Gear: The HD Format War (continued)

The Toshiba HD-A3 arrived earlier this week and I promised I was going to write about my experience with it. Unfortunately, the installation of the player was so simple, I don't have much to write. I plugged it in, connected it by HDMI cable to my HDTV and it plays all my discs perfectly at 1080i. A perfectly seamless process, unlike most electronics installations these days. Honestly, I wish I had gotten a player sooner. The headaches with playing HD-DVDs on my HTPC were really not worth it, though I did end up with a much lower price and a boat-load of free HD-DVDs.

Instead, here's some more about the HD format war. With the Christmas shopping season on, things are certainly heating up. Word is that Toshiba sold 90k HD-DVD players during the week that the Toshiba HD-A2s went on sale for $98 at Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Good news for them, but HD-DVD still has a smaller installed base compared to Blu-ray when PS3s being used to watch Blu-ray movies are factored in. The entry level Sony player (BDP-S300) is still selling for about twice the Toshiba HD-A3, so we'll how sales go through the holiday season. Toshiba seems well aware that this time is crucial for HD-DVD.

Disc sales numbers for the week including Black Friday are now in, showing an almost 3-to-1 advantage for Blu-ray, up from 2-to-1 in recent months. At first glance, this might seem odd with jump in HD-DVD player sales, but it's pretty likely that a large number of those players were bought as Christmas gifts. The bump in Blu-ray sales could also be explained by high sales of new releases. January disc sales numbers should prove telling.

In any case, I still hold firm to my belief that both formats will live on. Sony CEO Howard Stringer seems to share my view, having recently said he believes the war will end in a stalemate. Naturally, he quickly backpedaled from that position, but the fact that the head of the company arguably winning the war even hinted that we'll end up with a stalemate is pretty interesting.

Thursday's Five Ws (and One H)

Who is going to drive me home at the end of the Hoosier Beer Geek New Year's Eve Party at Deano's Vino?

What is going to become of all the proposed downtown developments when Ballard becomes mayor?

When will I actually start shopping for Christmas gifts?

Where can I find Goose Island Bourbon County Stout and Founders Breakfast Stout?

Why can't the NFL get over themselves so people can actually watch their product (like tonight's excellent Cowboys-Packers matchup)?

How does Buggs Temple still not have their menus online?

Development: Canal Refurb Project Pulled

In what is fast becoming a pattern, the $3.2M refurb project of the Ohio St. basin of the Downtown Canal has been pulled until Mayor-elect Ballard and his team can take a look at the proposal. This proposal is months old -- renderings for the project are dated 04.30.07 -- but I first read of this over at Property Lines on November 19th and now, just 10 days later, it's already being shelved.

As the Star notes, the Ohio St. basin is one of the oldest sections of Canal and it certainly could use some attention. The City did some half-assed work on the crumbling steps about a year ago and it looks terrible. But $3.2M? That seems like an awfully high price tag, especially given the crumbling infrastructure all over the City. Compared to some road surfaces and neighborhood sidewalks, this area of the canal is practically brand new and perfectly serviceable.

The Star has a 7-page, 1.3MB PDF of the proposal available here.

Beer: A Night at Badaboomz

My wife and I celebrated 6 months being married by going to Badaboomz last night (am I lucky or what?!). Since it was a special night, we decided to splurge a little and went with more interesting/expensive options than we normally do. This was helped by the fact that one of their Tuesday drink specials is $1 off goblets, which are normally a stiff $6.50 for about 8 or 9 oz. Everything we ordered was something we'd never had before.

We decided to start off big and went with Stone Double Bastard Ale on tap. Man that's a tasty beer. The bartender was nice enough to provide us with a sample of regular Arrogant Bastard so we could taste them side-by-side. The Double is more hopped than the regular but manages to still be more balanced overall. And of course it's quite a bit more alcoholic, 10% to 7.2%. Beer Advocate users rank this as the 39th best beer in the world.

We knew we needed something in our stomachs, so we paired the Double with some wings and pub chips. I love their house-made pub chips, a delicious mix of sweet and regular potato chips that puts my hand on autopilot going back to the bowl. A perfect accompaniment to an evening of drinking beer.

After the Double Bastard was gone, we decided to switch to splitting 12 oz bottles. The menu mentioned "Founders Harvest Ale (limited release)" so we had to try one of those. The bartender told us that they had a very limited quantity to start with and only had 4 left. One sip and we ordered a second to we could each have a full beer! Another guy at the bar ordered one later, leaving just one lonely beer in the cooler. Matt's Beer Blog has a review of Three Floyd's Harvest Ale as well as some information about the harvest ale style. As Matt discusses in his Three Floyd's review, the Founders Harvest Ale is also a "wet hopped ale." Beer Advocate classifies the Founders as a Pale Ale, but I'd put it more in the IPA category. Very hoppy and refreshing.

The bartender also let us know that they recently got in some of the limited-release beers from Goose Island, including the Imperial IPA and the Bourbon County Stout. I've still got a couple bottles of the Imperial IPA at home, so we went with Bourbon County Stout. My god that beer is delicious! Creamy, chocalatey and carmely with vanilla hints and some coffee. Wonderful, coating mouthfeel. If I ever see this at a store, I'm buyin' a whole bunch. Beer Advocate users rank this as the 21st best beer in the world, and I whole-heartedly agree.

For our last beer, we decided to go for a big splurge and spent $15 to try 120 Minute IPA for the first time. I'm not sure exactly what I expected, but it wasn't what I put in my mouth. Huge disappointment. Much too sweet for my taste. I read recently in a wine book that alcohol is partially perceived by your tongue as sweet, so it's likely that some of the sweetness of this beer is linked to its 21% abv. What I was most surprised by was its hoppiness, or rather it's un-hoppiness. I was expecting a huge hop blast, but if anything I think it's less hoppy than the 90 Minute IPA. I'm glad I tried it -- and I took the bottle to prove it -- but I doubt I'll be back soon. 90 Minute is more my taste and costs much less.

Other interesting info we picked up from the bartender:

• The Lafayette Rd. Badaboomz only shares the name and menu of the downtown location. It has a different owner and an independent beer selection. If you've never been, they've got a handful of interesting beers but overall it doesn't come close to the selection downtown.
• Badaboomz recently received a case of Founders Breakfast Stout that, as is apparently quite common, was immediately split between owner Mike DeWeese and other employees before it ever saw the cooler shelves. Oh well, I don't blame 'em! Anybody know where it can be had around town right now?
• The owner of Three Floyds brewery apparently owns a small piece of Badaboomz. That's how they're able to get Dreadnaught on tap every once-in-a-while. Apparently Badaboomz is the only place outside of the FFF Brew Pub that you can ever get Dreadnaught on tap. I asked if they could twist the arm of the the FFF's owner to get Alpha Khan on tap. The bartender actually wrote it down, so we'll see if anything comes of it (cross your fingers, Matt!).
  

Development: Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge

First reported here more than a month ago, a "real" news outlet finally picked up the Indiana Avenue Restaurant and Lounge (Payton's Place) story while I was away for Thanksgiving. Jeff Swiatek did the digging that I don't have the time or connections to do and reports that it will house a "family restaurant" with some seating on a second-floor balcony addition. Unfortunately, no opening date is reported.