Interlude
Short but sweet. I always thought that this song and its successor on the album were one tune. Perhaps I should just put both of them in this post.
The Outernationalist
Thus I skipped on to track 3 and found some dub. It just can’t be beat.
Link of the Day [12.04.11]
I’ve always wanted to do try a series of posts related to holiday themed television shows. The AVClub has beat me to it. I seem to link to the AVClub every so often especially to their series of posts centered around a topic. This one is called the AVClub Advent Calendar highlighting holiday episodes of television shows. I had to post about this because the latest one features Northern Exposure, a beloved favorite of mine. If NewsRadio is my all time favorite comedy, Norther Exposure is my all time favorite dramady. The X-Files? It’s my all time favorite paranoia show.
If I was to do a series of holiday shows, I know I would be diving into Northern Exposure’s list of episodes. I want a girl who can appreciate the melancholia in this show.
Hugo
As I came home from watching Hugo, I had come up with a nice way of getting into the review. But now, in the light of day, I can’t remember the hook. That’s unfortunate as I think it was gonna be a good intro that would’ve made me set up this review well and forced me to write with a better, even tone.
Hugo is about a young orphan living in one of the train stations of Paris, spending the day dodging Jean Girard, and winding the multitude of clocks of the station. He’s the son of a tinkerer who had found a windup doll in the museum which he planned to fix before his death. Hugo takes it upon himself to finish his father’s work by attempting to fix the mechanical doll. The tasks leads him to steal gears and springs from the toy shop in the station the proprietor of which carries the biggest surprise of the movie.
For the early part of the film, I was slightly bored. Hugo’s story was slow in unravelling and slightly uninteresting. It was another story about poor orphan looking for a sign his father loved him. Why am I watching this?
Hugo does finish the mechanical doll. He winds it up and lets it write the message he thought his father had left him, but instead of the trite fatherly pablum, the mechanical doll draws something whimsical, a scene by George Melies signed by Melies. This changes the movie to being about something more magical, movies.
And here’s where I remember what I was gonna write for the intro. In my former life, I had studied film and with it an introduction to then history of film. We got to see Melies, Lloyd, and Buster Keaton. Their films are as important to the history of film as they were integral to this movie especially Melies. His Voyage to the Moon is amazing and that said it made Hugo slightly worth it.
Melies makes this film for me. As he tells his tale of his life, the movie broadens up to being a tribute to a master storyteller. The tale of Hugo is the tale of finding something to fix. Hugo didn’t have to fix the mechanical doll. He had to fix history so that it remembers Melies. He had to fix Melies so that he remembers the magic. Movies are magic.
3 of 5 stars
Notes on the film: I miss the sound of the projector. Ben Kingsley in a good movie? Who would’ve thought?! Sacha Baron Cohen throwing out another one of his insane characters. I thought he should’ve been Inspector Clouseau. I was reminded of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. For French people, they speak with a British accent.
Mushroom Barley Soup
It’s like the Spinache Mushroom Barley Soup except without the spinach.
Used different mushrooms, rather than the plain white buttons: Porcini mushrooms to flavor the stock and some darker mushrooms. Don’t remember their names, but they taste just as good.
I followed the same recipe, but changed up the stock. I had to buy each ingredient for the stock individually rather than rely on the “soup stock” vegetable package I get the grocers. The stock is the Porcini mushroom soak, carrots, onions, celery, bell peppers, thyme, and pepper corns.
It’s very weird to spend my time cooking variations of mushroom soup. I don’t really dig mushrooms but I dig barley and the two go together. So with all this barley in my house, its only one package!, but I have to use it up. There’s still a few cups left over. Maybe sometime soon, I have to make that barely risotto I keep thinking about.
Link of the Day [12.02.11]
Looking at that title of this post and am amazed that we're fast approaching the end of the year!This one's for the 99% and the 1%. For #OWS and the TeaTard Party. For Republicans and Democrats. For libertarians. Especially for those tards.The US needs more revenue. The rich have the majority of the money. It makes perfect sense. Especially, if it broadens the middle class, who are the ones that make the economy work. Consumers pump money into the economy that make the producers produce more and hire more workers who get more wages who purchase more products. It's not the producers producing more that will make consumers buy products. If the consumer has no money, they aren't buying too much and producer's production is meaningless.I may be ignorant about economics, but I know if you give people money, the majority will spend it. Cash in. Jobs out.http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-01/raise-taxes-on-the-rich-to-reward-job-creators-commentary-by-nick-hanauer.html
Facing East
Not really too fond of the second song from the Thievery Corporation’s Richest Man in Babylon album, but since it’s the second on the disc, it’ll have to do for now. This cut is somewhat reminiscent of their big hit, Lebanese Blonde, from the previous album. Mid-eastern inflections. Sitar. Wailing woman. It’s in there.
I usually skip this track and go on to the next one. I won’t blame you if you don’t play it. It’ll break your streak, if you do, but its your bandwidth.
A plodding turtle is faster than me
Always looking for advice on blogging. These 10 steps to better blogging are just as good as any. I guess I’ll apply it to my blog. We’ll see how it goes.
As you know, I don’t Facebook. I tweet. I love to blog though — seven years and counting. It’s been a slow but steady set of posts week after week, month after month. Mostly about things I am interested in. They are long form tweets. The link of the day is just laziness as is the quote of the day, but there’s a blog post after each one has been posted. And that’s what makes it worthwhile.
I mainly looking to establish some kind of voice, but it gets lost in some of the other chatter I throw up on here. I let my fingers do the rambling and I end up with posts about nendoroids, cute asians, or Sakaragaoka High School Light Music Club which most people don’t care to read about. I post them because it’s something that I am fond of. I don’t think I am embarrassed by these posts, but I know that they bore my three readers.
I think I’m more successful with my cooking posts. I believe they read very well. I guess I can write about a subject if I need to explain how things are working out.
Yet, I know that my writing is still weak. I’m trying to get better. I better follow that advice.
Heaven’s Gonna Burn Your Eyes
I just love this album. I remembering picking this up at Borders, quickly unpacking it out of its plastic wrap, and sliding it into the CD player of the Jetta for the drive home. I remember taking York Road south to the 695 on ramp as the opening of this song was playing and then it kicks in…
Dude!
Yeah. One of my favorite albums. I’m thinking about playing it at my funeral its that good.
This track was once one of the most played on my iTunes before I started ripping CDs and purchasing songs from the store. One things that always bothered me though is the circle has been turned into an oval with the album art downloaded from the iTunes music store. O, well, at least the remix album its a perfect circle.
Sun Glare
Nothing to really write about lately, but I have to try.This morning driving into work traffic went from 80 MPH to a standstill because of sun glare. People, don't you know how to drive? I'm guessing that 75% (conservative number) on 695 this morning are commuters driving the same dreary route to work, but we still hit a slowdown because of sun glare. Come on, people, you should know by now the quirks of your drive to work. You should know that sun glare's just around the corner. You should know to have your visor down. You should know to wear your sunglasses. You should know not to look directly into the sun. You should know to look at the lines on the road. You should know to look at the backlit car in front of you.Follow the lines on the road and be wary of the cars in front of you and we can all still drive 80 MPH into the sun!