A Black Night to be Green

This past Saturday, September 15th, I had the privilege of attending an All Blacks v. South Africa Rugby match - their first meeting in the expanded Rugby Championship. Below is a recap of the game and experience, written in the "Purple Prose" style of turn-of-the-century sportswriters. Do enjoy.

The grass below sat expectantly, an emerald carpet smooth as a dance floor, pining eagerly for the unchoreographed monster truck waltz between Springbok and All Black. Shielded from the harsh, biting wind and rain on offer in Dunedin, the turf could have been a transplant from Versailles, with the Sun King himself as likely to run out of the tunnel as the modern-day gladiators the crowd was shouting for. The dome above shone and reflected an ethereal light, a glittering monolith standing in stark contrast to its predecessor - if Carisbrook, the original "House of Pain" was built on gritty, dirt-under-the-fingernails footy, then this, the "House of Pane" is a fitting monument to the new game; flashier, faster and made-for-TV.

Beer Friday!

Sorry kids, no Beer Friday! this week, due to circumstances mostly beyond my control. As a substitute, please enjoy this picture of Chewbacca riding a giant squirrel battling some Nazis :)

YEP.

RANT Part II - This Time It's PERSONAL

Yes folks, it's about that time: something in New Zealand has caused me enough frustration to warrant me pulling out my soapbox and climbing aloft to begin ranting and raving like a lunatic. As a quick aside before I unleash a torrent of vitriol strong enough to wash away whole city blocks, I'd like to thanks Jaws 4, truly one of the worst movies of all time, for the tagline for this post. Yes, "This Time It's Personal" is the actual tagline of an actual movie, and just any movie, a movie about a giant shark that has somehow developed the cognitive ability to HARBOUR A VENDETTA AGAINST A WOMAN AND HER FAMILY (but somehow Michael Caine is in it?). That kind of quality screen writing can't be taught folks, you're just born with it.

Beer Friday! - Emerson's Southern Clam Stout

Hello all, and welcome back. Before I start with the review today, I'd like to put out a special WELCOME TO NEW ZEALAND to Mal, Carson, Pezz and Zak! It'll be nice to have a little bit of Canadiana close by (relatively speaking), and I'm looking forward to your visit (speeding down the coast from CHCH even as I write), and reciprocating that visit with a trip to Queenstown in October. I know you guys will love it here, and best of luck with the job and house hunt in QTown!

Back on track now, and my brew of the week comes from Emerson's Brewery, a wonderful little spot based right here in Dunedin. Emerson's churns out one top-notch beer after the other, winning "Champion Brewery of NZ" in 2009. The brewery itself was started by Food Science graduate Richard Emerson in the early 90's with the first brew, London Porter, getting its first release in 1993. Emerson was looking to expand on the selection available to NZ beer aficionados, and with a brewery that is capable of putting out 1 million litres per annum (I know I've said this before, but that seems to be a lot) and a range of 7 core beers, plus seasonal releases (5 as of RIGHT NOW), he has done exactly that.

Beer Friday! - Tuatara Aotearoa Pale Ale

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night (choose at your discretion) dear readers, and welcome to another edition of Beer Friday!, the only bit of writing that is keeping this blog above water. I realize the last three posts have been Beer Friday! in nature, and I do sincerely apologize for this. I was thinking today that, when I started this blog, perhaps I overestimated the amount of interesting stuff I would be doing, and that I should have stretched out my recap posts a little longer. But, alas, I didn't do that, and here we are. I will say, however, that hopefully things will turn around soon. After all, the All Blacks v South Africa rugby test is a mere two weeks away, and I depart for an Australian adventure in under a month. So things might be getting spicier in the near future (I also understand that I've been saying that for a few weeks now. Bear with me).