Cheerwine

With the holidays approaching I thought there was no better way to spread some holday cheer than to do a short review of Cheerwine!  No, actually my mother-in-law was coming up for the week and asked before she left if we needed anything and I made sure to mention a time or two that I MUST have some Cheerwine.  I got lucky and she came through with TWO cases of Cheerwine!  If you're familiar with it, it's only available in a few states and it tastes like nothing else on this earth.  I've included the crappy picture below to give an example of the can and the color of the beverage itself.

Yeah, I know... shitty background, but the color is damn near burgundy.  Honest to God it is.  This is something I only noticed this week when I decided to pour this delicious beverage out into a clear glass.   The last time I had it I was somewhere in the middle of North Carolina and I decided.... 'when in Rome...' and I bought a 20 oz, Cheerwine and a bag of spicy pork rinds.  Anyway.... the way I first discovered this marvellous drink was by simple curiosity.  I noticed it in  South Carolina convenience store on my first-ever trip to Myrtle Beach and I've had a soft spot for it ever since.

This drink is not your average 'Red pop' or Cherry or Black Cherry Soda, even.  And it's most definitely not a Cherry Cola/Cherry Coke drink.  It's has a flavor all it's own.  The best way to describe it is... maybe... the Champagne of Cherry Drinks.  I dunno.... maybe not 'Champagne'.  But it's damn bubbly!  As the can says... 'Unique Sparkling Soft Drink'.  The sparkle means it's got a few extra bubbles.  The aroma of the beverage might betray you to think that you're about to drink a Cherry Coke ripoff but it's not at all true.  The taste, as I've tried to mention, is totally unique.  It doesn't have the ridiculous medicine-y flavor that many 'red sodas' do and it's not overly offensive as I find most 'cherry sodas' to be.  It's just Cheerwine.  To the small group of people who know this beverage and how special it is, the name Cheerwine says it all.

As for myself, I'l be keeping most of all the 24 cans to myself.  See if I can make a recipe or two provided by Cheerwine's website... and maybe share a can or two with a close friend. 

My Stephen King Collection

I figured I'd make a post to list and inventory my collection of Stephen King Hardcovers. Not an elite collection by anyone's standards, but I like the way they look overcrowding my humble bookshelf. I'll update this post as I acquire new (and old) works.

Barnaby's Official Stephen King Hardcover List

• Bag of Bones
  
• Black House
• Blaze (RB)
  
• Cell
• The Dark Half
  
• Desperation
• Different Seasons
• Dolores Claiborne
• Dreamcatcher
• Duma Key
• Everything's Eventual
• The Eyes of the Dragon
• Firestarter
• Four Past Midnight
• From a Buick Eight
• Gerald's Game
• Hearts in Atlantis
• It
• Just After Sunset
• Lisey's Story
• Misery
• Needful Things
• Nightmares & Dreamscapes
• Rose Madder
• The Regulators (RB)
• 'Salem's Lot
• Skeleton Crew
• The Stand (Uncut)
• The Talisman
• The Tommyknockers
• Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
• Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
• Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

So... that's it. I did have a pretty nice copy of Insomnia somewhere but I haven't seen it since I moved. Also had a copy of Cujo, but it might've been in such bad shape that I donated it away... not sure. I used to have the first four Dark Tower books in pretty good shape... you know, the large softcover format? Something possessed me to sell the fuckers and now I can't find a good set for the life of me. Anyway, I've got a couple others in softcover but those just don't have the 'shelf presence' that the HC's do with a nice shiny DJ on 'em.

Oh... it should also be noted that I haven't even read half of these yet. I had a lot of ambition when it came to buying them at Half Price Books (that's where most of 'em came from) but not a lot of ambition to make myself commit to reading them. I know all about that old phrase "catch up on my reading".

The Dark Half - Stephen King (Part I)

About two weeks ago I started reading Stephen King's The Dark Half and so far the book has been rather lackluster, to be quite honest. Maybe that's why my progress reading it has stalled out so badly in the past week. I've read a few, actually more than a few reviews here and there that say this book is their favorite King work... and I can only guess that maybe those folks have only read this book and Insomnia. OK... maybe that was harsh, but Insomnia was the first King book I read and as much of a heavy, boring bastard as it was, I got through it, I had no idea what the references to the Crimson King meant (and I'm still trying to grasp it, honestly) and the book was damn near not-at-all scary. Anyway, I'll talk more about Insomnia later, but now back to The Dark Half.

I'm not here to give a play-by-play or synopsis of the book, so I'll skip it. This main character, Thad Beaumont seems like a dick. And I get that his alter ego is really the badass mofo that he really wants to be, but this guy really kinda sucks. At the point I'm at in the book (pg. 285) I'm really wishing for George Stark to shoot lightning through the phone and kill his ass. I dunno... though a lot of King's protagonists are mostly writers, I cannot get on the same side with this guy. He just seems like.... an 'officious little prick'.

I dunno... it's been a few days since I've even touched the book (except 2 minutes ago to check which page I was on). I'd like to make it a point to commit myself to finishing it the next time I pick it up. I do have a fresh copy of the cinematic adaptation of the film (directed by George Romero!) that I hope to plow through once I'm done with this book. I'll share my thoughts on that once I'm ready for that kind of committment. It might be a while with the holiday coming up, I have a lot of committments throughout the next week, so we'll see.... stay tuned.

Welcome to Barnaby Dingo's

Hi. I'm Barnaby Dingo. This is my Blog where I'll discuss a thing or two. Much of my content will be related to books, movies, etc. Every now and then I'll go way off topic, as my other hobbies include cars, computers, and other nerdish dumb shit. Anyway, I enjoy reading books, watching movies, even watching film adaptations of movies... but not book adaptations of movies.