light-and-fluffy action

“…in which the zeal to render a verdict was only matched by the zeal to ignore all evidence.”

That’s a line pulled from a TNCoates entry today. It can apply to virtually anything in today’s America – it applies to race for him today – and is a phrase to keep in mind through every discussion we engage in on a daily basis.

He closes with this….

“Talk is overrated. There can be no talk with people who've conditioned themselves out of listening. This is the country we've made. This is the country we deserve.

On a lighter note, we are doing enriched yeast breads and laminated breads in Baking and Pastry this week and I want to sincerely pass this along to whoever invented handmade croissants: piss off. Seriously. As with anything in the baking realm I know it’ll take time and practice to master the technique but this process is just a colossal pain. I plan on doing some baking at home on Sunday (and a batch of croissants are on the agenda) so I’ll give everyone a photo documentary of the process. In Garde Manger this week we’ll be doing open and closed sandwiches and for now I’m working on a homemade aubergine pickle and cheddar grilled sandwich, a somehow doctored Rueben (a call out to my home state’s invention), a Ploughman’s (consider it a deconstructed sandwich), and an altered lobster roll. Between the team we’ll sort out the final choices and present them during Saturday afternoon’s class. If you have any groovy ideas, pass them along…

If you must know, we did a Stallone v. Schwarzenegger action actor showdown at work over the last days. Using ten pictures/series for each, Arnold won 5-4 with the last point being vacated due to both of the movies being so bad by the time we got to the tenth faceoff. The difference was the True Lies v. Tango & Cash tilt.

retest

I guess the quiz last night reminded me I hadn't posted for awhile; we didn't do as well as last week but it was a bit harder. I figure we finished about 10th out of 45, or so, teams. Who's going to remember walk current day animal most resembles the extinct quagga?

For some reason on Sunday night X decided she wanted to watch a Clara Bow movie. I agreed and then asked "who is Clara Bow?" We ended up streaming The Plastic Age via Netflix (and our Roku). For those not in the know, and who is?, Clara was a silent-age film 'star' from the teens and '20s. The Plastic Age (name for who know what) isn't really a Clara Bow vehicle as far as I'm concerned - she just played the hotsy-totsy gal who nearly ruins - no, she does ruin - the grand college life of one Hugh Carver, Track Star. You know her type: big eyes, little pursed mouth and too much lipstick. The cool thing about silent movies is that you can sit at home and talk or make fun of various bits in the film without much worry. In fact, you could wander off if you wanted and come back with a cup of coffee and be well caught up. The silents remind me of opera; lots of stuff supposedly happening but it's mostly just either singing or people moving about the place.

There's rumor about the L. may come here to live around the Holidays and stay through her next semester of high school. I'll keep folks updated on progress which is slow but gathering steam.

The Capitals' season is off to a bit of an uneven start but Mr. Ovechkin came ready to play this season - 9 goals, 8 games, leading the league in scoring. What I realized - again - while watching him at Verizon last week was that I'm very lucky to be in a city, and at games, with a sublime talent like him playing. If you want to swing by I have two seats for half the games; you'll be hooked. If you're interested, here's AO scoring both goals in regulation and the only goal in the shootout for the win - he does this stuff EVERY night.

We've got a little concert on Friday night (Tarbox Ramblers) and Lost in Yonkers at the JCC on Saturday. Conveniently, the boys will be out of town for the weekend so we can do as we please. Reviews to follow on both.

Our weather held nice for the last two days but I have no expectations that the depths of autumn isn't upon us.

Love to all.

t

one man's junk

The Eleven was lazing our way through the long weekend by studying law, reading books, doing some house tidying, and running a few errands in search of groceries, plants, and household goods when we decided to grab a movie for a Saturday night date. I think we’re all well versed in some of our movie issues (my documentaries, her Jane Austen, etc.) so wandering through a Blockbuster can be more than a little confusing: should I offer this? How about a comedy? Maybe a drama? Anyway, I came across National Treasure and vaguely remembered someone telling me it was a pretty good movie – a movie everyone should own so they can watch it multiple times! In fact, if I remember correctly, the public was on edge awaiting the sequel that came out last summer. Allegedly, the original was a nice combination of action, drama, comedy, and mystery. What ‘they’ forgot to tell me was that is was also a horrible movie. I’m not sure how to make this clear to anyone who even remotely told me this was a good movie: it may have been the worst movie I have ever seen. We weren’t even out of the parking lot before X was reading the ‘reviews’ and summary on the back of the box – and it was right then that we knew we were in for something horrific. We toughed it out the two hours by simply hoping there wouldn’t be another clue revealed that would lead to another 15 minutes of misery, nauseating acting, bad plot twists, stupid Nicholas Cage riddle-decrypting faces, a complete lack of sex appeal by the female lead, crappy dialogue, and poor action / chase movie etiquette by everyone involved in the caper. What our little viewing date became was something more akin to MST3K than enjoyment of a ‘film’. Don’t get me wrong, cutting a movie to shreds while watching it at home holds a certain charm. Compared to our Friday night movie, O Brother Where Art Thou, is was like being forced to read descriptive essays by college freshmen: believe me, I’ve done it, and once you’ve read someone describing a baseball diamond’s infield as “marshmallows floating in a sea of hot chocolate”, you’ll understand what I mean. I’m still having nightmares.

That’s a positive, top of the morning entry, isn’t it?

Love to all

t.