Here is a Greek name that Mark Reynier and Jim McEwen should keep at arm's length from their product identities. For anyone who was 9 years old in 1979, Ridley Scott's Alien is the archetypal sci-fi horror flic of our times. It is one thing to be taken over by aliens, cloned, zombified, or brainwashed, but to become the egg for some alien creature, that was the essence of horror in the day. Now some may ask, where is the CGI? Why did they have such crappy effects? These people are missing the point. It was scary because of the story telling, not the whiz-bang effects created by pimply-faced teenagers at Lucas Arts.
Less than a decade later, in 1987, came Aliens, directed by James Cameron. This was a guy who needed a win. Titanic had not yet been filmed, but have you seen Battle Beyond the Stars, starring John Boy?...'Nuff said. Well, they picked the right man for the right movie. This was one half Green Berets, and one half Dawn of the Dead. It had some great A-list actors, and some lesser B-listers, who went on the make names for themselves, sometimes in A-list movies (Bill Paxton, Titanic). Can anyone say: "Game over man! Game over!"? In the movie Aliens, the art of the sequel was elevated to new summit. It had to be.
The script was well thought out and unlike the first movie, it was the prolific appearances of the aliens scared the piss out of us, rather than their scarcity. The balance in the writing was great, you were comforted by the military's presence, their superior weapons (compared to flame throwers), yet still awed by even more formidable aliens (such as the Queen). Yes, they used a few plot cliches: need to go back for the girl, or the cat, or the dog, we can't leave without them! A little romance between a military grunt and Company grunt (Sigourney Weaver). The antics from Bill Paxton's character are still heard on the golf course, and deliberate Company subterfuge provided a counterpoint to the mindless killing served up by the aliens. Great movie, great ending...I only wish it had ended there. I've spent the last 13 years trying to forget the next two.
So it was with great anticipation that the public awaited the return of Ridley Scott to the genre with the release of Prometheus. How could this go wrong when the story was being told by the dude who invented Alien? Sort of. So many questions to be answered, yet the best part of this movie was waiting for it, trying to infer the story line from the trailers that abounded on YouTube. This movie, as Forbes put it, was a "visually stunning epic failure". But, to be fair, the movie did not begin on that note.
One cannot miss the 2001: A Space Odyssey imagery that was ubiquitous. The opening scene is one of majestic vistas filmed with the most exquisite lenses, culminating with the view of a huge shadowy "monolithic" spaceship. Later, it is a archeological dig, though not on the moon, but on the Isle of Skye (maybe Talisker should name a bottling Prometheus) which then leads us to the predictable interstellar expedition where a lone astronaut is left making the rounds of the ship with the rest of the team in stasis. At the end of the movie, we even the eerie voice of a malfunctioning robot, calling out the name of the lone survivor, imploring her to save him to help her escape. If this was his tribute to 2001: ASO, the only thing to be proud of here were the top notch special effects and cinematography.
The moment this movie started to go off the rails was shortly after landing on the alien planet. Instead of the corporate bigwig, or even the captain insisting on developping a plan to bring a successful conclusion to this trillion dollar mission, the reigns are handed over to green-horn academic who declares that "it's Christmas!" and orders everyone into their suits and onto the planet. Even the actual Titanic expedition run by Dr. Ballard used remote subs to probe the wreck first. The next moment of dread was when the same pencil-head decides to just take his helmet off...this is about aliens right? Keep the helmet on.
From here on out, this movie was a disaster. There was no character development. The entire cast was a cast of "red-shirts", with the exception of a lone female. Hey, we've seen this movie before, I paid to actually see a NEW movie! And the acting wasn't the problem, it was the scripting. The dialogue between characters was so unrealistic as to render implausible most of the climax of this film. I mean, why would a bunch of grunts smilingly do a kamikazi run to save human-kind? Why would a mission carrying the trillionaire who funded this mission staff it with low-life grunts sporting mohawk/head tattoos? Silly.
Finally, this movie didn't only NOT answer questions or NOT create more questions, it simply confused people with inconsistencies. The alien that appears at the end of the deux ex machina is similar, but NOT the alien we know. The alien engineer is killed in the escape pod, not in his pilot's chair. The trillionaire's body was left in the ship, so this could not have been the same ship they discover in Alien. In fact, it took some digging on Google to determine that the planet in Alien is LV-426, while the one in Prometheus is LV-223.
