Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Mead

My first bottle of aged mead finally got uncorked - and it was worth the work & wait.

Made from "Mountain Gold Wildflower Honey" purchased in Dahlonega, and fermented with "White Labs Sweet Mead Yeast WLP720", I mixed 1 part honey with 3 parts boiling water, cooled, then add yeast, pour in glass jug with airlock (gasses escape, nothing gets in), let sit at room temperature for a month, then rack to wine bottles (siphon off clear fluids from settled sediments), cork, and let sit. Total cost was somewhere around $2/bottle.

First bottle sat 6 months. Opened and served a the first meeting of the Grove Park Wine Club, it went over surprisingly well. The clear, slightly golden liquid had a pleasant, slightly sweet taste with a mild bite. Certainly worth the effort, which was wasn't much considering the very simple recipe - it was just a matter of spending a little time actually doing it.

Movie: Rambo III

By this point they've figured out that in the audiences' mind, the name of the series is "Rambo", not "First Blood".

Having made a pile of money off the first two movies, a third was created. The result was something halfway between its predecessors: less story and more action than the first, but without the extreme disparity in the second. Still, the point is to build on the enduring memory of the first movie: strong action hero takes on enemy forces, practically single-handedly, and wins. That the final enemy is what seems the whole Russian army is, indeed, going a bit far.

Here's hoping that the fourth installment, recently released, manages to get the high action and meaningful story due a big-budget movie descended from the first Rambo.

Movie: Rambo - First Blood Part II

OK, so the first one was a hit for good reason. Decent story, acting, etc. Appealing to the visceral nature of men.

Given that success, they had to do a second one. They shouldn't have.

While the first Rambo movie had a sane, consistent emotional arc which made for a good story, this second one was just a bunch of action scenes stuck together - and not particularly well done ones at that. I'd suggest they fire the continuity director, except there obviously wasn't one.

Movie: Rambo - First Blood

A pretty good guy movie from its time, capturing the visceral essence of men standing their ground - right or wrong.

Simple premise: walking north along the west coast, John Rambo is just passing thru town and wants a bite to eat ... but the local sheriff escorts the apparent drifter to beyond the city limits, not wanting "his kind" around, and subsequently applies strong-arm measures when our hero doesn't take the hint. The situation escalates into a mental & physical battle of the will.

FWIW: I watched the first 3 Rambo movies back-to-back. They shoulda stopped here.