bob dylan goes electric with "bringing it all back home" 44 years ago!

wow, two bob dylan posts in 4 days! 44 years ago, march 22, 1965, dylan released his 5th album. "bringing it all back home," in 3 years. it was released 4 days after the 3rd anniversary of his "self titled" debut album. what made this a dylan album an instant milestone - in a career littered with one milestone after another - was the entire album side devoted to electric guitar!

dylan was already critically reknown at this time. in fact, he was just wrapping up a tour that featured joan baez alongside him. he had [yet to] anger his original fans with the electric performance at the newport folk festival [that summer]. this album was a herald of things to come - his new direction, so to speak. this album was unacceptable to some die hard (acoustic) dylan fans. but for the rest of us, it opened up a world of new music possibilities!

the album contained what would become dylan's first "top ten" hit, "subterranean homesick blues" and an instant classic. also on the album was dylan's "tambourine man" - made even more famous via covers! one of my own personal dylan's favorites, "maggie's farm," debuted on this album - and has been covered numerous times by bob weir and ratdog (not to mention jerry garcia).

bordeaux, malbec, and riesling tasting at zachy's

i almost decided to skip posting this since a week has already gone by - but in the interest of balancing the craft beer posts ;D - here goes:

last saturday afternoon (sandwiched between the morning nyrr 8000 and an evening st. patrick's day party), i went down to zachy's (my favorite wine store) for it's weekly wine tasting. three different varieties, riesling, malbec, and bordeaux were on the agenda. my initial interest in the group focused on the malbec, one of my favorite grape varieties - and something i decidedly prefer over it's more popular (and ubiquitous) cousin, merlot.

while the argentinian malbec's (3) were good, and i even enjoyed the trimbach tastings (despite not being much of a white wine fan), the bordeaux selection stole the show - as they say. i can't begin to catalog the entire list - but will note that i tasted my first 100 point (ws) wine (leoville las cases 2005) and most expensive ($975) wine (mouton rothschild 2005) on the same afternoon. awesome.

but despite those incredible two firsts, my favorite bordeaux of the afternoon was - easily - the beau sejour becot 2005 (94 wa)! with this teaser of a description, "intense, full-bodied... revealing notes of expresso roast, chocolate, blackberries, licorice, and truffles," it delivered - and stood out among an impressive list of wines!

sadly (because i could have stayed there all afternoon), the bordeaux tasting ended with 3 impressive sauternes (my favorite white wine, even if it's meant for dessert ;D). the best of those three (none from chateau d'yquem, unfortunately) - was clearly the suduiraut 2005 (93 ws). sweet and complex :D

so while i love craft beer, my heart will always belong to wine.

check out my earlier post on the napa tasting.

3rd manhattan cask ale festival at chelsea brewing company

what an excellent afternoon! the 3rd manhattan cask ale festival at the chelsea brewing company definitely surpassed the 2nd manhattan cask ale festival (which, itself, managed to set a high standard) that i attended last fall.

over the course of the afternoon i had six great beers (and tasted two more). of the bunch, my personal favorite was the pittsfield brew works "chipotle brown" - an incredible peppery brew that just kept the heat coming sip after sip. it had a lot in common with rogue's chipotle ale, another favorite of mine.

i also loved the brooklyn "intensified coffee stout" - which competed with the recent memory of some incredible captain lawrence expresso stout that i had the pleasure to drink over the last few months. either one is an excellent choice!

these are all the beers i tried (including the two i stole tastes from):

brooklyn "intensified coffee stout"
burton bridge "thomas sykes old ale" (barleywine)
from emmy: flossmoor station "pullman brown ale"
pittsfield brew works "chipotle brown"
the bruery "cuvee jeune"
voodoo "big black voodoo daddy"
triumph "gothic ale"
from kevin: captain lawrence "nor'easter" - partially oaked

here are some pictures from the event:










me (w/triumph "gothic ale") and kevin (w/captain lawrence "nor'easter")


emmy (w/flossmoor station "pullman brown ale")

happy spring equinox!

spring has arrived! but i can't decide whether groundhog (phil) was right in his prediction of another 6 weeks of winter - or whether his competitor on staten island (chuck), who not only found a minute to bite the mayor, but predicted an early spring arrival, got it right? it's been an incredibly mixed bag, weather-wise, since groundhog day.

last year at this time i looked forward to the h.a.t. run, but then switched to the queens 60k at the last minute. this weekend i'm not running the colon cancer 15k - i'm a causality of the newly imposed nyrr race cap. but i'll volunteer there as a course marshall instead. the only race on deck this weekend is the recently rescheduled spring equinox (how appropriately named :D) 8k on sunday afternoon. that should be fun - but the weather forecast, once again, is mixed!

