Quick Vid

"Boston Market" Haha, been there.

Oooh Girl - Honest R&B

Slumdog Millionaire

Went to watch Slumdog Millionaire last night. Thought I’d check it out because of all the hype it’s been getting from it's Golden Globes wins and Oscar nominations. Having not seen any of the other films that are nominated for movie of the year (I still need to make time to catch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), I cannot comment on who I believe should win but this film showed me why it was nominated. On a side note, I am a little disappointed that The Dark Knight got snubbed in many of the main categories but am glad to see Heath get the much deserved nod for Supporting Actor. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he takes the award even though there’s some tough competition out there.

The way the story unfolds is very cleverly handled. Basically, the main character is on the Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He’s one question away from the grand prize but is taken away on suspicion of cheating. The story progresses with him explaining how he knew the answers to each of the questions through a past experience of his, beginning in his childhood. You later come to find out that the whole reason he’s on the show in the first place is to reunite with his long lost love that fate has managed to keep from him time and time again. This movie has a little bit of everything: action, comedy, romance, drama. As more and more of the character’s back story begins to present itself, you can’t help but begin to grow attached to them and root for them to end up together and be happy after all that they’ve been through. The interaction between the characters and the way their development is handled from childhood to adulthood is masterfully done. Many of you may not know this but I have an uncanny 6th sense to see the ending of a movie coming and as a result have ruined many a movie for people watching with me. I didn’t necessarily do that here, but I did enjoy the look on my date’s face when I leaned over and told her what the final question was going to be. It wasn’t too difficult to spot and if you’ve been paying attention it’s pretty easy to see it coming. I still got the chills when the question I predicted popped up because I wasn’t 100% sure. This movie may not be for everyone but if you enjoy a strong character-driven plot, you will enjoy Slumdog Millionaire.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Since I still haven’t gotten a camera to get my reviews back to full force, I decided to go through my catalog of photos on the computer and post reviews with whatever pics I could find that had a beer in them. These reviews do not capture the ambiance when I reviewed the beer but are just pictures where I happen to have a beer in my hand. Enjoy the eye candy gentlemen! I know you can't really see the bottle well in one of the pics but is that really what you're looking at?

I thought I’d start with the beer that I consider my go to brew in the clutch, my Larry Fitzgerald if you will. No matter the circumstance, I can toss my taste buds up and this brew will always go up and come down with results. Whenever I find myself out in a club with a less than shitty selection, I always fight with myself on whether to get a Sam Adams or Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. All other things being equal (i.e. price) I’ll usually go with the Sierra Nevada. It is a little more in line with the type of beers I prefer than Sam although both are solid in the clutch. I always turn to this brew when I’m in the mood for drinking and not craving any particular style. Again, the choice usually comes down to this one, Sam Adams Boston Ale or Boston Lager.

Sierra Nevada as a brewery is also very dependable. I don’t think I’ve had a brew from them that I haven’t liked and I’ve probably had the greatest variety brews from them than from any other brewery, other than maybe Sam Adams.

Now to the review: The bottle itself is fairly unique among other brews in that it is a short stubby bottle which I prefer to other bottles for the simple fact that these are easier to store when I save bottles to be later filled with Fierrote brew. That’s neither here nor there. When I took a whiff of this brew the first thing that I noted was the beautiful hop smell. There is a fresh Cascade flowery/piney hop upfront with a citrus, doughy background. This is a really beautiful smell for any beer, much less one you can find at any decent bar. The mouthfeel is smooth and even, just the perfect amount of carbonation. This beer has the perfect balance of malt and hops for the style. Neither one really stands out but I have had a few of these bottles that occasionally taste hoppier than others. I guess that’s the beauty of the microbrewery. The hops have a nice leafy kick to them and the beer finishes with a sweet flowery taste that lingers on the palate. As is the norm with this style, the bitterness goes up slightly as it warms but other than that stays consistent until the end. The moderate alcohol and smooth taste make this the perfect session beer. Many a nights have a finished an entire 6-pack by myself while surrounded by great company, New Years being the most recent example. As I said earlier, this is one of my go to beers and will not hesitate to pick it up when the evening calls for anything from casual drinking to intense, all-night bouts of Pterodactylgories.

