one! The re-opening of international travel meant a family trip to Portugal, a new destination for all of us. While most of the beer wasn’t especially memorable, there were a few standouts, notably Urraca Vendaval, an IPA by Oitava Colina: we enjoyed that and some other local small breweries’ offerings at Crafty Corner, a taproom nestled in some late medieval/early modern arches in Lisbon.

Once back in Ireland, we almost immediately headed to Limerick, where I smashed my half-marathon PB by nearly 8 minutes, and enjoyed some wonderful beer from Treaty City and the always-exceptional Crew Brewing Company (that Vanilla Milk Stout, tho). In another quick turn-around, I hopped back on a plane to Denmark for a whirlwind work trip, and enjoyed some Limfjords Ale, a brown ale (BROWN ALE!) from Thisted Bryghus, before heading back home to Dublin.

Always pre-game before going to the OlympiaMay, of course, saw another Eurovision, and we are thoroughly enjoying our now-annual Beer Ladies Podcast deep dives. But there was live music, too – two nights of The Divine Comedy at the Olympia! And here we pause for an important protip – as the beer on offer at The Olympia is a wasteland of Heineken and their stout-adjacent Islands Edge, get yourself over to The Oak and/or its conjoined twin, The Beer Temple in advance; your taste buds will thank you. And, spoiler alert: there would be more Neil Hannon-ing to come, but we’re not there yet…we (we, in this instance, being me and Child One – really, Young Adult One) also snuck in an evening with Peggy Seeger and son Calum MacColl, so said offspring has bragging rights to say he’s seen Peggy as well as her brother, Pete, though alas, he barely remembers that show – and this was his third or fourth time seeing Neil. If you’re wondering, he doesn’t share the Eurovision love, but Child Two does).

But back to beer; in June, there was more cask Ballykilcavan Bambrick’s Brown – huzzah! It was well worth braving the Phoenix Park crowds at Bloom for a taste. I had another race in the form of the VHI Women’s Mini-Marathon (really a 10K, but who’s counting?), and made the impromptu decision to stop off at the Porterhouse Central for a post-race pint – much-needed after the terrible weather before and during the run. It’s a good thing I did – it disappeared not long after, so it was a last chance to see it before it morphed into Tapped, but that’s another story.

o hai, james masonLater that month, I made it back to London for my first in-person work conference since 2019, and enjoyed some fantastic cask pints while I was in town. I also binged all the theatre I could fit in, as per usual, and am so glad I got to see Fra Fee in Cabaret, plus 2:22: A Ghost Story, with Mandip Gill and Tom Felton, which brings my ‘Doctor Who Companions Seen Onstage’ total up to – er – two. I’d hate to figure out how many ‘Harry Potter Actors’ would be on the list, but as that is some vast percentage of British Equity, it seems less worth counting, but I digress…a pre-theatre pint at The Harp was most welcome.

I also enjoyed a quick lunchtime pint in the very-haunted Haunch of Venison in Salisbury before heading back – I know that Butcombe Bitter isn’t exotic for my friends in the UK, but we just don’t have bitters around in Ireland, in cask or keg, very often. But hey, perhaps we can manifest more of them into being. We Beer Ladies do have form in that regard.

Also: more Parkuns – sometimes, in a second-woman finish!

Next up: Summertime fun….

A Tardy Decade Wrap-up of Travel, Beer, Running, Etc.

As ever, I'm very much late to the party, but I did finally get around to looking back at my last 10 years of beer and travel. Apparently, I drink a lot of pale ales, porters and black IPAs when left to my own devices. And weirdly, as a runner, I keep getting faster and faster.

This was a thing back them2009
Travel: USA – Seattle, for soccer, little expecting we would eventually move there; Kentucky, for friends and horses, Rehoboth Beach
Running: My second Dogfish Dash – and first 10K; second Valley Forge Revolutionary Run
Beer: Nodding Head Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse,  Yards Brawler, Victory Uncle Teddy’s Bitter
Achievements Unlocked: Seeing Rachel Alexandra win the Preakness, Haskell and Woodward in person; blogging about it a lot
Other Notes: I miss Berliner Weisses served with syrup on the side, and not (usually) weirdly pre-flavored

2010
Travel: USA – Washington, DC, for the Rally to Restore Sanity/Fear, Rehoboth Beach
Running: Third Dogfish Dash, briefly lost then-5 yo at that year’s Revolutionary Run
Beer: Victory Yakima Glory, Yards Brawler
Achievements Unlocked: Getting an MLS team, having previously only had a supporters’ group with no team
Other Notes: You can see the back of my head in certain shots of the Sons of Ben documentary

