It’s been quite some time since I’ve reviewed a beer, and I wanted to save such a review for a Cincinnati beer. I’ve been aware of Mount Carmel Brewing Company for quite some time, but a slowdown in my beer consumption has kept me from getting to try many of their beers. In fact, since I last did a beer review, I’ve started to see Mt. Carmel sixers available at various liquor stores. This, of course, may only mean that I wasn’t paying close enough attention, which is entirely possible.
At any rate, I tried out Mt. Carmel’s Amber Ale, and boy howdy is it tasty. On one level, there’s nothing extraordinary about it–and what I mean when I say that is that there’s not a particular feature of the beer that stands out more than it should. It’s got the right amount of hoppiness to it, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from an amber ale. This is a very solid offering, and it’s definitely quaffable; had I had more than one available, I’d have gotten into more than a couple.
The beer’s scent has a sweet quality to it, perhaps showing off a bit more maltiness than the taste has to offer; and honestly, I sort of like it that way.
Mt. Carmel Amber Ale’s mouthfeel is as close to perfect as a beer possibly could be; it’s substantial and the flavor is appropriately complex, but the flavor doesn’t sit on the tongue long enough to overpower whatever food you might be eating with it; I had a high-end pizza (Newport Pizza, for the record, is awesome and there’s no reason you shouldn’t be eating there every weekend) and the Amber Ale only improved the whole of the meal.
My favorite part of the beer, and Mt. Carmel Brewing Company’s whole line, is that it’s from Cincinnati, and it’s overall a remarkable beer. I know it’s a bit of a “homer” statement to make, but the point is this: this brewery’s something we can, and should, be proud of. Huzzah to you, Mt. Carmel Brewing Company. I love you. In a manly sort of way.
Gun ownership is a pretty contentious issue, no matter who you ask. Liberals scapegoat guns as the cause of all crime, Conservatives scapegoat guns as the canary in their freedom coal mine, Libertarians think they should be able to mount bazookas to their Subarus. Me? I’m one of those strange cross-breeds. I’m a self-labeled Liberal, and both proud and happy to admit it, and I love guns. Well, not loveper se, but I do come down on the side of the folks who believe the 2nd Amendment of the Bill of Rights applies to individual ownership.
Please, take one
A friend of mine, a Kentucky native, shared with me this afternoon a hilarious tidbit regarding our southernly portion of the Tri-State: the details of the LICENSE TO CARRY CONCEALED DEADLY WEAPONS IN KENTUCKY. What, you may ask, constitutes a deadly weapon in the fine state of Kentucky?
I. Deadly Weapons
As used in the Kentucky Penal Code, (See KRS 500.080.) “Deadly weapon” means any of the following:
(a) A weapon of mass destruction;
(b) Any weapon from which a shot, readily capable of producing death or other serious physical injury, may be discharged;
(c) Any knife other than an ordinary pocket knife or hunting knife;
(d) Billy, nightstick, or club;
(e) Blackjack or slapjack;
(f) Nunchaku karate sticks;
(g) Shuriken or death star; or
(h) Artificial knuckles made from metal, plastic, or other similar hard material;
So, lets recap: Anything that shoots, large knives, beatin’ sticks, ninja stuff, brass knuckles, and chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons. Does this mean if I get a CCW and cook up a batch of something crazy in my mom’s basement, it’s not a crime to wear it to the mall concealed under my trenchcoat?
AWESOME
(Also, I’d like to point out, at no time in history has any self respecting martial arts nerd (I realize this may be a contradiction in terms) ever referred to a shuriken as a “death star.” The only death star in the world is this one:
This battlestation is fully operational
Also, in no way do we intend this post to encourage some nutjob in his mom’s basement to cook up nasty shit, get a CCW, and take it to the mall. That would just be … weird.)
This post is the entirety of Chapter 2 of If Vengeance Be My Destiny, our Sunday comic. If you don’t know the story, here’s a quick recap: a killer robot is on a mission to save the future by taking care of a little baby. Hilarity and a bit of violence ensue.
A quick word about the art: each strip is drawn on paper, the old-school way. It’s not often that you’ll see webcomics drawn and uploaded in such a fashion and, if I must say, I’m pretty proud to be publishing it here. Snazzy business. On to Chapter 2!
