Archive by Author

The Self Hating Hipster’s Guide to Session Beers

20 Aug

In honor of the Self Hating Hipster’s first birthday, I asked the SHH himself what the topic of the first style guide in almost a year should be. If you’re not familiar with some of the other ones I’ve written, what I like to do is talk about a style of beer, it’s background, and offer some suggestions to help you navigate the beer store so you don’t have to ask the guy at the counter, who is busy doing scratchers. Continue reading

Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE

24 Jul

The long awaited solo effort from the silky-voiced Frank Ocean was big enough.  Add to the fever his announcement/note/whatever it was that Frank once loved (like, love loved) another man changed this from a record release, to a seismic shift in macho hip-hop culture, not to mention giving his crew, Odd Future, a new air of legitimacy and complexity in the face of all their blatant gay-bashing.

Somehow, lost in all of this, was the record. Ocean’s first release “Novacaine” left many wanting more, including Jay-Z and Kanye West.  Ocean would be tapped to sing the refrain on both “Made it in America,” and “No Church in the Wild” on the duo’s epic collaboration Watch the Throne. He would release two more singles, “Swim Good” and “Thinkin’ Bout You,” the latter being the lead track to his major label debut, Channel Orange. Continue reading

Left Coast Dwight

14 Jul

(Oh, hello. This is my non-triumphant return to blogging.  Been a while since I checked in around these parts, but I am hoping to change that. Here is another installment of my fictional Sunday newspaper column.)

Dwight Howard will play next season in Los Angeles, whether he likes it or not.  While nothing is official, it seems the Lakers are the last team standing in this race. Brooklyn/New Jersey got up from the table earlier this week, and made their peace with acquiring Joe Johnson and Deron Williams to lead them into the Barclay’s Center next season. Houston, while still technically in the race, is attempting to sell the farm to buy the prized cow.  They even cut loose their hardest working player in hopes of freeing up enough money to land the big fish. Atlanta would have to similarly dismantle their team in order to bring Dwight to town. Continue reading

How to Feel About Albert Pujols After You Forgot He Burned St. Louis

13 Mar

This off season, Albert Pujols became one of the biggest free agent players to hit an open market since Lebron James. It came down to his desire to be one of the highest paid players in the game, and his loyalty to the only organization he ever knew.  In the end, he and his family felt slighted over what they felt was a sub par offer from St. Louis, and chose to sign a 10-year, $254 million dollar contract to join the Los Angeles Angels. Albert switched leagues and joined the AL, where you figure he’ll play a significant role as a DH somewhere down the line.  Consider it a wise move for a player with mild concerns over his actual age, nevermind that he followed the money.

Now that the dust has settled, and uh, new dust is kicking around Continue reading

Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie: Make that Money

10 Mar

Tim and Eric sure can make a great television show.  It started with the peculiarly animated Tom Goes To The Mayor, and carried over to their later venture, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! They certainly could fill a 15-20 minute block of time with wacky loops and awkward conversation.  There was no shortage of celebrity cameos either.  I was a big fan of Awesome Show for the majority of its run.  I even saw their live show, which was the second sold out show of the night when they played the Wilbur Theater in Boston.  They opened that particular show with a song about diarrhea. Actually, it was about fifteen minutes long, and consisted of them simply repeating the world “diarrhea” over and over again. Since I bought my tickets late, on a whim, the seats were towards the back.  I overheard a conversation between two ushers at the Wilbur, which went something like this:

Continue reading

The one where Justin and Andee breakdown this ridiculous picture of the New York Knicks and Dennis Rodman

4 Mar

11:15 AM Sunday, March 4th:

Justin Knipper

how do you feel about this: http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/986415/AnEZ58ZCEAAfukh_medium.jpg

Andee Marshall

 surprised Rodman isn’t throwing the shocker Continue reading

Dr. Ironfist defeats Del Boy and What It Means For Boxing

19 Feb

Let me start by saying this is no way an endorsement of the rather classless things UK boxer Dereck Chisora did to Vitali Klitschko before their WBC Heavyweight Championship fight on Saturday.  First, at the weigh-in Chisora slapped Klitschko right across the face, which started a small tussle that really didn’t go anywhere because of Vitali’s completely ice cold murderer stoicism. Almost anyone caught up with what’s went on in the boxing world for the last four years or so seemed to indicate this meant Chisora had a deathwish.  If that wasn’t bad enough, as the match was approaching the opening bell, Chisora took the opportunity to get nose-to-nose with Vitali’s brother Wladimir (aka, #2 pound-for-pound  boxer in the world, and reigning IBF, WBO, and IBO Heavyweight Champion) and then be so kind as to spit water in his face.  This incident again was snuffed out by the eerie Ukrainian stoicism Wladimir responded with, but pushed the fight to must-see levels of interest.

Continue reading

Radiohead Silence

13 Feb

It’s rare that something I saw on a friend’s Facebook status would compel me so far as to write a post about it. The status in question, among other things, touched on whether or not people still care about Radiohead.  Yes, that Radiohead.  The one with the skipping, prancing, manic ball of ??? for a lead singer, the one with the spaced-out composer of a lead guitar player, not to mention an underrated drummer. While this is less a question about their earlier material, to what is the appropriate response to the band now that it really feels like there is nothing left.

I was at a wine tasting over the weekend. That sentence is a lot less cool than it sounded in my brain, but nevertheless, Continue reading

Bud Light Platinum

29 Jan

Somewhere, likely in Missouri, someone decided that Bud Light just wasn’t getting America’s college students and off-duty bus drivers drunk fast enough.  Why sell it in a brown beer bottle, when it can be blue? Let’s pretend there is somehow a premium clientele for our high selling, beer-flavored enhanced water beverage.  The end result, is Bud Light Platinum.

Anheuser-Busch’s newest creation boasts a 6 percent alcohol by volume, (up from 4.2%) and a special blue bottle normally reserved for over priced mineral water sold to women in funny hats at the race courses.  Bud Light Platinum is even stronger than Continue reading

The SHH Guide to Porters

15 Jan

IT FINALLY SNOWED! After what seemed like forever, there is snow on the ground where I live.  It is officially winter.  The holidays are over and there is nothing but the grey sky and shoveling for two/three months.  Refreshment be damned; it’s about staying warm.  Stouts get all the love, and I’ve been on a porter kick lately [Ed’s note – not a euphemism] so I decided to crack an egg of knowledge all on all ya’ll. Porter: the other dark beer.  Wikipedia’s got a whole bunch of facts that you can read if you want, but since I already did that just sit tight.  Anyways, you know the band Joy Division? Yeah, Love Will Tear Us Apart and all that.  Porter is what all their dad’s drank after a hard day at a Manchester textile factory.  Your son would be depressed enough to write “The Eternal,” too.   Continue reading