Bought it because after mentioning my blog to a few customers at the shop, it was recommended to me several times. And I`ve never had a bitter so…
Right. I`m a bit apprehensive, I`m not usually fond of bitter things. But I`ve committed so here goes.
This is a pretty sort of apricot colour, so I am confused. Looks nice and clear. Inviting, even. I sense deception.
It doesn`t smell bitter. I`m really not sure what to expect at this point. It smells fresh and pleasant. Maybe floral. And slightly sweet.
Oh wow. I don`t know how to process this taste. Oh fuck, I think this is too complex for my ignorant taste buds. This tastes like everything I just mentioned, and then there`s a kick in the face bitterness that crashes through and lingers on. Holy shit I think I like it. Yeah, I think I do! It`s really different, I was hoping I`d discover something new, oh yay!
Shit I would drink this with every burger. I approve!
And I take it back, the first sip was pretty bitter, sure, but after that it really balances out. I`m a fan. And it`s pretty cheap.
***
All beers featured in this review are purchased at L`Épicerie Moderne, situated at 5854 Sherbrooke West, Montreal (NDG!)
Pat on the Mat returns! We talk about all the wrestling that’s happened in the last month, NXT Brooklyn, Summerslam, Progress in NYC, BATTLEWAR in Montreal, C4 in Ottawa and more. We also talk about McGregor vs Mayweather which goes down TOMORROW NIGHT.
Be sure to visit quebecwrestling.ca/lutte.com for Pat’s historical website to learn even more about the history of wrestling in Quebec.
Tune in next month where we will be giving the rundown on what might be the most watched fight of all as well as our take on Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman.
I sat down with my wife this past weekend for a good old popcorn movie night, and we charged up “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword”. I don’t usually offer write-ups of big blockbusters, but it’s been a few days and this movie is still giving me complicated feels. As such, I’m going to try and hammer down a few of them on the keyboard.
The main talking point about this movie in the press has been its box office performance; with a budget of 175 million dollars, it only managed to scrape together 39 million domestic, adding another 107 million foreign, and lost nearly 30 million dollars for Warner Bros.
Those numbers make John Carter look like a smash hit.
Doubling down on that, the critics hated King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. It’s at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, as critics were pretty savage in tearing it down.
No one liked it, no one went to see it, and it came and went this summer without much hoopla.
But I think I liked it, and I don’t really know why.
It stars Charlie Hunnam from “Sons of Anarchy” as King Arthur and Jude Law as the villainous Vortigern. The supporting cast includes Aiden “Littlefinger” Gillen, Djimon Hounsou, and Eric Bana. The casting is fine, though I can imagine studio executives all promising to never pour so much money into a film helmed by a cable TV star ever again.
It was directed by Guy Ritchie.
And this is where the movie, the box office, the critical response and my feelings all go sideways. “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” is absolutely a Guy Ritchie movie. Above and beyond any other plot, theme, genre or experiment.
Nothing else that can be said about this movie can eclipse that fact. It’s not even fair to say that Ritchie’s fingerprints are all over it, as it seems as if he’s grabbed hold of the whole project like it was a wad of playdoh and just squeezed and squeezed until it squished through his fingers, leaving a gooey mould of his grasp behind.
Imagine if “Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels”, “Snatch” or even “RocknRolla” were remade to include Excalibur. Hunnam’s Arthur could fit right in with Eddy, Turkish, and One-Two effortlessly with his plotting, scheming and cons.
The thing is, Ritchie has already moved past those smarmy underworld con-game movies with his Sherlock Holmes and even the under-appreciated “Man from U.N.C.L.E.” spy-hommage. King Arthur as a wise-cracking streetwise hustler is really strange, it’s really unexpected. Even the trailer doesn’t quite prepare the audience for this take on the true-born king. It is really quite odd.
So, yeah, but what I wanted to capture was the essence. So, the story, for me, has both an esoteric aspect and more conventional aspect. And if you can marry those two successfully, then you succeeded. So I like the idea that it’s a story about a man’s inner struggles with himself, and he starts off completely dependent and then ends up being completely independent.
…
There is a terrible danger, particularly in the Arthurian legend, of getting bogged down into too many famous characters – and we were liberated from that by just going ‘this is about a kid retaking his throne and he’s got to pull a sword out of a stone in the interim’. I mean, congestion is a big problem in narrative, right? And so, wherever you find congestion, find an efficient way of getting through it. So it just didn’t lend itself to time for a bit of romance. We were dealing with a bit of bromance here and there. But yeah, I think we’ll leave the romance to a latter, another incarnation.
