Opraahhhh ∫ here's to 25 years well done

Hat Tip Jezebel (via Karen)

Agreed ∫ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Via www.weareprivate.com

Always Coca Cola ∫ if 'always' = 'about a century'

Via Retro Thing

Algeria Clinches World Cup Birth

Nearly a quarter-century in the making. And, in an odd twist of fate, neither Ireland (due to a dubious "hand of napoleon" incident v. France) nor Croatia (due to an insurmountable qualifying bracket) managed to qualify for 2010. It seems as if only half of my ethnic make-up will ever be allowed to participate in a world cup during my lifetime--so far. Well, technically, its never happened.. ever. This one's pretty exciting though. Cheers to my folks in Algiers!

Of further interest... (via guardian.co.uk)

Algeria beats Egypt in play-off to qualify for 2010 World Cup

THE WIRE ∫ 100 Greatest Quotes

Open Inbox. Email from Karen. Subject line: Oh yeeaahh. 'nuff said, enjoy:

Sheeiiit... Sheeeeiiittt..... Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiiiieeeeeiiiiitttt...

Eff-day the 13th...

Alternate side parking. This is my nightmare. #iphonography

Must See DVD ∫ "The Carter" Doc

Need I say more? I have been dreading my Dwayne-M-Carter-is-jail-bound post for some time now. But it must be addressed. What kind of uncomfortably-too-much-of-a-fan would I be? Instead, lets celebrate his illegal weapon toting, drug addled, pre-sentencing days. With next week's dvd release of a Sundance favorite--a documentary about the best rapper alive [since the best rapper retired, then un-retired]. 

Cue it up on the Netflix. Drops on the 17th. Holla. Sorry about the last 30 seconds of dead air in the form of a weird song, this trailer is straigh from the official website http://thecarterdoc.com/

Freixenet Cava ∫ Brut Nature

Apologias. I have def been slacking 0n this blogging. So it should come as no surprise that this post is well over-due... Many, many moons ago, Karen and I spent some time at the Freixenet winery--whilst spending a lovely week in Barcelona. And we made sure to stow away a bottle of the best cava we tried, the Brut Nature. It's double-fermented, which means it gets the bottle treatment as well as vat-love. But is drier and less sweet than even the notoriously dry "extra brut" because the in-bottle fermentation doesn't see any addition of sugar, as do almost all champagnes--hence "nature" in the name. We also grabbed it because you won't likely find this make of Freixenet out of Spain (or even 0ff-campus) let alone anything other than their "black bottle" which is definitely delish and well-worth it's price point of around 10 bucks.

We popped cork a good while ago (to celebrate my landing an internship, and--if all goes well--future derailment of current legal-profession-bound path). Note the early stages of the same painting you'll see a few posts down (re saarinen chair photo). And the awesome Ritzenhoff champagne glasses ($$$ y'all). Aaand the awesome agraffe--little wire cork cage, fyi, you're welcome--in a simple black & white. We brought home a replica, in magnet form, for our frigidaire (to compliment the matching coffee mugs & magnet of the little freixenet boy holding a magnum of cava under his arm).

Here are a few pics from the Freixenet visit I've borrowed from our Barça fbook album:

The Kraken Rum ∫ To Beast or Not to Beast

In fact, I don't know if i'll ever "beast" but I couldn't pass up posting this because I've spent more than a few minutes leafing through their well-packaged site. the dieline (great blog, btw) featured the handsome bottle-workings of the rum in question, thus leading me to their site. Which, in turn, led me to the 3 chapter moving picture show, documenting the mythical Caribbean beast for which the dark spiced spirit was named. If you're bored--and I know you are--take the 4-odd minutes out of your otherwise not so busy day. http://www.krakenrum.com/

of further interest... chapter titles:

Ch. 1: A Journey through the Ever-Terrifying Landscape that is {The Anatomy of the Kraken}

Ch. 2: An Inquiry into the Cloud of Darkness or {Why the Kraken Squirts Black Ink}

Ch. 3: An Investigation as to Whether the Myth of the Kraken is in Fact {the Reality of the Kraken}

UPDATE: Looks like the Kraken folk took a liking to the dieline write-up and sent along a media kit even more well-packaged than the site. the dieline has an extensive photo-diary of the unboxing. Here's the gist:

Sactown in the NYTimes ∫ 36 Hours

We made it! The weekend NYT travel section always features an itinerary for a weekend getaway to a city worth visiting--a stamp of approval for a select group of NYC transplants and point of pride each weekend. I exclaimed--with prideful glee--to my co-worker next-desk that Sactown had made the weekender. And he was like: awesome, I remember when St. Louis was in there a while back! I was tipped off yesterday by Sacrag, but didn't let on to Karen so it would be a surprise this morning. It was awesome to flip through the pages and actually see it there in print. So awesome, in fact, that I had to picture & post within the hour. 

The blurb on the front page of the section, 'Sacramento: Big-State Capital With Small-Town Charm.' Which is acceptable. But doesn't help to shake the sleepy cow town perception. The coverage was pretty solid--perhaps taking a hint from my prior post re the American River Bike trail, but managing to miss my post re Sutter's Fort--with the usual suspects, and a few newcomers sprinkled. 

Oh, and I made breakfast... by walking across the street to the recently opened Bakeri. Not only is the place perfectly picturesque, the goods are delicious. I plan on returning shortly for the cranberry prosciutto chocolate chip cookies. Or the pumpkin pie cheesecake. Hmm.. decisions decisions, delicious decisions...

Of Further Interest...

36 Hours in Sacramento

(read the article and make sure to check out the slideshow, entirely photographed by Sactown Mag's sharpshooter--a team that's won more than a few maggies in the past few years--M. Whittaker)