He is a Goodman!

So, the cat is out of the bag.  I have to come clean...I am in love with John Goodman.

I mean I have always liked him.  But my love was confirmed a few weeks ago.  I was watching a great episode of the West Wing (which will get its own blog once I have completed the entire series) and out of no where Mr. Goodman stormed on the screen.  It was only a cameo for four episodes but man, I could watch him do anything.

I don't exactly know why.  I mean its not that he is an amazing actor or anything.  I mean he's good, but he is not Brando or anything.  My guess is because in some weird way he reminds of my father or what a father is supposed to be. I watched a lot of Roseanne growing up, and there is one moment that always sticks out to me.  It was the one where Dan ended up going to jail because he punched Jackie's abusive boyfriend in the face. I am not sure if I have all the details right but you get the idea. If I had to pick a TV dad, it would most likely be Dan Connor, he always seemed like he had a good moral compass. That is of course until the final season where I think he cheats on Roseanne.  But I digress...

Obviously Dan Connor is one of the main roles he is remembered for, but there is also Walter.  Walter Sobchak from The Big Lebowski will easily be his second and in some circles might take first. Those two easily are his most famous.  There are many roles of his I could rave about besides Dan and Walter, but one of my favorites is Pops.  This is a role practically no one saw him in or at least it seemed that way because the movie tanked.  I am talking about the movie Speed Racer.  A highly under rated movie.  It is one of the best (if not the best) accurate adaptations of a cartoon to film.  John Goodman plays the character of Pops the father/mechanic who works on the car. If you didn't see the movie I think I can sell you on it by saying one thing.  John Goodman fights ninjas. Its brief, but it is funny.  He spins them over his head and everything. He also has this great piece of dialogue:

Trixie: Oh, my god was that a ninja?
Pops: More like a NON-ja.  Terrible what passes for a ninja these days.

You should see this movie...

So I could gush about him for pages and pages but instead, I will leave you with this link:

KFC loves gays

Boom! That's all folks! Until we meet again!



Whiskey on fire: A taste test

A few years back I discovered a very affordable flavored bottle of whiskey called Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey.  It was about 12.00 a bottle and I found it to be intriguing.  I was hoping it would taste like the "Atomic Fireball" candies I ate as a kid.  I was indeed satisfied, because it did taste very much like them.  This became somewhat of a drink of choice when I wanted something a little different.  It was great chilled, in shot form, or on the rocks.  I began to take it to parties and gatherings and everyone who tried it thought it was great.

Then all of a sudden one day it blew up. A bottle was no longer twelve dollars.  Local bars started to serve it and had it inside of a frozen shot machine.  It had gotten massively popular.  They created drinks and cocktails around it and people were calling it the new Jagermeister.  I obviously don't care if my drink is popular or not, but what I do care about is price.  A bottle now is around 18.00 a shot at an average bar is 6.50.  I like it and all, but not that much. This is a little to rich for my blood as a drink of choice unless I absolutely love it. 

Needless to say since it is popular other brands have tried to catch up and create their own cinnamon whisky.  I am sure there are many others but these are the ones I saw the day I decided to do this:

I tried three types, with one of course being the original Fireball.  I did a taste test.  The first was a sip of each one, eating a cracker afterward (to clean my palate). The second was a blind taste test to see if I could tell the difference and which one I preferred. Below I will walk you through of what I though of each one and then at the very bottom I will tell you what I tasted in the Blind test.  Lets get started:

Fireball:

We are starting with the original.  Fireball is produced by the Sazerac company and is the darkest in color compared to the other brands. This was of course my introduction to this type of whiskey and before starting the taste I assumed this would be my favorite.

This one strangely tasted the most syrupy and artificial, it felt very thick in texture and it coated my mouth with a sugary like film.  With that said, it did remind me exactly of the fireball candies which do the same thing.

Early Times Fire Eater:

This one is produced by the Brown-Foreman Corporation. It is much lighter in color then Fireball, however looked similar to SinFire. This is an offshoot of Early times that produces other whiskeys.  I had actually never heard of "Fire Eater" before and just randomly saw it on the shelf. I remember hearing that Early times was going to make one but had not heard anything about it. 

I could taste hints of cinnamon but I felt like the sugar really overpowered the cinnamon in this one.  It did not have a syrupy feel but more like a direct sugar taste like a pack of sugar was mixed in.

SinFire:

This one is produced by Hood Rivers Distillers.  The color was light and comparable to Fire Eater. I heard about this one through a friend who said he liked it better then fireball.  I doubted it of course and assumed it was short lived.  I was wrong. I started seeing SinFire parties locally at bars and started seeing advertising for it.  I have also heard Fireball did a lawsuit (Huffington post article) a while back due to the name.

