Loki

5 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:

Old Ale is a separate style to mild but your right it's a rare but welcome sight. I love the slightly sour taste.

Yeah it’s not a mild but it’s similar and very nice.  I’m going to track down their proper mild to see what that's like.

On 8/25/2023 at 5:34 PM, Just Some Guy said:

If you asked, I'd say mild was my favourite beer style, but.....after a couple of pints I'm craving something with a bit more "bite"

Outside of its industrial heartlands I believe it's pretty much extinct.

I just discovered one here on the south coast.  Went to a pub in Worthing that had Harveys ales on tap, and they have two in this category - 

https://harveys.org.uk/beer/dark-mild
https://harveys.org.uk/beer/old-ale

I had the latter, it's marvellous.  A bit more bite than a very mild mild, but still malty and smooth.

Does anyone have a really good tamarind type hot sauce to recommend?  Outside of thai food I don't often have that flavour but it's lovely and I could see myself using a dipping sauce.

Thanks to this thread and @Chest Rockwell I've bought some Frank's Jalapeño and loved it.  The green chilli flavour is quite different to their normal red chilli sauce.

I also agree @RedRooster that the sauces that mix honey into it don't work for me.  If you make your own marinade out of chillis and honey that can be lovely though, so I guess it comes down to your taste preference on sweetness and those shop sauces are too sickly for me.

3 hours ago, garynysmon said:

Bully Ray is capable of garnering genuine heat.

That TNA character was fantastic, and in retrospect the WWE really missed out by not allowing him to do that routine when he came back (and D-Von retired).  They were crying out for a decent heel at the time, Calfzilla was such a prick.  But they wanted a nostalgia act instead and he went nowhere.

On 2/13/2024 at 10:32 PM, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Binged Outer Range on Amazon. Cracking show! 

Josh Brolin as a Wyoming cattle rancher. Slight x files spookiness throughout. Warring neighbours.

 

Yep. Works for me.

I watched the first episode and it just didn't click for me.  The mix of setting and supernatural/scifi felt odd - plus it dragged a lot.  Is it worth going back to and seeing the series out?

I'm hoping for a super schmoz ala HHH v Sting, as I think I mentioned before.  I expect Bloodline interference, counter interference from associated faces, the Rock interfering, hopefully Austin coming out to counter him.  Just make the whole thing as memorable and insane as possible, but make sure Cody hits a clean finisher to end the match.

There are so many moving parts to this storyline, it would be disappointing to have a simple one on one match.

It's absolutely true that the requirements for a heel have changed over the years.

In the 80s WWE, if you were foreign and cheated, that was enough to generate serious heel heat and earn a go-round with Hogan.  If you were freakishly large that also helped.  In the NWO, if you were from out of town or didn't listen to country music, that could be enough!  It was usually all about fearing the "other".

Things got quite confused in the era of DX/NWO.  Those guys broke the rules, cheated and were huge fan favourites.  It's often said that "the company" in various guises became the only genuine heel, whether Vince for Austin or the Corporate Minstry, or Bischoff in WCW or whatever.  Nonconformity was cool, rule-abiding was boring.

For a long time now, to be a heel in modern WWE means to complain a lot, and be "sick of the fans", and that's about it.  Heels don't really cheat much any more, outside possibly of group interference.  You're a heel because you don't "have fun", you are nasty to faces, and you're booed (which is obviously a circular argument).

If you get TOO anti-establishment or too flamboyantly naughty, that tends to turn you face again.  Look at MJF recently.

Hands down the best heel in the business at the moment is Christian, because he's committed to being 100% loathsome.  He's arrogant, he's selfish, he gaslights, he takes credit for others' hard work, he cheats, he even dresses like a Hollywood bad guy.  He's very careful to not allow in any cool element, or rebellious element.  I think it's a great template for modern wrestling. 

I'm not sure how many other heel templates really work any more.  Look at Drew at the moment - he's utterly convinced he's in the right, which makes for a great character but I can see it also getting popular.  Particularly if he ends up against Punk who is instinctively unlikeable.  Actually that's the other way to be a heel in the modern era - be genuinely unlikeable.  Not a great career prospect though.

17 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

The Yemeni armed forces have apparently sunk a British cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden in the past few hours.

Yemeni military?  Jesus, that's serious friendly fire.  Are you sure it wasn't the Houthi rebels?

Edit: a quick google suggests the Houthis are claiming they did it

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/19/houthis-claim-catastrophic-attack-in-red-sea-as-crew-abandons-ship.html

3 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Not making him a Cena / Hogan level babyface at a time when they really need one would be absolutely crazy.

Did AEW continue with providing quiet areas for neurodiverse fans at their events after he and Brandi left? That was their idea, wasn't it?

There's so much that goes on with being a top babyface in WWE, I think very few are cut out for it.  Look at how much Make A Wish etc Cena did for years, you appreciate why they were reluctant to ever turn him heel.

Cody definitely seems like he's got what it takes to carry that burden.

1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

And no Depp

This may be key!

19 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Do you think anybody who watched the remake really thought "I don't like the book/original as much now!"? I just have never understood that line of thinking.

I doubt it, and that's certainly not what I said.  It's more in terms of diluting the audience and impact of those earlier versions.  You mentioned Scarface earlier - the original film is excellent but undoubtedly obscured by the remake.  If you go onto a streaming service now and search for Wonka you'll probably get the various Burton films coming up.  Perhaps less people will end up watching the earlier one.

Even original artists do this with their own work - churn out so many sequels, new novels, etc that it can obscure the originality of their earlier work.   There is a strong momentum in Hollywood, publishing, videogames, that emphasises existing IP over  new, and it can be quite stifling creatively.

It often ends up killing the cash cow too - look at how Disney have creatively bankrupt the Star Wars franchise quite quickly by churning out so many films and tv series in short order.

Edit: I thought of another example - the Disney "live action" versions of animated movies.  Even on their own service they promote those over the original animated versions.  It's IP churn.

15 minutes ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I think this is a bad wayv to look at things. What is the definition of a 'need' when it comes to an artistic endeavour? The better question for the creator is do they have something to say. Do they have some new idea they want to communicate to the audience, or something old they want to communicate in a new way. 

Having some new idea they want to communicate, or unique artistic perspective would come under a genuine "need".  So often the need is purely monetary, or that the director liked the original and fancies a crack.  

Perhaps Burton managed that with his version of Wonka, but for me he added very little and in some respects has diluted the wonder of the book and the original film.

33 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

later than it should have been, but the Tim Burton Charlie & The Chocolate Factory is when I got utterly fed up with him as a director, and largely with Depp as an actor too. It felt like the tipping point of Tim Burton deciding that the reason he's making films is people want to see what a wacky dark and creepy Tim Burton adaptation of a story looks like (spoiler: stripes, mugging to camera and a Danny Elfman score), rather than him actually bothering to tell the story.

My first question when someone decides to reboot, remake or revisit primary source material is - is there a need for this?  In the case of Wonka, the original version is so popular, so beloved, and still so watchable that a new film is ALWAYS going to get compared to it, often unfavourably.  There's so much other material out there that could be made into films, or even you know, make an original film.

Burton's first Charlie film is definitely where the almost straight line drop in the quality of his films began, for me.  I didn't enjoy Big Fish as much as everyone else though, and I think my tolerance for "magic realism" style films is probably quite low in comparison to most people.  But I think Burton has made more bad films than good at this point, and combine that with finding Johnny Depp an increasing embarrassment (even before the abuse allegations)... 

Burton fatigue, and Depp fatigue - it's a real thing.  But if kids love his films, then great!

He’s in the a-a-a stage of an aaachoo there.

I imagine one of his sneezes could halve the Bolivian national debt.

Come friendly bombs and fall on Workington…

1 hour ago, Statto said:

Finds it impossible to count down from 3 in time with the beeps. 

This is doing my fucking head in!  It's on the screen right in front of you, Clattenburg, just read the fucking 20 foot high numbers out.

Glad Soldier Boy didn't get through, he had annoyingly perfect teeth and was generally super bland.  Discount Booker T gets the program at least.

12 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

And new thread tags 😆

RIP thread tags, the fun police have been here it seems.  Still, forum awards just a bit of fun, taken in the spirit blah blah.  Poor Keef.

Really enjoyed The Rock's promo.  I disagree that promos have moved on - his timing, his ability to rile up the crowd, off-the-cuff insults, it's all still better than most out there.  At least he's not whining about shoot bollocks like Darby Allin.

Breakker is officially Smackdown, I assume his push will start post-Wrestlemania.  Good match from Tiffany Stratton and Selina Vega as well, Stratton is still green but massive upside.  Cargill sighting as well for all the Jade stans.  Decent show.

47 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

They moved to Patreon only. It’s about a tenner a month but they still do a new episode every week - and if you tried it out you’d get the last two years of back catalogue to listen to as well.

Marc also does a fantastic monthly email newsletter that does some great deep dives into wrestling history.

Cheers HG.  I guess it's a philosophical question, but if a podcast is no longer available on podcast platforms, is it still really a podcast?  A tenner a month is too rich for my blood considering how many podcasts one can listen to on, you know, Podcast apps, for free.

I loved the WrestleMe podcast but I haven't seen a new episode since 2022 on any of my podcast services.  How is everyone listening to it now?

Wrong thread!

He's obviously bored in retirement.

3 hours ago, uklaw said:

https://www.pwinsider.com/article/180457/the-actual-truth-on-tna-creative-going-forward-who-is-in-charge-and-more.html?p=1

I don't particularly want to give my laptop cancer by clicking on this website, so could you give us all a precis please?

I don't like Osman.  Something off about him.  When he gets Yewtreed, I told you so.