Author Archives

Unknown's avatar

Red

The 300s Got Its First Death Threat…Over My Review of the Buffalo Bills Stadium?

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Whats that saying? They don’t boo nobodies? Well thats how I’m going to take this one. YouTube commenter BuffaloMan can be the Newman to my Jerry.

I actually gave a pretty solid review of the Bills’ New Era Field, which you can see right here.

Had a great time watching the game, sight lines were excellent, stadium was intimate, fans were into it, overall a good experience.

I even met Buffalo’s prodigal son, William Fichtner!

The rest of Buffalo though?

I stopped by the Lids headquarters and I got buffalo wings from the place that invented them and that was pretty much all there was to do. Those are the facts BuffaloMan. Plus threatening my safety for joking about worrying about my safety in Buffalo is a bit ironic no? Dude has put my brain into a spin cycle. Touche, BuffaloMan, touche.

Millennials Are Now Being Blamed for Killing…Beer!

By on • ( 1 Comment )

CCN – Last year, Heineken-owned Lagunitas slashed 12 percent of its total workforce, 17 months after it was acquired. At the time, Lagunitas had said the cuts were necessary for the company to adjust to the needs of a dynamic and significantly more challenging market.

To put that more bluntly: millennials just don’t drink beer like their parents did.

INJECT IT INTO MY VEINS! Companies run their business poorly, change nothing, and then blame their tanking sales on millennials, the modern day scapegoats. I love it.

Last month, Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes noted in an interview with CNBC that consumers are moving from beer to spirits and cocktails.

According to data released by the Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group based in the United States, spirits (including vodka, rum, and gin) gained even more market share in the alcohol market for 2018, as compared to wine and beer.

Bullllllshit. There is no way millennials are drinking *more* booze than beer these days. I am a proud millennial and I am a proud rum and coke guy, but I cannot drink for shit anymore. The hangovers these days are absolutely brutal so I’ve basically transitioned entirely into a few IPAs on a good night.

LOL wut?

Millennials are just not into beer anymore, and this is quickly pushing many beer companies to the brink. Molson Coors saw sales slump in four straight quarters in 2018, and the volume of Heineken cases sold has decreased drastically – even while wine and spirits sales are on the rise.

Are these companies really just going to ignore the rise in craft beer and how breweries have popped up on every corner in major cities? From 2007 to 2018 the number of breweries in Massachusetts exploded form 34 to over 150! There are more than 6,000 breweries in the United States as of 2017 too.

Thats bananas.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not drinking that much less beer, I’m just not drinking Bud Light, Miller Lite etc. I’m drinking IPAs, Sours, Stouts and  other craft beers that are owned predominantly by independent small brewers.

How does the major beer industry respond? By brewing nightmare fuel like this!

Pass.

Millennials just aren’t drinking the stuff our parents drank; well almost all of us.

Game of Thrones Season 8 to Feature “Longest Consecutive Battle Sequence Ever Committed to Film.”

By on • ( Leave a comment )

IGN – The wording there is interesting. EW says the episode will “be” the longest battle sequence, not “include” it, which implies the battle will take up the entirety of its runtime. With some episodes this season expected to run up to 90 minutes long, that could be very considerable.

Besides being the greatest TV show of all time, Game of Thrones features the most technically complex battles scene that have a bigger scale than anything we’ve ever seen in the history of entertainment. Last season ended with the White Walkers waltzing through the Wall with a brand new ice dragon marching south. Meanwhile Khaleesi is on her way up to Winterfell so I would not be surprised if we see some massive action in the first episode. Things are going to get real messy real fast and I don’t know if I’m ready for it emotionally.

In the meantime lets take a look back at some of the biggest battles we’ve seen so far.

The Battle of Blackwater Bay
S2E9 is when we were introduced to just how intelligent Tyrion really is and we also learn that Wildfire isn’t just some garbage potion that wannabe wizards used to play with.

