Chico USA

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday morning, Izzy, her aunts & I drove up to the city of Chico about three hours north of San Francisco. This small college town is the home of Sierra Nevada Brewing since 1980. For those who don’t know, Sierra Nevada is HUGE in the craft beer industry and is currently the 3^rd largest craft brewery & 7^th largest brewery overall in the United States with about 1.2 million barrels produced annually now. They even opened a new brewery in Mills River, North Carolina last year to help out (future visit?). Chico is home to their main brewery that makes about 80-85% of their current production though… and it’s a VERY impressive facility.

 

After trying a few beers, we took part in their Sustainability Tour where they took us on a people mover around the facility and showed off their 10k+ solar panels, recycling plant, bottling plant, then gave us a can of beer to enjoy in their garden complete with hops, tomatoes, herbs, flowers and other things. The whole place is very well run (at least according to the figures provided on the tour, which I’ll take since I’m not auditing) and quite admirable in trying to eliminate their carbon footprint as much as possible. Now, the water footprint may be another story but they’re working on that as well. Well done, Sierra Nevada!

 

 

After a few more drinks during lunch, we then took their actual Brewery Tour where they gave us the backstory of the owner starting in a small garage in the early 80’s and basically growing exponentially since then, took us to the mash tun & fermenters, and then to their taproom where they had us sample… of course… all of their brews. That’s right… we were pretty well paced with our beverages throughout the day… but yeah, lots of fun… more pictures…

 

Sunday morning, we woke up and went to see Bidwell Park… but unfortunately California has been drought ridden… but there’s still some pretty beautiful scenery with golden fields…

 

We then headed over to Bidwell Mansion to see this palatial estate of former California senator/congressman/farming tycoon John Bidwell and his midget wife Annie (look it up!). Though made in the late 19^th century, the house is pretty damn sweet… and even had indoor plumbing back then… but you know, when one basically own half of the Central Valley aka America’s Breadbasket… one does not sh*t outside… and yes, one also has people in his employ to handle pans that may or may not be located near their beds. Anyway, it’s pretty fantastic… here are some pictures…

 

On the way home, we stopped by Heretic Brewing in Fairfield again and introduced Izzy’s aunts to their wonderful brews… and I bought a pint glass bearing their logo at a fairly great deal. We also tried some sliders from the food truck Sip ‘n’ Slide which specialize in Southern fried sliders… and it’s pretty fantastic.

 

Anyway, that was our weekend… hope that you all enjoyed it… and there are plenty more adventures to come in the following weeks… so stay tuned! In the meantime, have a great day everybody!!!

Stuffies & Kentucky

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Sunday… we were kinda lazy after our Saturday at Yosemite… but eventually we got around to transferring our Kentucky Common when my roommate Clark got home from work. He helped us two weeks ago and we made an extra gallon for him to get into homebrewing on a small scale, so we figured that we’d wait for him to show him the process… and frankly, transferring is pretty easy & quick compared to other parts of the process… but here are some pictures…

 

 

Sunday evening, Izzy was hosting a Stuffy Party where some of our friends showed up with their stuffed animals… and we would watch some children’s classic movies from when we were kids. The two movies that we ended up watching this party were both new to me… but yeah, I’m kind of glad they were. More on that later though. Basically the party went great with a few people showing up, bringing their favorite stuffed animal, and we basically shared the story behind their names or whatever… and I found that a LOT of people REALLY like their stuffed animals. I’ll admit, I have a few from my childhood… stored away at my mom’s house for any future offspring that I might have (even after giving some to my niece & nephew years ago) and Izzy has convinced me to get a few with our visits to the zoo… but I think they’re mostly for her to play with… and I’ll play back. What can I say? They’re fun as hell… and pretty damn cute. So yeah, we had some pizza & popcorn… and watched some movies…

 

