Happenings

Bullets! Yeah, yeah...snore.  Just deal, okay?

• Our little guy is gonna be 6 months old this week. And to celebrate, we are gonna neuter him. Happy freakin' half-year birthday, Bennington! 
• Heading to Charleston for a few days later this week. Because it's better there.  I'll be eating at the Tattooed Moose and eating their Duck Club sammy.  Duck confit, apple-smoked bacon, cheddar and more on Hawaiian bread.  Dude...I don't even know what Hawaiian bread is!  But everyone who has tried it has declared it the best sammy ever made.  I'm a hard sell, but I'm also willing to give it a go.
• Been watching a few NBA games this year.  Not because I enjoy the game, but I do enjoy rooting against the Miami Heat.  Screw those guys.
• A little over two weeks until the baseball season really starts.  Hey, have you been listening to Just Talking to the Cornfield?  You haven't?  Jerks...
• Speaking of baseball, aren't boobs wonderful?  What's that?  Boobs have nothing to do with baseball?  Oh yeah, I guess not.  Pity.
• Watched Something Wild with Melanie Griffith, Jeff Daniels and Ray Liotta last night.  For probably the 10th time, but probably the first time in 10 years.  Man, that's a good flick.  1986 was a very cool year.
• They aren't any Arby's or Sonic Drive-Ins near where I leave.  Which really pisses me off, because I keep seeing the commercials for them on TV.  And then I get hungry.  And then I get sad.  And then I get angry.  You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
• That's okay though.  Because I tried Five Guys Burgers for the first time the other day.  To quote a wiser man than I, "That IS a tasty burger!"

A quick DST story

For those of you who listened to our show last night (thanks!), this will be old hat.  Sorry, feel free to move on.  But for the larger majority of you who didn't listen to the show (grrr!), it should be as fresh as the sweet mountain air.  Ahem.

So this past weekend was Daylight Savings Time here in the U.S. of A.  Stupid friggin' tradition that needs to be eliminated, if you ask me.  But there it is.  At 2AM on Sunday morning we all dutifully turn our clocks ahead an hour because that's what we've always done.  Or we let our more advanced technology like cell phones or computers or DVRs change the time themselves.  We are benevolent human dictators like that.

But everyone probably has a manual clock or two at home that needs to be spun ahead 1 hour.  And it's inevitable that some clocks suffer the fate of not getting spun ahead for days or weeks, depending on whether you use them often or not.  It happens.  Then someone points it out to you and you feel stupid before fixing it.  I delight in being the asshole who points it out, I have to admit.

So I'm at my sister's house for a birthday party on Sunday when I notice that their wall clock in the living room had been neglected.  I, being that asshole who points this stuff out to folks, tell my nephew, an utterly brilliant college kid in many aspects of life, so that he could change it.

He takes it off the wall, takes a half-second peek at the back of the mechanism and declares that it's too complicated for him and he hangs it back up on the wall.  Seriously.  There was NO WAY he could have processed what he saw in that time-frame, but whatever.  He said it was too complicated to attempt.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!  Too complicated?  I gotta see this.  So I take it off the wall, and it's the same battery-run clock mechanism that we've all seen for decades now.  Something like this, if you aren't sure what I mean.  A battery and a wheel to set the time.  That's it.  Which I did.  Very easily, mind you.  And this kid is much, much smarter than I.  Ahem.

I don't know.  Kids these days can figure out how to sync their mobile phone to their email accounts to their Facebook page to the chip implant in their skulls in a matter of seconds.  But turning a wheel one rotation to change the time on a manual clock...

I fear for the human race once Skynet becomes aware and our youth are forced to handle tasks manually.  That's all I'm saying.

PS - But seriously, he's a great kid.

New Episide tonight at 9PM EST - JTTTC

In case you had forgotten.  Here's the link.

Tonight we are gonna tackle the National League, have a debate on Interleague play and discuss the sad state of the NY Mets.  Oh yeah, and balls.

Eventually we are going to start discussing things other than baseball.  Movies, booze, bacon...you know, anything that piques our interest.  And, hopefully, your interest.  We'll sprinkle some of that in tonight after the NL preview.  If you are good, that is.  Wait...check that.  Naughty.  I prefer you naughty.

One Paragraph Movie Reviews: Vol II

I did this a while ago. And since I would have to turn this into a movie review blog (you mean it isn't) if I were to write a post for every new movie I've seen, well...I'm recycling the idea. You gotta problem with that? These films are all fairly different.  What can I say?  I'm eclectic.

PS - I'm really not.

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Unthinkable (2010) - This was tough film to watch.  A terrorist plot against several U.S. cities has come to light, and in the course of rounding up suspects a former government-sponsored interrogator is accidentally picked up.  When the real suspect is also brought in, the FBI decides to use the interrogator and his highly controversial methods to find out the locations of the attacks.  This one isn't for the faint of heart.  Lots of grisly torture scenes.  Besides that, it almost felt like a stage play with most of the action taking place in one room.  Great acting with the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Sheen (not the crazy one) and Carrie-Anne Moss.  It just didn't overcome the brutality of the subject matter.   And since I had my own opinions about the effectiveness of torture during interrogations, it didn't do enough to change my mind.

My Netflix Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Monsters (2010) - I really liked this film.  If felt like some weird mix of Cloverfield and Apocalypse Now, in some ways.   In the near future, NASA has discovered alien life forms living in our solar system.  A probe, with samples, crash lands in Northern Mexico.  Half of the country is quarantined as the Infected Zone is now overrun with the alien creatures.  A photojournalist is hired to rescue the daughter of a rich American businessman after an attack near the Infected Zone.  After missing the last ferry back to the States, they embark on a journey through the Infected Zone with hired guides via river boat.  It's an extremely low-budget film that comes across a a film with a much higher budget.  A crew of 2 people, some $8,400 cameras and a digital effects program.  That's it.  Everything was shot on location, most of it without any permission.  And the extras were just folks that happened to be around when they were filming.  A really nice job by the writer/director, Gareth Edwards.

My Netflix Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner (2002) - This one was a recommendation from our friend, RW.  A good one too.  Telling the pre-history story of two Inuit brothers named Amiqjuac (the Strong One) and Atanarjuat (the Fast Runner).  They and the rest of their tribe must deal with a haunting evil that has come to their people in the form of a mocking shaman.  Atanarjuat falls in love with a woman who is promised in marriage to his rival, and that sets tragic events in motion.  This is the very first movie filmed entirely using the Inuktituk language.  It was also filmed in glossy video, which was initially distracting but felt right after a while.  The movie featured two things I love.  Old myths from different cultures, and an Arctic setting.  I'm fascinated by the Arctic.  Not an easy viewing as it was a bit confusing from the get-go, and it ran a bit long.  But definitely worth it.

