Musical Monday with All Hallow's Evil

 "Face to Face" is another one of those songs that we love dearly here at Shades of Gray, but which very few have done justice to when they attempt to cover this Danny Elfman-penned song; Souixsie and the Banshees nailed it so perfectly in the original versions that covers are mostly just copies or fumbled attempts.

This is not the case with the version that All Hallow's Evil recorded and released in 2020. His version captures the sensibilities of the song, has clear echoes of the original version, but he also makes it his own. Check it out.

(As for this writing, the YouTube version of this song only has 750 views. That's a crying shame! And it's why we aren't saving this for a perhaps more logical place in the 31 Nights of Halloween line-up coming in October.)

In observation of Talk Like a Pirate Day

 Yarr... here be pictures of pretty pirate lasses!

Bones Coffee's Coconut Rum

It's time for another of my coffee reviews. It's  Talk Like a Pirate Day so there was only one appropriate choice to write about.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: COCONUT RUM
This is another one of the flavored medium-roast blends from this great Florida-based company; so far, I have not been disappointed by any of their flavors, including a couple I've yet gotten around to posting reviews about. Their streak continued with the Coconut Rum blend.

When I opened the package, I could smell the coconut. As the coffee brewed, the aroma wasn't strong enough to reach my office, as has been the case with some of the other Bones blends, nor did I notice any particularly strong smell when I returned to the kitchen.

Is sweet enough that I could drink it black--and, as I've said before, I hardly ever drink coffee black. The dominant flavor here is rum, but the coconut is also detectable and very nice. When I added unsweetened almond milk, the coconut flavor retreated a bit, but the taste of rum remained as strong as before, perhaps even enhanced. This is a strongly flavored blend, and as you drink it, the taste of rum remains in your mouth.

When consumed over ice, the rum taste in this blend remains strong, even if the coconut taste is virtually undetectable. Still, the blend is sweet enough that it can can be consumed without any milk or cream added; in fact, it might be best if you just drink it straight when iced.

Bones' Coconut Rum is another excellent blend. It's probably not going to make into my personal Top Ten Bones Faves, but if you like rum and you like coffee, I'm sure you'll like this!

Some scribbles from Sarah

 A couple strips from Sarah Andersen about September (since we're mast the halfway mark... and closer to Halloween than not).

If those made you smile, you should consider getting some the collections of "Sarah's Scribbles", or one of her 2022 calendars or day-planners, so you can start each day with a little cartoon commentary and weird, often geekish, thoughts.

An even better book to grab is "Fangs". It's in a different style than "Sarah's Scribbles", but it's a perfect warm-up for Halloween, since it's about a vampire and a werewolf who fall in love with each other. You can read my review of it here.

Firearms Friday with Nicki Minaj

Firearms Friday is returning, because the online mobs and even the Biden Administration and their lackeys in the media are on the warpath against Nicki Minaj.

Rapper/songwriter Nicki Minaj recently incurred the wrath of the Mask Cultists and the Covid-19 fear-mongers because she had the AUDACITY to say that she has chosen to not get a Covid-19 vaccination. She laid out the reasons why (Some of which were pretty stupid but others which were perfectly sensible), but she but also said she was not opposed in any way to others get vaccinated, and that she even encouraged it. 

But that didn't matter. She failed to properly mouth the mantra of the Mask Cult and of the totalitarians who are using the pandemic to stoke fear, sow division, and do everything they can to break what little spirit us peasants have left. Unlike many other celebrities who have drawn the ire of the Outrage Brigades and Covid Cultists, she has stood her ground and fired back.

I can't claim to be a fan of Minaj; I can't even claim that I like her music. But I appreciate and respect her spirit and her willingness to be herself and say "screw you" to all of those in the media, in business, and in the streets who are bending over backwards to satisfy the demands of naked tyrants as they march us all toward totalitarianism.

And she didn't even set out to do that. She just wanted to be herself. And there are all sorts of media figures and Twitter-led outrage mobs who have gone out of their way to lie about what she said and did. The lies have even come from the Biden White House; disagreement with the Dear Leader and the Cult of Covid cannot be tolerated. I'm if they could get away with treating public figures the government doesn't like, they would do so. In fact, based on the behavior of the online mobs, they would probably love to be able to to do someone like Minaj like the Chinese government did to actress Shuang Zheng and LITERALLY cancel her.

