abbey &laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed http://en.wordpress.com/tag/abbey/ Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "abbey" Sun, 29 Nov 2009 10:46:52 +0000 http://en.wordpress.com/tags/ en <![CDATA[Beer Tour of Belgium - Day 8: Remouchamps and Liege]]> http://tapirtantrum.com/2009/11/26/beer-tour-belgium-remouchamps-liege/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:18:14 +0000 pinchaque http://tapirtantrum.com/2009/11/26/beer-tour-belgium-remouchamps-liege/ <![CDATA[Abbey Reduce rates by 0.3%]]> http://mtgrates.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/abbey-reduce-rates-by-0-3/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 11:09:54 +0000 easyswitch http://mtgrates.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/abbey-reduce-rates-by-0-3/
Abbey head office.
Image via Wikipedia

From Friday 27th November, Abbey are reducing the rates on a number of our Fixed and Tracker products by up to 0.3% the new rates are as follows:

 

 2 Year Tracker Remortgage product, 75% LTV, 2.99% with a £995 fee

 

 2 Year Tracker Homebuyer product, 75% LTV, 2.94% with a £995 fee

 

 2 Year Fixed rate Remortgage product, 75% LTV, 4.29% with a £995 fee

 

 5 Year Fixed rate Homebuyer product, 75% LTV, 5.49% with a £799 fee

We have also launched a new Homebuyer Plus Tracker product 70% LTV, 2.69% with a £995 fee.

For more details please call Easyswitch Mortgages on 08456 800898 or cmMORTGAGES on 01245 398466

]]> <![CDATA[On tour with Terminus]]> http://colinmurphy.info/2009/11/25/on-tour-with-mark-orowes-terminus/ Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:12:06 +0000 colinmurphy http://colinmurphy.info/2009/11/25/on-tour-with-mark-orowes-terminus/

‘Terminus’ is back at the Peacock in Dublin. This article was first published in the Sunday Tribune on January 13, 2008.

It is six hours before Mark O’Rowe’s play, ‘Terminus’, opens in New York. The cast are doing the technical rehearsal. They’ve never been in the theatre before.

Eileen Walsh is standing in a dim crossbeam, shrouded in mist, talking out to the audience. Mark O’Rowe is coughing. A technician is talking loudly. A couple of others are looking at dimly-lit laptops, or moving quietly through the gloom, fixing things. The two other actors, Andrea Irvine and Aidan Kelly, are sprawled on the stage, each straddling a large shard of (mock) glass, looking bored.

“The drill for several years has been bed alone, then tears.” Eileen Walsh plays against the rhythm of O’Rowe’s verse. She lets the rhyme announce itself, as if her character were unaware that there were anything distinctive about her speech.

This performance isn’t about her. It’s about lights and set, making sure cues are right and changes are sharp. The crew are under pressure. They’ve got a window of just a few hours to reassemble a show that was designed for the Peacock Theatre in this quite different space in New York’s Public Theatre.

And yet Walsh is rivetting. I’ve seen the play before, and don’t want to spoil the enjoyment of seeing it again, on opening, tonight. Yet I wait for the end of her monologue, a piece of vertigo-inducing verse as her character’s night out culminates in some literal hyjinks atop a crane. She leaves the crane’s cab and walks out along the arm. A gust of wind, and then, frantic:

“I bounce off the edge of the arm and fall and twist and turn and spurn the earth’s unstoppable rise by closing my eyes.”

And then a creature composed of worms appears and catches her and bears her off. I slip out of the theatre, into the corridor. A young woman in a white tutu barges through another door and past me into a neighbouring theatre space, from which 1970s disco music is blaring.

***

Eileen Walsh has had a fabulous year at the Abbey, easily the best thing about three very strong shows, ‘Saved’, ‘Terminus’ and ‘The Playboy’. But for the month of the original run of ‘Terminus’, she came close to adopting the maudlin nightly routine of her character. One night early in the run, she dried on a line. She got through it – something came in place of the actual line, and the show went on. Probably barely anybody noticed. But it led to panic attacks.

“There were nights when I went home and I was crying. As soon as the show was finished (each night), I was sick with worry about the following night. I couldn’t get rid of the fear of it at all.”

And the script didn’t make it any easier.

“I’ve never felt more alone on stage. This is about three people in a terminus, in an area where they have no connection, where they are so lost. It really feels like that on stage. It’s as lonely as a spotlight can feel.”

Paradoxically, the stage fright helped her with her character. She recognised that this bout of fear and loneliness could be the bedrock for the young woman in O’Rowe’s play, “who is that empty and that low and that vulnerable…”, a woman who is so vulnerable that she falls in love with a winged demon made of worms.

She has to fight the temptation to obsess about her lines.

“I have to remind myself to empty everything all the time, to trust that it’s there.

“I’m still terrified. But now I’m much more willing to just fall.”

***

I ask Mark O’Rowe to describe his play.