Battle of the Bastards
S6E9 is where Jon Snow became the GOAT and we witnessed the largest live action battle scene of all time. Suffocating, tense, and heartbreaking; the Battle of the Bastards always gets my blood flowing. Plus that sonofabitch Ramsay finally gets what he’s had coming to him for 4 seasons.

Hardhome
S5E8 is a truly terrifying episode where we finally fully realize the scope of what the White Walkers can do and how screwed Jon Snow and company all really are.

The Loot Train
S7E4 is where Dany shows everyone why the Targaryen’s ruled the world with nothing but a few dragons.

The Battle of Castle Black
S4E9 is just another beautifully coreographed sequence of events. Multiple fights at once, arrows flying all around, fires burning, and Olly…that sonofabitch Olly.

We’re just a little over a month away from the Season 8 premiere, so if you’re like me and woefully behind on your Thrones rewatch it’s time to get in gear.

Tesla Closing All Its Retail Stores, How Will Malls Stay in Business??

By on • ( Leave a comment )

TechCrunch – Tesla is moving all of its sales online, a dramatic shift in its sales strategy that will result in the closure of stores and some layoffs as the automaker looks for ways to reduce costs in order to bring a cheaper Model 3 to market.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t say how many stores would close. He noted that some stores would remain and turn into information centers and showrooms. The company didn’t provide specific numbers on how many retail employees might be affected.

Goddamnit, I was just about to go to the mall and buy a Tesla too. In all seriousness though, have you ever actually met anyone that drives a Tesla? I see them plugged into random parking garages around town, but I’ve never actually met someone that drives one.

Come to think of it, the only place I ever really see Teslas is in those absurd showrooms in ritzy malls. Like I’m just going to be walking from Auntie Anne’s Pretzels to Lids and I’m going to stop and say ya know what, I should buy a car. Preposterous.

Just a ridiculous idea really, but I guess they are more so using the Apple model. Apple knows these gigantic showrooms cannot possibly be ROI positive, despite how expensive some of these iPhones have become. No, they’re thinking more longterm than that because they’re evil geniuses. How many kids do you see going into every Apple store playing with all the new iPhones, Apple Watches, and whatever other gadgets they put out? They’re basically just planting a seed in these kids’ brains so when they do come of age and have some disposable income they are already Apple disciples and they don’t even know why. McDonalds did that for decades with those gigantic play places.

Marketing is a trip, huh?

PS – When I was in Buffalo last year I was driving around the industrial part of town and stumbled upon the Tesla factory and it looks like the goddamn Avengers Headquarters. Just a massive building putting together technology I don’t understand in the absolute middle of nowhere.

 

This Nintendo Video is the Most Relaxing Thing I’ve Watched in Weeks

By on • ( Leave a comment )

This apparently falls into the ASMR category of videos, which is big business these days, but it’s not some chick whispering into a mic. It’s a guy all by himself just hiking to the top of a mountain and then instead of doing what I expected he would do and lighting one up, instead he sits down and pulls out his Switch to bang out a few minutes of Zelda. Just looks like the best day. Maybe I’ve been cooped up inside too long in this snowy hell hole we call Boston, but going for a quiet hike and playing some Switch on top of a mountain sounds like the best day.

Clay Buchholz Will Be Back at Fenway in 2019!

By on • ( Leave a comment )

…as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Curious that the Diamondbacks didn’t want him back, no? Granted he only made 16 starts, but he had a 2.01 ERA last season. That really is a classic Buchholz stat line though. Absolutely dominant for 98.1 innings then misses the rest of the year with a myriad of injuries.

When Buchholz is on he is one of the nastiest pitchers in the game. Unfortunately he’s so rarely “on” that it becomes more trouble than its worth. He’s 34 years old now so if it hasn’t happened by now it’s probably never going to happen, but he has still yet to pitch 200 innings or make 30 starts in a season. One of the most frustrating Red Sox players of all time, but its hard to not look back fondly on a guy that was part of two World Series winning teams and someone who threw a no-hitter at Fenway.

