SF Beer Week 2011 (Simba not included)

I think I'm feeling the delayed effects of participating in SF Beer Week events this year. Absolutely worth it.

Luckily for me, there were a ton of events at the Rose and Crown, so I didn't even need to venture to far away lands. The two exceptions were a couple of trips to Beer Revolution and the Drake's Brewing "Sau and Brau" event in San Leandro.

A few realizations for this year:

1. When you see a rare beer that you like, even if you've had it before, get on it. Otherwise, you will be beat out by a group of drunk dudes re-enacting the Lion King for no reason at all.
2. I now know enough about beer to hold my own with beer geek strangers and get invited to special events.
3. Beer Week, like GABF, is kind of a nice time to try out styles that you would not normally drink (even though I didn't do it myself in Denver). I had a quad IPA from Laginitas and while not my favorite, was quite enjoyable.

Beers from the week:

• Scaldis Cuvee des Trolls*
• Firehouse “Pete's Support” Belgian IPA
• Lagunitas SF Fusion
• Lagunitas Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout*
• New Belgium La Folie*
• New Belgium/Allagash Vrienden
• St. Louis Gueze Lambic 2008
• Bruery Mischief
• Bruery Three French Hens*
• Drake's Hooked on Drakonics (bourbon barrel-aged imperial stout)
• Drake's Barrel Droop (bourbon barrel-aged barleywine)*
• Drake's Aged Barrel Droop (steel barrel-aged barleywine)
• Drake's Brett Butler (Belgian triple aged in pinot noir barrels)
• Drake's Sauer Brauer (Belgian blonde + Drake's amber aged in merlot barrels)
• Lost Abbey Brandy Barrel-Aged Angel Share*
• Lost Coast 8-Ball Stout
• Drake's Jack n' Jolly (Jolly Roger aged in Jack Daniel's barrels)
• Firestone Walker Abacus*
• Dying Vines Belgian Strong Ale
• Lost Abbey Deliverance*

*yum

BGSA portrait project: Segeni, Tsedal, Novisi, Carla

I finally got around to scanning some B/W negatives on Friday, and decided to start with my advanced photography class project from 2003. I had decided that I wanted to learn how to do portraiture, and focused on the black graduate student community at Stanford. These were my first set of subjects.

FX color darkroom day

Saturday was the first day that students could start printing in the color darkroom this year (officially). Despite the complexity of printing color (not the least is that you have to do almost all of it in complete darkness), the students tend to take it more seriously because so many things can go wrong if you don't pay attention. It also helps that only 1-2 students can be in each room, which cuts down on distractions. Students even entertained the "Marco Polo" call and response that is necessary to navigate the space.

I worked with another student for the day, and she absolutely rocked the color printing process. I wanted to be like, "you don't even realize how bad this can be."

small scale, bare bones

Driptech was in the New York Times' Green blog yesterday. I think the post does a good job of playing up the small scale aspect of the company as being its best asset.

SF Beer Week 2011

...you have begun. Hope to see you at some of the events.

tahoe

The last time I went to Tahoe, it was in 2004, and all I did snowshoe by myself into the woods. Don't worry; I came back.

This time, I went with a few FX mentor friends (and friends of friends) and cross-country skied instead.

While some of us were bummed that we left the Bay Area just as some record highs were rolling through, the gorgeous weather followed us out to South Lake Tahoe. Being Superbowl weekend, Heavenly was pretty underpopulated. This also meant that we got free upgrades for our rooms at the resort.

We actually spent a relatively mild Saturday evening playing board games. On Sunday, the boys went snowboarding, and I took the ladies cross-country skiing at Camp Richardson. The area hasn't had enough snow (there were quite a few wet/icy spots on the trails), and the guys at the sports center were concerned that they would have to close for the season if they didn't get some more snowfall within a week.

Regardless, everyone seemed to have fun, no one broke any bones (Colin came closest with his semi-twisted ankle), and the Packers won the Superbowl. Huzzah.

"yo the whole state of things in the world bout to change..."

Yesterday was inexplicably terrible. Here's to the next movement.