But the movie is bogged down by narrative. There are all these characters introduced that muck up the screen, and Arthur spends most of the time playing Robin Hood rather than conquering England. They spend time with his streetrat friends, but don’t bother introducing Merlin, Lancelot or Guinevere. Mordred attacks King Uther at the start of the film, and Morgan le Fay is a non-entity as well.
Don’t forget that this movie clocks in at over 2 hours in length, so the idea that there isn’t time for these iconic characters is a strange one to justify.
Now, here’s the twist; I agree that this movie is a failure of a King Arthur movie, but it is a wonderfully weird and fun Guy Ritchie caper movie.
Once I was able to turn my expectations over, I realized that this isn’t a movie about a born-king rising to the occasion, freeing the sword from the stone and conquering a fractured nation. This was instead a movie about a street-wise grifter and his colourful gang of friends looking to stick it to the man, who then get in over their heads due to events beyond their control before beating the odds and coming out on top.
With magic swords.
Once I parsed it that way, I was on board. The movie made sense, and it was a fun silly romp that was half-action, half-parody, cruising by on the strength of some witty banter and some sly grifting. It became good.
Sort of the way you can look at a horror movie, and while knowing that it is not a finely crafted piece of cinema, but still appreciate it for succeeding in what it attempts to do, “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” works when put in the right context.
So I’m left tossing around the thoughts in my head:
“Can a movie that failed in its premise but succeeded in finding an identity be good?”
“Can a movie be accidentally good?”
“When a movie fails at everything it sets out to do, can it still be good?”
I don’t know.
I do know, however, that Aiden Gillen looks suspicious no matter what role he’s playing. Even if he’s a noble knight, I can’t shake the idea that he’s not one step away from pushing someone out the moon door.
Do you ever feel the crushing weight of your own ambitions?
How do you deal with the fact that on many days, you won’t manage to get anything done that you actually want to do?
This entire was website was founded on the principle that working a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 job can be soul sucking. And that’s not just because our jobs happen to be in fields that we’re not passionate about. I’ve spoken to enough people who have literally “made it” in their dream jobs who still feel immensely drained by their work.
I’m not going to get into that whole argument.
The thing I feel like writing about this week is how depressing ambition can be.
I work my job full-time. That means for 40 hours a week I’m working.
I try to write a blog every week, and I’ve been successfully putting out a podcast every week for something like the last 4 years.
I continually try to find ways to make the website better. Working with the other founders on stuff like new banners, homepages, and other stuff.
I also make sure to spend time with my lovely and amazing wife. She’s awesome and puts up with all of this stuff that I do.
Alice Glass just released a surprise EP this morning. It consists of 6 tracks and starts off with the single “Without Love“.
Two weeks ago at Osheaga I saw Crystal Castles perform with Edith Frances on vocals. It was the first time I had seen them without Alice Glass so I was a little bit skeptical.
For all of their sketchiness, when Crystal Castles consisted of Alice Glass and Ethan Kath (starting late, completely no showing, reportedly being disasters back stage, etc.) and they were on, they were ON.
I had already enjoyed the latest Crystal Castles’ release Amnesty (I) with Frances on vox more than Crystal Castles (iii). Maybe on par with (ii) in my opinion. At the live show I was pleasantly surprised with how much energy Edith brought to her performance. I was also impressed that she managed to kind of find her own thing within the realm of the Crystal Castles’ “vibe”.
A big piece of the Crystal Castles live performance is that the duo always looks like they’re on the verge of having a bad trip, steering the show like an out of control big-rig fishtailing down a rain slicked highway. Without imitating Glass, Frances managed to find an onstage persona that fit the theme.
It was cool. So I put my own personal (whatever that’s worth) stamp of approval on the “new” Crystal Castles. I like the album, and I liked them live.
Now it’s Alice’s turn.
A lot was said during the departure of Glass from Crystal Castles and it mostly revolved around Glass feeling stifled creatively. There was a “he said, she said” about who wrote the lyrics and arranged the vocal melodies, with both members seemingly taking credit for those elements in various interviews.
So here we are, 3 years after Glass’ left Crystal Castles and Alice has finally released a collection of music.