“Oh f***. Oh man. What’s it about?” He grimaces, then laughs.

“It’s three stories, all of which begin in a fairly realistic world, but all of which quickly take off into a supernatural, fantastical narrative.

“One of them is about a young woman who goes on a dark adventure with a demon made from worms, from the underworld. Another character is a serial killer who sold his soul to the devil to be a great singer and was cheated by the devil (played by Aidan Kelly). Then there’s a middle aged woman who’s trying to prevent a girl being harmed by some bad people (Andrea Irvine).”

And so I ask him to explain where this all came from.

“I had two images in my head for ‘Terminus’. One was a woman getting knocked down by a truck, getting pulled under the wheels, and the other was someone falling from a crane.

“I suppose I felt that would happen near the end but, as it hapened, it hapened very early.

“Literally, I was writing her story and I got to this point where she fell off the crane, and it was very near the beginning, so I literally had no choice but to find some way out of her hitting the ground and dying. So something caught her.”

And so he had to decide what had caught her, and that became the winged wormed demon.

“There wasn’t an intention there to write a fantastical play, it just went that way.”

And why is it in rhyme?

“I accidentally rhymed something and read over it and thought, ‘that’s kind of cool; I’ll try it for a few pages and see how it goes’. And it went from there.”

***

On his first day in the job as director of the Abbey, Fiach MacConghail phoned Mark O’Rowe.

“I knew the future of the Abbey was dependent on having writers like Mark O’Rowe in the building”, says MacConghail.

“There’s this question about the Abbey repertoire, the Irish theatre repertoire. ‘Howie the Rookie’ is a part of the Irish theatre repertoire. It was one of those pieces that blew apart (Irish) storytelling and theatre making in the 1990s. And the Abbey had nothing to do with it.”

So MacConghail decided to revive ‘Howie’, and subsequently took on ‘Terminus’. It’s taken two years to get it to the point of playing on the international stage, but that was always MacConghail’s intention.

Irish writers have increasingly looked to England to premiere their plays: Conor McPherson, Marina Carr, Frank McGuinness, Sebastian Barry have had plays staged in London before Dublin, as was the case with ‘Howie the Rookie’, which had its first production at the Bush Theatre. MacConghail wants the Abbey to be able to “support a writer’s career by extending the life of a play”. That means allowing the play time to develop – ‘Terminus’ had a week in workshops at the Abbey long before it faced an audience – and being prepared to travel with it.

‘Terminus’ is in New York for two weeks, at a small festival at the Public Theatre called “Under the Radar”. It will play in Edinburgh next summer, and may have a London run. Yet it played in Dublin for just four weeks, and didn’t tour in Ireland. Should the Abbey be giving a new Irish play to a foreign public before it’s been fully presented to our own?

“My ultimate responsibility in this instance is not to the audience, it is to Mark O’Rowe.”

This is about the Abbey attracting and cultivating top writing talent, he says.

“You can see the signal we’re sending out with Mark O’Rowe in New York. He trusted us and gave us his play. And within a year it’s going to be seen in two important cultural contexts, New York City and the Edinburgh Festival.”

(And in any case, he says, 85-90 per cent of the funding for the tour has come from outside the Abbey, most of it from Culture Ireland.)

***

Everybody here wants one thing: for ‘Terminus’ to be invited back for a longer run in New York.

“Any hopes have a roof on them”, says Mark O’Rowe. “Broadway is the motherload of what can happen in New York, but ‘Terminus’ is not that kind of play. It’s a play that works better in a small theatre. It’s just not the type of subject matter that a mass audience likes.”

But it could work well in a larger off-Broadway venue, such as one of the other theatres within the Public’s five-theatre complex. For this to happen, it will need the cooperation of a small group of very influential (mostly) men: the critics.

Mark O’Rowe and Aidan Kelly know what this is like. They were here before, with ‘Howie the Rookie’, in 2001.

Aidan Kelly recalls arriving for that tour with his co-actor in ‘Howie’, Karl Shiels: “Two very green young fellas turned up at JFK airport in bermudas and t-shirts in minus ten degrees celcius, and proceeded to wow New York.

“We played one night, the reviews came out, and people were being beaten away with sticks. There were no seats to be had. We were getting flown to LA for movie auditions.”

Kelly and Shiels had an audition for ‘Black Hawk Down’. They were in the office of the producer, Jerry Bruckheimer. The casting director told them to duck down behind chairs and have a mock gunfight. They went at each other, all guns blazing. Rat-a-tat-tat, went Shiels from behind one chair. Bang bang bang, went Kelly from behind the other. (They may have been even more convincing.) The casting director lobbed a grenade towards Shiels. Kaboom! Shiels threw himself ferociously against the wall, as if his career in Hollywood depended on it. But it wasn’t a wall. It was a thin screen, and Shiels went straight through it, and collapsed into a cabinet holding Bruckheimer’s collection of Oscars. They didn’t get the parts.

‘Howie the Rookie’ was due to return for an extended run in New York. Two weeks before it was due to open, the union, Equity, refused them permission, and the run collapsed. (American Equity is notoriously protective of its own actors’ work space.)

Kelly is philosophical. “We would have opened in Greenwich Village on September 10, 2001, so we were closing the next day anyhow. So fate just said, look, leave it.

“These things come and go. It was lovely to have that froth around us for a while.”

***

The man who was chiefly responsible for the success of ‘Howie the Rookie’ was one Ben Brantley, theatre critic at the ‘New York Times’.

The play was “thrilling” and O’Rowe was “fierce with talent”, he wrote. It was “one of those rare, shiver-making instances in which language seems to become truly physical”, and Brantley felt “that priceless, delirious high that comes from hearing words made flesh”.

Seven years later, Brantley recalls the visceral impact the play had on him.

“I felt ‘up’ in a way that I rarely feel at the theatre in New York. I was totally exhilerated by it. It’s rare that language becomes that supercharged, that dynamic, in New York theatre today.”

So could an O’Rowe play transfer to Broadway? He hesitates.

“The downtown audience (at the Public, for example) has more open ears, and patience, than a Broadway audience…

“But O’Rowe certainly has the kind of arresting talent to command a Broadway audience.”

Brantley is not on the roster to review ‘Terminus’ – one of his colleagues is doing it instead. Brantley hopes to see it anyway.

***

Eileen Walsh has been in New York before too – four years ago, on her honeymoon. (They stayed at the newly rebuilt Milennium Hilton, where they were proudly shown into a honeymoon suite with fabulous big windows, overlooking Ground Zero.)

“I remember us walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and me saying, imagine coming back to work here…”

By the end of the night on Wednesday, after a rousing curtain call for the actors, it is clear that ‘Terminus’ is going to be a hit at this festival. So Walsh could be coming back to work here again. Who knows, maybe, some day, she may even find herself playing soldiers (or nurses?) in an Oscar-winning Hollywood producer’s office.

*****

Follow up article, first published in The Sunday Tribune, January 20, 2008

It’s not the end of the line for ‘Terminus’

MARK O’Rowe’s Terminus has been well received in New York, but the Holy Grail of a rave New York Times review has evaded him. Terminus is thus unlikely to follow in the footsteps of O’Rowe’s earlier Howie the Rookie, which became a huge hit after a ecstatic review by the New York Times’ Ben Brantley, and was invited back for an extended run offBroadway. (That run never happened due to problems with the actors’ union. ) The Times gave Terminus a broadly positive and very prominent review, but effectively damned O’Rowe with faint praise for key aspects of the production.It was an “entertaining yarn” with “moments of great poignancy”, and a “fantastical trip that is certainly never dull”, wrote Wilborn Hampton. But he also said writer-director Mark O’Rowe “doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on the reins of his runaway story” and concluded that there was “considerably less to ‘Terminus’ than meets the eye”.Mark Russell, director of the Under the Radar festival that is presenting Terminus, said he was “disappointed that the reviewer didn’t ‘get’ the show as much as he should have” but said there was “a great buzz” about it. The play finishes its two-week run at the Public Theatre this week, and has “basically sold out”, he said.

“I’m kicking myself for not making it a four-week run.

“It’s a piece that American audiences are almost afraid of. They love it, but it’s so intense that they don’t think anybody else can take it.”

He said the play would “definitely have a life on tour” as a result of the interest shown in it by international festival directors.

“We have gone another mile towards really establishing Mark O’Rowe in the New York theatre world.”

Other reviews were far more positive than the New York Times, but have far less clout.

Backstage, an online theatre magazine, wrote that Terminus was “a rare theatrical experience, one where a master storyteller can shock you, impress you, disgust you, and make you appreciate not only that the play is over but also that you survived it (apparently) unscathed”.

The three actors, Eileen Walsh, Andrea Irvine and Aidan Kelly, “deliver incredible performances that leave you raw and wounded”, wrote Backstage’s Jerry Portwood. In another rave review, on theatermania. com, Dan Bacalzo singled out Andrea Irvine for her “absolutely devastating” final monologue.

For nytheatre. com, Ivanna Cullinan said Terminus was “the finest kind of storytelling” and “exerts a pull that is irresistible”.

She made two pertinent critical points:

“In certain ways, the piece shouldn’t work. The writing delves into a focused exploitation of various rhyme strategies yet it manages not to become subject to them. . . “At times the connections among the characters seem almost too connected, in a way that could be termed as ‘neat’, except that this story makes its own boundaries and has set them within such super-real parameters that, of course, things fit in a way our mundane reality denies.”

As I wrote here when Terminus premiered at the Abbey last summer, both the rhyme and the fantastical narrative were so extraordinary that, like pyrotechnics, they threatened to overwhelm the drama of the piece. But the audacity and skill with which O’Rowe hewed his story out of those materials, and the compelling humanity of both the writing and the performances, rescued the play from being overwhelmed.

