A benefit of writing blogs is you can revisit your old self occasionally, check in, and compare notes. Since interviews seem to be the new black this week, I thought this would be a good time to see how things are going for myself circa August 2004.
But first, a disclaimer: when conducting an interview with your past self, you must be careful not to reveal any information about the future which might set your past self on an alternate timeline. You might be tempted, as Biff was in Back to the Future II for example, to send your past self future sports scores so your current self may reap the profits.
Don’t.
You might destroy the entire space-time continuum, or you may end up sending yourself crippling addictions to ketamine, nickel-plated revolvers, and expensive champagne. Don’t ask questions, that’s just how The Rule of Unintended Consequences works. It won’t end well.
The Brickstore Pub in Decatur is one of my and Amber’s favorite places to eat. Amber usually gets a chicken salad sandwich and a side salad, and I usually get the penne pomodoro with andoville sausage, though I’ve had nearly everything on the menu. Most of the food is good, some of it is great, and the only thing I’ve had which I would say is bad is the turkey burger. Avoid that and you should be fine.
More importantly, it’s the best place in metro Atlanta to sample craft beers. Watch the video below about the pub’s new cellaring program and it should be easy for you to see why:
If you’re not a beer nerd (and I don’t qualify as a beer nerd, though I do try to look for an IPA I’ve never tried before whenever I go somewhere with an extensive beer menu), you might not have been aware that some beers are designed to be aged as wines are. The Brickstore Pub is taking over space in the basement of an adjacent bank to age those types of beers.
In the video, they discuss plans to have invite-only beer tastings to determine when the beers being aged are ready for public consumption. The space looks like it will be really cool for that purpose. I especially loved the mechanism to let air in the bank vault. Maybe Tony can get invited to test some beers out. Me, I am mostly useful for describing shitty beer.
Thankfully, Tony shows greater editing restraint than I would have, choosing to remove a tangent on NASCAR that cuts the length down to a pretty reasonable 25 minutes. I was buzzing pretty good by then, so I don’t quite remember most of what was said about NASCAR, but I do remember a part that went something like:
Me:I only really watched NASCAR for about a year once. I had a guy who lived next door to me who was a huuuuuuge Dale Earnhardt fan. So I rooted for Jeff Gordon just to piss him off. I used to ask him, “how many races has Earnhardt won this year?” He hadn’t won any, of course. Then I’d say, “Yeah, Gordon won like seven already.”
Griftdrift: You deserve to have your ass kicked.
For the uninitiated, Earnhardt fans and a lot of other fans view Jeff Gordon as an effete, rich pretty boy who only wins because he can buy the best team, not because he’s the best driver.
You can listen to what did make the cut by clicking here or using the player below. You’ll just have to listen to get the absolute Zima reference from the title.
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Maybe when we record the third episode tonight (about hipster/douchebag beers) we can talk about Toby Keith.