My Netflix Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Faster (2010) - I love me some Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson.  I really do.   And even I went into this film knowing that it was gonna be pure brain candy and mindless violence.  But it slowly won me over with the performances and, believe it or not, nuance.  Johnson is a man known as Driver who gets out of prison after a 10-year stretch for bank robbery.  He has spent his time in prison preparing to take revenge on a crew of criminals who killed his brother and left him for dead.  One by one, he tracks the crew down and exacts his revenge.  But he isn't just a mindless instrument of vengeance.  The killings begin to take their toll on him.  Interestingly, an assassin was hired to track him down and dispose of him.  And the assassin is dealing with his own career choice issues.  Looking to move on.  Throw in a drugged-out cop on his way to retirement (played by Billy Bob Thornton), and you've got a movie.  There was nothing surprising about the film.  I actually was hating it for the first 20 minutes or so.  But it slowly won me over with the performances.  Yes, including The Rock.  He was really, really good in this one.

My Netflix Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Quick hits

• Dinner for Schumcks - Awful.  1 out of 5 stars.
• Freakonomics - Very interesting. 4 out of 5 stars.
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - I don't know what I was thinking. 1 out of 5 stars.
• All-Star Superman - A Superman story that doesn't involve kryptonite. 3 out of 5 stars.

Same again, same again...

So there were 21 Catholic priests suspended by the Archdiocese of Philadelphia yesterday.  For being, ya know, kid touchers.

I wish I could say that I was surprised and outraged at the news.  But as it goes with the Catholic Church, I was merely mildly surprised.  Even "surprised" is a bit of a mis-used word there. I just don't know what else to say.  Just that news of these evil mother-fuckers, or new news of them, doesn't seem to raise my hackles the way that news of it used to.  If you know what I mean.

I would never EVER try to defend these men...did I mention that they were evil mother-fuckers?  But I have to wonder how so many kids could spend so much time with these men alone.  My family was and is an uber-Catholic family. My father sang in the church choir, and both he and my mother were Eucharistic Ministers.  They also taught Religious Education and were members of Marriage Encounter.  We had priests and bishops and all kinds of clergy over the house all the time.

But I don't ever recall a time that I was ever alone in a room with a priest.

Never.  EVER.  Maybe my folks knew, at some nuclear core, that being alone with an adult male at that age was wrong on some level.  I dunno.  But it seriously never EVER came up.  I don't know how it would.  MAYBE if I was going to be an altar boy or something.  But how many of those kids are out there?

I guess enough.  Because there is clearly a problem, and there are clearly enough kids out there who have been abused.

It just boggles my mind.  I don't really understand how it could happen or how the Catholic Church could have kept it hidden for so long.

In many ways, I'm still a little child.

Phone Cam Cat Roundup

Haven't done this in a while, but I figured I would clean out some of the photos on my phone. Photos of the cats, of course. So let's do it to it.

Wolowitz crashed out, and ain't nuthin' waking him up.

Bennington sees no evil

Bootsy and Bennington...best friends.

All four cats crashed on the bed. 

Kitten Centipede: First Sequence

Kitten Centipede: Second Sequence

Gogo.  She's just a blur in real life too.

How you doin'?

Still Only 25¢: Daredevil #131

Disclaimer: Part of an on-going series of blog posts about comic-books, the mid-70's and a wee boy named Earl. Or not really. You know my name isn't really Earl, right? - Earl

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via Cover Browser

Daredevil was such an interesting hero to me when I was a young boy.  Besides his utterly ridiculous costume, of course.  But seeing as he is one of Marvel's versions of Batman (there are others), I guess it kinda makes sense that he would dress as a red devil, horns and all.  To scare the criminals of Hell's Kitchen, ya see.  Just like Batman strikes primordial fear in the heart of Gotham City's underworld by dressing like a bat.  Eh...I still think it's a pretty stupid costume.

But, as I said, he was still an interesting hero to me.  As a child, Matt Murdock was blinded by radioactive gunk that fell from a truck.  It's always something radioactive, isn't it?  Anyway, his remaining senses are heightened to a point where they are beyond the normal limits of we humans.  Hearing, touch and a type of radar echolocation.  And with these powers comes preternatural strength, agility and accuracy.  A little martial training and...BAM!  He's a superhero.  But those strengths also have their inherent weaknesses as he has become extra sensitive to loud noises, odors and other physical experiences.  So a dark hero with flaws.  Yeah, that was pretty cool to a young Earl.

Daredevil #131 in March of 1976 introduced audiences to what would become one of Daredevil's greatest arch-enemies in Bullseye.  Bullseye was a psychotic killer who's main "talent" was his extraordinary aim.  Combined with peak physical training, it allowed him to use virtually any item as an instrument of death.  Even an ordinary playing card.  He became the Omega to Daredevil's Alpha.  A complete moral opposite.  Someone that Matt Murdock could have become with his heightened abilities if he had no scruples or ethical need to help the helpless.  Several years after his introduction, he would become one of the central figures in one of the best-written comic-book storylines of all time.  A storyline that was bastardized in that awful Ben Affleck movie from a few years back.  Ugh.

I didn't keep any of the comic-books I had when I was a kid.  They were either thrown out or given away as Middle School turned into High School.  But when I started reading and collecting again in my mid-20's, Daredevil #131 was one of the first back issues I hunted down.  I went through a "first appearance" phase soon afterward, even finding the first (and only) appearance of another Marvel assassin named Bullseye in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #15, originally published in November of 1969.  But that wasn't the same character.  He was just a guy with a gun in a silly suit.

And he didn't offer the flip-side perspective to Daredevil that the real (hehe) Bullseye offered.  And Marvel, especially during the Silver Age and into the 1970's, loved their little morality plays.  So did their fans. 

I certainly did.

Happy Monday

So thanks to those of you who showed up last night to listen to two dudes blather about baseball for an hour on Just Talking to the Cornfield.  Honestly, Peter (the Colonel) and I would probably do it anyway, but it's nice that you kids showed up and told dirty jokes to each other in the chat room.  Made my little heart burst with pride.  It's usually ME making with the dirty jokes in the chat room.

And a special shout-out to my buddy Slyde for showing up.  Oh wait...he didn't.

Dick!

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So I made dinner for my mother this past weekend.  Made a kick-ass salad that I cannibalized from one of RW's recipes and then one of my pasta dishes.  You know...the one with cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic-infused olive oil and crispy pancetta.  It...was...awesome!