Finally, if LV-223 had actually housed spaceships with technology and genetic technology, and the answer to humanity, then wouldn't we have visited that planet first, if not only to recover the billionaire's body? Or was it a covert mission? And how exactly would you keep that a secret? And how did we develop interstellar travel in a mere 70 years from now. We'll be lucky to make it to Mars by 2093. And as to the escape by the heroine on another alien ship, who will repair the android? An archaelogist? What will they eat on their journey to the engineer's homeworld? Too many questions can destroy the suspension of disbelief, doesn't Ridley know that?
No, I think that the best thing to do would be to avoid the use of Prometheus in any product identity development. No Talisker Prometheus, no Port Charlotte: Fire of the Gods. No, it is best that this film be laid to rest and a marketing quarantine be placed on its patron God. I suppose I have another few years ahead of me trying to forget this one too.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Friday, May 4, 2012
May the Fourth be with you!
May the Fourth has come to be known as Cask Day amongst our merry band of brothers over the last 8 years. Scattered to the four corners of North America, we have managed scant few times to celebrate this day in person. As you know, we have been patiently waiting for our cask of Bruichladdich to come of age. But Cask Day just got better. Today is also Star Wars Day in Toronto, Ontario, complete with its own clever pun on Obi-Wan's favourite salutation. Life just keeps getting better and better.
Now you might've noticed that I changed the name of the blog, in a total coincidence with the Star Wars Day announcement, and I hope you will take it with a grain of salt! Nobody under the age of 44 can't say that they secretly don't want to be a Jedi. So, I decided to use this title to indicate my love of science fiction and space operas, rather than my expertise with whisky, so please, just have a little fun with it. The fact that I am fascinated with the complexity of distilled spirits is simply a bonus, don't you think?
So what is there to celebrate on Star Wars Day? Well, for one thing, George Lucas has finally gotten the message, and he recently stated that he would not be making any more movies. To paraphrase him, "why should I subject myself to having fans on the street constantly tell me what a poor job I'm doing?" Well George, you made your bed....Why shouldn't fans tell him when he's doing a poor job? How on earth could you NOT expect fans to tell you that it is inconceivable that with over twenty years to plan, write, shoot, edit, that you could possibly end up with a film that was made as poorly as his prequels.
Some may say, well, even the originals are a little old, don't you think? Actually I don't. Quality endures. Those films are so tightly written, that even today, the dialogue is believable (minus Carrie Fisher's brief dalliance with a British accent in Episode IV), and simply are a pleasure to watch over and over again. Quite the opposite is true of the prequels. The more I see Hayden Christiansen deliver a terribly script, the more I hate the movie. George can't even claim that he's simply paying hommage to 1930s space operas, it's rubbish, plain and simply.
But quality endures. Quality breeds loyalty. Witness my short list of movies which, when stumbled upon, I cannot resist watching to the end, every time: Aliens, The Matrix, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Contact, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: First Contact, Inception, Planet of the Apes(all of them), 2001: A Space Oddysey, Silent Running, The Fifth Element, Terminator 2, Stargate, Minority Report, to name but a few.
With films, so it should also be with whisky. So many single malts have suffered from brand deterioration. That is to say, so many connoisseurs have commented on the fact that certain brands "are not what they used to be in the 90s, or 80s, or what have you". The common refutation is that it is the palates that have changed, not the product, but can so many fans be wrong? Much of the cachet of single malt brands IS tradition, quality, history, so should distillers not take care to preserve these things? This is the real challenge in the single malt world, where competition from other quality spirits is ramping up, the need to maintain quality in the face of rising costs. Paying attention to the masses, who only discriminate on the basis of the price-tag at Wal-Mart, is NOT the way to maintain a loyal following of fans who will support you to the end.
Now for a malt that if encountered, must be enjoyed.:
Talisker 18 yo, ca. 2009.
Colour: gold
Nose: gentle sweet peat, smoked apples, vanilla. Aromatic narguileh tobacco.
