FlaSoxxJim

QUOTE (Milkman delivers @ Jul 21, 2011 -> 12:57 AM) I'm not a big fan of remakes in general, but The Thing is a pretty good candidate for it. The original, while very good, is also sort of cheesy in its effects. If they do it correctly, the new one can be good. This will be a remake of the remake. While not a shot-for-shot remake of the Carpenter version, it obviously is really derivative of that one. To be expected from the people who raped Romero with their dawn of the Dead remake. That said, I'll most likely see this when it comes to NetFlix.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jul 19, 2011 -> 05:36 PM) You fart carbon? I do. . .with four hydrogens attached. Don't you?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 19, 2011 -> 04:44 PM) I only pulled that one because he always makes me feel guilty about the carbon emissions associated with eating meat. I'm only about 6 months into doing the vegetarian thing, and I can tell you first-hand I have been responsible for a whole lot of carbon emission associated with eating beans and cheese.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 03:54 AM) Do they still make these cheap beers they had when I was in chicago? Hamms Schlitz Old Milwaukee Drewrys Strohs. Every one of those except for Drewry's is in at least limited production, in some cases under contract by a brewery for hire. The Drewry's brand is currently owned by the company that owns Iron City, but as far as I can tell it has not been in production in several years. I can honestly say that I never tasted Drewery's. I cannot say that about any of the others on the list, but I'm sure we all did things in our youth we are not proud of.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 16, 2011 -> 04:40 PM) Facebook Sidebar is GARBAGE. Easily the worst change they've ever made.... this and similar things they do all the time are why Google+ has 10 million users already. Facebook's going to run off its user base and give Google a bunch of free momentum. Agreed that the Sidebar is a terrible and useless modification. But the change I have hated the most in the last year or so has been doing away with the dialog box on your profile page that used to let you put a little statement or quote or bit of information about yourself.

QUOTE (Felix @ Jul 15, 2011 -> 07:17 PM) Jim (or anyone else who might have any insight, which I doubt) -- I think I asked for some suggests on funk bands quite some time ago, and if I remember right, you gave me a couple of solid bands (whose names I have now forgotten, of course). I'm always looking for some solid funk, and my collection doesn't really range that far past Funkadelic/Parliament, Sly & the Family Stone and a couple of albums here/there (like Funk Spectrum -- awesome, awesome album). Anyway, if I remember right, you've got a little funk in you. Well recently, the glory of Pandora has basically started some funky guerrilla warfare on my 'weird rock' station, providing me with some (seemingly) solid funk bands: , and The Bamboos, to name a few. Add in the Wire bringing up , and I've got a ton of funk to go through. Are you familiar with any of these groups? I'm really only familiar with a couple of YouTube clips from each and the songs that have been popping up on Pandora, but I have no idea where to begin albumwise. Figured it'd be worth a shot to throw this out there. Otherwise I might have to just start from the beginning and go through the albums, one by one, which probably isn't a bad thing anyway! I don't recall the conversation in question, but when the mood hits I do indeed occasionally like to Freak da Funk. The Bamboos are great. I have their first two records and prefer the first one with more instrumental jamming, but Kylie Auldist their vocalist is really good and if you like her you will love the second album (Rawville). She also has a couple of solo albums out and you can find some of that stuff on YouTube. I actually blame my son for indirectly turning me on to the Bamboos. They did some music for a wii game we got him for Christmas a couple of years ago and it was actually the first I had ever heard of them. They have a lot of newerstuff out that I have not heard since sadly the last few years my music consumption has really gone into the crapper. Stanton Moore is an unbelievable New Orleans drummer. I know him more from is association with Galactic Prophylactic/Galactic than anything else he's done but I know he's been around and done quite bit. Galactic has kind of lost me the past several years as they have gone more into electronica and away from the jazz funk they started doing, but all of the musicians are excellent. Their earliest stuff had an obvious amount of influence from classic Nawlins jazz funk bands like the Meters. If you like that sound definitely fill in some historic gaps with some Meters and — probably even more influential — the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. My first encounter with DDBB was as the backing musicians on some of the best tracks from Elvis Costello's nearly perfect Spike album. Like you, I only have experienced the New Mastersounds through one or two random Pandora selections. When I find the time to beef up my music collection I will have to remember to give these guys a chance. As for my personal favorites. . . I got onto jazz funk and deep funk through local Champaign and Chicago bands during college in the late 1980s, and most of the groups we'd follow have left little or no recorded output. Great local bands like Funkhouse, Smokin Toast', and Modern Humans, now lost to the ages. Somewhat similar national acts of the time include some of the Boston stuff like Chucklehead. I really like their earliest stuff (1988-1991), but I think they got to be rather annoying the last 5 years or so while they were around.