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Those CBS Cares "hilarious" public service ads about getting a colonoscopy are just...creepy.

I do not like.

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Tomorrow, I'm going to get back on my comic-book reviews from the 1970's. I know I promised that it was gonna be the first Monday of every month, but I'll get to it a day late. Back off, bitches.

That's it. I'm outta here.

If we build it, will you come?

So tonight's the inaugural edition of Just Talking to the Cornfield with Earl and The Colonel.  One of those people is me!  Ahem...anyway, we hope to bring in at least one listener tonight.  Otherwise, it will kinda be like we are...just talking to the cornfield, ya know? 

So come on over and listen in if you can.  We are hoping it's gonna be fun.

Three things

1. I spent about an hour last night listening to the soundtrack from the movie Judgment Night from 1993.  "Judgment" is a word that I spell incorrectly about 85% of the time.  It just seem wrong.  Anyway...the producers of the film wanted a mix of hardcore rock and rap, and what they got was glorious.  Artists like the Boo-Yaa T.R.I.B.E., Faith No More, House of Pain, Helmet, De la Soul, Teenage Fan Club, Onyx and Biohazard to name just a few.  It was...awesome!  Man, 1993 was a fuckin' good year.

2. I watched Dinner for Schmucks last night.  It was supremely awful, and not in a good way.  But it reminded me that my favorite Beatles song is "The Fool on the Hill".  I mean, not by just a little either.  Total home run.  I really, really love that song.  And I haven't listened to it in forever, so thanks crappy movie!

3. Don't forget to tune in Sunday night at 9PM EST to Just Talking to the Cornfield.  I'll hate you forever if you don't show.  Seriously.

This is what my hate face looks like.  But older and grayer.

Note: No idea who that is in the image. Came from a random pro-Christian website, believe it or not. I choose not to give them a link.  Deal with it.

Just Talking to the Cornfield

So we're gonna start something new here at the V-Dude.  This Sunday night at 9PM EST, I'm going to be co-hosting an internet radio show on Talkshoe called JUST TALKING TO THE CORNFIELD.  If you are familiar with Field of Dreams, then you'll get that reference.  If you aren't familiar with that movie, then you should remedy that.

I'll be co-hosting it with my buddy Peter, who some of you got to know during the Oscars chat as "Pete the Jew".  Hey...that's what he called himself.  But for the radio show, he has adopted the moniker of the Colonel.  So Earl and the Colonel.  Sounds like poetry.

What are we going to talk about?  In a word...baseball.  But it's going to be so much more than that, I hope.  You see, conversations between Peter and I tend to meander a bit.  Lots of movie and pop culture references, and hopefully a lot of laughs.

The first half-hour of every show is going to us talking about a specific topic.  This week it's a preview of the American League.  After that...well, we are going to open it up to calls, play a little trivia, talk about baseball movies, baseball websites, Slyde's dirty penchant for feet, stuff like that.

I hope you'll join us, even if baseball isn't your particular brand of bourbon. 

Here's the link again.  See you Sunday, I hope.

Coffee Cup

It's no secret here that I love whiskey, right?  Bourbon, Scotch, Irish Whiskey, Tennessee Whiskey, Rye...I love it all.  Not a fan of Canadian Whisky, but I've never really dabbled.  That might be next.

And I've got a great collection of terrific whiskey glasses.  Sturdy, heavy-bottom whiskey glasses or curved, somewhat fluted snifter kind of whiskey glasses.  I always use those when we have company. They present well and they show of the wonderful color of the liquid.  And whiskey snobs seem to use those types of glasses exclusively.  So I do...when there are guests involved.

But when it's just me and Gia at home, or if I'm home by myself...I drink my whiskey out of a coffee cup.  And yes, sometimes I like to have a glass of whiskey when I'm home alone.  Don't fucking judge me, you, um, judgers.

I really don't know why I grab the coffee cup when it's whiskey time.  I just do.  It's not like the old movie trope of hiding your drinking.  I make a point of letting people know that I'm having whiskey when I'm having whiskey.  It's just that it feels...right, I guess.  The ceramic and the handle and everything.  The whiskey just seems to taste better in my coffee cup.  If I had some mini-Mason jars I might use those, because that seems right as well.  But I don't, so I use my coffee cup. 

Some things just can't be explained.  Some things shouldn't be.

Bang Bang!

Because my mind is all a-flutter and I have a lot on my mind, today...you get bullets.  It's been a while, so let's get down to it boppers.

• My humble thanks to the handful of you who showed up for the Oscars chat here on Sunday night.  Apparently, my name is now Arl.  Ask Sybil Law why that is.
• I've got an exciting new project (at least to me) brewing that I'll tell y'all about a bit later in the week.  Did your nipples just get hard?  Mine did.
• I don't know if you've been paying attention, but there seems to be a lot of UFO hoaxes going on lately.  That thing in Jerusalem.  There was one near Pittsburgh, although that was probably just airplanes or weather balloons or something.  And Peru is always good for a couple of sightings a month.  I'm actually shocked that there hasn't been MORE sightings/hoaxes.  I'm done with it.  Hey alien race!  If you're out there, show yer goddamned faces.  Or whatever it is you have that would be, er, something like a face.
• Holy shit, it's March already!
• I fully expect gasoline prices to exceed $5 a gallon by the middle of the summer.  Which means I ain't going anywhere.  How the hell are we still using fossil fuel to get from here to there?  I thought 2011 was well into the idealistic "future" that we all read about when we were kids.  Sure...those tablets we all use are kinda cool.  Still...
• My cats are nuts.  Wolowitz feels compelled to play fetch for the better part of 2 hours each night.  And Bootsy Collins isn't happy unless he's fucking with my shit.  AND it's apparently time to get the new dude snipped, because he's a warbling mess.  Good thing Gogo is a skittish bag of nerves who spends the majority of each day hiding from the other cats.  One less freak to worry about. 
• Speaking of Wolowitz, go and do a Google Image search for "Wolowitz" and "cat".  Go ahead...I'll wait.  Yup...the first two pics are of my cat.  I would have thought it was a much more popular name.  Go figure.
• Anyone else but me wanna see a dual interview on Oprah with Charlie Sheen and Gaddafi?  I think they share the same crazy mind.  And how many different spellings does Gaddafi have for his name?  Qaddafi? Ghadafi? Qhadafi? Mr. Sane?  Eh...who I am to say.  I've been known to go by Arl in some drunken circles.

That's it.  Go home kids, yer botherin' me.