On second viewing, in New York, I found the piece both more impressive and more moving. Perhaps because both the rhyme and the story were no longer a surprise, it seemed that the characters and the emotional drama of the play were deeper.

Despite a nervous start on opening night, no doubt due to the pressures of the eight-hour get-in, the play was quickly met with loud laughter and audible revulsion at its more extreme moments.

The actors seemed to respond to the energy of the audience; all three ultimately gave superb performances that seemed both rawer and more immediate than previously.

Edinburgh and perhaps London now await the Terminus team. I would shear another five to 10 minutes off it for its next run . . . not because it is too long per se, but because there are gags in it that could be sacrificed for the sake of pace and cohesion.

And the Edinburgh fringe audience is notoriously impatient with shows over 90 minutes. But it’s not the end of the line for Terminus.

]]> <![CDATA[#16 Westmalle Dubbel]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/16-westmalle-dubbel/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:51:11 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/16-westmalle-dubbel/ <![CDATA[#14 Abbaye de Malonne Blonde]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/14-abbaye-de-malonne-blonde/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 13:34:08 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/21/14-abbaye-de-malonne-blonde/ <![CDATA[#13 Trappiste Rochefort 10]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/13-trappiste-rochefort-10/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:17:48 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/13-trappiste-rochefort-10/ <![CDATA[St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, 16 November 1093]]> http://kbpipes.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/st-margaret-queen-of-scotland-16-november-1093/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:27:38 +0000 kbpipes http://kbpipes.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/st-margaret-queen-of-scotland-16-november-1093/

Feeling under the weather tonight. So instead of writing out my thoughts I a posting something written by James Kiefer.

To you and yours be blessed,

Kirk

Margaret (born c. 1045) was the grand-daughter of Edmmund Ironside, King of the English, but was probably born in exile in Hungary, and brought to England in 1057. After the Norman Conquest in 1066, she sought refuge in Scotland, where about 1070 she married the King, Malcolm III. She and her husband rebuilt the monastery of Iona and founded the Benedictine Abbey at Dunfermline. Margaret undertook to impose on the Scottish the ecclesiastical customs she had been accustomed to in England, customs that were also prevalent in France and Italy. But Margaret was not concerned only with ceremonial considerations. She encouraged the founding of schools, hospitals, and orphanages. She argued in favor of the practice of receiving the Holy Communion frequently. She was less successful in preventing feuding among Highland Clans, and when her huspand was treacherously killed in 1093, she herself died a few days later (of grief, it is said).

written by James Kiefer

Prayer

O God, who called your servant Margaret to an earthly throne That she might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave her zeal for your church and love for your prople: Mercifully grant that we who commemorate her this day may be fruitful in good works, and attain to the glorious crown of your saints; though Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

]]> <![CDATA[So who offers the worst business banking in the UK?]]> http://markhillary.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/so-who-offers-the-worst-business-banking-in-the-uk/ Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:05:20 +0000 Mark http://markhillary.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/so-who-offers-the-worst-business-banking-in-the-uk/

The Co-operative bank business banking service has been under fire from the Radio 4 Money Box programme, with bank customers complaining that the system is difficult to login to, data is often lost, and sometimes information is just not available.

It sounds familiar to me, though my business banking service is with Abbey – which is now Santander and is about to be rebranded entirely so the old Abbey brand will vanish.

I’ve used Abbey for business banking for six years. One of the things anyone running any kind of business will know is that you need to be able to go back and check on transactions from some time ago. Accounts are often filed a year or more after transactions take place.

The old system Abbey offered was very good. I could enter a date range and export all my banking activity to a spreadsheet, then format it for my accountant.

When Santander took over, they implemented a new business banking system. Suddenly it was not possible to enter date ranges for statements. I could no longer export easily to Excel. In fact, I could not look back at transactions beyond the last 70 on my statement. So, it was not possible to look back more than a couple of months at most.

When I needed to start getting my accounts in order for annual filing with Companies House, I asked Abbey how I could get the information for the previous year. They told me they could send me the paper statements in the post and it would take at least six weeks to get them because they need to go to a microfiche archive.

PAPER STATEMENTS?

SIX WEEKS TO GET A STATEMENT?

MICROFICHE?

How do I get that on a spreadsheet? They told me I would need to retype everything myself. Why can’t I get it immediately? Because all the data has been archived. Why on earth are you using microfiche rather than a datacentre? We use it for all our archives…

What on earth is going on with Santander? I called several times about this issue and I was told that a lot of businesses are complaining about the same thing. Of course they are. Companies need to be able to go back and look at historic transactions. Don’t deliver a personal banking solution to businesses and expect us to be happy – you idiots.

I’m in the process of sorting out my company accounts for last year right now. As soon as I’m all set, I’m in the market for a new business bank account, but it won’t be with the Co-op or Santander.

