Darksev Mini-Vacation, Day one!

So for the first day of my little mini-vacation, Johnny and I hopped into the 'trix and drove up to Cleveland to visit what can only be compared to our version of Mecca. Despite feeling a little nautious for some unknown reason, I really enjoyed our little trip to the Great Lakes Brewery/Pub! We hung out there for a couple of hours, toured around Ohio City a bit, then came back to the pub to drink the LAST of the infamous "Blackout" stout. There is something cool about finishing a beer and knowing that noone else will be able to experience that taste until they decide to make more next fall. With the blackout under our belts, the "Who can drink the most Great Lakes" now has a decided leader (Johnny, who is 3 up on me, and 2 up on Bill), and thanks to Nosferatu (New on tap that morning), and Owens' Olympic Pilsner I'm now one up on Bill for second place!! WOOOO!

Around 7:00 we hopped on the shoreview parkway and headed over to a nightclub/theater called Phantasy (Or if your mapquest, Phatasy haha) for the evenings main event, Nightwish! It was fantastic to be able to cross another of my favorite bands off my "need to see Live" list.
The opening acts were......Bad at best. A Cleveland local band went on first, and aside from the pauses between each song as the lead singer did a wardrobe change (yes, between every song) the band just looked confused on stage, nearly running into each other numerous times. Musically, they were just as befuddled. We heard rifts that could have gone from groove oriented metal to pop, and alot of odd in-betweens. All in all, I was not impressed. We saw the bass player from Antithesis (we call him lurch) wandering around, which made us wish that they were opening instead of they band that actually did.

Second band apparently has some kind of following, but I have no idea why. Lullacry was outright bad. Tanja, aside from looking VERY nice in leather and lace, was so out of key that as we looked around, half of the audience was cringing right along with us as they played. They had alot more stage presence than the opener, with most of the band reminding me of people that couldn't quite make the audition to join the "over the top" show of Children of Bodom. Musically, they aren't bad, until Tanja opens her mouth that is, but there were alot of cliche'd "metal anthem" type sounds that I just couldn't get into.

Nightwish was amazing. From the second they walked onto the stage, they had the rapt attention of every single person in the room. The playlist was energetic, covering a broad range of albums, but mostly focusing on "Once" and "Century Child". Probably my absolute favorite song was "Phantom of the Opera" from C.C., but when Tarja took a quick break, the rest of the band jumped into a VERY good cover of Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" a completely unexpected yet pleasant surprise for fans. After the usual fake ending, they band came back on to play another few songs as an Encore. This was arguably one of the best metal shows I have seen, ranking up there on the list with Dream Theater and Queensryche, and blind Guardian and Symphony X. For the record, Tarja is even hotter in person ;)

Next up on the 2 day mini-cation is a trip to Blossom music center to see Dream Theater and Yes!!!

Well, now that that's over... The shop is, for the moment, back up. CafePress can E309*, I've found a new place. Zazzle.com will be handling the shop's print service for the time being, and they give me a TON of options for printing, which I can in turn allow the buyer to play with. Everything from size, paper type (and they offer some NICE papers, from cheap poster to archival gloss) to various frames! Follow the shop link on the main page to find out more, and keep checking back, because as I get creative, more stuff will show up there.


*E309 is short for "Error Code 309" which is a fictional electronics hardware error that we often use at work when dealing with customers with bad attitudes. What's it mean? "Go lick balls" >:)

Well, day one with Cafepress, and they've already pissed me off. Apparently, because I've used the word "Elvis" in one of my works (one of my completly original, out of my own freaking head and drawn with the tablet sitting next to me, works) I've tripped a sensor somewhere and spawned an Email to me informing me that my account has been suspended for trying to sell merchandise owned by someone else.
That my friends, is bullshit. I understand the nature of copyright, If I had some bootleg elvis recordings, or maybe I was reproducing some Graceland gift shop items for my own profit, I could see this reaction. But I'm not. The Communists at CP basicly replied to my inquirie as such: If I were to take a picture of a street in my town, and there was a burger king in that picture, somewhere in the background, I would need to have expressed, written permission from Burger King to use that photo for anything, and even then, CP still doesn't care. they wouldn't allow me to use that photo regardless. At the moment, the store is shut down and turned off, and I will not be using them again. If anyone knows of another, similar service for getting by-the-order prints done (I.E. no minimum orders, they handle shipping, creation, etc, no cost for shop setup) please let me know.

It's been a busy few weeks in Sev-Land, and I'm adjusting to the workload just fine. Recently, our labor budget shot up to 200% of that we call normal, so everyone on our schedule has been getting overtime for 2 weeks (and it looks like the trend will continue!). On top of that, the SOP of our tech bench has changed a bit, with us all becoming Geek Squad CIA's. (The Geek Squad, an onsite tech group, recently merged with Best Buy, and instore techs are now under thier banner, with our Double Agent getting the pimp VW bug) . Aside from looking like a geek at work, not much else is going on here. I dig the extra cash I'm making, god knows I needed it.

In other news, after much thought and harrassment from some old friends, I've opened the DarkSev.com Online store, where basicly I can sell prints of my work. So if you've ever fancied replacing that tired old poster on the wall with an Adam Severa Original, go for it! I plan to add stuff somewhat regularly to the storefront.

Beer #2, Straub Organic (greenies)

which is:
3.45% Alcohol By Volume (ABV) and around 0 International Bittering Units (IBU)
Served from 12Oz. Bottle to pint glass with some leftover Pizza (your gonna get a great peek into my diet here lol)

Apperance:
Poured a very clear pale (pale pale pale, like locked in the basement for a year) gold color. Bout your standard Lager type head, made of somewhat tiny bubbles. light on the carbonation.

Aroma:
Slightly astringent aroma, with just a hint of some natural hops. nothing really special here.

Taste:
Very smooth drinking beer, which comes from the serious lack of any bittering hops (not necessarily a bad thing). there is a slight taste of flavoring hops, but the rest is mostly whole grains with a slight hint of honey.

After:
Clean finish, slightly astringent aftertaste.

Overall:
One could easily down a case or so of these with no real issue. It was enjoyable to drink. However, My dad (who also was sampling this) mentioned that he tried that very same "drink a whole case" thing back in the day, and being an all grain beer, the next three days were spent "processing wheat" on the porcelin throne. Drink it in good health, just don't expect a clean getaway if you over do it.

Score: * * * * / * * * * *

Beer #3, Orkney Skull Splitter Ale

which is:
8.5% Alcohol By Volume (ABV) and around 20 International Bittering Units (IBU)
Served from 12Oz. Bottle to pint glass with some more leftover Pizza

Apperance:
clear deep red color, with some brown hues. Fluffy off white head consisting of fine bubbles (almost reminiscent of a stout, but not quite)

Aroma:
Slight smell of spice, not very strong.

Taste:
Strong smokey hop taste, with a touch of fruit in it. Overall, it's a very balanced taste, but I was slightly turned off by the smokeyness.

After:
Dry finish, lasting taste of spices

Overall:
Not as hoppy and bitter as say, HopDevil, but definatly darker than your average ale for sure

Score: * * * * / * * * * *