6 St. Louis Beers Perfect for Team Captain America (Part 1)

Let’s get it out of the way.  I’ve never been a “geek” about anything, ever.  But after now attending two Comic-Con’s with my self-proclaimed “geek” of a son, who I … Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | What You Should Be Listening To Vol. 4

This week we’re gonna keep it simple. Check out our playlist below for the 10 songs (and artists and albums) you need to be listening to. Take a listen, and let us know your favorites!
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15 Existential Questions Asked at Red Rocks Shows

It’s official: Red Rocks season has officially begun! And the schedule this year is stacked. We’re excited for a few shows in particular: Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Ryan Adams, The Lumineers, Odesza, Brand New & Modest Mouse, The Avett Brothers, Jackson Browne, LCD Soundsystem, Sufjan Stevens, Tame Impala, The Head and the Heart and so, so many more. For a full list of who’s playing, visit Red Rocks Online. Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Lost in The Woods Playlist

Get lost in the woods; you never know where you might find yourself. Here’s a playlist dedicated to those moments in time where you simply need to disappear and let the … Read More

Guilty Displeasures: 10 Things You’re NOT Allowed to Dislike

About two years ago, Saturday Night Live did a taped piece about a group of austere agents hunting down any rogue person who doesn’t conform to worship Beyoncé, the “Queen B” – or is it “Queen Bee” or even “Queen Bey?”

Spelling aside, SNL’s sketch demonstrates the ubiquity of Beyoncé’s influence and the high esteem in which all people are meant to regard her. Extreme exultations spread across social media and peer groups whenever Beyoncé drops new material or asserts her authority as the queen. Casting doubt or scorn on Beyoncé worship is… socially dangerous.

You will not catch me (publicly) saying anything negative about Beyoncé. I don’t want any of the men or women of my life to see me as a renegade. But isn’t it sort of odd that there are some things in our popular culture that are expected to be unanimously beloved? Those who don’t personally care for Beyoncé’s music (or even her public image) find themselves with the opposite of a guilty pleasure – instead of something they like that they’re not supposed to, they dislike something that they’re supposed to love.

Here’s a look at a few guilty displeasures – entities in pop culture that you’re NOT ALLOWED to dislike. Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Motown May

And with that, springtime has finally arrived! We don’t know of a better way to celebrate May than by listening to the joyous & jubilant music of Motown. Featuring top-hits and … Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Happy Traffic Playlist

We’ve all had to deal with pains of good ol’ traffic at one point or another. Whether your facing down a daily commute, or accidentally take the wrong exit only to inch your way through a bumper to bumper gridlock, we’ve created a playlist that will make your wait a bit more bearable. While you may not have control over the speed at which you lurch to your destination, you do have control over the amount of groove you pack into that time. Read More

I Should Have Gone to the Prince Show

Almost exactly three years ago, Prince played four shows in Seattle. He played two shows each night on April 18th and 19th at the Showbox at The Market. I lived here. I was in town. And I didn’t go.

Like many my age, there are music icons that I simply never had the opportunity to see; Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix come to mind. Some of them are still performing (see: The Rolling Stones), but even if I had the chance to see them, I’d feel like I wasn’t really seeing them as they were at the height of their relevance and skill. That being said, the number of those icons whose careers have basically spanned my life is pretty limited. Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Happy Coachella!

Happy Coachella! If you have ever attended the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, no doubt you are familiar with the phrase ‘Happy Coachella!’. The phrase replaces many familiar terms such as ‘hello’, ‘goodbye’, and maybe even ‘I love you’. You’re first introduction takes a moment to sink in. Soon after, you feel like part of a club that you have been invited to join in the middle of the desert.  Read More

If Summer Movies Were Anagrams…

This summer, there’s a lot of money to be made with the slew of blockbusters hitting theaters. Superheroes return, movie stars take on exciting new roles, and popcorn will be consumed by the bucket.

But instead of a normal summer movie preview… let’s preview what some of this summer’s movies would look like if you scrambled all the letters in the titles. By simply re-ordering the letters that make up a movie’s title, you can create even more original and eccentric films. Below are some anagrams of this summer’s movies, a brief plot summary we made up, and even a poster.