With the Hammer O'Glory2011
Travel:
USA – NYC – yay, theatre! St. Louis – depressing family stuff, Rehoboth Beach
Running:
WHYY12K, another Dogfish Dash, first half-marathon
Beer:
Russian River Pliny the Elder/Younger; Urban Chestnut Zwickelbier; Pretty Things Saint Botolph’s Town
Achievements Unlocked:
Taking our Brooklyn-born kid to his first Broadway show (How to Succeed in Business…)
Other Notes:
This was a great Philly Beer Week year; also enjoyed meeting up with my favorite all-women beer clubs, In Pursuit of Ale and West Chester Beer Ladies

2012
Travel:
England – London, Avebury, Bath, York; Wales – Cardiff; USA – Rehoboth Beach
Running:
Another WHYY12K, another Dogfish Dash, second half-marathon, Broad Street Run
Beer:
Pretty Things Once Upon A Time X Ale – November 22nd, 1838; Troegs Scratch 68 – Zwickel Licker (Lew) &  Scratch 63 – Danny’s IPA; Westvleteren 8
Achievements Unlocked:
Visited the Doctor Who Experience before it closed; got a 7 yo to happily stand throughout all of Henry V at the Globe
Other Notes:
Tired Hands opened!  We certainly appreciated having the best brewery in the country (fight me!) a short walk away from our house, and we still miss it now. Tired Hands OoeyGooey, Zombie and Goblin were early favorites.

Carlsberg Brewery2013
Travel:
Denmark – Copenhagen, Aarhus, Billund, USA – Rehoboth Beach
Running:
Another WHYY12K, (yet) another Dogfish Dash, just missed an age-group placing for Get Your Rear in Gear 10K, another half-marathon
Beer:
Dogfish Head Nordicthern Europe & Birra Etrusca Bronze; Tired Hands Ancient Knovvledge, LiverPool; Barren Hill Tavern West Coast Oats & Burton IPA
Achievements Unlocked:
Thoroughly enjoyed the Carlsberg brewery tour & Danish beer in general
Other Notes:
Loved the Barren Hill Tavern, which had replaced the General Lafayette Inn with vastly better food and beer; still worry we killed Seamus Heaney, whose Beowulf translation is our favorite, by visiting Sagnlandet Lejre,
the likely inspiration for Heorot in Beowulf; his death was announced during our visit. Jerry Orbach died the day after I bought a rare autographed record, so there’s precedent here

2014
Travel:
USA – NYC, Colonial Williamsburg, St. Louis for more depressing family things
Running:
Navy Yard 5K (super-slow, very pregnant pace)
Beer:
Yards Brawler, Urban Chestnut Oachkatzlschwoaf
Achievements Unlocked:
Produced child, despite weirdness with Kell antibodies and being An Old, hence a short beer list for the majority of the year; got to take an entire 13 weeks of maternity leave and earned a lot of street cred at the office by doing my last few pre-leave conference calls while being induced
Other Notes: Made it back to Tired Hands and Barren Hill ASAP, post-birth; still did not see any ghosts; prior to that, saw Cabaret back on Broadway with Alan Cumming and Michelle Williams, as well as the OBC of Fun Home.

Last Barren Hill visit2015
Travel:
USA – Rehoboth Beach, Seattle
Running:
Navy Yard 5K (new 5K PR), another Revolutionary Run, Philly 10K, another ODDyssey half marathon, (my) final Dogfish Dash
Beer:
Conshohocken Brewing Company Puddlers Row ESB, Machine House Dark Mild
Achievements Unlocked:
Successfully endured marathon Amazon interviews after getting a call out of the blue
Other Notes:
Alas, Barren Hill closed not long after we moved away, though we made the most of our last visit

2016
Travel:
USA – NYC; England – Manchester, Liverpool; Canada – Victoria, Vancouver;  Ireland – Dublin – liked it a lot, but, once again, had no idea we’d be moving there
Running:
Hot Chocolate 15K, Brooks Trailhead 10K (first age-group placing!), Lake Union 10K, Beat the Bridge 8K, Beat the Blerch 10K
Beer:
Machine House Cambridge Bitter, Cloudburst Chocofloxx, Spinnakers Mitchell’s Extra Special Bitter
Achievements Unlocked:
Took 11 yo to NYC to see Hamilton with the full original Broadway cast; then took the family on a long weekend trip from Seattle to the north of England to see The Divine Comedy in Liverpool, semi-rhyming a trip I’d done previously from Northern California to Bristol for the same reason
Other Notes:
Kid in question became Neil Hannon-obsessed a mere two years after his first live experience, so my work here is done – as of this writing, he is doing the heavy lifting to indoctrinate the smaller child

