Tonight is Dieselboy @ Freedom and tomorrow night is Simon Says Dance 2 with Technical Itch, Kevin Brown, Emile, Ariel, Noah, Ethereal, and Pastey to name a few.
Today I spent some time rating movies on IMDB. It was oddly satisfyingly. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way of sharing my voting history.
Before I wrote this I was trying to figure out if I thought "Amelie" is a great movie. I came to the conclusion that it is. Not in the way that I think "Fight Club" is, but more like "Shakespeare in Love" where there's a good story and everything is perfectly executed in such a way to enhance the storytelling. The story was original, the acting was great, and the cinematography was unique and well executed. What I realized was making the decision difficult for me was the fact that the movie was so whimsical. I knew immediately after I left the movie that I could watch it again (which only ever happens a hand full of times). I guess I was just suffering from the "If it's happy, romantic, or doesn't contain serious plot twists, then it can't be great movie." prejudice. Anyway, it's a great movie and you should know enough about it already to know whether you want to see it or not.
Today a friend took me to a new place that she'd never tried before. It was Havana Cafe in Phoenix, which makes Cuban and other Latin American, and Spanish food. It was one of the best lunches I've had in recent memory!
We ordered gazpacho, black beans, rellenos (deep fried cabbage stuffed with ground pork, habanero peppers and pimento smothered in a creamy cilantro sauce), and a tapas sampler plate (which included fried ripe plantains, black bean fritters, cod fritters, a chicken croquette, a ham croquette, a Cuban tamale, and chorizo). It's easier for me to list the things I didn't like than the items I really liked. I didn't like the cabbage rolls and I didn't care for the cod fritters. The cabbage rolls didn't have enough flavor for me and the cod fritters just tasted kind of fishy without any other real flavor. Everything else was pretty damn good, but one thing really stood out for me. The black beans were the best black beans I've ever tasted! (I could probably make an entire meal by just dipping the really good bread they bring, which I slather in butter, into the beans.)
One other item that was unexpectedly good was their Mojito; a rum concoction with fresh lime juice, sugar, fresh mint, and a splash of soda. I'm not a big fan of rum, but it was delicious and refreshing. Definitely something nice to help you enjoy a warm day.
Anyway, I'll definitely be going back there soon and with the depth of their menu, it'll probably be a year before I exhaust all the dishes that look interesting to me.
Rims get installed on Saturday. Whoo hoo!
"Big Night" is a movie about two brothers (Primo and Secondo) who immigrated from Italy to open a failing Italian restaurant. It was difficult to watch at first, trying to wade through Secondo's accent and deal with Primo's stubbornness. After a while the movie settled into a pace and was quite enjoyable. Not big on plot, the movie is more about the relationships between the characters. (We actually guessed one of the major plot points long before it happened. Good thing it's not a plot movie.) The relationships were interesting, but frustrating at the same time, much like the situation that the brothers placed themselves in. It was a movie worth watching, but not something that I would consider great. It was too much blowing all your money on one great night and waking up in the morning and realizing that there's nothing left.
This weekend was just full of movies, so here they are:
Well, if you liked "Blade" then you'll probably like "Blade II". I didn't like Blade. I did think the sequel was better though. The special effects were better and I thought the story was a little better. It's still just an entertaining action movie, but it's good at it.
"An Affair of Love" is a French movie about two people who meet solely for the purpose of acting out their sexual fantasies and don't exchange any personal information themselves, and how it works out for them. The movie is like a documentary, interviewing them after the fact. The movie didn't have the typical amount of nudity one would expect for a French movie about sex, but it did have a typical bad French ending. The funny thing was that I actually cared what happened to these two people, and I cared how things ended. I guess it's a testament to the writers superb characterization and good direction.
I had to show someone "Dangerous Liaisons" after they had just finished watching the sub par "Cruel Intentions". Dangerous Liaisons has a lot of depth and cleverness that's missing from Cruel Intentions. It also has far better acting. Anyway, they were duly impressed and now want to own the movie.
