A new study by the always reliable Shuttleworth Research Center found that the majority of male roommates ages 18-24 got wasted off their asses the previous evening. I do believe the majority of this research was conducted in Chico, CA.

I caught an amazing show in Chico last night. Three Portland bands played Cafe Coda. There were no local support acts, so the show wasn’t very well attended, but this didn’t stop Nick Jaina, Weinland and Norfolk & Western from putting their hearts into it and digging into their strings, horns, drums and woodwinds. Nick Jaina, playing as a seven-piece, stole the show….for me, my girlfriend, and three or four other people who were in there not working or playing in the band. Then Weinland tore it up as well.

Weinland had stayed at my house last time they were through Chico and shot a bit of video. I’m not much for sports, but drinking games? Solid. Here my room mate Paul Valadon explains to touring band Weinland (nee John Weinland) the rules of Putt-Putt Drink-Drink.

Be sure to check out http://www.myspace.com/johnweinland, as they will be on tour for the next seven weeks.

Ah, Spring! Blossoms! Bikinis! AND BLOCK PARTIES!!! Here is the lineup for Seattle’s Capitol Hill Block Party 2008:

Friday July 25
Vampire Weekend
Les Savy Fav
Girl Talk
USE
The Dodos
Jay Reatard
Akimbo
Pwrfl Power
Past Lives
Black Eyes And Neckties
Champagne Champagne
Plus many more!!!

Saturday July 26
Surprise Guest!!
The Hold Steady
Chromeo
Kimya Dawson
Darker My Love
The Builders & The Butchers
The Hands
Velella Velella
The Physics
Man Plus
Little Party And Bad Business
Plus many more!!!

Special presale tickets went on sale yesterday (sorry we’re late!) and the password is BLOCKPARTY. Get a 2-day discounted pass here.

Denver Nuggets All-Star Carmelo Anthony was arrested yesterday morning on charges of drunk driving after weaving in traffic and failing to pass a field sobriety test.

The two-time All-Star, 23, failed a series of field sobriety tests and was taken to a Denver Police Department lockup where he consented to a blood test and posed for the [above] mug shot. The Smoking Gun

Carmelo was later released to a “sober responsible party,” and has a court dater set for May 14th. News of this incident shouldn’t come as any surprise. Anthony’s past is littered with controversy. In 2004 he was cited for marijuana possession, although his friend, James Cunningham, signed an affidavit assuming responsibility for the incident and in 2006 he took part in the infamous Knicks-Nuggets Brawl at Madison Square Garden.

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Though this stellar example of a YouTube video wasn’t filmed in Synthesis’ hometown of Chico, it might as well have been. Only difference is, out here we call them Jager Blasters, but everything else is basically spot on.

It’s no wonder that beer drinking can be dangerous, but Sam Adams drinkers now have more to fear than just cirrhosis of the liver. The Boston brewing company issued a voluntary recall of a number of 12 oz. beer bottles today after it was discovered that some third party manufactured bottles have to the potential to contain shards of glass.

During a routine bottle inspection at one of our breweries, we detected possible defects in a small percentage of bottles resulting in the random presence of bits of glass, most the size of grains of sand, but some small slivers in some bottles as well. Based on this sample, we quickly began testing bottles of Samuel Adams at all of our breweries and identified that the problem appeared to be isolated to a single glass plant of the five that supply us…

The potentially affected bottles are easily identified by a raised letter and number visible on the bottom edge of the bottle. Affected bottles are embossed with the digits “N35” followed by the letters “OI”. Please see the photo below. Bottles with this coding should not be drunk. SamuelAdams.com

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