Mountain Dew: Kickstart!

As the days get longer and the temperatures start to rise this can only mean one thing, the 2013 Summer Season has arrived! And despite the unseasonably late snow storm from a few days ago, I am very much ready for things to spice up around here.

I like a lot of the little nuances that happen during the summer months. Specifically the strange phenomenon known as the Limited Edition Soda. All kinds of weird offshoot flavors tend to spring up this time of year and most of them are long forgotten by years end.

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As a soda collector, I like to procure every possible variation of these limited edition beverages. 2013 hasn't shown anything spectacular quite yet, but it's still early in the year and I'm sure there will be plenty of sights to see.

Mountain Dew: Kickstart isn't exactly a Limited Edition Soda so much as it is a slightly bizarre idea from Pepsi that seems destined to end up being available only for a short time.

For those who don't follow soda company trends, you might not realize it but the sale of carbonated beverages is on the decline. Turns out people started to realize that drinking gallons of the sweet stuff daily might not be the wisest of health choices.

In order to make up for this lost market share a lot of companies are either trying to promote "healthier" (if such a thing exists) and lower calorie alternatives to our favorite drinks. This is where the Dr. Pepper 10 and Coke Zero's of the world come from.

Along with these low calorie beverages, Pepsi is also attempting to crack into previously untapped markets. Namely the breakfast / coffee drinking crowd. Taco Bell currently offers 'Mountain Dew AM' as part of its breakfast menu but for those of us who don't like diarrhea before noon time, Mountain Dew: Kickstart waits in hopes of waking us up each morning.

Kickstart is currently available in two different flavors, Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch. Sold in 16 fl oz metal cans, they differentiate themselves from either traditional soda cans or the larger plastic bottles and the bright color scheme help them to stand out from the sea of energy drinks they are competing against.

The price? I don't exactly remember. Let's go with $1.99... that sounds reasonable right? The important thing here is clearly the taste and this my friends is were I find the biggest fault with Kickstart.

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I cannot help to shake the feeling that Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch are basically just diet versions of Mountain Dew Livewire and Code Red, the readily available alternative versions of Dew that have been on shelves for years now.

Both flavors are largely forgettable. To the point that its honestly hard to describe them. One tastes exactly like every orange soda you've ever had and the other is Hawaiian Punch in a metal can.

Am I being overly critical on Mountain Dew: Kickstart? Perhaps. I just find the flavors of both drinks to be so underwhelming that neither of them really feel worth the effort. I guess I'm also still slightly confused about who exactly these are made for.

If its an attempt to grab hold of the early morning market, it's not going to succeed. The folks who are addicted to coffee are addicted for a reason and no amount of Mountain Dew is going to convert them over.

Likewise, us Dew-Addicts don't mind popping open a can pretty much as soon as we wake up in the morning. So who is this for? It's surely not any healthier than a traditional carbonated beverage, doesn't have a unique taste, and I can't think of any specific time of day that it makes the most sense to drink.

I hate to call Kickstart dead in the water but quite frankly if this stuff is still available by this time next year, you can color me surprised.

Iron Man 3 Film Review!

Perhaps the biggest question going into Marvel's Iron Man 3 wasn't whether or not the film was going to be good but instead if audiences would be willing to go back to a film focused on a single hero after seeing the ultimate team up adventure flick, The Avengers.

Turns out so long as your film stars Robert Downey Jr. the answer to this question is a resounding yes. Iron Man 3 is not without flaw but the overall experience is well worth the price of admission. Welcome to phase 2 of Marvel's extended universe.

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Iron Man 3 tells the continued story of billionaire playboy Tony Stark (brought to life once again by the charismatic Robert Downey Jr.) who is now dealing with an inner conflict of sorts, brought on by the years he's spent portraying Iron Man for the world to see.

The first film famously ended with Tony Stark proclaiming that he is indeed Iron Man. By the time the 3rd film rolls around, Stark clearly isn't so sure anymore. Who is Iron Man? Is it the armor he created or the man living inside it?

Does the suit of armor define Tony Stark or does Tony Stark define the suit of armor. These are the films central questions and by the time it's all said and done you'll know the answers to each.

I applaud the films writers for taking this opportunity to show Tony Stark growing as a character and attempting to make him more dimensional, without going the easy route and telling the 'demon in a bottle' storyline. Iron Man 3 pushes Stark in directions that we haven't quite seen before and it was an enjoyment to see how the character reacted.

Of course nobody wants to watch a movie that deals just with Tony Starks insecurity issues. Enter the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) and Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce) as the films main antagonists. Both of whom act as Iron Man's biggest foes to date. And that includes the alien force from The Avengers.

Perhaps the biggest complaint with the second film was that Whiplash seemed to serve only as a minor distraction to Iron Man. Never really posing anything more than a minor threat. Mandarin and Killian dish out punishment in spades and best Stark a number of times, the likes of which we haven't seen up until now.

