Eating Muffins

Halme Polvinen Family Collective. You will all be assillymated

Designed with WordPress

  • Nonus decimus

    by

    Posted by jukkahoo

    St. Urho's Pub night. Beer (and some cider) was imbibed. Terrier wasn't too memorable nor great, but Hoegaarden Witte was good as always.

    Talked about various things, including tv-series. Petri tried to sell me Arrow, but I'm not going to budge on my first (and only) impression: boring, uninteresting and mediocre pretty-boys-and-girls go DC. Yes I've seen the first episode and I ain't gonna call it cat's pajamas. Grimm got better reviews from number of people, as did Lost Girl and Almost Human. And Continuum was universally liked.

    Next workday will be the 27th. I have something like a week to read books and comics, not to mention watch some films and tv-series. Easy does it.

    Today we celebrate the words of wisdom by these great thinkers.

  • Duodevicesimus

    by

    , , , , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    Fuller's Organic Honey Dew. Very nice. Very, very nice ale. Hint of hunny in the nosey-wosey, which is a lot stronger on the taste, but not that overpowering. But it all makes this very drinkable and very easily drowned. I seem to have guzzled half the pint with two sips. This is very nice honey beer. Not very robust, but to my huble taste, a really pleasing surprise that will definitely find its way to Casa Tali again in the future.

    Today's recommendation is the Lost Girl. Think of Buffy. With more sex. Anna Silk plays a succubus named Bo, who is, well… a succubus in a place (somewhere in Canada, since Syfy), where fantasy and reality meet. Lots of fae and various fantastical creatures, with whom Bo usually has sex with. Because that is where she gets her powers from, very useful, since she is not keen on taking sides in the Eternal Struggle (TM) between Darkness and Light (TM). Being neutral may have its benefits, but more often than not, she'll find herself in a fierce battle. So, like I said, Buffy, with more sex. (Yes, even more than in seasons six and seven.)

    The world Lost Girl takes place is filled with cool stories and histories, and there's a number of great characters in the ensamble cast. But while you have your cool werewolf cop or dwarven warlock, or Morrigan, or a Valkyrie, despite all that, the real deal in this series is the interplay between Bo and her human friend, Kenzi.

    Who is a blast! Ksenia Solo is not only cute as a button, but she is smart, streetcool, handy, funny and above all, just human. A funny sidekick that is truly funny and endearing. I love Kenzi!

    No arbitrary links, since this just needs to be read by as many people as possible. I think (well, hope) that everyone reading this blog (hello to both of you!) thinks this is fucked up and that what we really should have, is a world of equality and non-assholeness.

  • Very late Thirteen

    by

    Posted by Sari

    Sorry about the lateness, Mogens and I spent the weekend at Helsinki, Nordic and Finnish Winner dog shows, and were both quite beat after that. 

    Beer of the day is an old favourite Punk Pale Ale. Original IPA is better but not available in grocery stores as it is 5,6% strong. There is some hand-wringing in teh internets about diluting, but the laws in Finland being what they are, I am more than happy to pick this nicely bitter and citrusy ale to my shopping cart.

    As for TV-series, I am going with a classic. I vaguely remember seeing this when it came from the TV for the first time in the late 18970s/early 1980s, when I was much too young to watch or understand it, but after Jukka bought the DVD last year we were both hooked. The series is, of course BBC miniseries of Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy, one of the best TV-series ever made.

    Le Carré's claustrophobic spy novel has been turned into a series which is both languorous and tense. Alec Guinnes and Michael Jayston are a great investigative team, and the suspected moles, ”four (well, three) and Alleline” are all brilliant. Watching the series now adds an interesting layer of triviality to the proceedings, as we have seen the cold war crumble.

    I loved Alfredson's new film with Gary Oldman, but even with all its artistry it felt rushed compared to the BBC-series which I keep watching again and again. I'll soon know it by heart…

    Tinkertailor

    Random link: Great language game. I got 750 points.

  • Sextus decimus

    by

    , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    I had a craving for Ginger Joe, so went and bought the local Alko dry. Easily done with only five bottles left on the shelves. I hope they'll have more later, since I want more of this nectar. Ginger Joe!

    Vis-à-vis ginger, I had this Thistly Cross Cider in the fridge and it said, with capital letters "REAL GINGER", so I decided to have that today. More beer tomorrow. Unless it's Sari's turn, in which case it might be more cider.

    Ah, sweet smell of ginger! And the taste? Well, semi-dry cider with some gingery mixed in. Sipping a bit more and the apple and ginger get more prominent, but this is still abit too watery. Not bad, just a bit… thin.

    A bit thin reminds me of Demons. Not the Lamberto Bava masterpiece, nor the delightful combo of Nick Rhodes and Stephen Duffy, which… is actually called Devils, like the Oliver Reed film. OK, not relevant to the Demons-bit. Right.

    Anyway, as I was saying: Demons, a bit thin. This is a season-long YA-aimed horror-series from ITV, starring Gene Hunt ie, Philip Glenister. Young Luke is just like any other teenager, except when he learns tha he is in fact the last of the Van Helsing family. As one is. 

    Delightful ideas wasted on boring main character and some silly costuming (especially MacKenzie Crooks as a silly-nosed level 12 demon, Gladiolus Thrip. There's several nods toward Dracula with Mina Harker as a young love-interest of Luke. And Mina's vampire son, Quincey. And then some.

    Demons is an OK series, but ultimately a bit unconstructed and somehow unnecessary. If Gene Hunt is not convincing enough as a demon hunter and when even Victor Medrew is miscasted as silly old reverend (well, he was ghastly in all three episodes I stomached of that horrid Merlin as Gaius) and not the acerbic and cantankerous moaner he is in One Foot in the Grave.

    Hence, this. Somewhat less arbitrary than some of the earlier ones.

  • Quintus decimus

    by

    , , , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    The pot is in the oven with all the necessary ingredients (various meats, roots, spices and then some) in it. Should be something smoky, tasty and stouty.

    Desired stoutiness should come from a generous dollop of McGrath's Irish Black Stout, which according to the label at least, is recipe no. 4.

    Roasted malt flavours heads to the nose, but isn't that strong on the palate. There's certain ashness to this, also coffee-like, but not like that bestest of all coffees, Coffee Porter. No sweet stout this and the richness comes after each following sips, stronger and stronger. This is one dry stout. Very nice indeed!

    What could be more Irish and fantastical TV than… Moone Boy, but we covered that yesterday. So we'll have to do with Misfits, whose original main character was Irish Robert Sheehan. (*saved!*) I reckon everyone has either seen or heard of Misfits, so I don't have to go very deep into this. But in case there is still someone who hasn't seen this brilliant TV-series, go now and watch it!

    This is what happens when juvenile delinquents get superpowers, good and bad stuff. Misfits is lewd, raunchy and occasionally very graphic, but it is at the same time excellently done, brilliantly written and singularily British, that I hope the American remake never materializes. (Then again, people in the know have said that Life on Mars and Being Human US-versions are good, I haven't dared to have a go yet.)

    But there is a remake I'm really interested in, Freaks!, an ITALIAN version of Misfits, which ahs its own Youtube channel, where you can see what it is all about. Mainly in Italian. Oh, powers that be, could you possibly translate more of this and sell me a DVD? Puhleese? What's the use of living in this superhighwayinformationsociety, if we're still unable to get everything there is?

    Arbitrary. Very.

  • Quartus decimus

    by

    , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo  

    Sari wrote day Thirteen, but it seems to have disappeared into the interwebs. Or Jolyon, my W8. She'll undoubtably will dig it up at some point. There's the annual Dog Show at Maneesi this weekend, so she is busy with Mogens and the rest of the MyHeels family.

    Ginger. I love me some ginger. Today we'll try out Stone's Ginger Joe, which is not beer, but ginger beer. Bad idea? Possibly. We'll see.

