Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Behold A New Blog - Terrible Lizard Brewing

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,
 
This weekend was pretty relaxed… and surprisingly chilly for the Bay area. That being said… the temperatures were still in the 40’s & 50’s during the day… and frosty in the 30’s for overnight… but compared to the -15 stuff back home in Utah… or the torrential downpour of snow & sleet at NFL games on the East Coast, we’re pretty f**king lucky out here. Here’s the version of SF Snow from the coldest it has been in my three-year tenure here…
 
Saturday, we moved our Mead to 2nd fermentation carboy… pretty easy & standard stuff… but just thought that I’d share with ya…
 

We followed it up with a lunch consisting of Bacon & cheddar burger patties that I found at Safeway… they were pretty good…
 


Last week, the Wingman introduced us to a fun horror parody movie on Netflix called “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil” starring Tyler Labine & Alan Tudyk as two rednecks on a fishing trip at their dilapidated cabin in the woods… and then through a few acts of confusion… a group of preppy college kids think they’ve abducted one of their classmates… so now they attack Tucker & Dale to get her back. It’s actually REALLY hilarious& plays on all the usual horror clichés… but adds a little real world application… but not a whole lot of common sense… I would highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good horror parody… but without all the grotesque, sexual references that you get from all the “Scary Movie” episodes… though I enjoy those as well. Think of it as a cross between “Shaun of the Dead” and “Cabin in the Woods”. Not shabby company if you ask me.
 
A non-parody horror flick that I saw the other night was “All the Boys Love Mandy Lane” starring Amber Heard and directed by Jonathan Levine (“50/50” & “Warm Bodies”). Apparently this movie was made back in 2006… but wasn’t widely released until September 6th, 2013… so that… might indicate the kind of movie that it was right off the bat. If they thought they were going to make a lot of money… or any money given the shoestring budgets of horror flicks, they would’ve released it. However, I was still curious… and let’s face it… Amber Heard is HOT!!! Anyway, the premise is that a group of “cool kid” high school kids invite good girl Mandy Lane (Heard), who got REALLY HOT junior year, to a party at their secluded ranch in Texas. All the guys (and maybe the girls) are planning on popping that sweet virgin cherry of hers… but there’s one problem… partygoers start disappearing… and then reappearing as corpses. I won’t lie… it’s a pretty standard horror flick, though it might’ve been intriguing if it was released 7 years ago… but there’s really no surprises or anything. The only thing really unique about it is the way that it’s shot… but it’s mostly just the use of lens flares (not quite JJ Abrams, but noticeable) and some of the scenes are really dirty & grotesque to a point you almost feel like you can smell it… but that’s kinda what you expect. Anyway, it’s okay… but not great by any means. Did I mention that Amber Heard is hot? She’s in other movies like “Drive Angry” and “Rum Diary” though if you wanna see her… or my personal recommendation, the underrated “The Joneses” opposite David Duchovny & Demi Moore. You’re welcome.
 
 
Last night, I was able to get in on a preview screening of “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” starring… well, you know, everybody from the first Hobbit movie. This was the 2nd of three movies in the Hobbit trilogy… and it picks up were the 1st movie leaves off… with a bunch of dwarves, a wizard & a hobbit named Bilbo on their way to the Lonely Mountain to take back the dwarvish homeland from a fire-breathing dragon named Smaug (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch, sorta). Along the way, they battle giant spiders, orcs, elves (then join forces), and are thrown in a dungeon a few times yet always miraculously escape. Then they come to meet up with Smaug… and he’s basically invincible. Fun fact: That description I gave you… was for a 161 minute movie. That being said… it did NOT feel like it was that long. When it ended, I was expected a lot more given the run time that I knew going in… but it leaves off on a cliffhanger of course… because there’s a third movie to be released next holiday season. Now for this portion, the movie is exactly what you would expect. Magic, dark forces, lots of talk of honor & vague phrases, walking, sword play, arrows, axes, more walking, scenery of New Zealand, hot elvish chicks (Evangeline Lilly), talk of weed, more walking, etc. The fight scenes are pretty epic… but it seemed weird that at times they were almost too fast to pay attention to… and then would slow down quite a bit (specifically the barrel chase scene where it goes all over the place defying all logic & physics) but overall the pace of the movie seemed a little off at some points. However, I know it’s tough to keep people interested for five minutes let alone 160… so yeah, I would definitely recommend this if you liked the first four such movies. I’m excited to see the last movie too. Besides, there’s a f**king dragon voiced by KHAAAAAAAN in this one. How bad could it really be?
 
By the way, if you haven’t already, check out our (Dizzy & mine) new blog about our homebrewing adventure entitled Terrible Lizard Brewing. That blog is specifically made for basically anything beer-related… including our homebrewing updates, reviews of breweries, books, TV/movies, festivals, and various other adventures all regarding BEER!!! There’s also some of our artwork, design ideas, hilarious photos & stories, and all the other stuff that you’d expect from this blog… just with a higher ABV. Coming up this weekend… we go on a bus-driven brewery tour across the Bay with the SF Homebrewers Guild on Saturday… and then we will start our first all-grain batch of beer on Sunday… and it’s a Bourbon Barrel Aged Porter, which should be quite epic AND amazing.
 
That should do it for today. After next week’s update, there may be a slight hiatus while I go back home to Utah for the holidays… but I assure you that I’ll be back in time for early 2014. That reminds me… I’d better start on the $tevies for this year. LOTS of competition in a few categories… so we’ll have to see how those turn out. Have a great week everybody!!!

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