Mead Update

Here are some pictures from my third shipment of Mead I received last week. It's all from Poland. I've been really busy this week, working way to much, so I haven't gotten to enjoy it, so there's no review. I really am more focused on getting a wine rack for all these bottles than drinking them. Plus my roommate is gone for the next week and taking his camera with him.



The shipment. 2 Boxes.



This is the smaller box with 2 others. All in all, 5 different varieties of Polish meads, from the same bottling company. 2 of bottles, were the reviewed in my previous sampling.



The Top of the line, highest rated mead in the world. Jidwiga. Wicker encasing, sealed with wax. I'm don't even know how to open it to be honest. I'm scared.



This is the second best mead from the polish company. Royal Mead. I've tried it. Mmmmm. Sweet, sweet and superior to the others meads I've tasted. Lives up to it's reputation.

Whining and Dining

Blogger's been having some serious issues lately. Boo-hoo on you.

Yesterday marked my first full on, red carpet hollywood premiere. Borat. I had written an entire description documenting my entire experience, all the stars, all the glamor, the free popcorn, but it was boring. Not the night, but my writing of it. Just know that I had a blast. Dave and I timidly walked down the red carpet into the Mann's Chinese. The movie itself, Borat, is very funny and down right shocking at time. It's obviously not for everybody, but if you think you might like it you probably will.

My 22 year old scotch that I ordered yesterday was not surprisingly sold out. I save some money, don't get the bottles.

I'm trying to get all excited for Halloween, but it hasn't happened yet. I wonder what it is. I blame Screamfest and sitting through Pumkinhead 3: Piece of Shit. I think it's also a problem because I really hate Saw, TCM and haven't given The Grudge a chance. Why can't there be something like Final Destination 4 out during friday the 13th of Oct?

Speaking of shitty movies how bad is Sleepaway Camp 4: Return to Sleepaway Camp going to be? It's been in the can for like 4 or 5 years. It must be really terrible.

All I really need to do is watch Sleepaway camp 1,2 &3 which is a semi-annual halloween tradition... but honestly, Sleepaway Camp 2&3 has lost points over the years to The Apple and Troll 2. Oooooooh. Maybe I should pop in SC2 and Troll 2 and call it a night.

"I get by with a little help from my friends"

If you wanna read something pretty fun and Halloween-er-iffic go on over to X-Entertainment's halloween countdown blog and read 4 years worth of excitment-filled October blogging.

As for Halloween, I'm probably going to go to my cousin's BBQ on saturday during the day and stop by the Oakcrest Manor's annual party after that. My big problem is that the Seahawks have a 10am game the next morning so I don't want to stay out too late and be miserable the next morning watching an even miserabler game.

In other, more sad news, Dave is leaving for Purto Rico in a couple of days so I won't have his camera to do photo Mead reviewing. I will try and get the god-like Jidwiga Mead photos off the camera and post them before is does. I'm sure he'll have fun...

I lost today's post I had previously wrote. It was semi-inspired. I can only hope my re-enactment of it will be as much so...

Oh. Yes. The pain. I've kind of come to terms with the self-destructness and doom the Seahawks have awaiting in the coming weeks. I listend to the press conference since I moped and moaned this morning's the lost entry and Hasselbeck will be out for 3 games at least. This is bad news. The backup quarterback will be handing off to the backup running back in a situation that's not a 45-3 blowout. It's a long road to the (possible!?!) playoffs now... And even more so because in 4 weeks I'll be at the SF game and at that point the Seahawks could be realistically sitting at 5-4 from their 4-2 record right now.

I had to work on saturday, I would complain, but it was for 5 hours, I got paid 8 at double or two and a half times the normal rate added with all the extra hours I put in this week (9) I'll basically be getting an extra weeks pay. Neat. I did end up missing my new improv class. I think I'm going to cancel/postpone it. It's not the right time. Oh but when I came home on Friday I had recieved my third and final shipment of mead. Oh my god. The Jidwiga looks amazing! I have pictures and stuff forthcoming. I can't just drink the Jidwiga, I need a special occation or something. I cracked open the second best bottle from that batch and it was heavenly.

