THE UNDERGROUND – ISSUE #2
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series. This week we highlight a fantastic alcohol app, shopping during the holiday season, the Star Wars trailer, an upcoming San Francisco comedian, NACHOS, and one of the most powerful photos taken this year.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch?! If there is something in our culture that needs attention, dammit, we will bring it to your attention. With The Underground, we mean to do exactly that: Show you the underground things that you need to know about. Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about.
Don’t you remember the time you heard that first song from your current favorite band? You made the decision to jump head first into that first album and then delve deeper into them. Now, you don’t remember a time where you haven’t listened to that band. If you play guitar, you don’t remember the time where you didn’t know how to play. We want to bring you new stuff that you didn’t know you need in your life to the point where you can’t remember not knowing about it. That’s The Underground.
1. This beer and wine app is the only thing you need when choosing what to drink. Next Glass is a new app for Android and iOS that will make choosing your next glass of beer or wine a lot easier. This app gives you personalized recommendations to figure out if you’ll enjoy a particular beer or wine.
You can check the ratings, build a taste profile, check out reviews, and browse to see what you might want to check out. No one likes walking into a store and getting pressured by the person behind the counter about what you’re looking for, feeling pressured, and then buying something you don’t enjoy.
Let’s have a look at all the features of this Next Glass:
- Build your Taste Profile by rating wines and beers you’ve already tried
- Scan any label to get your personal score – know whether you’ll like it in real-time
- Search for any wine or beer and receive a personalized score
- Use Glass Match to find beer and wine that tastes similar to your favorites
- Browse your top matches in Discover to find new favorites
- Use Search with Friends to see what your friends enjoy and find the perfect bottle to share
- Know what’s inside every bottle, like calories, sugar content, and alcohol level
- Discover and share new favorites on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
As I learned from going visiting many colleges through the years, we didn’t really know crap about beer or wine. When it came to beer we just bought a 30-pack of whatever was cheap. When it came to wine… well, let’s just say it came in a box. As you get a little older, you come to appreciate better tasting alcohols. When you try your first beer, it’s usually one of those garbage light lagers. Tasting it and gasping at how horrible it tastes is usually followed by someone saying, “It’s an acquired taste.” Well, if you tried a good beer first, you wouldn’t have had to get used to drinking beer that tastes like carbonated regret.
Download the Next Glass app on Google Play and on the App Store right now.
2. If you go shopping in malls and stores during the holiday season, you’re probably a gigantic idiot. Black Friday hit and all the dummies went out in the freezing cold during the early morning hours to hopefully buy a bunch of crap. Cyber Monday has hit and people in their pajamas had to stretch out on their couches to get even better deals without having to leave their houses.
It’s obvious who the smart one here is, but there’s an even smarter person in this situation. When it comes to most deals, the best deals on most things come in January. You want a new flat-screen TV? Wait. Those things drop big time after the holiday season, which lasts from Mid-October to January 5th. Some certain pundits say there is a “War on Christmas.” I beg to differ because when a third of the year is dedicated to Christmas, it’s probably the opposite.
If you have to shop for the holiday season for most things just do it online. Chances are shipping will be guaranteed before Christmas, you don’t have to try to find a parking spot, wait in line, go to different stores to find crap, and can stay home and catch up on Netflix as you shop. Sound better? That’s because it is! When you see a department store tell you, “a 60 inch TV for $300! This Black Friday!” What it says in those little words at the bottom is that there are only a few per store. By the time you actually try to buy something, it will look like the remnants of the grocery store before a Hurricane.
Every single time.
3. The new trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens premiered and it doesn’t look like garbage.
I know, right? It teases but you still have no idea what the plot is. Bad guys are coming back, you see the new actors and you don’t see any familiar faces from the original films. Annoying, right? NO! It’s a teaser! You’re waiting to see those familiar faces so you get even more excited when you see the movie. Modern trailers ruin movies because you see the best parts first and then watching the movie isn’t as exciting.
J.J. Abrams is doing exactly what Christopher Nolan is doing when making a trailer: Teasing the movie. When I first saw the original trailer for Inception, I had no idea what it was about, but I knew that I wanted to see it. The first trailer to The Dark Knight just had the voice-over of Heath Ledger with a blue Batman symbol breaking apart. I had no idea what was going to happen, but the voice alone made me excited about the movie and it convinced me that Ledger was perfect for the part.
These types of trailers/teasers hype us up for the movie instead of giving away the best bits. The tracking shot of the Millenium Falcon in the teaser is better than the prequel series – which isn’t difficult to accomplish — and it looked amazing. Plus, that little rolling droid looked adorable.
