The Walking Dead (Season 1) and Russian River Pliny The Elder

I was hoping to have this one out before the premier of season 2 but I went and had a second kid.  That has slowed down the whole blogging thing.  I found out about the walking dead about two years ago when a friend of my father told him about the comic (ahem....graphic novel).  It was so good that some of volumes actually made me lose sleep.  That's impressive.  So I was a little annoyed when AMC picked up the series.  I know I'm not alone.  I was hoping that HBO would throw down and give it all the uncensored carnage that we all would like to see.  It could have been worse I guess.  It could have went to USA in that time slot right after Monk.  AMC has some pretty great shows out right now with Breaking Bad and Mad Men so I gave it a chance.  I decided the best beer to pair with this series (yes six hours and one beer...well one beer six times) would be Russian River's Pliny the Elder.  Much to my amazement I found a couple bottles at my local supermarket.  I bought all they had!  I had never seen it in bottles before and thought it might be the last time.  For those of you who have never heard of Pliny the Elder it's the famous IIPA that has won TONS of awards!  I read a zymurgy in 2009 that had Pliny the Elder trading off with Dogfish Head's 90 min for best bear in the US for 3 year running.  Pliny the Elder (not to be confused with Pliny the Younger) also won Bronze at the Great American Beer Fest in 2004 and a Gold in 2005.  Pliny also won gold at the World Beer Cup in 2005.  All of these in the Double IPA catagory.  It's supposed to be epic.

So I started off with the first episode and was immediately impressed.  They weren't rushing things as I had thought they might.  And it stayed fairly close to the comic.  I'm not sure why it's so important to me that it follows the comic so closely.  Perhaps it's because the comic was so well done.  The character development in the the comic was so amazing that you actually felt like you knew each character.  You shared their joys, disappointments, and fears.  Each time they deviate from the comic or change any of the characters relationships or mannerisms I take offense.  "That's not how Sean would react!" or "That's not how Andrea is!"  Those are my friends!!!!  The opening sequence in the Walking Dead was spot on and almost frame for frame from the comic.  Except that with the magic of TV everything was even more frightening.  The initial scene where Rick awakens in the hospital and is trying to figure out what's going on captured hopelessness and horror even better than 28 Days Later!!!  And that's saying something.

The Walking Dead is instantly a classic in my collection.  It fills a gap between a gory raw classic and an easily accessible show even my wife will watch.  In that sense it's the perfect show for pulling a large audience into the world of zombie mania.  More people than ever will start coming up with their own zombie survival plans and wearing I (heart) zombie t-shirts.  This will inevitably lead (if it already hasn't) to a slew of watered down zombie flicks looking to cash in on the craze.  The same reasons i love The Walking Dead are the reasons I hate it.  It's beginning to take away something that for a while (at least it seemed) was deeply personal.

 I was lucky enough to be able to try Pliny the Elder once before.  When my wife and I were traveling from Boston to Anchorage we stopped in Santa Rosa to do some wine tasting.  I had heard of the mystique that surrounded Russian River beers but because they didn't distribute to Massachusetts so I didn't have a chance to actually try them.  We were just walking through downtown Santa Rosa when I saw it.  It was like a shinning star!  Russian River was right there in front of me.  I fell to my knees in amazement.  Was it fate?  I had they're amazing jalapeno pizza bites and a pint of Pliny the Elder.  It was a day I'll never forget.  If you ever go there you'll understand what I mean.

The Beer!  So my notes on this review became less and less coherent as the films went on.  Perhaps it was because by the end it was getting really late, or maybe it was the 5 Plinys that went with Season 1?  Go to BeerAdvocate.com (bastards) link for Pliny the Elder or the Ratebeer.com site and you will see that this beer......is a standard setter.  It gets a score of 100 across the board in 4 different categories (including a professional rating).  The beer pours a dark gold with hues of orange topped with a thick cream colored head.  The aroma is overwhelmingly awesome.  There is tons of citrus.  It's like pounds and pounds of grapefruit, apricot, orange peel and lemon.  There's also a bit or resiny bitter hops that push through the barrage of citrus.  With the first sip after sip of this beer continue to push fruit on fruit into your tongue.  There's a certain level of balance with the caramel malt backbone but don't be fooled, this beer is all hops.  The malt is simply there to sweeten your tongue and get you drunk.  The hops are the driving force here.  The hops are much like Robert De Niro in Ronin.

The first season was breathtakingly original.  And that's difficult for a zombie series.  The actors (and actresses) are talented and realistic and the plot is thrilling but believable.  Greg Nicotero is the head special FX guy and his work is inspiring.  He did Planet Terror, Diary of the Dead, and even Army of Darkness just to name a few.  He also did Transformers, Public Enemies, Minority Report, Book of Eli and like 1,000 other awesome movies.  He not only does that bang up job in makeup but he also stars as several zombies along the way.  He's the guy that bites Amy and the guy that kills the deer.  It's one of the reasons this show is so great.  the death just seems so real.

That's Greg!!

For those that live under a rock or in North Korea "The Walking Dead" stars Rick Grimes, a cop who awakens from a coma to find himself in a world of zombies.  I know i know "that's 28 Days Later"!!!  It is but i'm going to give them a pass because they do it differently enough as to not be considered cinematic plagiarism.  He finds his family who have set up camp in a band of survivors just outside of Atlanta.  The biggest problem I had with season one was the rapid deterioration of human decency that was somewhat more drawn out and deliberate in the comic. This was a bit rectified in the second season where things just drag for a couple episodes.  I guess they needed some balance.  The characters they cast in the show bear an incredible likeness both in appearance and demeanure to their comic book counterparts.  It's almost eery actually.  Glenn is the most obvious, but Dale is spot on as well.  This show is so well produced that my wife (who hates TV and horror specifically) gets so excited for Walking Dead that she won't let me watch an episode without her.  It's the real deal.  I can't say any more about  it.  You need to watch it and you need to read it.