You can’t complain about how the Sox have done over the past 15 years with 4 championships during that span, but this team has won in a much different fashion than what many would have expected. I’ll never forget looking at this team in 2008 and thinking our rotation would be set for a decade with Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, and Clay Buchholz all spinning gems with Papelbon and Craig Hansen closing games out. (I’ll never forget seeing a guy on Landsdowne with a stitched Hansen jersey the WEEK he made his MLB debut. Save your money and think twice before buying a jersey kids.) Things worked out a bit differently, but can’t complain about the results.

I’ll see you again Clay, this side or the other.

 

The Bruins Just Dropped the Best Team in the NHL and Now Have a 15 Game Points Streak

By on • ( Leave a comment )

I’m in. This team is legit, I am convinced.

Bruins v Lightning is always a heavyweight bout, especially with the Lightning already over 100 points on the year and its not even March. Thats insane! The Bruins were literally 19 points behind the Lightning in the standings heading into Thursday night. It was the first time two teams with point streaks of at least 14 games had faced off in NHL history. And the Bruins took Tampa Bay behind the shed and beat them with a garden hose, 4-1.

Granted, Tampa was coming off of 3 straight OT games and was playing back to backs, but hey a win is a win and that was a statement win.

“If it wasn’t for Louis Domingue I think this game could have been 9 or 10-1,” Jeremy Roenick said on the NBC Sports postgame.

They’ve been rolling lately, but after Wednesday nights W filled with clutch goals, hard hits, and Zdeno Chara ass beatings

and Thursday’s dismantling of the best team in the NHL

I am all in.

The Bruins showed up in a big moment once again and looked excellent all night, yet only lead 1-0 after the first 2 and a half periods. Domingue was standing on his damn head once again, but after a Noel Acciari goal the flood gates opened. The Bruins scored 3 goals in 1:28 seconds to open up a 4-0 lead and Domingue proceeded to lose his shit on national TV.

It’s only one game, but the Bruins showed Thursday night that they absolutely can play with the best of the best.

Is Kanye West’s Yandhi Going to Be the Greatest Album in the History of Music? This Video Makes Me Think Yes

By on • ( Leave a comment )

I have absolutely zero idea what is going on here, but I am all about it. Kanye has been recording his upcoming album Yandhi, which was supposed to be released at the end of 2018 but got pushed back.

Now Kanye had a lot of bad press last year with his Trump tirade and received mixed reviews on his two projects Kids See Ghosts and Ye. I enjoyed both, but they each felt like a mixtape more than individual completed albums. So maybe he’s doubling down his efforts to put together something special. The guy is no stranger to tweaking his work until the last second, most notably when he essentially crowdsourced Life of Pablo and changed some songs on the albums AFTER it had already been released.

So while I have no idea what in the hell is going on in that above Kanye video, it looks like it JAMS. If Yandhi is anything like his previous christ-like self titled album, Yeezus, then we are in for a trip. Yeezus was yet another example of Kanye releasing music that was ahead of its time that seemed to be bizarre, out there, and borderline manic, but quickly implanted itself in your brain and became unforgettable.

Either way, Kanye is cooking up something.

New X-Men: Dark Phoenix Trailer Drops. Will This Be the Last X-Men Before Inevitable Marvel Reboot?

By on • ( 1 Comment )

If we’re being honest I’m pretty bummed about the inevitable reboot of X-Men now that Marvel owns the rights to the mutant characters. For better or worse I love the X-Men movies. Some are incredible like X-Men 2 and Logan. Some are god awful like X-Men 3 and Wolverine. I enjoy all of them though. So it’ll be bittersweet when Kevin Feige ultimately takes this crew out back and puts them out of their meandering misery. It’s bittersweet because we’ve seen great achievements by this cast including the first time we saw them all in X-Men: First Class, but we’ve also seen some pretty big misses in X-Men: Apocalypse. So in my brain I know Feige will probably create a better, if nothing else more cohesive, X-Men universe, but it’s still a bummer to see this franchise get rebooted AGAIN. But, hey they rebooted SpiderMan three times in 10 years and they wound up with the best Peter Parker ever put on film.

