Holiday Cheerwine Punch

Oh, the Holiday Hell Show is off and running and today we are going to talk about pure Christmas in a bottle. Seriously, if Santa got drunk and depressed over the war on Christmas and decided to slit his wrists in the tub, there would be Holiday Cheerwine Punch everywhere.

Dude, that went dark.

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Okay, let’s start over. The makers of Cheerwine have put out a limited edition Holiday Punch which is a little lighter in color and fruitier in taste than the original. If you have not had the original, I suggest you give it a whirl. As a local to North Carolina, the home base of Cheerwine, it take it for granted and assume everyone has had it. I learned that is not the case when I have visitors.

If you have the means and are within distance of picking Holiday Cheerwine Punch up, please do so. If not to drink at least to put on the table and enjoy the hue of fallalalalalalalalalalalalalalala.

I made a quick video to show it is not only drinkable but also why I should never use hair products. Enjoy!

I Remember Halloween

Candy apples and razor blades
Little dead are soon in graves
I remember Halloween” – The Misfits

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This 2014 Halloween season did not get fully going like I had hoped. I want to say it was because I have finally grown up into a mature adult and waxing my Porsche, day trading and Saturday evening book clubs have taken the place of watching Halloween for the 5,723rd time, but that is just not the case. The real truth is my company is slightly restructuring and that metamorphosis begins with people in my position. Since September I have been in at least eleven states and times two in hotel rooms. Going out to business dinners is about as thrilling as pressure washing the side of the house and if I hear the acronym “EHR” one more time, I might tie my wrist to my testicles and enter into a Frisbee-Golf competition. Lets just say, work has come and killed my Great Pumpkin.

Looking back, however, it hasn’t been a total loss. There were some spooky trips, met some amazing people and done some amazing things all in the name of The Spook Show. The great novelist, J.W Ocker, toured me around Boston, I flew down to Key West and hung out with a real live voodoo doll named Robert, visited my buddy Travis from Bayou Babylon and his wonderful wife, Crystal to shoot some creepy scenes in a graveyard, made a cameo in The Sexy Armpit’s Halloween Show, had Ben (Juggernaut Cave), Brian (Review the World) and DJ D (Retro Ghouls and Shocks) over for a weekend to review tons of spooky crap and well as Blair Witch 2 and last but not least, I was the guest host on the great DJ D’s radio show, Dark Entries.

Oh, also was blown away by Matt’s annual Halloween countdown over at Dinosaur Dracula.

I guess when you list it out, it’s been a pretty busy season even though I feel like it was half-hearted thanks to such a busy schedule. I still have lots to cram in like a Q&A with a give away from J.W. Ocker and his new novel plus a look at the amazing artist Thomas Boatwrite. I bought the coolest commission ever and am excited to push his stuff to the next level.

OH! And mother frickin’ Final Cut Pro crashed so many times I have finally given up on it. I’m done. It’s a neat piece of software but a twenty-minute video shouldn’t take eight hours to export. And Apple wants me to buy it again for $300. Nope!

So, enough with the pouty puss talk. I am sorry for an empty Spook Show this year, 2014. Work really was the boogeyman. I owe you something…but what?

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Hrm…I have one Pop Rocks Pumpkin Patch Orange left that I was saving to put in the company coffee pot on Friday but I think I owe it to you. But how?

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Oh I do love you. I will dump this in my three-hour old cup of coffee and drink this just for my penance for a below average Halloween season. It’s all for you, Damian! It’s all for you!

Okay, I am coming right back.I just wanted to get this off my chest and say I’m a little sorry. Just a little.

 

Halloween At Ollie’s!

Today I was at a work lunch with a few clients and the subject of Halloween came up. Of course, the one person at the office who knows I have an alter ego for all things like Halloween was there too. It took her 0.0067 seconds to erupt into a high squeal, “WILL LOVES HALLOWEEN AND EVEN HAS A SITE ALL ABOUT IT!”

Not cool.

I smiled and tried to quickly change the topic but it was too late. Before I knew it I had all sorts of non-work related questions about movies, sexy Jason costumes and where to buy the best candy. I hate letting my personal and nerd-o life get out in the open in a work environment but the black Halloween cat was out of the bag now so I had to go with it. It was fun and a nice break from the financial speak.