And they do so in ways that are different from anything else we've seen thus far in a big budget comic book movie. I won't spoil one of the films major plot points but I will say that while hardcore comic book fans might not like the way Mandarin is presented on screen, it fits the films narrative structure and makes sense within the context of the connect universe Marvel has worked so hard to create.

As for Ben Kingsley, he is absolutely brilliant as this version of the Mandarin. Kingsley is such a strong actor and he brings Mandarin to life in a way that we've never seen before. This is not just simply Bane stuck into an Iron Man film. It's a full fledged character. Written for and adapted to the big screen specifically for Iron Man 3.

Guy Pearce is no slouch either, making Aldrich Killian one of the more interesting characters to be presented on a Marvel screen. I loved Killian and the evolution that he goes through. Ultimately ending the picture as a sort of badass, uber version of the T-1000 from Terminator 2.

Tony Stark (the character) needed someone who could challenge him not only physically but mentally. Aldrich Killian is able to pull this off and almost succeed in doing so. Clearly this is the farthest we have seen Iron Man pushed and exactly what the film needed to live up to the high standards set forth by The Avengers.

The rest of the films (main) cast is rounded off by the returning Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts,  Don Cheadle as War Machine/Iron Patriot and Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan.

It's nice to see all of these actors return to the franchise and by this time in the series each of them knows the different nuances to there respective characters. It allows for some very nice comedy beats and very organic exchanges between them.

My only complaint here is that once again it feels like Don Cheadle gets short changed. Despite the fact that War Machines armor has been "re-branded" to a new Iron Patriot look, Cheadle doesn't really do a whole heck of a lot throughout the course of the film. Why even bother putting him in the movie if your not going to use the character?

I expected much bigger scenes involving War Machine this time around and ended up leaving more than a little disappointed with how this character was handled. As for the Iron Patriot rebranding of War Machine, it's another one of those instances that works really well within the context of the film, despite being entirely different than the source material.

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In the comics Iron Patriot is a completely separate character from War Machine. Controlled by none other than Norman Osborn and created out of scraps from a bunch of older discarded Iron Man suits. Osborn ultimately would go on to paint his new armor with a patriotic scheme meant to call upon the memories of Captain America.

This was never going to happen in any Marvel movie. For a number of different reasons, but chief among them being the fact that the cinematic rights to the Spider-Man franchise currently being owned by Sony Pictures.

Marvel couldn't include Norman Osborn in an Iron Man film even if they wanted to (which they probably don't) ... but they are free to use the Iron Patriot likeness all they want. Consider it an awesome piece of fan service but try not to concentrate so heavily on the characters origins and instead stop and think about how it fits into the Marvel Universe, as established by the films that came before it.

Which to be perfectly fair, the same thing can be said for the Mandarin character in Iron Man 3.

Speaking of the expanded Marvel Film Universe, Iron Man 3 does a pretty good job of fitting in with everything that came before it without overloading the audience with information pertaining to the prior films.

You can go into Iron Man 3 without having see a single Marvel film and still walk away enjoying the final product. Obviously the more you know the better but it doesn't beat you over the head with details that happened in the five films prior to this one.

Which isn't to say it is ignoring the events of what happened before it. You can very clearly ready between the lines and see how The Avengers has shaped not only Tony Stark but the world around him.

It is important to remember that Thor's arrival in the Marvel Universe is a literal game changer. Here is someone who perceives himself as a literal god from another world, that has descended into ours. This alters everything. As you watch the film, keep this in mind and I think you'll gain a better understanding of how deep Mandarin's character really is, and quite frankly central to Iron Man 3.

Overall the film delivers on all fronts. You'll run into a select few scorn fans who seem to think this is the worst Marvel film ever made (clearly they don't remember Ang Lee's Hulk) but don't listen to them. Iron Man 3 delivers by all accounts.

4 1/2 out of 5

... and on the 236th day it snowed!

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Do you know the significance of the number 236? It's the exact number of days, as of Thursday, May 2nd 2013 that we have left until Christmas. Under normal circumstances I wouldn't bring up the Christmas Countdown Clock with so many days left to check off. However today is not normal circumstances. Today it snowed.

I'm not just talking about your run of the mill late night snow that doesn't amount to anything. We got roughly six inches of snowfall. The thick kind. The heavy kind. The kind that cancels school and plugs up roadways. In a perfect world this is what everyone secretly hopes for in the first few weeks of December.

Only it's not December. It's May. Just last week it was hot enough that I had to put a fan in the window. Today I had to bust back out my winter jacket as I plowed through six inches of fresh snow.

And then something strange happened. I was venturing about, enjoying my day off from work and snapping a few photos of this unique May snowstorm when I was hit with the sudden urge to make a trip to one specific store.