I've always liked El Torito in Phoenix because it's always been one of the few halfway decent restaurants in the Metrocenter area. Now I'd have to say they're pretty damn good. Before they were a mix of traditional and nouveau Mexican cuisine that worked well at times and failed miserably at others. I'm not sure how recently, but recently they've settled into a style which works pretty well. They still serve traditional items, and Sonoran items, but their own creations have gotten a lot better. They also have a theme menu, featuring different regions of Mexico, that changes monthly that tends to have some really creative food on it.
This last time I went I was impressed by something simple; fresh guacamole. They've probably had this on the menu for a while, but they had a little thing on the table advertising it this time so it was noticed. Here's what's sort of unusual about it. They make the guacamole right at your table. The guy came out with: three halves of avocado, diced onion and tomato, chopped cilantro, half a line, and finely diced serrano chiles. He took the avocado and mashed them in the bowl with two forks, squeezed in the lime juice, added the onion, tomato, and cilantro, and finally asked how much serrano we wanted in it. The guacamole was just the way I like it and I'd definitely recommend the experience to anyone who likes guacamole.
So the bubbles in my tint are disappearing like the dealership said they would. I still think it was sloppy of the window tinter to leave so many bubbles. I've seen much better initial tints where there are few to no bubbles, but I guess if you're allowed to be sloppy, you probably will be.
Last night I saw the movie "Scratch". It was a documentary about the history of scratch djs, starting in New York with the beginning of the hip-hop scene, and progressing to the West Coast and beyond. There were quite a very well known djs interviewed and I even got to see a couple of groups I didn't know about that I now want to see; Future Primitive and Jurassic 5 (who will be at Coachella). [addendum: I found out that Future Primitive was an event, not a group. How disappointing.]
Anyway, it was a great movie with great music, informative, and entertaining. I can't remember the last time I bobbed my head so much in a movie.
So I called the dealership and they said that the bubbles are normal and should disappear in about 2 weeks. 2 weeks! We'll see what happens in 2 weeks.
So I saw the Shaolin Warriors at Gammage last night, and it wasn't quite what I expected. I guess I thought it would be like the other martial art demonstrations I've seen before; with a narrator explaining points about the practice and belief system while the martial artists demonstrate the style. Instead it was more a mix of dance and martial arts that I didn't care for. It seemed a little undignified for these monks/martial artists to be jumping around to music. I thought more appropriate titles for the show, so people would know what they're getting into, would have been "Shaolin on Ice" or "Up with Kung Fu".
[Someone else I know who saw the show recommended "Cirque de Shaolin" as an appropriate title.]
Tonight I get to see the Shaolin Warriors tonight at Gammage!
Yesterday my car went in to get tinted and the dealership was nice enough to buff the scratch on my hood for free. (You can't see the scratch now. All that's left is an indentation where the scratch was.) There is one problem though; there are bubbles in my tint. I'm hoping they go away in the next day or so, but I'm going to call the dealership just in case.
I got a chance to use my new XI3 cutter. It cuts beautifully. I used it on the Indian Tabac that I smoked this weekend. The cutter was so sharp and smooth that the cap practically shot off of the cigar when I cut it. (I still prefer my bullet punch [which you can find for about $2.50 on the internet] for most cutting, but it doesn't look nearly as cool.)
So the good news is that things are going well. I've got Thursday and Friday
off for Spring Break. I'm going to visit Tucson tomorrow because I can. My
car is going in to have the windows tinted on Monday.
)
My brand new Xikar XI3 cutter just arrived in the mail. It's a beautiful
piece of equipment and I can't wait to use it. (Take a look at it on the right
and you'll see what I mean.