I don’t know how it evolved but the discussion soon turned to the bargain store, Ollie’s. I have a love/hate relationship with Ollie’s. I love that it is a huge discount store where you can buy inflatable yard ornaments, a shirt and an entire reference guidebook to Middle Earth under one roof but I hate whenever I go into the store there is always some person who ruins my day. It doesn’t matter when, it always happens. Last time, there was a lady who tried to shoplift and was tackled in the pavement by another woman leading to a lot were cops. The time before that, some really obese girl pulled her pants down in one of the aisles.

So, I refuse to go back. Sorry, Ollie, but whenever I drive past your store all I can think about is screaming rednecks and the biggest ass I’ve ever seen. I’m just not ready yet but I had an idea.

On the drive back to the office we made a detour to Ollie’s. I gave my work mate $20 and asked her to buy that amount in Halloween junk to review while I stayed in the car. If you spill my hobby in front of clients, you have to be apart of it. It’s only fair. She picked four items and now I will review them in realtime without adding another scarring event to my life.

These are her choices.

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Okay, first up in is the “Eight Is Too Much” wig from Rubie’s Character Wigs™ for $9.99. Researching the “Eight Is Too Much” points to a late seventies TV drama about a news anchor with eight kids. That’s a pretty obscure reference for a wig but we are talking about finds at Ollie’s so I will give it a pass.

I am not sure the name “Eight Is Too Much” wig is the right one. This looks more like a “May I See The Manager” wig or “White Zinfandel Tonight?” wig.

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Hrm. I am not sure I pulled this one off. I feel like it’s either a Flock Of Seagulls wig or something else. I just can’t put my finger on it. It was someone on TLC who was part responsible for turning a channel about discovery and dinosaurs into total garbage and self loathing. OH!

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NAILED IT! It’s that total bitch from John And Kate Plus Eight! You remember the show, the couple who ruined their lives and damaged their kids for fame and money? Man, I guess we cracked the code for the name, “Eight Is Too Much”. Eight was too much.

I give this find 8 out of 10 severed Freddy fingers. Eight is a theme here.

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Gummy Boo Bands for $2.49! I have seen these around and didn’t notice they were edible. Kids these days are into all sorts of incredibly stupid shit. But, to be fair, all kids are stupid to me. With all the awareness wristbands out there I didn’t know there was finally one you can eat. That would be a great one to raise awareness for hunger! (I’m a dick)

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GROSS! SICK! This thing feels like actual He-Man slime right out of the can. I know it is an orange gummy but my mind goes to the smell of Mattel slime. Plus, and waaaay worse, it gets your wrist sticky. I can stand a lot of discomforts in life but one that I can’t stand in the least is being sticky. It makes me want to cry and I am an ugly crier.

I give Boo Bands 3 out of 10 dead chicks.

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Let’s see what else is in this bag-o-crap from Ollie’s. I am beginning to think I am missing a lot from my Ollie’s boycott. That is a Review the World stomping ground for sure! I might have to go back and risk seeing a human grand canyon if there are more great finds in this bag.

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Ho Ho Hee Hee, it’s Juicy Oozer Gummy Vampires and Gummy Werewolves from Black Forrest® for $2.29! I love Black Forrest gummy candy. Some people are Haribo gummy fans and others are Black Forrest. The best way to compare this divide is to compare those who prefer Red Vines to Twizzlers. It’s not a huge difference to most but to a few it is like Communism vs Capitalism. Then there are the Swizzler fuckers. No one likes them.

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I can’t say enough about these. They have great shapes, you can recognize flavors, the vampires have tangy blood and the packaging is unreal. The fonts and art would make Madd Matt do the Charleston on Poe’s grave. This hits on all Halloween cylinders so please, go get thirty bags. They will be worth thousands in future currency once Samhain arrives and vanquishes all those who put out Christmas stuff during October.

10 out of 10 Jason Voorhees head lumps.

Last but not least! I hope.

Um…I don’t know what this girl was thinking and I don’t know if I want to go down this road. I have been running VeggieMacabre since the summer of 2007 and kept this as close to PG as possible. I know there has been a few times when my language hasn’t been perfect. Okay, more than a few but I still keep it clean. I just don’t know if this will translate so lets just approach this as the mature adults we are. It’s a Halloween costume prop.