]]> <![CDATA[The Three Musketeers]]> http://cybertek.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/the-three-musketeers/ Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:31:25 +0000 cybertek http://cybertek.wordpress.com/2009/11/14/the-three-musketeers/

It’s up to Porthos to find his friends in this exciting side-scrolling adventure. They’ve been kidnapped by the treacherous Count Xavier and his sinister lieutenant Count Orsini. The Musketeers have been taken to a mysterious location, and you must help Porthos make his way through dank dungeons, huge castles, a haunted abbey and more in order to find and save his companions. Begin your swashbuckling journey today!

 

10 huge levels

3 different endings

200 areas and rooms to explore

System Requirements:

OS: Windows 2000/XP/VISTA

CPU: 600MHz or faster Processor

RAM: 128 MB

screen1

screen2

It Takes Just A second To Say Thanks,

It Takes Longer To The Work On This.

The Three Musketeers

]]> <![CDATA[Abbey]]> http://lostspook4.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/abbey/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:39:51 +0000 lostspook http://lostspook4.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/abbey/

Some water-side heads, which (like the water) were none of the clearest, harboured muddled notions that, because of her dignity and firmness, she was named after, or in some sort related to, the Abbey at Westminster. But Abbey was only short for Abigail, by which name Miss Potterson had been christened at Limehouse Church, some sixty and odd years before.

(Charles Dickens, Our Mutual friend, 1864-5)

]]> <![CDATA[From the streets to YOUR closet! Abbey Lee Kershaw edition!]]> http://previouslyowned.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/from-the-streets-to-your-closet-abbey-lee-kershaw-edition/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:51:08 +0000 previouslyowned http://previouslyowned.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/from-the-streets-to-your-closet-abbey-lee-kershaw-edition/

always FASHIONABLE/australian model
ABBEY LEE KERSHAW

outside the KENZO show

abbeylee2


IMAGE Taken by Tommy TON for


JACK & JILL BLOG


Call me a fan. But, Jack & Jill is my favorite source for street style photographs. Tommy Ton’s blog is all about Blunt/SHARP closeups & shoes IN MY FACE galore. Just perfect for taking some inspiration for the “from the streets to YOUR closet” series!

]]> <![CDATA[#11 Abdij van Roosenberg Blonde]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/11-abdij-van-roosenberg-blonde/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:30:26 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/11-abdij-van-roosenberg-blonde/ <![CDATA[#8 Grimbergen Blonde]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/8-grimbergen-blonde/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:49:14 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/8-grimbergen-blonde/ <![CDATA[#7 Chimay Red]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/7-chimay-red/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:39:34 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/7-chimay-red/ <![CDATA[#4 Corsendonk Agnus Tripel]]> http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/4-corsendonk-agnus-tripel/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:10:27 +0000 belgianbeershrimper http://belgianbeershrimper.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/4-corsendonk-agnus-tripel/ <![CDATA[Veronik + Michel || Fully Engaged]]> http://weddingsbyblair.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/veronik-michel-fully-engaged/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:43:43 +0000 blairgable http://weddingsbyblair.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/veronik-michel-fully-engaged/

Veronik + Michel
Gatineau Park, Quebec
October 2009

Vero-Michel9909

Vero-Michel9804

Vero-Michel9860

Vero-Michel9947

“Can I jump on his back?” – Veronik

Bg

]]> <![CDATA[Goose Island Pere Jacques]]> http://liquiddiets.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/goose-island-pere-jacques/ Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:19:18 +0000 Liquid Diets http://liquiddiets.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/goose-island-pere-jacques/

pere-jacquesFans of this blog know I really enjoy Goose Island’s beers, and my last special release from their brewery was probably Bourbon County Stout, a beer I absolutely love, so it is with no lack of excitement that I opened a 2008 bottle of Pere Jacques that I’ve had in the fridge forever.

Pere Jacques is a Belgian style “abbey ale,” generally thought of as a “dubbel.” Abbey ales are Belgian beers that are made in the style of the traditional Trappist ales of the Belgian monasteries, but since the brewing is not associated with the monks themselves, they are called “abbey” and not Trappist. It’s sort of the same idea that Champagne is the sparkling wine of the Champagne region of France, while similar sparkling wines are made throughout the world but aren’t technically called champagne.

In the abbey/Trappist styles, the Belgian golden ale is more or less the entry level beer. Dubbels are made with “twice as much” fermentable sugars, tripels with three times as many, quads with four… etc. Doubles and quads are usually darker amber beers while tripels and golden ales are golden and lighter in color. Doubles tend to pair well with food and, in some opinions, really need food to really shine. Because they are fairly strong and malty beers, dubbels tend to pair well with lots of foods, including roasts, grilled food, and even some spicy foods and desserts.

Pere Jacques pours a dark amber color with lots of big yeast bits floating in the beer. At 8% ABV it is no slouch in the alcohol department, and the aroma is that classic Belgian yeast earthiness with lots of caramel and some alcohol.