--> )
So, on to the bad news. Today some dumb kids was were chasing each other around with canned string in a business parking lot, not paying any attention to the cars actually moving through the parking lot, and one of them ran into my car. He plowed right into my passenger side fender! The bastard caused two dents in the fender and his canned string put an eight inch white scratch on my hood. Now, before you start thinking that I'm heartless, the kid was perfectly fine, which is more than I can say for my car. I haven't even made a payment on it yet and already some dumbass has caused it damage.
Now to make it not so bad news. The scratch doesn't appear very deep. It might be possible to buff it out. Also, the two dents aren't very big and they shouldn't take long to fix either. I'll find out Monday how much the dealership wants to charge me to take care of them.
"People are people wherever you go.
Always the same messed up traits that they show.
When you meet a good one then you feel their glow.
Yeah, I know first impressions can be wrong.
Bad auras stay strong and it all goes Pete Tong when you mix up."
-The Herbaliser "Good Girl Gone Bad (feat. Wildflower)"
Today I had lunch at Mc Gurkee's JP Sandwich Shop in Phoenix. I've been going to lunch there for almost 10 years now, and I've always been able to count on a great sandwich every time. The reason I still eat Mc Gurkee's sandwiches after swearing off Subway, Blimpie, and all the other sandwich shops is their ingredients and attention to detail. For example, they use a light sesame loaf for their sandwiches which they thoroughly toast. It just makes everything taste better.
Anyway, it made me nostalgic and really want to live in the neighborhood again so I can eat there more often than once every couple of months. I might actually check out some lofts in downtown Phoenix this weekend.
Recently I've been thinking that my make-shift humidor has been overhumidified. The main reason for coming to this conclusion is that one of my cigars was very soft, and had some fungus on it. To help put a stop to the problem, I bought a hygrometer this weekend.
Since I know hygrometers (even digital ones) have the possibility of not being very accurate, I conducted a salt calibration test as prescribed at Cigar Nexus. I may or may not have done the test correctly since my hygrometer read 67% after I was done (when it should have read 75%). The hygrometer documentation says that it's accurate to within +/-5%. Weird. I decided to just stick it in my humidor to see what it would say. Well it read 85%. I have a feeling that was correct so now I'm trying to get my humidor down to 72%. We'll see what happens.
Well my car now has a spoiler, but it's still lacking window tinting. It turns out the tint guy was having surgery on Friday and they forgot. Now I'll have to take my car back yet again. *grumble*
The Scottsdale Arts Festival was pretty cool this weekend. I got to see all sorts of good artists, but I didn't really see anything that just made me want to buy it. I did see a bed that I wanted but couldn't afford. It was made by Damian Velasquez Furniture. It wasn't the sort of thing I normally go for, but something about it appealed to me. It's not in the online catalogue so I'll have to describe it as best I can. It looked sort of like the "Sleigh Bed w/Lo-Foot", but the headboard was completely different. First, it was straight with very little of the metal showing, and the metal that was showing was brushed so it had a softer appearance. What was mainly visible were two rows of three large wooden panels which were made of ebony and maple. The panels were alternated like a big checkerboard; ebony/maple/ebony panels on the top row, and maple/ebony/maple panels on the bottom. Not the sort of thing that would go in my current bedroom, but it would go very well in a loft.
(I'm going to have to look into a loft again.)
Today my car is in the shop to have the window tint and spoiler installed. It should look pretty good after that. I don't know when the rims are going to be installed though. We'll see.
This commercial "Get the party jumping."
"Metropolis" is one of the most interesting animes I've ever seen. The 20's style animation was pretty unique (although it was reminiscent of "Laputa: Castle in the Sky") and didn't look a thing like "typical" Japanese animation. The music is unlike anything I've heard in anime and added greatly to the setting and tone. The backgrounds were intricate and beautiful, demonstrating an excellent integration between computer based and hand drawn animation (unlike "Blood: The Last Vampire"). Basically, it was a beautiful movie to look at.
