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UPDATE 8/15

Since I didn't see any of the participants this weekend, the free beer contest has been extended until next weekend. Sign up today to not miss out on the action!

Leave me a comment with your favorite beer and why you like it. Winners awarded weekly!

V For Vendetta

"Remember, remember, the 5th of November..."

Based on the popular comic book, this moovie is about a look into the future of a 1984ish England. Having read the book, I had high expectations for this moovie. Unfortunately early reports stated that author, Alan Moore, did not want to be associated with the film because of past projects failing miserably (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). This did not send out a good signal to me but the film was being produced by The Wachowski brothers, creators of the Matrix films.

The moovie centers around a mysterious, masked man who is determined to topple the fascist government that has taken over England and revitalize the life of the people. What is very eary is that this comic book was written in 1982 but parallel many of today's current events. One can not help but invision a similar future for America if we are not careful.

The Ups: The moovie stays very true to the book and only leaves out small side stories and minor characters. Fans of the book will not be disappointed as most of the dialogue and important scenes are nearly perfect. Even people who are not familiar with the work will enjoy this as there is a lot of action and the characters are beliveable and play their parts well. This is capped off with a very Matrixesque style fight scene at the end that tops anything attempted before it. You are also given a lesson in 40 words that start with V that you didn't know in this introduction by the main character, V:

Voilà ! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honour to meet you and you may call me V.

The Downs: The only major difference that I did not agree with is that they made the moovie version of Evey, the female lead portrayed by Natalie Portman, a bit more intelligent then her counterpart in the book. Also some of the backstory was not explained very well and could be very confusing to piece together to someone who wasn't familiar with the book. You get the main idea of the moovie but some of the details could be missed unless you pay very close attention.

Overall: This is an excellent rental for anyone in the mode for a little action-political moovie. The fight scenes alone are worth the admission and much more movie to spare. The moovie sends a good message that has been repeated time and time again, don't trust the government.

Verdict: 6 pack of pounders and the biggest bag of Fritos you got.

8/4 Weekend Roundup

So the weekend started off fairly promising. Friday we were going to finish staining our deck, AKA the never ending project, and possibly get a game of cards in at Jake's place in Newark. Saturday was the 1st Annual St. Anthony Social 5K and my first chance to defend my World's Fastest Ellerbrock ranking. Sunday was the annual St. Anthony Social and another one of Gayle's summer family reunion. Sounds busy.

Well Friday started off as planned. I came home from work and started prep work on the deck. W had already stained the railings and sides of the deck and only had the floorboards to do last. So far everything looked great of what we stained and were excited to see the final results of our summer's hard work.

Going from coworker's advice, we purchased a Deckmate to help apply the stain. The idea seemed simple but for one reason or another didn't work out well for us. The stain went down easy and it did everything it said but just didn't get enough stain on the board. I tried to put more stain down but it just got all streaky and bad looking. So we decided to switch to brushes as they hadn't failed us to that point. From that point on everything looked much better. So I am not sure if the Deckmate works better after the initial coat is applied or if we just had a rare bad experience with it. We might try it again as we have to touch up the few boards we tried it out on first so a full review will follow in the future. Since we had to apply the stain by hand it took much later then we expected and had to cancel any trips to Newark that night. Instead we elected to rest and watch "V for Vendetta" (review to follow).

Saturday came with much anticipation for the big race. This was the first time for this event and was used to drum up some business for the social on Saturday night. Race time was 7PM to avoid most of the day's heat but it proved to be more of a hassle than anything for me. There is definitely a lot more reasons for the late start then in the morning so I cannot complain. It just was hard to prepare throughout the day with eating the right things and keeping hydrated especially with a two hour drive from Columbus (i.e. lots of bathroom stops). I'll comment more on the race itself later as I have to upload some photos from the it.