The flavors are definitely malt forward, bready, and some caramel with no hint of hops or bitterness. The beer has a nice mouthfeel, but I was left with a bit of a goober in the back of my throat from the sweetness, which wasn’t cloying, but was close. I detected some dark fruit early on in the flavor, too, like plums maybe? I think this would be a good beer with a cigar, actually.

Another winner from Goose Island, although for a couple bucks more for the bottle, I’d take Bourbon County anytime!

]]> <![CDATA[Abbey Road- Descargar CD full]]> http://fullwin.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/abbey-road-descargar-cd-full/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:14:00 +0000 zafiuz http://fullwin.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/abbey-road-descargar-cd-full/

Abbey Road es un álbum que muchos consideran la obra cumbre del grupo británico The Beatles, editado en el año 1969.

Fue lanzado el 26 de septiembre de 1969 en Inglaterra, y el 1 de octubre del mismo año en los Estados Unidos.

Fue producido y orquestado por George Martin para Apple Records, con Geoff Emerick como ingeniero de grabación y Tony Banks como operador de cinta. Participó también, como asistente de grabación,Alan Parsons. It is regarded as one of The Beatles’ most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time.

Contiene algunas de las más reconocidas canciones del grupo, como “Something”, “Come Together”, “Oh! Darling” y “Here Comes the Sun”. Se trata del último disco que los Beatles hicieron como conjunto, ya que Let It Be, lanzado en el año siguiente, había sido grabado con anterioridad.



Descargar AQUI:


http://www.megaupload.com/?f=18EQIYWI


01. Come Together (4:20)
02. Something (3:02)
03. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (3:28)
04. Oh! Darling (3:27)
05. Octopus’s Garden (2:51)
06. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (7:47)
07. Here Comes The Sun (3:06)
08. Because (2:46)
09. You Never Give Me Your Money (4:03)
10. Sun King (2:26)
11. Mean Mr. Mustard (1:07)
12. Polythene Pam (1:13)
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (1:59)
14. Golden Slumbers (1:32)
15. Carry That Weight (1:36)
16. The End (2:22)
17. Her Majesty (0:26)

Muchos mas Programas, Juegos,Peliculas, Musica, Iconos, Fondos

]]> <![CDATA[Abbey Road- Descargar CD full]]> http://fullwin.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/abbey-road-descargar-cd-full-2/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:19:00 +0000 zafiuz http://fullwin.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/abbey-road-descargar-cd-full-2/


Abbey Road es un álbum que muchos consideran la obra cumbre del grupo británico The Beatles, editado en el año 1969.

Fue lanzado el 26 de septiembre de 1969 en Inglaterra, y el 1 de octubre del mismo año en los Estados Unidos.

Fue producido y orquestado por George Martin para Apple Records, con Geoff Emerick como ingeniero de grabación y Tony Banks como operador de cinta. Participó también, como asistente de grabación, Alan Parsons. It is regarded as one of The Beatles’ most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time.

Contiene algunas de las más reconocidas canciones del grupo, como “Something”, “Come Together”, “Oh! Darling” y “Here Comes the Sun”. Se trata del último disco que los Beatles hicieron como conjunto, ya que Let It Be, lanzado en el año siguiente, había sido grabado con anterioridad.



Descargar AQUI:


http://www.megaupload.com/?f=18EQIYWI


01. Come Together (4:20)
02. Something (3:02)
03. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer (3:28)
04. Oh! Darling (3:27)
05. Octopus’s Garden (2:51)
06. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (7:47)
07. Here Comes The Sun (3:06)
08. Because (2:46)
09. You Never Give Me Your Money (4:03)
10. Sun King (2:26)
11. Mean Mr. Mustard (1:07)
12. Polythene Pam (1:13)
13. She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (1:59)
14. Golden Slumbers (1:32)
15. Carry That Weight (1:36)
16. The End (2:22)
17. Her Majesty (0:26)

Muchos mas Programas, Juegos,Peliculas, Musica, Iconos, Fondos


AQUI _ToDo Es FuLl

]]> <![CDATA[Yeni Kohl's ]]> http://fameandfashion.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/yeni-kohls/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:54:01 +0000 fameandfashion http://fameandfashion.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/yeni-kohls/

Stardoll’a gelen yeni Kohl’s cidden çok güzel. İçinde Candie’s, Abbey Dawn ve Mudd var. Kıyafetlerin hepsi çok güzel ve hiçbiride Superstarlara özel değil. Eğer birikmiş Stardollarınız varsa hiç beklemeyin alın derim. Ben Stardoll’daki yeni Kohl’s sayesinde Britney Spears’ın markası olan Candie’s’i tanıdım. Kohl’s’un sitesinden biraz inceledim cidden çok güzel ve çok ucuz fiyata. Tıpkı Stardoll’daki gibi ucuzlar :)