Terrible Things

I'm a new fan of April Smith and The Great Picture Show, even though I don't really know too much about them.  I know that I like what I've heard so far.  Especially "Terrible Things", which AMC has been using for their own promos for a while now.  It intrigued me enough to do a 3-second Google search to find out who was belting out such a great tune.

Check it...

Oscars Chat Reminder

Doing the Cover It Live thing tonight at the Verdant Dude.

7PM for the pre-game, 8PM (EST) for the show.  Follow this link to participate.

You know you wanna.

Live-Blogging the Oscars. Again.

I can't believe it, but this is the third year of using Cover It Live to host an Oscar Party here on the ole Verdant Dude. So if you aren't doing anything on Sunday night other than sitting in front of the boob (hehe) tube watching the Oscars, then why don't you join us? Because the only thing better than actually drinking with the likes of myself, Water Logged Canine and Sybil Law (I'm assuming), is to come and chat with us during the Oscars while we are all drinking virtual-style.  Huh?

I'll send out a reminder on Sunday because you all seem a little bit flighty, if you ask me.  I set it up for 7PM Eastern so we can get our red carpet catty insults on, if you are into that kinda thing.  Or just show up at 8PM for the show and we'll try to pretend we weren't talking about you. 

PS - Great Oscars story. John Waters was on Craig Ferguson the other night talking about award shows. He said that all award shows have a certain sexual proclivity. The Golden Globes are the swingers. The SAG Awards are the hipster sexual crowd. Et cetera. But the Oscars, Waters said, were totally gay. If you are into the Oscars, especially at an early age, then you are totally gay. Well maybe I am, and MAYBE I AM!

The End

I have this weird memory from about 30 years ago that I refuse to let go.  It's because I've made it a part of a conditioned response that I have.  Like whenever I hear someone say "mostly", I repeat it, but in a little girl Newt voice from the film Aliens.  If you dig that movie, then you know what I mean.  If you don't, please don't judge me.

This other conditioned response I've developed comes whenever anyone mentions the Doors or Jim Morrison.  It, thankfully, doesn't happen that often.  Not that I don't appreciate the Doors.  Hell, I kinda like them.  But I say thankfully because this particular conditioned response makes me smile every time, and I wanna keep it that way.

You see, there was this comedian I saw on TV way back around 1980 who did this bit about how Jim Morrison's life would have been a lot different if he had become some kind of clown-poet.  And then the comedian, it may have been Bob Nelson, started in with Clown Jim's version of "The End".

The clown awoke before dawn,

he put his clown shoes on

He put on a clown face

from an ancient gallery

And he, he, HE FLOPPED ON DOWN THE HALL!

I don't know why, but that always made me laugh.  It still does to this day.  So whenever the Doors or Jim Morrison (or the end of Apocalypse Now) comes up, I wanna yell out "HE FLOPPED ON DOWN THE HALL!"

It's all I can do to keep it to myself when it's, ahem, not appropriate.  Ya know?

Bucatini All'Amatriciana

Here's what I cooked last night for the two of us.  Bucatini All'Amatriciana from Mario Batali's Babbo Ristorante in NYC.  And it was deeee-licious!

You can check out the recipe on that link, and I followed it pretty closely too.  I used pancetta instead of guanciale (a substitution suggested on the website), and I omitted the shredded carrot in the sauce.  Other than that, it was the genuine article.  It came out as a real thick and hearty dish with just about every flavor represented in every bite.  You could really taste the red onion, thyme, parsley, pancetta and garlic along with the tomato.  It was delicious, if not as light a dish as my usual favorite pasta creation.  Good for a cold winter evening.

Mario Batali's Version

Earl's version

PS - Hat tip to Alex Belth over at the Bronx Banter Blog for the heads up.  I don't know if I've mentioned his blog before, but it's a favorite of mine.  Sure, he writes about his beloved NY Yankees a great deal.  But in between the baseball posts are some great stuff about food, movies, music and life in NYC.  In other words, it's my kinda jernt.

Final Girl Film Club: Frozen

Note: This post is a part of Stacie Ponder's Final Girl Film Club.  She picks 'em, we watch and review 'em.  It's so easy that even an idiot like me can figger it out.  Go check out her site later on today to see her review and some links to some of the other Film Club gang.  It's SUPER fun!  Ahem...

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Have you seen or heard about the film Open Water?  It's one of those based-on-reality films that was/is one of my worst nightmares.  Being stranded out at sea, surrounded by hungry sharks.  The couple in the film (and in real life) were accidentally left behind from a scuba expedition when the dive-boat crew messed up the headcount.  When they surface, they see the boat is gone and there is no land in sight.  Sharks come cruising and it's all "nom nom nom" after that.

Frozen is like that, but with skiing/snowboarding instead of scuba diving.  And careless ski-lift operators instead of a careless dive-boat crew.  And wolves instead of sharks.  Other than that, it's exactly like Open Water.

Doesn't sound plausible, does it?  It's really not.  But lets give it the old college try to explain how that shit might happen. 

A dude, his girlfriend/beard and his best friend/secret gay crush head to the mountains (New England?) for a day of skiing and catty in-fighting.  Instead of spending money on ski-lift passes, they bribe the operator with $100.  Did they save a lot of money?  I have no idea.  Skiing isn't my bag.  But they must have, because they are beaming with delight at all the money they saved.  But after a day of bunny trails because of the lame girlfriend/beard, the fellas decide they want one more run so they can get their speed on.  They feel the need...the need for speed!  Hmm...why does that sound familiar?  Lemme get back to that.

Now I must have blacked out momentarily, because I seem to remember her deciding to hang out and wait while they blaze fiercely down the mountain.  But there she was, getting on the ski lift with them.  I think "someone" was trying to break that nice gay couple up, if you ask me.  So it's now dark out and the ski-lift operator balks at letting them take one more run because there is some weather coming in.  He eventually relents, then he has to take a piss or something and he winds up forgetting about them.  His replacement, thinking everyone is off the mountain, stops the ski-lift while they are halfway up the mountain, turns off the lights and goes home.  And this was a Sunday night, so the mountain won't re-open again until Friday. 

Really?  Do they do that?  People don't go skiing during the week?  Like I said, it isn't my bag.

So now the three of them are stuck...I don't know how high up in the air on a ski-chair as a winter storm blows in.  I say that I don't know how high they are up because they never say and they never ask.  That's all I would be talking about.  "How far do you think it is to the ground?  Can a person survive a jump like that?  How about we tie some of our clothes together and lower one of us to the ground?  Or at least halfway?  What do you guys think?"