Thor 10K2017
Travel:
USA – Los Angeles, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Portland, Philadelphia; Canada – Vancouver; England – London
Running:
Star Wars Rebel Challenge (10K & half marathon), Tenacious Ten, Beat the Blerch half marathon, Avengers 10K
Beer:
Karl Strauss Mosaic Session IPA; Ex Novo Cactus Wins the Lottery
Achievements Unlocked:
Became runDisney, and Disneyland in general, obsessed; discovered that Portland beer and food lived up to the hype; saw the OLC of Hamilton
Other Notes:
Had an excellent time at Gallifrey One

2018
Travel:
USA – Los Angeles, Anaheim, Honolulu, Ko Olina, Astoria, San Diego; Canada – Victoria
Running:
Tenacious Ten, Women of Wonder 10K, Goodlife Fitness Victoria half marathon (new PR – finally under 2 hours!)
Beer:
Figueroa Mountain Brewing Fig Mtn Light, Three Weavers The Messenger, Maui Brewing Puelo Pale Ale, Half Door Brewing Father Ted
Achievements Unlocked:
Aulani! Conference speaking! Surviving another year at Amazon, just; met Ron Pattinson IRL!
Other Notes:
Finally made it to Hawai’i and San Diego; still not sure why there is a better European beer selection in the middle of the Pacific vs in the Pacific Northwest

Yub Nub2019
Travel: USA – Los Angeles, Anaheim, Ko Olina, Philadelphia, NYC; England – London; Canada – Victoria; Germany – Munich; Ireland – Dublin; Switzerland – Basel, Zurich
Running:
Tenacious Ten (new 10 mile PR!), Lake Union 10K (new 10K PR!), Tunnel to Viaduct 8K (new 8K PR!)
Beer:
Noble Ale Works Nose Candy, Wild Card Table Beer, Maui Brewing Pineapple Mana Wheat, Vancouver Island Brewing Nanaimo Bar Porter, Gamorrean Ale at Oga’s Cantina
Achievements Unlocked:
Flew to London for a long weekend just to see Company in the West End; rage-quit Amazon; CO-PILOTED THE MILLENNIUM FALCON, saw Hadestown and Beetlejuice on Broadway (twice)
Other Notes:
I have been on a lot of planes this year

So, what’s next? Well, we’re off to Dublin in January for my new-ish job, so I expect to be spending a lot of time with the Ladies Craft Beer Society of Ireland, who have already provided a warm welcome; and – perhaps – I’ll start beer writing for pay again, something I didn’t have time to do while trapped on Planet Amazon. I’ll also hope to connect with the Dublin Mikkeller Running Club, as I loved the Philly group, and checking out the Disneyland Paris runDisney runs is also on the agenda (as is taking advantage of affordable European travel for theatre and opera).

See you soon, Europe!

In Which I Take Terrible Photos of Interesting Programs

All sorts of things might make a post, and this certainly qualifies in that regard.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, my dad spent a lot of time in New York as part of his long career with 7Up. When I was a small child in the 1970s and ’80s, I enjoyed going through his collection of Playbills and programs with him, and naturally demanded to be taken to the theatre on every possible occasion. And while I’ve seen some great productions (and some less so – Martin Guerre, this means you) on Broadway, in the West End and elsewhere, my own collection simply isn’t as impressive (yet).

I’ve been attempting to organize his collection since his death in 2006, though I never seem to make much of a dent. But some of these are too fabulous not to share, and, of course, that goes for the ads, too.

It’s worth noting that they aren’t all for plays – this program was for a screening of Mastroianni’s 1961 comedy Divorce Italian Style, shown at the Paris on W58th.  And sometimes there’s a concert – it’s hard to ignore this amazing program from a Robert Goulet show. But we quickly get into the good stuff – a Playbill from the original production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. My dad was always a huge fan of Zero Mostel – I’m reasonably sure I saw The Producers for the first time when I was around 6 – and he also liked to recount having seen him in a play in which Mostel flashed the audience.

Showcase Robert Goulet A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

There are more original casts:  we revisit Zero Mostel in Ulysses in Nighttown – I’m presuming the 1974 play was the one involving a nude Zero Mostel, though it’s also notable for starring a young Tommy Lee Jones, David Ogden Stiers and Fionnuala Flanagan – then Funny Girl and the rather tamer Oliver! make appearances.

