Sara and I ate at the Gordon Biersch brewery restaurant in Kansas City Saturday. It was kind of a letdown, because they didn’t have the Blonde Bock on tap.

Gordon Biersch was the first beer I loved. It’s a California microbrewery that I discovered when I lived in San Diego. I think it was recommended by someone who lived there. But I tried the Blonde Bock and realized that I could love a beer. This was news to me at the time.

Whenever I made a trip to California — with my friend Jeremy in 2003 and most recently in 2006 — I would buy about a half dozen six packs of Gordon Biersch Blonde Bock (and then maybe another of some other flavor to experiment) and stick them in my trunk and hurry home. I would be reluctant to drink any of them, because they were such a finite commodity in my fridge, so I wanted each consumption to be a special occasion. I usually saved them for holidays and stuff like that.

My most recent Blonde Bock was on tap at the Las Vegas restaurant in February 2007. I found out earlier this fall that Kansas City is now home to a GB restaurant, so I was excited to go there and drink a Blonde Bock this close to home. So we finally went Saturday and the Blonde Bock wasn’t on the menu. I asked the server if they had it, thinking maybe it was possible they changed the name. He claimed that Gordon Biersch has never had a blonde bock. I immediately hated him for being a stupid liar.

I got out my iPhone and got on gordonbiersch.com. I was worried they discontinued the Blonde Bock. Their website said they still serve it, so I emailed them, asking why the Kansas City restaurant didn’t have it. “It’s why we came here,” I said. I was saddened to see that, according to gordonbiersch.com, Ohio was the closest state that carried their beer in bottles — the only state they distribute to that’s not on the west coast.

So we were at Hy-Vee tonight, buying some beer, when Sara stopped me. “Neal,” she said, pointing at the cooler. There was a sick pack of Gordon Biersch Hefeweizen right in front of us. A high-school looking kid was beside us, stocking the cooler. I asked him, “Do you know if you’ll be carrying any other kinds of Gordon Biersch?” He gestured for me to turn around, and there was an entire display of stacks and stacks of Gordon Biersch six packs in boxes — the Golden Export, the Märzen, and in the beautiful blue box, there was the Blonde Bock.

I told him, “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting for this. I used to make trips to California to stock up and I’d fill my trunk. I am so excited.” Sara thought I was going to hug him or cry or both. So we have our six packs in the fridge now, and I’m excited to try my first bottle of Gordon Biersch in years. It’s the first time I’ve purchased Gordon Biersch and then taken it home to drink that night since 2002.

As we drove home, I said to Sara, “I hope I still like it.”

UPDATE!! (Dec 31) Tom Dargen, Director of Brewing Operations with Gordon Biersch, responded to my email this morning. He informed me

We have dropped making Blonde Bock as a year round beer and instead make it occasionally as a seasonal beer that pops up occasionally. In spite of the passion that the people such as yourself have for the Blonde, it just is not that great of a seller compared to other styles, and we are leery of serving such a high alcohol beer that is so easy to drink.

I checked and double-checked to make sure everything in the list was released in 2008, but inevitably I made some goofs. Songs denoted by * were actually released in 2007. Apologies.