First up was “The Brave Little Toaster” which came… let’s just say during Disney’s lull during the 1980’s. For those who don’t know (or don’t care), Disney was not producing the good, juggernaut movies in the 80’s like they do today… and Don Bluth was making more visual remarkable movies like “Secret of NIMH”, “Land Before Time” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” but… they were pretty dark when compared to Disney’s usual stuff. This movie came out in 1987 and I just completely missed it because I was too busy watching Don Bluth movies on VHS ad nauseum. You know what… I’m getting ahead of myself… this is the story of a toaster, an electric blanket, a vacuum, a radio (voiced by Jon Lovitz) and a lamp going on a magical journey from a summer home cabin that has laid vacant for a few years… to meet up with their Master (a child who is now going to college & has a surprisingly hot 80’s girlfriend) in the City of Lights. Along the way there’s… well, there’s nightmares involving a firefighter clown out of a slasher flick, the AC unit (voiced by Phil Hartman) blowing a fuse & exploding, a vacuum having a seizure, the equivalent of animated torture porn where a living radio has it’s innards torn out by a pawnshop owner, a truck committing suicide while singing a song called “Worthless” and some key characters being absolutely destroyed along the journey… but never die… you know, like Goonies. Aside from that… it’s still not a totally uplifting story… but yeah, it’s not my demographic. It’s a cute little story most of the time… but yeah, then it takes a weird turn here & there… but yeah, go ahead and check it out. We had fun watching it as adults… and it explains so much about Izzy… just kidding, sweetie! However, you can see this movie as basically setting the framework for later movies like “Toy Story” in a way… where inanimate objects have feelings or whatever… so that was kind of cool.

  

Next up was the 1975 flick “Escape to Witch Mountain” starring… well, Donald Pleasance (“Halloween”) was in it. This is the story of two young orphans (a boy& a girl) whose foster family of five years had just died (lots of dead parents for the first few minutes) who start to realize that they have superpowers like telekinesis, telepathy and being able to foresee the future… and they start uncovering repressed memories about where they came from as toddlers. Well, a wealthy man finds out that the girl can see the future… and decides to adopt them (via having his right hand man Donald Pleasance pose as their uncle with falsified yet verified documents) and treat them to a life similar to Annie when she’s adopted by Daddy Warbucks. I half expected them to break out in song… and instead there was a creepy telekinetic puppet show. Well, for some reason, they decide that’s not the life for them (not even knowing what his plan is) so they escape his palatial estate to get chased by dogs… then meet with a crotchety widower in a Winnebago who assists them on a journey to a destination on a map they found. The effects are a little dated… but it’s 40 years old. The story… has loopholes. Overall though, it’s just a harmless children’s flick… and spoiler alert… the crotchety old guy turns a new leaf & falls in love… oh and they’re aliens. That’s not really a spoiler alert since there’s a flying saucer on the case art & posters… so yeah, go ahead& check it out if you want… but not the great flick ever. Still kinda fun though to watch with friends… like most movies.

 

This weekend, Izzy & I are celebrating our 2^nd Beerversary… you know, two years since we took the big leap & started making our own beer. How are we celebrating? By going to up Chico & visiting the legendary brewhouse of Sierra Nevada Brewing… with Izzy’s aunts, who actually went to college there 40 years ago! Also, the chef from our favorite brewery (Elevation 66) is opening up a new brewpub in the Presidio (ten minute walk from my house) called Sessions… and it opens up Monday, so we’ll definitely check that out next week! I’ll obviously keep you posted… have a great weekend everybody!!!

Black Yosemite

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Saturday morning, Izzy, my cousin Alicia & I woke up early and headed out to Yosemite National Park, our nation’s FIRST national park… and some may say our best. It’s definitely one of our most iconic & one of my favorites being a mountaineer. The drive was… interesting thanks to random ass construction just outside of the Bay Area… but overall not too bad so we got there around 11 AM… and we lucked out with a pretty sweet parking spot, since Gretchen (my Jeep) is quite the nimble parker… so we started with selfies against probably the most photographed mountain in the park, El Capitan…

 

Then we explored the Yosemite Village area where they have souvenir shops and some pretty nice museums…

 

We also did the short hike to Lower Yosemite Falls… but please keep in mind that we’re in the middle of a pretty serious drought…

 

We also caught some great shots of the iconic image of Half Dome…

 

We followed that up with a little mile walk to the Hotel Ahwanhee and a river a few yards from our parking spot…

 

…and then topped off the visit with Bridalveal Falls on the way out of the park around sunset…

 

…and on the drive back, we stopped for some Mountain Mike’s Pizza & Baskin Robbins in Oakdale… because we had earned it on this warm, beautiful day. I hope that you enjoyed our quick day road trip to Yosemite even half as much as we did! More on the rest of the weekend coming soon… but this was a LOT of pictures to load. Have a great day everybody!!!

