found drama

get oblique

dream.20261027: raided

by Rob Friesel

You’re with Cory Doctorow in an office in — New York? London? A Silo-style underground facsimile of either? The two of you were going to get lunch (shawarma) when the call comes through. Government agents are coming to the office to shut it down — possibly also to arrest you. This should be terrifying but you’ve prepared for this, expected this. Within seconds you’re both working: leaking files onto the web, sending folders overflowing with documents out into the streets in the arms of comrades. They’ll be here any minute. Some of your comrades are already forming the line that they know the agents will demand of them — not out of submission, but as a way of blocking the entrance through malicious compliance — to buy you both more time. It seems to work. The building is surrounded by the agents can’t find a way in. You ascend to the roof.

dream.20260924: circle of blood

by Rob Friesel

You’ve gone undercover to try to take down a local gang that’s selling drugs in your community. (Think classic 1970s motorcycle gang, not The Wire-era Baltimore street gang.) You’re fairly certain they’re responsible for your father’s death — and this is how you’ll seek your vengeance. You have taken your patient time to earn their trust, but you still don’t have the evidence you need. The last step (they tell you) is a little initiation ritual. Undeterred, you agree. But it’s quickly evident that you misread the situation. The initiation (they tell you) is that you all take it (something intravenous) together — and that tubing is run from one arm to the next so that you’re all sharing the same blood, the same dose. You’re last (they tell you) and they strap you into a chair so all you can do is helplessly watch as one guy shoots up, attaches himself to the next with needle and tubing, and so on down the line until the last one is staring you down, needle-and-tubing in hand.

the Revelations reveal

by Rob Friesel

I’ve been quiet on this site lately, I know. I tried to write more in 2024 but the habit has been a hard one to pick back up again. Trying to enumerate the factors seems silly, but I think it mostly boils down to: write something when you have something to say.

Well, today I have something to say. I just want to express some pride in my son Holden for so many of his recent achievements. This year he graduated from high school, turned 18, began studies at the Crane School of Music, had an international premier of an original composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, and — most recently — was interviewed by Vermont Public about his original composition Revelations which he composed for the Vermont Symphonic Winds.

Holden, if you’re reading this: it’s great to see your hard work and your strong collaboration with others bear fruits like this.

Revelations will be premiered this Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Elley-Long as part of VSW’s Mosaic program.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/vermont-events-calendar/event/mosaic-21-08-2026-22-34-36

5 favorite beers from when I was brewing a lot

by Rob Friesel

As I continue to wax nostalgic for the days when I was brewing “a lot” (oh say… twice a month?) — the thought occurred to me to reflect on the beers that became my favorites. The ones I was most proud of, or else became in some way obsessed with. There were certainly quite a few that were “very good” (even “excellent”) but these were the ones I couldn’t get out of my head.

Me, wearing flip-flops and a Zero Gravity hoodie, while I brew my Uncle Rico cream ale.
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Reflection on the 2024 mead study group

by Rob Friesel

Earlier this year, my friend Kyle organized a mead study group which was not unlike the 2017-2018 BJCP study group. 1 And while this study group did discuss aspects of mead judging, it was more like a tasting group than one focused on earning the BJCP Mead Judge endorsement. I don’t mean this as a criticism — just an observation of how it played out.

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  1. Nor the 2022-2023 study group that I ran but didn’t write about.[↩]

Trying to write more in 2024

by Rob Friesel

To put it bluntly: I’ve let this blog languish for the last couple of years. While topics had narrowed down to be almost exclusively about #homebrewing since about 2015 or so, my time in Washington and COVID and a few other things derailed just about everything for me. Writing for this thing was definitely not a priority.

I’d like to change that this year. I’d like to be doing more writing, and this is about as good a venue as any. And I’d like to get back onto a cadence of at-least-once-per-month. Even if I’m cheating a bit — like with this quasi-meta-post about posting. (I suppose the redemption there is that I’m trying to be publicly accountable to that otherwise semi-private goal.)

‘Til next time…

Chaos or Community?

by Rob Friesel
Cover of Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the week or so leading up to this Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 2024, it occurred to me that I had never read any of his “full length” works — only essays, excerpts, and speech transcripts. I wanted to understand more about him and his legacy. I wanted to hear his message more fully, and to engage with it directly rather than having it mediated through a high school teacher or some media columnist.

I no longer recall how this book came to be the one on my “to read” list, but it also seemed fitting to read his last work — as a kind of sign post of his thinking before we lost his leadership.

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