What have I done with my extra money? Have I already spent it? Well, not really, but I did just order some 22 year old scotch. I'm hoping it gets here by friday so I can celebrate a real two-day weekend and fat paycheck. I also bought a vintage (vintage baby!) harmony electric guitar. My straightup electric is a piece of junk that I bought of ebay for $100. So what to I do? I trade it in for an $80 guitar I bought on ebay. Yeah... don't ask me why I do the things I do.

I have tickets to the Borat premiere tonight.... so I could be doing that.... or working late.... we'll see... we'll see.

I was listening to the radio last night when the a hiphop song basically called " I wanna get with a white girl" blast through the speakers. This idea isn't nessisarly new, but when to break it down it's pretty brilliant. Black people make up all of 12% of the american population so making a song about white girls who make up I donno approximatly 40% of the population you get a wider general audience right? Plus white dudes bump along to the song and completely agree with the lyrics. I totally wanna get with a white girl. The radio was also playing a Kevin Federline song I assume only because it was produced by Bosco. It was very run-of-the-mill. I remember back in high school I tracked down this Bosco song that was only available on import and just listen to it on the portable cd player throughout the night...

Have you pre-ordered your Wowie-Zowie double disc yet? I just did. I heard one of the live tracks and it's damn exciting.

Ugh. I saw Pumpkinhead 3 last night and was physically angry afterwards. It was a piece of shit. Like seriously after about 40 mintues I was having a serious debate on whether I was going to get up and walk out. It would have been easier if the theatre hadn't of been filled with only 45 people, over half being from the cast and the crew. I couldn't walk out with Lance Hendrickson sitting a few row in front of me, that would just be sad. But the movie was just sadder. I cannot explain the incompetence. Like, I understand the movie's going to be on the sci-fi channel but jesus christ man... I don't have the strenght to completely pick it apart, just take my word for it. That's two movies this year that have left me angry because they're such wastes of time and resources (the other being Material girls... I don't even wanna start on that can of worms.)

What the F is up with paper towels that rip off in to 3rds? I know it's idea is to be more conservative, ect, but dude, we'd be using a real towel or something if we were interested in saving the enviornment, that strip of paper towel doesn't do jack shit for wiping up a spill or holding an apple.

Is there anyone cooler than Guillermo Del Toro? He directed Hellboy (come on, Nazi's are GREAT bad guys!) and Pan's Labyrinth which was by far the best movie a saw at Cannes and now he's thinking about doing an HP Lovecraft movie? Count me in. Seriously, when Pan's Laybrinth comes out in december go see it. It's like the most sinister children's story I've seen and it's so well crafted.

I start a new improv class tomorrow. It's at the improv olympic. All my ucb folks are taking a break for the holiday season and then we'll see come the new year. To be honest I'm kinda getting burnt out, but it has really refined my look at creating stories and characters.

I tried writing a few days ago but threw it out because it was not too interesting. This past week has been a rollicoaster of emotions, mainly just up and down, or good and bad.

My car was out of commision for about 5 days, which really sucked. It had me watching a lot of football over the weekend. The good thing to come out of it, was it was not my transmission giving me problems (thank god), so now, presumably, everything's all peachy.

I have not gotten my third shipment of mead yet. I should be today or tomorrow, which is super exciting given, the jidwiga mead is so close to reaching my lips. In other mean news, I drank without review the Mountain Meadow's Agave Mead, which was downright terrible. I didn't review it initially because I was in a bad mood and it was the only alcohol in the house. It was bad, so bad, that Dave ended up drinking most of it, another reason not to review it.

On saturday I went and saw Lily Allen (very... meeeah) but when it got out at the late hour of 10:40pm, Christina was like, 'hey you wanna go check out this real speakeasy'. I for one, didn't and still don't know that the definition of a speakeasy is, but I was like, sure. Boy, have I been lied to all my life! Those crazy underground parties you see in movies and shit, well, they do exist, I just haven't been cool enough to go I guess. (Then again, parties with Hookers and Blow exist too.. but make me uncomfortable) I was treated to: a dark alley with a big shady bouncer. We needed to give the passward to enter. We proceeded to enter the back of an art gallery, which had staircase, that lifted up to reveal a seceret basement. Down in the seceret basement, was a lot of smoking, people doing drugs, gambling, a dj spinning, girls dancing and of course a full cash bar in a place that obviously didn't have a liquor license. Can you say amazing!?! It was. I fully plan on being a part of that scene. It's not a one time thing, no sir, I will break into the underground... with the help of some friends...