Anchor 2008 Christmas Ale

I decided to pour myself a finer beer while I had company over watching the Cowboys get decimated by the Eagles. This review’s a little late but I’ve been pretty busy lately. It's a Christmas seasonal so it doesn't matter too much since you probably won't find this in stores anymore. By the time I got around to pouring myself this brew, the Cowboys game was well out of hand and I took decided to drink this to console myself and ease the pain. Besides, I had good company over so the day wasn't a total loss.

I poured the brew into a pint glass and it has a nice dark chocolate color with hints of red on the edges. Really great head on the glass and if you’ve been reading my reviews, you know that’s always a plus for me. It smells like figs, nutmeg and cinnamon; very much in line with the Christmas theme. It tastes of figs too with a sweet, nutty chocolate finish. Very nice lacing left behind on the glass. There’s a sweet malt taste to it as well and not much hops are present. The chocolate taste emerges slightly more as it warms but the flavor doesn't change much throughout. This is a solid seasonal brew. A friend of mine told me he had the 2007 version and wasn’t too pleased with it but this batch seemed to have a very nice flavor. Probably too late to pick one of these up now but I will definitely keep an eye out for next year’s batch. Anchor is a great brewery and I have yet to be disappointed with any of their beers.

Most Listened to on Ipod

I was going through my list of songs because for some reason my ITunes library got erased, not from my hard drive, just from ITunes so I had to re-import all my songs. Made me go through a bunch of options through ITunes I hadn't messed with in awhile and I noticed it keeps track of how many times you've listened to songs. I sorted it by most listened to and here's my list of top ten songs. This doesn't mean these are my favorite songs but they find themselves on various playlists I listen to frequently. Some may make you laugh but it's just the stuff I like:

1. King Without a Crown - Matisyahu Play Count: 60
2. Wonderboy - Tenacious D Play Count: 45
3. Across the Universe - The Beatles Play Count: 38
4. This is Your Life - Fight Club Soundtrack Play Count: 34
5. Tribute - Tenacious D Play Count: 31
6. Hypnotize - System of a Down Play Count: 29
7. Hey Jude - The Beatles Play Count: 28
7. Maybe - N.E.R.D. Play Count: 28
9. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles Play Count: 26
10. When You Were Young - The Killers Play Count: 24

Green Flash West Coast IPA

The subtitle to this post would have to be f*ck it Mr. Bucket since I am just going to be putting up the backlog of reviews I have with or without a picture. I will eventually try to put up some sort of accompanying photo of any kind.

I had this very tasty IPA on Christmas Eve at the christening of my uncle's new house in Las Cruces. I use the word house loosely as this is more of a compound than a house, it's that huge. I felt like I was in an episode of cribs. After a long evening of college football, golf (he has his own putting green complete with tee boxes and sandtraps), food and more food, we went into his game house (that's right, game house, not game room; it's seriously bigger than my house) to play some poker. Me rarely ever carrying any cash on me, I had to resort to using the $50 check my grandma had just given me as my present for collateral. Thinking I'm a big shot by asking for $20 in chips, my uncle comes in and busts out with a $100 like nothing. I could tell I was going to be in for a challenge if I wanted to take my loving grandma's check home. Therefore, I decided to open up a bottle of Green Flash West Coast IPA and use it to take the edge off. I'd need any help I could get if I was going to bluff my way out of this one. At the very least, the bitterness of the brew made me hide my goofy bluffing smile with a bitter beer face.