IMG_5194 IMG_5195 IMG_5198

There are also some larger-format programs, for The King and I (which I saw much later, on Yul Brynner’s very literal farewell tour) and Golden Boy:

IMG_5188 IMG_5187

Among the ads for Tiki bars, cigarettes and furs, there are some amazing pieces – and some very worthwhile bios – young Jerome Robbins looks as though he wants to devour your soul, and a pre-Monkees Davy Jones had ‘the longest part ever written for a teenager’ on the radio (so think on!); one presumes many librettists still consider Benson & Hedges ‘noteworthy’ as the ad suggests:

IMG_5189 IMG_5193 IMG_5199

But while there’s much more from the world theatrical that isn’t poorly-photographed here, I couldn’t miss out the Kentucky Derby program from 1956 – in case you don’t recall, Needles was the victor that year, the very first Florida-bred to win – he would also take the Belmont Stakes.

IMG_5200 IMG_5201

At some point, I’ll need to be a good archivist and make sure staples and paper clips aren’t damaging things, but for now, they are happily climate-controlled and reasonably well stored beyond that. I’ll have to do another installment in future: there’s a bio of a young Elaine Stritch that’s simply outstanding…

Halloween Music & Beer Pairing

Wychwood HobgoblinThere are a number of great beers that seem made for Halloween - Wychwood Hobgoblin, The Lost Abbey's Witch's Wit or just about anything from Brasserie Fantôme can work well.  But to really encourage a spooky bring-on-Samhain mood,why not try pairing an autumnal beer with some seasonal music? Thanks to Folk Alley's Halloween Scream Stream and Spotify, I have a constant rotation of traditional and not-so-traditional Halloween tunes going in the background, and have selected a few music and beverage options below.

Tam Lin - Fairport ConventionTraquair House Ale
I could have chosen any version of Child Ballad 39A - I have something approaching twenty in my own collection (considerably more if you include print), and there is a seemingly endless supply beyond that - but I'm a big fan of this particular one. As you are probably aware, the song tells the story of Janet (also called Margaret in some versions), who must rescue her lover, Tam Lin (insert many variants here as well) from the Queen of the Fairies, who has been keeping him captive at Carterhaugh, a wooded area near Selkirk in Scotland.  Appropriately enough, there is fine beer to be had locally - Traquair House Brewery's excellent House Ale and Jacobite Ale are both perfect tie-ins.

Witches [sic] Hat - The Incredible String BandMoorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew
Veering toward the more psychedelic end of the of the psych-folk band's canon, this 1968 track presumably owes more to chemical experimentation than to the folk tradition, but its trippy lyrics and music are still atmospherically-appropriate for Halloween.  Pair it with Moorhouse's Pendle Witches Brew for some malty goodness, and raise a glass to the real-life Pendle 'witches,' executed in 1612.  Moorhouse's Black Cat, a mild, is also a fantastic beer.

Lord Of The Ages - Magna Carta / Weyerbacher Old Heathen
Perhaps you have friends who aren't quite sure what prog rock is.  In response, you might have gone easy on them, offering up some Jethro Tull, but why hold back? This track, released in 1973, has everything: lyrics that might have been borrowed from Tolkien-inspired fan fiction ('Lord of the Ages rode one night / Out through the gateways of time / Astride a great charger / In a cloak of white samite' - you get the idea), a 'rocking out' section toward the end, a little chanting and a nearly 10-minute running time.  You may need a strong drink after listening to it, so a Weyerbacher Old Heathen should be just the thing.

Widdicombe Fair - The City Waites / Hambleton's Nightmare Porter
The most well-known version of the comedic West Country folksong was collected in 1888 by  the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, whose career as an antiquarian, songwriter, correspondent, novelist and folklorist is, perhaps, the classic example of why being a wealthy 19th century churchman was pretty awesome. In the song, a number of stock characters (possibly or possibly not based on real 18th century people from the town of Widecombe in the Moor) borrow a horse to visit the eponymous fair; the mare dies from the effort of hauling a goodly portion of the village around, and returns as a ghost with all aboard. The song, as interpreted by The City Waites, puts the emphasis on the comedy. Although hailing from an entirely different moorland (Yorkshire rather than Devon), Hambleton's Nightmare Porter still works, and rather nicely too.

