Category Archives: Review

Gravity Winery 1/19/2013

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– Pinot Gris • cheddar and pear on the nose. Vanilla and spice with a surprising weight in the midpalate. Paired with cheese accentuates the notes on the nose and integrates well with the waiting heaviness.
– Shiraz • chlorine on the nose with very weak lingonberries. Quite acidic with a lean neediness in the aft-palate. The Colby jack is a good pair as it buoys the neediness letting the hidden spice shine with just a touch of raspberry/boysenberry.
– Irresistible Red • bubble gum on the nose with a ghost of strawberries. The taste is quite surprising, a definite soft licorice note paired with plums, cloves, and cinnamon. Paired with milk chocolate toffee pushes the sweetness forward and mutes the complex flavors that develop in the midpalate.
– Lemberger • chalkboard, slate, tomato paste in the nose. The taste is sharp and acidic with a conservative tannic structure that yields to plums and the bite of pepperoni. The pairing of dark chocolate cranberry pecan blasts out the finer flavors of the wine, accentuating the bitterness of the dark chocolate.

All in all, the Irresistible Red was the winner, the Shiraz was second, the Pinot Gris next and the Lemberger at the end.

Round Barn Tasting 1/19/2013

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– Vineyard Red • quite warm and loose. Flabby and generous. High 80’s
– Cabernet Sauvignon • nose of pickles and pool water under strawberries and plums with a hint of pepperoni. Nice acid and tannic bite with a complex mouthfeel. High 90’s
– Merlot Reserve • warm vanilla and chocolate notes in the nose with strawberries. Softer tannins waddle through with an exceptional creaminess. High 80’s.
– Noir Nouveau • more standup, notes of grenadine in the nose. Cherries and well-rounded currant notes. High 80’s
– Weekend Red • hot pavement on the nose, taste of sugared dark chocolate and raspberries with the slightest touch of freshly cut grass.

Sliders Burgers – Kalamazoo, MI

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We just returned from a late lunch at Sliders Burgers in Kalamazoo, MI. I was aware that they were coming when a Kalamazoo twitter personality mentioned two new businesses occupying Campus Pointe Mall several months ago. When they made the announcement my first response was “Oh god no, they are going to inherit the curse…” as Campus Pointe Mall is cursed with failure. This location has suffered some rather breathtaking churn over the years with eateries popping up and then evaporating. Over and over again. So, here we are, once more.

We left Barnes & Noble on Westnedge Avenue in Portage at 2pm, took 94 to 131, then Stadium to Drake then to W. Michigan. I thought it was the most direct route and I wanted our first time there to be together so we could discuss this review before I put words down about this restaurant. The idea was that we shouldn’t have any problems because it was 2pm, the lunch-crush should have been over by then and we could get back before my partner needed to return to work an hour later.

This restaurant, Sliders Burgers is on the end of a series of storefronts, parking is never really a problem. The parking lot of Campus Pointe Mall is terrible, but that’s something everyone knows. The lot is full of front-end-eating potholes, it’s not that your wheels get swallowed by them, it’s that your front-end gets swallowed by them. The parking lot looks like a shelling range. The management company that runs that “Mall” really should be ashamed, but it’s not the fault of the restaurant itself. After parking we spied the layout, which is like any burger joint and best resembles Five Guys little cousin. We walked in, everything seemed fine until we got to ordering. I pretty much knew what I was after, they have meals organized by number and I wanted a “Number One”. I had to ask for it twice, and then had to struggle with what toppings I wanted. These are sliders, these are tiny burgers. They say that their burgers are 5 ounces, but that’s pre-cooking weight, the honest value is likely 3 ounces in presentation. The toppings were disorganized. There are three onion options in their free topping range and it’s annoying to have to specifically identify each topping you want. When you are ordering in this situation speed is of the essence. The food is quick, the ordering is quick, the cashout is quick. Quick quick quick. Customers, like I had to, had to battle out a list of toppings, most of which I didn’t care about. What is worse is that my toppings were random and included some of their premium options like bacon that I didn’t ask for, but I’m not picky. The order failure was really disappointing. On our way back we got to talking about the toppings problem and came up with an idea. Put the caramelized onions on the premium list, then chop the white and red together. That would simplify the free topping list and then, much like Five Guys, you could say “All the free ones” and not have to stare into a blank face just blinking at you and asking you to itemize which ones you want. I told you what I wanted, alas, there is no convenient way to do that. So there we were, a lunch for two, a number one and a number four for $18.48. The pricetag surprised me. In comparison to other lunch possibilities this was expensive. More expensive than Five Guys, and even more than Culvers. Then we sat down. That was pretty much the end for me. I was annoyed at the order counter and the table was a weeble-wobbly piece of cheap junk. It was a square panel of plywood painted with a stand screwed into the base. I tested another random table on our way out and that table too was just the same. Annoying. Then we were waiting for our food, the kitchen performed a monumental whammy in serving someone who came in after us before us. At first we thought it was simply a matter of a smaller order until we noticed that it was bigger and was a dine-in and carry-out versus just a dine-in for us. Alas, bygones. We got our baskets and Scott didn’t get his fries. We were running out of time, since it took the kitchen about 12 minutes to prep what we ordered. It should have taken 3-6 minutes, tops. As for the food, it was acceptable. It wasn’t anything worth repeating and the fries were okay.

I won’t castigate Sliders Burgers the same way I did for Smashburger, but the comparisons are still valid. You get a cheaper and better meal on stable tables from Five Guys and even cheaper still at Culvers. One thing to keep in mind is that Sliders Burgers targeted audience is only partially me. They are targeted at the student population that is clustered right near them as Western is concentrating all their efforts on treating downtown Kalamazoo like a leper colony. Every development is on the other side, where nobody is, but if you build lots of “Apartments” and “Dorms” then voila, you’ve got a new area ripe for commerce with companies like Sliders Burgers. What about downtown Kalamazoo? It’s best left to Portage tossers and tragically ironic Hipsters.

We’ll give this place one more shot, just to be fair, but if you can’t deliver in less than 10 minutes at 2:30pm on a Saturday with an effective empty restaurant except for a handful of patrons there are some problems. Nothing I’ve identified is a business killer for Sliders Burgers, but much like Smashburger, they would have been better served by a soft open with a select customer base to shake out the problems first, before opening to the public.

So, tentatively we’re going to go with a 2.5 out of 5 for Sliders Burgers in Kalamazoo, MI.

Areas of improvement:

1) Overhaul topping selection, let the picky be picky, let the quick be quick.
2) Your tables are fit for incineration. They are no good. Buy real tables.
3) You may benefit from a number system instead of names.

Good Luck!

Barilla Whole Grain Fusilli with Vegetable Marinara Sauce Meal

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At the market a few days ago we picked up a few things we knew we absolutely needed and thanks to visiting family and their efforts to feed us while we were guests my food budget was flush and we had some rare wriggle room to try some new things. One of the new things that I picked up was a shelf-stable meal tray from Barilla.

This product is about $2.50 a unit and comes in recycled cardboard wrapper, the meal itself is stored in a two-section plastic tray. You take the tray out of the cardboard, easily done, peel the cover to the clearly marked dotted line and microwave for a minute. Then you peel the cover off the rest of the way and discard. The sauce is on the left in a removable sub-tray and it’s very easy to manipulate and pour the sauce onto the pasta. Mix with a fork and enjoy. Everything is recyclable, the cardboard and the tray plastic itself, I appreciate that.

As for the quality of the meal, it’s a good lunch and only has 320 calories. This particular variety featured 51% whole wheat pasta. Whole wheat pasta is different than the plain type, as the fiber makes the pasta more al-dente than you’d originally expect. The taste was right along with what I expected, it was quite good. You have to understand that the taste of whole wheat pasta is more woody than it’s plain alternative however for what it lacks in the texture department with standard pasta it makes up for by featuring 11g of fiber and 10g of protein.

The product is shelf-stable for about three months, so buying a few of them and using them for lunches at work shouldn’t make you end up throwing them away because they expired. There is a clear claim on the label that this product has “No Preservatives” which I like. This particular variety has an ingredient list that I can clearly understand with items that you can find in a market without having to resort to a chemical supply house. This variety also does not have monosodium glutamate, which for me is very important.

Overall I quite enjoyed it and I can recommend it to anyone else looking for a cheap lunch alternative. It certainly beats the mystery chemicals that the popular open-for-lunch restaurants use, plus you can’t beat the price and the speed at which it is ready. Because it only cooks for one minute, there is no need to fiddle with covers or wrappers or have to worry about the product bursting over the edge like some soups do when microwaved.

One thing to note, this product has 710mg of sodium, so its less than some soups have, which can blow your mind with the amount of sodium, so if you are trying to be careful with sodium, this might be an option if you can afford this much sodium.

I definitely will be buying more of these trays next time I go to the market.

Norman Rockwell Museum

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We just returned from Stockbridge, MA and the Norman Rockwell Museum. There was a comic book feature artist, Alex Ross and his collected artwork. Alex Ross claimed one of his biggest inspirations was Norman Rockwell. The museum was wonderful, very nicely laid out and the area screamed New England at the top of its lungs. It was so picturesque that it made my eyes ache.

We both picked up a few small souvenirs to remember our trip.

I didn’t take pictures because it would have been tacky and gauche. So it’s just my words that will have to do.

Sharing

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I ran into an inconvenience with the current way I share socially
online. I have established a new workflow. Short messages still end up
going to Twitter, and if I feel like they are worth sending to Facebook
I use “Selective Tweets” to push that single tweet forward into
Facebook. For longer entires I write them up in Day One no matter if
they are public or private and then save them there and then share them
via email if they are public with my WordPress blog. If they are private
matters, they simply get shared with Facebook with a default stringent
security setting so only the right people can see those posts.

The email routine actually has been hit and miss to start but now it’s
working out quite nicely. First I migrated my blog from WordPress.com to
Wordpress.org. This is just me moving stuff from a companies site (.com)
to the domain that I own with Scott (windchilde.com) and I figure since
I’m paying for it anyways I might as well use it. Plus the switch over
to the windchilde.com domain also allows me unlimited storage and
unlimited bandwidth so I can share photos and videos without having to
worry about running into any storage caps or having to pay for extra
storage when I’m already paying for a pretty good deal with the host
that runs windchilde.com. I originally started with WordPress.org and
figured that Jetpack, which is a feature crosstalk package between
Wordpress.com and WordPress.org, extending some of the things that I
liked about WordPress.com around my installation of WordPress.org for
free. One of those options was “Post by Email” which gave me a
gobbledegook address at post.wordpress.com. That feature never worked
for me. It was supposed to be turn-key but it fell on it’s face. So I
turned to plugins, which are how you can extend WordPress.org sites, but
not WordPress.com sites. The company keeps a tight lid on things like
that where the “DIY” system is far more flexible and accommodating. I
downloaded the plugin called “Postie” and configured it to use a POP
account that I created on the windchilde.com domain and got that all set
up. There were a wee bit of growing pains regarding how to set
Categories and Tags in the email posts that I was making out of Day One.
What I had was a rather clunky Evernote note with the copied text from
my WordPress Category page so I could refer to that to pick and choose
which category I wanted the email post to go into. This was a mess. I
thought about it for a while and when I was done working out at Anytime
Fitness it struck me in a eureka moment; Why not just use TextExpander
to do the heavy lifting? So I started TextExpander on my MBP at home and
it came up, loaded the settings from my Dropbox (neat) and I created a
new snippet, called it “Categories” and set it’s trigger to be “;cat”.
Then I loaded all my categories from WordPress into a bracketed
pull-down list that TextExpander enables you to make on-the-fly so once
I’m done with Day One editing, I can save the entry (also is stored in
my Dropbox, yay!) and then click Share, Email, and then with the open
email I can just type in the trigger for each category I want to add and
I don’t need to remember to go to Evernote to get the list, or risk a
typo screwing everything up. Using Categories this way is really
convenient and tags are a snap to add as well.

Every once in a while I like to plug software that really works for me.
I plug the tarnations out of Mac, of course, as it’s the platform that I
can actually get my work done on. The apps that run on the Mac make the
rest of it work oh-so-well. Day One is a magnificent personal journaling
app. It’s private and password protected on all my devices and stored on
my Dropbox so I don’t have to screw around with backups or restores or
worrying that my entire Journal may just flit off into nothingness if my
MBP or a flash drive decides to play dumb on me. Plus Day One has
in-built sharing features, so I can share via Email, Twitter, or
Facebook if I want to. WordPress.org is not really software that runs on
my Mac, but instead runs on a host. The host I use is iPage.com and they
do a competent job. Setting up a WordPress.org site is embarrassingly
easy, mostly just a handful of clicks and you get a starter email with
the address you should use and your username and a temporary password. I
started to use WordPress because I left LiveJournal when the Russians
bought SixApart, the company that runs LiveJournal. Not that I have
anything against russians, but I’m not a huge fan of my words in that
place, it’s a personal thing. WordPress.org also enables commenting and
stats collection and automatically publicizes on it’s own to Twitter and
Facebook and Tumblr so I don’t have to futz around and create links to
my blog posts after the fact – WordPress does it for me.

Day One stores everything, WordPress stores my public lengthy stories,
Facebook stores my private lengthy stories and Twitter and Facebook
handle the rest – the tiny stuff. It’s all held together by Dropbox,
TextExpander, Day One app, my host, WordPress.org, Twitter, Facebook,
and Tumblr. It seems complicated and it is rather too-involved, but this
way I can write freely without having to concern myself with
self-censorship or exposing the wrong people to the wrong kind of
information. This way it’s all compact and interrelated and convenient.
So far, this is great for me and it’s how I am able to “have my cake and
eat it too”, which I’m a huge fan of in general.

All these products that I mentioned are either cheap or free. Nothing
cost me an arm or a leg, even the host, when you spread the cost over a
whole year is a pittance. I could even help friends and family set up
their own WordPress.org blogs on my host if they, and Scott, agreed. So,
if you think some of this would suit you and Scott’s good with it, just
let me know.

 

Restaurant Review: Seasonal Grille in Hastings, MI

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Several weeks ago Scott bought a Groupon for a new restaurant we had never even knew existed. It’s called “Seasonal Grille” and it’s in Hastings, Michigan. We had no clue as to where Hastings was as we’ve never been there before. Turns out that it’s on M–43, which is a rather circuitous state route here in Michigan. We live just off Gull Road and as it turns out, Gull is also known as M–43. We followed the road along, from Kalamazoo to Richland, then to Danville and finally to Hastings. Parking was not an issue as Hastings was about the same size as Parchment, MI – which is to say, very small. It reminded me a lot of Cortland, New York. The restaurant itself is on a corner lot and is very bright inside and has a lot of windows, making the approach very easy for us. The Groupon was a half-off deal for a bottle of wine, an appetizer, and a main course.

We were greeted promptly and seated as it was rather late, later than most people would dine so the atmosphere was more intimate and relaxed than it otherwise would have been if we had arrived during the dinner rush. The interior is modern and spacious with a well-stocked bar which serves as a large island in the center of the establishment. The first thing I noticed was the interior lighting. I’ve had a standing issue for quite a long time with most restaurants, including all of them in Kalamazoo, that restauranteurs believe that subdued lighting lends ambiance. It’s irritating. It’s not ambiance if you cannot see anything because it is so very dim inside! It was a delight to finally find a restaurant that pumps up the ambient light as well as features strong but well-diffused lights over each table. When one eats, you taste first with your eyes. Being able to see things, being well-lit, this is totally refreshing and I cannot express how much I approve and enjoy this dining environment. Other restaurants can take a page from Seasonal Grille when it comes to interior design and especially their generous lighting strategy.

We shared a large meatball appetizer which was about the size of a baseball. It was well cooked and had a very fine texture which we both commented on. The presentation was very nice and the speed from the kitchen was exactly what we expected. It wasn’t rushed out, and it wasn’t late, it was just right. There was a little fumble with our wine order as the bottle we selected was found to be out, but switching to another varietal wasn’t a problem. We both had ordered their “Taste of Italy” which was listed as Manicotti, Lasagna, and Chicken Parmesan for $14.95. This was one of their most expensive dishes on the menu and the price was another huge surprise. The order was finished by the kitchen and arrived, everything was piping hot and fresh and the colors, the texture, the taste, and the presentation were all spot-on. I still am shocked that they priced out that dish to $14.95. The prices, we both commented as we ate our meal, were remarkably low considering the quality coming out of the kitchen. I would have expected a price point around $16.95 to $18.95. That a good meal for such a great price can be had locally is quite nice. For dessert we decided to try their Cannoli. The presentation on the desert platter shows one cannoli, however the order is for two. We really ordered too much but the quality was still excellent, and since it wasn’t included in the Groupon that was priced out separately as it should have been.

Overall I was quite impressed with Seasonal Grille. It is a rather lengthy drive from Kalamazoo, but it is uniquely positioned, as it’s roughly half-an-hour from Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, and Lansing. If you are looking for a new place, or maybe find a new favorite place, I really recommend this restaurant for consideration. Hastings may be sneeze-and-you-miss-it, but this particular establishment certainly is not.

Confusing Worthless Passbook

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Apple has stepped in it quite badly when it comes to their Passbook app. It comes down to which metaphor they’d like to use and please, stick to whichever it is. I write specifically after updating my Starbucks app on my iPhone and the app asked if I wanted to add a card to my Passbook. So far my understanding of Passbook was that there was a stump-app which led you to the App Store to “buy” apps for different companies, so Target, Walgreens, that sort of thing and that those “Apps” were to be eventually organized in a Passbook folder.

So I start the Starbucks app, and it prompts me to add a Passbook card, so I figure there will be another app icon called “Starbucks” that I can put in the folder with all the other unused “Passbook” apps that I don’t use. And there is nothing. Huh. So I looked at the app for a while and couldn’t find where it put my Passbook “App” icon. I figured it must have been broken. That the download was buggy or broken. I completely ignored the Passbook app itself, because it was just a stump, why the hell would I use it again? It led to the App Store and that was how you entered the App Store if you wanted to waste time screwing around with Passbook bullshit. So I tapped on the app expecting to see the lame text and the link to the App Store, and there was my Starbucks Passbook card. As an added bit of huh, the link to the App Store is gone. So, okay. No more Passbook apps then for me, which I guess is fine.

It’s this really loopy “It’s an app” versus “it’s a card” metaphor that I’m griping at. It could have been more elegant, as for usefulness, eh. I don’t think of my phone when it comes to buying things. Phones don’t do that sort of thing, except now they do.

When it comes to Starbucks, we have a host of other problems that are going to pop up. I can’t use my Starbucks card at Barnes & Noble because it’s not a true Starbucks store, it’s B&N’s Cafe that serves Starbucks products. How many people will try to use their Starbucks card or this Passbook app? They’ll get irritated and be disinclined to use Passbook again. I know that feeling because I tried to use my Starbucks app at a Starbucks shop in McCormick Place in Chicago and was told they only accept cash or credit cards. That was the last time I used my Starbucks app except for just this morning to engage with this whole Passbook bullshit. So, even if you walk into a store that sells Starbucks, is a Starbucks, they may or may not use what you have. So having your phone out and ready to go and make things speedy utterly fails and you walk away without what you wanted, angry at the embarrassment. Then what are you supposed to do about some of those Starbucks that have drive-thru service? Do you honestly think people will hand their iPhones to a clerk for scanning? How stupid do you have to be to hand your expensive iPhone to anyone else? What if a compromising text pops up while they are scanning your iPhone? What then? I know why Apple would like Passbook to be useful and I’m all for new ways of addressing old problems, but there has to be a better way to do it. I suppose this really would only work well if you walked up to a Starbucks store, and there was some icon stating that the Passbook card would be accepted for purchases on the premises, then maybe then. But at that point how irritated would you be that you had to go hunting and searching for it? Then would you really even be interested in buying anything or just skipping it altogether?