The cinnamon flavor was the strongest with this one.  It had less of a sugar after bite then the other two.  This one taste the most like cinnamon bear candies,  It was smooth with a little cinnamon after bite. This was my favorite in tasting before the blind taste test.

My blind test and overall thoughts

So Blind I was able to identify which one was Sinfire and the other two were interchangeable.  SinFire had the most recognizable hints of cinnamon and texture when swallowed.  The Other two felt more syrupy. It was surprising that I did not know which was which. I liked Sinfire the most when blind before knowing what it was.

My overall outcome is that SinFire was my favorite.  I feel like they took what fireball did and perfected it.  With that said I would drink all three but would choose SinFire if given the choice.

Boom! That's all folks! Liar, Liar Whiskey on Fire!





Man of Steel Review: The Dark Super Iron Man Begins

Before beginning this review I have to straighten out a few details before you read it. This is so you know where I am coming from.

First, I am not the biggest Superman fan.  I mean he's okay, but he would not be in my top five super heroes of all time and probably would barely make it into the top ten. I understand his importance in comic book history, but he's just not the hero for me.  I dislike how perfect and saint like he is.  Also just overall I am not a big alien fan...unless your name is E.T.

Second, I dislike every movie Zach Snyder has made except Dawn of the Dead. Watchmen was boring. 300 was over rated and over acted. Sucker Punch was a good idea wasted and badly executed.

Third and probably the most important, I have no loyalty to any live action Superman property.  Meaning, none of them have ever spoke to me.  I get the Romanticism behind the Christopher Reeves movies but quite frankly they are cheesy and not that good.  I respect what they have done and did for comic book movies but overall none of them are of a high quality in my mind. It could be I was too young when they were released (I was born the year the first one was released) to really get them, but even as a kid I thought the flying backwards thing around the earth to reverse time was hokey. With that said the theme song is absolutely perfect and was missed in this new film.

Lastly I have read no other review before writing this.  I left the theater and wrote this before hearing or reading any other opinion on this movie.  These are my initial views whether popular or completely off base from others.  Like all movies I try to be true to how I feel about the movie on all levels and how it effected me.

Now that I have given you an idea of where I come from on this flick...here is my review of the film Man of Steel:

No, not this Steel but I wanted to remind you of its terrible existence.

So unless you live under a rock you know a new Superman movie is upon us.  Like the "Dark Knight" before it "Man of Steel" does not have the main hero's name in the title.

Here is the basic gist of the entire film:
It starts with an origin story of Superman (Henry Cavill).  It flashes backward and forward between his youth and adulthood. We see him adapting and orienting himself on planet earth.  This is after his birth mother (Ayelet Zurer) and Father (Russel Crowe) shoot him into Space because of the destruction of their planet Krypton. The death of their planet was caused by the evil General Zod(Michael Shannon) and the people of Krypton.  Zod is imprisoned for his actions. Kal-el (Superman's Kryptonian name)  then grows up with the burden of having powers and having to keep them a secret. Eventually he is called back to a ship that is on planet earth and has a replicated version of his birth father that explains his back story and planet. General Zod shows up to extract revenge, kill Kal-el and possibly resurrect his planet and race.

So there is the quick and dirty synopsis of what happens over the course of 2 and a half hours. There were things I loved and hated about this movies but overall I think it was a good basic stepping stone for more movies.

What I hated:
Let's start at the very beginning. I hated Krypton. It looked like a Star Wars like city,with Dragons. Like someone just mashed together their favorite movies when designing it. I find it hard to believe with technology like that people are riding dragons. That is like us today riding horses around the city for consistent transportation to travel to places instead of using cars. Massively absurd.

Then you have General Zod. I thought his character and presence was weak. I don't know if it was the actor or the script but I just thought it was mediocre. In a time where we have superhero villains like the Joker (Dark Knight) Loki (Thor and the Avengers) and Bane (The Dark Knight Rises) you can't just show up. You have to bring your evil A-game and Zod was forgettable.

Something that annoyed me the most is something that was subtle. One thing about Superman is how often he has been referenced in literature as being saint like.  He has been compared to Jesus on numerous occasions and unfortunately I felt like this movie embraced that and mixed in subtle hints of it throughout the film.  I disliked this mainly because that is why I don't love this character.  I want flaws and normal problems. I got three references to Jesus through out the movie and this is coming from a non-religious guy. Keep in mind I have seen this movie once:

1) Superman is the First on Kypton to be conceived "Naturally" the exact opposite of an immaculate conception. I don't recall this in any other Superman movie but I could be wrong.