But that's probably coming here soon enough. For now, they must satisfy themselves with trying to destroy Minaj's image with her fans and otherwise ruin her.

The video featured below is very fitting for this revival of the Firearms Friday, as is the whole current "controversy" involving Minaj since it let's this post be about several items covered by the Bill of Rights. 

The video for "Lookin Ass" is full of interesting (and sexy) visuals, and it's well worth checking out. While it didn't make me a fan of Minaj, maybe you'll discover her music is to your liking. At the very least, Minaj may get a few fractions of pennies via royalties and/or license fees. (Just DON'T watch it at work or around anyone who is easily offended; it could turn out badly.)

Lookin Ass (2014)
Starring: Nicki Minaj

Director: Nabil Elderkin

Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

The Avengers: The Danger Makers

The Danger Makers (1966)
Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Nigel Davenport, Douglas Wilmer, Adrian Ropes, Moray Watson, Fabia Drake, and John Gatrell
Director: Charles Crichton
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

A retired highly respected general is killed while apparently recklessly joyriding on a motorcycle. Two of the British government's top investigators, John Steed and Emma Peel (Macnee and Rigg) are charged with determining if its connected to other strange accidental deaths and mishaps that have been befalling retired British army officers and soldiers.

This is one of the more serious-minded episodes, from the subject matter, how it's treated, and how the story involving it and surrounding it unfolds. What comedy we find here is generated by interactions between John Steed and John Steed involving friendly ribbing or assumptions of danger where there isn't any.

One of the most interesting aspects of the episode is that most of its villains are also victims. I don't want to give away some of the key plot-twists, but this episode and the threats that Steed and Peel face are ultimately borne from a group of soldiers that are unable to adjust to life off the battlefield, because they are suffering from various degrees of PTSD. In this way, society, with its expectations of what a soldier and a warrior is and must be, has failed them, but they are also subject to nefarious manipulation the the story's worst villain. It's something that's treated with a level of somberness and seriousness that's rarely seen in this series, and the final minutes of this episode feel weighty and intense as a result.

Although Patrick Macnee gets more screen-time, this is Diana Rigg's episode in many ways. Steed and Peel conduct parallel investigations, each with their own cover story and each of them uncovering important parts of the mystery as the trails they are following converge, but almost every scene that Rigg appears in during this show is full of great writing and acting, weighty symbolism, and thrilling action. (Although you know as a viewer that there's no way a main character is going to die during just another episode of a series like "The Avengers", I am certain that you will find yourself on the edge of seat as Emma Peel undertakes the potentially lethal initiation to join the ranks of the Danger Makers.

And speaking of Emma Peel... she's once again wearing some of the character's signature outfits that make her seem more real than many television females: That leather catsuit and those weird white boots with the stripe on the middle. You can see her wearing them in the picture used to illustrate this post. (I don't know if these recurring wardrobe items were a sign of budget limitations, intentional on part of the costumers, or because Diana Rigg liked wearing them, but I appreciate the repetition. Of course... it could be that this goes on in many shows and I just noticed it here.. because those boots are just so dumb-looking and yet she keeps wearing them!)

"The Danger Makers" is one of the great episodes in a great series. It is definitely worth your time to check out.

The Unifying Theme with Emily Ratajkowski

Model and actress Emily Ratajkowski is visiting us to demonstrate the unifying theme of Shades of Gray.

Of Wolves and Girls in Hoods: Van Beuren

One thing you could almost always rely on the Van Beuren Corporation for was cartoons that featured weirdness for no apparent reason other than be weird. The quality of their storytelling, and the technical quality of the animation in their features varied wildly--sometimes even within the same cartoon--but they almost never failed to be weird.

Case in point: Their version of "Little Red Riding Hood", which was released as part of their Aesop's Fables anthology series. In true Van Beuren fashion, the cartoons released under that heading rarely had anything to do with Aesop's fables, which is why it's not terribly surprising that they included a Little Red Riding Hood adaptation in the mix. No, what's surprising is how far afield the creators went with this adaptation. It starts straying from the original fairy tale with a little Jazz Age satire... and then spins out of control from there. It is easily one of the most memorable Van Beuren effort... and oh so weird!

(As an added bonus, this seems to be another instance of one of those Mickey and/or Minnie Mouse look-alikes that eventually caused the Walt Disney Company to file suit against Van Beuren Corporation.)

