The Bier Baron: A Vast Improvement Over The Brick

Guys and gals, when The Brickskeller closed I had mixed emotions. The place was one of my first big eye-opening experiences with Beer. It also was a dump that rarely had the beers I was hoping to order from its menu.

Yesterday was the first time I had been to this establishment since just before "The Brick" closed its doors in December. The place was falling apart for years. The beer list was *willfully* neglected, and it was a well known "joke" that a patron would need 3-4 backup choices in case their first, second or third choices were unavailable. Once even a 5th choice had to be offered before I simply told them to get me *anything* they could find.

Well, I finally returned and I to my surprise, I was greeted with taps downstairs! Finally! No "smart alec" responses from the staff that you'll have to go upstairs to get a draft beer. They can pour it right in front of you.

Their beer menu is about as honest as any beer establishment can get. The specials were a bit out of date, but the rest of the offerings were available upon my ordering. Far better to only list 400 instead of saying "GUINNESS RECORD!!!" and having +500-600 beers "permanently unavailable." I’ve been spoiled by places like Rustico and Churchkey that both have very unique offerings, served the way that most of the beers presumably should be served.

I have to say that the changes from the Brick to the Baron have only improved the place. New men’s bathroom! Honest beer list! Food is a vast improvement over the previous owner’s food! I can now say that I want to return, and will tell all the people I know to do so.

So join me, won't you?

Gone Too Soon? Shows Cancelled Before Their Prime

Lately I've sat down to watch some shows that were cancelled. Most people would simply pass over these series, after all, they were cancelled. Perhaps it is because I root for the underdog, and what better underdog is there than a show that was cancelled? Below highlight 3 series I recently sat down to watch.

Raines

Raines was a quirky series that was killed by bad marketing. I remembered the ad-campaign for the short-lived television series, and it never really captured the true nature of this crime drama that turns out, was unlike other crime prodcedurals on TV at the time. The main character, Detective Michael Raines would create imaginary manifestations of the victims of the crimes he was investigating. Jeff Goldblum starred as Raines.

Goldblum went on to feature in Law and Order: Criminal Intent after this, and the show's creator Graham Yost went on to do the phenomenal series, Justified. The show aired on NBC for a paltry 7 episodes, between March 15, 2007 – April 27, 2007.

Verdict: Gone Too Soon

Vanished

Vanished debuted on FOX, focusing on the kidnapping of a Senator's wife, which was slowly revealed to be part of a larger nationwide, and perhaps worldwide conspiracy. This show certainly had a lot of ideas. It started as a show in the same vein of 24, that is, until the New World Order/Illuminati showed up. Despite its short run, the show had been retooled once when they killed off the central protagonist in the seventh episode because of supposed poor tracking with young males.

I don't know if this could have survived more than one full season. This could have either been the next 24 as an action thriller or the next Lost with piling questions upon questions and mystery upon mysteries with little payoff (or worse, Flashforward or The Event). This series ran 13 episodes, between August 21, 2006 – November 10, 2006.

Verdict: Needed Serious Retooling

Conviction

Conviction was the 4th Law & Order spinoff series produced and it followed the following year after the short lived series, Law & Order: Trial By Jury was cancelled. Stephanie March reprised her role as Alexandra Cabot (who appeared for years on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit). The show revolved around young assistant district attorneys. The show was placed up against the popular but terrible CBS by-the-numbers crime procedural, NUMB3RS. On top of that, the show did not include "Law & Order" as part of the title so the association wasn't exactly there with the long standing (and at the time, still highly popular) franchise.

Watching the show, I was struck how unlikable two of the leads were in their first few episodes (Anson Mount and Milena Govich) and how much focus we got on these characters. They warmed towards the end. After the cancellation, Julianne Nicholson moved on to Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a completely different character, and eventually became partners with Jeff Goldblum's character, unrelated to his Raines character. This series ran 13 episodes, between March 3 – May 19, 2006.

Verdict: Gone Too Soon

It's Mother's Day!

In honor of Mother's Day, I present to you: Mother's Day, a 1980 Horror film written and directed by Charles Kaufman (not that Charlie Kaufman) and released by Troma Entertainment.


This film is fully entrenched in the 1970s. The fashions, the style, the music. That specific film stock that only these kinds of horror films seem to have used... The story revolves around three women, Abbey, Jackie and Trina. While on a camping trip, they run into a group of hillbillies named Ike and Addley along with their insane mother. The three poor women are attacked and brutalized by this group, along the same lines of what you'd expect from a slasher of that time.

The film itself was better than I expected. It was certainly a low budget horror flick, but the film is enjoyable in its own right. They hit just about every mark a horror film should. The people behind the film have a slight sense of humor, as there is a "bus terminal" in the film, and it looks like they simply shot it at an abandoned landfill (The joke is that they're in New Jersey). They cross paths with some hillbillies at a gas station/convenience store, and while it doesn't do much within the film aside from establish some of the mood, it looks *just* like a scene from the hilarious comedy-horror film, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, which I always feel the need to give props to (can that film get distributed soon?).

There are some good fake scares early on in the film, and the stuff that happens to these girls is pretty gruesome and sadistic. These hillbilly punks are one screwed up family. They're not as disgusting as the ones from the X-Files episode, "Home," but they're close. I'm pretty sure I had an Sesame Street alarm clock like the one that featured around the 44 minute mark in the film, though it's a lot more creepy in this particular film then when I was growing up...

Another 1980 horror film outshines this one is Friday the 13th, in that it has a stronger "mother" element than this one and is a lot more memorable. The film has been remade and apparently released starring Rebecca De Mornay not that long ago.

In the UK, the film was rejected by the BBFC banning it from sale and is apparently still banned to this day. Due to portrayals of extreme violence and rape, I do not recommend sitting down with your own mother to watch this movie.

It Came From Hulu: Ark

After the fantastic conclusion of The Confession on Hulu earlier this week (check out the post we did), I perused Hulu and came across another web series which debuted on the service, Ark.

Ark is a science fiction series in which Connie (Xena’s Renée O'Connor) awakens in a botanical garden, unaware of how she got where she is. Not long after, she encounters Daryl and the two try to figure out where they are or how they got there. It premiered all 9 episodes together on July 23, 2010.

While there are no current plans for a second season as far as I am aware, my hope is that the show is able to garner enough interest that the production crew can produce additional episodes in the future. This unfortunately does lend itself to being a tad disappointing when left with the cliffhanger the story concludes with, but I'd say that the ingenuity of the crew to create something on such a small budget and small scope is to be commended.

Each episode runs roughly 5 to 7 minutes long, with a 10 minute finale.