one about religion...

or about washing your car... actually it's about opening a pair of curtains. this is how bruce dickinson introduces "revelations" on live after death, and it has always cracked me up. actually listening to the studio cut off piece of mind right now, but i was reminded, one of those classic pieces of banter that doesn't quite make sense. my favorite bruce intro, though, is definitely for the rime (not marked - rock on spell check, let that old school stuff slide) of the ancient mariner: "the moral of this story is this is what not to do if a bird shits on you". if you know the poem but not the adaptation i highly suggest you avail yourself; you'll be surprised at the faithfulness maiden has to the original. in any event, this is a great album and i'm glad i threw it on, just one great track after another. next thing you know i'll go back to actually introducing myself as metal.
so i guess tonight is friday. overall it doesn't so much feel like it. more like a sunday night, as i have a lot of work to look forward in the next couple of days. i am absolutely exhausted. on the other hand, some friday is maintained by the fact that i have given myself the night off, more or less.
i guess i sort of gave myself the night off last night too, although not as much of that night was off. i had spent the last few days destroying my brain with constitutional law, trying to recall all i had done through the semester, memorize case names and holdings. like i said before, there was a ton of shit to cover. i spent most of yesterday trying to compose my one side of one printed page of notes i was allowed to bring in. i went with eight point font and the slimmest margins the printer would let me have, something in the neighborhood of .16 inches or something. i thought that was extreme enough, but you should have seen the shit some other people brought in. all rigged up with with like four columns, some serious gnat's ass condensed fonts, like 5.5 point. one dude had managed to fit in something about all ninety nine cases we were technically assigned. the concern, though, for most people was the almost equal amount of cases the prof mentioned in passing in class, which he explicitly said we should also know. a lot to freak out about. so i did my best to cover as much ground as possible. people get so ridiculous about these things, a buzz was going around that one of the three essays was going to be about executive power and the war on terrorism and military tribunals. of course, even though everyone was so sure it would be on there, it wasn't. i hope those motherfuckers spent all their time on it; it was one of the few things i left off my one page of notes. look, just because a recent past exam or two had it on there, it doesn't follow that it will be on this one. if anything, i would think that makes it less likely. profs put old exams on file so that students can see the sort of questions they ask, not so students know what questions will be on the exam. on the other hand, like i said, i tried to cover an awful lot of ground over the past few days. almost all for naught. the purview of the exam was shockingly narrow; all three questions dealt with fundamental liberties under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to some extent. fortunately, this was something i understood pretty well and had included some good points on in my notes. i really feel like i rocked the first question, which was actually half and not a third of the grade, so that's good. the other two questions were alright too, just not as clear cut as the first one. overall, i feel good about it, probably even better than any exam at law school thus far.
and it's a good thing too, because as i mentioned i kind of took last night off. as threatened, i went to that tea leaf green show rather than spend the dying hours of last night trying to cram more shit into my brain. damn, did i ever make the right call. it is a good feeling. nothing i would have done last night would have left me any better off during the exam than i was. i went into the show kind of nervous, though, and not just about my possible misuse of time. no, i was worried about the show, and, naturally, the set list. my buddy who has seen considerably more shows at this venue than i have made extensive claims of curfew limitations, possibly as early as eleven. plus, their most recent show was in delaware and it was only one set. although it was a short show, it featured a few nuggets i had reason to believe would probably not surface two shows in a row. however, they had not played what is probably my favorite cut and certainly one of their more enduring and popular tracks in a few days, so i was hopeful for that if nothing else. so curfew concerns and all i went in. the opening band was pretty cool, bunch of veteran musicians. six people, probably in their sixties, although it is hard to tell. being a longtime touring musician (especially coming out of the sixties and inhabiting the fringes of what is now the "jam" world), i feel, takes a certain toll that makes one look perhaps older than one is. one dude in this band was like neil young status haggard, and a couple others weren't too far off. regardless, it was awesome to see people like that having an absolute ball doing what they do, and presumably have been doing for decades. one dude played a phenomenal pedal steel, which is a sound i will not tire of in the