I won’t blog the details of this tournament, mainly because I vowed not to blog about a tournament until I play respectably, so here are some pics from the tourney. Enjoy.

2nd place winner Scowbag showin’ how it’s done

A blurry Kurt (the TD) makes a SICK tree-putt from 40′

“New” hole 17 at Hyzer

Fats and Cromwell: version 19402485

Everyone’s favorite, Bobby “Brown Guy” Jones

twin fin Merlot 2003 – This is just bizarre.  Countless wines into my column and I’ve only NOW picked out a Merlot.  It was out of desperation, I assure you – I was headed to a poker game where the only beverage there was this chocolate beer that tasted rather like licking the moss of a damp inactive turtle.  At a small store like I went to, I wasn’t thinking of finding a malbec, and I still will shun the Yellow Tail brand of wine, since I like good flavors.
I paid $9 for this wine at a not-so-cheap liquor joint adjacent to a bar, so I wasn’t expecting much (I imagine this California wine retails for about $6 in a normal wine store).  I was pleasantly surprised, or rather, I was NOT unpleasantly surprised.  I expected very little, and I got a little, which is better than I had thought.

I always considered Merlot’s the Minnesota Twins of the wine community – sure, everyone knows what it is and everyone’s seen it at some point, but does anyone actually LIKE it?  It’s the generic wine.  This was indeed generic, but I have to rate it slightly above a middle grade because, although I could not taste the advertised “dark cherry fruit, mocha, and smoky oak”, I could taste a slightly above average red wine with no punch to the face and no aftermath.  Just a solid wine.  5.5/10

Hogue Gewürztraminer 2005 – Before I dip into this flavorful white wine, I will need to make a concession.  I will not be typing out Gewürztraminer again.  In fact, I have been cutting-and-pasting it just so I didn’t need to figure out the shortcut to an umlaut.  Instead, I will call this wine something more palatable on the keyboard: Pauline.  That’s right, I sampled some fine Pauline the other day.

She was not entirely unlike another German favorite, Reisling.  This particular Pauline, however, was imported from…. what the…. from WASHINGTON STATE!?  There’s a bloody umlaut in the name!  How is it from the Columbia Valley in eastern Washington State?  Bollocks!

Anyhow, this is not your typical dry Pinot-type wine.  No, this is definitely a fruity beverage, as if the better portion of an exotic garden had an orgy and you are enjoying the remnants.  Further, the bottle goes on to say that it is a “perfect match for hors d’oeuvres or spicy pan-Asian cuisine.”  I believe I drank it with some popcorn as I watched a baseball game, and I gotta say, pan-Asian or not, it seemed to wash down the popcorn just fine.

The alcoholic effects, like the Reisling, seemed to be non-existent even after a few glasses, despite boasting (warning of?) a 12.7% content.  However, this appears to be as close to a desert wine as any Pauline might be, so it’s probably not the type of liquor you’re going to drink to make the girl you’re dating seem any more attractive.  This might be the one you’ll ply her with if you want her to sleep a little sounder so you can get on with paint-detailing your Star Trek miniatures.

It gets a 6.5/10.  This may seem low, but I’m wary of anything from Germanshington State.

Piccini Chianti 2005 – Aside from being a fantastic name for an eccentric Italian film producer, this wine, featuring a distracingly bright orange label, conjures up many images.  For me, it basically reminds me of Thanksgiving dinner, growing up and getting tiny samples of wine as a treat.  I’m pretty convinced that chianti was my father’s red wine of choice, and at $8.99 a bottle (pre-discount), it would fit right in with my father’s overall “Dutch spending” (I mean that fondly – I haven’t paid more than $14 for a bottle of wine yet.)

Anyway, chianti itself is an interesting red; it’ll slap you in the face like a zinfindel, yet gently caress you afterwards like a merlot afterwards.  Yup, chianti is the overbearing yet apologetic mother (not necessarily yours).  But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you like getting slapped around.  Variety is the spice of life.

This particular chianti was middle of the road for me – I didn’t want to throw out the glass, but I wasn’t rushing to get a second.  Therefore, it gets a middle of the road rating.  5/10

So these guys are one of my favorite bands, and I’ve seen them a few times (in FL, PA, and last year at their first show in NJ ever in their 27 year existence.) They were playing a few shows in the area and I went.

Friday’s show – at Bodles (inexplicably pronounced ‘boodles’) in Chester NY. This is a small bar setting, and it’s right up the Lizards alley. They played a very similar show to the other shows I’d seen, which is by no means a bad thing. It was a great time. The opening act Carla Ulbrech started it off with some good musical comedy in the Christine Lavin fashion (if I know my audience well, I just named a woman nobody’s heard of and compared her to another woman nobody’s heard of). Then the Lizards took the stage – they know me by now, mainly because, as Hank put it once, “You’re not really in our demographic.” I was not the youngest one there, but I might have been the youngest one there not immediately related to someone older there.

Anyway, it was a great show. The highlight came during “Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs”. Live, Boo changes up the one line. This night, it was “Who’s to blame for that comedy music phase?” Corey, the fiddle player in the band who’s close in age to me, says, “DEREK!” and looks over to me. Good stuff. He only knew this because I shamelessly and tactlessly gave him a CD to listen to. Hey, gotta whore myself out somehow.

Saturday – at a church. Yes, the band who wrote “Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You) played at a church. It was surreal. This was a COMPLETELY different show which was both a good thing and a bad thing. The good parts was they played many many different songs, including a handful I’d never heard before. The bad news is the handful of songs they picked were songs I don’t find particularly funny. Meh, I’ve seen them before, so I’m biased. I brought along a bunch of newbies who thoroughly enjoyed the show. The Lizards sold out of their new CD, so that’s great news!

It was surreal them being in a church, and that paved the way for many memorable moments. Not only did they still sing “One True God” (There are some that call God God / but worship God in a way that’s odd / we’ll have to kill them, it’s a shame / we’ve only got themselves to blame), but they sang “Strange Noises in the Dark” (a song about adultery and infidelity), “We’ve Been Through Some Crappy Times Before” (which contains the line: those bible-thumping homophobes have got the upper hand), and they even pimped out the Austin Lounge Lizards Family Bible (which, when edited for things they don’t think are important or bits that they don’t frankly agree with, is admittedly more a pamphlet.) The night also featured the BEST verion of “Buenos Dias, Budweiser”, which featured Korey trying to translate into pig-latin on the fly.

I ended up chatting with the guys for a while, especially Korey, who was probably just relieved to see people his age. They’re class acts, though Tom is still quite enigmatic. When I found out he HATES “Anahuac” and never wants to play it, I said, “I won’t ask him about it, I’ll let him live in his bitterness,” Korey and Boo laughed out loud. Perhaps I spoke too much truth?

Anyway, the true highlight of the night came from this picture of Hank Card (one of the founding members) and Jeff DeLiberto. The resemblance is UNCANNY!

Father and son!??!

Actual quote by Hank Card: “Wow. Jeff, I don’t say this often to a guy, but you’re a good-looking man!”

The last two tournaments were even worse than Rutgers, which was the worst I’d done since last year.

I happened to look at the results for Fool’s Fest from 2004, when I came in 8th in advanced.  I shot the same cumulative score as I did yesterday playing PRO.  I didn’t come in last only because Dome stopped trying after the first hole of the day.  Here is my decree: I will not blog about disc golf here until I throw a respectable round in 2007.  I have not done this yet (aside from getting an ace on Thursday at Buzzy’s)  Goodbye, disc golf posts, but hopefully not for long.