Netflix and Cigars
When I started smoking cigars I was content sitting out in the Southern Californian night as long as there was some bourbon to fill my cup. Cigars and bourbon are a great way to unwind after a long day but, after a while, it became a bore. Cigars and bourbon are wonderful but a man needs more than libations and smoke.
That is when I realized I have a treasure box filled with gems. Westerns, action flicks, science fiction and oh so much more all in my laptop just waiting for me.
Instead of whiling away the early mornings with Padron and Patel I now had something for those unused synapses. I watched movies that I knew I should have watched by now. Full Metal Jacket was great, Eyes Wide Shut was odd but it was a decent movie and that one with the modern version of vampires in that Alaskan town wasn’t worth the two hours. C’est la vie.
Then I took a tour through a post-apocalyptic America with Jeremiah and Kurdy. If you have not watched the science fiction TV series Jeremiah then you should do yourself a favor and watch it. Unfortunately, it only lasted two seasons because, I’m guessing, the budget on that show must have been astronomical and it aired during the earliest parts of this new millennium. If it aired now I’m sure it would have lasted as long as Battlestar Galactica. Even though it is a step down from Battlestar Galactica, which was a post-apocalyptic romp through space, it did have a lot of redeeming qualities.
Now I am puffing away to the stylings of J. J. Abrams’ Lost. I’m almost through the third season of Lost as of this writing and it is at least as wonderfully convoluted as I had been told. Who would have thought crashing a smattering of misfits on an island would be allegorical gold? Wait, wasn’t there a book….
Yes, there was a book but it wasn’t as rich as Lost. With a preponderance of exposition and a never ending back story that is as intricate as any Opus X, Lost is one of the most addictive shows I have ever watched. Even if it didn’t have all that intrigue I still would watch it because any show that creates a fake whiskey, McCutcheon, is worth watching.
So, thank you Netflix for giving me another reason to stay up late. Cigars, bourbon and Netflix are a great combination.
My Birthday at The Cellar
It was a great night full of amazing food, out-of-this-world bourbon and surprisingly good cigars (I like Punch cigars but they just seemed significantly better Thursday night. I’m sure it had something to do with the setting.). Here is what I had at The Cellar:
The Bourbon
Evan Williams Single Barrel – The world’s only vintage-dated Single Barrel Bourbon and is one of the world’s most acclaimed whiskeys. The first American Whiskey ever to win The Spirit Journal’s Whiskey of the Year award.
Elijah Craig 18 yr. old – The oldest Single Barrel Bourbon in the world at 18 years, Elijah Craig Single Barrel is a rare marvel of whiskey-making.
Parker’s Heritage 27 yr. old – Simply one of the oldest bourbons on the market. This smooth spirit features silky and sweet nose with hints of caramel and vanilla. The taste is amazingly balanced and smooth…sweet without being too sweet…and dry without being too dry!
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The Cigars – Punch
The original Punch cigar was created in 1840 by a Cuban cigar manufacturer named Manuel Lopez. In an effort to attract the British market, he named the cigar after Mr. Punch, the cantankerous half of the Punch and Judy puppet shows.
Punch Champion Natural – bold, full-bodied taste with a wrapper that is Ecuadoran Sumatra. Filler: Honduran, Nicaraguan, Dominican (Piloto Cubano). Binder: Connecticut Broadleaf. 90 pts cigar insider.
Punch Rare Corojo Magnum – these cigars are made with extra rich, dark Sumatra wrapper leaves that are grown in the mountains of Ecuador. Medium to full bodied. 92 pts cigar insider smooth, earthy, slightly sweet flavors of clay, charcoal, stewed meat, and raisins.