I had already heard “Without Love” when it came out last week and my response was almost immediately “uh oh”. I was not a fan of the high-pitched vocals and the melody was entirely forgettable.
Having just listened to the entire EP I can say that the regrettable adjective “forgettable” applies to the entire thing. I am right now sitting at my desk and actively trying to remember a single tune or chorus from 6 songs that I just listened to and I cannot. That’s not a good sign.
Glass made a big deal about how “dark” she wanted to be with her voice and persona, but the high-pitched squeaking that is employed for most of the EP is sort of the polar opposite. It doesn’t sound dark, it sounds whiney and pathetic. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Click the image to go to a great write up on the sadness of poorly painted miniatures at Hungry Ghosts Chaos Squats of Khorne
The summertime festivals of Montreal have come and gone. Even though there may be a few more festivals that the 9to5 Crew finds themselves at, they are mostly at out of town locations for the time being.
That means that it’s time to play D&D more.
Miniature figurines are not a “must have” in most campaigns. They were much more important in 4th Edition since combat in 4e was basically a tactical boardgame with all sorts of rules hinging on movement and placement. Even then, if you were totally dedicated to not using miniatures you could just use a penny or a piece of popcorn or something to represent your dude moving around the play area.
However, and maybe this is just because of the conditioning that I’ve experienced with video games, having the right little guy representing my character is pretty important.
Think about nearly any video game where you create your character. This happens in sports games, wrestling games and, most often, RPGs. You select the stats of your dude (which takes about 5 minutes) and then you create their look (which takes about 4 hours). The more detailed the character creation options are, the longer you spend tweaking literally every minute detail of your character.
“How far apart should his eyes be in relation to the length of the bridge of his nose.” That’s a thought that I’ve had. It is not a thought that anyone outside of maybe professional statue makers has ever had before some time in the 2000s when it became an option in character creation. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
We continue our look at the upcoming NHL season’s jerseys, the Adizero!
Scott: Next up are the LA Kings!
Keith: So they moved a stripe from the shoulders over to the collarbone? And then they made the backdrop of the NHL logo below the collar black? Is that it?
I guess L.A. is going for ‘more black’ as a rule, fully devoting themselves to having the ultimate “bad guy’ jersey from a sports movie. They haven’t had a single thread of purple in their jersey since 2013. For shame! Shame!
Scott: There is of course not enough purple and gold in this jersey. I don’t know why the NHL is so afraid of purple as a general rule. The NBA uses it liberally, and the Raven in the NFL and the Rockies in MLB are just fine with it.
That being said, the stripe moving down the shoulder and the collar going full black are both solid design choices. I have never liked the 90-degree angle where the stripes cross on the sleeves though, so I wish they had sorted that out this time around. But it’s a solid jersey from a team that has been able to put some truly awful uniforms on the ice, and I’ll not harp on their being black, as they were the first team in the league to lay claim to an all black sweater back in 1988.
Topher: I own an original all black jersey. I am good with the Kings black jersey, unlike some teams that force black down our throats and try to convince us they look good in black, the Kings own it. Always liked their logo. I for 1, really like this jersey. I also prefer the small change in the stripe placement. I don’t miss any purple and gold. I think there is a reason you can only name 1 team in each major sports that has purple in their jersey.
Keith, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that only a handful of teams have a revamped jersey. For the most part, I think we will expect only minor tweaks.
Keith: I also like the thing where all the teams from a city have the same colour scheme though. Lakers & Kings rocking the same colour scheme was cool.
It was more just a general complaint that it seems Adizero means ‘no more third alts’ for a lot of teams.
Third alts are my jam.
Topher: Ya as much as I hate Pittsburgh, it is nice all their teams have the same colours, unlike Philly that’s green, orange, maroon and red/blue
I love me some 3rd jerseys. Spoiler alert, I’m thinking this Adizero has killed the Blue Jackets cannon jersey, one of my absolute fave and I’m not happy about it.
–
Scott: Next up is Las Vegas.
I don’t care that the team wants to be from “Vegas”, the city is still called Las Vegas.
New to the league and they’re coming in with… a mixed bag. Like “party mix”, where some of it is okay, and some of it is just Frito crumbs.
I hate that this jersey isn’t great. The logo is great, and that’s really special, but this jersey is both over-complicated and flat at the same time. Slate, black, glittery gold, red and white are way too many colours on a uniform, and the striping is… damned confusing.