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Well…isn’t that special? It’s an “Open Wound Sleeve” from those sick assholes a Paper Magic Group™ for $3.29. I guess this is supposed to be a wound that you put on your arm but my mind keeps going elsewhere. Remember that scene in The Gate when the lead protagonist had an eyeball form on his hand? I guess it could be the same principle.

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Oh Hell. I guess if you squint you eyes from afar it would look like a wound or a gash… GOODNIGHT FOLKS!

0.003 out of 10 Michael Myers Eye Brows

Ollie’s gets a better grade from me than I would usually give it and that is probably because I stayed in my car. I love the concept of bargain shopping because I am the type of guy who would buy a tub of ten thousand cheese puffs when looking for motor oil and a place like Ollie’s would certainly allow me to do that.

Great scores if you exclude the gyno-sleave! I need to keep that girl away from me at the office. (Just kidding!)

I am off to shoot a very special “Beers with Movie Sauce” for the Spook Show so stick around! I am all ramped up and ready for the fun so thanks for hanging with me. See you tonight!

 

 

 

 

FLTO: Brach’s Weird Flavored Candy Corn

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Brach’s, you magnificent bastard, I READ YOUR BOOOOK! Sorry, that was from the movie Patton. But in all fairness, Brach’s Candy Corn is the Rommel to the autumn mixes. When you think mellowcreme® pumpkins, you think Brach’s. Shit, they’ve only been doing this for over a century. I think they deserve the crown.

Today (last night) I reviewed their breakaway from the mold. In every business there is a ceiling to a product’s life until it is copied and duplicated hundreds of times. That’s when companies alike diversify. Brach’s did just that this year with three new flavors that may woo a few of you candy corn haters over. And if your thinking the Starburst debacle from last year, you can rest easy. These are nothing like that.

S’mores, Caramel Macchiato and Apple Pie are the three newest members of the Candy Corn flavors to hit the shelves this season. I found these at the local Wallgreens for a little under $1.30. Now, I am not a huge candy corn lover outside of what it represents nostalgically, (the literal definition of “eye candy”) but these surprised me!

Check out my review and see what my jury of taste buds thought.

 

FLTO: Caramel Apple Filled Twizzlers

“…the Angel of the Lord came down from Heaven, and they were so afraid! The angel said, “fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy. For this Fall season, Caramel Apple filled twists from Twizzlers are here to stick to your molars.”

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 4.37.43 PMI spotted these a few weeks ago in a Kmart. Yes, there was barely a squeak of Halloween in the one of three remaining Kmarts in the North Carolina state but my weird sixth sense indicated there was something to be found. Like when Vader smells old man Obi Wan’s Force-stink on the Death Star. I sensed something I had not sensed since…

There they were! It has been a few weeks so today I will bust these out and try them just for you. I don’t have high hopes for these because I have never been a huge caramel apple lover. When you say the words “caramel apple” I always imagine funny ways the elderly lose their dentures. Other than that, it is nothing more than fair food you want to throw out thirty seconds after you buy one. Maybe in Twizzler form they would be more appealing?

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I will be honest, the first presentation of these are pretty eye appealing. It looks like a Peruvian pan flute if the Peruvian band covered Agent Orange tunes. The green of the licorice is a Gremlin-blood green while the caramel looks almost too perfect. The contrast is strikingly nice. But what about the taste?

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Wow, that is exactly a caramel apple blend! I don’t know what else I was expecting but the caramel really over powers everything after a second or two. It’s not that the Twizzler’s apple flavoring sucks or anything, it’s really just me. I grew up on the precursor to adding “sour” before anything “apple” when it comes to candy. When an apple flavored anything comes along that doesn’t have a zing, I am left with an overall blasé feeling. Like I said, it’s not the fault of Twizzler, I just keep chasing that dragon.

This season Caramel Apple is a contender for what Pumpkin has become. It is showing up almost every where from seasonal ice cream, candy corn, and coffee, to now Twizzlers. I don’t hate it and to be honest, if it wants to make a run for it, I wish it well. Just stay out of my beer. Unless…cider beer? Hrm. I am going to have to think on that one.

So, on a scale of one to ten severed Sleep Hollow residents heads, I give Caramel Apple Filled Twizzlers a seven. The lackluster green apple kept it from achieving a grade that would be hung on a fridge.

Go get some. They come in Halloween fun sizes too!

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