Having that conversation would have really been a good idea.  Instead they decide to panic, not cover up their exposed faces from the elements (that was driving me nuts!) and not huddle for warmth (driving me nuts times two!).  Three really bad ideas.  You can probably guess where this winds up.  Yup, frostbite, compound fractures and a lot of "nom nom nom" once the wolves come cruising.

OK...it wasn't awful.  But it wasn't very good either.  I felt like they all could have come through the other side of this thing if they just took a moment and figured some stuff out.  But instead, they decided to ignore a lot of obvious stuff, sit around like retards and then leap (hehe) directly into the danger zone. 

The danger zone?  Why does that sound familiar?  And that need for speed thing, what was that all about?  Wait a minute.  Oh yeah, the dude's best friend/secret gay crush is played by Shawn Ashmore.  He also played Iceman in the X-Men films.  And Val Kilmer famously played Iceman in Top Gun, another movie with a lot of latent gay stuff going down.  I mean, besides Tom Cruise being in it.

"Highway to the danger zone.  I'll take you right in to the danger zone!"

Two quick thumbs up the film DOES deserve.  One of the productions companies is called A Bigger Boat.  I like that.  And a snowplow dude in the film was played by Kane Hodder...Jason Vorhees himself! Ah, you big lug.  I can't quit you!

Beer Review: Greenport Harbor Brewing

Last weekend we had the opportunity to head out to the East End of Long Island on the North Fork to visit a relatively new and relatively small brewery in Greenport called, duh, Greenport Harbor Brewing.  They have a tasting room that is open on Fridays and Saturdays, but as it turned out...it was closed on this particular Saturday as they were moving the tasting room and doing construction.  Crap.

But one of the owners and the master brewer were there and we had a chance to discuss local craft beer with them in their converted firehouse turned brewery.  It's a really cool joint, and I can't wait to head back for a real tasting when they open it up again.  There is an old jailhouse right next door.  The guys told us they wanted to move the tasting room to the old jail, but since it's a historic site the town turned them down.  Too bad...that would have been cool.

Image courtesy of Loving-Long-Island.com

Since the tasting room was closed, they guys suggested a local restaurant that had a few of their beers fresh on tap.  That's the way all Greenport Harbor beers are served, by the way.  Fresh and on tap.  They haven't begun bottling yet and the furthest West they go is NYC.  And they handle their own distribution here on Long Island, which suits them just fine.

Here's what we tried at the bar:

Harbor Ale - Their flagship brew, an American Pale Ale brewed with wheat.  It's highly drinkable and totally delicious.  A bit of a hop splash in there makes it refreshing as well.  5.30% ABV.

Black Duck Porter - One of the best porters I've tried in a long, long time.  Roasted malt and a bit of smoke dominate this slightly heavy porter.  If you are fan of black beers, then I think you would dig this one.  4.70% ABV.

Havre Rouge - Their Spring Ale, a Belgian-style red ale with a bit of spice and a bit of fruit going on.  I love how the Belgian-style beers taste, um, different depending on where they are made.  This one is a welcome addition and the only example made locally that I can think of.  Really tasty.  5.40% ABV.

I've tried a few others at bars and festivals.  Their Local Honey Summer Ale, Disorient IPA and their Winter Ale called Anti-Freeze are all delicious too.  I'm looking forward to trying some of their other brews as soon as I get a chance.  So far, it's all been good.  Really good.

Justified

I had this post planned for about a week now, but Dave2 pushed it to the top of my blog-pile with a mention of it yesterday on his site.  Justified on FX has, rather suddenly, become my absolute favorite show on television.  It's about a quick-draw throwback of a US Marshall named Raylan Givens who was re-assigned back to his hometown/county in Kentucky after an on-the-job shooting gone right in Miami.  Huh?  Yeah.  Lots of wackiness ensues as he has to deal with his ex-wife, father, childhood friends/criminal kingpins, etc..

It's really, really, really, really good.

The main character is played by Timothy Olyphant, and, to borrow a phrase from the kids at Warming Glow, if you're a dude and you don't have a little crush on Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens then you're totally gay.

The second season so far is even better than the first.  I really how the writers of the show introduced this season's set of antagonists (an awesome backwoods pot-dealing clan led by the surprisingly frightening Margo Martindale), yet still managed to make it seem like a logical continuation of the first season. 

You really should be watching it.

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As an addendum to my raving about Justified, here are my current Top 5 must-see television shows.

• Justified
• Fringe
• The Cape
• Modern Family
• Raising Hope

Raising Hope and Modern Family might be the only two shoes that have ever made me laugh out loud with frightening consistency. We are constantly pausing and rewinding the DVR to re-watch especially funny parts of each show.  Fringe is just fucking awesome, and anyone who fancies themselves a cool nerd needs to be watching it.

I have a harder time explaining why I love The Cape.  I didn't love it initially.  In fact, I was real close to dropping it after two episodes.  But the third episode won me over, and it keeps getting better and better and weirder and weirder as the weeks go by.  I'm trying not to get too attached to it because it is bringing in terrible ratings so it's likely to get canceled.  But I'm going to enjoy the ride while it lasts.  If you don't mind spoilers, you should head over to io9 and see what the geeks are saying about it.  They love it just as much as I do.

Red State

Thinking about going to see Kevin Smith's independent "horror" flick Red State next month when it premieres at Radio City Music Hall.

I think it's pretty cool the way that Smith is handling the distribution of this flick. He's going out on the road with it for the next year or so and he is going to be showing it in cities all over. Then he is gonna come out and chat with the audience about it. And Kevin Smith talking about movies is one of my favorite things in the world! Even if actually watching his recent efforts hasn't been quite as much fun.

I guess he got sick of the recent critical reaction to his flicks, and he's admittedly the most sensitive filmmaker out there. First everyone wanted him to do something other than his View Askewverse stuff.  Then everyone wanted him to go back to making those films.  It drove him nuts.

And then he decided that it was silly to have a production/distribution company spend all the money to market the film when he could just do it himself through new media/social networks. Pretty cool. So he has re-invented the model that filmmakers used back before the big Hollywood machine took over.

I think the movie business can use a breath of fresh air like this. Good for Kevin Smith.

Meteor!

I can't believe I missed this!

Back on Monday, it seems that a fairly large meteor burned through the atmosphere and was visible during mid-day in my area as a large fireball in this sky.  It's estimated that the rock weighed in excess of several tons, and that it probably burned up in the atmosphere or splashed down in the ocean off of Long Island or New Jersey.

Seriously...I miss all the coolest shit!

View more videos at: http://www.nbcnewyork.com.