Palate: Spicy attack all over the palate, not too intense. Beautiful sweet and salty interplay. Vanilla/cinnamon combination, oxidized apples.
Finish: very long and spicey, on a sweet-ash note. Leaves you wanting more.
Score: 89 points.
Now you might've noticed that I changed the name of the blog, in a total coincidence with the Star Wars Day announcement, and I hope you will take it with a grain of salt! Nobody under the age of 44 can't say that they secretly don't want to be a Jedi. So, I decided to use this title to indicate my love of science fiction and space operas, rather than my expertise with whisky, so please, just have a little fun with it. The fact that I am fascinated with the complexity of distilled spirits is simply a bonus, don't you think?
So what is there to celebrate on Star Wars Day? Well, for one thing, George Lucas has finally gotten the message, and he recently stated that he would not be making any more movies. To paraphrase him, "why should I subject myself to having fans on the street constantly tell me what a poor job I'm doing?" Well George, you made your bed....Why shouldn't fans tell him when he's doing a poor job? How on earth could you NOT expect fans to tell you that it is inconceivable that with over twenty years to plan, write, shoot, edit, that you could possibly end up with a film that was made as poorly as his prequels.
Some may say, well, even the originals are a little old, don't you think? Actually I don't. Quality endures. Those films are so tightly written, that even today, the dialogue is believable (minus Carrie Fisher's brief dalliance with a British accent in Episode IV), and simply are a pleasure to watch over and over again. Quite the opposite is true of the prequels. The more I see Hayden Christiansen deliver a terribly script, the more I hate the movie. George can't even claim that he's simply paying hommage to 1930s space operas, it's rubbish, plain and simply.
But quality endures. Quality breeds loyalty. Witness my short list of movies which, when stumbled upon, I cannot resist watching to the end, every time: Aliens, The Matrix, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Contact, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek: First Contact, Inception, Planet of the Apes(all of them), 2001: A Space Oddysey, Silent Running, The Fifth Element, Terminator 2, Stargate, Minority Report, to name but a few.
With films, so it should also be with whisky. So many single malts have suffered from brand deterioration. That is to say, so many connoisseurs have commented on the fact that certain brands "are not what they used to be in the 90s, or 80s, or what have you". The common refutation is that it is the palates that have changed, not the product, but can so many fans be wrong? Much of the cachet of single malt brands IS tradition, quality, history, so should distillers not take care to preserve these things? This is the real challenge in the single malt world, where competition from other quality spirits is ramping up, the need to maintain quality in the face of rising costs. Paying attention to the masses, who only discriminate on the basis of the price-tag at Wal-Mart, is NOT the way to maintain a loyal following of fans who will support you to the end.
Now for a malt that if encountered, must be enjoyed.:
Talisker 18 yo, ca. 2009.
Colour: gold
Nose: gentle sweet peat, smoked apples, vanilla. Aromatic narguileh tobacco.
Palate: Spicy attack all over the palate, not too intense. Beautiful sweet and salty interplay. Vanilla/cinnamon combination, oxidized apples.
Finish: very long and spicey, on a sweet-ash note. Leaves you wanting more.
Score: 89 points.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
McTrek Must Die!
At one point in the 90's, you could time Mr. Spock's Pon Far down to the month just by looking at how long the most recent addition to the Star Trek franchise had been running. If you were in season 7, well it was time for a grand finale, a feature film, and onward to the next Trek series. This pattern continued until the premature, though justifiable, demise of the last series, Enterprise. What exactly happened to this once grand franchise? McTrek. The painfully uncreative recycling of creative material into multiple series which differed only in the characters and setting, but otherwise never showed an ounce of innovation or evolution.
The same sort of thing that McDonalds does with it's menu items. Chicken sandwiches, chicken nuggets, crispy chicken wraps...it's all the same chicken folks. Thus is seems that this is the modus operandii of the world these days. Create something, then juice it until the last drop, no matter how bad it tastes. Stargate, Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, and I simply cannot wait for Avatar: The Navi Porn Channel.