50. Jetway Junior - Head Of Femur listen @ myspace
49. SON - Pepi Ginsberg download mp3 @ stereogum
48. Toca’s Miracle 2008 - Fragma watch @ youtube
*47. Elvis - These New Puritans watch @ youtube
46. Can’t Stop Moving - Sonny J watch @ youtube
45. The Snow Leopard - Shearwater listen @ youtube | download mp3 @ stereogum
44. Flashing Lights - Kanye West watch @ youtube
*43. Leyendecker - Battles listen @ youtube | download mp3 @ stereogum
42. Dream On - Christian Falk feat Robyn watch @ youtube
41. Womanizer - Britney Spears watch @ youtube
40. Danny Callahan - Conor Oberst listen @ youtube
39. Girls - Sugababes watch @ youtube
38. Sweet About Me - Gabriella Cilmi watch @ youtube
37. Get Up On The Dance Floor - George Sampson watch @ youtube
36. Bleeding Love - Leona Lewis watch @ youtube
35. Paper Planes - MIA watch @ youtube
34. Kids - MGMT watch @ youtube
33. Cry For You - September watch @ youtube
32. Isn’t It A Shame - Head Of Femur listen @ myspace
31. Fascination - Alphabeat watch @ youtube
30. Up - The Saturdays watch @ youtube
29. I Decided (Mr. Mig Radio Edit) - Solange listen @ youtube
28. Just Dance - Lady GaGa watch @ youtube
27. That’s Not My Name - The Ting Tings watch @ youtube
26. In A Cave - Tokyo Police Club watch @ youtube | download mp3 @ stereogum
25. Ready For The Floor - Hot Chip watch @ youtube
24. Dog Park - The Saturday Nights download mp3 @ stereogum
23. Praying for Time (Idol Gives Back Performance) - Carrie Underwood watch @ youtube
22. Reach Out - Music Go Music download mp3 @ secretcanadian.com
21. Warwick Avenue - Duffy watch @ youtube
20. In This City - Iglu and Hartly watch @ youtube
19. 5 Years Time - Noah & The Whale watch @ youtube
18. Denial - Sugababes watch @ youtube
17. Lost Coastlines - Okkervil River watch @ youtube | download mp3 @ stereogum
16. Beggin - Madcon watch @ youtube
15. Love Is Noise - The Verve watch @ youtube
14. This Is The Life - Amy MacDonald watch @ youtube
13. Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon watch @ youtube
12. Spiralling - Keane watch @ youtube
11. River Ramble - Head Of Femur
10. Enemy Within - Frida Hyvönen download mp3 @ secretlycanadian
9. The World Should Revolve Around Me - Little Jackie watch @ youtube
8. Black & Gold - Sam Sparro watch @ youtube
7. Girls Around the World - Lloyd & Lil Wayne watch @ youtube
6. Boyfriend - Alphabeat watch @ youtube
5. Dance Wiv Me - Dizzee Rascal feat. Calvin Harris & Chrome watch @ youtube
4. Closer - Ne-Yo watch @ youtube
3. Never Miss A Beat - Kaiser Chiefs watch @ youtube
2. The Promise - Girls Aloud watch @ youtube
1. Time to Pretend - MGMT watch @ youtube | download mp3 @ stereogum

I was hoping to average 12 pages per week on this comic; I’m currently averaging less than 6. I have 11 done.

The early deadline is October 1. It’s still possible, because I have a pretty clear schedule between now and then, and honestly I’m kind of looking forward to the challenge.

I have pages 12-14 penciled and inked and a little less than 50 hours left…

I’m on hold to change my check card PIN and the hold music is “Secret” by Madonna.

Well, I’m 3 pages in. I got the first page done fairly quickly, as much as an experiment in how I was going to do it as anything else. But then that paralyzing perfectionism set in, and my questions over how to do page 3 kept me from finishing page 2. Knowing that I couldn’t keep fine-tuning all of page 2’s panels, I sat down and inked 2 and penciled and inked 3 in one sitting.

I’m getting the process of coloring down pretty well by this point. I colored page 3 much more quickly than I did page 2 — part of which was the complexity of page 2, but I’m getting comfortable enough with the process that getting past the fumbling around stage helps a lot too. It’s now almost noon, and I’m going to try to get 3 more pages done today.

Apologies for anyone who makes an attempt to visit this site and notices how neglected it is. I now have motivation to change that.

A new comic book publisher (probably shouldn’t go into anymore detail than that at this point) has offered me the opportunity to illustrate the first issue of one of its titles. I’ve always thought it’d be fun to draw comic books, with varying levels of interest over the years, but I don’t know if I really ever thought I’d do it.

Today I did something I’d imagined many times since I first thought about this line of work — I sat down with my script, read through it, made notes and started roughing out the page layouts. It seems kind of cheesy, but I had daydreamed about that moment many times whenever the thought of doing this as a job entered my head. The most consistent variation on the dream was that I’d walk down to the nearby Homy Inn and go through the new script over a few pints. That still might end up happening if this job works out, but today I took my first few trips through the story over lunch at Burger King and many free refills of Diet Coke.