The Robin's Next

Good Afternoon Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

Tuesday night, Izzy & I watched a movie called “Outcast” that popped up on our Netflix suggestions. Why? I’m assuming because Nicolas Cage was in it (briefly) but you would know that as the story synopsis involves feudal China in the 12^th century. What’s that? Why is Nicolas Cage in a story about 12^th century China? Why he’s the mentor to Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), duh!!! Oh, he’s in it too… did I mention that? Sorry, I’m still a little scattered from this movie. Shall I start from the beginning? My humblest apologies (the only apologies I know how to do). Our story begins during the Crusades… where two crusaders (Cage & Christensen) have a bit of a falling out during a battle. Smash cut to three years later in China… oh no, the movie does that… it’s not just my synopsis… to where an elderly Chinese monarch is dying… and has a moving conversation with his young son (says he’s 14 but couldn’t be more than 10 years old) and daughter (of not quite banging age, I’m sure) saying that the monarch wants his young son to be ruler… since his eldest son is basically a warlord. Who’s that at the door? It’s the warlord son, RUN!!! So they run… and within… probably three miles of their journey, they stumble upon to a town, are instantly recognized & the story is over. Roll credits. Wait! NO!!! That’s right… opiate addict Anakin Skywalker is in this restaurant where they’re capturing the young son & daughter… and while trippin’ balls, he sloughs a dozen or so elite “black guards” like it’s f**king nothing… and then they run off together. Of course, Anakin (okay, his name is Jacob in the movie) doesn’t want to take them anywhere… but then he has a premonition that this may help save his soul from all the horrible things that he did during the Crusades. What’s going to happen? Watch the movie… it involves Nicolas Cage stroking his beard with a snake looking like Egg Shen from “Big Trouble in Little China” and some decent fighting scenes… it’s pretty gritty though. Basically, if you like stuff like Game of Thrones, it’s not a bad watch. Don’t look too deep into the story or anything though… it’ll just piss you off.

 

My 19-year old cousin Alicia flew in last night & she and Izzy went to the zoo today (so you can catch picks on her blog someday) but since we haven’t done a whole lot yet together… here’s episode #2 of Movies by $teve!!! This edition, is kind of a continuation of last week’s “Rockford Files” casting… so now we cast what was basically the continuation of that series…

 

Magnum, P.I.

(queue that insanely awesome intro music)

 

Plot Summary: Fun-loving Vietnam (gulf war in reboot?) vet Thomas Magnum has turned his very particular set of skills into being a private investigator… and is employed by a ludicrously wealthy author Robin Masters. Magnum lives on the Masters Estate in Hawaii… which is ran by a very strict disciplined man named Jonathan Higgins. It seems that just about every week that Magnum is… well, not necessarily hired for a case… but usually involved in some sort of shenanigans involving gun play, fights with the Yakuza, saving an old Navy friend, an attack on the life of Robin Masters (they didn’t like his latest book?) or some sort of hit squad… and he usually needs to call on his friends TC & Rick to help out. Oh… and he does it all in the tiniest f**king short shorts that you’ve ever used to wrangle a python. Enjoy!

 

Thomas Magnum – Timothy Olyphant – Everybody know that Tom Selleck was the original Magnum. There’s just not a Tom Selleck out there other than Tom Selleck… but he’s 70 years old now. He still looks like he’s in his late 40’s but fun fact: He was 35-43 years old when he was playing the role of Tom Magnum in the 80’s. Let that sink in for a minute… next year is my 35^th birthday. Coincidence? Why do I say this? Timothy Olyphant is 47 years old… looks like he’s in his early 30’s… and was born in Honolulu… so he was a teenager when Magnum was on the air… so he’s basically BRED for this role. That is all FACT!!! He’s also had similar smart-ass action roles… and is taller than most actors at six-foot. Sure there may be bigger draws like Matthew McConaughey (45) or taller actors like Joel McHale (43) but I just like the idea of Timothy getting another shot at big budget movie leading man stuff… and this role kinda suits him. Of course he will have the moustache… and maybe a scene or two in the speedo or short shorts… but yeah, don’t want it to be too distracting.

 

Jonathan Higgins – Gary Oldman – Higgins is the caretaker of “The Robin’s Nest” which is the humble sprawling abode of Robin Masters… and he was a decorated sergeant major in the British Army before joining the private sector and he’s usually joined by his Dobermans Zeus & Apollo. He tells a good “old war story” from time to time… but does not care for Magnum’s lack of discipline or antics… but there’s definitely some underlying respect and/or rapport… but still plenty of witful banter between the two. Though I could see that role going to somebody like Ewan McGregor, Jude Law, or any other British actor out there… but Gary Oldman is a f**king chameleon who can pull off the understated “I’ve seen some sh*t” that underlies Higgins’ character if you want a more dramatic movie. He will also have the moustache… but you should pretty much know that by now.