Now, there are those who rail against the well trained masses of fans, the "fan-guard", if you will, who have pioneered what has come to be known as the "reboot". Witness the staggering success that was Battlestar Galactica, or dare I say, the latest Star Trek movie. They shattered stereotypes, used creative licence to change some of the mythology, while still appealing to the rock'em sock'em spirit of the original work. It seems that sometimes the reboot is the safest approach on the road of innovation, because often when real creativity take place, the market simply can't support it. Farscape, Caprica, and Jericho were all TV series whose creative premises forced us to think...then they were cancelled.
A friend of mine recently commented: "shouldn't they [studios] be educating viewers?". Nope. The raison-d'etre of TV studios is to entertain, not to educate, not to push the creative envelope, and most importantly, to make money. At least this is how I feel when I'm in a particularly pessimistic mood. On a good day, however, I still know that guys like J.J. Abrams are trying to rail against the status quo with the only weapon they have at their disposal...success. With success comes creative freedom; but is up to us, the market, to open our minds to new possiblities instead of railing against the fact that they turned Starbuck into a female or left William Shatner out of the last film.
So it is within the world of whisky-blogs. There are those blogs which have become the canon of whisky writing - Whisky Fun, Malt-Madness, What Does John Hansell Know? among the better known ones - and others that have emerged to fill nagging gaps such as the recently launched canadianw
hisky.org. However, for every original blog, there are a hundred other blogs, all following the same recipe, profile a whisky, profile a distillery, post tasting notes, press releases and a nice picture of a bottle. Then just wait for the free samples to arrive! Why not? It's the capitalist way. If it works, juice it.
However, there are those who have successfully introduced innovation. The ever-eclectic Ralfy.com is one chap who has really perfected the idea of a "vlog" (video blog), and he is to be commended for the volume of his work, if not his overly campy humour. Johannes Van den Heuval also peppers his tasting notes with polemics on a variety of political and economic topics, which draws on a variety of audiences as potential readers. So, I decided that if I were going launch a blog, it had to be more than just a critical platform for whisky, it had to allow me to talk about other topics that I find interesting and stimulating.
So here is my new blog, it's about Sci-Fi and Single Malt, though not limited to single malt whisky. And why not? Romulan Ale, Ambrosia, and whatever it was that Col Tigh was coiffing, there's plenty of spirit to go around in the world of Sci-Fi. I love bourbons, cognacs, and wonderful rhums. I love the creative matrix of spirits and all the different types of wood management innovations out there. I don't care about "traditional methods", though they do have value, all I care about is a good product. Go ahead distillers, "reboot" your whisky, or go back to your roots. So long as you end up providing me with a quality product, you've succeeded in meeting your objective.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Happy Cask Day 2010!
It's hard to believe that only six years ago, my friend Jon sent the four of us an email which went roughly like this:
"So guys, I visited a distillery that will sell us a cask of scotch for $2300.00 CDN."
Within hours there were four replies of: "I'm in." It took only another week for us to order our cask from Bruichladdich, and by May 4th, 2004, we had our fresh hogshead filled with lightly peated Laddie. Now fresh hoggies are about as rare hen's teeth these days, so I can now appreciate the wisdom of our decision. All in all, we expect to bottle around 65 bottles each...I know, what are we going to to with all that?! Truth be told, we may sell some back to the distillery, and gift a lot of it to friends and family.
At six years of age, Cask 66 - awesome number, I know - is approaching the latter half of its maturation in the warehouse. This means that in a year or two we will have to make a trip to Islay to sample the cask. This is, in fact, the project that really propelled my malt obsession to the next level, and subsequently brought me into the Malt Maniacs' fold. I was determined to hone my palate for the day when it would finally meet the nectar in our cask and be prepared to evaluate it properly.
Being a fresh sherry hoggie with 10 years of maturation, you can already guess that this is going to be a sherry bomb, something along the lines of an A'bunadh or a Macallan. To really shake things up, I've contacted another Laddie owner to arrange to exchange bottles in order to do a vatting which would still be a single malt! We'll see how that turns out.
By far the best part of this project has been the anticipation, the group anticipation! We 're five guys who went to Queen's University at Kingston and have shared a lot of ups and downs. Some of us have survived car accidents, almost donated organs, lost loved-ones, and saved lives since those heady care-free uni-days. Most importantly, we are all family men now, but we still stay in touch. And we await, with much impatience, the day when we will all be standing in front of our cask sampling our malt, together.
