Spectre’s Sayings

Ian Anderson has, on numerous occasions, told the tale of how this song came to be. He lived in an apartment building one flight of stairs away from an aspiring classical guitarist. Now, this budding classical guitarist practiced Johann Sebastian Bach’s Bouree over and over and over and over, ad nauseum. And so, in order to have a bit of revenge, Ian took the song and turned it into an utterly loathsome piece of cocktail lounge jazz.

Oddly enough, it’s quite a likable tune, nonetheless.

Here’s a video from 1969 of Jethro Tull performing Bouree.

Now this is interesting: Japan mines “flammable ice,” flirts with environmental disaster.

Lifehack has an article called 10 Reasons Gift Certificates Make Horrible Gifts. The points are reasonable, even though the comments suggest that not all of them are valid.

Unfortunately, the bartender gave me a regular American-style pint glass instead of the recommended stemware or beer stein. However, this beer poured a deep, dark brown with a decent, creamy head. The mouth feel was very thick. It had an roasted-coffee aroma and a very complex taste. I couldn’t identify all the flavors swirling in my mouth. Rather than the expected hoppy finish at the rear of the mouth, there were tastes lingering further forward on my tongue. There was one flavor that was similar to, but not quite the same as, a sour taste that disagreed with me. But otherwise, it was a very well-balanced beer.

Although this lager hails from Germany, the creamy head and thick texture kept reminding me of various Irish dry stouts. If you like those types of beers (Guiness, Beamish) or the thicker varieties of Scottish Ales, you’d probably love this beer.