I'm off on a brand new wacky beer adventure. In November, I will head to Michigan to do something I've been meaning to do for awhile and visit some of my favorite MI breweries (full route here if you're actually interested).

Rough plan is (starting in Grand Rapids) to hit Dark Horse, Arcadia, Bell's, New Holland, the Livery & Founders (and possibly Kuhnhenn & Jolly Pumpkin) before side trekking towards Chicago to do Shoreline, Flossmoor, Three Floyds and finally the Illinois Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beer.

However, if anyone familiar with the area has any suggestions about any of the cities along my route (they don't have to be beer-related tips - honest!) or anything that's worth a detour, please let me have 'em because very little is set in stone right now.

Hey there -

If anybody is looking for something to do this weekend and you happen to live near the following cities/theaters:

. . . well then, it would be pretty gosh darn delightful if you went to see my new movie Freakonomics, which is opening today.

If you see it, let me know what you think! (Unless you didn't like it - then I don't want to hear that shit)

You've been warned.

Good times ahead soon. Next week, the girl and I head out to Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival, the largest beer event in the country. We're doing a few days in Denver (hitting, among others, Great Divide Brewing, Wynkoop & Dry Dock), then onto Boulder (for Avery Brewing, Mountain Sun & Twisted Pine) and Longmont (Oskar Blues & Left Hand Brewing and possibly New Belgium/Odell in Ft Collins).

If anybody has any recommendations for things in Colorado (beer related or otherwise) that we shouldn't miss, feel free to throw 'em at me!

* * * *
In more Freakonomics news: in my last blog I mentioned that we had plans for an interesting and hopefully innovative distribution.

We're still planning to have a robust theatrical release, but if anybody was interested in seeing it and you don't want to wait (or if you're not sure if it'll play your town, or if you have a crippling fear of the outside world), you can watch the entire film right now online. It hit iTunes, Amazon and certain VOD cable systems last Friday. We're see what happens as we're still very early in the lifespan of the release, but without any advertising push it's been steadily climbing Apple's top-seller chart, and has managed to reach the #7 position at the iTunes store. That list includes movies of all genres, making us the number one doc.

If you do see it, let me know what you thought. If you'd prefer to wait, we'll be in theaters in October.

No new blog in almost a month? And now when I do, it's pure, unmitigated self-promotion? For shame!

Well, anyhow - the trailer for my new film hit the web a few days ago, generating a healthy amount of buzz:

A highly anticipatory write-up from Entertainment Weekly, 'Freakonomics: the Movie Trailer Promises to Mess with your Mind.' EW also listed us in their Fall Movie Preview issue this week, as one of their '4 Docs We're Dying to See.'

This is an article from Film Stage, wherein they refer to us as "The Expendables of documentaries," a description that I am A-Okay with.

A good one from techdirt about our offbeat distribution strategy: 'Freakonomics Flips the Window: Releasing Movie Online BEFORE In Theaters.'

And here is the trailer. Let me know what you think.

Just got back from my cousin's wedding in New Jersey. Three full days worth of events, 95 degree heat and sweltering humidity, traditional Islamic affair with absolutely no booze. Man, do I ever wish I'd brought a flask.