Finally, some gripes. The biggest one being that the subtitles were difficult to read. They chose a weird color for the subtitles, and the color would swim depending on what appeared behind the text. Also, the story could have been a little more original. How many times do we have to see an anime with the main male and female characters running around after each other calling each other's name?
Anyway, the movie is definitely a recommendation based on the visuals. The story isn't too bad, but you can see where too many parts of the story came from, including the ending.
This weekend is the Scottsdale Arts Festival ($6). It's always been my favorite art festival because it doesn't seem like it has the same artists every year.
This last weekend I went to The Monkey Show and saw two really good movies: "The Disappearance of Baron Dixon" and "This is What Democracy Looks Like".
"The Disappearance of Baron Dixon" is a faux documentary about the disappearance of local Phoenix artist Baron Dixon. It was pretty convincing, covering Baron Dixon's life from when he was a young lad obsessed with aliens and UFOs to when he was a strange middle aged guy obsessed with aliens and UFOs and possibly abducted. I was watching it wondering if it wasn't all true. I mean, would these guys really build a UFO clubhouse in their backyard just for the movie!? Afterwards we had spoken with Jeff Cochran, the director of the movie and head monkey at The Monkey Show, and it turns out they had. There was even a painting in the movie I was impressed with, and it turns out Jeff painted it himself. He's a pretty talented painter, and even though I wasn't impressed with "Punk James" I think his later movie efforts have proven pretty good. The only gripe I have with "The Disappearance of Baron Dixon" is that I thought it was a little too long. (I fell asleep and missed the last 10 minutes, including the end!)
I do also have to say that the music for the movie was extremely well done. It was done by Ryan (can't remember his last name), and fit the tone of the movie perfectly. Actually Ryan always does a good job of the music in Jeff's movies.
"This is What Democracy Looks Like" was a movie about what happened in the "Seattle riots" during the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference. It could make you mad or shock you, but there wasn't a doubt as to how the mayor of Seattle, the police, and the media overreacted to the protests going on. (Keep in mind the movie definitely had a message and I'm fully aware of that. I had also seen a documentary about the incident that pretty much told the same story without so much of the "Power to the people." rhetoric.) Basically, thousands of people went to Seattle to protest the WTO. Most of them were peaceful, but a few were destructive. The mayor, disapproving of the civil disobedience of the protestors who refused to move when ordered, and the vandalism to some downtown businesses (some windows were broken and there was anti-WTO graffiti spray painted on things), considered the protestors a mob, had them arrested and tear gassed. The next day he also declared downtown Seattle a "protest free" zone, declared martial law, set a 5 o'clock curfew downtown, and declared the possession of protesting paraphernalia and gas masks illegal.
Over those days people were exercising their right to free speach, to protest, and were unexpectedly gassed and arrested for their efforts. I don't know much about the WTO and why so many different groups (such as environmentalists, college students, labor unions, and foreign labor representatives) were protesting them, but I do understand one very important lesson. The government can't be allowed to revoke your right to free speach because it disagrees with what you have to say. Luckily there were people there willing to fight, to be civilly disobedient, and to have the media try to turn public opinion against them. Hopefully more people will see what occurred and be willing to act the next time it becomes necessary.
(There were other messages in the movie about the media and the power of a self-organized movement, but you would have to see the movie and make your own conclusions about those. I've always been pro-union myself considering that most of the rights workers currently enjoy [such as medical insurance and 40 hour work weeks] are the result of some union fight long ago.)
I wasn't going to go to Coachella, but a couple of friends pressured me to and I caved. I'm not sure where I'm going to find the money for it, but at least I don't doubt that it'll be fun. (Besides, they're bringing that crazy Canadian guy down. Who knows what'll happen.)
"This fits right in perfectly with my whole culinary philosophy..."
"You can never have too much pork."
-Anthony Bourdain after eating a "bacon dog"
"To be idle is to become strange to the seasons."
What the hell is that supposed to mean? If your interpretative brain cells are working better then mine and you think you know what it means, email me.