]]> <![CDATA[Monday Beer Review Of The Week: Leffe Blond]]> http://wisdomofbeer.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/monday-beer-review-of-the-week-leffe-blond/ Tue, 03 Nov 2009 02:08:57 +0000 David http://wisdomofbeer.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/monday-beer-review-of-the-week-leffe-blond/

leffeLeffe is an excellent winter beer, though to be honest I think that most of the Belgium and Winter style beers are excellent for this time of the year. There is something about how the spices of the beer work together with the foods and cold air that is blowing through that makes these beers suited to the colder weather. Inbev’s Leffe is an “Abbey” Belgium beer once associated with the Notre Dame de Leffe which was founded back in 1152 in southern Belgium and was the local wild fruits and spices that gave this ale it distinct and unique flavor profile. Currently Leffe is bottled by Anheuser-Busch in the United States, but is produced at the Stella Artois brewery in Leuven. Leffe has tones that can be found in most Belgium Winter ales such as Hoegaarden, but with slightly less spicy character and a smooth wheat flavor. When you pour Leffe into a glass you a get the sweet and fruit tones that give your palate a distinct preview of the flavors to come. In summation, this is a great ale to keep around in the fall and winter months, it would be paired well with bowl of hearty soup or pasta.

Rating:
• Drinkability - 5 out of 5
• Flavor - 5 out of 5
• Refreshness - 4 out of 5
• Overall – 14 out of 15

]]> <![CDATA[Hellrunner training continues]]> http://irunbecauseilovefood.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/hellrunner-training-continues/ Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:17:48 +0000 irunbecauseilovefood http://irunbecauseilovefood.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/hellrunner-training-continues/ <![CDATA[Weekend]]> http://sjat.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/weekend/ Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:51:21 +0000 SJAT http://sjat.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/weekend/

What did we do at the weekend you ask? Why didn’t I update? Very simply we had guests. On Saturday we took them round York in the rain. On Sunday we took them around Richmond and Easby. In the rain. In between, we huddled in the house and listened to the rain. Occasionally we hurried out to the car or for firewood. In the rain. Hmm, a theme…

But on Sunday I thought “Ah screw it” and took the camera out with me anyway, despite the fact that it would take an owl to see where they were going at times and we really should have taken a dinghy just in case. We stopped in a pub in Richmond that has made my top ten strangest pub experiences. Half of the place was decorated like a pub. The other house was a cross between ‘Little-old-lady cafe’ and someone’s front room. The two guys who ran it (both only in their early 20s at most) seemed a little short of the old IQ power. One was obviously trying to point out that he was the food man, as he had a tea towel draped over his arm that he kept dropping. The other (bar)man arranged our drinks and snacks. I ordered a pint of beer. Fine. And D-man’s cider? Well the cider was off, but ‘we do have bottled’. Ok, D-man will have a bottle of cider. ‘Well, it’s perry really’. Ok, so D-man will have a Perry. Wifey gets her soda and G-Girl orders a Diet Coke. The guy shuffles to the end of the bar and turns his back on us, hunched over doing something. Then he turns back with a Guinness glass with the flattest coke ever seen in the Western world, while he puts away the 2ltr bottle. And I ask for crisps (chips for you Americans) and he produces one packed of Ready Salted. They’re the only ones he’s got. And when I get back to the table it turns out the crisps are from L*dl. For you Americans again, L*dl is where the vagrants and bag ladies would shop if they ran out of dumpsters. And while we drank and chatted, the two odd guys argued over the tv station and wrestled for the remote control. All in all a peculiar place. So to conclude, here’s a few photos of the weekend:

Easby

This is the Premonstratensian abbey of St Agatha at Easby. The destination of our several mile walk out from Richmond centre. It’s an abbey with a very unusual plan and this photo was taken at the driest and warmest and brightest moment in the day. 

I believe this gives you an idea of the weather. This is the usually calm, glassy and pleasant River Swale.

Swale

But the one really good thing about this time of year is the colours:

Colours

Here are wifey, D-man and G-Girl bumming around the abbey. Note the position of wifey’s arms (on the left.) This is a common position for the arms when holding the leashes for both of our dogs. They are busy walking around her in opposite direction in a double-helix fashion, mummifying her slowly with red leads.

Folks

And I saw a car sticker that made me chuckle in the town.

Car

But the highlight of the day, and my last offering for you, was the marzipan piggie that wifey bought me from the little confectionary shop. Just how cool is this?

Pig

Ciao folks and have a good one.

