Monthly Archives: March 2014

Pliny the Younger, Worth the Wait

Courtesy of Russian River Brewing Co.

 

Russian River, Pliny the Younger (2014)

Style: Triple IPA

ABV: 10.25%

OG:1.088

When there is hype there are always vaunted expectations. For Russian River’s Pliny, the Younger,  there is a mystique surrounding it and its limited release helps fuel this. This leads to long lines and at times disappointment as some of my friends were the victims to being turned away and rejected as they made it to the front of the line and found out the tap runneth dry. When the opportunity arose that guaranteed a taste I took it, partially to lord it over them but mainly because I wanted to know why the hype. Continue reading →

I Need a Beer: The Inaugural Edition

wheres-my-beer
Aren’t there times when you say to yourself, “I need a beer”? Tragedy occurs, desecrated by work, the hangover shower (how dare you judge me?), celebrating one of life’s glorious moments (like having Chocolate Rain for the first time)… stuff like that. When the moment strikes, just about any beer would probably do the trick. But that’s not what I’m trying to accomplish. My goal is tell you EXACTLY the beer I needed when I needed said beer. So that you, my friends, will have a beer with just the right amount of whimsy or gravitas necessary to capture the moments of your life. Without further ado, let’s kick this off with…

The day my dog turned blue.  Continue reading →

Community: VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing

<p>On &quot;Community,&quot; Dean Pelton (Jim Rash) has a message about payday.</p><br /><br />

The combination of another round of great guest stars (Alison Brie, Vince Gilligan, Spencer Crittenden, Paul Willams and Gina Gershon),  Abed & Annie being overly competitive over Pile of Bullets, a VCR board game and the rest of the group involved in attempting to sell a stash of drugs textbooks they found while organizing the storage room, made for a very solid episode filled with a few outrageous moments as well as some very sweet sentimental moments of growth for Abed.

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Community: App Development and Condiments

As a die-hard fan of Community fan, I thought it would be fun to write short reviews on each episode after it airs.

One thing that sets Community apart from other, more classically structured sitcoms on network television, is the way in which Community frames its stories. Harmon and Co never seem afraid to try something ridiculous and bold whether it be parodies, animated episodes, stop motion, or an array of homages to various movies, directors or pop culture references. Quite often these extremely bold episodes that set out to pay tribute to some form of pop culture are among Community fanatics favorite episodes, whether it be D&D in “Advanced Dungeons and Dragons”, a brilliant Law & Order spoof in “Basic Lupine Urology”, or everything from war movies, cowboys and Star Wars in any of the paintball episodes “Modern Warfare” and “A Fistful of Paintballs/For a Few Paintballs More.” Occasionally though, when you shoot for the stars, you only hit the moon, as was the case with this week’s slightly disappointing, “App Development and Condiments”.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

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Predicting the 86th Academy Awards

Oscars

(UPDATE 03/03/14, 12:13 a.m.: I correctly guessed 22/24, my best prediction score to date! The only categories I got wrong were Film Editing, which “Gravity” won, and Animated Short Film, which went to “Mr. Hublot.”)

Every year, I think about how funny it is that so many people care about the Academy Awards – or any other awards, for that matter. That’s when I realize the irony of those thoughts: I’ve been following the awards season for the past seven years now, and I care about them as much those very people whom I chuckle about.

For me, when it comes to movies, the only opinion that ultimately matters the most is my own, and that should go for everyone as well. If I like one film and don’t like another, that’s my opinion, and I stand by it. No awards should say otherwise; for example, The Great Gatsby will probably win both of the Oscars it’s nominated for, making it an Academy Award-winning film, yet that won’t change my opinion that I absolutely despised, hated, and loathed it with all my heart (seriously, fuck that movie).

Yet, why do people care about awards, even though their opinions probably won’t change regardless of the outcomes? I think that we want certain movies to be awarded so much that we want our opinions to be validated by a larger body of people. And even then, will it be enough? Will it ever be enough? Add the competitive aspect of awards, and we’ve got drama – which in the end is good only for television ratings. Me, I’ve just learned to roll with it and have fun – heck, my favorite film of 2013 isn’t even nominated for Best Picture. I just hope that tomorrow’s results won’t piss me off.

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The Top 10 Films of 2013

Gravity 1Yes, I’m aware that it’s nearly 3 months into 2014, so this list was assembled pretty late. But since the new year, I’ve been watching the a lot of films that I wasn’t able to last year, so better late than never, I say!

To be honest, I haven’t seen every film that came out in 2013. While I’ve watched the majority of “must-see” films in the English language, there are still a number of foreign language, indie, and documentary films I’ve yet to catch.

I also admit that chances are, this probably isn’t my definitive list of top 10 films; it’ll change as time goes by, as I see more fantastic films from 2013 and as I mature as a person, meaning that my mindset and preferences change. Does that undermine this list? Of course not – it’s a testament to just how great of a year 2013 was for cinema (perhaps the best since 2007) and how we ourselves are constantly maturing as people who watch movies, when we notice and appreciate things that never stood out to us before. At this moment in time, these are the films that were skillfully crafted, had a unique voice, and affected me by revealing something special at their very cores.

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