Um. What else... I bought some stock in an oil company because oil prices are at a record low over the past year and a half and most anaylists (whoever they are) predict it can't get much lower. Oil stocks have dropped to. Enter me, bored, with money to burn. So lets see gas top 3.50 a gallon folks. Make it happen so I can get rich quick!

I won tickets to see a "special theatrical screening" of Pumpkinhead 3 a direct to video sequel tonight. We'll see how that goes. Why not? (because of mead.... mmmmmm. that's a tough one.)

I had a pretty crappy 40 minutes last night. My car has been firing off warning signs that it might have a problem. I'm pray, but am suspecting, that it's my transmission, in which case... I don't know what I'll do. Anyways, I'm carefully driving to the autoshop on my way home from work hoping my car doesn't break down on the way when an asshole in front of me is making an illegal left turn off of melrose. I sit behind him for like four minutes then there's a break of cars in the other lane and I pull around him. Flashing lights. I get pulled over by a motorcycle cop for not using my turn signal. Are you kidding? I apologize and explain to the officer that I'm frustrated because the guy in front of me was making an illegal turn. It does me no good. I get a ticket for not using my blinker. Lame.

That stuff is pretty much looming over my head right now. I've got a busy weekend ahead which includes my last improv class, seeing Lily allen, beyond the valley of the dolls and watching the seahawks...

It's friday which means: The Marine comes out today. Boo-yah. See you there. Maybe. If I have a car.

Mead Diaries, Part Two

As my second box of mead arrives and I have some explaining to do. It seems my history of the mead ordering was a bit fuzzy. The acutal events in a short summary (it might make more senses, so here is goes): The first hunt, I failed to find polish mead, but I find the hall of mead with a large selection so I ordered a variety--because I needed the mead! Weeks go by, nothing happens, I come across a site with the jidwiga mead, order it instantly. Weeks go by, I don't hear anything, frustrated, I find a site with a different kind of Polish mead made by the same people. I (apperently) buy 8 bottles out of frustration. Which brings me to his shipment from Shoppers Vineyard.com. Great news, I placed this order last thursday and it arrives wednesday morning.

Rundown of the Contents:

8 Bottles of Kasztelanski Polish Mead



Since I have a stock of 8 freakin' bottles, I crack one open.



Gone is the traditional wine bottle, replaced with a short, fat one that's similar to brandy. Sitting in the glass, you can see that the Kasztelanski is darker in color than the Chauchen.



The first inhale encounters a deeply alcoholic aroma, there's not a sweet honey smell. It's not entirely plesant. I kept thinking, I wonder if the polish purify their water. The honey fragrence is faint and raw, like that of a honeycomb. Imagine a bee-hive open that was just outside your window so you go outside and throw rocks at it until it falls on the the ground and cracks open. Then you take a big wiff, inhaling the dirt and hive. That's what you have....

...If your wondering if that's a complement or not, so am I.



The first sip caught me off guard. It's sweeter than the Chauchen, the mead is very... alcoholic,. It tastes like a brandy or something more than mead. It lacks the flavor of honey. It's probably there. The Kasztelanski is most likely made entirely of natural honey or something like that. Keep refering to the image of the behive on the ground. It's different than any mead I've ever had.

At first I was put off, but after the first glass it really started to grow on me. It's honey/nectar/sweetness really starts coming out after a bit. Make no mistakes, this is a rich, full mead. It's not wimpy. I'll come to the conclusion that if you're trying to get a MAN's MAN to start drinking mead, this might be a good start. It'll be like he's drinking a smooth, tasty hard alcohol, not some sissy dessert wine. Still... it's enjoyable, though not something I can imagine craving...

Mead Diaries, Entry One

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them...

My first box of Mead arrived!!!

This one from Liquid Solutions.biz --aka the one that took 6 weeks to arrive. Even though it came 'first' out of all the orders, it still took six freakin' weeks to get there. Though the site has a huge selection of different meads from around the US and beyond, I can't reccomend it.



