Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Week 2: 



Beer: O'Fallon Smoked Porter
ABV: 6.0%
Beers Tried From This Brewery Already: 5-Day IPA, Wheach, Hemp Hop Rye Amber Ale, Gold

Another solid beer from O'Fallon, out of Missouri. While the name is Smoked Porter, I never really gathered much smokiness or porter from it. It was a nice mix of the two, done very well. Definitely wouldn't consider this a session beer but not something that's tough to get down either. For being 6%, you really don't get a ton of alchol flavor from it. Would recommend atleast trying once.






Album: Thriller by Michael Jackson
Length: 42 Minutes, 19 Seconds

For my week 2 album, I decided on the King of Pop's Thriller. While knowing some of the classics, I really wanted to find out what really made this Michael Jackson's best album. Not only that, but I was truly interested to see if there would be MJ's now famous testicle squeezing wails in every song.

With the album starting off with Wanna Be Startin' Something, it's repetitiveness instantly had me thinking if I actually wanted to be ending somethin'. This song repeated itself so much, I felt like MJ had gone to Sting's "School of Repetitive Lyrics.

The next two songs on the album slowed things down considerably with Baby Be Mine and The Girl Is Mine. Maybe I'm just weird but it bothered me that he went such similar song titles, much less them being back to back on the album. Aside from that and the cheesy line "The dog gone girl is mine" in The Girl Is Mine, these two songs were really good.

The next three songs are ones that everyone knows with Thriller, Beat It and Billy Jean. Not really any opinion needed as I love all three of these songs. I would love to learn the dance moves to Thriller at some point as embarassing as that may be. The best part of this group of songs to me no doubt is Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo in Beat It.

To wrap up Thriller, we have Human Nature, PYT (Pretty Young Thing) and The Lady In My Life. These songs definitely had a slower feel like Baby Be Mine and The Girl Is Mine, which I enjoy. Human Nature was good, nothing really stood out to me though.


The beginning of PYT made me feel slightly uncomfortable with the way he whispers "pretty young thing". After that though, it was smooth sailing. Great song with a nice groove that hit me just right. Same with the album ending The Lady In My Life.

Overall, this was a great album. Once you get to know the lyrics, these songs would be great to belt driving down the highway. Another week, another definite recommend.

*Side Note: While getting gas after work on 6/12, I went into the gas station and low and behold, Human Nature was playing. Incredibly weird since I had just listened to it for just the 2nd time ever on the way home*



Movie: Goodfellas (1990)
Length: 2 Hours, 26 Minutes

I've never been into, or atleast introduced to mob/mafia/gangster type movies so pardon my ignorance when talking about this movie but I thoroughly enjoyed this one straight from the get go.

I loved how Scorsese started the movie with a scene from 1970 and then backtracked to 1955, where Henry Hill is a boy in his teens. He was naturally fascinated by the lifestyle. After seeing his dad beat him with the belt then proceed to have the mailman get the shit kicked out of him for delivering the letter from school was definitely an "Oh shit!" moment.

To most that frequently watch these types of movies, I'd imagine that this was classic DeNiro and Peschi. The line from Peschi's character Tommy DeVito when he says "You mean, let me understand this cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?" was easily the best line in the movie.

Of course, seeing Tommy get so easily angered was frustrating for me as a viewer but slightly entertaining. Shooting that kid in the foot, then proceeding to shoot in him the chest just made me shake my head thinking about the overeaction. But I guess he's just a gangster I suppose.


Towards the end of the movie, I felt slightly lost with the Pittsburgh idea but not enough for it to ruin the movie for me. I truly did enjoy this movie and based on all top movie lists, this one ranks just behind The Godfather, which I also haven't seen in it's entirity, so I'm excited to watch that one.





Food: Shrimp Flavored Chips
Orion Cuttlefish and Peanuts
Malta Goya Clasica
Malta Goya Light
Jumex Tamarind Nectar
Grass Jelly Drink
Jufran Banana Sauce
Passion Fruit 

Going into week 2, I knew that I needed to shake things up after simply going with a Papa John's thin crust in Week 1. What I tried went beyond even my wildest imagination.

A simple Monday night in which I knew I was to try something new, but didn't know what, turned into a very interesting night. After many thoughtful hours at the Flying Saucer trying to figure out what, my buddies convinved me into trying a Gyro at the local Farmers Market. It sounded delicious and after 24 hours without eating, I was incredibly hungry.

After shopping for a little while, we went to try and grab a Gyro and to my disappointment, it was closed. I guess they closed 30 minutes to an hour earlier than when the Famers Market actually closes. With no gyro and no other ideas, we agreed we'd take some of the items from the Farmer's Market back to my place after grabbing some actual food, which mine was shockingly, McDonald's.

First thing I tried was a Shrimp Flavored Chip. Very weird texture, but not terrible. One of my friends compared it to hot fries, which is something I haven't had either but I'll take his word for it. Also wanting to try the Jufran Banana sauce, which was invented back in World War II when there was a heavy tomato shortage, I dipped one of the shrimp flavored chips in it. I didn't really get much hint of banana and only had very minimal kick behind it. Worth trying once but never would use it again.

Next, I tried the Cuttlefish and Peanuts, which taste exactly like a Crackerjack. I think most people would honestly enjoy this.

After that, we poured some of the Grass Jelly Drink and holy shit was this an experience in and of itself. The flavor was good but the texture was really weird. Often times, the jelly from the drink would get stuck to the side of the glass. Even at one point, I had it dribble out of my mouth because the jelly shifted some of the liquid away from my throat unexpectedly.

Next was Tamarind Nectar drink which was surpringly good. The color looked odd and had me assuming it'd be a thick drink but wasn't in fact. Something I'd recommend getting for anyone if looking to try something new.

I also tried a passion fruit, which might have been the highlight of the night. A flavor, a texture my mouth had never come close to experiencing, it was fantastic. After cutting open what looked to be an enlarged lemon, showed a gooey gross center with an odor that was not pleasing. But once scooping a bite, it was delicious. A must receommend to anyone!

Lastly, we cracked open an Malta Goya, Clasica and Light. Yes, this technically shouldn't count because I had the original out of a can back in 2006 and it was awful then, but I will because I'd never had the Light or the other out of a bottle. Simply put, one of the worst things you can ever imagine going into your mouth. Straight motor oil. It's thick, foul smelling, and foul tasting. The fact that anyone truly enjoys this gives me less hope for the world. I'm pretty sure I'll be smelling this in my farts for weeks.


2 comments:

  1. Awesome work, bro. There are a lot of things on your blog I haven't even tried. Well done, man.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your food choices are brave! " I had it dribble out of my mouth because the jelly shifted some of the liquid away from my throat unexpectedly." - YUCK! ;)

    ReplyDelete