]]> <![CDATA[FREE Tickets to see Queen Latifah November 3, 2009 and Ice Cube December 10, 2009!]]> http://exwhy.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/free-tickets-to-see-queen-latifah-november-3-2009-and-ice-cube-december-10-2009/ Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:14:17 +0000 exwhy http://exwhy.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/free-tickets-to-see-queen-latifah-november-3-2009-and-ice-cube-december-10-2009/

SUPERSTAR MANAGEMENT
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Email Abdul-Jalil here
***PLEASE NOTE***

Due to the large number of calls in these very trying times, we have changed our Corporate telecommunications to better serve those in need. To Contact:

Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation    (510) 394-4101   for Free Food distribution; free clothing provisions; housing assistence; private High School and College/University admissions and scholarship educational opportunities; job traininig and placement; medical and social services.
Imam Jamil Film and Music Project         (510) 394-4201
SuperStar Management                               (510) 394-4501
eX-whY AdVentures                                      (510) 394-4601
NowTruth.Org                                                (510) 394-4701

Thanks,

*******

We are offerring two pair of FREE Tickets each to see Queen Latifah November 3, 2009 and Ice Cube December 10, 2009 at The Regency Ballroom in San Francisco, CA for the 8:00 pm shows. The tickets will be awarded via our Twitter or Blog, so if you haven’t already, you should join us on:

Twitter at: http://twitter.com/xzwhy , http://twitter.com/ajalil or go to the
Blogs at: http://superstarmanagement.wordpress.com or http://NowTruth.Org/ and leave your request in the comments box with your email address.

Persona Tour
Queen Latifah

Date: Tue, Nov 3, 2009
Showtime: 8:00 PM
Days until show: 11
Doors open: 7:00 PM

www.queenlatifah.com

Queen Latifah: musician; television and film actress; a label president; an author and entrepreneur. Blessed with style and substance, Queen Latifah has blossomed into a one-woman entertainment conglomerate. Heralded by the press and the industry as a force to be reckoned with, Latifah has quite simply done it all and shows no sign of slowing down. Latifah has had amazing success in Hollywood in recent years, and became the first hip hop artist to be crowned with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on January 4, 2006. She received rave reviews, an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe nomination and a SAG Award nomination for her portrayal as Mama Morton in Miramax’s Chicago. Following Chicago, Latifah starred in Disney’s box office hit Bringing Down the House, on which she also acted as executive producer. In addition to music, film and television, Queen Latifah has also written a book on self-esteem entitled Ladies First: Revelations of a Strong Woman. Queen Latifah is diligent in her pursuit of excellence, as is evident by the awards she has received for her work in film and music. Her sincere concern for others is revealed by the generous amount of time and money that she donates to worthwhile charitable organizations. Every year, Queen Latifah serves as co-chairman for the Lancelot H. Owens Scholarship Foundation, Inc. Established by her mother, Rita Owens, to perpetuate the memory of a loving son and brother, the foundations provides scholarships to students who excel scholastically, but are limited in financial resources.

Ice Cube

Date: Thu, Dec 10, 2009
Showtime: 8:00 PM
Days until show: 48
Doors open: 7:00 PM
www.icecube.com

When rap exploded creatively and commercially in the late 1980s, Ice Cube was at the forefront of the expansion. As the lyrical brains behind N.W.A, the Los Angeles-based rapper instantly became a major player in the music game by leading a musical revolution with brutal, profane, politically-infused music that, for the first time in the genres history, sold millions of albums with N.W.As Straight Outta Compton. As a solo artist, Ice Cube became raps premier act with the release of the searing masterpieces AmeriKKKas Most Wanted and Death Certificate.

Now, after becoming Hollywoods most bankable actor thanks to his Barbershop and Friday franchises, Ice Cube returns to his first artistic love, rapping. Laugh Now, Cry Later, the multi-platinum, award-winning music icons first solo album in six years, simmers with celebration, as well as the rage, reflection and introspection that are the hallmarks of timeless music. I feel Laugh Now, Cry Later is the state of the world, of America, of urban America, of hip-hop, Ice Cube explains of his seventh solo album. It seems like everybody is playing and nobody’s worried about anything.

On the explosive Scott Storch (50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Beyonce) produced Why We Thugs, Ice Cube blasts an oppressive system that cripples Americas ghettos and fosters the perpetual ruin of such areas as South Central, Compton and Long Beach, Los Angeles metropolitan areas that have been war zones for decades.

Now, with the impending release of Laugh Now, Cry Later, his first solo album released on his own Lench Mob Records, Ice Cube is on top of his creative game and relishing in his ability to make his latest album at his own pace and on his own terms.

I’m putting my money where my mouth is because theres nothing a major label can do for me that I cant do for myself, he says. Not being signed to a particular label, putting it out myself, not having to worry about what a company or anyone else has to think about the record, being able to just go in and do it how I feel it with no timelines or deadlines, it made me comfortable. I was able to recommitment myself to rhyming and rapping. That all molded the way that this record sounds, which is important because I want my records to last the rest of the year when they come out.

Truth be told, Laugh Now, Cry Later will last well into the next decade.

*******

Please share this info with those interested in attending these shows and see the info on me below.
Peace

Abdul-Jalil
(510) 394-4501

Posted via email from ¿eX-whY? AdVenture

]]> <![CDATA[Abbey cocktail]]> http://biul.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/abbey-cocktail/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:28 +0000 biul http://biul.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/abbey-cocktail/