I am in the apparent vast minority of people who were let down by Deathly Hallows 2. It is admittedly because I can't avoid making comparisons between the book and the film. I completely understand the need to streamline a story and cut out a lot of peripheral detail for the sake of a compelling and tight film with such a shorty run time. But there were so many plot deviations that they seemed to do for no reason at all and that didn't enhance the storyline in any way and it was really irritating. I will go out and see it again soon (with the advantage of having not just sat through 21 hours of prior Potter installments like I did before yesterday's midnight showing), and hopefully I warm up to it a bit more. I will end by stating that I strongly disagree with caufield's earlier assertion that the film versions of Deathly Hallows were better than the book. Like all of the other Potter film installments. This last one isn't in the same league — or even in the same solar system as the source material.

QUOTE (kjshoe04 @ Jul 14, 2011 -> 06:08 PM) Finding myself growing more and more excited than I thought I'd be to see Harry Potter at midnight tonight. I took my kids and their friends out for a 24 hour Potter cilm marathon that startwd at 3am yesterday. DH pt 1 just finished the 7th film we have watched and we have a 30 minute intermission before the midnight DH pt.2. Man i'm going to be wiped out when I have to be at work in a couple of hours.

Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch creator Sherwood Schwartz. Sherwood also wrote or co-wrote the theme songs to both series. Clearly his Schwartz was bigger than those of mere mortals.

So here's the Flemish 75 as mixed up this evening and submitted for July Mixology Monday: Beer Cocktails Uploaded with ImageShack.us I really like the way this one turned out. Hopefully some of the real cocktail nerds give this one a try and hopefully one or two of them actually like it.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jul 9, 2011 -> 09:19 AM) I knew the whole time it was going. I just didn't want to jinx myself by telling Flax how wrong he was. You should have made more launches then, and saved NASA some money.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Jul 2, 2011 -> 08:53 AM) I don't know how I missed this, but nearby Alcoa appears to be the #1 choice for Sierra Nevada's east coast HQ and a full scale brewery and distribution operation! A nice side benefit is that it has forced TN to deal with it's outdated beer laws, including one requirement that any brewery making beer over 5% have to get a distillery license in addition to the brewery license. I missed this post when it first went up. I was unaware Sierra was pursuing an eastward expansion. I hope you guys get it.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 9, 2011 -> 10:47 PM) My pet peeve is when I get a bottle of delicious beer and it's not cold. The colder the better. Lukewarm beer is a downer. Warm beer is unappealing, but good beer served so ice-cold that you can't taste everything that is going on is a crime as well. 54 F for ales (traditional British cellar temperatur) and low 40s for lagars has been my rule of thumb for a long time.

QUOTE (knightni @ Jul 9, 2011 -> 09:59 PM) What's your opinion on an alcoholic root beer float? I have never had one but it sounds tasty. There is an d Don the Beachcomber tiki drink I like that uses sarasparilla but it isn't frozen or served with ice cream.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 9, 2011 -> 05:10 PM) I actually have some absinthe from Amsterdam sstill that I may have to try in that last drink. I bought it with a roommate though so I probably can't open it yet Just takes a dash of absinthe to rinse the glass, your roomy won't even notice.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Jul 9, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) Picked up a bottle of Russell's Reserve Rye Whiskey, the name caught my attention (obviously and my brother vouched it was a good rye whiskey. I've been meaning to try a rye whiskey so hopefully it doesn't disappoint. It will not disappoint! Two can't miss classic rye cocktails: Manhattan and Old Fashioned. When you are ready to go really old school you can tackle a Sazerac.

