Dry Ice Factory

'Anniversarising can be the most obvious yet most scattergun approach to programming in classical music, but all those round numbers ought to give programmers the excuse and audiences the chance to programme less familiar music as well as the symphonic Scandiwegians. So in 2015 let’s hear it for Aulis Sallinen (80) and Frank Zappa (who would have been 75 this year). Muzio Clementi, by the way and since you ask, would have been 263; which although not round, is a satisfyingly big prime number. Here’s a thought: why can’t we use primes rather than round numbers as excuses for anniversaries? Here’s to Beethoven’s 251st anniversary (his next available prime) in 2021!' (Tom Service, "This year's classical music anniversaries – and some less usual suspects")

Jeff Alworth at Beervana reviews a new brew from Portland's Upright Brewing called Billy the Mountain. According to Alworth, it's their version of a traditional English old ale, which is a style I really like, and this one is aged in pinot barrels with brettanomyces clausenii (not to be confused with the brettanomyces bruxellensis used in Belgian beers), which apparently gives it a bit of tartness.

So it sounds like a beer I would love to taste, but it's also true that "Billy the Mountain" was the first Frank Zappa song I ever loved with all my heart. I'll always remember the first time I heard it in 1978 or 1979, which for various reasons I really shouldn't describe in detail here, but suffice it to say that one of my clearest memories of that night is my friend and ex-co-worker Phil's face looming over me, where I was lying flat on my back on the floor in his apartment struggling to breathe because I was laughing so hard at the song, and Phil's face asking, "Are you okay?" Sounds like this beer might put me in a similar state. Now if I can only track down a bottle of it.