There hasn't been much in the way of music shows that I've wanted to see in the last two months. I was hoping that Coachella would mark the end of things I don't really care for and begin the season of really cool shows. Well yesterday I saw the line up for the two day event and I wasn't impressed. There are some really big acts there like The Prodigy, Sasha & Digweed, The Chemical Brothers, and Paul Oakenfold, but I'm not a big fan of any of them. And at $75 per day I'm not going to just go for the hell of it like I would have had it been a little cheaper.
To make things seem worse, I can't go to the show I really want to. Fatboy Slim is going to be in LA on Saturday 3/9, and I don't have anyone to go with, and I probably couldn't afford it anyway.
On a good note there's still Simon Says Dance 2 at the end of March to look forward to.
So this morning I was driving when I noticed a police officer with his lights on behind me. "Oh shit." was my first thought, followed by, "Where did he come from?" and, "Was I speeding?" I figured I must have been tired if I didn't notice a cop behind me while I was speeding. (I'm usually pretty aware of the cars around me, but the one speeding ticket I got was early in the morning on a surface street too.)
I waited for the cop to tell what he thought I did wrong since I wasn't exactly sure myself. It turns out I was driving with only my running lights on. I told him I just woke up and wasn't even aware that I didn't have my headlights on. He said he wanted to make sure my headlights work and asked me to turn them on so he could see them. Weird, but I did it. He ran my drivers license, saw I wasn't wanted for anything, and let me go.
Later this morning, while I was in training, I was reading my email in the web interface my work uses and I had a sense of deja vu, except that it was deja deja vu. I remembered that once before I had a sense of deja vu while reading my work email in training before. Is that possible?
This was a pretty busy weekend for me. Friday night was a concert held by the Caledonian Society of Arizona featuring celtic/scottish music. It was all good, but my favorite group had to be The Mesa Caledonian Pipe Band. Apparently they placed 10th in a recent world piping competition in Scotland. When they played "Scotland the Brave" and "America the Beautiful" it raised goose bumps on my arms. (Of course I think "Scotland the Brave" is the best bag pipe song of all time so no real surprise there.)
Saturday I bought my first new car. It's a Hyundai Elantra. It's on the cheap side, and it either looks slick or cheap depending on which angle you look at it from, but it drives well and it's mine. I might put a picture of it up after the dealer gets done installing my extras. [It might be the only time most people see it clean, so I'd better put a picture up.]
Saturday night I ate at Pappadeaux. The food was very good, but I did learn a couple of things about the restaurant. They get very sloppy when they're busy. The oysters Pappadeaux and the creme brulee weren't quite prepared properly. There were far too many pieces of crab shells in the oyster entree and the creme brulee didn't set up properly. I also learned that the sauces Pappadeaux uses on their fish tend to be heavy and creamy. They don't match a good piece of fish very well. (For instance, the "lemon butter" sauce was very heavy and tasted more of paprika than butter. The Mahi Mahi would have been much better off with a lemon butter sauce of just lemon and butter [like I thought I was ordering!].) Anyway, don't let me scare you, the food was still good. Now I'll know in the future not to go there when they're busy, and order my fish without sauce.
Sunday I went to the Matsuri festival. I got to see the martial arts demonstrations that I missed last time, but I didn't see the taiko drummers this time; which is a shame since they were awesome. I also got a cool little Japanese style original painting. I haven't found a proper place for it yet, but I'm sure it won't take too long.
So I'm getting ready to buy a car on Saturday. I hate it. I've been researching cars today and trying to get my financing squared away ahead of time. Basically I've been getting very little work done because of it. Even worse, I haven't really written any more on my Mardi Gras page. (Hopefully it will be up soon, but I just noticed that I'm still writing about day one. We'll see what happens.)
Audience Member: "Doesn't smoking affect your taste buds?"
Anthony Bourdain: "That's why God made salt."
