Ever heard of synesthesia? It’s a neurological condition in which criss-crossed neurons enhance and combine your senses. Every person with synesthesia experiences it differently, but most hear, taste, or feel in color. Participating in Color Me Rad is like living a day as a synesthete. It’s five kilometers of running…
Comedians don’t really tell jokes these days. What’s popular now, apparently, is getting the audience going with funny tales from your own life. To be a good comedian today, you don’t actually have to be funny at all. You just have to be a good storyteller — and there are…
Beer: Baltic Porter Brewery: Alaskan Brewing Co. Style: Baltic Porter ABV: 9.8 percent Alaskan Brewing is known for their Smoked Porter, and why not? The beer’s won more golds than Michael Phelps, impressing so many beer judges that they’ve basically made the brew the standard by which all other smoked…
Ni-he da-na-ah-taj ihla, yel khol-go e-e-ah. Day-ne tal-al-tso go enta-she-jah tal-tso-go entas-se-pah. Did you decipher that? It’s not likely you did — those phrases are a variation on Navajo. While the uncrackable language of the code talkers that was employed during World War II saved many lives, the men who…
Halloween, 1978. In the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a man named Michael Myers goes fruit-ninja with a butcher knife on three babysitters. And a dog. And a boyfriend. And a truck driver. A half-dozen gruesome murders later, the precursor to the modern slasher movie is born. While we’ve come…
Beer: Lee’s Liquid Dinner Brewery: Sonoran Brewing Co. Style: English Brown Ale ABV: 5 percent If we’ve learned anything from Sonoran’s Chef Series beers so far, it’s that the cooks tapped for these brews aren’t afraid to get a little weird. First we had Jeremy Pacheco, who threw seven different…
What comes to mind when you hear the names Nic Roldan and Tommy Biddle Jr.? Nothing? How about the Molina Cup? Still blank? Hmm. How about the word “Marco”? That’s right: Polo! Believe it or not, this sport of kings and people who are rich as kings is an actual,…
Beer: Brown Shugga’ Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing Co. Style: American Strong Ale ABV: 9.9 percent Shovelfuls of dank hops. Scoops of honey and brown sugar. A blast of grapefruit juice. Brown Shugga’, how come you taste so good? Lagunitas’ barelywine-gone-awesome, Brown Shugga’, has appeared in this space before, but under much…
Ah, 1974. Not only had the Slip ‘n Slide just been invented, but the Fonz made his television debut, kids started playing Connect Four, and Mohammed Ali knocked out George Foreman to win the Rumble in the Jungle. Good year. Forgive us for waxing nostalgic, but this season’s Arizona Cardinals…
Beer: #9 Brewery: Magic Hat Brewing Co. Style: American Pale Ale ABV: 5.1 percent There are a few ways to judge the strength of beer culture in a city. One would obviously be the number of breweries operating within the community (and judging by recent events, we’ve got this one)…
In the past, pumpkin beers were rare — a seasonal sideshow, showing up only in the breweries daring enough to make them and enjoyed only by drinkers willing to take a chance on the oddities. Today, however, brews made with pumpkin have officially become mainstream, with nearly every brewery worth…
Beer: Gordon Biersch Märzen Brewery: Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant Style: Märzen/Oktoberfest ABV: 5.8 percent It was a cool fall day more than 200 years ago, and the Germans were partying. It had just been announced that Crown Prince Ludwig, who would later become King Ludwig I, was to be married…
If there ever was a sign that Americans are getting dumber and the apocalypse is nigh, it’s the popularity of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. It should tell you something when both the Democratic and Republican conventions fail to garner higher TV ratings than the antics of former Toddlers and…
Beer: Samuel Adams Thirteenth Hour Brewery: Boston Brewing Co. Style: Belgian-style stout ABV: 9 percent See also: Four Peaks Up ‘N’ Runnin’ See also: Odell DeConstruction I like to think I’m pretty advanced, from an evolutionary standpoint. I went to college; I can string sentences together fairly well; my thumbs…
If you’ve ever been part of one of the obstacle course adventure runs that have become so popular over the past few years, then you know their main drawback: skill level disparity. A seasoned triathlete going for prize money can be slowed down by a team of office shlubs doing…
Beer: DeConstruction Ale Brewery: Odell Brewing Co. Style: American Wild Ale ABV: 10.5 percent See also: Four Peaks Up ‘N’ Runnin’ See also: Schneider Aventinus Weizenbock Welcome back to Craft Beer 101, class. Hope you brought your thinking caps as well as your drinking glasses, because today’s lesson is quite…
The Arizona Diamondbacks, by the numbers: 64 wins, 65 losses, 4-6 in the last ten games. They have 576 runs scored (good!), but 546 runs allowed (bad!). They’re 7.5 games behind the National League West-leading Padres, and five games behind the LA Dodgers. All that equals a 6.8 percent chance…
Beer: Up ‘N’ Runnin’ Brewery: Four Peaks Brewing Co. Style: Mild Ale ABV: 4.8 percent See also: SanTan Count Hopula See also: Schneider Aventinus Weizenbock Mother Road. Mischief. Freak’n Brew. Arizona Wilderness. North Mountain. THAT Brewery. OHSO. Fate. Granite Mountain. Desert Eagle. Oh, and Four Peaks. Some of those names…
Comedian Loni Love believes you should ignore the people who tell you that you can’t make it. She thinks you should change your negative to a positive. By her logic, you’re not fat. You’re full! You’re not ugly; you have a unique look! You’re not dumb; you think differently! You’re…
Beer: Count Hopula Brewery: SanTan Brewing Co. Style: American Strong Ale ABV: 7.1 percent See also: SanTan Mr. Pineapple Beers that come out every year but don’t stick around for long — seasonals, we call them — are an important piece of any brewery’s portfolio. Drinkers will often eagerly anticipate…
Did you see Project X in theaters? The plot goes like this: After a party announcement is posted on Craigslist, the world’s largest and wildest house party goes down. Weed is smoked, ecstasy is dropped, a Mercedes Benz is driven into a pool, and an entire neighborhood is set alight…
Beer: Aventinus Weizenbock Brewery: Schneider & Sohn Style: Weizenbock ABV: 8.2 percent See also: Dogfish Head Indian Brown Ale With new breweries popping up almost every day to create unique new brews, craft beer is currently experiencing a renaissance in America. All this excitement over beer may confuse citizens of…
