Beer Advent Calendar 2013 - December 4th

I've let advent beer #3 sit for a spell - on to #4.

 Siren (Craft Brew) - Liquid Mistress 

Now here's a tasty beverage. Liquid Mistress is a red IPA.  So red, it's brown.  Deep brown.  A good sign.
There's a big hoppy caramel flavour to this beer.  It's spot on.  If you were in the mood for an IPA and a porter, but didn't quite have the room in your stomach for 2 drinks - then this is the drink for you!
It's hoppy, fruity, rich and sweet.

38/42

Nothing new to add here...I'm watching The Transporter 3...

Beer Advent Calendar 2013 - December 3rd

Evening all.

I'm going to be very restrained in this blog post and try and not to go on a lot about how I got up at 05:45 (in Edinburgh) to catch a flight to Bristol at 08:05 which never arrived at my departure location (it was too windy and so landed in Newcastle) - so I got a coach to Newcastle only to be told that the plane was in fact struck by lightning during landing and that it wasn't going anywhere.
Then I got re-booked onto a later flight to Bristol (after arguing with some woman in the queue) which was also slightly delayed (by ice on the wings) only to be follow up by a delayed train back to Cardiff.

Splendid day all round.

I'm now going to attempt to drink Tuesday's, Wednesday's and Thursday's advent beers whilst exhausted and on a fairly empty stomach whilst remaining coherent and...awake.

 Odell Brewery - 5 Barrel Pale Ale 

The Odell website and the bottle talk this beer up a lot - apparently it's hoppy.  Made with hops.  Then added hops. HOPS.
It's OK.  It's very smooth, nice and drinkable - nicely balanced body. It's not really setting off any party poppers in my mouth though.  It's a good solid IPA.  Does smell terrific.
Nothing too special - I suspect it disappeared too quickly because of the circumstances in which I find myself.

29/42

I'm not wearing any underwear right now.  I'm in ma jammies. 
I spend the last 2 days in Edinburgh - I must say it is a fantastic city.  I found it very quickly seeped into my mind, the architecture and the way the city is set out stuck in my thoughts as I tried to sleep at night.  It's certainly remarkable, and worth a visit - you can have haggis, walk down strange off-streets and marvel at how foreign it can feel.

Beer Advent Calendar 2013 - December 2nd

I'm off to Edinburgh later, so it's entirely correct for this beer to be sampled mid-afternoon whilst almost everyone else I know is in work.

 Beavertown - Black Betty (Whoah Black Betty, bam-a-lam! What a riff...)

I'm fairly new to Beavertown, they are a British brewer but they brew American inspired beers.  Black Betty is a black IPA.  I can't really be bothered to elaborate on what a black IPA is, put simply - it's like an American IPA with the characteristics of dark beers (stouts/porters etc).  Still quite sharp and hoppy, with rich and dark malt flavours - I should add that they're still really light feeling, no treacle here.  They're usually quite strong - Black Betty is 7.4%.
Black Betty reminds me a lot of Brewdog's Libertine Black Ale, which is a good place to start.  It's a bit sweeter and goes down too easily (insert "your mum" joke here).  I'm a huge fan of dark beers, and a huge fan of IPAs so this beer has a lot going for it.  It's also quite sweet which suits my palette.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.  Scoring quite high today.

39/42

Woooooooooooo! I'm going to Edinburgh. I've not been to Scotland before.  Sadly it means that on Thursday I'm going to have to play catch up and have Tuesday's and Wendesday's beers.  Then Thursday's! Oh no! :-D
You should also know that I did listen to Black Betty whilst writing this. And that my underwear is white.

Beer Advent Calendar 2013 - December 1st

Huzzah!

It's beer advent calendar 2013!  This year I have splashed out a bit - after discovering a new shop with the most insane beer collection (I'm not kidding, it's incredible) I have created the most expensive beer advent calendar yet.  Escalation is only natural...
They also sell lots of Belgian beers with their associated glasses, including the fantastic Kwak glass. One day!

I've tried to avoid getting too many of one beer type, but I may have got actual beer goggles on at one point and just grabbed fantastic looking beers.  We'll see.

This year I was sorely tempted to splash out on a whisky advent calendar to accompany the beer one, but running it at £150 it was a bit much.  Perhaps I shall spend this year attempting to locate 24 good miniatures and do my own whisky calendar next year.

I'm going to attempt to do without the smells/looks/tastes review style - not sure how long I'll last but I'm a bit tired of saying the same things.

 Harviestoun - Wild Hop IPA 

Harviestoun was the brewer to end BAC2012 and it's nice to have them back to start 2013.

They state on their website that Wild Hop IPA is an american inspired IPA, which they've tried to refine a little and make more palatable for people more accustomed to British style IPA.  It does just that, I can't think how many times I've had an "American style IPA" from a pump and been sorely disappointed.
This is lovely. It's crisp, sweet, fruity and bitter.  It's got a very moreish sharp zesty finish.
I wish that whenever I ordered a British IPA in a pub that it came out tasting like this.

Oh, and I forgot to score.  Abstract scoring method this year (marks out of 42).

36


Last year at the end of my blog I wrote what I was listening to and a little bit about that.  I can't be bothered this year.  I'll just ramble a bit.
I'm sat on the couch, watching something called The last mimzy.  It's bonkers. It's like E.T crossed with Batteries not included crossed with...some narcotics.
Oh, and my underwear today is black.