4. Comedian Matt Lieb from San Francisco is a guy that can make you laugh in just about every medium. Being a comedian isn’t the easiest job to take up. You can’t just go on-stage, tell a few jokes, make people laugh, and then expect stardom to wash over you. It takes hard work and a shit ton of luck. Matt Lieb is a comedian that’s as funny as any mainstream comedian, but one that isn’t headlining shows all over the United States like he should.
Sure, I’ve done stand-up comedy a few times, but I never really took it seriously. I mean, the Detroit scene isn’t exactly the spot to go to get big in comedy, and I really don’t want to put in years of work when I just do it to have a bit of fun once in a while. Lieb is a comedian that is hilarious and is finally starting to get into the ears and eyes of the people. Check out his set at the SF Punch Line:
His recent video called “Bandwagon Haters” went viral and was even featured on websites like Bleacher Report and Deadspin. It’s about a Lebron hater that hates on haters of Lebron, hence the name of this hilarious video. Just hire him already, SNL. You need the talent.
And he’s even making that Yogurt money with Chobani.
It’s hard to sum up how funny this man is. You can hear him on podcasts on multiple sites, and everything he says needs to be rewound and listened to again and again. He’s really the highlight of anything he’s involved in. I expect him to be in a television show that doesn’t suck within a few years. Maybe a Netflix special? I’d rather watch Lieb eat Yogurt instead of Jeff Dunham make my name look bad and use puppets to make me angry. Seriously, how is that guy a famous comedian?
Check out more from Matt Lieb at his website or follow him on Twitter: @lieb123456789 (Yeah, that’s really his Twitter handle, which sums him up in less than 140 characters)
5. Here are some loaded nacho recipes you need to make for your next party. Nachos are great. They involve tortilla chips, cheese, meat, and whatever else you choose to decide, but Redditor natej decided to upload a picture of a delicious looking nacho concoction that I will be testing out this upcoming weekend.
He states in the original post that he includes: Tomatoes, Red Onions, Black Beans, Cilantro, Grated Cheese, Cheese Sauce, Guacamole, Bacon, Prosciutto, Ground Beef, and Ground Sausage.
As you can see, you can use each ingredient, according to how much you want of each. I think he did a great job.
I’d like to include a few recipes I have created on my own. One is a dip and another is my own nacho recipe that will make Taco Bell angry because I used their idea before they did with their Dorito taco. My recipe is better.
The Sorensen Chip Dip
This one is easy because you can make it if you have leftovers from tacos you made with basically any taco packet you made a pound of ground round in for tacos. Here we go:
- 3/4 cup of taco meat.
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream
- Handful of extra sharp (your preference of cheese)
- Taco Bell Mild Sauce (your preference of sauce)
- One squeeze of ranch dressing
- 1/4 cup of chunky salsa (with or without, doesn’t matter, depends on you)
Mix it in a bowl and microwave it for a few minutes with a cover over it (depending on your settings), mix it with a spoon, add another minute or so, then take it out. Dip a chip in there, taste it, and then try not to roll your eyes into the back of your head because of how amazing it is. I invented it in a spur of the moment and 100% of the people I made it for polished off an entire bag of tortilla chips.
My next recipe is something that may be censored by the Internet Gods because it’s so good that even a God would have to go to a Doctor to get a check-up:
The Sorensen Diabetes Nachos
- One bag of regular Doritos
- 1/2 pound of cooked hamburger meat/Taco meat (your choice)
- Regular size bag of Mexican shredded cheese
Cook at 400 degrees until cheese is melted to your preference. Then cover with:
- 3 tablespoons of sour cream
- Taco Bell Mild Sauce (again, your preference)
- Add whatever else, you might die eating this
Begin to eat and prepare to have to work that food off at the gym for the next month. If you’re religious, cover your mouth before you look upon it. Saying the Lord’s name in vain is automatic when you see this masterpiece glisten with its greasy goodness.
6. There was a lot more to that iconic hug between a boy and a police officer. You may have viewed the picture on pretty much every social media site in the past few days. It features a white police officer embracing a younger black child with tears in his eyes. It doesn’t take a critic or a photographic genius to tell that this is a beautiful photo that will be on every “best of” photo list this year, but there is more to it than just a random capture of a beautiful moment between two people.
Before the photo was taken, the boy had a sign that said “Free Hugs.” Portland Police Sgt. Bret Barnum, telling The Associated Press, said that when he saw the boy, Devonte Hart, he had tears in his eyes already. He then asked Hart about what he did over the summer, about his school, and what his hobbies were.
“It’s a blessing for me that I didn’t miss an opportunity to impact this child,” Sgt. Barnum told The Associated Press.
The tears came from when Hart explained his position about young black men being the victims of police brutality. Barnum responded with, “Yes. I know. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Then they embraced and it was an emotional and powerful moment during a time of such unease following the sad state of affair going on in Ferguson and around the country.
You can read the full story over at The Associated Press.
FOLLOW JEFF SORENSEN ON TWITTER
Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.