Sons of Anarchy - New Series

If you have been living in a cave you might be excused for being unaware the new series of 'Sons of Anarchy' is on Channel 5 just now, Series 5 promises to be better than 1,2,3, & 4, if thats possible.

Sons of Anarchy hails from the same cable network 'FX' that brought you the amazing 'The Shield', 'Nip/Tuck' & 'Rescus Me',  averaging at over 4.5million viewers a week 'Sons of Anarchy' has been FX's greatest commercial success and has recently been commissioned for series 6.
The highlight last season was Henry Rollins playing a white supremacist, and he done it with great aplomb, Henry rollins brought a sceptical audience with him and with characters like this, its no wonder 'Sons of Anarchy' is set to record on everyone's tivo box.

Brief synopsis for you
Sons of Anarchy is a motorcycle gang 'Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original (SAMCRO for short), they are based in the town of Charming, SAMCRO is run by 'Clay' (Ron Perlman, yes Hellboy), and 'Jacks' (Charlie Hunnam), they run guns for the true IRA, fight with the MAYANS (mexican biker gang), fight with the 9'ers (black guys doing drugs) and a whole list of other gangs.
They keep charming safe from the advances of Drugs, not allowing drug dealing to go on in their town, but are happy to supply drug gangs with Guns & Hardware from the true IRA, with this link comes the watchful eye of the ATF, who are constantly trying to bring them to justice.
Sons of Anarchy benefits from a wide cast, Opie, Tig, Gemma so things never get stale.

The series can be picked up at any point, but do yourself a favour and start at Series 1, its time well spent.

If you are feeling the black and white prints, check out the brand REBEL8 over  at the site, also count the amount of times you see Ray-Ban being worn, it soon adds up.

Beer Review: Estrella Damm Inedit (PM)

I wish that Estrella Damm Inedit would come here and say that it wants to fill a gap in my drinking. The gap that's in my face!

 (I mean my mouth.)

What with it being Tuesday afternoon, and me being at work, and it being the coldest day of the year (coldest day of the world, more like it), I would love a visit from that little Iberian princess.
 Look at it, with it's pretty little label, begging to be followed like some unholy star of bethlehem.

Wait a minute, that's not asparagus

And don't bother bringing that wine glass, Estrella Damm Inedit. I'll take you straight out of the bottle, baby.
Yeah.

Beer review: Estrella Damm Inedit (AM)

A few years ago Ferran Adria was in Melbourne for some Food and Wine Festival thing and I went to see him talk. He made me think and feel a lot of things including, but not limited to: he is adorable; I want to eat his food; I can't believe I'll probably never get to eat his food; shit, life can be unfair.

And then, last weekend I was at the bottle shop and I saw this:

Estrella Damm Inedit. The beer of Ferran Adria! Close enough is near enough I sometimes say!

So I bought it. Of course I did.

 

After a little internet research I learned that this beer has been created by Ferran Adria, Juli Soler and elBulli's sommelier's team to "fill a gap in drinking."   It was perceived by team elBulli that there is not a beer that is great to eat with, so they made one. Me, I've never percieved this lack, but who the hell am I?! Just a beer lover who'll take what I can get!
 

Team elBulli

After a little more research (reading the side of the box) I learned that this beer should compliment any dish, even "challenging foods such as asparagus or cheese". Um, ok.

Whoopsee

I also learned, after pouring it into beer glasses that I should drink it from a white wine glass. Um, ok.

Aaaahh, that's better

Then I learned that it is a "unique coupage of barley malt, wheat, hop, coriander, orange peel, yeast and water." And then I learned coupage means blend of wine.

Finally I drank it. According to the box the beer is:

• Slightly cloudy in appearance. Check!
• Fruity and floral to the nose. Check!
• Has a yeasty sensation and sweet spices reminiscences. Kinda.
• Creamy and fresh texture. Not really.
• Soft volume and delicate carbonic. Oh, come off it. 
• Long aftertaste. Absolutely not. That taste disappeared seconds after the beer was drunk.
• Pleasant memory. Sure, pleasant enough.

Basically that beer tasted like a lot of boutique beers. And does beer really need to come in a box? A box for a bottle that holds 2.8 standard drinks?! It seems a little unneccessary. 

But maybe I wasn't doing it right. Maybe I should have been drinking it with some challenging food.

It was nice. Don't get me wrong. But mind blowing? Really, it was just a beer. Still, I would do anything, ANYTHING to get to eat the food of Ferran Adria. So all I have learnt from this experience is that I probably won't spend $9 on a box of beer again. Maybe once more just to check. And then probably not again. Probably.

Music Monday - Asap Rocky

This Saturday ASAP Rocky will be bringing his live show to Glasgow for the first time, when he plays The Arches. The Harlem born and raised rapper/video director has been surfing a huge wave of success since the release of the mixtape LiveLoveAsap in 2011 and has really brought something new to the hip hop table.

ASAP Rocky and his crew ASAP Mob are unlike any rappers you have seen before, he has a flow and speed that sounds straight out of L.A while the beats they make and use are from producers you would not normally associate with this genre, resulting in a sound that is unique and fresh in a scene that has been needing a change.

Add to this you have the whole crew's passion for male fashion and grooming, they all like to dress in the latest catwalk collections such as Rick Owens and Comme des garcons. He wants to be more than just another rapper, he wants to be a fashion icon, mixing streetwear with fashion to create a look on a rapper we have never seen before. His new album is expected to drop in September check out the 2011 mixtape here.