Now back to the trailer itself. It looks pretty crazy so I’m excited for that…but X-Men has a history of creating amazing trailers for pretty mediocre films a la Vinny Chase in Medellin.

Seriously just look at the Apocalypse trailer again.

That movie looks incredible. Yea, well it was not incredible. It was a convoluted mess and a waste of one of the best actors of our generation in Oscar Isaac. It currently has a 48% on Rotten Tomatoes and 52% on Metacritic. It does somehow have a 7/10 on IMDB though.

So I’m cautiously optimistic for this one though, especially because of the source material. The Dark Phoenix saga is one of the best comic book stories of all time and they completely bungled it with that disaster X-Men 3. The main problem with X-Men over the years has been inconsistency in their vision and convoluted storylines.

It looks like it could very easily go down that path with what looks like a potential Mystique death at the hands of Jean Gray. But that would be too obvious to put in the trailer right? Right?

Either way, I’ve been over Mystique for a while now. They cast a completely unknown Jennifer Lawrence in First Class, a year before Hunger Games made her a superstar, and she was great. In every X-Men movie since though she’s looked less and less interested in even being there. So if Jean Gray offs her in the first 20 minutes of Dark Phoenix I will not shed a tear.

As long as we get ALL the Fassbender.

Dark Phoenix is set to release on June 7th, 2019…barring any more delays.

PS – Are we ever gonna get the forever shelved X-Men movie starring the other Stark girl; The New Mutants? Or we just gonna let that one die on the vine despite looking pretty much done? IMDB lists the release date as August 2, 2019, but it’s already been pushed back almost 2 years at this point. Theres even been whispers through the grape vine that New Mutants could just be released straight to Hulu whenever it does come out. Yuck. So I’ll believe a firm release date when I actually see it with my popcorn and Mountain Dew in the theaters.

Johnny Manziel Released, Barred from Playing in CFL for Violating His Contract. Sigh.

By on • ( Leave a comment )

ESPN – The Montreal Alouettes released quarterback Johnny Manziel on Wednesday, saying he “contravened the agreement which made him eligible to play” in the Canadian Football League. The CFL said Manziel is not eligible to sign with another team in the league, which had his full rights for two seasons.

“We are disappointed by this turn of events. Johnny was provided a great deal of support by our organization, in collaboration with the CFL, but he has been unable to abide by the terms of his agreement,” Alouettes general manager Kavis Reed said in a statement. “We worked with the league and presented alternatives to Johnny, who was unwilling to proceed.”

It is unclear what Manziel did to violate the agreement with the Alouettes and the CFL.

Manziel, 26, played for the Alouettes last season in an attempt to resurrect his career. In eight games, he completed 106 passes in 165 attempts for 1,290 yards, with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. Montreal traded two players and two first-round picks to Hamilton last July for Manziel’s rights.

Next stop XFL? I don’t know what Johnny may have done here, but it’s probably not a great sign that a guy with a long and checkered past filled with drinking and drug problems randomly gets cut on a Wednesday afternoon.

Manziel has not played well in the CFL either, which was disappointing with the lesser competition he was facing north of the border, but he did suffer a concussion early on last season so that couldn’t have helped. Normally I would say this is probably the end of the line for a player, but as luck would have it not one but TWO new football leagues have recently sprung up as options.

It might be a little late in the season for a quarterback to jump into the AAF seeing as its already Week 3 of a 10 game season, but hey bums like Christian Hackenberg are getting benched as we speak so  you never know.

However…the XFL begins play in 2020. You know Vince McMahon loves a star and the bad boy persona of Johnny Football could be the perfect poster child for the XFL’s inaugural season. With just under a year until XFL play begins it would give Manziel a full offseason to get in shape, learn the playbook and ingratiate himself with a new team. All of which is a moot point if he is dealing with some bigger life problems. Who knows, but the guy was so fun to watch at A&M, I hope he gets his life back on track, even if it’s XFL or bust at this point.