The Beer:

Aroma – 12/12

Appearance – 3/3

Taste – 20/20

Palate – 5/5 

   Overall – 10/10

Total = 50/50

  

The Movie:

Production – 5/5

Plot – 5/5

Gore – 5/5

 Zombies – 5/5

  Overall – 5/5

Zombie Flesh Eaters and Russian River Damnation

Vinnie Cilurzo is an inspiration to us all.  Women want to be with him, men want to be him, and animals everywhere bow down to him with obedience.  He’s as close to being “The Beastmaster” as a man can be.  Anybody that’s ever thumbed through any kind of beer literature in the last ten years has heard of Vinnie Cilurzo.  Vinnie is the owner and head brewer at Russian River Brewery in Santa Rosa, Ca.  Located in a place where you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a snobby half drunk wino, Vinnie has created a Mecca for the disciples everywhere.  It wasn’t until 2008 that Russian River (RR) began bottling and even then distribution was limited.  Vinnie has opened things up a bit allowing for some of his “special” beers to be tasted by those without the ability to make the trip out to wine country.  Of the 12 “-ion” beers that the website claims to bottle and distribute I have only seen 3.  These are expensive puppies.  $12 for a corked 12 oz bottle expensive.  It was a very hot Seattle day so I decided to start off with TEMPTATION leaving the other beers for a cooler evening.

There is a four pack of movies sitting on my shelf that I cringe every time I look at them.  It’s the Horror Rises from the Grave DVD set.  Film #2 was supposedly called Zombie Flesh Eaters.  That’s strange.  Any real zombie fan will know that that’s also the alternate title for Zombi 2.  When I looked into it more there are 2 or 3 English titles with just as many in Spanish, all with different cover art.  Several different titles on file for this bad boy "The Blind Dead 3," "The Ghost Galleon," "Ghost Ships of the Blind Dead," "Horror of the Zombies" and "Ship of Zombies".   It’s part of the blind dead series which I’ve never seen but heard good things about.  A dead giveaway that the movie is terrible is when you pop it into the dvd player and not only are there no previews but no extras of any kind.  The two options are “Play” and “Chapters”.  Hold on this is going to be a bumpy one.

I take off the wire cage, beside myself with anticipation.  What kind of concoction has Mr. Cilurzo dreamed up?  According to Beeradvocate (bastards) it’s a Belgian Strong Pale Ale.   Hmf?  Never heard of that one before.  It’s 7.75% (thanks for carrying it out to the extra decimal place) and just 25 IBUs.  It’s a vibrant yellow and just a little hazy with a brilliant white head that floats like a lily pad.  There’s some sediment swirling around in the glass but that’s okay.  It feels more authentic that way.  It doesn’t have the big nose that I expected from a Belgian.  There’s moderate Belgian yeast character, bread dough, and slight green apple tang.  The warmer it gets there is hints of oak and vanilla.  First sip reveals a light sweetness with some clove, slight banana and apple.  It’s highly carbonated and finishes dry with a spicy bitterness.  Very mild flavors on this one.  I would venture to call it delicate!  Very drinkable and enjoyable but not what I expected.  For me this beer doesn’t have the strong and distinctive character that I’ve come to expect from oaked Belgian Strong ales.  This beer has a place for sure, maybe just not with that price tag.  Quaffable but far from transcendent.

This movie is one big unpolished turd.  It was so bad that I finished the Damnation and had to pound a couple Dead Guys (hahah that sounds bad) just to finish it.  It’s nothing like the first movie on the disk (Horror Rises from the Tomb) which has tons of gore and lots of nudity.  Instead this movie has a lot of slow walking mummies and the constant threat of nudity (though it never comes to fruition).  The movie starts out with three women modeling bathing suits.  Several times they make like they’re going to undo their tops but…….never happens.

The whole premise of this movie is absolute doo doo.  The CEO of a sporting goods store decides to do this crazy publicity stunt where he sends two models into the Atlantic Ocean on a 16 ft boat.  I didn’t fully understand but I guess the idea is that they pretend to be stranded and then the two hotties get rescued and put on the news.  None of this ever happens because the two girls get hit by a 15^th century sailing ship.  Happens all the time.  Then there’s this weird thing where the boat brings fog and that makes the girls sleep?  Then they’re in another dimension?  Mr. Sporting Goods CEO, the head of the modeling agency, a weatherman (weird), and the missing models friend decide to rescue them in their sail boat.

So the zombies are more mummies.  They are the nights of templar?  No idea.  I was drinking heavily at this point.  What I can tell you is that the whole “They survive on the flesh of beautiful women” quote that was on one of the covers is total bullshit.  In fact when these undead nights get their skeleton like hands on the one girl they carry her across what seemed like the entire boat, just to throw her in the water.  That was the most terrifying thing the director could think of.  Just throwing her in the water?   Booooooooo.

Then for some reason a flaming cross made of pieces of the ship defended them from the zombies.  Then shit caught on fire.  Then they dumped the coffins (containing the zombies) into the ocean.  And decided to swim for it.  I don’t remember the ending expect that it sucked.  Whole movie is one giant piece of trash.  If it wasn’t for Living a Zombie Dream and I, Zombie I would have been really upset, but I know it wasn’t the worst movie by a long shot.

The Beer:

Aroma – 7/12

Appearance – 2/3

Taste – 13/20

Palate – 4/5 

   Overall – 7/10

Total = 33/50

  

The Movie:

Production – 2/5

Plot – 1/5

Gore – 1/5

 Zombies – 1/5

  Overall – 1/5