Tuesday - 10/10/06

12:07 PM Michael: hey
Paul: "hey" - that's SO you
Michael: i know, I invented "hey"
12:08 PM if i may have moment of your time, sir, i'd like to discuss WhiskyFest
12:09 PM Paul: please, whiskeytize me
12:10 PM Michael: so, here is the deal - and i will look at the precise details and email them to you when i do
i think it's November 6th
which i believe is a tuesday
i'm going to be up the preceeding weekend
but
i dont think i can be there for the event
12:11 PM Paul: NO!
why would whiskeyfest happen on a tuesday?
whiskeyfest should be a friday through to saturday whiskeynight
12:12 PM Michael: I know! I agree! now, normally i'd like to do this as a surprise, obviously, but tickets aren't cheap, so i need to know prior to it whether or not you and maggie could go, but i would like to treat you both, if you can attend, as a anniversary/maggie's birthday present
Paul: oh my god
12:13 PM Michael: basically it features hundreds of different whiskies, taste testing, various classes, etc
Paul: why would you buy me anything? i mean, i love you. and i love whiskey. but you're way too good to me.
Michael: you can taste thousand dollar vintages!
Paul: oh my god
Michael: trust me, i'd love to be there myself
Paul: my brain just attacked my heart and told it that it's dead. because my brain is going to drink so much whiskey
Michael:
12:14 PM and if I find out i can come, then i will
so i'll send you the info and let me know if you and maggie could go
Paul: i'll check with maggie after i get the deets from you. I'm totally up for it. But I feel bad that you're going to buy tickets and NOT go.
Michael: so it goes. i'll vicariously drink whisky through you
Paul: you are the dream friend i've always dreamed about
12:15 PM Michael: i'll email you the info now, get back to me when you can
i'm still coming up that weekend, of course
so you will buy me a drink
12:16 PM Paul: "a" drink?
12:17 PM Michael: many "a" drinks
Paul: more like i'll get you more sauced than a tomato that's been made into sauce
Michael: email sent
Paul: gracias
Michael: hell yeah you will
and then i'll pass out in the hot sun
Paul: hell yeah i'm gonna!
we're gonna get tore up
12:18 PM Michael: oh the drunken hilarity will flow like discombobulated sober hilarity
Paul: it's a shame you won't be here this saturday. the party looks to be kickin
$100 of booze. a dj. friends.
12:19 PM Michael: sounds great, i don't think i can make it, but there actually is a remote possibility of a last minute change of plans
trust me, i want to be there
i have shit to do this weekend though, including working on sunday
12:20 PM Paul: bah. work is for suckers. even though i am one of those suckers.
Michael: yeah
well, without it, i'd have no money to sponsor you in WHISKYFEST
12:21 PM Paul: hahaha
Michael: so it has at least one upside
Paul: i'm gonna have to make a shirt/have maggie make a shirt for "Team Mike"
Michael: that would be awesome
i'll need one, like the 6th grader from south park who always wears a shirt with his face on it
Paul: a full jump suit would be ideal, actually
12:22 PM Michael: and yellow, like april o'neill
Paul: for maggie
mine would have a giant dragon on it and the word "maverick"
Michael: mine will have the words "contientious obejector, smash the establishment" on the front and a starbucks logo on the back
Paul: man, he went into a DUNKIN DONUTS
hilarious
12:24 PM Michael: i would actually really like a shirt like that
Paul: "smash the establishment...with this refreshing coffee coolata"
Michael:
the perfect summer pick-me-up
Paul: america runs on dunkin
well, i'll see about making a shirt like that and getting it your way
12:25 PM i know people. they do fashion stuff.
Michael: thanks buddy, Team Mike would also be mostly excellent
yes i know
do dan and pete still do that stuff?
Paul: yeah. it's going well, too. just completed an order of 1000 shirts for a record company/store. something like that.
12:26 PM Michael: that's awesome
well done boys
12:27 PM did i tell you that josh and i will be starting to brew and sell our own beer soon?
we just completed our first original recipe beer
Paul: how'd you do that?
12:28 PM Michael: it was very, very good (if i do say so myself), now we're brewing a couple more batches and there's a lot of paperwork and planning to do, but hope to have it going within about a year
we each had learned enough from brewing beer following recipes that we invented our own
it's called ZWB
12:29 PM for the german word Zimtweisbier, which mean cinnamon wheat beer
because it's a cinnamon wheat beer
you see
Paul: oh man
that sounds delicious
i want all of it
i'll put in a preorder
Michael: it was really good
Paul: for like, a case and a keg and another case
12:30 PM Michael: we brewed a second batch a couple weeks ago at josh's place when i was in boston, and next week i'm doing another batch here in dc
Paul: are you going to declare yourselves a business and shit?