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Believe it or not... I somehow knew that something holiday related was waiting for me inside. I went. I searched. Up and down every isle, looking carefully at each product on the shelf until I finally found it. RENUZIT HOLIDAY AIR FRESHENER. The holiday cookie kind. Just sitting out on the front of the shelf, waiting for me to purchase it.

I found it at one of the local grocery stores. One that I frequent quite often. I've been their dozens of times since Christmas ended and trust me this air freshener hasn't been out on the shelf. Had it been I would have bought it months ago.

Yet here it is. And here the snow is. This has to be the greatest 236th day until Christmas that anyone has ever celebrated. Everyone else is bitching about the unseasonably cold and snowy weather and I'm just sitting here loving every minute of it.

I think I'll make a cup of hot chocolate and watch Charlie Brown pick out a really horrible Christmas tree tonight.

A Big Halloween Pickup!

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A couple months back one of my friends moved out of state. Not being able to take everything with him, a few items had to be left back home and (more or less) be put into storage. Among them was this big stack of Halloween Decorations.

When the time finally came to ship back the rest of what he really needed, it was sort of decided that all his old Halloween props simply wasn't worth boxing up and moving across the continental United States.

If you put two and two together you can probably figure out which direction this is all heading. When asked if I would like to have what was left over, I wasted no time with my answer... a resounding yes. Of course I would take whatever he had. I was helping out a friend and getting free Halloween Decorations at the same time. That's almost the very definition of a win-win situation.

A few days later when the horrific pile of goodies arrived in my garage I literally had no idea what to expect. It was one gigantic overfilled container that had been (not so carefully) packed with someone elses Halloween display. Let's take a closer look at what was living inside:

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Once everything was untangled and spread out on my garage floor you can really see how good of a haul this was. A few items got slightly damaged from being mishandled during the move but only one was ruined to the point that I had to discard it. Everything else was in surprisingly good shape and easily repairable.  Here is a quick rundown of all the items pictured above:

• -- Two large tombstones and four small tombstones (with wooden stakes)
• -- Two drop cords, power stake, and two colored light bulbs
• -- One small bottle of fog juice
• -- One of those changing 'horror portraits'
• -- Four skulls
• -- Two large severed heads
• -- Two gargoyle statues
• -- Two small severed heads
• -- One bag of misc. sized bones
• -- One white winged hanging prop
• -- One black hanging prop (with crossed arms)

And a few other miscellaneous things mixed in for good measure. Those two arms are from the one prop that got almost entirely destroyed. I saved them, thinking that I might find a use someplace down the line. You can never have to many skeleton zombie arms.

Getting all these items today was a great way to start off the eventual 2013 Halloween Season. It takes a lot of time, dedication, and unfortunately money to put up a display the size that I typically do. Anytime someone donates old leftover props, it really helps. Most of everything you see here will work its way into this years display. And I'm super excited to start to figure out exactly what it is that will define this years setup.

Now I just got to find a use for those skeleton zombie arms!

I Found 'Frosty's Winter Wonderland' !

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Today I found "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" on DVD and there was absolutely no way I was going home without it planted firmly in hand.

And of all days to find a cartoon with the word winter in the title, it would be the first real 'summer' day of the year. One in which the temperature topped out at 75.

For the first time in forever you could walk outside without the need for seventeen long sleeve shirts and three winter jackets.

And yet Frosty ties in perfectly with the slight change in direction that I have in mind for this website. I've been doing some thinking... some serious thinking and came to the conclusion that just because I've previously limited the holiday festivities to the months of October through December doesn't mean that is how things have to stay.

So after much deliberation I've decided that I'll be writing more Halloween and Christmas content throughout the entire year. Folks, its what I do and what I do best. So why not indulge in the good stuff year round?

I've always wanted to visit a blog that is specific to the holidays, only with new content posted year long. And I could never find one that seemed to fit the bill for what I had in mind So why not create it myself? This is exactly what I am going to do.

I can make this work but only if I follow one very important rule. Moderation. I'm not going to go hit everyone in the face with Christmas or Halloween as soon as you click on this blog. As a matter of fact, 90% of the content that I typically post won't change at all. And there will still be the massive end of the year countdowns leading up to everyone's favorite seasons.

What you will be seeing are smaller, bite sized posts like this one. The search for the holidays is sort of like a huge scavenger hunt. One with little pieces and parts spread out all over the place. If you know where to look you can find those fragments, regardless of what month the calendar says it is.

It is during this hunt that I located this copy of  "Frosty's Winter Wonderland" on DVD. Sitting in a big dump bin full of used Nintendo Wii titles at a local grocery store. I'm confident that this movie is leftover from the 2012 Holiday Season as I remember this specific store having a big display with these classic cartoons on it.

I've not decided when exactly I will watch this one. I think I'll save it for later on this summer, perhaps on one of those long hot July days. That sounds like the perfect time to indulge in a little Winter Wonderland!