Here's a rundown of the bottles:

2 Chouchen Oak Aged Mead (from france)
1 Chouchen Mead (ditto)
1 Sky River Sweet Mead
1 Sky River Semi-sweet Mead
1 Mountain Meadow's Agave Mead (made with Agave nectar, duh!)
1 Read Stone Meadery, Mountain Honey Wine
1 Chateau Lorane Life Force Vandel Gold Mead (from Eugene, OR)

It was like christmas in The Club House, where I feverously documented all the mead and examined them closely. The Chouchen 2 Year Oak Aged Mead was the bottle I decided to pop open. It's from france much darker in color than all the other bottles, it looked more like an aged scotch or something. Also it's the only one I have two of.





All the bottles recommended that their mead be served chilled, but I just could not wait. I had to indulge.

Upon opening, the auroma of the Chouchen Mead was heavy and sweet with honey (not surprising, right?).



First taste...



Yes. That's me savoring the drink of kings.
Mmmmmm. How my life has been nothing without you....

My reactions to the Chouchen Oak Aged Mead:

• It's not really that sweet, the smell is much stronger
• It tasted kinda watery, it's kinda weak flavored
  
• The oak is definately present, adding a new dimension to previously tasted meads
  

After enjoying a couple of sips, I typed in Chouchen in a little known website called "google" only to find out the Chouchen is a specific mead from Britteny, France known for being a very light mead, up to only 3.5% alcohol by volume. (Most mead is like wine 10-14%) It's also known for being watery. (And that's why I call myself a connoisseur. Boo-yeah!)

Anyways, this paticular bottle is actually 13% ABV and after by first glass, I found myself forgeting most my critisisms and really enjoying the taste.

Later on in the evening, I tried a glass of the mead, chilled, and though that it tasted even more watered down. So this expert recommends Chouchen being served at room tempurature.

EDIT: For the Love of Danny. A Rating System.

The Verdict:

Chouchen 2 Year Oak Aged Mead
A watery honey wine. While it lacks sweetness, the oak adds a complexness that makes it an easily drinkable and interesting mead.

MEAD MADNESS!!

This post is dedicated to Cory

Mead: freaking amazing alcoholic honey beverage; wine-like.

Today marks the beginning of my mead collection. Through a sizeable snaffu, a combination of my impatience and shoddy online shopping, I have 3 large shipments of mead arriving this week.

I was bored, working into the night about a month and a half ago and I had the craving for Mead and some money saved up. I am not as blessed as friends of mine are, to have a meadery in my area. In fact I can only find a few places that sell mead in LA, and there are only two different bottle to choose from. My late night research, happened upon reviews that all lead to one conclusion, the best mead known in the modern age, is a rare polish mead entitled jiwdaja. I was determind to buy a bottle of it, the lord of all Mead, via the world wide web. I failed that night, but found another mead made by the same brewer (I don't even know the proper term to place there), which seemed to be my only choice. I ordered about $130 of mead, or about a case. I figure, I might as well go all out--especially considering my lack of mead in LA. Well, the weeks go by. No email, no deduction from my checking account, nothing. I go back to the website, they have no record of my order. After three weeks, my need for mead reaches a higher peak. I begin the pursuit again for Jiwdaja polish mean, fail yet again, but find some website that has french oak barrel mead--it actually has a "hall of mead," all different kinds, I don't go as crazy, but damn, I crave that sweet honey goodness. I order like 8 bottles or $100, all different kinds of mead from various meaderies. I get an automatic response. Two weeks go by. NOTHING. I'm nuts. I'm going freaking nuts. SHOW ME THE MEAD! Last week, I'm surfing the net again, mead oriented of course, I happen upon a site selling the legendary Jiwdaja Mead!!!!!! (It's under a different longer polish name! Can you believe it!!) In a frenzy of excitment and disbelief, I order a few bottles of it--scratch that, I order a bunch. This website is on top of it. Order ships next day. Hells yeah. Finally: Mission Accomplished.

The next morning, I check my email, I have three order shipped emails, as if to spite me, all websites ship their orders to me on the same day. WTF? One, after six weeks of non communication, the other, about 2 week of non-com, and then the glorious, glorious heaven site ships the day after the order. I check my bank account, sure enough... $360 of deductions, all mead related. $360!?!?! Do I freak out? no. I accept the consequences... Along with all the glorious bottles of mead that comes along with it. Now, I have to scrape together money for a wine rack to hold and show off my glowing, growing collection. (two of the packages, shipping from fedex, are 30lbs each)

In the coming weeks I will be tasting, and reviewing the various meads hopefully with pictures accompanying it.

