Rams Head World Beer Club Update for January 2019

I continue to sample the 150 beers on offer from Rams Head Tavern (see the first post here)...

At Rams Head Tavern at Savage Mill, I tried beer #100 Goose 312 (ABV 4.2%, IBU 18), an urban wheat ale from Goose Island Beer Company. The company write-up is this:

Inspired by the city of Chicago and densely populated with flavor, 312's spicy aroma of Cascade hops is followed by a crisp, fruity ale flavor delivered in a smooth, creamy body that's immensely refreshing.

I like wheat ales and this was a tasty rendition. I don't think it replaces Blue Moon or Hoegaarden, but I'm glad I had it and would drink it again. It's your classic cloudy wheat ale. I for one am not snobbish about drinking a beer from a can, though having the glass is nice.

I realize this is a bad showing, especially at the beginning. This shamefully short post is working to make me go more often. Look forward to a more substantial post next month, dear reader...

Movie Review: Forbidden Planet (1956)

Forbidden Planet (1956) directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox

A spaceship crew visits Altair IV, a planet where a shipful of scientists had landed twenty years ago. No word has come from the colony since their arrival, naturally causing concern. On approach, one scientist, Dr. Morbius (Walter Pigeon), radios the ship and warns them away. The ship lands anyway because it's their job to investigate what happened. They discover Morbius is alone except for his daughter (Anne Francis) and a helpful robot. Morbius is cordial but standoffish. The mystery of why he survived and no one else (along with the presence of a young, beautiful woman) keeps the crew on the planet. Strange events start happening, much like the strange events that wiped out the scientists twenty years earlier. Will the new crew solve the mystery and escape before they are killed off by some invisible menace on the planet?

Forbidden Planet is a classic science fiction movie. It has a lot of scientific jargon that sounds a bit fake but definitely gives it a 1950s pulp science fiction tone. The look also fits the pulp tone, with grey-clad space travelers who use their ray guns when they need to. And the planet's ancient native civilization, now buried deep underground, is well-explored through the plot and some fantastic visuals. The story ultimately comes down to a psychological drama that points out the limits of human evolution and the consistency (in good and bad ways) of the human condition. Characters show pride, naivety, and compassion throughout the movie. Enough comedy is thrown in to lighten the serious ideas being explored.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: The Bluffer's Guide to Beer by Jonathan Goodall

The Bluffer's Guide to Beer by Jonathan Goodall

To make his readers more impressive to their friend, acquaintances, and the random people they may happen to meet in a pub, Jonathan Goodall has written this comedy-laced guide to the world of beer. He starts with an overview of the last twelve thousand years of beer history (some 9000 BC crop patterns in Mesopotamia have been interpreted to suggest that brewing strong drink dates back that far) and the process(es) for making beer. He goes into non-excruciating detail about the difference between bottom-fermented and top-fermented beers; various hops, malts, barleys and other ingredients used in the brewing process; the different sorts of yeasts and waters used in the process. He goes through a country-by-country survey of beer making, with some interesting trivia and details about different styles of beer brewed in various countries. The range and amount of information is surprising given the 140-odd pages that they are packed into, and the high number of jokes and puns woven into the mix.

I enjoyed the book. The style of writing is fun and the information is not too technical. There is an awful lot of information, so I'm more likely to pick and choose what I remember from the book because there is no way I can remember it all without seriously studying the book. The book's guiding idea is that readers will pass for beer experts if they take in all the info, though the result will be beyond the ability to fake beer knowledge.

Sample text [page 93, lack of Oxford commas in the original]:

The Trappist monasteries developed their beers independently of each other, so they don't all label their beers as Dubbel, Tripel or Quadrupel. Chimay, for example, colour codes its different strengths, its Red, White and Blue labels corresponding with 7%, 8% and 9% ABV respectively. Rochefort, on the other hand, has gone for a numerical system, its Rochefort 6, 8 and 10 weighing in at 7.5%, 9.2% and 11.3% ABV. If anyone asks why the numbers don't correlate exactly with the alcoholic strengths, mumble something about the chosen numbers loosely referring to the amount of malt with fermentable sugars and the original gravity of the wort prior to fermentation. If they won't go away, mumble some more.

Recommended for a fun read about beer. Warning: the book is UK-centric (as you might glean from the "colour codes" mentioned above).

Book Review: The Man of Steel by Brian Michael Bendis et al.

The Man of Steel written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Jim Lee and a dozen other creators

In my review of Superman for All Seasons, I said that new writers of classic comic book heroes either have gone epic or gone back to origin stories to come up with a new and/or different story. In this book, Brian Michael Bendis has done both. The book introduces a new and powerful villain who is enough of a match for both Superman and Supergirl. Rogol Zaar is a semi-deformed monster whose mission is to "cleanse" the universe of the Kryptonians. Readers find out pretty quickly that the destruction of Superman's home world, Krypton, was not a natural disaster. And now the disaster-making Zaar has come to Earth to finish his work.