So, the worthless Target and Walgreens apps, the weird App/Card thing with Starbucks, and how you can’t even be sure that any of it would work leads me to think that this is all just so much DOA technology. You aren’t going to use it because it’s too much bother. I can’t wait until some airline thinks they can stuff a boarding pass into this thing. Do you seriously think that a thieving TSA drone will give you back your iPhone? They’ll hand you back your Photo ID and pocket your phone. But that touches on the criminals that work for the TSA, but it’s still a REALLY BAD IDEA. Perhaps there will be something eventually that makes Passbook worth anyones time and trouble. I wouldn’t hold your breath.

Barnes & Noble's Nook HD+ Is Clever

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Barnes & Noble just sent an email out announcing their two new tablets: The Nook HD and Nook HD+.

Previously to this release I was discussing with my partner, who works for Barnes & Noble ways that B&N could compete with Amazon and Apple in the tablet space. There was a concern that B&N had lost traction and that the company was going to spiral out of control and crash, eventually. These tablets have just eliminated a good portion of that worry.

For full disclosure, I came across a rather pleasant and unexpected windfall in regards to money and I’ve been kvetching about the poor performance of my 1st edition iPad and in a way, Apple has sent a clear message that they regard the device as dead because they are no longer writing software updates for it. I went ahead and purchased an iPad 3 and I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot.

This news from B&N is very interesting to me as this new device has several key areas that put up more bang-for-less-money. The first surprise is the processing speed of the Nook HD+ in comparison with the iPad 3. 1.5GHz dual-core versus 1GHz dual-core. Ever since 2003 when the world pretty much stopped worrying and loved the bomb that is processor speed ratings this distinction isn’t as compelling as it appears on paper. The two units have different core technologies, the iPad has an A5X processor and the Nook HD+ has an OMAP 4470 processor. We have seen from manufacturers like HTC and Samsung that even when you pour huge muscular processors into devices to compete, that if the experience of the user isn’t done correctly then all the computing horsepower in the world means very little. It’s not about the muscles, it’s about the refinement of the motor cortex. It isn’t how strong you are, it’s your dexterity – at least in the phone and tablet space. I do hand it to B&N when it comes to pumping numbers and keeping costs suppressed – that’s a win in their column.

The second surprise, and I’ve been half expecting someone to notice this glaring deficit in tablet OS design comes down to what I believe to be Barnes & Noble’s knife-held-confidently-behind-its-back killer feature. Barnes & Noble is going to bring profile control to the tablet space. This casts a huge pall over both Amazon and Apple devices and redefines a tablet to be a multiuser device. It is exceptionally clever for Barnes & Noble to do this because it draws a clear bead of connection from everyone’s computer experience (where you have an account and profile) off to your device. When it comes to Apple, they rejected this model and regard a device to be a one-person-only deal, which has been a weakness in the iOS OS design. Apple may be too far along to make such a fundamental change to iOS so we may see the creation of a new track of tablet technology. Is a tablet multiuser or single-user? By being multi-user, and if B&N does it elegantly, it can cast B&N in a family friendly light, more than an Amazon or Apple product because one relatively inexpensive device can serve an entire family. Instead of the onerous cost of a Kindle or iPad for each person, because each device is single-user, one Nook HD+ can be used by different members of a family without having to worry about security, privacy, preference or profile leakages between people. It’s a failure of the Apple iOS OS and here is why: When I come across another persons iOS device, I am utterly lost – I don’t know their preferences, their security settings, where they have placed icons, and I find myself having to relegate to the search screen to even find where they put the ubiquitous “Settings” icon. If B&N does profiles elegantly, this will be a non-issue. Rendered moot because each person has their own settings that they are used to, making the confusion evaporate.