I went and saw both The Departed and Califone (movie & muscial concert, respectivly) yesterday evening with Maileen. It was a great night. Califone preformed as a 3-piece, something new to me and while it was both mellow and jamm-ey, it was excatly what I needed. I do miss the bassist though. Oh, how you aren't the same without your big bald, cowboy hat wearing, out of place bassist. It's been, years now(?!?) since I saw that guy play with the band. Also seeing Califone sans a second percussionist is also mildly worrisome, their percussion is a definate strenght to the band. All concerns aside, it was a good show, their new material, which just got an 8.7 or something on pitchfork, is much better live. I'm kind of lukewarm on the new CD actually--I'm a bigger fan of the 17 minute noise of King Heron Blues, than the softer wilco-esq stuff on Root & Crowns. Why complain? It was fun.

Today I'm am fashioning my new CK light green button up shirt. Last week when test screened the movie I'm working on in ventura county, it lead to about 4 hours of freetime, in which I found my self inside a TJ MAXX at 2:30 in the afternoon. You know who shops at TJ maxx at 2:30 on a tuesday? A bunch of stay at home moms. I was the only male... I got myself a Calvin Klein shirt for like $15. I'm not sure about it yet, it tends to wrinkle easily.

I just decided I did something pretty dumb. I transfered my credit card balance from one of my cards on to another, so I just deal with one card and it's a lesser interest rate. Here's the thing; I plan to pay it off this month? Why didn't I just pay each card seperatly? Now I'm stuck, paying like $15 to have it transfered, only to pay it all off this week. In a business sense, that's just stupid.

The Departed was a really good movie. I have passes to see it at the DGA wednesday and might go, if we don't have band practice. It's been like a month since we last practiced......

So, first and foremost, check out the new alphadog trailer over at apple. It looks like the film is finally coming out. I like the new trailer despite the fact it shows most the movie, but oh well.

The morning started out not so well. The water in my house seemed to be shut off, minutes after the other roommates finished showering. But not me. Ugh.

I did a whole bunch of financial shifting today. I moved some money into an e-saving account with a high interest rate, I moved my balance from one credit card over to another, so I'm getting into it! Planning for the future.

I should have a pretty busy and fun weekend, I'm cramming a bunch of stuff into it because the seahawks have a bye. I might go to lauren's birthday lunch picnic thing or watch the husky game, then I have class, then I'm going to see a show at the getty. Sunday I plan on going down to see uncle terry and chris baier and company and hope to make it back in time to see califone play the spaceland. Should be a blast.

It's been a real busy week, I've been working late every night, but I'm in a great mood. Much better than monday.

This is my 100th post since hopping over to blogger. Wow. Neat. There you go.

I wish I had more to write about, but I'm just sitting here this morning, reading, sort of spacing out. Work is my life right now.

I've been thinking about how to spend all the money I've saved up. Ideally, I'd put it as a down payment on a house or condo or something, but really I'd need a lot more I think.

[EDIT]
I've just done about 5 hours of looking. Yup. I'm going to need a ton more money.... But anyways, before I looked at houses and rates and stuff, I was thinking about getting a tv, eye surgery, a car maybe... Now I'm just depressed I'm so poor. Shucks.

JJ gave me this new album The Gothic Archies, which is basically the dude from the Magnetic Fields singing songs based on the leminy sniket books. It's awesome.

What can I say? Last night sucked.

I don't even know what to do other than mope. Actually I had a great weekend leading up to a gut wrenching sunday night...

I have something stuck behind my teeth and I've been trying to unmount it all morning. I have not clue what it is. It could be popcorn, I donno. I need to find some floss.

So, I donno if you remember my whole debacle with French girl and her short film I edited against my better judgement only to mutually leave the project. Anyways she sent me the finished product and it makes me feel good for a number of reasons. 1) it pretty much sucks --I'm glad I didn't spend anymore time on it. 2) the editing's not great. The last thing my psyche needs is to depart a project for a "proffessional editor named Sven" only to have that dude be a mastermind that transforms the mediocre footage into a masterpiece. That did not happen. I think the editing is subpar. There you have it. I'm belittling people to make myself feel better. I need it.

Why don't I get any emails? I need something to do. I can't look at sports websites, which usually takes me up to lunch time. It's not lunch time.

Happy Yom Kippur folks. Happy Yom Kippur....