R.I.P. Robert Osborne, the host of my favorite channel, Turner Classic Movies.
I really only got into watching classic movies once I became a big fan of Barbara Stanwyck about 10 years back. I usually leave TCM on and he would pop in an out introducing movies. He wasn’t around for some time in the last year, and now to find out that he was ill and has died is sad.
I hope the movies you watch in heaven are all in black and white.
My Ex and Whys is an import from the motherland. Like all films that I have seen from the Philippines this one is a sappy romantic comedy.
The girl who has been traumatized by her father’s infidelity from her mom is looking for a guy who will always be faithful. She finds one who eventually disappoints her. She puts on a bad wig and becomes a blogger: the bakit list. Her tweets are read by millions and she spends her times fighting the gender wars.
There were some nice touches to the film which I liked: the guy’s household of males all horn dogs including his father, the chase in Seoul, blogging as a respectable profession. There were things I did not like: the filipino movie cliche of the gay dude, blogging can take you places. And there were things that were plain awful: that wig of hers. It was so bad that they made the guy wear it as well.
3 of 5 stars.
The Great Wall is junk. It is Hong Kong action masquerading as Hollywood action. Lots of it doesn’t make sense as a Hollywood movie. It makes complete sense as a Hong Kong movie. How did we get this in the West?
Matt Damon is in pursuit of the fabled ‘black powder,’ and he stumbles upon the Great Wall. It is meant to keep an alien horde out of China and it protects the world. The Chinese have been training for years in color coded teams to defeat these aliens. Matt Damon has gotten himself into the war of the worlds. Can he get himself out?
It’s like Matt Damon was slumming. Did he need the money? I know that the director, Yimou Zhang, did a few well received movies, like House of the Flying Daggers and Hero, from the silver age of Hong Kong movies in Hollywood in the early 2000s. This one feels like he didn’t need the artiness of those previous ones and he’ll make a film with dragons.
It was alright. I think I want to see those classic supernatural kung fu Hong Kong films from the late 80s and early 90s.
3 of 5 stars.
John Wick Chapter 2 begins where the first one ends. John Wick getting his car from the Russian mob boss that had it. And like the first installment, it’s a lot of dead people flying.
John Wick is definitely back in the sequel. It continues because the story has to. The implications of his retiring from his retirement come back to haunt him. A marker which allowed him to retire was called in and he must do a job to cash in the marker. Reluctantly he does it and thus begins the big gang war in the the John Wick world.
This installment expands on the previous by fleshing out the rest of the world. From the Continental, the hotel for hitmen, to the gangs of the world who are try to rule the underground. It adds in a female hitman who doesn’t say a word. It puts in Common who was a John Wick friend but is now an adversary. It opens the world up to being a self-contained universe. Now there will be other parts of the story — the comic book, the novelization, the prequel, the direct-to-streaming animated web series. There will be lots of Wick to consume later.
That’s why I didn’t like it in the end as I knew that we are in another ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’ situation. There will be more and more interconnected stories that will dilute the power of the first film. It will not stop until John Wick puts a bullet in its head.
3 of 5 stars.
I’m finding cooking to be less of an exact science and more of an art. How you combine ingredients and their proportions can help define the dish.
Mash potatoes is a relatively easy dish to make: boil potatoes until tender, dump in a bowl with butter/cream, mash until done. That’s the steps most every recipe I’ve seen has outlined. It’s in between the lines where you can come up with something different. The type of potato, how much butter/cream, skin on or off, extras added. Your mileage may vary but as long as it ends up tasting good then it don’t matter how you got there.
So I bought a bag of potatoes last week which I intended to make mashed potatoes with. I have no idea if these are right for the job. I bought them because they were in a sack which was convenient to carry. This sack had assorted colored potatoes, purple, reds, golds. I took these potatoes washed and removed the dirt on them, threw them into a pot, covered them with water, took it to a boil and then let them cook over medium heat for 20 minutes.