Check out the following tasting notes from Bruichladdich:
Ressurection, 2001, 46% ABV
Colour: Pale gold Nose: out of the gate with some gentle peat and tarry notes. Really reminds me of the Lappy QC. A whiff of mint. Some firm matly notes. Water brings out some more spirity youthful notes out. Something sweet and vanilla-like emerges, as well as a floral note. Palate: Very sweet. Attack at the front of the palate as expected. Some brine at the sides. Beautiful interplay between peat and sweet notes. Something honeyed or tobacco like emerges. Strange, does not have that characteristic melon and aniseed notes that the OLD Laddies seem to all share. Pretty well balanced, but the brine seems to have the upper hand at this point, but not in a negative way...very maritime. The peat smoke is there just enough to give it some chewiness.
Finish: Long for a seven year old. Finishes on smoke, brine, and tobacco. 84 pts
Infinity 3 - Bruichladdich, 50% ABV
Colour: amber/gold/peach Nose: vanilla, heathery, iodine, peat, menthol, red apples, musty books. Palate: Sweet, vanilla, chalk, spicy mid-front palate, apples peat, smoky, iodine, mint, ashes, anise. Finish, long, spicy, peaty, ashes...almost reminds me of Lagavulin 12 yo. 85 points.
Laddie Classic, Edition #1, 46% ABV
Colour: gold Nose: farmy, linseed, candle wax, sherry, almond, light amaretto, oranges, allspice, nutmeg, cake icing. Palate: thinner, dry, cinnamon, raisins, spice all over, hint of smoke, malty. Finish: long on honey, malt, and spices. 83 points.
"So guys, I visited a distillery that will sell us a cask of scotch for $2300.00 CDN."
Within hours there were four replies of: "I'm in." It took only another week for us to order our cask from Bruichladdich, and by May 4th, 2004, we had our fresh hogshead filled with lightly peated Laddie. Now fresh hoggies are about as rare hen's teeth these days, so I can now appreciate the wisdom of our decision. All in all, we expect to bottle around 65 bottles each...I know, what are we going to to with all that?! Truth be told, we may sell some back to the distillery, and gift a lot of it to friends and family.
At six years of age, Cask 66 - awesome number, I know - is approaching the latter half of its maturation in the warehouse. This means that in a year or two we will have to make a trip to Islay to sample the cask. This is, in fact, the project that really propelled my malt obsession to the next level, and subsequently brought me into the Malt Maniacs' fold. I was determined to hone my palate for the day when it would finally meet the nectar in our cask and be prepared to evaluate it properly.
Being a fresh sherry hoggie with 10 years of maturation, you can already guess that this is going to be a sherry bomb, something along the lines of an A'bunadh or a Macallan. To really shake things up, I've contacted another Laddie owner to arrange to exchange bottles in order to do a vatting which would still be a single malt! We'll see how that turns out.
By far the best part of this project has been the anticipation, the group anticipation! We 're five guys who went to Queen's University at Kingston and have shared a lot of ups and downs. Some of us have survived car accidents, almost donated organs, lost loved-ones, and saved lives since those heady care-free uni-days. Most importantly, we are all family men now, but we still stay in touch. And we await, with much impatience, the day when we will all be standing in front of our cask sampling our malt, together.
