Posted by jukkahoo
It is the season of opening doors (or in my case, the caps) from your advent calendar. Like last year, I thought that beer goes well with the wait for the Man in Red to make his appearance. Unlike last year, I won't be talking about films I've recently seen. No, this years calendar will focus on the world of television, since that is where most of the interesting stuff is happening.
Mind you, I may go with entertainment and the attainment of gratification over edumacation and edutainment. My opinions are my own and should not be seen as word of Dog. Although Mogens does have very strong opinions that one should take seriously.
Today's beer is Belfast Bay's McGovern's Oatmeal Stout. Very dark colour, almost pitch black and the flavour lingers along that same dark line. Very roasty, bitter (but not too much), smooth stout. Lovely drink. Aftertaste is dark, a bit musty but pleasant. And then it gets a bit coffee-like? Great start for the calendar. Belfast Bay also brews a very nice red Lobster Ale.
The series of the day is Warehouse 13. It is one of the Syfy-series that have a tenuous connection with each others (Eureka, Alphas and W13). I like W13 (as I just started calling it for short) a LOT. It is fun, entertaining and galore of popular culture references. (Eureka is great too, but Alphas is a bore.)
W13 is a mixture of Indiana Jones, X-Files and romantic comedy. It's light and fluffy, not the least because of its brilliant casting choices, but it packs a lot of punch with its gallery of interesting guest characters (H. G. Wells, I'm talking about you!). Highy recommended if you want to spend time taking it easy and without the ever present "long arch of the show" bogging down the flow of the episodes. This is mainly artifact of the episode -kind of a show, but the script includes a lot of backstory and character interaction that carries from episode to episode. Four full seasons so far, with a six-episode fifth miniseason coming is 2014.
The arbitrary recommendation of the day is Lonkeropiirakan joulukalenteri. Yes, in Finnish, but this is another great seasonal calendar with a theme of 30 Day Film Challenge. Looking forward to their various choices. As to their first day's question, I fully support Grandpa Cthulhu's pick of Shichinin no samurai. It is a truly great movie and what he says about it is spot on, other than the fact that to me the action scenes are *not* clear, but very chaotic and *realistic* in that sense. Korppisusi has a very interesting choice, Aeon Flux. I cannot for the life of me remember that much from the film, but I'd be hard to call it a masterpiece.
My choice? Confidental Report (aka. Mr. Arkadin), surely.
Eating Muffins 