Drank while re-watching The Matrix. The movie still holds up well enough that I didn’t pay much attention to the beer! Ratings are a construct, anyway.
It’s interesting how they decided to work around the potentially dated references. The fact that the “real” time is in the distant future, but the Matrix construct is always hovering around the turn of the 21st century, means anything that was current in 1999 will forever be relevant. Payphones, flip-phones, tube monitors, wearing a tie to work, duster jackets, and Rage Against the Machine are perpetually in vogue inside the Matrix. I suppose that also means that 90’s pop culture strongly influenced the “free” people of Zion too, since newly awakened citizens are coming straight out of that perpetually looped time period.
Fortunately for me, I never have to leave the 90s. I live in the Portland metro after all, and Portlandia taught me (even before I moved here) that “the dream of the 90s is alive in Portland!” It’s amazing how many holdovers there are from that decade, permeating everyday culture here. Like the sketch says, it’s true that “the tattoo ink never runs dry” (I have many acquaintances that are constantly planning their next tatoo), flannel shirts abound, glasses have never not been cool, and bicycles are a primary mode of transportation for many. Wow! You can do anything you dreamed of here (during whatever age you were in the 90s), and you can do it ironically or sincerely!
Now that I think about it, maybe Portland isn’t keeping it weird. Maybe we’re all just trapped in the Matrix…
Maui Wowie by Silver Moon Brewing
A Beer a Day 