Was listening to the portafilter.net podcast (Episode 23) and thinking about coffee shops, cafés, brewpubs, bars, bands, venues…
Michiana Beer: South Bend Breweries
A Brief and Incomplete History of Brewing in South Bend, Indiana
Over at Indiana Beer. Link posted by Jeff Sutter on the Michiana Brew Google Group. A list of a few breweries in South Bend, especially the Muessel Brewing Company and Manitoba-based Drewrys Brewery. (“Michiana” is the informal name for a region which crosses the Michigan-Indiana border around South Bend, IN.)
In more recent history, there has been a few brewpubs and microbreweries in Northern Indiana. The following ones are currently in operation: Three Floyds Brewing Company in Munster (along with the Three Floyds Brewpub), Backroad Brewery in LaPorte, Mishawaka Brewing Company in Mishawaka, Shoreline Brewing Company in Michigan City, Mad Anthony Brewing Company, in Fort Wayneand most recently, Nine G Brewing Company, in South Bend. A more complete list of Hoosier breweries is available on the Indiana Beer website.
A Department Is Like…
Alex Golub on Academic Departments as Factory, lab, guild, studioAn interesting heuristic model. Not too dissimilar from Eric Raymond’s well-known The Cathedral and the Bazaar. More specific to academic departments but some of the same ideas. Continue reading A Department Is Like…
Bouffe et culture aux États-Unis dans les années 1950
Le dernier épisode de la balado-diffusion EatFeed, Dinner From the Oven, contient une entrevue avec Laura Shapiro, auteure d’un livre sur la cuisine au four dans les années 1950 aux États-Unis. Le livre lui-même semble assez intéressant et l’entrevue donne un résumé de certaines notions importantes, entre autres sur l’influence de l’industrie de l’alimentation et les réticences des ménagères à utiliser des mélanges préparés à l’avance. Bien que ce soit surtout une approche historiciste, ç’en dit beaucoup sur la société américaine, sur les rapports femmes-hommes, sur la perception de la nourriture, etc.
Trusting People
One of the most recent shows on “Radio Open Source” was on Craigslist (show aired February 7, 2006).
Colbert Experiment?
Stephen Colbert recently gave a rather candid interview for The Onion’s A.V. club. Not his first interview, not necessarily more revealing, but it seems as if he’s looking for new things to do on his show, the Colbert Report.
Courts suisses au Québec (mardi 21 février 2006, gratuit)
Soirée Prends ça court! — Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois
Présentation de courts métrages suisses dans le cadre du festival de films québécois.
Bon, la description est pas excellente (stéréotypes sur les montres et les chalets, «suisso-» pour «helvético-»…) mais la soirée risque d’être intéressante.
Video Merits
Refers to Digg and Delicious. Mentions iTunes and Participatory Culture’s own DTV as software clients.
Interesting that they should mention democracy. The About page unapologetically calls it meritocracy, which is honest and accurate.
Like other systems available online (for instance, Podcastalley and, obviously, Digg), the way users rate content is by adding their “vote” to as many items as they want. That in itself is an interesting concept. The only thing the user needs to say is “I like these ones,” without any need to compare specifically. It’s not competitive in a strict sense, yet it’s a rating system. So it’s more of a popularity contest than a true meritocracy. It’s a bit like the “two thumbs up” statement on so many movies in that it doesn’t require much from the reviewer yet it’s a way to assign positive value. Because some reviewers acquire social capital, their choices will become popular which adds a positive feedback loop to the system.
Of course, people can post comments, which is the very basis of the type of contact and communication proposed by the venerable (!) Slashdot as well as the whole blogging community.
The other part which is quite important is that tags are applied to content which makes for community-created bottom-up classification (unlike strict taxonomies). Many online systems have this (say, Technorati). Of course, classification may be unreliable at first and tags may seem idiosyncratic. But the tagging system itself seems to work well on average. Good way to observe cultural schemes being created.
Anthropology and Publishing: A Summary
A good summary of some of the touchy issues regarding academic publishing generally from an anthropological perspective.
Gyroscope
Went to see Gyroscope at Cheval blanc. Great show!
Apparently, Gyroscope is labelled as post-rock but their music is diverse enough to make them break away from any pigeonhole. The band’s overall sound is consistent throughout yet pieces and sections contrast vividly. Thinking of influences might not be the best way to describe the band’s music. Thanks to circumstances, kept thinking of Francis Dhomont, The Shaggs, Jack DeJohnette, Mogwai, Return to Forever, and Van Morrison. Please don’t ask why! Still, the band’s music was open enough to allow for cerebral wandering despite the fact that the sheer acoustic presence of the group made the show into an immersive experience.
Compare as you will. The show was fun.
Obviously, they have MP3 excerpts on their site. Here’s one: Yinque s’une patte. Yet, the band’s performance was quite a bit better than those excerpts.