2) Zod references that it took him 33 years from when Superman was born for him to locate him on earth.  That means at the exact same age Jesus is believed to have died and came back from the dead is also the same age Clark becomes Superman and starts helping people.

3) We find out that the codex (the one thing that can bring back Krypton back and it contains millions of lives) is embedded in Superman's DNA. So basically millions of people will not be born because Superman has to live and because of the sins of Kryptons race previously.  So instead of dying for our sins like Jesus he is living because of the sins of Kryptonians.

I think we will hear about this again and someone will articulate it better then me at some point. If I caught this in only seeing the movie once someone much smarter then me with more of a religious background will catch it too.

So a couple more nit picky things:  I didn't like Lois's hair.  I know it's petty but she has black hair.  I don't care what race actors are if they play certain characters. I think you have to cast the best actor not race, but I do care when it is something you can physically change, like hair. There were also no references to Justice League whatsoever.  That makes me sad.  There was also no PS (or as they call it now, a zinger) at the end of the film after the credits. Also disappointing.

This picture depicts the battle of Heat Ray Vision VS The Power of Fish

What I liked:
Chris Keller, Toby Ziegler and Lieutenant Gata all in one shot on film. Though none of you will probably get all three references (Look them up) it was overwhelmingly cool to see all three of these actors on film together.  All of them who played characters in Television shows I liked.  I noticed peppered throughout this movie there were random shots of actors I recognized from TV. I thought this was cool.

Henry Cavill was perfectly cast.  I didn't see it until I saw the movie but this guy embodies what Superman physically looks like.  I thought he had an essence of all actors who played Superman before him but yet still had an original flare about him. Plus the ladies love this guy.  Anything that gets ladies in the seats to watch comic book movies is alright with me.  Even if it is gratuitous ab shots.

I also thought it was a great way to tell an origin story.  I liked them flashing back and forth.  It moved the action forward but also gave us the point of reference of his beginnings. This helped the movie flow different then similar movies.

Massive Spoiler here stop reading if you care:

Superman kills Zod.  Look, as I already mentioned I don't know Superman all that well, but I love that he killed Zod.  Why do I feel that way? Because guess who that will piss of in the future?  You guessed it, Batman.  That is his only rule and Superman broke it.  I think this could foreshadow a great division and struggle in their partnership and I am excited for the future.

There was an oil tanker that said Lex corp.  I need me some Lex Luthor and that tanker means he definitely exists. I am glad he wasn't in this movie but I hope he is in the next. He is as important to this franchise as the Joker is to Batman.

Overall:

I think the movie did what it needed to and we will see this as the start of something bigger. You can clearly see influences from other superhero movies.  Obviously the overall tone is like Batman Begins and I feel like there is a Little bit of Iron Man thrown in there.  Namely with Lois knowing his identity so early on in the progression of his story.  I mean Clark Kent wasn't even really in the movie all that much. This movie will divide the fan base because I think this is one of the harder characters to portray as we saw with the failed Superman Returns.  But I think this movie did the best with what they could in this superhero film hungry time. I am just hoping and waiting for the day a Justice League movie and DC cinematic universe exists like the Marvel Cinematic universe.

Someday...

Boom! That's all folks! Be Super...man!

Sports Weekend: Why sports are important, even if you hate them

The NBA Finals Are upon us! It is the end of seasons for sports I actually care about until September 5th. So, I decided to write about sports, my relationship with them and why they are important even if you hate them:

As a kid and throughout middle school I idolized Michael Jordan and loved the game of basketball.  Down to the point where for two years I would only wear shorts.  I know a lot of boys from my generation were like this.  He was like watching a god play basketball.  His body did things that it physically should not have let him do.  If you have ever heard the song Wings by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis it beautifully sums up how most of us felt about Jordan. I however was terrible at the game of basketball.  No matter how long or hard I practiced, I was bad.  I am not athletically gifted and I usually have to work twice as hard as most just to be mediocre. To this day I think basketball is probably the thing I practiced and worked on the most in my life. I wanted to be a basketball player more then any other profession from age 6-17.  This taught me a valuable lesson that people often don't talk about.  Sometimes you can't be anything you want to be.  Sometimes you are just not meant to do something you love.  You might just not be built for it, and that's okay you just have to find out what you are meant to do.