The label says there are 5 different kinds of hops added to this spectacular brew throughout the brewing process and it shows. This beer smells like an IPA is supposed to smell. It started off with a sweet, citrus hop aroma with a piney background that did a poor job of masking the bitterness that was to come. The taste hit me like a freight train. There is a solid, bitter grapefruit hop taste that emerges followed by a puckering piney taste that finishes with a flowery hop and then more bitter hop oil. I can taste citrus, sweet, and pungent hops all along the sipping process. Wow, the bitterness really lingers at the tongue after each and every sip. This is definitely not a session beer but one you grab yourself when you want to take it easy. The bitterness has a sharp bite upfront and stays with you long after you swallow each sip. It's probably one of the most bitter but complex IPAs that I've ever had and I greatly enjoyed the experience! I can't stress this enough but it is far more bitter than your average IPA. I can't get enough of this sweet hop action!! This is not for the faint of hop, I mean heart, and if you aren't a big fan of the style then you should steer clear from this one. On the other hand, if you're a fan of IPAs, you NEED to seek this one out because it is one of the best I've had of the style.

Needless to say, my night ended as well as the beer did and not only did I win enough to get my grandma's check back, I took home an additional $45 in profit. Great brews always accompany great experiences.

Top 5 movies of the year

Going along with top lists for 2008, here are my choices for top movies of the year. It can be summed up as the year of superheroes and comedies as two of each category crack my top 5 list. Granted, I don’t watch very many movies so my pool of choices isn’t too deep so it made this list fairly easy to come up with. Not watching many movies also means that the few I do watch are that much more important which is why you won’t find any small artsy-fartsy movies here. (Warning: Spoilers ahead! I’ve tried to keep my summaries as spoiler-free as possible but there were times I couldn’t help myself.)

4) Forgetting Sarah Marshall – This is just a funny movie period. How can you go wrong with any movie that has gratuitous male nudity? Especially funny the first time around when I saw it in theaters; the jokes hit that much deeper when I watched it at home alone the second time around. My reaction to unknowingly pouring myself a bowl of Lucky Charms while I started the movie a couple weeks after going through a breakup of my own was life imitating art. Well-written, likable characters really drive this comedy. Going through what I went through this year, this movie really hits home.

4) Role Models – I couldn’t decide which comedy I liked more this year so I decided to call this a tie with the previous movie. Although Forgetting Sarah Marshall hits closer to home, I didn’t have as many laugh out loud moments as I did with any other movie this year. If you haven’t seen this one yet, check it out. Paul Rudd is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors as he continues to turn in great performance after great performance.

3) Iron Man – This movie rivals Spiderman 2 as my number two greatest superhero movie of all time. Robert Downey Jr. does a really great job capturing all the nuances and quirks of Tony Stark. A great start to what is sure to be a solid franchise leading up to the Avengers movie. The ending battle proved to be a little disappointing to me but everything building up to it was MARVELously done (see what I did there?). I really wanted to see what 2 suits could do in a battle at full power. They will no doubt fix that in the sequel as well as possibly delve into Tony’s demons, most notably his alcohol problem which was hinted at in this movie. Iron Man ushered in the year of quality comic movies and is one of the year's best films.

2) Wall-E – This movie makes everything else on this list seem like a complex drama with a tangled storyline because it is so simple. The first half of the movie goes by with pretty much no dialogue and takes a very fun turn in the second half that delivers a powerful message. The story is fairly simple, characters aren’t complex, there really isn’t much to this movie on the surface but the way everything unfolds makes you really get attached to the characters. Pixar really hit this one out of the ballpark.

1) The Dark Knight – Was there ever a question as to what my number one film would be? There’s little I can say about this film that hasn’t already been said. Incredible story, deep characters backed up by fantastic acting, and it’s Batman for Christ’s sake! People have rightfully raved about Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker, which should earn him an Oscar nomination at the very least, but the character that stood out most to me was Harvey Dent. This is just my personal opinion but his story is such a tragic telling of how even the best of us can fall. The story works on so many levels and is not just a simple superhero story. There are actually some deep philosophical points it brings up. It elevated the superhero genre to an art form and is definitely in my top 5 movies all time. Greatest movie watching experience in my life was seeing this film in Las Vegas at an IMAX theater. The screen was 5 stories high and the sound was so loud yet so crisp, I doubt that experience can ever be surpassed.

Honorable Mention: Quantum of Solace, Step Brothers

Biggest Disappointment: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull