It’s only 15 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

While I don’t have to worry about stray probe droids or wampa attacks, I can’t help but feel like I’m trapped on Hoth. I keep starting my car, just to make sure that its hyperdrive hasn’t been deactivated. After all, I’m going to have to get the fuck out of the driveway once Vader and his crew roll up.

They don’t mess around.

Okay, so I don’t have to worry about the Dark Lord of the Sith tossing my dessicated corpse into a snowbank. But I also don’t have the benefit of taking a dip in a bacta tank. So how am I, a regular fanboy without any mastery of the Force, supposed to survive the frozen hell that is the Bostonian January?

Why, with the sweet warmth of alcohol! On this early Sunday afternoon, I’m tossing back a bottle of the oak-aged elixir that is Innis & Gunn Original.

C’mon Chewie, punch it!

Keep Reading »

There’s an argument to be made that individuals shouldn’t try to improve themselves through any means other than those that’ve been pre-approved In this mindset, personal evolution is certainly acceptable, but circumventing the system is not. You want to   push yourself to the very edge of your potential? Sure! Go for it! Make the most of your experience on Spaceship Earth! Just make sure to never, ever, consider redefining the limits that’ve been ascribed to you.

After all, if you stumble across a way to improve yourself that others aren’t hip to, well, that wouldn’t be fair. Right? In fact, some might even call that cheating.

But others…well, we call it innovative.

Think of the bad motherfuckers that Earth would’ve never seen   do awesome shit if they’d felt compelled to play by the rules. Robert Rodriguez wouldn’t have decided for himself that an action movie could be made for less than $10,000. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa wouldn’t’ve found the right supplements to give baseball fans the 1998 home run race. And perhaps Bruce Banner wouldn’t’ve ‘t acknowledged what’d happen to him after jumping into the path of a gamma bomb.

Sometimes being good just isn’t enough, even if you’re a director or a baseball player or a scientist. The bottom line is that if you can figure out a way to exponentially increase your talents, whether they’re limited or formidable, you’d be a fucking fool not to. Take whatever it is your good at, and rock it as hard as you can.

This is the very idea behind Dark Intrigue.

Keep Reading »

Ahoy!`Tis Saturday nite and as such the drinks are freely flowin’ at the Mos Eisley Cantina. Figrin D’an is tearing shit up with his Modal Nodes, inspiring muthafuckahs to hit the dance floor and gyrate their gential-areas together. Backdoor deals are being made so that terrorist-farmhands can blow up expensive government buildings.   And droids still aren’t being served.

If Omega-Level were a patron of the Mos Eisley Cantina, it’d be a smooth-talkin’ Corellian whose language of choice is credits.

But since we have the benefit of residing on the lovely blue planet known as Earth, there’s no chance of snagging space-brews from Wuher. Instead, I must head to the liquor-merchant and choose a potable on my own. Without an interstellar racist to guide me, I’m liable to choose all sorts of kooky concoctions.

As such, tonight I’m drinking Innis & Gunn Rum Cask.

Keep Reading »

Living in the Boston area, I know what a she-bitch Winter can be. Sure, she shows up to the party with brisk breezes and picturesque snow-dustings. But before you even have a chance to buy a new ice scraper, the frozen hoe is dropping blizzards on your ass and stampin’ all over your Raynaud’s-addled digits.

Remember, Winter is not your friend. She’s not even your friend’s friend. All she wants is to see you suffer the ice-prickled sting of seasonal blue balls.

Fortunately, there are ways of curbing the blow delivered by the Time of the Taiga. Take hockey, for instance. This sport is not unlike an astrophysicist who was raised ferally by   a pack of abusive lycanthropes, succeeding in spite of a terrible formative environment.

Is hockey the only worthwhile wintertime activity? Hell no. There’s also beer drinkin’.

The folks at Vermont’s Magic Hat Brewing Company understand the protective qualities of intoxicating libations. How do I of   know this? Well, I’ve sipped on Howl.

Keep Reading »

I love sequels.

After all, what’s better than getting to revisit   the worlds that’ve inspired us? The first voyage to these lands sees us falling in love, realizing we’re being changed irrevocably, and then making lifetime commitments.   But the subsequent trek? Well, that’s the honeymoon, with garters torn asunder and bed frames busted in half.

That’s not to say that all successors are worthy additions to a franchise. Many aren’t. And some are goddamn abominations. But those sequels that fire on all cylinders? Magic.

The Empire Strikes Back. The Godfather Part II. Die Hard with a Vengeance. Ghostbusters II. Aliens. Terminator II. Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey. Predator II. Temple of Doom. The Two Towers. Army of Darkness. The Dark Knight.

You get the point.

Today, I’m applying my love for sequels to my penchant for Friday beer-drankin’. Instead of guzzling any run-of-the-mill, first go-around brew, I’m sippin’ on the third member of a veritable beer franchise.

Today, I’m drinking Fade to Black Volume 3: Pepper Porter.

Keep Reading »

In my most cherished fantasies, I’m a member of Rogue Squadron. That’s right, if you see me crashing into the mailbox during a mid-drive daydream, I’m probably imagining myself nosediving into the Death Star’s exterior. As the suburban townsfolk yell and scream and cry in the hopes of getting my car off of their lawns, I can only hear Biggs and Wedge and Porkins egging me on. The cops throw down spike strips, and my tires blow out, and all I do is turn up the radio and mutter, “Stay on target.”

It’s this wonderful hallucination of being a bad-ass space-rebel that helps me cope with the fact that I’m nothing more than a sci-fi lovin’ scamp of a man.

Also helping me get through the ennui of my regularly-scheduled quarter-life crises is beer. Sweet, bitter, dark and fizzy beer. On Fridays I make a point to try a new beer, thereby expanding my palate and giving me a deeper basis-for-comparison well.

Tonight, I’m combining my yearning for intergalactic adventure and beer-lust by sipping on the Rogue Brewery’s Double Mocha Porter.

Keep Reading »

Sometimes we need to drink.

When we’re dissatisfied with our jobs. When it seems as though we’re stuck in limbo, neither ascending into the honey-sweet halls of Valhalla nor descending into the darkest depths of the liberating Lake of Fire. When our wheels are spinning without taking us damn near anywhere worth goin’ to.

Sometimes we need to drink.

When we want to warm our faces with synthesized satisfaction. When it’ll help us enjoy a movie by chopping chop down those imaginative barriers that go up when we become adults. When we want to forget about our broken spirits. When we want to fill our gullets with something tasty.

Sometimes we need to drink.

When we’re writing irresponsible blogs posts – not because we have to, but because it makes us happy.

Sometimes we need to drink.

Tonight, I need a drink. And so, I’m sipping on the Wachusett Brewing Company’s Milk Stout.

Keep Reading »

The economy has yet to recover from its monumental floundering in 2008. Most jobs are in short supply. Other Jobs are dead. Nations are entangled in conflicts its citizens don’t understand, don’t believe in, and don’t want to fight. Hordes of the disgruntled are flooding streets, occupying major metropolitan areas and declaring their dissatisfaction. Tumult is proliferating at unprecedented rates.

And yet, it’s Friday. Love is still free to give and receive. Guitars still vibrate-melodious. High-fivin’ a buddy still feels awesome. Even in these most turbulent of times, persistent are those little reminders of why we persevere. It’s one thing to acknowledge the human spirit, but entirely another to know its power.

I know that the general consensus is that everything’s awful and I’m supposed to check my optimism at the door. But I’m not going to.  Tonight, I’m taking a stand against the tyranny of our times. It’s Friday, goddamn it, and I’m going to enjoy my life for what it is and what it can be! Though my flesh-vehicle betrays me and society’s crumbling, art and beauty and truth still exist.

As does beer.

So, in the midst of existential collapse, I sip on BRRRBON.

Keep Reading »

The Cambridge Brewing Company is once again bottling The Great Pumpkin Ale. Since this is the first time in twenty-two years that we’re getting a chance to taste a bottled version of the punkin’-brew, this is a huge deal for all microbrew enthusiast. Keep Reading »

Let us rejoice, for Friday night is upon us! Those of us lucky enough to remain unfettered – without the shackles of offspring or weekend jobs or second drafts of suicide notes to edit – we get to spend this glorious evening any way we see fit.

So how am I spending the evening? Well, I’m attempting to both appease my insatiable appetite for dessert and honor my weekly intoxication-ritual in one fell swoop. How’s that, you ask? Well, I’m slurping on a drank that models itself on a delicious treat.

Tonight, I’m tossing back Creme Brûlée Stout from the fine folks at the Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Keep Reading »