After the race we stuck around the social and ate some burgers and had a few beers. Apparently they were not expecting such a good turnout and they eventually ran out of french fries and burgers (but not beer thankfully). We shut'er down around 11 o'clock after having an enlightening conversation with Columbus Grove's finest regarding tazers and 127 MPH motorcycle chases. Our rag-tag and worn group made the trip to Miller's Lunch to finish up the night (or so we thought). After a few more beers and meeting up with Toad & his gang (not called The Wet Sprockets) a decision was made to find some food. Toad's idea of Flying J's was quickly adopted and we were off on our way. Big thanks to Dave for providing "dinner music" while we devoured way too much breakfast food at 2AM.

Sunday morning came way too fast around 11AM. After wasting the morning in bed we had to hurry to get to Gayle's reunion out at the Columbus Grove Municipal Pool. After the usual visiting with the in-laws we made the decision to head back to Columbus early and skip the Sunday festivities at the social. The heat and the promise of a relaxing afternoon at home proved too much and we were off to Columbus with just a quick stop at Matt's to drop off his book, Eragon, and to pick up the next one in the series.

The only other thing worth noting about the weekend was the Brickyard 400 or what I saw of it between naps on the couch. Apparently from looking at Nascar.com this morning, Jimmy Johnson cheated his way somehow to another undeserved victory. I heard Barry Bonds was seen in the pit crew doctoring up a "special" blend of fuel. On a side note, Jaime McMurray continues his streak of 20ish place finishes and pretty much killed any chance of a run at the chase. How many days until the Columbian Racing Sensation hits NASCAR?

LATINO HEAT!

-ed

FIFA Football 2005

Gooooaaaallll!

Who likes soccer? Well who cares what you think anyway. Inspired by the recent ending of the World Cup I have been playing my copy of FIFA Football 2005. Currently I am taking Chesterfield FC through the ranks of the English leagues on my way to the EPL. It's a fun game for anyone who enjoys soccer but fanatics of the sport will be let down.




The rival for EA (the makers of FF2005) is Konami with the Winning Eleven series. WE boasts better gameplay and more realistic off field managing (transfer market, national team callups, etc) then FIFA but FIFA has the advantage because it is more pick up and play arcade style. The biggest reason as to why I picked FIFA over WE was the official licensing. They have the real team names and players for almost every major league in the world where WE doesn't and must settle with teams name Manchestershire FC and Artillery United (not real names BTW).

The Ups: Names, stadiums, teams, and leagues are all there. Easy gameplay even for the not so soccer oriented and the games are relatively short (in order to play through a whole English season it can be up to 80 some matches). Difficulty can be adjusted to suit your ability and the graphics are good.

The Downs: As with all EA games, once you find the secret formula to a goal it can be exploited over and over. The computer rarely learns and never changes tactics to counter your style. Also the commentary is really awful. Sometimes what they say do not even match up with anything close to the action on the field. Also the off the field management and menus leave a lot to be desired. Give me the people who make Madden and put them on here for a year and this game will be 100% better.

Overall: Good soccer game. After winning a championship there really isn't much replay in it unless you are really into the game and if you are then go get Winning Eleven and download one of the hacks for players and teams.

Verdict: 3 and a half bottles of Miller High Life Light on a hot day.

Return of the Living Dead

What inspired me to watch this moovie was a post in the a blog I read from time to time of a fellow Crew fan. I, myself, am not that big of a fanatic of zombie moovies and the living dead stuff but with the promise of campy horror and brief nudity (turned out not so brief) I was there. I learned a lot about each "Dead" franchise while reading this blog so I came into this moovie with a certain appreciation for what was going to happen. If I ever fulfill my idea of a Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) for B-rated horror movies this will be one of the first subjects.

The plot revolves around a medical warehouse worker discovering a barrel containing a reanimated body and what happens when that body is released. With even the most limited knowledge of zombie moovies you can determine what happens next. Yea don't waste money renting this one...get it from the library.

The Ups: If bad 80's stereotypes and bad acting to the point of comedy are your thing then this is your moovie. Even the gratuitous amount of flesh seen in the moovie does not make up enough to sit through this one.

