Why Is "The Walking Dead" So Great!

Why Is “The Walking Dead” So Great?

Shannon and I are fans of a good ole’ zombie movie. We, of course, love the 28 Days Later and the Resident Evil series as well. We watched the pilot episode of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” yesterday and discussed afterwards all of the beautiful things that will make this series great.

The overarching idea that makes this show’s potential so high spawns from limitations in the feature film format that can be fixed or done completely differently in a television format.

1. Character development. Now, I ALWAYS forget people’s names as soon as I meet them and in horror movies in particular, names are mostly a trivial affair anyway it seems. I honestly can’t remember any of the names of the characters in 28 Days Later, Night of The Living Dead, or pretty much any other pop horror movie. Granted, there are exceptions, like Alice from Resident Evil and maybe a few landmark type of characters. For the most part, though, the characters in zombie movies basically fill a needed storyline roll. There’s the crazy guy, maybe an outlaw or someone who “doesn’t play by anyone’s rules”… there’s the comic relief, the token racist character (be they actually racist or an ethnic stereotype), the hot girl, etc. The characters are mostly remembered for their roll in the movie and not for their actual CHARACTER.

In “The Walking Dead” (henceforth TWD), we’re granted the freedom of TIME to allow us to actually explore the inner workings of each character and to develop serious internal storylines that can deal with difficult and complex issues. Sure, there’s always the mean guy who turns nice or the unlikely hero finding their inner strength after watching a friend or family member die. But these are simple (albeit necessary) surface level emotional changes. We simply don’t have time in a standard feature film to deal with heavy changes AND the undead.

Here is where the television format will surely shine for TWD. In the pilot alone, we’re given 4 sets of specific story lines that are already proving to have more gravitas than most zombie films of the past. It seems like the creative team is really allowing the story to breathe and move slowly in order to explore different sides of the emotional journeys our characters are involved in. Let's be honest... it would be quite an experience to go through a zombie apocalypse.

2. Storylines. For most zombie movies, the goal is just to live until the end of the movie. Some will, some won’t, someone will get bitten and either won’t tell anyone or the other characters will insist on trying to save them. (Seriously? Have you never watched a zombie movie before?) There will most likely be some time allotted to talk about
   where the virus came from, whether it’s man-made or alien, evil or well-meaning intentions turned bad. But it’s rare that there is really enough time spent diving into the origins of the infestation.

Even in this first episode, we’re not told anything about the origin of the virus. We’re not given a time-line of how fast things happened or how long our lead character was in a coma. It’s so important in these types of stories that we as the viewers know just as little as the main characters. It’s classic storytelling, and it’s classic for a reason. It just works.

So in this post-apocalyptic world, there are a myriad of possible story directions to be had, from the origin story to a possible cure (hinted at in the Pilot as being at the CDC in Atlanta), and even side stories of crazy or murderous living people that have assumed some kind of control over a town or the zombies themselves.

Not to mention the fact that TWD is based on a comic book series with 78 issues already. The director, Frank Darabont, has already said he intends to use the comics as a guide, but to also follow other bunny trails that were either hinted at or completely outside of the comics. All that to say, I don’t think they’ll be at a lack of story ideas in this show for as long as AMC will put it on!

3. Scare tactics. A smaller piece of the puzzle, but Shannon pointed it out and I think it will be important to the longevity of the show. In your standard zombie movie, there seems to be a certain number of zombies jumping out of nowhere to scare everyone and scare or gross out the audience. Being a television show, the director and writers won’t have to focus on fitting in as many jump-out-at-you scenes to get cheap scares, but can work a more deep rooted fear and creepiness into the show. Again, the key to making this happen is having time.

The greatest gift this show has seems to be simply TIME. I sincerely hope that the creative team on this show realizes what a huge gift that is and use it to their advantage. I didn’t even mention the zombies themselves, which look GREAT and move really well, almost a hybrid. A little quicker than a Romero zombie, but not as fast as a “Rage” zombie. I just hope that level of production quality won’t be lost after the pilot.

Overall, this show has the potential to be the great, long awaited zombie epic that undead lovers like us have always dreamt of. AMC is the perfect place for it too. Not only because zombies are an American classic in and of themselves, but because Darabont will have a lot of freedom with a certain extent of gore (as evident in the pilot episode).

I’m more excited about this show than any others that are going on right now. Alas, only 5 more episodes in Season 1… it’ll have to do for now!

Brewing Continues: Blackberry Wine

Blackberry Wine

So, neither of us have ever had it before, but as soon as I started studying brewing and plunged in to getting equipment, Shannon said she wanted to make Blackberry Wine.

So as the first batch of beer was nearing completion, we started doing some research and found that making blackberry wine is even easier than making beer! I keep saying to friends who've asked about it: "If you can boil a pot of water, you can brew".

So that's about where we are. We found a very simple recipe online for some blackberry wine and went to town. Most of the equipment that we would need, we already had from my beer brewing. We only needed to get a new bucket and a glass carboy (plastic one's would stain and thus flavor subsequent batches of wine).

First off is the Blackberries. Now, we were about 2 weeks out of season to get them fresh at the Farmer's Market or to pick them, so we had to resort to the California one's from Sam's. Not what we would have preferred, but 'twill serve!

So, after giving the berries a good rinse, they just go straight into the bucket...

And then it's the fun part, SMASHING!!

(Meanwhile, I've got a pot of water going that I've added sugar to, making a simple syrup)

After smashing them all up, we really wanted to taste it, and Shannon had the great idea to put it in some Sprite... some blackberry Sprite...

Ok, so it wasn't the greatest idea in the world, and it surprisingly tasted almost exactly like Sprite... eh, win some and loose some...

Oh oh oh! This time we had an additional helper, Maddie (Carpenter) was over giving us a hand!

So, after smashing everything up, we added some water and our (now cooled) simple syrup and gave it a good stir!

After this we let it sit for about 2 hours, it was time to add our yeast.

I still don't know much about yeasts, but it seems there are different types for any application, and very specific. There are yeasts specifically for Hefawizens and one for Ales and one for Red Wine and one for White Wine and this one, used specifically for Fruit Wine (other than grape, of course):

So, we added in our yeast and gave it another stir:

And then sealed it up and put the airlock on, just like we do with the beer:

So that starts the initial fermentation. It's that simple! Take some sugar, add some yeast, seal it up and wait! This is the initial fermentation process, of which there will be 3 before it's all said and done.

(P.S. I'm really lazy and haven't posted in a while, and we've actually already started our 2nd fermentation, I'll be posting that one soon!)

(P.P.S. We've also started our 2nd batch of beer, a Pale Ale, which I'll also post about soon!)

My Desire To Learn: Time and Quantum Physics

Time and The Multi-verse Theory

So, apart from cooking, music, and brewing, I’ve become fascinated with Quantum Physics, Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and whatever other names are given to similar theoretical sciences.

The first thing I want to say is that I’m 100% novice when it comes to these topics, and most of the information I have now I’ve only learned at the most basic level, so I fully expect to revisit this post down the road and laugh at how absurd my understanding of these things are. But that’s also why I wanted to write about it.

Perhaps the blog should be titled, “The Lay Man’s Attempt to Learn About Time”. So, in this introduction, I just wanted to talk about what draws me to want to learn about these things. I certainly am not interested in becoming a scientist, but I just want to understand for myself, and please feel free to chime in with a comment if you’d like.

I. Time

It’s not hard to relate to an interest in time travel. I think most people find it intriguing, especially those in my generation that grew up watching “Back To The Future” and a slew of other time-travel movies.

I, as I’m sure most of you, found myself getting wrapped up in the minutia of what can and can’t be possible. Yes, I realize that it’s just a movie, but it’s apparent that there is a certain amount of logic that is associated with it as well and rules that seem universal to traveling through time. The big question being, “Are you allowed to change things in the past?” Obviously Marty was allowed to. I mean, it wouldn’t have been a fun movie series if he wasn’t.

In the 2002 remake of “The Time Machine”, the main character goes mad trying to find the answer to the question of “Why can’t I change the past?” after his fiancée is murdered and he tries countless times to change it, all to no avail. It was also a common theme on “Lost” that it is impossible to change the past, and many argue as to whether or not they did. I fall into the camp of NOT being able to change the past.

Now that was what first piqued my interest, but it has since grown into a fascination with the notion of time itself, how it works, and what role God plays in all of it. One of my favorite podcasts, Radio Lab, put out 2 episodes on time that are really great and I would highly recommend anyone who is interested to listen to them.

Whenever God gets brought into the spectrum of studying time and His place in it, it always seems to circle back to the question of “Free-will vs. Predestination”. To me it’s not much of a question at all, and I don’t really understand why that is to others. It seems obvious that they are not mutually exclusive. Maybe it's not as obvious as I like to think it is.

II. Multi-verse Theory

This is something that just keeps coming up in fiction and non=fiction TV shows I watch ( R.I.P. Flash Forward) and seems to tie into theoretical discussions of Time, and it’s one that really frustrates me based on what limited knowledge I have of it/them.

Please keep in mind that my understanding of the MVT is very limited (which is exactly why I want to learn!), but this is my understanding of part of how it works:

There are an infinite number of worlds or universes that all exist simultaneously, and they are created or divided whenever a choice is made, and the universes collectively contain every possible scenario of every decision that could have been made.

For example (borrowed from Radio Lab… seriously, listen to it, so good), if I’m at a restaurant and I’m debating what ice cream flavor I want, say I choose vanilla. According to (my understanding of) the MVT, new universes were just created in which I chose chocolate, or rocky road, or German chocolate cake, or changed my mind altogether and didn’t get any. And so now there are more universes existing simultaneously with the “consequences” of that particular action ad infinitum.

So I do have some specific questions while studying this one.
1 . Where does this information originate?
2 . Why would that happen?
3 . Does it even matter?

To me, it sounds like philosophical non-sense. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate philosophical thought, just that it sounds idealistic, like someone was just trying to make themselves feel better or not as scared of the choices that they make.

My brother is developing a video game, and I was talking to him about it early on in the process. He explained to me how the game is based on making actual choices and facing whatever consequences come from those choices without the comfort of a “redo” or being able to undo what was done. He explained how that was a theme that had been reoccurring in his life, that choices are real and we need to make sure we’re prepared to deal with whatever our choices bring us.

That really spoke to me, especially in a time in our culture where no one wants to take responsibility for anything. Everyone’s looking for someone to blame or a way to justify things they do, say, think, etc.

It feels like another way for people to not feel bad about making bad choices, because somewhere deep down, a part of them feels better to know that in some universe somewhere they’ve made the right choices and all of the things that they don’t like about themselves are perfect in another version of themselves. It’s like escapism or a medicine of some kind. I just don’t see the point.

That being said, I want to learn about it to see what it has to say and hopefully to find out that I’m wrong. Initially, I did the obligatory Wiki search on “Multi-verse Theory” and found that it wouldn’t be that simple, I’d have to start at the beginning.

So, equipped with a few books and a drive for knowledge, I’ll begin my quest to learn what I can about Quantum Physics, and I’ll be updating on here with my progress when I feel like there’s something interesting to bring up.

I hope you enjoy reading as I fumble through this crazy world I’m about to get in!

- Grey

My First Batch Part 2: Bottling

My First Batch, Part 2: Bottling

Hey guys! So, time has passed, there were many many bubbles in our airlock from the fermentation, and now its time to bottle!

First and foremost, cleanliness is ESSENTIAL. If everything isn't clean, you can wind up getting rogue yeasts and random particles from the air that can flavor or even ruin your beer. So, we cleaned out the carboy that we're about to transfer to, and soaked our bottles and bottle caps all in a solution specifically designed to clean receptacles for potables.

Half of my bottles for this batch came from our very good friend Andy who got us some brand spankin' new bottles, as opposed to some reused ones. It was so nice of him!

So, now its time to open up our fermenting bucket and see how everything turned out. I'm so scared at this point, because (as I mentioned last post) it didn't taste or smell anything like you would want beer to taste or smell. Drum roll please...

It doesn't look too appealing... eeeww...

But oh man!! It smells SOO good... smells like beer! Even smells like a Hefeweizen! And it tastes like room temperature, flat beer! (which it should at this point) I was elated! I couldn't stop smiling, I was so excited!

So now, we need to prepare our bottling or "priming" sugar. We add this to our beer as we bottle and the (still-active) yeast will continue to ferment and add a little more alcohol and, more importantly, will add CO2, making it nice and bubbly.

We'll go ahead and boil that down to a syrup and let it cool before we add it. Just like before, if it's too hot, it will kill our yeast.

Next it's time to siphon our beer from the bucket to the carboy. I've never siphoned anything before, but it is surprisingly easy. It's all about suction and pressure, very interesting to figure out. Anyway, I basically just fill up my tubing (after sterilizing, of course) with water and hold the ends closed...

Then we stick one end in here...

Then the other end in here...

And... VOILA!! It just starts flowing...

In the book I've been using, The Complete Joy Of Homebrewing, I'm loving the fact that at every step, the author keeps reminding me to "relax, just relax, this is easy"... Its on almost every step, at the beginning of each step he reminds you to relax, and it makes me happy every time I read it because it really does help to just take a breath and realize that we aren't doing brain surgery and it really is just fun and seemingly hard to mess up!

And, as per usual, Lila was helping...

So, now we've got a full carboy, and what's left over in the bucket is pretty freaking gross. I didn't really understand why we needed to transfer to another vessel if we're just going to go straight to bottles after that... then I realized...

It's because you don't want this gunk in your beer... eeew....

So then we add our sugar to our beer and move the carboy up to the counter, and Shannon starts rinsing out the bottles for me.

We set up the siphon just like before, except this time it has my bottle filler attachment on the end. Its a really cool and simple device. There is a sort of button on the end of the tube, and when you push the button it opens up the tube and the beer comes out, so you hold that against the bottom of the bottle until its full and when you lift the tube up it stops the flow.

It's so exciting, once we got the siphon working well, it was as simple as filling up the bottles and then using the capper to put caps on, making sure it seals air-tight.

Then we've got bottled beer!!

Repeat a few more times...

And this was our take! 50 bottles of beer!

Now these will go back in the closet for 2 weeks to let the yeast do its thing. This time, since there is no airlock and the bottles are airtight, the CO2 it creates will stay in the bottle, carbonizing the beer. Then we age for two more weeks, then we drink!

Next week's post is going to be an introduction to my budding curiosity into the world of physics, quantum physics, quantum mechanics, relativity and what sparked my curiosity. I realize it doesn't have anything to do with beer, but that's just the miscellany that is my life!

Thanks for reading,

Grey

My First Batch

MY FIRST BATCH OF BEER!!



For my birthday this year, I got enough "birthday money" to get started brewing my own beer.

I spent the extra money to get the deluxe kit, as this will become a regular thing around our household, and apparently some of the same equipment can be used for making wine as well.

We bought our supplies at Rebel Brewer out in Gallatin per an overwhelming number of recommendations to them. They were great to us and answered all of our questions, and I'll definitely be getting my supplies from them from now on.

We decided to start with a simpler beer, the Hefaweizen. As we are completely inexperienced in brewing, this time around we just followed the directions, but we fully intend on getting creative with flavors and blends once I get comfortable with the ingredients, what they do, and how the science of it all works.

I feel like its the same as cooking, in that once you get to know your tools, spices, and how to prepare different types of food, then you can start to get creative. Furthermore, it also feels a bit like baking, as there is a lot of chemistry involved, and its not something that you can taste to make sure its right until its already done. And in the beer making process, that's about 6 weeks wait time.

We took pictures:

Here I'm starting a boil with some spring water. Everything I read said that the water makes a big difference, and I've always loved spring water more than any other...

So then, after bringing some water to a boil, we added our dry malted barley and malted wheat (part of what makes specifically a WHEAT beer):



Added 2 bags of that (2 lbs.) and brought that business up to a boil:


Lila was helping:



So then, after boiling and stirring for a bit, we added the hops. These are added to add a little bitter to the flavor to balance out the sweet of the alcohol, and to give that wonderful aroma... mmm, hops...


Now its getting a nice dark color:


It smells yummy! (Actually, by yummy I mean it smells kind of like hot cereal and tea... BTW it tastes gross at this point too)

So, after its done cooking, its time to let it cool off, so we took out the hops that were steeping, similar to a tea bag:

Once it cooled, which took forever... Shannon took a nap and I played a little Zelda... then we activated our dry yeast by adding water. Mmmm, living micro-organisms:


And added it:


And transferred everything to our fermenting bucket, where it is living until all the yeast turns all the sugar into alcohol:



Then the airlock goes in to make sure no outside contaminates can get in, but the CO2 produced by the yeast can still get out:


Next we wait... and wait... and after a couple of weeks we'll bottle, then wait some more!

There will be more pictures when the bottling happens...

Thanks for reading!

- Grey