I’m really excited about the story. When I got the script, I panicked and wondered what the work would be like if I thought it stunk. The bloom would be off that rose, and suddenly the dream would be pulled down into ugly reality. But I loved the story, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to draw. It was an exciting challenge to encode the writer’s words in multi-panel format, and tomorrow I’m going to spend some time doing some character designs before sending the roughs off to my editor.

So anyway, I hope to update this site on the progress to whatever extent I can. I think the best part of all of this goes back to a Christmas gift Sara gave me in 2005, also known as “The greatest Christmas present ever.” I had read an interview with Madman creator Michael Allred in which Allred talked about a spinner rack he had in his home. He had filled this spinner rack with a bunch of comics that had been influential to him in his artistic development. Once his first comic was published, he put that in the rack too. As he had more work published, that went in the rack as well. Eventually he noticed that he had filled the rack with his own comics and realized that he was living his dream.

Sara remembered that story, and surprised me at Christmas in ‘05 with a spinner rack that she had tracked down after many hours and phone calls. It was one huge supportive gesture out of many she’s made over the years as I’ve tried to make this whole “artist” thing work. So I’m going to be able to put a comic that I illustrated in that spinner rack, and I can’t say how excited I am to do that.

A used copy of I’m All Boy And That’s a Fact is now selling for almost $60 on Amazon.com!

Meanwhile, even though we have left Wells Fargo (we had a card-cutting ceremony last week) and are very happy with our new bank, most of the hits to this site come from people searching for other complaints about Wells Fargo. Another poor soul recently commented about his problems with the bank on this post.

Just to warn you guys — when you go in to a branch to have them fix your problems, their bankers tend to ignore what you’re there for so they can try to sell you on a new savings account or try to refinance your home. It would be nice if someone told them during training that I would be much more inclined to want to stay with the bank and potentially purchase more products if they actually listened to what they were doing to drive me away in the first place. I flat-out told this to the banker who closed our accounts, and he still tried to get us to refinance our home.

Ten years ago, Three Lions ‘98 by Baddiel, Skinner and the Lightning Seeds began its third and final week atop the British singles charts. Its predecessor, Three Lions, had been the official anthem for the England soccer team in the Euro 96 tournament. When the time came to name the official theme song for the 1998 World Cup, there were three contenders for the title; and receiving the honor of “official” theme ended up meaning absolutely nothing.

Comedian Keith Allen, Blur bassist Alex James and artist Damien Hirst formed Fat Les, who pitched their Vindaloo for official contention. The third was (How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World by England United — a supergroup of sorts consisting of members of Echo & the Bunnymen, Ocean Colour Scene and the Spice Girls. The England United song ended up getting the official honor.

Three Lions ‘98

It didn’t matter that Three Lions ‘98 had been passed up; it ended up winning the battle between the three songs, going to #1 and keeping its closest rival, Vindaloo, at #2. Vindaloo was catchy and funny, but its humor kept it from resonating as well as Three Lions. The lyrics to both versions of Three Lions weren’t entirely optimistic or sunny. Gareth Southgate’s saved penalty kick in the Euro 96 is forever immortalized by the opening seconds of Three Lions ‘98; one would maybe expect a positive play-by-play clip to be used in a rallying anthem. It was also a little embarrassing, as two of the four names it mentioned in the lyrics weren’t chosen for the World Cup lineup — including Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne, who was described as being “good as before.”
Continue reading…

A London graffiti artist removes the heads from large advertisements.

Flickr link

I deposited a check for $450 into my account on Saturday. It cleared on Monday. Then on Tuesday, they put a hold on $350 of that. Then on Wednesday, the hold cleared. Then on Thursday, a check I wrote cleared, leaving $4 in my account this morning. So this afternoon, they decided to put a hold back on the $350 until MAY 29, so my account is now overdrawn by $346.00.

This is why it’s a lot harder than it sounds to just leave Wells Fargo. I need to now go in and make a new deposit to get our balance back above zero. I’d love to just close the account right then, but they’re holding $350 of my money until May 29. I also have automatic deposits going in tomorrow and Tuesday.

Then what’s great is that they charge you $34 for being overdrawn, and then when you complain, they say they’ll remove half of the charges as a courtesy. So they still steal $17 from you.

We’ve been shopping around at different banks, and at least now we know where we want to go when we’re able to make a break.

read about previous Wells Fargo problems…