Topher: Damn, Was not sure if we were doing Las Vegas next, or going by V. I wanted to be the first to slam this jersey. It is god awful. I hate everything about it. Slate grey? Basically concrete? When I think of Vegas, I don’t think grey. Random red stripe? Whats up with that? Don’t even like their logo. So expected, but I guess it IS what I should have expected with the name golden knights. They made a splash during the drafts and impressed, but they full on drowned on this jersey and. It’s so disappointing because they had all this time to impress us with it and fell flat. Another Jersey for Scott to buy to add to his collection of god awful jerseys.
At this point, Keith stopped replying for nearly 2 weeks.
Topher: The jersey is so bad it made Keith go blind and he can’t review it.
Keith: No that’s not true at all.
I’ve got so much to say you guys. Just you wait.
Six more days go by.
Keith: Ok. I’m back. Guys, Osheaga was crazy you don’t even know.
So the Knights are the NKOTB in the NHL this year and they are all but assured to make a decent amount of profit on jersey sales just by being an expansion team. And yet, this is what they come up?
I guess we get to pick apart the whole thing since, unlike 30 other teams Las Vegas had the chance to start from scratch and not be forced into matching conventions that in some cases are a century old.
First of all, I hate the logo. It looks like a pre-set logo in the Create A Team mode of EA’s NHL games. I hate the red stripe. The league needs more red? Why is that red stripe necessary? I hate how bland the shoulders are and I hate the “gold” that they chose.
This looks like the jersey that the team in the beer league that has a lot of money designs for themselves.
–
Next time, we’ll wrap up the Pacific division with the Sharks and ‘Nucks!
–
Scott is a writer and podcaster here at 9to5.cc. He was raised by a Bruins fan in Montreal but turned out okay. Take that, nurture vs nature!
Keith does a lot here at 9to5.cc. His favourite teams are the Hawks and the Habs, but he only really feels comfortable sporting one of those logos on the regular.
Topher is not part of the 9to5 crew, but he is taking the time to come down from the world of fantasy football to help lend a voice to the article. A lover of almost all things orange in jerseys.
This is a deep burned caramel colour, but clear! And red undertones. There`s hardly any foam and what`s there dissipates pretty quickly.
Oooooh it smells like fresh honey and something like prunes a bit. Promises of sweet, sweet goodness.
The brewery`s website says it compliments salty cheeses very well, and I happened to have an aged espresso cheddar so… don`t I feel fancy? Oh my, this is indeed quite honeyed. But also bitter? It`s a weird mix but I like it. Very smooth and thick. The aftertaste has a bit of an alcohol-ish bite.
I like it! It definitely does go well with the cheese I have here, though I honestly couldn`t tell you if it enhances anything.
This is sweet, bold, and strong! Get it!
***
All beers featured in this review are purchased at L`Épicerie Moderne, situated at 5854 Sherbrooke West, Montreal (NDG!)
With a week between me and the official end of the Fantasia International Film Festival it’s time to look back on the films that didn’t get a full review from me but that I enjoyed nonetheless… ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
As the laundry machines spin and spin and the house is slowly getting cleaned up after a weekend of nearly nonstop partying, we reflect on the third and final day ofOsheaga.
Sunday did not start well for us. The battery meter on my camera flat-out lied to me and told me that I was going into the day with around 66% power. Somehow on the trip to the festival site it died completely. Stupid lying camera. That meant that all of today’s photos had to be shot on my phone. Fortunately my phone’s camera is pretty sweet. Secondly, the lineup to get into the site was disastrous. Sarah had to wait for over 45 minutes just to get in.
The good news is that it was all up hill from there.
With Sarah still stuck in the never ending line I took the opportunity to bounce around to catch a couple of songs of performers woefully booked at the same time. I managed to catch the tail end of Bishop Briggs set and then head over to the Island Stage to watch some of Weval‘s set as well. The crowds for both acts were a good indication that the Osheaga festival goers had kept something left in the tank for an epic finale to their weekend.
I caught just one song from Phantogram’s set while I got my first beer of the day and honestly, I am glad to report that they’ve upped their energy level from the last time I had seen them play (Osheaga 2014 if my memory serves). Phantogram has always been a band that I have enjoyed in the studio but never really clicked with me live. Either way, it seems like 3 extra years of touring has helped them knock the kinks out of their live performance.↓ Read the rest of this entry…