Indefinite pitch

This evening I elected to, under no duress or pressure from my hosts - watch Pitch Perfect.

Apparently - A Capella is popular these days, and as a result of that someone somewhere decided that a movie that dealt with the issues around such an activity was overdue.

So then, that someone, or someone else, scrawled down a derivative paper thin script (we're talking well below the standard 80g/m² paper typical to most offices) and set about making a film.

I'm not good with things I don't understand - and I don't understand quite how positively films of blatantly questionable quality are received.  

Yes, it's inoffensive and fun - where's the harm?  I'm not sure. Where did everyone leave their objectivity?  How much hollow entertainment is too much? Nutrition is good for you.

The plot is tired, very tired - there is an attempt of injecting satire or irony into it, but it doesn't work.  There are a few laugh out loud moments (from support characters, of course) but on the whole it's scarcely witty - it's actually almost like a Disney made for TV movie.

It lacks relevance and probably due to its targeted certification band it is definitely lacking any edge.

The characters are woefully generic, the no-nonsense fat girl, the sexy brunette, the bossy blonde, and the 'alternative' central character struggling to fit in.  And that's just the female cast, the male cast is equally uninspired.  I don't care how hot they (the women) are, if you're not going to create some semblance of a character for them they're just tits and arse on a screen.  I can watch tits and arse in lots of other places that don't induce quite the feeling of nausea or keep me up at night.

So I guess the fact that it's a generally terrible piece of film means it's just a tool for delivering 10 or so songs  (or 20 or so if you break up the 'mash ups'), but if you don't particularly like watching people mime to overly-processed and occasionally auto-tuned vocals you should probably just...well...do something else.

For the record, I don't hate A Capella, if The Blanks ever came anywhere near Cardiff I'd make a point of going to see them.

A CD retrospective - Stoosh

Stoosh by Skunk Anansie
Stoosh is actually one of only a few albums where I have no recollection of how I obtained it.  How I come across music is usually something I remember - because I find music very personal it's important for me to remember the exposure.  1996/7 were good years for me and new bands, anyway.

My mum hated this album, and very likely still hates it.  Something about Skin made her very annoyed.  Such a shame then that one of my favourite tracks on the album was the opener.  Yes, it's fucking political is almost spat rather than sung.
The album switches from mellow occasionally balled rock, to almost militant post-punk.  All the while Skin wails, screams and whispers over the top of it.
Instrumentally the bass ("Cass" Lewis) is the best thing throughout the album, if you read the blog I wrote about Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds you'll recall I do enjoy a good bit of bass.

It'd be wrong not to mention the last track, Glorious Pop Song is a wonderfully tongue-in-cheek and bass driven...pop song, complete with "Nah nah nah's", and perpetual tambourine shaking.  The chorus is the most surprising thing, as it consists entirely of the lines "You're still a fucker", gently sung with a catchy melody.

Four of the 11 (named) tracks were released as singles during the year that followed it's release - Twisted and Hedonism would probably be the two you'd know if you weren't familiar with the band.
I actually think it's quite underrated - if nothing else Lemmy agrees with me.  Just a shame that around the time the album came out everyone was far too busy arguing whether Oasis or Blur were better.

A CD retrospective - Infinity Land

Infinity Land by Biffy Clyro
Mr K introduced me to Biffy Clyro, around the same time he introduced me to Muse and the Kings of Leon.  This album certainly was an eye opener.

I'm going to write about the album cover first, as it's always confused me.
The main element being the dictator-esque (black jacket, red armband) Mickey Mouse-eared character.  The gas mask has appeared in at least one other image by the artist,

It's meaning is far too ambiguous for me to make a suggestion - and I honestly don't know where that other image is from.
The heart with the upturned infinity symbol is also a bit confusing, coupling a heart and an infinity sign usually associated with polyamory.  I know the album is called infinity land, but that's supposedly inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer.  Infinity land is supposedly his heaven.
He's also blessing someone or something, he's made the sign of the cross with one hand - the other rests on his heart.  The light shining from behind also strongly suggests something religious.
Then there are the two chaps in the background, who I take to be priests of some description, dressed in white robes with their heads bowed.  They're also wearing armbands, but theirs have a white stripe around them instead of a black one.  And why do their heads strongly resemble the high-peaked early Disney drawings of Mickey Mouse or Oswald the Rabbit? Why do they have ears like that naked fellow in the gas mask?

I'm not complaining about any of this stuff. I just don't get it.  Perhaps they just wanted the cover to be as fucked up as Dahmer's head.  Or as abstract as their music.

Speaking of...I probably should write something about the music.

It's awesome!

This still is Biffy Clyro's best album.  As a three piece they make up for any risk of an empty sound with an astonishing variance and instrumental talent (coupled with a considerable amount of aggression).
I've never heard anything quite like Infinity Land since, Biffy throw more key changes, time signature changes and stop-starts in amongst the almost schizophrenic changes in vocal style, grungy chorus', intricate melodies and tempo than you'd think healthy.  Infinity Land holds nothing back - it pushes, and keeps pushing.  Amazingly it doesn't alienate in the way prog might do - it simply fucking rocks.
I can't imagine what recording this album must have been like, I can only imagine it was about as intense as forgetting how to sit down.