Wow, look at some of the things happening around town this weekend. For those into art there's "The Fountain Hills Great Fair" in Fountain Hills. If your art tastes lean towards the salacious, check out "Exotic Art 2002" ($3) in Downtown Phoenix. You'll also find art at "The Arizona Renaissance Festival" ($15) in Apache Junction, along with a good dose of entertainment. If you're into movies, go to The Monkey Show in Downtown Phoenix and see "90 Minutes of Paul Wilson" ($5). For those into other cultures, there's "Matsuri, A Festival of Japan" in Downtown Phoenix celebrating Japanese culture and "The Scottish Highland Games" ($11) at Mesa Community College celebrating Scottish culture.
Good thing most of these events are free since I'm pretty broke.
So I took my Japanese exam on Friday, which was pretty tough, and I think I did ok. I probably got a "B". Well, I was busy thinking about the three homework assignments I had to turn in for today, the make-up quiz I had to study for, and the make-up oral exam I also had to study for, and the week of class I'm going to miss next week, and I decided to drop my Japanese class. I should known better than to think I can handle a class that meets all week.
I'm back and I'm in one piece. I'm going to try and get my Mardi Gras experience written up as quickly as possible, but I've got a make up exam to take and a car that still doesn't work to take care of so we'll see what happens.
Only a few short days until I go to Mardi Gras! We just reserved our hotel room today. We're staying at the "W" French Quarter. I've seen the hotel before and it looks totally cool. Read about the amenities. Did I mention we got a good deal on the room?
Anyway, we'll see how well it stacks up to my favorite hotel in New Orleans, The Andrew Jackson.
The Japanese bookmarks worked so well I created a bookmark to search AudioGalaxy. Enjoy.
AG Search
Ok, now the bookmarks will look up selected text, but only if you're not in a frameset. Enjoy. (If you have no idea what this means, and you actually care, look for "Japanese Dictionary Bookmarks" parts 1 and 2.)
Improved Romanji bookmarks
Eng > Japanese (romanji)
Japanese > Eng (romanji)
Anthony Bourdain, author of "A Cook's Tour", "Kitchen Confidential", and other books, and star of "A Cook's Tour" the tv series is going to be at Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe on Monday 2/11 signing books. Too bad I'll be in New Orleans. Well, not really.
I think I'm going to make bookmarks that'll read text you've selected on the page and commence the searching when you click on them. Give me a couple of days.
I know you've been thinking to yourself that you wish you had a convenient way to look up Japanese words. Well here's your answer. If you drag one of the links below to your bookmarks or favorites, it will create a bookmark that you can click on and it will prompt you to enter a word and it'll display the results of your search in a new window. Totemo benri desu yo!
Romanji bookmarks
Eng > Japanese (romanji)
Japanese > Eng (romanji)
Kana bookmarks (IE only)
Eng > Japanese (kana)
Japanese > Eng (kana)
So now that I actually own my car, commence the car repairs! I was headed to an appointment on Saturday when my car started making a very loud tapping noise. I exited the freeway immediately and made my way to a Circle K. Once I was there I discovered that I didn't have any oil. My oil pressure sensor has been going bad and it's been giving me false alerts for a couple of months now so I didn't pay it much attention. (The last time I got my oil changed and it went off I checked my oil level, and it was full so I decided to disregard it.) Mistake. It turns out that oil pressure sensor is loose, the cause of my oil leak, and caused all of my oil to leak out. I filled the car up with oil at Circle K, but the knocking noise wasn't going away. I've had a friend look at it, and I've been reading up on it myself, and we've both come to the same conclusion; it's a connecting rod. If it goes I'm in deep shit and might as well just buy a new car. If I get it fixed before it goes it's going to still cost me a nice sum of money. It makes me wonder what's worse, car payments or repair bills.
So here's a list of the other things, besides the connecting rod, I need to get fixed as time allows: get the alignment straightened, get a new oil pressure sensor to fix oil leak, get a new hose to fix a coolant leak, new brakes, and a new timing belt.