Yes, all of these are actual working anagrams. And no, none of these are actual movies. Not coming to a theater near you — they’re exclusively on PorchDrinking.com!

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PorchDrinking Playlist | Road Trip Mixtape Vol. 1

If you could leave right now on a spontaneous road trip, where would you go? Last week I set out with one of my close friends on a road trip across Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. We started from Denver and rolled into Tucson four days later.
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Roundtable Discussion | Favorite Records

In case you haven’t heard, today is Record Store Day! We’ll be holding it down at Avanti Food & Beverage from 1-6pm listening to our favorite vinyl and for rare vintage tappings of Dogfish Head Beer including 2010 World Wide Stout, 2011 Red & White in bottles and 2012 Sah’Tea, 2013 Black & Blue, and 2014 Raison D’Extra on tap. There’s even a special Record Store Day commemorative beer, Beer to Drink Music To, a Belgian-style Tripel, as well as the newly released Romantic Chemistry. Have a favorite record? Bring your favorite records to play. See you there! Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Songs With Beer Names

This playlist is full of songs with beer names, or is it beers with song names?! Either way, some of the beers included in the list are actually named for the song of their same likeness but others are just coincidence! Read More

2016 Record Store Day | Vintage & Vinyl at Avanti F&B

Gone are the days of thinking vinyl is only something of your parent’s generation. What was once thought of as a thing of the past, are all the rage … Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Bust Out Those Sunglasses

Despite the bipolar weather we’re experiencing here in Chicago, hints of sunshine and warm weather are starting to emerge. To accompany — and embrace — this seasonal change, we’re resurrecting our summer wardrobes and … Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | EUROVISION!

I love watching countries compete against each other in any (non-violent) form. World Cup, Olympics, PR battles; I’ll follow all of it. But my favorite competition, by far, is Eurovision. It’s essentially a contest to make the most all-around appealing pop song, which results in a ton of nonsense dance-songs, guilty pleasure ear worms, crazy train-wrecks, and even a couple of great tunes. When I lived in New York, during the month before the competition, I would spend every night writing insanely long and detailed profiles of each contestant. I never actually showed them to anyone (the only surviving full one from 2010 is 17,090 words.) The entire contest is an exercise of pure, unabashed joy and I love every minute of it. ABBA is the only well-known winner (they won in 1974 with Waterloo,) but in recent years snippets end up being shared around the internet, like Moldova’s “Epic Sax Guy.”
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Ultimate 6er | Ultimate Sweet 6(teen)er

I must admit I’m writing this with slightly less enthusiasm than my 2015 write up celebrating the teams that survived the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Sadly (at least … Read More

PorchDrinking Playlist | Rainy Day Playlist

Here in Seattle, spring is often spent waiting out relentless February, March and April showers with the faint hope that May brings (anything but rain) flowers. Despite the bleak forecast, we’ve discovered … Read More

Mascot Madness: Which Mascot Would Win in a Fight?

Yes, I’m back at it again. The great thing about March Madness is that the teams are different every year, so the insane question of which mascot would win in a fight can be asked again and again, with new anthropomorphic characters to hypothetically duke it out. Read More

Objective Bracketology: Be the Only One in Your Pool to Use These Methods

With March Madness kicking off this week, everyone is watching their brackets closely to see which teams will rise to the top of the NCAA tournament. From detailed player analysis to superstitious patterns, people spend a lot of time and energy coming up with the best angle for filling out a bracket so that they can win their March Madness pool

And then some other jerk who arbitrarily picked their teams wins.

So if you can’t beat them, join them, right? I’ve covered this in the past with brackets based on things like which team’s mascot would win in a fight, and a year later, which team’s school boasts the most famous alumni.  Those brackets did not do well. There’s no reason to think that this year’s Mascot Madness will do any better. Maybe that’s because I used totally subjective judgments to determine who should win each match-up. Maybe what my bracketology needs is a conceit based on data with much more empirical value, but with the same basketball wisdom.

In other words, I came up with brackets that are objective, but have NOTHING to do with how well the teams play basketball.

I am for real entering these brackets in some public pools, just so I can see which strategy is most practical, and how many actual college basketball fans I can beat. If you really don’t know who to pick in your pool, give one of these brackets a shot. Give March a bit more Madness.

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