Just days prior to the storm, I scoffed when I was told that I should fill up my gas tank, or buy batteries and flashlights. “It’s not going to be that bad,” I thought, “We’ll just get a day of wind and rain, like every other time a ‘hurricane’ hits New Jersey.” I mocked the mouth-breathers when I saw the bread aisle in my local Shoprite the night before Sandy hit. “Maniacs, the lot of them,” I muttered aloud. Continue reading
Hurricane Sandy: A Retrospective (Part I)
It was almost as if we had been chosen. Nature decided that we needed to be punished, and what happened is something nobody at or near ground zero will ever forget. At the end of October 2012, Hurricane Sandy made its way up the Atlantic coast after battering everything from the Caribbean on up, and while out to sea, the “superstorm” made a sharp left turn and a subsequent beeline for New Jersey. While American forecasters struggled to predict where the storm would make landfall, if at all, the European models correctly asserted that the massive storm would hit New Jersey and New York directly. At one point, Sandy was a Category 3 hurricane, which weakened to a tropical storm, and got a second wind and strengthened back into a Category 1 before slamming the Jersey shore. Continue reading
The Beer List: Birra Etrusca Bronze
The other day, I stopped at a liquor store in Farmingdale, NJ to pick up a couple of birthday brews for my longtime friend, podcast-mate, and beer lover Andrew. This particular booze joint always has a good selection of craft beers, and surely enough, there was a crop of strange and experimental bottles from Dogfish Head, which is one of our favorite brewers. Along with a bottle of the brewery’s Black and Blue (which I’ll review at another time), I pulled the trigger on the Birra Etrusca Bronze, which I had never seen before. Continue reading
Funko Friday: The Joker
“Some men just want to watch the world burn,” said the great Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth in The Dark Knight. That morbid desire was certainly true of The Joker in that incredible film, and the character’s portrayal by Heath Ledger made you believe that without a shred of doubt. Ledger’s performance as Batman’s nemesis was unexpectedly scary, and is to this day, at least in my book, incomparable. As a self-proclaimed “agent of chaos,” he wanted to bring Gotham City to its knees, if for no other reason than the fact that he could. Everyone knows that the scariest motive for a villain to have for the death and destruction they wreak is no real motive at all, and that concept makes movies such as The Dark Knight so much more fun. Continue reading
Essential Power Ballads: The Modern Edition
For the past seven weeks, I’ve recommended a list of classic power ballads to music fans, and this week, I wrap up the list with a batch of more modern-day songs that fit the style. Enjoy!
Rihanna- “California King Bed”
This song from Rihanna’s album Loud is a down-to-the-numbers power ballad. I’m not terribly well-versed in her catalog, but her singles are unavoidable, and I can say with confidence that out of everything I’ve heard from her, this tune provides us with her best vocal performance to date. She actually SINGS, and that’s certainly better than that Barbadan yodeling she usually does. Listen for the huge choruses, and the guitar solo (!!!). For me, this is the best song in her entire discography, short of “Bitch Better Have My Money,” of course. Continue reading
The Beer List: La Fin du Monde
The great Red Forman once said in an episode of That 70’s Show that “the French should stick to what they’re good at – making bread and losing wars.” It turns out that their Canadian brethren at Unibroue Brewing prove that they’re good at more than that with their impressively delicious beer called La Fin du Monde, which quite literally means “the end of the world.” Continue reading
Funko Friday: The Rocketeer
This week on Funko Friday, I honor one of my favorite Pop! dolls modeled after the title character from one of my favorite movies when I was a kid, The Rocketeer! The 1991 Disney classic features Billy Campbell as Cliff, an up-and-coming pilot who gets his hands on a prototype of a jetpack after being shot down in his plane and uses it to battle the Nazis in 1930’s Hollywood. All in a day’s work for Cliff, as he goes head-to-head with Neville Sinclair, a famous actor who is in league with the German baddies (played by Timothy Dalton, who is always a great villain), and tries to save his girlfriend and aspiring actress Jenny Blake (the lovely Jennifer Connelly) who often gets caught in the crossfire. Continue reading
Reckless Injustice
In 1995, the town of Agoura Hills, California, which beneath its seemingly idyllic surface lay a reality of broken homes and drug-addicted teenagers, was rocked by tragedy. The affluent suburb, some fifty miles north of Los Angeles, was the setting of a backyard brawl that ended up in the death of a well-liked local teen by the name of Jimmy Farris. The documentary Reckless Indifference delves into the incident, which occurred at the home of a known drug dealer and ultimately sent four teenage boys to prison for life on the charge of first degree murder. Continue reading
Essential Power Ballads, Vol. 7
This week marks the seventh and final installment of my Essential Power Ballads series, at least as far as the classic songs are concerned. Next Tuesday, a bonus edition will be posted with some more modern power ballads!
Boston- “Amanda”
The first track off of the band’s third album, the aptly-titled Third Stage, “Amanda” eventually became Boston’s highest-charting single in the United States. The band’s lead singer, the inimitable Brad Delp (who committed suicide in a bizarre fashion in 2007) passionately sings about telling the song’s namesake for the first time that he loves her. He relates in no uncertain terms what a nerve-wracking challenge that is for most men, so hopefully she returned the sentiment. The song also features a wailing solo from guitar genius Tom Scholz, who along with Delp’s vocals, provides much of the band’s signature sound. Continue reading
The Beer List: Ommegang Game of Thrones Valar Morghulis
Back in March of this year, Jenn and I received this Game of Thrones-themed beer as a gift at our engagement party, and last night, we finally cracked it open. We actually popped it open, as the bottled was corked instead of capped. In honor of the show that she loves and I have zero interest in ever watching (I just inadvertently found out what Valar Morghulis means in the context of the show – “all men must die”), we slowly sipped this dubbel ale that was brewed only once by the New York-based Ommegang Brewery and then retired. Continue reading
The No Seatbelt Blog 