I had also bought bacon. I love bacon on my baked potatoes so I figured I’d throw them in mash potatoes. I crisped up the bacon on a cookie sheet in the oven at 385 for 15 minutes. Usually, I would throw them on top of aluminum foil to make cleaning up easy, but this time I wanted crips so I put them on the bare metal pan. Now, I’ve got to figure out how to clean up a bacon fat congealed pan, but at least they came out crispy. I set the bacon aside to degrease, then chopped it up.
Finally, the garlic. I used the microwave trick. I minced three cloves and placed them in a ramekin with some of the bacon fat. I microwaved them on half power for a minute and a half, stirred them once, and set them in the microwave to finish in another 15 seconds. I forgot to set the power to half. They were almost burnt. Just more dark than I wanted.
When the potatoes were done, I drained them, then started mashing them in a bowl. I don’t have a potato masher, so I used a wooden spoon. I added some salt at this time. Also, some heavy cream and butter which I had heated up in the microwave. I reserved some of the water from the pot to also aid in creaming the potatoes. Sprinkling some salt along with the bacon and the fried garlic, I continued mashing the potatoes until done. I think I went to far as they are a little bit too smooth.
One thing to note is that the purple potatoes were also purple flesh so it looked like ube in there. But they still taste like potatoes.
I guess I’ll be having this for a few lunches before getting sick of them.
My love of all things Nogi leads us today to a report from the newish members, 3rd gen. You see they were involved in a stage play called 「３人のプリンツパル」or ‘3 Principal Members.’ Principal, as it is called, involves the members presenting themselves to the audience in the first act. They do a self-introduction and some sketches then some improvisations. Afterwards, the audience votes on which member will be acting in the second half. Finally, there is a third act involving all the members doing a mini-live.
There have been 3 Principals involving the original members. The second generation seems to be the red-headed step child and did not get there own to do. Only a select few of second generation members participated in Principal.
It’s a big thing for Nogizaka. I’m happy to hear that they passed through this challenge successfully. That’s what today’s link reports. Anyhow, if you’re curious, then you should click through. Perhaps, run it through Google translate, which I did, in order to read it. That is if you don’t read Japanese already.
http://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/column/nogizaka46/vol68.html
What I haven’t told you about my bookstore visits is that usually I am buying a white mocha from the cafe there. So every time I go, I am filling up on 400 calories of sugary goodness. I should stop going to the bookstore. I should stop ordering white mochas. This I should do to help me on my resolutions. So far I haven’t done that.
The Temple of I & I Thievery Corporation.
Monocle Volume 10 Issue 100
I’m really going to have to go to Japan. These are the next set of travel guides I bought for the trip. It’s ridiculous thinking that I will find Japan and their culture in books. I will find it in their country. I must go…
Cool Japan: A Guide to Kyoto, Tokyo, Tohokou, and Japanese Culture Past and Present by Sumiko Kajiyama
Tokyo Precincts: A Curated Guide to the City’s Best Shops, Eateries, Bars and Other Hangouts by Steve Wide and Michelle Mackintosh
Man, I feel for Britt Robertson. She’s played in lots of poorly received films and The Space Between Us is another one. This one is a stinker of a film trying to make a sentimental galaxy spanning love story. It’s pretty saccharine and it doesn’t really come off well. I think the biggest misstep was how the story and the kid was conceived. Totally terrible which shaded the rest of the film if you didn’t know it from the start.
The kid is Asa Butterfield’s kid who was born on Mars. His story was hidden from the entire planet because it would’ve been a scandal. Except that it wasn’t told and the director of the space company, Gary Oldman, treated it like a scandal and resigned soon after leaving the kid to grow up in Mars without his mom and being a hidden figure. He is determined to come back to Earth even though it would kill him. He is determined to meet Tulsa (Robertson) because he fell in love with her from afar.
There’s an escape. He makes it to Earth. He treats it like an alien place. Except Butterfield acts weird. Geeky but smart.
I would love to have liked this movie. It tries, but the last third of the movie, when the big reveal, comes destroys any promise in liking the film. It is hard to sympathize with the people involved – the actors, director, writers. They made the ending and they gambled to throw out the good will of the first 2/3 of the films.
2 of 5 stars.
I did buy some more stuff from BN. Last week and today. Here’s what I got.
Concise Japanese Dictionary Samuel E. Martin
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaimann
