Riverside

(Brewing, not the D Line on the MBTA Green Line)

*Beer Geekery Alert* Feel free to skip down to Part II: Boston Movie Review (again graded on a scale of 5 Dunkin Donuts coffees) or Part III: Return to the US countdown

PART I: Riverside Brewing

So it's been about a month since I returned to Oz without my partner in crime, but at least the weekdays have been flying by. Work, Eat, Skype, Sleep. Rinse and Repeat.

Which leaves me up to figuring how to pass the time on the weekends. This weekend, my mate/homebrew partner  and I got to volunteer at Riverside Brewing in Parrametta (suburb west of the city) on Saturday.

We met the Riverside Brewing guys at the Great Australian Beer Spectapular in Melbourne, and again at the Sydney Beer Fest about a month ago. My mate sent them an email telling them we were keen interested in helping out if they needed an extra hand. They gladly took up our offer of free labor and put us to work bottling beers on Saturday. While this may sound boring to some, most, nearly all of you, it was basically a behind the scenes brewery tour for us.

After finishing bottling 3 kegs (around 350 beers) for Riverside, Wayward Brewing (1 guy), a contract brewery which uses Riverside's equipment asked if we could help bottle 3 of his kegs. As a homebrewer-turned-1 man brewery, he had a wealth of knowledge to share with us (as did Riverside). Plus, what else are you going to talk about while bottling beers for 6 hours.

Luckily for us, our labor was not completely free. They paid us in Home Depot Bunnings parking lot sausages hot dogs and free beer. After we finished bottling and they closed up the cellar door, we got to kick back and drink a bunch of their beers.

Plus got hooked up with some nice take-away (as I had to commute home on the Train/Ferry, my buddy got a bigger haul, mine is below)

PART II: Boston Movie Review

Fever Pitch
Starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon....ahhhh I'm totally messing with you guys! And despite requests from some (Mere) who want me to review Pitch Perfect, it's not Boston-related. I will admit that I do thoroughly enjoy it. Not as much as Mere or my manager at GMO in Boston.

Back to the movie I did watch.












The Verdict (1982 - pre-Mark LaPierre by 1 year)

IMDB Synopsis: A lawyer sees the chance to salvage his career and self-respect by taking a medical malpractice case to trial rather than settling.










Nominated for 5 academy awards starring Paul Newman (you may remember him from such films as Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid or from such salad dressings as Newman's Own Caesar and Balsamic Vinaigrette) as alcoholic ambulance chaser Frank Galvin.
Also starring Jack Warden, most famous as the guy with the Mets tickets in 12 Angry Men but whom I (unfortunately) most remember as the grandfather in the Problem Child movies. And also starring Charolotte Rampling, whom I only know from watching Dexter Season 8 which, talk about coincidences, I started watching last week.

While most of it takes place indoors in a courtroom, there are some great shots of Quincy Market, South Station and South Boston with those Jan/Feb dirty snowbanks. Also the sister of the defendant's accent is glorious!

This movie takes me back to high school where we watched it in 'You and the Law' with the great Mr. McMullan. Or at least watched most of it as he purposefully had the movie cut out right as the jury is reading the verdict at the end of the movie. Makes me laugh every time I think about it. That and the scene where Paul Newman is leaving the bar in the morning and drops the raw egg in the beer - 'an Irish breakfast' according to Mr. McMullan.

Final Score:

A perfect 5/5. I'd add a box of munchkins to the score as well, what a classic!



PART III:

Mote's Reunion Countdown: 55 days!

As I stated above, the weeks have been going by pretty fast (can't believe we've already been apart for a month).

PS: It isn't weird that I've started to use Mere's shampoo because it smells like her, is it?.....(awkward silence?)