And one more thing.  Isn't this how it all started in Cloverfield?  Hmmm?

I'm getting my camcorder ready.  SEQUEL!!!

Those Three Little Words

Pitchers and catchers.

As in pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training yesterday for a lot of teams, including my NY Yankees.  For a lot of us baseball fans, that date is the most important date of the year.  The day that baseball starts again.  For those of you who aren't baseball fans?  Well, you just don't understand.

As for me, this awful winter is finally over and Spring is just around the corner.  It helped that the temperature climbed above 50F for the first time in forever yesterday.  Supposed to stay that way all week too.  I am stoked beyond being stoked.

Baseball.  Sigh.

It's back.

How it should have ended

Had a whole mess of fun last night ignoring the Grammy Awards and watching the videos on How It Should Have Ended.  They take movies or TV shows with implausible endings and then show how it should have ended had it been written a little bit more...er, logically.

Like Top Gun (embedded video not shown on feed readers):

Oh, and have a Happy Valentine's Day. Blah blah blah. Whatever.

Root Beer Jingle

I've got the worst earworm of all-time going on right now.  And only because it's only a 3-4 second part of a root beer jingle from a million years ago that is stuck in my head.  And I can't remember the root beer brand or the tune that it borrowed from.

Here's the deal:

I think the jingle is from a commercial from the mid to late-70's.  I don't recall if it was A&W, Barq's, Mug or some other brand of root beer.  But the commercial had gangsters and molls and showgirls like something out of Guys and Dolls.  And the only part of the lyric I can remember, the part that is currently stuck in my head, goes something like "Root beer, Mr. Shakes...".  Sung by the showgirls or the molls or whomever while they were dancing around like flappers from the 1920's.  The tune that is uses is just out of my reach too, but I think it was from a fairly famous show-tune or something.  Gah.

It's maddening that I can't remember enough of the details to do a proper search for it.  And believe me, I've tried.  Even worse is wondering why this tiny bit of an un-remembered root beer commercial popped back into my brain after all this time.  And got stuck there.  Is this what a stroke is like?

Someone...please help me out here.  Or put me out of my misery.

True Grit

I was gonna save this for a Monday post, because I kinda gave myself a schedule for this blog a few months ago that included movie reviews on Mondays once a month.  But fuck that!

We went to see True Grit yesterday around dinner time.  Gia recently (like two days ago) lost her job, and I thought that would open up opportunities for us to go to the movies every once in a while.  See?  I always look on the bright side of things.  A movie...a little dinner...I'm there for her.

I was equal parts looking forward to this film and dreading it.  Looking forward to it because I love the Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges.  Dreading it because the original film with John Wayne is one of the favorite films of my childhood.   I think the looking forward to it part was a bit greater than the dreading it part, but it was a fine line for me.

Turns out, I needn't have worried.  True Grit is absolutely amazing!  I couldn't have been more happy with the new film, and it didn't detract at all from my love of the original one.  Sure, Jeff Bridges isn't John Wayne.  But John Wayne wasn't Jeff Bridges!  And the rest of the cast of the new film were far better actors than the ones who played those roles in the original.  Well, most of them.  Barry Pepper as Ned Pepper (hey!) was really good, but I can't say he was better than Robert Duvall.  In fact, there was one moment where he sounded almost EXACTLY like Robert Duvall as Ned Pepper.  I don't know if he did that on purpose, or if it was just something that I projected onto his performance.  Probably the latter.  But overall...great performances in the new film.  Really amazing.

And the cinematography and the score of the film were both amazing.  I rarely notice that while watching a film because I'm a character and dialogue guy, but I really noticed both at quite a few times yesterday while watching it.

Bottom line...go see it.

And if you have 48 minutes to kill, listen to this interview with the Coen Brothers on NPR.  Cool stuff!

Rocky Week

Not that it's been a rocky week, although it has been.  No, I mean Rocky week.  As in AMC is playing the first five Rocky films this week...one each night.  I don't know why they didn't just skip the fifth one, which was beyond awful.  They should have, and they should have played Rocky Balboa instead.  THAT was actually a really good film and a nice companion piece to the original film.

We all know the first film was the best of the bunch and a true classic of American cinema.  It's iconic and groundbreaking and a bunch of other things.  It WAS 1976 for so many people, including me.  Just a really wonderful film, and a product of its era.

But there are bits and pieces of the next three films that I enjoy almost as much.  Mickey telling Rocky to not let Apollo's threats bother him.  Rocky responding with "Wouldn't it bother you?"  Apollo's manager warning him against fighting Rocky because "He's all wrong for us, baby. I saw you beat that man like I never saw no man get beat before, and the man kept coming after you."  Stuff like that.  Rocky III and Rocky IV have similar moments...although less and less of them as the series progressed. 

I dunno, but I really like Rocky II.  A lot more than I probably should.

"Everybody in the audience better get ready for World War III"

Kindle me...

I hesitated with the new technology for a long time, but now I'm in.  I'm a Kindle guy.

Here's what happened.  I got Gia a Kindle a few years back.  It was something that she wanted for a long time, and man oh man...she used that Kindle.  I can't even tell you how many books she burned through using it.  She is a voracious reader.  Like I used to be.  Yeah...I don't read nearly as much as I used to read.  Not half as much.  Not a tenth as much.  Not a hundredth as much. 

Now we've got a new e-Reader in the house.  You see, I bought Gia an iPad for Christmas.  And the iPad has a Kindle app that works wonderfully.  The back-lighting might eventually cause problems for her, but we still have the Kindle and I hope she switches back and forth between the two to save her eyes.

Right now, I'm reading Christopher Moore's Lamb on the Kindle while she is reading something or other on the iPad.  I can't keep up with her.  She's been bugging me to read Lamb forever now.  And it's really good.  I'm really digging it, but what do I know?

I do know that up next for both of us is the first part of a Rock & Roll trilogy written by a certain someone I know.  It's already purchased and in the queue.  Is that the right term?  Or am I using Netflix terminology when I should be saying "library"?  Ah...who the hell cares.

So hit me with 2 or 3 Kindle suggestions in the comments section if you have them.  I may actually get to them one of these days.

PS - I dig Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Thrillers and Romance novels.  And by "Romance" I mean porn.

Still Only 25¢: Interlude

Disclaimer: Part of an on-going series of blog posts about comic-books, the mid-70's and a wee boy named Earl. Or not really. You know my name isn't really Earl, right? - Earl

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A big part of this series of blog posts, of course, has been the the idea of looking back and re-living a simpler time in our lives.  We've all thought about it. We all miss it.  That wonderful feeling of having everything in your life taken care of you by someone.  No responsibilities besides doing a half-ass job at your school work or doing a half-ass job at whatever chores your folks might have assigned to you.  What were they gonna do?  Fire you?  That concept didn't exist in our 8-year-old minds.