Check out the following tasting notes from Bruichladdich:
Bruichladdich, 1989 Full Strength, OB, 57.1% ABV, First Edition
Colour: gold Nose: Starts of a little grainy and spirity. Proceeds to display some pronounced vanilla and bourbon aromas. Some organics emerge. With water: Some traditional melon, but with some ash emerging. The cereal presents itself like a fresh kneaded dough. A distinct sulfur note, like a lit match just put out, sweetish, appetizing. Palate: Nicely balanced! Not too sweet despite the bourbon ageing. The traditional melon and aniseed are evident. Even a slight hint of peat at the very end. The mouthfeel is slightly oily, but light in nature. The vanilla is there, but not too overpowering. So this is what a non-aced Laddie is like (Old owners that is)! Finish: Not too long, not too short. Finishes on a bit of aniseed, sulfur, a little drying. A slightly bitter note at the end. Comments: Some feel that Laddies are just blend fodder...I beg to differ. Although not hugely complex, this is clean and straighforward. Too bad it's not available in Canada! 83 pts
Ressurection, 2001, 46% ABV
Colour: Pale gold Nose: out of the gate with some gentle peat and tarry notes. Really reminds me of the Lappy QC. A whiff of mint. Some firm matly notes. Water brings out some more spirity youthful notes out. Something sweet and vanilla-like emerges, as well as a floral note. Palate: Very sweet. Attack at the front of the palate as expected. Some brine at the sides. Beautiful interplay between peat and sweet notes. Something honeyed or tobacco like emerges. Strange, does not have that characteristic melon and aniseed notes that the OLD Laddies seem to all share. Pretty well balanced, but the brine seems to have the upper hand at this point, but not in a negative way...very maritime. The peat smoke is there just enough to give it some chewiness.
Finish: Long for a seven year old. Finishes on smoke, brine, and tobacco. 84 pts
Infinity 3 - Bruichladdich, 50% ABV
Colour: amber/gold/peach Nose: vanilla, heathery, iodine, peat, menthol, red apples, musty books. Palate: Sweet, vanilla, chalk, spicy mid-front palate, apples peat, smoky, iodine, mint, ashes, anise. Finish, long, spicy, peaty, ashes...almost reminds me of Lagavulin 12 yo. 85 points.
Laddie Classic, Edition #1, 46% ABV
Colour: gold Nose: farmy, linseed, candle wax, sherry, almond, light amaretto, oranges, allspice, nutmeg, cake icing. Palate: thinner, dry, cinnamon, raisins, spice all over, hint of smoke, malty. Finish: long on honey, malt, and spices. 83 points.
WMD II: The Yellow Submarine, 46% ABV
Colour: Gold with slight copper burnish, reminiscent of a peach wine. Nose: Fruit, at a distance raspberry or strawberry. Later on a sort of malty ripe melon. Lots of vanilla and liquorice. Palate: Mouth warming, a little spirity but in a fresh way. Very sweet with the fruit up front, perhaps a little winey as well but not a bad thing, followed by vanilla and liquorice. Pepper and spice continues on for a long time, good balance. Finish: End on notes of grapes, fruit, and liquorice. Definitely a spring or summer dram. Comments: This was my first 100$+ purchase and my friend Curtiss and I enjoyed it after his College of Physicians and Surgeons final exam. Lovely. 87pts
Saturday, May 1, 2010
The Shoe-Shine Boy and Whisky
"When the shoe-shine boy starts giving you advice on stocks, it's time to get out". Or so the saying goes. I'm finding that the same is true of most blogs, much less whisky blogs. But hey, I've always been a little late to the technology scene, I'm a bit of an arcane adopter. Now that I've finally started a blog, you might want to consider whether it's time to move on the next form of web media!
Be that as it may, the reason I've decided to jump in now is that I officially have a huge backlog of whisky opinions and tasting notes. As very few of you may know, I've been a shadow judge in training for the Malt Maniac Awards 2009. Some of you might now be envious, I can tell you that it is more stressful than you might think. However, I have been fortunate enough to nose some unique whiskies and I look forward to sharing some of them with you here.
Going forward, you can expect to encounter pedestrian malts available at most liquor stores, as well as some rare products. Feel free to drop me a line, whether you agree with them or not! John Hansell of MaltAdvocate declared whisky bloggers as the Person of the Year...we'll see.
Nabil
Be that as it may, the reason I've decided to jump in now is that I officially have a huge backlog of whisky opinions and tasting notes. As very few of you may know, I've been a shadow judge in training for the Malt Maniac Awards 2009. Some of you might now be envious, I can tell you that it is more stressful than you might think. However, I have been fortunate enough to nose some unique whiskies and I look forward to sharing some of them with you here.
Going forward, you can expect to encounter pedestrian malts available at most liquor stores, as well as some rare products. Feel free to drop me a line, whether you agree with them or not! John Hansell of MaltAdvocate declared whisky bloggers as the Person of the Year...we'll see.
Nabil
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