pumpktoberfest #19 - take me to the river.

film: mega piranha
beer: river horse hipp-o-lantern imperial pumpkin ale

when it comes to making a horror film, sometimes it helps to serve it up with a big ol helping of cheese. when it comes to movie cheese, the asylum, a movie studio that's known for films such as transmorphers, titanic II & mega shark vs giant octopus, takes the proverbial cake. one of their latest gems is their 2010 film, mega piranha, which shows what happens when piranhas mutate & grow to ridiculous proportions. it stars paul logan as special forces member jason fitch, former teen pop star tiffany as genetics researcher sarah monroe & barry williams (greg brady) as secretary of state bob grady. it premiered back in april on syfy & due to its high quantity of awesomeness, it got the channel's highest ratings of the year, as 2.2 million people tuned in. oh snap, ghost hunters! you got beat by a bunch of fish!

Click to read more ...

pumpktoberfest #18 - zombified!

 

film: zombieland
beer: buffalo bill's brewery pumpkin ale

dude. why are people so friggin obsessed with zombies? i mean, these days peeps organize "zombie crawls" in cities all across the country, events where people dress up like zombies & roam the city "looking for brains." there was a bunch of buzz last year when pride and prejudice and zombies, a novel which puts the classic jane austen tale in a world filled with zombies, was released. over the past decade, there have been a ton of zombie films made, stuff like 28 days later and shaun of the dead. i don't get it really. i guess zombies are kinda cool, but if i'm picking something to obsess over i'm going with ninjas or pirates.

Click to read more ...

pumpktoberfest #17 - oh hell no!

film: drag me to hell
beer: weyerbacher imperial pumpkin ale

happy friday! happy october! HAPPY PUMPKTOBERFEST EVERYONE! after the overwhelming success of last year's pumpktoberfest revelry, where we showcased my top fifteen horror films alongside fifteen pumpkin beers, this year we're back with a whole new round of horror films, none of which i've seen before & a (mostly) brand new round of pumpkin beers! can you feel the PUMPKTOBERFEST EXCITEMENT? i sure as hell can. without further ado, let's get to it!

Click to read more ...

#170 - salsa slammed.

in case i haven't made it apparent, i'm cool with the folks over at nachosny. they wrote a guest post for me last summer & i cooked "questionable" nachos in their honor last september. this year, after attending may's guactacular, i started writing a nacho snack guest column entitled "a queso the munchies" for them. back in july, i ate guacamole & listened to indie rock with 200 other people on a boat on the hudson as part of their "guac rock" event. when lee (the mastermind behind nachosny) tipped me off to their next event, a salsa battle dubbed the "salsa slam," it's safe to say that i was pretty friggin excited. then he asked me if i'd like to be one of the event's esteemed judges. i was all "hellz yeah. i love judging both salsa AND people!" the best part? explaining to people that i was going to be judging a food competition, NOT a dance competition.

Click to read more ...

only in ny #4: smoke joint.

snack: black angus dog / spicy french fries
drink: abita jockamo i.p.a.

even though i've lived in brooklyn for almost a decade now, my knowledge of the fort greene, brooklyn food & drink scene is relatively lame. i haven't really had all that much reason to hang out there until this summer, when i've found myself at the brooklyn flea on most weekends. as a result, i've been spending much more time in the neighborhood lately. a couple fridays ago, on my quest to find "a place to drink that has food," my brooklyn flea partner-in-crime jessica suggested the smoke joint, a bbq restaurant right off of fulton st. i'm not exactly a huge meat eater, but i do go for quality meats every once in a while, so the promise of bbq sounded good to me.

Click to read more ...