“Dave Concepcion played shortstop, and he played it brilliantly…”I am a superstar,” he would tell his teammates, challenging anyone to disagree.
“Shut up,” Joe Morgan would say. “There are four superstars on this team, and you’re not one of them.”
Morgan, obviously, counted himself as one of those superstars. And every Sunday on ESPN, he reminds everyone every chance he gets that he is still a superstar.
And now he gets to do that on an executive level.
The Reds on Wednesday introduced Morgan as a special adviser to something or another. The title doesn’t really matter because the job is probably about as meaningless as they come. Morgan says his primary mission with the Reds will be to encourage black participation in baseball, and that’s a worthy cause. For example, the St. Louis Cardinals don’t have a single African American on their roster, which is almost unthinkable. But exactly how Morgan will change that is about as abstract as his ceremonial title. Just like Mark McGwire’s undefined promises to keep kids from doing steroids. Boy, that took off.
I’d love the Reds and Morgan to prove me wrong, but this wreaks of a team trying to give fans a warm fuzzy about the glory days of baseball in Cincinnati. You can’t blame Morgan for taking advantage of a chance to promote himself–he’s building a car dealership in Monroe. From the sound of things, he actually talked the Reds into creating this position for him.
What’s more likely is that Morgan makes a few appearances at Reds Community Fund events in exchange for the chance to inject himself into some front office decisions, welcome or not. This wouldn’t be a bad thing if it weren’t for the fact that Morgan famously puts more stock in his hunches than in cold, hard statistics. How Walt Jocketty will be able to tolerate both Morgan and fellow “special adviser” Johnny Bench bending his ear could be the most intriguing part of this story.
On top of all this, Morgan will apparently keep his job on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. So we all lose.
I saw this trailer during my normal course of procrastination web monitoring and came pretty close to falling in love with a movie I’ve never seen. Behold Lasergun:
Whelp, it turns out that they need help to get the movie out. According to their website, they’re looking for Final Cut editors [ed. note: see comment], Indie music (ahem, if you’re in a band, you should be contacting them), and web design. If you can do any of this stuff, please get in touch with them. I really, really want to see Lasergun.
I want to to pause for a moment, and conjure an image of a superhero protagonist from a Marvel-published comic book. Are they wearing spandex with a silly symbol on their chest? Probably. And their personality, probably striving to do the right thing? Morally upstanding? Yes, and yes. Are they an ~11-year old girl armed with semi-automatic weapons, knives, and probably covered in someone else’s blood?
(R), for strong brutal violence throughout, pervasive language, sexual content, nudity and some drug use — some involving children.
I’m surprised they didn’t put it on the promotional poster.
The basic plot is as you would expect: nerdy high school kid dreams of not being bullied and wants to get the girl, decides to dress up as a superhero to fight injustice (and hopefully get laid.) When he does so, he accidentally gets mixed up in events larger than himself, and hijinks ensue. If you’re looking for deep, meaningful cinema, this isn’t the movie for you. If you’re looking for hilarious, gory, fun action you had better buy your tickets in advance. Don’t forget to ignore the Hollywood number crunchers who are saying that a $19.8 million opening weekend is a flop. They’re fucking clueless.
I mean seriously: any movie where one of the lead actresses has to get permission from her mother to say the word “cunt” on screen isn’t exactly Citizen Kane. Hell, I don’t know if it’s even Legally Blonde 2. But it is a tremendous amount of fun and scratches just about every guy movie itch. (Seriously, would it have killed them to throw in some tits?) If you don’t howl and laugh at the gore at least once during this film, you’re probably brain dead.
Get some of your buddies together, have a couple of beers, and get ready to relish in Gatling guns, knives, and a suite of not-so-superheroes.
It’s been quite some time since I’ve reviewed a beer, and I wanted to save such a review for a Cincinnati beer. I’ve been aware of Mount Carmel Brewing Company for quite some time, but a slowdown in my beer consumption has kept me from getting to try many of their beers. In fact, since I last did a beer review, I’ve started to see Mt. Carmel sixers available at various liquor stores. This, of course, may only mean that I wasn’t paying close enough attention, which is entirely possible.
