Ready Player One
Finally, I get to Ready Player One, the last movie from March/the beginning of April I saw.
I’m not a gamer. I don’t care about games. I saw a better smarter film in the anime, Summer Wars.
2 of 5 stars.
Isle of Dogs
Isle of Dogs is fine at first. Then you think about the yellow washing. More in particular, you think about the grandparent who brought their little grandchildren to a puppet movie who end up laughing at the strange stuff Japanese people do. “Let’s all point and laugh at this wacky society.”
Don’t. It wasn’t a movie for kids and none of it was funny because of the funny stuff Japanese people do.
And that could be the problem with the film. It’s like a minstrel show. Without any context, the audience points and laughs.
Damn. I just knocked a star off of this because of that.
2 of 5 stars.
Blockers
Yo! My Blockers review and several others (you’ll know when I complete them) have been sitting in draft for the longest time. Like three weeks when I saw them in early April. Now, here we are and it’s just about may and I’m gonna fill them out. Each post was just the title. Now I have to put a review or talk about the movie but it has been so long. I’m not sure what I want to say.
Of course, it’ll get a star count. They’ll each be the same. And if you’ve been following me for a long time, then you’ll know what the star count is.
For Blockers, I was hoping for mayhem like Project X, Neighbors, or even Beerfest. What I got was a sweet movie about parenting. I wanted for a sex movie from the female perspective. I got parents worrying about parenting and noticing that they did an alright job if their children turned up a-ok.
Mayhem! No, sweet parenting. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t pay for this. Of course I did like it fine.
3 of 5 stars.
シンクロニシティ
Oh, hey. It’s been six months, but we’ve got a new Nogizaka46 single, Synchronicity. It’s their 20th. Seven years they’ve been at it and they consistently have high quality songs. Their spring singles are some of the best idol music around. Believe that. Anyway go out buy the single, download the songs, listen to it on your favorite streaming site. Just fall in love again.
Wet Paper Bag
Was at the game this afternoon. A perfect afternoon spoiled. Orioles could not punch their way out of a wet paper bag. It is despair time in Birdland. It reminds me of the 2011 Orioles team. Nothing they do is correct. Still a long season.
When you look at their lineup today, they had 3 starters batting less than .200. Given that one of those guys was just called up, but still what professional hitters are on this team? Or are they pros at the strike out which is luck because they only struck out 3 times. This team is terrible.
Hits From the Bong
Plug it. Unplug it. Don’t strain.
I love you Mary Jane.
4/20
Legalize It
Yes. That drug.
You know the only harm it does is it makes you lazy.
But it would be nice to unwind in a different way.
4/20.
Empty Aisle
Wandered around the local grocery store at 10 PM. I’m writing this after I got back.
It was all quiet. Peaceful.
I went in really for some frozen salmon. Earlier this evening I cooked the last I had for dinner. It was as an accompaniment for a salad. I used Chef John’s Miso Honey marinade as the flavoring. It turned out delicious. Afterwards, I wanted to replenish my freezer with some frozen salmon. Off to the grocery I went.
I also picked up a few odds and ends. I usually do that. For you see, I don’t really cook too much at home. Salads for lunch. The occasional soup. Breakfast of oatmeal. So that’s all I have. Dinner is… salad if I’m lucky. Or out. So when I shop for groceries, it’s usually weird stuff.
I bought a jar of jalapeños. I plan to make some jalapeño focaccia.
I bought lots of SweeTarts. I think I’m already sick of them.
I bought some frozen cod to go along with my frozen salmon.
I’ll be cooking some of it up this weekend. Let’s see if I know what to do!
Seafood Ramen
久しぶり!
Long time no see!
I had too much seafood in my freezer. There was some shrimp. Some fish balls. Chicken stock, too. And there was some ramen. I guess I’m making seafood ramen for dinner!
It was to be my own recipe. Maybe I should open a ramenya.
Started off with onions and garlic sautéing in EVOO with a pinch of salt, some ground pepper, and some red chili flakes. I was gonna make the tare like a clam sauce. When the garlic and onions were browning after 10 minutes in went a can of chopped clams. Reserve the juice for later.
I let that cook while I got water boiling for the ramen.
Oh. I also bought some scallops. It was my first time to make fried scallops. Over medium heat, with EVOO and some butter, fried them up. It’s really easy to mess up scallops. I think I burned one. But I tried to get them off the pan so they don’t dry out. Maybe 3 minutes a side. Even if they weren’t cooked through I expected them to get a bit cooked when they sit in the broth.
To the clam tare I added a quart of my chicken stock. Brought that to a boil and then added some fish balls and the reserved clam juice. I have no idea what type was in this. They were bought at H-Mart in January. They need to be used.
I made a mistake with the noodles. I did not defrost them enough so that as I cooked them I had to do them for longer because they were somewhat frozen together.
First the noodles. A good base I started with some shrimp paste. In went the noodles. Then dumped the broth in. Almost spilled out the bowl. Added the scallops and the shrimp. Done.
It was nice. Lots to eat. And fishy. I still have shrimp and fish balls and I didn’t use all the clam tare. Maybe more ramen soon. Except I’m out of noodles!