Football was the only other sport I ever liked.  Not nearly as much as basketball but it was always on in my house.  My mother was an avid football fan and got my father and younger brothers deep into it.  I wasn't real loyal to any team at first and then picked the Raiders because I loved L.A. (my love for Disneyland) and the mascot was a pirate.  I never really had a strong loyalty but it was nice to have another team then my mother, who was a die hard Cowboys fan.

My love for sports began to fade in high school and were completely gone by college. I discovered this amazing new discovery called "Women". Music, theatre, movies and other entertainment mediums took over the rest of my interests. This started around 1994.

I would not really take a real interest again until about twelve years later.  This took so long because I started to resent sports in many ways.  I was a theatre kid and it was the only thing I felt somewhat natural at.  On stage, there are no direct statistics when you are a kid. Nobody wins or loses.  You memorize your lines and have fun.  As you get older it gets more complicated but there is no direct winner and loser like in sports, it is all based on an opinion someone has of you and your abilities. As a young adult I also started to notice and read about arts programs being consistently cut and sports programs being more important to most school districts. This seemed wrong to me. They both are valuable in different ways, and both are vital for child development. I just heard a co-worker say something i thought was brilliant.  She requires her son to do an equal amount of something artistic as he does athletic.  So basically he wants be in basketball, fine but you also have to be in the band.  You want to try out for a soccer team, okay audition for the next play. I think this is brilliant. I would also do it the other way. I think too often the arts and sports are pitted against each other and shouldn't be that way. I still think arts programs are too weak in the schools and not enough focus is given, but that is another topic altogether.

  
So my path back to sports was kind of an accident.  I worked in an office where everyone talked about sports non-stop.  At first I made fun of it, but after a while it just stopped being funny to me.  I started getting bored with the state of music and there were only so many movies I could watch before I needed something else to mix it up. About this time I began dating my wife who had a huge interest in sports specifically the two I liked growing up (basketball and football) so I joined some fantasy teams, picked some teams that I would root for and bam! I was back in the scene.  A few years later I work in a different office, which has ESPN on all day long.  So now I am flooded with information about sports. I am thankful I already had some enthusiasm about them again or I would have gone insane.

Now reflecting back and actually being the guy who made fun of sports, I feel like they are more important then people realize.  I mean important in a different way then you're probably thinking.  Not in the "team building, moral fiber, teamwork" kind of way.  More like in a "spectator, guy cheering, current events" kind of way. So I give you three reasons why sports are important to the non-player and non-enthusiast:

1) In most cases, sports are black and white.
I can argue all night long about why "The Dark Knight" is far superior to any other super hero movie.  You might change your mind, you might not.  It is all based off of your opinion and my opinion, nothing else.  Sporting events are definitive. The Ravens won the Superbowl.  That is that.  We can break stuff down but there is no opinion that can change what happened, they will always be known as the Superbowl champions for 2012-2013.  This gives a person a form of accomplishment when there team or city wins. It is nice to have statistical proof showing you are right and that your team for one moment was superior.

2) It brings people together. 
People cheer for the city they are from or a team they bonded with.  In some case it's their race or ethnicity. For whatever reason, you bond with a team and it becomes a part of you. It's exciting and it brings people together.  One of the most emotional things I ever saw was the first national anthem sang at a Boston sporting event after the Boston Marathon bombing.  People were there to celebrate their city and the sporting event was the conduit to get them there.  This happens more then we realize and not just because of tragic events.

Who can forget Whitney's National Anthem?

3) It can move you, if you let it.
You don't have to watch sports or know about them.  But they are there and one day somebody, somewhere is going to ask you about them.  You can do the snooty hipster thing I did for many years and say "I don't watch sports" or you could just try it out.  Watch something, show an interest. It doesn't have to be a mainstream sport it can be roller derby, just make it something that fascinates you for some reason. The point is when you get moved by a sporting event it is a weird feeling.  It's not like a play or a movie.  Theatrical pieces are designed to effect you emotionally in one way or another.  Sports are just designed to be played and watched.  You create the narrative, you create the emotional thing that happens to you. It's weird, its powerful and it is even more powerful in large groups. The Ravens became my team about four years ago. Portland has no football team and so I chose a middle of the road team with potential. I had no idea they were going to win last year.  For many reasons they shouldn't of. But they did and it was beautiful, stressful and fun.  I will be even more excited if my city can win a championship.  I am talking of course of the Portland Trail Blazers. I doubt I will see it in my lifetime if teams like the Miami Heat still exist, but on that day I will most likely weep like a baby.


I recommend not letting it move you this much...

Boom! That's all folks! Be like Mike!