...where distraction is the main attraction.

Friday, January 31, 2014

Some whisky updates and oh yeah I'm going to be live-blogging during the Super Bowl

1.  Not going to bury the lede here.  I was going to live-tweet during the Super Bowl, but realized live-tweeting is just a form of forced aggression.  My six twitter followers would have to keep seeing unfunny half-thoughts firing into their feed 60+ times in a three-hour period.  With live-blogging, a reader can choose when or if he/she wants to read my garbage.  Plus, I have the option to delete the whole post in case things go terribly wrong.

This will probably be the last Super Bowl I watch.  I missed thirteen in a row (XXXI-XLIII) when I didn't have cable, but really didn't miss a thing.  I've also been watching A LOT of football during these last three years.  Too many wasted Sundays watching people bludgeon the f*** out of each other in the hopes of witnessing a half second of derring-do.  Rules being instituted to try to curb life-crippling injuries cause issues with the gameplay itself and lead to other injuries because the sport is violent.  It's not bowling.  And it would also be nice if retired players (whom have helped make the NFL billions of dollars) received a little bit of long term healthcare assistance to deal with their broken bodies.  Both the league and the union have failed in this regard, and I feel ethical nausea watching it play out live in front of me.  But please know I'll be commenting on the gameplay as much as possible, I will check my ethics at the door.

And I love hating on advertising.  And I love hating on Sports Journalism Reporting Time-Filler Parasitic Flatulence; I hope you haven't wasted any of your life reading anything about gametime weather, Manning's legacy, Richard Sherman talking, Marshawn Lynch not talking, or the 12th Man (which won't be attending the game); do people really get paid for that "reporting"?  And I love hating on Joe Buck.

And there will be beverages, and profanity, and plenty of parasitic flatulence (for free).

I'm rooting for Denver.  But if I were a betting man, I would be taking Seattle (+2.5) and the over.

2.  I would to thank everyone for checking out my Whisky Consumer Advocacy post.  I appreciate the discussion that continues to follow.  There wasn't a single challenge from anyone in the hashtag-Whisky-Fabric community itself.  So I'm just going to assume that they were all incredibly humbled by words and will endeavor towards a higher level of ethics in the blogosphere and the whisky industry as a whole.  But if I were a betting man...

3.  Chemistry of the Cocktail posted a positive review of The Eagle Morning last Friday!  Please know that it only cost Jordan two ounces of his secret bottle of Malt Mill.

I'm thankful for all the feedback on The Eagle Morning.  There's a second full bottle of it in the cabinet.  I'd be happy to share it during swaps -- but I have to put swaps on hold for a few months because I don't have much stuff open!

And, yes, the cask is currently filled with another experiment.  It's one much less sexy than the previous two, but I really hope it winds up tasting good.

4.  You've probably heard this elsewhere, but The Angel's Share is now available for streaming on Netflix.  While one could carp about the fact that it seems like two films forced into one, both "films" are very good in their own way.  As the lead, Paul Brannigan's performance helps the script realize its intense emotional stakes.  It's a bit startling to witness comedy in a Ken Loach film, but it's also very welcome because the man continues to depict working class grit like no else.  Did I mention there's lots of whisky involved?  Keep an ear open for my favorite tasting note of all time.

5.  Finally, the full page view of the The Big Whisk(e)y List now has filters.  If Google Drive wasn't such a pain in the arse, there would be more sortable stuff.

Happy Friday!