The Downs: Read the above paragraph again and pretend you do not like those things.

Overall: If this moovie were made today it would be a straight to Betamax release.

Verdict: Half a can of warm Old Mil.

The Soup

"It's time for the Hollywood Access Extra Inside Entertainment Report!"




Really probably one of the most consistently funny shows on TV at the moment (until the new Boston Legal season debuts). The Soup airs on The E Channel at 10PM on Friday nights (set your TIVO) and then airs the replay multiple times throughout the week. It is to entertainment news what The Daily Show is to the real news. With plenty of recurring jokes that make consistent watching a payoff and a smarmy, sarcastic host to boot makes this a top priority on my viewing schedule.

The Ups: Well it's only a half hour long so it is pretty easy to fly through an episode (fast forwarding through the commercials of course). Jokes are a fairly wide variety with something for just about everyone (even you Tyson). Of course if you have as much disdain for Hollywood as I do it makes it all the much sweeter.

The Downs: It's only a half hour long. It definitely could be longer or at least more than once a week. Some of the jokes do fall flat but usually is made up for by the host self-ridiculing himself or the show. Also a lot of the skits are cheaply down and pretty campy but I guess that gives the show a little bit of it's unique flavor (get it...flavor...The Soup....haha!).

Overall: I usually never watch E or anything remotely like it but this show has found it's way into my weekly routine. Unfortunately that means I may waste as spot on the E Channel in my "You Only Can Keep 10" channels list when it comes time to make it.

Verdict: 1 big bucket of Hoegaarden with an orange wedge.

Blog Cruizin 1

Taking a brief break from the reviews to do some "blog cruizin". There's a neat little feature on this site if you are bored called "Next Blog". Clicking on it takes you into the great unknown interweb and at the doorstep of some random person's blog. Here is a small log of my recent journey:

Clearly Confused
First thing that caught my eye was the cool Dazed & Confused picture. Obviously this person has taste. One thing that I find interesting on Blogspot is that everyone gets the same stuff at the start and what you do from there is what makes it unique. So it's always cool to see the different modifications and style changes people make. It's even better when you learn how to steal them. Well about this blog...looks pretty average in content. Next...

Lamoholic Life
Well I just can't get over the name. Everytime I read it I think Lame-O-Holic. So is this person obsessed with everything that is lame? Or do they simply have a fetish with the phrase "Lame-O"? Considering that the person lives in Hong Kong and has an Asian persuasion then maybe it's something cool in Chinese. Or maybe not. Very lame. Appears this person really likes Pirates of the Carribean (not bad movie...I'll do a review later) and likes their sushi. Please note the most excellent link to Michael Owen's blog, the fantastic but currently injured No. 9 for the super almighty Newcastle United. So not lame. Allright hope back in, it's time for our next stop...

Molly Silverman's Blog
Sometimes I ponder that in the year 2150 when aliens discover the remains of our planet what will they find that will identify us as a civilization? And then I flush. Hopefully it is not this blog. Molly Silverman appears to be a fairly new occupant to this world and is the point of interest in this small corner of cyberspace. What appears to be a small ancedote after small ancedote about various bodily fluids that can be expelled in a variety of ways there is really not much more to this site other than cute baby pictures. Speaking of expelling bodily fluids...after this bathroom break it's one more then I gotta go....

Miss Rotfrukt
Yes! My first non-English blog. Usually it doesn't take long to find one of these and most of the time they are fairly unreadable and boring but this one atleast has pictures. Miss "Rottenfruit" appears to be some sort of connoisseur from the East. Yesterday there was a post for "Salviasalut" which is a very interesting word to describe what looks like a 20 dollar salad from Smith & Wollensky. Using my spectacular powers of deduction I am sure it means something like a salute to taste but my junior high alterego wants it to be a so very different meaning. Leaving the land of jibberish and back home for the day.