 

Ted “TC” Calvin – Terry Crews – This former Marine turned tourist helicopter pilot is an old buddy of Magnum… and I can think of a more charismatic, hilarious& chiseled human being to play the part than Mr. AB-DOMINAAAAAAAAAAALS himself, Sir Terance Alan Crews. You may know him from various things like “Expendables”, “White Chicks”, “Everybody Hates Chris”, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”, “Norbit” and perhaps the greatest role in cinema history, President Camacho in “Idiocracy” but he’s a very versatile actor… and I just want to see him in more things. I almost put him in my “Rockford Files” reboot until I realized the only African-American role in… well, the whole series… would’ve been Gandolph Fitch & Wesley Snipes just needs it more.

 

“Rick” Wright – Mark Wahlberg - His full name is Orville Wilbur Richard Wright… but you can just call him Rick & he is a bit of playboy who manages the King Kamehameha Club (also owned & operated by Robin Masters) but he’s also an ex-Marine and helps Magnum out whenever needed… usually… when it benefits him. Okay… so the first time that I saw the series… I swear that “Boogie Nights” Marky Mark went back in time& played Rick in the TV show… you simply can’t deny the resemblance. Is it racist? I don’t think so… but yeah, Mark Wahlberg as Rick. There really wasn’t even an alternative. Like Vince Vaughn as Rockford in the last one, Marky Mark was born to play Rick Wright.

 

Robin Masters – Voice of Alan Rickman – This mysterious man of mystery who, I suspect, does a LOT more than just write books (I always thought that he was based on Stephen King with Bill Gates money & even more influence) was never seen on camera save for a few shots of his hand holding a glass of brandy on his private jet… but he was voiced by the legendary Orson Welles. I like to keep the mystery as to what Robin Masters looks like… and even really playing with the idea that he’s really Tom Cruise/Ethan Hunt from the Mission: Impossible movies this whole time… but we’ll save it for one of the many sequels. Instead, there are many great actors with many distinct voices that could be used such as Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Kevin Spacey, Tim Curry, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins, Sean Connery, Patrick Stewart, Jon Hamm, or even legendary voice actor Maurice LaMarche AS Orson Welles… and there’s really no wrong answer in this world. Hell, I’d even try to work out a way that the ghost of Vincent Price was the voice of Sir Masters… but the Voice of God is gonna be my choice… or IS IT? Sigh… yeah… it is… or Maurice LaMarche. Then the big reveal at the end is that it’s actually dame Helen Mirren with a voice synthesizer. Robin’s a sexually flexible name. MAGICK!!!

 

The Bad Guy – Ken Watanabe – The Yakuza usually play a big part in the crime surrounding Hawaii on the show… so it only makes sense that Magnum would be involved in one of the plots. Maybe the Yakuza are attempting to assassinate Robin Masters or something… I don’t know, earn your own keep Hollywood! However, for an actor of Japanese descent, you really can’t go wrong with Ken Watanabe. Yes, there will be a couple (implied) gruesome scenes involving cutting off fingers, making an unwitting American fall on their sword after falling him, all that usual stuff… but yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of gunplay and martial arts in the finale. Also, I have Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson showing up for a brief altercation opposite TC (Crews) at the Club to keep the action going. Maybe a quick bar fight… why not?

 

The Director – Michael Mann – One important thing that I forgot to mention with the Rockford Files is that there needs to be a certain tone & overall feel to the movie which requires a certain touch behind the camera. For the Rockford Files, being heavy on the humor, maybe somebody like Vince Vaughn’s buddy Jon Favreau might be able to do it along with some great thrilling action & storytelling as well. However, for Magnum, I really like the kind of vibe that came when Michael Mann did the “Miami Vice” movie… but perhaps with a bit more humor & banter between the characters. There are definitely scenes in “Collateral” that had that vibe though… and “Heat” is of course legendary… so yeah, I’d be intrigued how Michael Mann would do with a project like this.

 

So yeah… you’re welcome once again, Hollywood! I’m sh*tting out summer blockbusters not based on comic books. Also, tell me that anybody is going to say “no thank you” to shooting a movie in Hawaii for three months minimum? Anyway, something to percolate on… have a great weekend everybody!!!