I think that B&N will pursue a marketing strategy that elevates the personal touch and the family friendliness of their Nook HD and Nook HD+ devices. That will be key, with profiles, the ability to use LendMe to share books, and their admittedly well-done “Parent recording storybooks for their children” technology they will position themselves to be “The Booksellers who care about you and your family” and they will occupy a third niche in this space. The first niche is the deep-discount one, that’s occupied by Amazon. The second niche is the elegance-at-all-costs one, which is occupied by Apple – and then last but certainly not least, the third niche which is the Friends-Family-Kids one, which is going to be Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

This niche may be the best hope for Barnes & Noble to retain their 21st century relevance.  They should maintain their “Brick and Mortar” presence and cater their stores to being a place where you feel welcome, with friendly staff and a coffeehouse/library atmosphere. The elevator sales-pitch is that B&N is more personable and immediate than Amazon could ever hope of being – you don’t know Jack at Amazon, but you know Jack at B&N. B&N’s approach to kids and family with their very deep roots set throughout America means they have already beat Apple to the market in terms of the personal touch. Yes, Apple has the Genius Bar and yes they are friendly geeks, but you don’t go to a Genius Bar to find out about Apps and Woodworking! You can only do that at a Barnes & Noble!

The real competition isn’t between B&N and Apple anyhow, since Apple touches B&N only in this one market-space. The real competition here is between Amazon and B&N. It’ll be an interesting evolution to say the least – which do people prefer more? The cold, impersonal, sterile deep-discount algorithms of Amazon or the instant-gratification, warm, personal, and direct approach of Barnes & Noble Booksellers? It may simply come down to how people refer to these two competitors. You USE Amazon and you VISIT Barnes & Noble Booksellers. That right there is something that Jeff Bezos can never buy himself into, but B&N already exists to cater to. Which do you value, the impersonal or the personal?

Barnes & Noble Booksellers may have just secured their direct relevancy in the market for the next decade with these two new devices. The proof is in the pudding of course, these devices, once in the stores, will be the final arbiter on the survivability of B&N in the tablet market space.

 

TOP 5 VILLAIN DEATH SCENES IN SCI-FI HISTORY | geekleagueofamerica.com

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TOP 5 VILLAIN DEATH SCENES IN SCI-FI HISTORY | geekleagueofamerica.com.

These five selections are indeed all excellent, however I must admit to my personal preference being the death of the final Alien in the rather poorly done Alien Resurrection. For all this films slogging along the last action scene in the film really is quite (and literally!) visceral to watch. After you witness the “birth” of the hybrid Alien, and after it knocks it’s Alien mothers head clean off it tries to show affection for the blended Ripley. The way she cuts herself on her “child” and then throws her acidic blood at the viewport out into space you can see right from this point where the film is going.

I think that this scene takes the cake for me because it’s quite disgusting to watch, essentially the hole into space with the pressurized atmosphere in the ship leads to an inexorable drawing in of the closest objects to that orifice leading out to space. Then the FX team toy with you, maybe the Alien Hybrid will make it in it’s escape away from the orifice of doom, but we all know that the movie wouldn’t be able to move forward if that was the case, so the hybrid has to die. So it gets sucked towards the orifice and in one very small moment it’s greasy flesh is protruding out into the vacuum of space and then, well, like a rollercoaster it’s all downhill from there. It’s screaming and growling at being betrayed by Ripley is the first bit, then as it gets progressively hoovered out into space through a very tiny hole, the screaming and growling become more of a surprise leading to a kind of painful pleading for help. There really isn’t any help possible, because as the events unfold, a majority of the creatures internal organs are being crushed, blended, and evacuated into space. Then quite gratuitously they show the hybrids literal disemboweling. The keening scream and pleading cries get more pronounced and I actually feel a sense of sympathetic panic for the hybrid. Then, and at the end where it gets really quite awful, the screaming stops because the hybrids pulverized lung tissue is now a gel being pushed out into space and you see just it’s head, then the skin gets hoovered off and the skull. Little waypoints of disgusting horribleness the whole way along.

I vote for this villain’s end because it wasn’t really technically a villain, it was an unwanted maybe-hero as it’s only real action was to kill the true villain, the Alien Queen that “birthed” it. But it had to be disposed of, and this particular approach, well, it reaches in deep and grabs you in the gut and twists and toys with you. Much like witnessing a car doomed to a very horrific collision, you can’t really respond, you just watch in a kind of sickened awe.

It’s the kind of scene that none of my squeamish friends should ever witness. The entire sequence is exceptionally gory, visceral, and the sound effects just push it over the top for me. What a way to die – blenderized and hoovered out into space. There is no playing dead and surprising the “hero” from that point!