Michael: since there's lincensing needed just to sell beer, we have to get that first
then we will become a company
Paul: are you still using the brewing kits for your barley and carbonization?
12:32 PM Michael: yep. we have looked into bigger equipment, for $700 we can buy a 100 gallon fermenter (by contrast we can only brew 5 gallons at a time now), with these batches we're probably going to take it to beer bars for opinions and advice
so we're both saving up to have a few thousand for next year
12:33 PM Paul: this is momentous. monumental. congratualtions/thank you for blessing the world with your talents
12:34 PM Michael: thanks, i hope things work out
Paul: that's amazing
12:35 PM Michael: josh has a business background, so he's in charge of getting a business model together in the next few weeks
Paul: I'm somehow jealous, but more excited than anything
Michael: i'm going to fill out the licensing forms
you're more than welcome to help brew and share profits if you wish
Paul: i heart beer?
Michael: we could have maggie design the label
Paul: i'll run it by her. i'm sure she'd be more than happy to get in contact with you guys about it
Michael: although big m may want to compete
12:36 PM Paul: indeed
and of course, i offer my services in whatever way they are needed.
Michael: well, there's no rush, we're looking at at least a year before we start actual production for commercial purposes
thanks, and some day - and that day may never come - i will call on you for those services
12:37 PM Paul: hahaha
Michael: oh, my ZWB should be ready by the time i'm in nyc in november, i'll bring a few bottles
12:38 PM Paul: i'll shoot all of your commercials. they will be manic, drunken, and outrageous. and all those who view them will suddenly have an unexplainable craving for zwb. please do bring a bottle or two. i'm really curious. it sounds delicious.
12:39 PM Michael: the first batch was, so hopefully will the second batch. yes you will shoot our ads, but we won't have enough money to put them on tv
12:40 PM Paul: we'll just play them from projectors placed outside of all the bars in the city. guerilla marketing.
12:42 PM Michael: brilliant!
and on youtube
bless the internet, everyone
Paul: well
apparenlty
anything you put up on youtube is subsequently owned by youtube
12:43 PM Michael: hmmm
and now google
which bought youtube yesterday for $1.65 billion
Paul: i heard. bastards.
oh
12:44 PM go on youtube and check out "fat kid ride" and "japanese game show nuts" for searches
both are hysterical
Michael: i can't now, but i'll try to remember later
Paul: indeed
work and whatnot
Michael: i've seen the japanese nuts game show actually, that IS hilarious
12:45 PM andrew sullivan linked it a week or two ago
the fat kids one i'll have to check out
yes, work
Paul: ah, andrew sullivan. i'm interested in his book that came out today
12:46 PM Michael: oh yeah
what's his topic?
12:48 PM Paul: something about saving conservatism from fundamentalists and extremists. the roots of reason and religion in conservatism along with the basic tenets of small gov't and fiscal responsibility. i think. seems like an interesting and at the very least intelligent read
12:49 PM Michael: oooh, interesting, i'm sure it'll be an intelligent read
and yeah, conservatism is heading in a terrifyingly awful direction
12:50 PM Paul: yeah. moderate republicans and moderate democrats should form a new party.
they at least allow for disagreement and rational debate. a party that allowed that within its own structure would be a welcome change
12:51 PM Michael: i have been thinking the same thing
12:52 PM it's almost impossible to form a centrist party though
oh well
Paul: yeah, but it COULD happen. it's about time too.
Michael: agreed
let's be engines for political change!
Paul: i mean we used to have progressives and federalists and whigs. why not make a new party again?
Michael: nah, that sounds hard, let's drink beer and vomit on our shoes!
Paul: YES
12:53 PM Michael: YES
another compromise
Paul: that'll be our foundation for political activism. drinking
Michael: it'll be the opposite of the temperance movement
12:54 PM Paul: the inebrationists
Michael:
nicely done
Paul: "abolitionists?" no no, my good man. here, have a drink
Michael: i have to get back to work
Paul: keep on keeping on
12:55 PM Michael: look over the whiskyfest stuff and get back me when you can
you too pops
you too
Paul: i will. a pleasure as always
Michael: as always
cheers