pumpktoberfest #2 - whoa, man.
film: evil bong
beer: wolaver's will stevens pumpkin ale



i'm an ardent supporter of the tv show weeds, but as far as marijuana-themed movies go, they're pretty hit or miss. dazed & confused, pineapple express, friday and harold & kumar go to white castle worked because there's a lot more going on in those films besides weed. i've yet to see half baked or how high. smiley face was only occasionally funny. i don't think i've ever watched a cheech & chong film & if i did, it was when i was ten & it was on local tv, so i didn't get whatever drug references trickled through the censoring. in 2006, before cheech & chong reunited last year, tommy chong "starred" in a "hilarious" marijuana-themed horror film called evil bong.

the film centers around alistair, a nerdy type who moves into an apartment of stoners. shortly after he moves in, one of the stoners sees a crazy bong for sale in some magazine, decides he must have it, orders it & it arrives a few days later. it's huge & oddly shaped, but they go to town with it. one day, one of the dudes smokes off it & gets sucked into a weird strip club universe, where he's killed. this keeps happening to people & as it does, the bong keeps changing shape until it develops the face shown on the dvd cover. in case you're wondering, the answer is "yes." the bong is voiced by michele mais, who plays justice in the broadway production of rock of ages.

tommy chong doesn't show up til near the end & it's revealed that he's the original owner of the bong. that's when the real evil happens. as crazy as it is, the least believable aspect of the film is this one scene where it's the middle of the day & they're all sitting around wanting to smoke, but one of the dudes is all "i'm out. we'll have to wait til tomorrow." really? a room full of stoners in the middle of the day are out of weed & can't remedy that situation? suspension of disbelief GONE. if you like the sort of films they show at 1am on usa, you'll like this film. as for me, evil bong was ok, but i'm probably not going to bother checking out the sequel--evil bong II: king bong--which came out on dvd in july. that's just too much bong, even for me.

since it's from vermont & they totally like bongs up there, i'm pairing the film with a wolaver's will stevens pumpkin ale, which is part of the "farmers series" of beers put out by wolaver's organic beers, an otter creek beers brand. it's apparently the "first & only organic pumpkin beer." who says pumpktoberfest can't be progressive? you're probably thinking "as long as you're not paranoid & don't have an evil bong, i bet this film would probably go well paired with a couple of massive bong hits." you wouldn't believe how well the two go together. like pumpkin pie & whipped cream, i tell ya. regardless, massive bong hits are neither a drink nor a snack, so they have no place as part of a pairing.

...so wolavers has will stevens' recipe for pumpkin ale. he's apparently the farmer who grows the pumpkins & his beer is "brewed with pumpkin & spices." the spices are the most prevalent part of the taste, but there's a faint trace of pumpkin in it. it's better than our first pumpktoberfest brew, the shipyard pumpkinhead. after two beers though, i've yet to try anything mindblowing since pumpktoberfest began & nothing that lives up to the standard set by the pumking on pumpktoberfest eve. hell, even evil bong was more mindblowing than the first two beers i've tried. sorry, will stevens. i'm sure you're a very nice guy who grows outstanding pumpkins, but you need to tell wolavers to put more of your pumpkins in their beer. more money for you. more taste for us. everyone wins next holiday season...just think about it.