I woke up 5 this morning and studied for my kanji test. I'm pretty sure I aced my kanji test. I need to ace the tests since I haven't turned in about three assignments and failed a quiz. (They didn't allow much time for review of the previous semester and you'd be surprised how much you can forget in a month.)
Nihongo wa totemo muzukashii desu. = Japanese is very difficult.
I stalk, hungry.
I catch a glimpse of something promising straight ahead. Quickly, but nonchalantly, I investigate. I see the vultures are already circling and taking their share.
Sensitive to my appetite and not much else I rush forward and indiscriminately gorge. (Chewing is only an option.)
Mmmm... Sated.
What was it that I just devoured?
I'm not really sure...
It's hard to tell when you eat it whole...
I think it was white chocolate cheesecake.
I've really got to start bringing snacks to work. I think that cheesecake was stale.
Taken from an email I received today.
"Heard on the radio this am - the sportscaster for the radio station is calling in from New Orleans this a.m. He's there in prep for the Super Bowl. Anyway... the regular talk hosts asked him what he thought of New Orleans and he said, 'First impression: it's dirty. After spending the day walking around, my revised impression is: it's filthy dirty.'
The female host asked him if he was in the French Quarter yet and the guy said, 'That's what I'm talking about! It's filthy dirty and the people are drunk at 8am and the women are drunk and topless by lunch!'"
I can't wait.
I normally hate cheesy personality tests and I've never understood people who display the results all over their site,
but I saw one called Which "Fight Club" character are you?
and had to take it. I took it and it told me, "You are Jack." (Pretty ironic considering my username.)
When I read the description for Jack I was like, "What the f*@#?! How the hell did it choose
that for me?" I hit the back button and realized I didn't answer a couple of questions (since
the default answer is "Not Sure" I guess that could explain the Jack thing). [If you want to
know why I didn't notice that I didn't answer all the questions the first time, it's because I
was on the phone while I was taking the test.]
After I submitted again it said, "You are Bob." (Once again ironic considering all my other usernames.) So after much useless explanation I give you Bob.
All I have to say is, "Heh."
I saw "Brotherhood of the Wolf" over the weekend and thought it was quite an enjoyable movie. It was different from normal US films. Hell, it was different from French films. It was the unlikely combination of a beautiful mystery period piece, cheesy monster movie, and a good ol' kung fu flick. There were parts of the plot that were unbelievable (like the reality of the beast) and there were special effects that weren't very good (once again, the beast), but it was beautiful movie to look at and fun to watch.
One of my favorite scenes is the very beginning when two mysterious strangers are riding through the countryside in the middle of a downpour, and stop to investigate why about six men are beating up an old man. It quickly becomes obvious that it's going to become a fight and only one of the travelers takes on the six. The fight sequence is beautifully directed with an occasion slow motion shot as the six men are thrown around by the one stranger in the rain. (The camera tricks, used throughout the movie, could be annoying to some, but I didn't find that they bothered me.) I also found the sound to be very good during that scene with the patter of the rain and the over-emphasized thuds as the stranger jumps off of his horse and plants the base of his staff in the ground.
Another high point is that the movie has Monica Bellucci, who is easily one of the most beautiful women around. Anyway, if you look at the movie as entertainment, it's pretty damn good.
I've eaten some very good Italian meals, but the one I had at Tomaso's in Phoenix ranks as one of the two best from beginning to end. (The other, if you're curious, was the meal I had at Bacco on my last trip to New Orleans.)
We started with a caesar salad, which was pretty good, and an order of crab cakes, which were also pretty good. The item that was unexpected and outstanding was the herb salad that came with the crab cakes. It was very simple, consisting of baby herbs, diced tomatoes, and a vinaigrette. The herbs had a peppery and nutty taste to them and the diced tomatoes soaked up the flavor from the vinaigrette.