foreseeable future. skilled and entertaining as they were, they were not the band i showed up to see, and given curfew concerns i grew anxious as they went about fifteen minutes over their allotment (i know because they said so). i figured if time constraints were real, the equipment change-out would be expedient, but no, still the customary half-hour or so. i couldn't wait for the main event to get rolling. and then it did. and it was pretty excellent; i know i was psyched. even with a favorite band, though, everyone has some songs they dig more than others. the ones that fall into my ideal category were not dominating the set, but it was still great, and actually gave me more appreciation of the songs that don't fit into my top twenty five for the band. the way things were proceeding, i was pretty sure they were moving toward winding things up, and eagerly awaited the inimitable "sex in the 70s", the aforementioned crown jewel of the repertoire, but to no avail. at the end of the set the band broke out the old companion song to one that hasn't taken a vacation from recent shows, and that was a nice treat, but it looked to be about all and i staked my hopes on the encore as i nervously glanced at the time on my phone. as they finished up the breakout tune and the guitarist approached the mic, i expected the perfunctory thank you and have a good night, but instead heard the magic words "stick around, we'll be right back". two sets it was going to be after all, no curfew kibosh. i was so jazzed i could hardly stand it, and when they went back on there was not one millisecond of disappointment, and a lot more of what i had been hoping to hear. i particularly reveled in the sentiment of one of my particular favorites, "piss it away", given my present circumstances (even though the choice is mine/i make the wrong one every time). it was about all i could ask for, and when we got about as deep as we were gonna go, they launched into the one i had been betting on and waiting for. perfect way to close it out, i figured, and started to wonder about the encore. to my great delight, however, i had gotten out in front of things; the set had some gas in the tank and they made a slick transition into one of their older super funky quasi-disco numbers that once upon a time had been a common lead-in to the song they had just played. it sizzled like the crowd, total throw-down at the hoedown. but it was the encore that finally and conclusively melted my face. two tracks i hadn't dared hold out hope for, both delivered in blistering fashion. but that wasn't all, they sealed the deal with a great tongue-in-cheek thrash number called death cake (i used to be a love muffin... now i am a... DEATH CAKE! death cake motherfucker!). at that point i wasn't sure if i had made the right decision or not in foregoing study time, but i did know without a doubt that i had one of the best times i might ever have. the exam going good in the morning was the icing on, well, on the death cake, i guess. things gotta work out right sometimes, and this was perfect timing for just such an instance.
i am currently auditioning magic hat's newest seasonal. when i saw the label, i was initially confused but then recalled a visit to the website which specified the scheme i had not seen in practice: the same name for a beer that changes four times a year. there is a small part of the label that specifies the season, but always in the overall form of odd notion [season]. apparently the marketing folks at magic hat think it is cool to call four different beers the same thing, presumably as part of the broader goals of furthering specific branding and tapping into the market of people who will always try a new beer. i for one appreciate breweries doing seasonal things, as beer is quite easy to fit to some specific times of the year, and there is a fine tradition of doing so. on the other hand, i dislike the sacrifice of creativity in the name of marketing. i enjoy this beer and will have lots of great things to say about it in a moment, but these alleged seasonals are never very drastic, mostly just middle of the road stuff, albeit quite well done. the summer version is malty as all get out, a little syrupy for summer, but surprisingly roasty at first quickly moving to a lingering sweetness with a fruit juice sort of aftertaste. not as overdone as the apricot in number nine, and not as cloying, and somehow almost as sweet. i wouldn't be surprised if the recipes were mostly similar apart from what seems like some medium belgian in this one and the actual fruit flavor in no. 9. if not the malt bill, then almost certainly the yeast. flavorful and pleasant, but not in a specifically summery (not marked) way. the juxtaposition of the initial roastiness and relatively viscous body to the light, acidic sweetness after it is what makes this a worthwhile brew to check out. good beer, but i'm glad i bought a single and not a six pack, and that to me is the biggest indictment of its claim to summer. my personal favorite summertime beer is still the kolsch that goose island makes. i wonder i f i will be able to find that out here. whether i do or not, i'm sure there will be some other options available that i am as yet unfamiliar with. the foodery beckons. click the link that simply says 'beer' and it will be immediately apparent why. one more week...
also, this post was not about religion. i guess that is the punchline?