news-record.com

Having avoiding jail for over 30 years for having non-consensual sex with a drunk, stoned, 13-year-old girl, director Roman Polanski was finally arrested in Switzerland over the weekend.

Polanski has been sticking to countries that wouldn't extradite him for decades, even declining to come to the Oscars when he won best director for The Pianist in 2002.

I love Roman Polanski's movies - Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby, Death and the Maiden, The Ninth Gate.

I also think it's a terrible tragedy that his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered by the Manson Family.

But you can't be brilliant enough, tragic enough or create enough great art to be allowed to rape teenage girls.

They should put him in a very small cell somewhere. Maybe we could even rig up a constant loop of Corky Romano and Ewe Boll movies for him.

Yep, it's that time of year again for Oktoberfest beers and fall seasonals.

Foothills Brewing will have its Oktoberfest celebration this weekend, with a portion of proceeds to benefit Save the Ta-Tas and Pints for Prostates.

Look for the Foothills Oktoberfest around town. The beer has a caramel color and sweetness with a flavor of toasted nuts.

And by now, other seasonals are hitting local taps.

Natty Greene's in downtown Greensboro put its Autumnfest on tap this week. If you don't have a taste for the sweeter, maltier flavors found in a traditional Oktoberfest beer (or just prefer a less complex beer), then Natty's Autumnfest Vienna-style lager may be for you.

"Vienna style is a pretty middle of the road beer, with a little hint of sweetness, it's not a really hoppy beer," said Mike Rollinson, brewmaster at the downtown pub. "It's a real easy drinking medium body beer."

Almost makes you want to take the afternoon off to sit out at the patio on Elm and McGee Streets, huh?

Relax, 5 p.m. is just around the corner.

Next week, Rollinson said, he'll re-introduce the Piedmont Organic Ale, which uses organic hops from the farm of Matt Russ, owner of Tate Street Coffee House. It's brewed with Organic Gambrinus malt.

"It’s pretty much ready to roll," Rollinson said, "and we’re waiting on a tap to open. It will probably come on Monday or Tuesday."

So why the "k" in Oktoberfest? Because that's how the Germans do it. They also begin the celebration in September.

A traditional favorite is the Spaten Oktoberfest, also on taps now.

Know of any other Oktoberfest celebrations? Put 'em in comments below.

Next Beverage Blog: Porters. Looking for recommendations - gerald.witt@news-record.com

Oh, man.

Really?

Okay, so I was wrong.

It could get stranger.

When I heard that the kids reading show Reading Rainbow is ending its 26-year run on public television today, I had the same reaction a lot of you are probably having right now.

"Reading Rainbow is still on?" I said to my wife.

Damn right.

 After a run of nearly as many years as I've been alive, a Peabody Award and 26 Emmy Awards, LeVar Burton's show is the third longest running children's series behind only Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers.

As an already bookish kid I was a big fan of Reading Rainbow, and I know I'm not alone. People with whom I've talked about it today have all been able (and suprisingly willing) to burst into the show's theme song.

Reportedly, no one will pony up for the show's broadcast rights as the educational TV climate has changed from one of teaching kids to love reading to teaching kids HOW to read in the first place.

 Which I think is a shame.

But you don't have to take my word for it...

Leave it to Jack to be head of the hybrid/green car curve.

Shame we're still talking about getting this bat off our shoulder - and the oil monkey off our backs - nearly thirty years later.

One of my favorite comic books of the last few years, Robert Kirkman's zombie opus The Walking Dead, may be coming to AMC.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cable channel has acquired the rights to the series, which follows a group of survivors of the zombie apocalypse. They've also attached Frank Darabont,  writer-director of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile, to write, direct and produce.

It's hard not to be excited about the cable channel that gave us Mad Men and Breaking Bad doing a TV series of one of my favorite comics with a writer-director who has adapted works by Stephen King that are arguably even better than the source material.

For those of you who haven't read The Walking Dead -- don't be scared off (literally or figuratively) by the zombies. I'm not a big zombie nut either, but the series is transcendently good graphic storytelling that, like all good horrorfiction, concentrates much more on humanity than the supernatural.

When I interviewed Warren Ellis a few years ago he was working on an original series for AMC called Dead Channel which I'm not sure went anywhere or may still be in limbo.

This makes up a bit for that disappointment.

"Best of ! Most of !
Satiate the need
Slip them into different sleeves !
Buy both, and feel deceived"

- The Smiths, "Paint a Vulgar Picture"

It seems Morrissey is asking fans not to buy the box set reissues of his back catalogue being produced by EMI/HMV/Parlophone. Not because he thinks they'll be bad, necessarily, but because he hasn't gotten royalties from the company in over a decade.