Red Riding Hood (1931)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: John Foster and John Bailey
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

(This post was presented during Red Riding Hood Month at Shades of Gray. Click on the "Little Red Riding Hood" label below to see all the entires in this series.)

Musical Monday with Amy Winehouse

Tuesday, September 14, would have been singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse's 37th birthday. Sadly, she passed away in July of 2011 after losing a years-long struggle with drug addiction and alcoholism. Today, we remember her and her art with "Back to Black".

Bones Coffee's Wunderbones

I recently ordered the Fall Favorite Sample Pack from Bones Coffee Company, along with one of their logo-sporting mugs because I dropped and shattered one of mine recently (it was empty; no coffee was harmed in the making of these posts). My main motivation. though, was to get a sample pack of the new Frankenbones blend for review during October... but an unexpected included item (unexpected just because I didn't notice it) was the Wunderbones blend.

Nine of ten Bavarians say Wunderbones should be served in beer steins.
The tenth was passed out because he drank beer instead of coffee.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: WUNDERBONES

More so than many other Bones Coffee flavored blends, I came to Wunderbones not knowing what to expect. The name and the cartoon of the company's mascot wearing lederhosen and holding a beer stein invoked the idea of Oktoberfest, so I imagined this coffee could taste like anything from beer to pretzels to wienerschnitzel to sauerkraut. The package did establish it's a medium-roast, so that's a good start...

This review is based on a 4-oz. sample pack of the blend. When I opened it, the pre-ground coffee smelled faintly of pretzels, so I thought the mystery of what this coffee would taste like solved. I then got to thinking what pretzel-flavored coffee would taste like and if this could possibly be any good? The Bones People have previously shown that I shouldn't doubt them, so I hoped they'd come through on this one, too.

As this blend brewed, there wasn't any aroma aside from the coffee itself, and the same is true of what was the pot and mug once I poured it. When I took the first few sips, the coffee had a tangy, slightly salty flavor to it. It was very faint, and it reminded me more of the chai tea drinks I sometimes get from Starbucks and eateries I frequented back before the Covid Times. I guess that could be a beer-like flavor?

Honestly, I couldn't tell what this coffee was supposed to taste like, other than tangy and salty. So I check the Bones Coffee website to see their intent was. And, sure enough, the blend was supposed to taste like coffee and salted pretzels. 

I wasn't sure that they'd gotten it right. I confess that I didn't make the effort to get pretzels and a cup of unflavored coffee and dip them in it. I may be dedicated to bringing you all informative and entertaining coffee reviews, but I'm not THAT dedicated! 

So--if you drink this blend straight, you'll detect a faint taste of something tangy, plus salt. The saltiness lingers in your mouth as you drink this blend, and it's a very nice aftertaste that mixes well with the coffee flavor. It's interesting, but it's not what Bones was shooting for.

That is until you add some additional ingredients and that's where the Wunderbones started to get a little weird. It's happened before that adding milk or creamer, or drinking the blend cold, changed or expanded flavors--and it happened here, in spades.

First, when I drank a hot cup with unsweetened almond almond milk, there was no significant change. As expected, the coffee flavor and the spicy saltiness both retreated, although that pleasant salty aftertaste remained almost as strong as before. But then, when I made a cup mixed with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, the coffee taste retreated but the flavor of pretzels and  salt grew more intense and disearnable. It was pretty much what I imagined a pretzel dipped in coffee should taste like... only not disgusting. In fact, it was the opposite of disgusting. Once again, Bones mixed flavors that worked beyond my ability to imagine them. The flavor also remained relatively stable as it cooled--although the saltiness grew more intense, it did not grow overwhelming nor did it seem out of place like it did with a similar effect in the Sinn-O-Bun blend. Still, you don't want to let your cup of Wunderbones sit for too long; it should be consumed while hot.

With that comment in mind, how does Wunderbones do when iced? Surprisingly well!

When consumed cold and over ice, the salted pretzel flavor that Bones Coffee wanted for this blend is front and center! There was even a strong sensation of salt lingering on the lips, just like there would be if you ate a salted pretzel. It had been present when the coffee was hot, but it took time to build; not so when it's iced. Interestingly, when I added the sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, it washed out rather than enhanced the pretzel taste. The saltiness remained strong, though.

The Wunderbones blend seems work best when chilled and over ice, since you get the full salted pretzel experience without needing to add anything. If you don't like iced coffee, you need to drink it while hot with just a little creamer or sweetener added.