    Ah, intoxicating aroma of sweet gingerinees!

    Yummy! This is delicious! Not beer, nothing of the sort. Very gingery, probably very much essence of Esomething, but close enough as a drink. Like Ginger Ale, but more malty?, heavier and feistier. Ginger lingers long and lovingly on the palate. It's a mead! I better buy more of this!

    You know what's also ginger? Yes, Geri is, but what else?

    Irish. And as Irish TV-series go, I'm not an expert. But I know one and it is GREAT! Moone Boy is an Irish sitcom of a boy, who has an imaginary tig… friend, who is not only the least capable imaginary friend you can imagine, but also more than willing to push young master Martin into stunningly ridiculous schemes.

    This is a laidback version of Calvin & Hobbes if there ever was one. Surreal, heart warming and sweet. Writer, producer and one of the main actors Chris O'Dowd (from IT-Crowd and FM and various other British comedies) is the imaginary Seán and according to him, Moone Boy takes lot of its building blocks from his own childhood in the late 80's Irish small town life.

    Not for easy laughs, but to all of us, who like to think while watching comedy. And be child-like. And/or fantastically inclined. Second season was ordered straight after the first one was shown and to make it absolutely certain, that the network was behild the show, they ordered the 3rd season while the second one was still being written! Halai!

    Link.

    I got to buy more of Ginger Joe!

  • Duodecimus

    by

    , , , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    Whirlwind, I tell you. Life, work, everything.

    The beer of the day is Norwegian Wheat Beer White Dog. Based on medieval Belgian brewing tradition and made by Lervig aktiebryggeri. And it tastes like…

    But first the nose. Fresh, citrusy, dry, sweet(?). Very nice, not at all like most of the witbeers you'll readily get from tap here in Finland. Taste is dryish, very wheaty and light, leaving a lingering aftertaste that goes on for quite some time. There's yeast all right.

    I like this, wouldn't mind having this on tap at some sf-friendly pub in Museokatu…

    I'm going to write about two series, since couple of last ones have been about movies and there's this missed "episode", thanks to City council and their xmas party. Now, these two have nothing in common, but here goes.

    Alien Nation was a motion picture with James Caan as the rough and tough cop, who was being partnered with one of the newcomers, an alien named Sam Francisco. Which is the biggest gripe I have with this show. In the series he is called George (which is okay, since Sikes thinks that Sam Francisco is a silly name and how about if I call you George? Great!), even officially. Hells bells! His name is SAMUEL! Mandy Patinkin is SAMUEL Francisco. Aaaaaarggghhh!!!!

    The again, as come-ups go, Sam's reply is glorious: "It is like your name… Sykes. I'm sure it doesn't bother you at all that it sounds like "ss'ai k'ss," two words in my language which mean "excrement" and "cranium. […] Shithead."

    Where was I?

    Yes. Newcomers. A bunch of aliens who landed on Earth, former slaves of some evil aliens, who look exactly like them. And are now living in cognito among the populace. Plotting evil stuff. As aliens go, newcomers are frienfdly and capable of learning things at very high speed, making them better than people at some many things. Or at least as good.

    This is a buddy series, laced with humour and action. A classic of the sort. The series goes more into the relationships we humans have with the newcomers. Some episodes have really simple basic premises, but the writers managed to deal with those ideas in a way that transform this simple series into something far more than the sum of its parts. It isn't as good as I'd like it to be, but as someone who saw it way back then and thought of it as OK, and having seen it again now, I'm finding this very interesting and entertaining piece of late 80's SF.

    The series ends with lots of things undone and there are a number of tv-films which I haven't seen, so there's more where that came from for me!

    Alien Nation is a lot more "norman" police procedural than straight-up SF, but that gives it some additional advantage as well. These are normal situations and having these aliens among us as a norm, while racial tensions being out there, gives this some kind of… honesty I really appreciate. And it is really funny.