before the weekend, however, comes today! i'm leaving work early, after a late morning client meeting, and heading north to the chelsea brewing company for the 3rd manhattan cask ale festival! it's hard to believe the 2nd manhattan cask ale festival was barely 6 months ago! that one was a lot of fun - and got to taste some awesome craft beer! this time around, i'm not only looking forward to the great beer - but may see a few familiar faces there :D

nyrr 8000: race report

the nyrr 8000 was a last minute addition to the race schedule - primarily a result of having gotten closed out of the colon cancer 15k this weekend (which will work out as a volunteer opportunity). i had signed up for this 8k two years ago (2007) - but became a fun run because of a snowstorm (in march)! that snowstorm was so bad that the mens professional race was move to the next day! no such bad weather this time. in fact, it was perfect weather for racing.

emmy and i drove in and, because it took so long to find a parking spot, found ourselves running down to the baggage check and then over to the start! that's one way to warm-up for a race - ha. said hi to bob and john in the starting corral and, in the next breath, the race started. while i didn't have a particular goal in mind, i wanted to finish under 35 minutes (viewing it as a 5 miler). in fact, i thought 34 minutes - a 6:50 pace - was very doable.

i went out a bit too fast in the first mile, 6:36 - and followed that one up with a 6:35. so much for the 6:50 pace. but i knew, realistically, that if i didn't slow it down a bit i'd never survive cat hill. so mile 3 came in on target, with a 6:49. still, cat hill always has my number - good race or bad. in what seemed like slow motion, i ran a 6:59 fourth mile - argh.

slightly disappointed, i just needed a 7 minute mile to hit 34 minutes. the last .96 went by in 6:37 (roughly a 6:53 pace) and i finished in 33:36, a 6:45 pace. emmy was right behind me in 33:47. i was pleased with the outcome but knew i should have paid more attention to cat hill (and mile 4). here are my splits:

6:36
6:35 13:11
6:49 20:00
6:59 26:59
6:37 33:36

6:45 pace

in the chute met up with bob and tom from trrc (both would be at the st. patrick's day races the next day). i also, met up with eric and his friend jason. we all walked back to baggage check as a group. then at baggage pick-up, we ran into ilana and eliot (both of whom would also be at the st. patrick's day races). finally, as we exited the park, met up with sal (who had pace his friend from the achilles track club).

next up: after the morning as a course marshall at the colon cancer 15k, i'll head up to new canaan for the afternoon running of the spring equinox 8k. what a coincidence that two late minute additions to my race schedule would be a pair of back to back 8ks? amazing!

here are my race photos (w/links to additional race coverage).

bob dylan's self titled debut album released 47 years ago today!

is it really possible that we're approaching the 50th anniversary of the release of bob dylan's self titled debut album - which received little if any attention at that time. march 17, 1962, is barely five months earlier than the day i was born! what a sobering concept.

interestingly, the dylan news story of the day has nothing to do with music whatsoever. in fact, it concerns an entirely different sense (or sensibility). dylan's malibu neighbors are up in arms over the stench apparently blowing in the wind - wafting, uninvited, over to them from dylan's property. the porta-johns he installed (for the benefit of his agrarian hands) have made life so unbearable for his neighbors that they installed five industrial sized fans to blow it back to him! that fan plan failed, so now authorities have been brought in to investigate. once again, truth is stranger than fiction.

back to bob dylan (the album), it only contained two original songs, the rest were covers of tradition folk standards. it didn't make much of a splash, didn't receive critical acclaim, and didn't send dylan into rock stardom. that would all have to wait until his second album, "the freewheelin' bob dylan," was released a year later. then, as they say, the rest was history.

and then, three years later, bob dylan went "electric" with his 5th album, "bringing it all back home!"

i'm still a big fan of dylan. though that passion ebbs and flows (especially since i hear so many dylan covers via bob weir and ratdog - not to mention garcia versions as well). last summer we went to prospect park and heard dylan al fresco. last fall i reread "chronicles, volume one," - and hope, as intimated, that volume two is published this year.

maybe there's another dylan concert in store for me this year?

2009 spring equinox 8k is set for this sunday!

hot off the press. yesterday jim sent out an email that informed us about the new - and improved - date for the spring equinox 8k: this sunday afternoon, march 22, instead of the tentatively set date for the following sunday, march 29.

here is jim's announcement:

"In all the hubub over the Buildup 25k postponement, I completely forgot about the Spring Equinox Race. We were going to bypass it this year, but since it's the 30th running, have decided to hold it this Sunday, March 22, 3 p.m., New Canaan Presbyterian Church. Besides, there aren't any other local events on the calendar, so here's a chance to race. We won't sugar coat it, this is not a pancake-flat PR machine course. But hey, this is New England, and New England runners are supposed to be tough, right? Online registration will remain open until 6 p.m. Saturday."

just one tough hill :D

just added it to my march race schedule :D