Beer and Democracy

Posted on May 15, 2013 by metrospirit

What brettanomyces tells us about America In recognition of American Craft Beer Week — which kicked off on Monday — I’m going to take a short break from spam-botting Rand Paul’s Friendster account and talk about something that I truly,…

Looking Forward

Posted on May 8, 2013 by metrospirit

But don’t forget to look back at some of the people who make Collins’ honesty possible If I’m being completely honest — and I rarely am, so take a picture — I’m ill equipped to write about most of the…

Role Playing Gone Wrong

Posted on May 1, 2013 by metrospirit

Ryan Lochte we can laugh at. Ann Coulter? Not so much. After all this time writing and bitching about them, I’m still often baffled, though no less confused, by the public personas of a select few celebrities, political talking heads…

Pay Attention

Posted on April 24, 2013 by metrospirit

Two out of four Koch brothers plan to take over the world… in a bad way There are currently four Koch brothers in this country with plans for worldwide domination, and I can totally get behind two of them: Jim…

Fictional Reenactment

Posted on April 17, 2013 by metrospirit

What we can learn from a novelist about emphathy Over the past two weeks or so, I’ve been reading Nick Flynn’s new memoir “The Reenactments.” It’s his third, and at this point — about 200 pages in — I can’t…

Woo-Hoo!

Posted on March 26, 2013 by metrospirit

Political Face-Palm Hall of Fame nominees… and some good news! This past week, like most weeks, featured a dizzying array of things to get infuriated about. To be fair, it’s not like I don’t enjoy writing about things that work…

Switcheroo

Posted on March 19, 2013 by metrospirit

Rob Portman’s gay marriage switcheroo, Sarah Palin’s celebrity and what this has to do with Pope Francis It always seems disingenuous to start out this column with a lead like “X number of important things happened this past week.” It…

Slow Your Roll

Posted on March 12, 2013 by metrospirit

The Rand Paul edition About a week ago, Senator Rand Paul held the Senate floor for approximately nine hours in an unsuccessful attempt to filibuster the Obama administration’s appointment of John O. Brennan as CIA director. The filibuster is one…

2013 Academy Awards

Posted on February 27, 2013 by metrospirit

Best, Worst and FLLRRRGGHHARPPH If you’re like me, you watched the Oscars this past Sunday night. Also, if you’re like me, you’re just home from work, fiercely downing a pint of Hopalicious to try and erase the image of a…

Craft Beer and the Social Animal

Posted on February 13, 2013 by metrospirit

Communities are made up of weird, weird people Communities are a funny thing. By their very nature, they are both natural and artificial constructions as, on the one hand, they stem from our inherent need to congregate with other like-minded…