Beers I Have Known: Foster’s

This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. Monday nights we went to The Cabin. We went other nights too, but Monday was when The Cabin featured Imports Night, cutting the prices of their imported beer and offering a chance to check them off on a little card until enough had been purchased and consumed to claim the trophy of a little glass mug. In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, in the early nineteen-nineties, this is what passed for high, erudite living, at … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Foster’s

College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 1

1. “Just Like Heaven” by the Cure The third single from the Cure’s 1987 double album release, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, was a clear breakthrough for the band, at least in the United States. It was their first song to cross into the Billboard Top 40, although just barely. What’s more, the band that MTV had been toying with for a couple of years found themselves with a very secure place on the trend-setting cable network. Maybe that was in part because the smitten exuberance of the song helped the band shake off some of gothy cobwebs that … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 1

College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 10 and 9

10. “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode The second single from Depeche Mode’s Music for the Masses, “Never Let Me Down Again,” was the a fairly weak performer, by some measures anyway, compared to the other tracks released in the first wave of the album’s promotion. Of the first three singles, for example, it was the lowest charter on the U.K. charts and the only one that didn’t manage a Top 5 showing on the U.S. Dance charts (lead single “Strangelove” even managed to top that particular chart for two weeks). Nonetheless, it was one of those songs … Continue reading College Countdown: KROQ-FM’s Top 40 Songs of 1987, 10 and 9

One for Friday: Grandaddy, “Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland”

I didn’t used to be a Scrooge. When I was a little kid–like most little kids, I’d wager–I was delighted when the calender finally reached the point when it was acceptable to pull the well-worn Christmas albums out of storage and start playing them non-stop. I’m sure it’s some sort of karmic balance for all the Chipmunks songs with which I unwittingly persecuted the adults in my household that I now find the endless barrage of chipper or sentimental yuletide cheer piped in over store sound systems to be like claws raked against the inside of my brain. Consequently, it’s … Continue reading One for Friday: Grandaddy, “Alan Parsons in a Winter Wonderland”

Beers I Have Known: Skull Splitter

This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. Some beers I know well. Some beers, on the other hand, I’ve seen the twisted metal and cracked pavement they inflict in the delectable car crash of their consumption. My friend Scott was ahead of his time, an erudite connoisseur of the vast spectrum of high-quality beer well before the craft brewing boom. At our urging, he once provided a list of his ten favorite beers of all time, and I remember puzzling … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Skull Splitter

Beers I Have Known: Rolling Rock

This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another. I’m fairly certain that the first time I heard of Rolling Rock, the pale lager issued by Pennsylvania’s Latrobe Brewing Company, was in Ed Haynes song “Splash.” Haynes describes encountering a drunk at a Blue Movie concert at San Francisco’s Haight Street Fair. Heavily inebriated on Mickey’s Big Mouth, the drunk winds up vomiting in the midst of the crowd, causing all around to “give him a lot of elbow room.” This causes … Continue reading Beers I Have Known: Rolling Rock