Damn These Vampires - The Mountain Goats / Great Lakes Nosferatu
I know, vampires are presently extremely uncool, given their sparkly associations with teenage girls who fear actual boys, but this song recalls a time (not so long ago) when they were still dangerous as well as glamorous (and, frankly, a lot more interesting). Luckily, there is a beer than can help you forget the Twi-hards (or could be employed with caution in a related drinking game, though one suspects that it would be easy to see such a game reach Withnailian proportions) - Great Lakes Nosferatu. This big, red beer is one to look forward to every fall (rather unlike Twilight movies, unless your capacity for ironic viewing is unparalleled).

In the Company of Ravens - Maddy Prior / Black Raven Brewing's Tamerlane Brown Porter
This spare, haunting tribute to the oft-misunderstood bird, from the Steeleye Span singer's 1999 solo album, Ravenchild, is a great mood-setter for Halloween, and  Black Raven Brewing's Tamerlane Brown Porter keeps the spooky theme going with a liquid nod to Edgar Allen Poe.  Appropriately enough, in addition to their porter, the Seattle brewery makes a great IPA called Trickster - also raven-approved in Native American lore.

Happy Halloween! For more on beer and hauntings, check out my story on the Lemp family over at Serious Drinks, or go back a bit further for my pumpkin beer history.

New Things, Old Things

Superfectablog screenshotAfter much CSS/PHP/JavaScript wrangling, DVAG Wire is finally up and running. I have no doubt, dear reader, that you have been desperate to know what has been going on behind the scenes at a number of Philadelphia archives: now you can keep track automatically.

Sticking with redesign mode, I’ve finally migrated Superfectablog from Blogger and over to WordPress and redesigned it, from logo to layout – as the site was approaching its fifth birthday (with only one-and-a-half major redesigns), the move and facelift were long overdue. While the new design is not a huge departure from the old one in terms of layout, the greater control and flexibility afforded by WordPress is very pleasant indeed – it makes up for the temporary traffic drop I anticipate from the move.

While planning the redesigns, I did a little digging for inspiration (or, perhaps more accurately, to review lessons learned) and found some old work in the Wayback Machine: a little feature I did on The Phantom Menace (before discovering its full horror), an old music review and a website for a radio show I built long ago.  While not universally the case, the fact that many of the ads were preserved is oddly pleasing to me.

General Superlatives: 2009

Arctic Club, Seattle
Arctic Club, Seattle

Yes, it’s that time of year again. Rather shamefully, I have no books on this list; while I read many, not a one was published in 2009 – my excuse is that I’m waiting for the new Nick Hornby novel to come out in paperback.  So, in fractured order, here are this year’s Things I Liked A Lot:

Best Thing I Wrote This Year: On Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra and Memory
Best Race (live): The Haskell (just edging out the Preakness)
Best Race (televised): Breeders’ Cup Classic
Best (human) Race: Dogfish Dash 10K
Best Soccer: US beats Spain, Confederations Cup
Best Trip: Seattle, Arctic Club/MLS Cup/REI pilgrimage/new light rail
Best Airline: Alaska Airlines
Best Live Show (overall): Leonard Cohen, Tower Theater
Best Free@Noon Show at World Cafe Live: John Wesley Harding/M. Ward
Best Beer (draft): Stone/BrewDog Bashah
Best Beer (bottled): Pretty Things Saint Botolph’s Town
Best New Bar: Varga Bar
Best Album: John Wesley Harding: Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead
Best Concept Album: The Duckworth-Lewis Method: The Age of Revolution
Best Random Song: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Home
Best TV: How I Met Your Mother
Best Event TV: Doctor Who
Best Movie: (500) Days of Summer
Best Movie Franchise Reboot: Star Trek

A Musical Update

In honor of our new design, I’m posting a hopefully-comprehensive if rather sad list of every band, artist and/or comedian I’ve ever seen live (not including theatrical appearances – that would be an entirely separate and altogether too-geeky list). Without further ado, the music/comedy list – an asterisk indicates multiple shows for each artist in a particular city:

Artist City(ies) Notes
The Aislers Set San Francisco*
The Auteurs London
Bill Bailey London
Ballboy Philadelphia, San Francisco* Under-rated
The Beautiful South San Francisco
Andrew Bird Philadelphia
Board of Education Philadelphia
Saul Broudy Schwenksville Philadelphia Folk Festival (PFF)
Mark Burgess New York
Neko Case Philadelphia
Cast Chelmsford V96
Melanie Chisholm San Francisco Yes, that one
Closet Queen London Obviously a cover band
Leonard Cohen Philadelphia
Harry Connick, Jr. St. Louis
Shemekia Copeland Philadelphia
Crowded House Philadelphia*, Washington, DC Fantastic live
The Cure St. Louis
Terrence Trent D’Arby St. Louis Opened for Duran Duran
David Devant and his Spirit Wife London*, Manchester*, Oxford With their Spectral Roadies, of course; I’ve probably seen them more than 50 times
The Dead Milkmen St. Louis
The Divine Comedy Berkeley, Bristol, Brooklyn, New York, San Francisco* Can you tell which band is my favorite?
Duran Duran St. Louis They know why you are there
Elastica Chelmsford V96
Liam Finn Philadelphia* Both solo & w/E.J. Barnes
Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit Philadelphia Support from James Mathé and Caitlin Rose
Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams Schwenksville PFF
God Street Wine New Haven
Goldfrapp San Francisco
Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci Chelmsford V96
John Wesley Harding Camden, Philadelphia*, Sellersville Solo and as part of the Cabinet of Wonders with Eugene Mirman, Jonatha Brooke, Chris Mills, Ken Kalfus, David Morse; at XPoNential Festival w/The English UK, Megan Reilly, Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby
Herman’s Hermits St. Louis
Hoots & Hellmouth Schwenksville, Philadelphia* PFF, also in Philadelphia w/Birdie Busch.
Whitney Houston St. Louis It was the 80s
Lee Hurst London At the Comedy Store with Alan Davies
Indigo Girls Philadelphia
Eddie Izzard London, San Francisco
James Bloomington, Philadelphia Amazing live
Joan as Police Woman Philadelphia
Kansas St. Louis
King Missile St. Louis
The Ladybug Transistor Brooklyn, San Francisco*, Washington, DC They often seem to open for bands I like
Sondre Lerche Philadelphia
Bobby Long Philadelphia
Los Campesinos! Austin With The Smith Westerns, Girls
The Lucksmiths Brooklyn, New York, San Francisco*, Washington, DC Love, love love
Manic Street Preachers San Francisco
John McCusker San Francisco
Audra McDonald New York
Don McLean St. Louis It was free
Donna McPhail London At a random comedy club
The Mike Flowers Pops London
The Monkees St. Louis See ‘Whitney Houston
The Moody Blues London, St. Louis*
Morrissey Chicago Love The Smiths, hated him live
My Life Story London*, Manchester, Wolverhampton Yes, even Wolverhampton
Gary Numan Chelmsford V96
Ardal O’Hanlon London He was the ‘surprise guest’
Okkervil River Philadelphia
Ooh Baby Ooh London 3-piece a capella group; opened for DD&HSW
Parker & Lily New York
Mandy Patinkin St. Louis Met him afterward and he did his Inigo Montoya bit for us
Peter, Paul & Mary St. Louis*
Pulp Chelmsford V96
Kate Rusby San Francisco
Pete Seeger Philadelphia Linus’ first ‘real’ concert; Tao Rodríguez-Seeger and Guy Davis also shared the bill
Sigur Rós San Francisco
The Smiles London*
The Soupdragons Bloomington
Stereolab Chelmsford V96
Still Flyin’ Washington, DC
Supergrass Chelmsford V96
The Tallboys Seattle
They Might Be Giants Boston, Cambridge*
Tom Tom Club Bloomington
VHS or Beta New York I hated this band
Rufus Wainwright Philadelphia with Lucy Wainwright Roche
M. Ward Philadelphia
Waterson: Carthy Philadelphia Norma Waterson was absent; Tim van Eyken came instead
The Wedding Present/Cinerama New York*, Philadelphia, San Francisco*
Mike West New Orleans with Myshkin
The Wiggles Philadelphia See ‘Pete Seeger
Robbie Williams San Francisco
‘Weird Al’ Yankovic Eureka A surprisingly good show for a theme park
Pete Yorn Philadelphia

Snow Day Lists

The icy weather affords an opportunity to broadcast a few recent favorites, many of which admittedly have not changed much since November:

Music
Sweden – The Mountain Goats
Laid – James
The Life Pursuit – Belle & Sebastian
Company – 2006 Broadway Revival Cast Recording
Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters – The Twilight Sad

February Derby Picks
Anak Nakal
Court Vision
Face the Cat
Tale of Ekati
War Pass

Beer
Iron Hill Pilsner Barleywine (West Chester)
Stone XI Anniversary
Troubadour Obscura
Troegs Scratch #7
Victory