-ed

Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere

Let me start off this review by stating 2 things: 1. I am a huge Cee-lo fan and 2. I haven't fully been able to listen to this album as much as I like to.

"Gnarley Barkley" as referred to by the Howard Stern Show is a compilation between Danger Mouse and Cee-lo. It's got a hip-hop funkadellic sound to it that is unmistakable to any Cee-lo fan out there. You probably heard their single "Crazy" on the radio (or on Stretch's phone) about a million times and are sick of it to death. It probably is even stuck in your head right now just because I mentioned it and that makes you crrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzy!

The Ups: C'mon man, it's Cee-lo. Cee-lo! If George Clinton died and was reincarnated he would be Cee-lo. Does this look like a picture of a man that can do no wrong?

Of course it is. Oh and by the way there is a great cover of the Violent Femmes song "Gone, Daddy, Gone" on there as well.

The Downs: Well they do play the one song a lot and I mean a lot.

Overall: It's the summer and every summer needs one of those songs. This is that one for 2006.

Verdict: 4 Guinesses and a Smithwicks (not pronounced SMITH-wicks) out of 5.

Eragon

This book came to me as a recommendation from my brother and I just finished it last night. The story takes the setting very similar to The Lord of the Rings (you'll hear more of this later) with elves, dwarves, and the like. It starts out with a boy, Eragon, finding a mysterious rock in the middle of the mountains. The story progresses with Eragon finding out what the rock really is and the adventure that ensues.

Sound like 500 pages? Well it is, and apparently there are 2 more books to go (one hasn't been published yet). Now let me start off by saying that I enjoyed most of this book for what it was, a story in a fantastical world. Will I read book 2? Probably. But I hear it isn't as good.

The ups: It reads pretty fast and doesn't go into too much painful detail about a tree and a leaf. There is a good balance between dialog and action and it doesn't linger to much in any one spot.

The downs: First off the book is Tolkien-lite. If you follow my wikipedia link above it lists pretty much a lot of the similarities between the two authors. It is very apparent and can really ruin the book if you let it. Another thing that bothered me was that the main character was such a pussy. Not to spoil too much for anyone but he blacks out in about every fight in the book. Plus he whines a lot and that gets annoying. Also I want to add that the cover sucks. I read the hardback version and took off the book jacket as to not damage it (it's Matt's book) so I didn't get to look at it much. But seeing it now on the internet strikes me as pure suckitude. Kinda stinks that the thing you will remember this website for is a big gay dragon.

Overall: It's good if you do not get all hung up on the blatant plagarism and just read it for what it is. 500 pages appears to be a big investment but it goes by fast so don't let that stop you. This book is for anyone who likes The Lord of the Rings more than Stine does.

Verdict: 3.5 Black & Tans out of 5.

Finally?

After years and years of procrastination and empty promises, it is alive. Ed's Tavern is in business and serving up the drinks. Essentially this is the new incarnation of the old Wastecult expage site. Basically I will try to keep up what I started long ago and keep everyone abreast with the happenings and interests of me. But probably after about 2 weeks I'll get lazy and never update it again. So enjoy it while it lasts!

Just incase anyone hasn't used the interweb in about 3 years this is going to be a blog style site. I write some stuff and it's categorized by most recent first and continues into the past. It is grouped by date and eventually archived by month. So if you do not visit for a few days (shame on you) and I post a bunch of stuff (don't hold your breath) you might want to start at the bottom and work your way up just incase there is some sequential order.

On the right side of the page I have put my entertainment section. Pretty self explanatory here but if you click on whatever picture you will be brought to my review and opinion of that item. That post will contain a link to something a little more official incase you want to check out more info on it. So have at it and tell me what I watch sucks.

I am sure there will be more sections and fun stuff added as this thing grows so feel free to leave a comment somewhere and let me know what you think.

Be sure to check out what is going to be happening and a recap of what has happened over there at Fry's website. Send him some money if you want even.

-ed