QUOTE (G&T @ Jul 8, 2011 -> 09:28 PM) Mixed up a Spindrift. Dark rum, demarera rum, light rum, passion fruit, orange juice and vanilla extract. Oh this is deep and rich and absolutely dangerous. The batch of passion fruit syrup I mixed last week is really good for reasons I don't understand. The fruit and rich molasses notes are enhanced by the vanilla. Basically, its a sidewinder's fang on steroids. I haven't had a Spindrift in ages. I might have to do something about that. Low-key drinking last night. . . a couple of nice Americanos with Campari and Punt y Mes Italian vermouth and some Laphroaig neat with a splash of water to wake it up. The Mixoloseum Thursday Night Drink Night theme this past week was beer cocktails. in advance of the similarly themed Mixology Monday July installment. I went to the beer shops in search of a nice tart guezue to use in place of champagne in a riff off of a French 75 but I came up empty. Instead, I picked up a bottle of Lindeman's Pomme (apple) lambic and switched my sights from gin to brandy when it came time to mix. The result (after a couple of iterations) was a really tasty and nicely balanced beer cocktail that also included Canton ginger liqueur and maple syrup: Flemish 75 • 1.5 oz cognac (Martel V.S.) • 0.5 oz Domaine de Canton • 0.25 maple syrup • Lindeman’s Pomme Lambic Shake first three ingredients with ice, and strain into a champagne flute. Top with pomme lambic (3-4 ounces). Interestingly, with both cognac and Canton liqueur, this French 75 riff is decidedly more French than the London dry gin original.

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Jul 8, 2011 -> 01:29 AM) And every once and a while its up to the few to stop the many. Trials are about what can be proven by the evidence, its not about sensational theories. The burden of proof on the prosecution in a criminal trial is "beyond a reasonable doubt". If you had any doubt about the evidence you had to acquit. For all we know the Casey's father killed the granddaughter and tried to set up Casey. Casey was arguably a bad mother, but that doesnt mean that the burden of proof changes, that she had to disprove the allegations. All true, for better or worse. A terribly flawed system but that's life.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 11:20 PM) You're not privy to the same information the jurors have, the same legal instruction and the same deliberations. If you'd let one single fact make your vote in order to "punish" her, regardless of the states' ability to actually prove their case, then you'd make a terrible juror. Not sure why you phrased that as a contradiction of what I said? It complements it perfectly. She was found "not guilty", not "innocent", because the state didn't put on a strong enough case. I just think you are being far too generous to that human piece of filth by suggesting she is merely "responsible for the death" of her child. Of f***ing course she is. I wish Florida was not a death penalty state and this had not been tried as a death penalty case.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jul 7, 2011 -> 08:11 PM) Dennis Miller is an idiot and that's a terrible idea, hope that helps. No cause of death, no motive, hard to prove first degree murder without. It's pretty clear that she f***ed up and is responsible for the death and tried to cover it up. That doesn't make it first degree murder. No, the prosecution was unable to prove first degree murder. That doesn't mean it wasn't.

Tropical wave rolling in, chance of rain at launch time tomorrow now up to 70%.

Living in the heart of the Space Coast I can assure you that the vast majority of us are taking the end of the shuttle program very hard. I have seen most of the launches live from home or work over the last 21 years just by stepping outside and looking up. It may be true that the shuttle technology is old and that recyclable orbiters never were as cost-efficient as planned. But until the next-generation vehicles are in place it is just crazy that we are retiring this fleet so prematurely. 60% chance of thunderstorms here on Friday, so a launch that day is certainly iffy.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jul 5, 2011 -> 05:05 PM) once OJ is free he and Casey will be joining forces to find the real killers OK so the child drowns and it is an accident. If true isn't there some kind of crime there? The whole case seems kind of bonkers to me. I also gotta tell ya. The state of Florida itself scares the s*** of me. There are some backwards ass f***s down there. this is true

Happy Birthday, Youngster.