    The Fades was a six-episode BBC production from 2011. We have this teenage boy, whose having these apocalyptic nightmares about the end of the World. Which then promptly starts to happen.

    [This is moment when I accidentally pour the rest of my beer on my keyboard.]

    Starring the male geek from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and special agent Tucker from Johnny English 2, with lovely Natalie Dormer from nigh everything and that cute Scottish/Chinese girl from Kick-Asses, The Fades was really interesting take on creatures of the unknown. Fades are ghosts, somewhere there on the edge of our vision, not evil per se, but could become such. Then there's angelics, men and women who fight the fades with intention of giving them eternal peace in glorious light. It gets muddled and religiously baffling, but the script writing is good and with some excellent acting, Fades was a really tight little series that should've gotten renewed. It got BAFTA for best drama series in 2012.

    Do yourself a favour and have a looksee.

    Here's your arbitrary link of the day. Tired of all the same old, same old at Netflix, Viaplay, Hulu etc? Try Mubi.

  • Elevensies

    by

    Posted by jukkahoo

    Long day at work. I'll do penance later. Tired. Sleep now?

  • Decimus of Smaug

    by

    , ,

    Posted by jukkahoo

    I like it! 'Twas a fun 161 minutes, well worth the admission fee (guest premiere, thanks Mikael!). *grin*

    The second Hobbit movie is a lot like the first one, almost nonstop-action fanfic disguised as Tolkien. Most of the stuff I remember from the book (although I must emphasize again, that I haven't actually never read The Hobbit, only Lohikäärmevuori [the first Finnish translation, a wonderfully simplified version], though I did read that quite a number of times) was not-quite-as-I-remember and there were several additions that were on occasion either entertaining or just plain what-the-fuck?

    The orcs are plentiful and all over the place, there's far too little Gunvald, Thranduil is brilliant, I approve of Tauriel, there are NO LAWS OF PHYSICS, Smaug is divine worm, Martin Freeman is spot on perfect, Brad the Archer is again peterjacksonified (not a positive comment) as are the interminable action sequences, and while the escape from Mirkwood is barrel of fun, there are just too bloody many orcs. And Dol Guldur. Why? Or the Nazgûl prison of Azkaban. Whatthe? And dwarf/elf romance???

    Kudos to Jackson for his restrained use of spiders and glorious visuals. But for the love of Reason, is there no bloody health & safety in Middle Earth? Are railings for wimps and not something for neither elves nor dwarves? Jeebus!

    Ah, but Smaug! Glorious and beautiful. Terrific. Definite.

    And Martin Freeman. Well done, sir. Well done.

    All in all, good film, on occasion great. Nearly three hours long, but didn't feel like that. And despite all I've said above, there was much more to like than not.

    Short and sweet (and sour). Go see it!

  • The Ninth already?

    by

    Posted by Sari

    Tonight's cider is Angry Orchard Hard Cicer, available at Alko as it is 5,5%. The bottle says “please drink responsibly”. How polite. It also says it is dry. Which it really is not. It has a nice very apple aftertaste but as a whole it is quite sweet. The bottle is nice tho'

    As Angry Orchard is an American cider, the TV-series is also American. This time I am going with Ken Burn's documentary on Dust Bowl. By now, Burns is the canonised documentarist of American experience. His documentaries combine talking heads with recital of original sources, film and photographic material, the last made more dynamic by panning in and out of photographs – known nowdays as the Ken Burns effect.

    Burns' documentaries do have a distinct point of view and some – like the classic Civil War documentary – have been strongly criticized by historians for going for their  simplified narrative. Even so, they are a wonderful gateway drug to American history. Dust Bowl, which was shown on Teema a while back is a powerful story of how in the 1930s drought loosed the top soil on the newly farmed lands around Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and created a decade worth of massive sandstorms which destroyed lives and livelihoods. A man-made natural disaster coinciding with a man-made economic disaster makes for a grim viewing. The pictures alone are incredible.

    The random link – which I forgot last time is here