Certainly comic-books belong to that child mind we all have.  Reading one or thinking about one brings us right back to...well, if they weren't happier times they were certainly, um, easier.  Comic-books, board games, hide and seek, riding your bike, having a catch...all of these things bring us back to our childhood years.  Well, for those of us who had happy and non-traumatic experiences as children.

And I think that's important for us to do every once in a while.  It's probably unhealthy to spend all of our days and nights dreaming about a time that didn't involve paying bills or supporting a family, but I don't see the harm in doing it every once in a while.  Especially if you can find a way to use those memories to make your current situation more acceptable.

So looking back is fine.  As long as it only briefly interrupts you from looking ahead and moving forward. 

The Dark Side of the Stärke

This kid already knows that the dark side is cooler.  Way to go, Volkswagen!

H/T to Rob Neyer over at his new digs for the video.

PS - as far as I can tell,  "Stärke" is the German word for "Force".  But you probably figured that out already.

Second verse, same as the first

No new post today.  Go back to yesterday's post and try to figure out the remaining movie quotes.  It was a pathetic attempt all around, folks.  Except for those of you who, ya know, commented.

"Don't ya HATE Perry's wife?"

It's time to pull out that old chestnut.  Movie Quote Trivia time!

You guess the film from the quotes I provide in the comments section.  As the correct answers roll in, I'll update the post with the answer and the smart cookie who gave it.  So let's get down to it, boppers.

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1.  "One man... you go high enough you always come to one man... who?" - Payback (badgerdaddy)

2.  "What do I think about the U.S. involvement in the war? We should win it." - Full Metal Jacket (LeSombre)

3.  "They sold their bodies to medicine for money. About $30, I think." - Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Sybil Law)

4.  "What's a dazzling urbanite like you doing in a rustic setting like this?" - Blazing Saddles (hard to believe no one remembered this one)

5.  "...I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films - these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the fuckin' truth, and by this measure I was having one of the best dates of my life." - High Fidelity (Sybil Law)

6.  "Chrissy, over on the wall, bring me the big knife. I want to cut my throat." - Moonstruck (LeSombre)

7.  "Did you just call me Coltrane?" - The Royal Tenenbaums (Sybil Law)

8.  "No, I'm from the Island. We don't go to the city - crazy people out there with guns." - Diggers (I like to pick at least one movie that is really obscure.  This was it.  A small Paul Rudd film that was really good.  Especially if you grew up on Long Island in the 1970's.)

9.  "Hell's waking up every goddamn day and not even knowing why you're here." - Sin City (LeSombre)

10. "Koufax looks down! He's looking at the great Mickey Mantle now! Here comes the pitch! Mantle swings! It's a fucking home run!" - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Paticus)

11. "Just be careful, because it's a meaningful sweater to me, it's vintage." - Superbad (LeSombre)

12. "Tough luck, Lonnehan. But that's what you get for playing with your head up your ass!" - The Sting (badgerdaddy)

13. "Hey, lemme ask you a question. In the legal sense, can fuckin' Steinbrenner move the Yankees? Does he have the fuckin' right to just move them?" - Rounders (LeSombre)

14. "The ocean? It's over the ocean to Scranton, Pennsylvania?" - The In-Laws (the original one with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk.  Brilliant film.)

15. "Everything happens to me. Now I'm shot by a child." - True Grit (White Rabbit)

16. "The rose goes in the front, big guy." - Bull Durham (Ren)

17. "When ever there is any doubt, there is no doubt. That is the first thing they teach you." - Ronin (LeSombre)

18. "What was he wearing? Well, uh, let's see, he was wearing a red argyle sweater, and tan trousers, and red shoes... No, he's not retarded." - Sixteen Candles (Paticus)

Bonus questions: The title (Arthur - Paticus/Steph) and the label (The Usual Suspects - Paticus) of this post.  Go get 'em kids!

Earl's Favorite Film Scenes: Volume VIII

I think I've blogged about this before (I'm sure I have), but the opening scene of Christopher McQuarrie's The Way of the Gun is one of my favorite opening scenes of all-time.  The rest of the movie isn't half bad either.  Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillipe at their "Butch and Sundance" coolest.  Listen closely at the end...they even use Butch and Sundance's real names.  And check the potty mouth on Sarah Silverman here.  Oh yeah, this clip has a bunch of NSFW language.

Enjoy!

"Get off the fuckin' car with your fuckin' ass!"

***Embedding has been disabled. Watch it here.***

Wanna do the man dance?

Beer Review: Bourbon Cask Aged Brews

One of the biggest things happening with beer right now is ale aged in bourbon casks.  The bourbon casks are usually charred white American oak that previously held whiskey for anywhere from 5-23 years.  Aging the beer for a period of time in these casks changes the character of the brew in just about every way.  It all depends on the time in the cask, the type of whiskey, the type of ale and the fermentation agenda. 

A couple of weeks ago, we picked up a few bottles of bourbon-cask beer before one of the many snowstorms that we have been living through up here in the Northeast.  So we figured we would do our own little tasting while we were being snowed in.  There are worse things I could do...

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The first one we tried was from Widmer Brothers Brewing Company in Oregon called Barrel Aged Brrrbon.  This one was a Winter Warmer style ale, which usually means it's a heavily spiced ale.  At least in this country.  Nutmeg, vanilla, cinnamon...pretty much any traditional Christmas spice is either added or the flavor is mirrored through the fermentation process.  Yeasts can do that, ya know.  It hasn't been running to rave reviews on the beer sites, and at around $13 a bottle (22oz) it is one of the more reasonable bourbon aged brews around.  Believe it or not.  But despite all that, we enjoyed it immensely.  It had a real nice whiskey kick/aroma and all that extra alcohol (9.6% ABV) didn't detract from the taste of the spiced ale.  A real nice beer.

The second one we tried was from Goose Island Beer Co. in Chicago called Bourbon County Brand Vanilla Stout 2010.  Goose Island is THE name in bourbon cask aged beers right now.  Generally the hardest to find and the most expensive around.  A 22oz bottle of this went for around $17 and came in at a whopping 13.0% ABV!!!  But it was soooo good.  I love a good vanilla stout, and the addition of the bourbon notes just really worked well with this brew.  A great sipping beer, you aren't going to want to have more than one of these.  A little too sweet for that.  The extra alcohol might dissuade you as well.  But only if you is the wussy kind of folk.  This is a great beer, and I highly recommend it.