Meanwhile, Clark Kent is dealing with issues. His wife Lois Lane and son Jonathan are missing. That story is told very slowly with many repetitive flashbacks (this story did come out in monthly comics, so I guess that's the excuse). The ultimate revelation of what has happened to his wife and son is very unsatisfying and implausible on many levels and in many ways. Also, there seems to be some hostile takeover coming for The Daily Planet (where Clark and Lois work), which is also underdeveloped by the end of the book (this story continues in monthly comics, so I guess that's the excuse).

I enjoyed the epic and personal conflict with Rogol Zaar and how the two Supers dealt with him and his actions. That part of the story brought up some new ideas and interesting twists. The Lois/Jonathan drama also had some interesting ideas in it (the kid is really worried about alternate universe versions of himself where he's super-bad) but the resolution is flat and unconvincing.

Mildly recommended--it's both really good and really bad. At least Bendis threw in a good amount of humor.

MLK Weekend Bakeapoloza

On Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, we had a lot of baking going on. The holiday weekend meant extra time on our hands, what with religious education canceled and a day off on Monday. We started with some yummy chocolate cookies covered in powdered sugar.

Dusting the cookies

Great finished product

Fresh out of the oven, they were crispy on the outside and soft inside with a delightful chocolate flavor.

We had some coconut flakes left over from some other project (maybe dyed green for grass or used as snow on a Christmas bake?). We decided to make macaroons. The internet was helpful in providing a recipe (thanks, Martha!) with fun check-off boxes as ingredients are added and steps followed.

Step one--mixing the mix

Any baker with any experience will know that the caption above is a lie. Step one is always to pre-heat the oven. The only variable is the temperature. The final results were delightful.

Light and sweet

The final project was making brownies from scratch. Our youngest decided he wanted peanut butter brownies. We think we might have misread "teaspoon" as "tablespoon" because there was a lot of peanut butter in our finished product, especially on top. The brownies were a little dry and a little overwhelming for parents. The kids didn't seem to mind.

Measuring out peanut butter

Spreading the mix

Putting chocolate chips on top of the peanut butter!

Finished product

Some might argue from the above picture that we put too many chocolate chips on top of the brownies, but that clearly is not possible.

Cute Kid Pix January 2019

More pictures that didn't make their own post...

My eldest is on a basketball team for a few months. The practices are fun, the games are stressful! The first two games were tough losses. The third game was very close. The game ended in a tie. During the two-minute overtime, the score seesawed. My son's team managed to pull off a victory by one point!

Practicing shooting

In a game, on the far left

High-fiving after game #3

The final score after overtime

Their fourth game was a victory and the fifth game was a win against the only undefeated team in their league, so that was a very happy victory.

My daughter continues her creative cooking. She made a "snowman" out of cream puffs. 

An awesome creation that stands on its own

Working with the binding agent

We had one quality snow storm that resulted in a tiny snowman and an epic snowball fight.

Suited up for action

Image shown actual size

Ready for a snowball fight

Team up

Two mega-balls

In the snowball fight, the kids were able to blow out their parents by staying protected and forcing us to charge their entrenched position. Maybe we'll have better luck next time.

My older son had his last pack meeting for the Cub Scouts. February brings the Blue and Gold dinner at which he will bridge over to Scouting BSA!

Getting a last award

 Since he's been in preschool, we don't get to as many library story times as my youngest would like. He still enjoys playing in the toy room.

Making a stack

Kicking the stack

Friends gave us an ice cream cone holder that keeps the drips off of hands. We tried it out immediately!

Yummy yummy!

My daughter has crafted some armor outside of the Minecraft world!

A work in progress!

Movie Review: Glass (2019)

Glass (2019) written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan

David Dunn (Bruce Willis), hero of Unbreakable, is living life nineteen years later. He runs a home security store. The store is a front for the lair downstairs where he and his son work on hero opportunities that use David's superpowers to help people. Their latest project is hunting down The Horde (James McAvoy, portraying a man with twenty-four different personalities) who has kidnapped some cheerleaders, much like he did in Split. David and his son manage to find the Horde's lair and David frees the cheerleaders. The cops show up and turn over David and the Horde to a psychologist (Sarah Paulson). She is an expert on people who think they are superheroes like in the comic books. They are taken to the same institution where Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), the brilliant Mr. Glass from Unbreakable, has been kept for the past nineteen years. They go through a pysch ward drama that questions whether they have super powers or not.

The psych ward drama is less convincing but helps to underscore the main theme, which is how comic books can be a compelling narrative which is, according to Elijah, a true narrative of how people are. The story is slower and more intense at the mental hospital, making it more vague about where the story is going. Action sequences take a backseat to the exploration of comic book tropes and how they might manifest in real life. I found the theme really interesting, if a bit overdeveloped by the end.

The movie is an interesting sequel to both Unbreakable and Split, uniting the two stories seamlessly and playing on the strengths of each. The movie's main challenge is trying to combine comic book ideas in real life situations, which works more or less smoothly depending on the trope. Some of the tropes feel forced and make for a less satisfying twist at the end. I did enjoy the film but it is not as great as Unbreakable.

Recommended.