Game of Drinks: Game of Thrones Themed Drinks

Drink-smith Carrie Watt with her Game of Thrones cocktails.

In Westeros they love their horns of ale and a good Dornish vintage.  Well, you may never taste the grapes of the Arbour, and we certainly would not recommend drinking like Cersei Lannister, but you can have some pretty damn tasty Game of Thrones cocktails at the Halyards bar in Brooklyn every Sunday night (at the Game of Thrones/Mad Men viewing party) courtesy of bartender miss Carrie Watt.

Ice & Fire

-Whiskey, jalapeno chili pepper, blood oj, splash of soda.

This aptly titled whiskey drink hits a lot of notes from the moment it touches your tongue.  Starting cool and leaving you breathing fire.  An initial refreshingly sweet flavor gives way to sour and the drink has a distinctly spicy sensation that stays in your throat long after it is gone.

Sanza Stark

-Titos, strawberry, lemonade and basil.

This drink matches the elder Lady Stark in both looks and flavor.  This pink, summery cocktail is light and sweet.  A bright lemonade flavor makes it great for a sunny day by the pool in Highgarden.

White Walker

-Vodka, Cointreau, lemon cordial, simple syrup

This milky white, icy vodka drink has a distinctly tart flavor and a powerful kick that can do you in very quickly if you're not mindful.  Delicious and strong, the lemon cordial gives the drink a visual consistency of an icy abyss.

Remember the Wedding

-Tequila, OJ, blood OJ

Named for the way the blood OJ ominously mixes with the tequila and OJ, this afternoon cocktail is sugary and strong.  The blood OJ sets it apart for both character and taste.

Lady Arya

-Beefeater gin, lemonade, cayenne peppers, cucumber and agave

A personal favorite, this gin drink is invigorating, feisty and great for anyone looking for something flavorful but not too sweet.  A well balanced mix between smooth and fiery, it perfectly embodies everyone's favorite pint-sized assassin.  You can bet the Hound would drink it by the hornful.

So there they are.  Guaranteed to make your journey to the Wall more enjoyable or your next royal hunt more exciting.  Make them at home for your next Game of Thrones viewing party or come down to Halyards in Brooklyn every Sunday night for the Game of Thrones/Mad Men trivia and viewing party (Starts at 8pm) and have Carrie herself make you one of your choosing.

Game of Thrones to Release Rap Mixtape

You know, people say Seinfeld was a big show, a great show.  I won't dispute that, but I don't recall Seinfeld - or any other show - ever getting big enough to get its own rap album.  That's exactly the treatment Game of Thrones is getting in the lead up to its 4th season, premiering April 6th.

Vibe.com reports that the album is designed (apparently) to help people interested in seeing the show get familiarized with the excessive number of people, places, and things from the world that is known as Westeros (which is actually only one of the two fictional continents on which the show takes place, but maybe Common will explain that more fully through some sweet rhymes on the album).

While this is certiainly one of the most joyously ridiculous bits of crossmarketing I can ever remember happening, I am a little wary of the quality.  The whole exercise is so bizzare that it seems a little forced and the few rhymes you catch in vibe.com's short video don't exactly evoke memories of Biggie's "juicy".

Regardless, in an age of relentless media saturation and instant gratification, this work of love between rappers and dragons is something we should all celebrate.

Solving the Mystery of True Detective BEFORE the Detectives.

 The following post contains major spoilers from last night’s episode of HBO’s awesome True Detective.  If you are not caught up, read at your own risk.

Every True Detective in the land last night finally found out just who was the “Yellow King” in the exceedingly creepy (or depressing) episode, "After You've Gone".  But if you were paying attention, you should’ve already known, after all, I did. 

I, of course, had no problem setting off to tweet about my genius.

True Detective, tonight's episode left me breathless but also, I knew it! I called it way back in episode three! #nevermowanothermanslawn.

— Kevin H. MacLean (@KHMacLean) March 3, 2014

But in reality, the mystery was solved in story-telling 101.

The trick in unearthing the mystery of the murders wasn't in Carcosa or the Yellow King but in the final moments of the third episode of the season, “The Locked Room”.  This of course was the first time we meet the man who would be the “Yellow King.”

I instantly knew something was up with this guy from the moment he came on screen.  As the scene came to a close and nothing seemed to happen, I knew it wouldn’t be the last of Mr. Lawnmower Man, but it wasn’t just intuition, or even the way he carried himself.  It was much simpler than that.

You see, the character didn’t serve any purpose at the time.  He didn’t reveal any important information in the investigation, he didn’t provide any exposition or character development.  In fact, the only piece of information he gives that you can’t tell just by looking at the scenery is the seemingly innocuous tidbit that he “works for the parish.”  In a show as wrought with twists and hidden significance like True Detective, there is hardly the space for filler.

The only two possibilities as I saw them were that he was either a guardian archetype or a villain.  The quickest example I could give for the guardian archetype would be the old man in Home Alone.  An oft wrongly feared and/or misunderstood character, typically elderly or simple-minded, that tries to protect a more helpless character that is abused or otherwise imperiled.  This hypothesis can be discarded, however, because the unnamed landscaper is never given any back-story for the audience to wrongly fear or misunderstand him.

That leaves us with the villain role.  It is common practice in murder mysteries to introduce the killer as a minor character early in the story (see Seven, the photographer).  Don’t forget to appreciate the dramatic irony of detective Cole going off hurriedly on a hot lead when he was standing right in front of the actual killer the whole time.

Flash forward to last night’s closing scene.  It might have been hard to identify him at first, with the loss of his facial hair from earlier in the season, but that creepy Cajun accent was still there and he even reminded the viewers with a brief line about working at “public schools”.

If there was any doubt, it shook away as the camera came in for a close up to reveal his scar ridden face as he lamented to himself in chill inducing fashion that, “My family’s been here a long, long time.”

The Yellow King.