This show is a must see, The Arches is an ideal location to get a more intimate gig because the way the Young MC is going the next time he's in Glasgow he will be playing a sell out arena show. Get your tickets here.

A really great weekend (PM)

Yeah it was! And I didn’t even find a dream coat! And, although my team did win, it was only against Greater Western Sydney. Whoopdeedo.

Mate, it’s almost as if your weekend was the upset of the season!

Sure, we had tickets to see the This American Life movie of a show, so I guess the weekend was always going to be pretty good, but no one could have expected:

·         You would get a dream park which meant

·         You would find a dream coat

·         Your team, the Melbourne Demons, would have their first win of the season against the ‘in-form team of the season’!

·         The This American Life movie would be so utterly awesome and delightful!

All this from what was expected to be a pretty average weekend!

Plus Melbourne is full of beautiful autumn leaves even though it’s winter. Word to your mother autumn!

And, word to your mother last weekend!

And word to your mother, Matey, for just taking the weekend by the horns hand having a great one the shit out of it.

A really great weekend (AM)

I know you guys don't come here on a Monday to hear about what we did on the weekend. The weekend might as well be a million years ago, right? It's yesterday's news.  Plus, sometimes the stuff we do on the weekend and then write about on Monday can be really boring. I know it. You guys know it. It's the elephant in the room (if we were all in a room).
Despite this, I really want to talk about a couple of really wonderful things that happened on the weekend. I'm sorry if this bores you. To the readily bored - we'll see you guys tomorrow. To the rest of you, get ready to be mildly entertained.

OK, first things first, a little background. The other day I was telling J that I really need a new winter coat. One that is kind of mid-length. Not long. Not short. Mid-length.

This is a mid-length coat.

This is from The Sartorialist. 

We workshopped what this might look like, and came up with something like this:

Now normally we would never workshop something like that. I mean, we are mature adults (if you factor in our ages). We have better things to do (we don't). One of us is a parent (that's a true fact). But for some reason, we just felt like collaborating on the imaginary design of a coat that I don't need. I certainly didn't expect to find exactly that coat. I mean, that coat is an ideal. It's not real. It's a fantasy. It exists in my imagination as the benchmark against which real coats are measured, and eventually through this process, an acceptable substitute  identified. I would never dream of finding that coat. I'm not crazy, guys.

Anyway, flash forward to Saturday afternoon. I was on my way to Richmond and I decided to drive along Lygon street because I thought maybe there would be a park outside Monk House and I could go in and see if they have a nice coat. Of course that was never going to happen because there are never parks on Lygon Street. But I figured I might as well.

Readers, there was a park right outside Monk House. I ducked in. Pretty much the first thing I saw was a coat that looked like this:

It's pretty much the exact coat we imagined. Only green. 

I kind of felt like it might be a joke, like how the eff could I be so lucky to get a park out the front, and find the exact coat that we had designed in our imaginations. That shit doesn't happen. Not to me. I started getting giddily excited, and then freaking out. This sometimes happens when things are going too well for me. I figure that the universe will punish me for my hubris and something will go horribly wrong. I reasoned that it would probably look shit on. That, and the fact that it's just a coat, so I wasn't really in too much danger of a nasty universe correction.  I relaxed a little and took it to the change room.

Readers, I don't want to sound like a real love-o, but it kind of looked awesome. Like, better than pretty much all the other things I have tried on. Ever. Happily I couldn't afford it because I have to take my car to the fix-it shop this week and it turns out that mortgages are really expensive. I put it back on the shelf and left to go to go on with my day.* Even though I didn't buy it, I basically felt like that was unbelievable luck.

After my day's activities, I headed home for a quiet night in. I got a DVD. I had some cake to eat. It was going to be a rad night. Of course, the Dees v. Essendon game was on, and I figured I might as well watch the first quarter, just to check in with my little guys in red and blue. Of course Melbourne were going to lose the shit out of the game. Essendon are the in-form side of the whole competition at the moment (they're one of them). There was no way the Dees could beat them.

Readers, I'm sure you know what happened. The mother flipping Dees beat mother flipping Essendon by a goal in what Richo and Lingy were calling the upset of the season. I can't really talk about it without my little heart speeding up and a general feeling of elation coming over me. It felt like winning a premiership might feel, which of course I can't comment on because I was born after 1964 which is when Melbourne won its last premiership. But none of that matters. The Dees beat Essendon guys. They totally did it.

So as you can see, my weekend was composed of these really wonderful things. And that was just one of the days! Sunday was almost as good, as I went to see the This American Life  live show at the Nova and my smile muscles are still hurting from that. The thing about all of this is that it wasn't even one of those weekends that you know is going to be rad because you've planned some great things or what have you. It was just going to be regular but it turned out super awesome. I hope it lasts readers, I hope it lasts.  


* J met me at Monkhouse on Sunday and after  about 10 seconds of trying the coat on again, we agreed that I should put that beautiful baby on layby.

Hottie of The Week! - Monica Bellucci

Monica Bellucci takes the Hottie of The Week title today because she is to put it simply, amazing. The Italian actress and fashion model is a true beauty as well as a very talented professional who started out in French cinema and has now become a global name.

Her first major roles in French cinema included L'Appartement which she was nomintade for a Cesar Award, Brotherhood of the Wolf and Irreversible. Since then she has been seen in blockbusters such as The Matrix Reloaded, The Brothers Grimm and The Sorcerers Apprentice.

She is married to Vincent Cassel, the main man of 21st Century French cinema. The pair have acted together in a whole array of films.