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Thom Dunn is a Boston-based writer, musician, and utterly terrible dancer. He is the singer/guitarist for the indie rock/power-pop the Roland High Life, as well as a staff writer for the New York Times’ Wirecutter and a regular contributor at BoingBoing.net. Thom enjoys Oxford commas, metaphysics, and romantic clichés (especially when they involve whiskey), and he firmly believes that Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" is the single greatest atrocity committed against mankind. He is a graduate of Clarion Writer's Workshop at UCSD ('13) & Emerson College ('08).

Blood Orange Hefeweizen!

I've been falling behind a bit on my homebrewing (it seems that life's been getting in the way), but I'm finally back on track. And to celebrate, I just brewed a blood orange hefeweizen. I had the impetus to make one late last spring, until I discovered that I had already missed blood orange season (It's a shame that the season for something so delicious only lasts for 2 months in the winter). The recipe was an adaptation of a Honey Wheat Ale kit from Barleycorn's Craft Brew in Natick, combined with a friend's suggestion for the blood oranges.

Yes — that's a pot full of blood orange juice on the left. AWESOME.

This was my first time visiting Barleycorn's, and they were fantastic — much better than the arrogant beersnobs that run Modern Homebrew in Cambridge (Imagine Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Now imagine he runs a homebrew store instead. "Extract brew? Ugh. Why don't you just like, sparge at 275 Fahrenheit?" I HATE YOU). If you're looking to get into homebrewing (and have access to a car), I suggest you check them out.

Le Fheile Padraig

Alright, so my commitment to posting a new cover song every 2 weeks has fallen behind. I've been recovering from a sinus infection, which of course has rendered me unable to sing. But serendipity shined its smiling Irish eyes on me, and I was able to finish just in time for the Feast of Saint Patrick (one of my personal favorite holidays). This entry into the Song of the (Bi-)Week series is a cover of "Streams of Whiskey" by the Irish rock group The Pogues. This song pays homage to two of my favorite things: drinking whiskey, and Irish playwright/author Brendan Behan, who is also the namesake of my favorite local pub (where I often enjoy drinking whiskey). The original song is an sloppy, upbeat drinking song in 4/4 time; my version follows more in the tradition of Americana, complete with plenty of lap steel guitar, and converts the meter to 3/4 time.

Enjoy, and have yourselves a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

[soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/12036874"]

Bottled: Sweet Honey Tangerine IPA

52 bottles of delicious homemade beer on the ground, 52 bottles of delicious homemade beer...

Sweet Honey Tangerine IPA

Sweet Honey Tangerine IPA is a bitter West Coast-style IPA brewed with Cascade and Citra hops, with the addition of orange, clementine, and honey tangerine peels, plus some honey and more orange flavor added before bottling. My goal is for the citrus sweetness of the orange-flavors to balance out the hops bitterness. But it just entered to bottle, so we'll have to wait a few weeks to let it bottle-age before we see what happens!

In Defense of Pub Writing

Every Wednesday, literary blog The Things They Read has a feature called Where We Live that focuses on, "the different places that writers and readers live, in a deeper sense than simply geography — the mental and emotional space they inhabit during their creative lives." This week's article is by yours truly, and explores the Brendan Behan Pub in Jamaica Plain, one of my personal favorite bars in the entire universe, and the lost art (in America) of pub writing. Take a look, have a pint, and enjoy!