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Dinner – By Executive Chef David Kelser
Seared Ahi Tuna served under a spicy Mango salsa and fresh micro greens
Ratatouille veloute with Pesto croutons and crème fraiche
Slow roasted Short Ribs over herbed Polenta and Shallot-Thyme Jus
Chocolate-Espresso soup with Vanilla Ice cream, Fresh Berries and Pistachio crisp
I was lucky enough to have a man from Heaven Hill’s Distillery at my table – an entertaining fellow who I am extremely jealous of. Wouldn’t it be great to have a job selling such amazing libations as the ones we had? Of course it would!
My favorite cigar was the Punch Champion Natural. It’s a perfecto with a good amount of kick to it. My only regret is that I smoked it first because I am certain it would have mixed much better with the older bourbons. As far as regrets go this is but a pittance. The cigar definitely belongs in the 91-93 point range.
Everyone at the table was great. They were all extremely accomplished men and the stories and jokes they told were a lot of fun. Before I continue with my Saturday I need to thank my professor, John Jackson, for inviting me. That cigar dinner was a great way to cap off my birthday. Thanks JJ!
Cigar Aficionado June 2009
Just got my new issue of Cigar Aficionado today and on the cover is Jay-Z. As a younger guy I’m somewhat aware of who this guy is. Rapper, music mogul, with Beyonce, and an all-around cool dude. Basically, I just know what his image is – so the part about him probably won’t be all that interesting of a read. Oh well.
The top cigar of this issue is the Padron 1964 Anniversary Series “A” with a score of 95 points. That’s an impressive score indeed and one that I would most likely agree with. My New Year’s Day cigar was a Padron 1964 Anniversary Monarca and I gave it 95 points. Since then I have had a couple of cigars I would rank higher and I will be putting those reviews up in the future.
Then I come to the Editors’ Note. It’s always one of the more enjoyable parts of the magazine for me because it’s not just an advertisement for the rest of the magazine like so many other Editors’ Notes tend to be. It starts out with a nod to the current economic problems and how the fear of today is analogous to the fear from the Depression even if the current circumstances do not arguably warrant as much trepidation. Then they talk about S-CHIP and how the increase in taxes doesn’t seem like it’s going to put a damper on premium cigar sales anytime soon (that’s just what the tax-happy Senators and Congressmen wanted to hear).
And then, oddly, they say that more taxes usually leads to a drop-off in sales for the taxed items. This I completely agree with and, ironically, may explain why premium cigar sales didn’t slack off during the first quarter. When the government tells the people that they are going to raise taxes on a product on a certain date the people will act rationally and start stockpiling those products up to the date when the tax increases. Here’s an example of that and here’s another example.
Go to page four of this report and see the affect that stockpiling could be having on premium cigars. This report is mainly about a tax on cigarettes but I think that we’ll see a lot of the same things happening with cigars during the next couple of months. Maybe the taxes on cigars will have less of an impact due to its premium status but once you couple the new taxes with a soft economy I don’t know how we will see cigar sales increase for the next few months.
Alright, that’s it. I’m going to go and read the magazine and find a better cigar to enjoy (Hoyo de Monterreys are not my favorites by any stretch of the imagination). Have a great day!!!
24 and Battlestar Galactica Premieres
Before I start, I need to apologize for not doing any new cigar reviews this week. I’ve done a lot of posts about the government intruding on our right to smoke cigars (anything new there?). Today I’m going to talk about one television premiere that I’ve watched (24) and one that hasn’t happened yet (Battlestar Galactica).
[IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE PREMIERE OF 24 YET THEN STOP READING]
Jack is back! Not only that but 24 is back on track, which, based off of last season, I wasn’t sure was going to happen. No longer is there some apocalyptic threat that Jack has to single-handedly stop but rather a more manageable African coup with a side of domestic evilness.
However, bringing Tony back does seem like a stretch and their explanation (the bad guys pumped him full of drugs to make him look dead, which is actually what happened to Jack – minus the bad guys – at the end of a season a while back) seems a little far-fetched. But, oh well, there has to be at least a modicum of unbelievability with every episode of 24 and I like Tony so I’m glad he’s back. (Think they’ll bring Curtis back? No, probably not.)