The last one we tried that evening was also from Goose Island called Rare Bourbon County Stout.  Let me tell you a little about this beer.  The barrels that they use come from Pappy Van Winkle 23-year old Family Reserve Bourbon.  So the barrels have whiskey in them for 23 years!  Then this beer for another 2 years.  The result is...well, of course it's remarkable.  Big-time bourbon characteristics are heaped on top of an already pretty damn good beer.  Big-time alcohol as well, coming in at 13.0% ABV.  But here's the catch...it's really expensive.  We paid around $45 for a 22oz bottle of this stuff, and it is going for even higher on eBay.  There isn't a lot to go around, but it seems like someone is getting rich off this stuff.  So while it's a seriously awesome stout, I really wouldn't recommend it for the price.

A small gesture of kindness

So both Gia and I are sick right now.  She a bit worse off than I.  She came down with a case of bronchial pneumonia and I got the lesser winter cold version.  Not fair, because I was sick first last week, got better, then caught it again when she got sick.  Vicious circle, neh?

And then we got 18 inches of snow instead of the 2-5 inches that was predicted.  I was dreading the snow removal process.  I knew it wouldn't be good to do the shoveling myself...hell, it could have killed me.  So I was planning on waiting until Friday or Saturday to dig out.  But when you leave it for a few days, it becomes harder to shovel.  So like I said, I was dreading it.

Then around 2PM yesterday, I heard some people laughing and shoveling outside.  It was our neighbors.  They were shoveling out for us.  I saw them the day before and they knew we were both under the weather, so they decided to help us out a bit.

Isn't that nice?

I go back to hating humanity tomorrow, but for right now...you kids are alright.

The Coenfographic

25+ years, 15 films, 50 actors, 96 characters.  All courtesy of this this person.  Can you name all five Coen Brothers films that Steve Buscemi has appeared in?  Sure you can.  But if you can't, then click on that image below and follow the infographic, man. 

clicky clicky to diggy diggy

And a hearty thanks to everyone who commented yesterday. You kids rock and roll.

Stressed

Lots of stuff going on in life right now.  Not all of it is good either.  Quite the contrary, actually.

But I decided a long time ago to fore-go spilling the intimate details of my life here in these pages.  Did a quick cost-benefit analysis, as I do, and the costs outweighed the benefits by a considerable margin.  So let's stick with generalities and vague pleas for help.

What do you do when the stresses of everyday life start getting you down?

I've been known to self-medicate with good times, good (and bad) booze and an active fantasy life.  That last one isn't as cool as it sounds.  It's just that I've always been able to calm myself by drifting off to sleep and losing myself in the Dreaming.  It's a talent...I can't explain it.

But all of that is just distraction from the bigger, more stressful picture.  Life.  Sure, it's helpful...especially when when there doesn't appear to be anything that can be done about the shit that is storming around your life sometimes.  But it's not a final solution.  Now THAT sounds ominous, doesn't it?

So seriously.  What do you do to compensate for the bad things that life stirs up for you sometime?

Guilty Pleasures

I have a confession.

I'll pretty much watch any film that Jason Statham makes.  He was great in Snatch, as the low-key, wise-ass thief/scam artist/boxing promoter.  But once he started showing off his martial arts skills in action films I was hooked.  Those Transporter movies?  Loved them!  The Crank series?  Good God, they were awful...but I loved them!  And now he has remade one of my all-time favorite films from the 1970's.  The old Chuck Bronson assassin film, The Mechanic.  And it also stars Ben Foster, and he always seem to do a competent to brilliant job.

So yeah...I'll be seeing this one.  Oh yeah.

The. Best. Bacon. Ever!

Got a surprise late Christmas present delivered to the house on Friday.  A gift selection of hickory-smoked bacon and smoked ham from Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams courtesy of Gia's folks.

I checked this place out about a year ago when I first started making bacon-infused bourbon because the original recipe from PDT in Manhattan used Benton's bacon..  But I didn't order it for some reason.  And I'm a bit pissed at myself.  Because this is easily the best bacon I've ever tried!  I should have had it a year ago!  Thick-cut with an incredible smoky flavor.  Nothing even comes close.  I honestly don't believe I'll ever buy another brand of bacon.  It's THAT good.

I was amazed to see that the vacuum-packed yummies were shipped without refrigeration.  It's because of the dry-cure process that Benton's uses.  They say their bacon will last for 4-6 months in the original packaging in the refrigerator after shipping.  I don't think it will last that long in our fridge...we are going to eat it up too quickly!

I slow-cooked it over low heat per the cooking instructions that came with the bacon.  It resulting in a uniform and as hearty-looking a bacon as I have ever seen.  I reserved the bacon fat to make some bacon bourbon.  Well, since this is bacon from Tennessee I decided to use Tennessee Whisky instead.  Good ole' George Dickel.  And THAT was fantastic.  Brought it over to my sister's house this weekend and made a few cocktails for her birthday.

My recommendation?  Buy this bacon right now.  You won't regret it.

Snow No! Not again!

Remember how I said I liked shoveling snow a week or so ago?

Yeah, I'm pretty much up to here with it now.  Starting to look like freakin' Alaska around here these days.

Still lots of work to do.

UPDATE:  Here's a video that expresses exactly how I'm feeling about Winter right now.

At least we've got Taco Doritos in retro bags for a little while.  Small consolation.  They aren't the same as the original Taco Doritos from my youth, but they will do in a pinch.  I guess.

WTF with Marc Maron

OK, I'm a little under the weather.  Fighting off a cold.  I tried calling it "messin' with Sasquatch" in a text message earlier today, but that sounds a little too much like masturbating.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  I've messed with Sasquatch so much in my life that he's a beaten man, er, Bigfoot, er, Yeti.  Whatever.  Let's just say he's my bitch.  What was I saying?  Oh yeah...I've got a cold.

That doesn't mean I don't appreciate the funny.  And Marc Maron, in his weekly podcast where he interviews some cool folks, brings the funny.  His latest interview is with Kevin Smith, and as critical as I have been about Kevin Smith the filmmaker, I'll never get tired of hearing him talk about being a filmmaker.  Or about getting kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight.  Or about getting high with Seth Rogan.

This particular interview made a few waves in the Celebrity News sites this week because he kinda said that Bruce Willis was a dick when they worked together on Cop Out last year.  Not that he hasn't said that before, but in the past he never specifically used Willis' name.  Now it's out there.  Your move, John McClane.

Welcome to the party, pal!