It looks like some of the reissues might actually be pretty nice - they include singles and B-sides repackaged on 7'' vinyl.

Moz has previously balked at similar re-issues of his old Warners records on 180 gram vinyl for the same reasons and you may recall his telling fans not to buy the DVD of his live shows at the Hollywood Bowl last year because he didn't like the sleeve art (no, really).

I'm a little torn on this.

Obviously, using the man's music and art to create cool new repackaged fetish items for people who probably already own the music without paying him is, as they say, crap. The same record industry that is trying to use the exploitation of artists as a justification  to sue and prosecute music downloaders and remix artists is doing the same thing on a much larger scale here.

But at the same time it's sort of a genius stroke by the companies that you almost have to appreciate. Smiths/Morrissey fans can and will simply download for free any new material they may make available - so they have to give them something new, something not downloadable, like a vinyl record, which they'd have to obtain in the physical world. And even I have a couple of Smiths/Morrissey albums I'd love to have on good quality vinyl. I can't imagine how much real hardcore fans/audiophiles must be drooling over some of this stuff.

Still, I probably won't buy any of it. And not because I want my purchase to benefit the artist (is that the driving force behind your buying any of the music you love? If so, you're probably being duped). Simply because I already own most of this music, I see no reason to buy it again and I think I'll save my money for buying new Morrissey records which do happen to benefit him.

Where are you guys on this?

... it's Summertime Brews!

The festival is next Saturday, Aug. 15 at the Greensboro Coliseum, and tickets are on sale. This is a great shot for newbies to sip good beer, hang out with general beer lovers and watch the old salts around here get out, mingle and drink some of the best brews from the Southeast and across the world.

Make sure to grab your ticket soon. It always sells out. And here's the festival page on Facebook.

The lineup has a few regular big ol' breweries and popular favorites.

Looking at the list, some of the beers that I'm looking forward to having are coming from Brooklyn Brewery, and Sweetwater - which was responsible for plenty of my fun in college.

But now that we can get Sweetwater here, though, it's not so much of a novelty. So what's looking interesting?

New Holland Brewing is coming with a lineup from Michigan of stuff I haven't tried, including a kolsch, which has been my new beer style of late, along with the India Brown Ale. And LoneRider recently got some props at the World Beer Festival. A cousin recently told me about Stone, which makes some excellent beers, particularly IPAs.

But if you go, make sure to check out what the home brewers are doing. Or, better yet, don't. That'll leave more of the best, freshest beer there for me and my pals.

Moving on, let's see some of the North Carolina offerings to look forward to. Big Boss has been making respectable beers for some time - my friends in Raleigh make it out to the brewery each month for the tour. And there's Front Street, French Broad and so many others. And while we're on it, go read Jeri Rowe's story today on North Carolina beer. And that Sam Bush show that he mentions last week was fantastic. For a free concert, the man played about 3 hours straight of music that ranged from reggae to metal. Metal, at least, if you count Led Zeppelein as a band that made metal possible.

One beer that I'm really curious about comes from the United Kingdom - Charles Wells is bringing its Banana Bread Ale. That's going to be interesting.

For future beverage blogs, I'd like to find out where the good beers are around the Triad. If you have suggestions, drop me a line at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com

Caught the second-season premiere of Man v. Food  (10 p.m. ET on  the Travel Channel) last night and I've got to say, I think I'm hooked.

Host/gastronomical masochist Adam Richman took on the city of San Antonio, Texas last night -- and Texas means BIG.

Adam went to Big Lou's to check out the 3.5 foot, 70 lb. pizzas. Holding one of the slices at shoulder-level, he noted that it hung down to his waist. That's one piece.

He also took on the 3.5 lb. cinnamon rolls at Lulu's Bakery and Cafe.

I loved the scene where Adam asks a young woman who has just had the intimidatingly large roll, "Did it ruin you for other cinnamon rolls?"

Went right over her head.

But the big challenge came at Chunky's Burgers, where Adam took the "Four Horseman" challenge.

He had 25 minutes to down a burger made with jalepeno, serrano, habanero and "Ghost Chili" peppers (which I'd never even heard of but which are arguably the hottest pepper known to man). He then had to wait at least 5 minutes without drinking any milk or eating any ice cream in order to become one of only 4 people ever to have conquered the burger.

Not only do I think that Man V. Food has earned a regular place on my DVR list, but I'm now morbidly curious about these ghost chilis (whose technical name seems to be Naga Jolokia). They seem like something that could be extremely unpleasant and yet something I now feel I must try. Anybody know any place I could get my hands (and subsequently burning mouth) on some locally?