What I especially like about this season is that it’s finally getting into a situation I’m really liking. No longer is it “Jack fighting authority” but rather we have a patriotic/rogue Jack doing things the government should be doing; like working with an ex-bad guy (Tony) to bring down an evil organization. The world we live in is filled with nefarious people and the sooner we realize that you have to get in the mud to deal with them the better.
One thing that really struck a cord with me about the first four episodes of this season of 24 was how Jack wanted “to get things out in the open.” He’s absolutely right, we’re not babies and we shouldn’t be shielded from the bad things our military/clandestine services have to do to protect us. We don’t need to know who they have detained or where but I think it might be best to learn what they are doing with the detainees. (There is the small issue of international law and diplomatic relations that might make this a little troublesome however.)
And to a large extent I think we already know these things. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard a couple of different numbers on how many people have been sanctioned to be tortured at the hands of US operatives in the War on Terror. In all those cases the number was less than 10. We also know how detainees in Club Gitmo are treated (they get nice meals and better health care than many Americans) and we know what happened in Abu Ghraib.
In reality, it actually looks like Jack tortures more people any given day than the whole US military/clandestine services does in a decade. Is this a good thing? I don’t know, I have never been in a situation where I needed to get information out of a bloodthirsty terrorist. But I will tell you this: If we trust these men and women to judiciously kill the enemy I believe we should trust them to judiciously extract information from the bad guys. Obviously, if they pull an Abu Ghraib they should be punished because there was no purpose, other than sadism, for what they did – but that should go without saying though.
Basically, 24 is the perfect series for this time in America. We’re a nation that will cheer on Jack Bauer while he hacks off a man’s head but some of us get squeamish and lose our nerve (still from the safety of a couch) when Guantanimo is brought up on the news. As a nation, like Jack said, we have to come to grips with what we’re going to allow our operatives to do.
In many ways Battlestar Galactica (BG) also came at the perfect time for America. BG is basically a metaphor for our post-9/11 world. In BG a terrorist strike wipes out most of humanity and whats left of humanity flees in search of a mythical place called “Earth.” To increase the intensity up to 11 the terrorists (robots created by people to make things easier) can look like humans, which means anyone can be a terrorist (sound familiar?), and the robots endlessly hunt down the remnants of mankind in an attempt to wipe every last one of us away.
Many of the conflicts on BG revolve around civil liberties and the tug-of-war between security and freedom. Because of this central struggle on the show it quickly became a favorite of mine. It is difficult grappling with such consequential issues (in a sci-fi sense, of course) like should the government be allowed to test everyone’s blood to see if they’re human or Cylon (robot) or who has final say over what happens to humanity’s last fleet.
At the end of last season – which actually was just the midpoint through the last season – oh, never mind – they actually found Earth. An Earth that has been ravaged by nuclear war, but still, they found us! (Or what will be us or what was us, I have no idea – it is SciFi after all.)
The series continues with the first episodes of this last (half) season tonight and I will definitely be watching because they reveal who the last Cylon that looks like a human is. And I’m excited to learn what is going to happen to the dying president, to the Admiral, and what caused the nuclear holocaust on our planet.
Both 24 and BG are important shows. They are more than just needless action fixes but rather metaphors for what is going on in the world today. If I could only watch two shows for the next six months these would be the two shows.
And I promise that I will have a cigar review tomorrow. 
Boston Legal… Over
It all ended last night. Another show I liked, not as much as The Sopranos or The Shield, is off the air. Here’s how it ended:
The action ended on the porch with cigars and whiskey as usual, where Shore and Crane were bickering like an old married couple before they had a dance together. Earlier it seemed they wouldn’t have that chance, since the Chinese had already taken over the chairs and the cigars in a previous scene. But how could the series end otherwise?
‘Boston Legal’s Unsentimental Farewell – Roger Catlin
Even though my own politics were often at odds with the politics argued for on the show it was a very witty and funny show. If it were a cigar it would have gotten 92 points from me.
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