Next was my entree, poached salmon with pine nuts, walnuts, and figs in a balsamic vinegar reduction. There were also garlic mashed potatoes and a cheese thing wrapped up in puff pastry and baked. The salmon was perfectly cooked and only required a little pressure with a fork to come apart. The accompanying balsamic reduction had a great flavor that went well with the salmon and everything else on the plate. The nuts provided a nice contrasting texture to the salmon which just melted in your mouth and the figs were delicious with the potatoes and the baked cheese pastry thing.
Finally, we had three different desserts to try: canolli, sorbetti, and creme brulee. The canolli was too sweet for me and the creme brulee wasn't sweet enough. The sorbetti however was outstanding. The great combination of sweet and tart sorbets made me a little envious that I couldn't devour the dessert all by myself. Oh well, at least it's useful information for next time.
The meal had some low points, but the worst you could say was that something was ok. Everything taken into account though and it was an excellent meal.
[On a side note, according to Tiramisu Ratings: Arizona Tomaso's has a pretty good tiramisu.]
I haven't made it to the last three shows I was going to go to. I'd like to think it's just
because there haven't really been any djs around recently that I've really wanted to see.
I swear one of these days I'll actually make it to a show though. I can't let this become a
habit.
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I finally watched the Nine Inch Nails DVD "And All That Could Have Been" from beginning to end. It was quite impressive, but it really isn't as good as going to a NIN show. There's something to be said for the process of standing in line, sitting in your chair for an hour for the show to start, putting up with the opening act, and sitting in your chair again while they set up the stage. It all serves to build your anticipation and by the time the lights go down and the thrumming of the music starts, you've been primed. Sitting at home just doesn't provide the same feeling. Also at a show you don't have different camera angles. I'm not saying I would have wanted the DVD to just display the same stationary camera position, but one of the best parts of the DVD is when the music slows down and the camera sits still to let you enjoy the music.
Anyway, the DVD is really as close as you'll get to the concert experience and a must for any NIN fan. (Who else but a fan would really want to watch it anyway though?)
Well, it looks like waking up early for JPN102 hasn't been nearly as harrowing an experience as I'd expected. I wake up ok and I actually seem to have a little more energy during the day. It looks like me and the class were meant to be.
The last two shows I was planning on going to, I decided not to at the last minute. Ok, this time I'm really going. Tomorrow is Acid Reign V, and hopefully I actually make it there.
Did I mention I'm going to Mardi Gras this year? It's been a goal of mine for quite some time to go to Mardi Gras and now I am. I can't wait. Woo hoo!!
"Life has been a nightmare.
My soul is fractured to the bone.
If I must be lonely,
I think I'd rather be alone."
-Stabbing Westward "Save Yourself"
Today I just got the Nine Inch Nails concert DVD "And All That Could Have Been". I haven't had a chance to watch the entire thing, or play with the extras, but I did get to see about half of it at lunch. It's a pretty damn good representation of a NIN concert in all of it's fury, angst, and beauty. I'd definitely recommend it for NIN fans. (If you've never listened to NIN before, I'd recommend listening to "The Fragile", it might a fan out of you.)
It looks like Noah's finally decided to update the Teknoslut site [link removed because it's now a porn site]. Now you can get information about your favorite crew's electronic music events (and it looks like they have some good ones planned).
[Oh yeah, now you can actually read the site in Netscape. Nice.]
Something I've thought about for a while, and today is the perfect example, is the fact that my daily update thing can get long when I update a lot on the same day, and it's hard to tell when something new has been added. Starting tomorrow, the newest updates will always appear on top. Hopefully this won't cause any more confusion than if I didn't do anything about it at all. We'll see how it works out.
It's been far too long since I've been to a show. Well, tonight I'm going to remedy that. Tonight is Marques Wyatt and Raul Reina @ Freedom. It should be a fun house night. (I might smoke a cigar too. We'll see.)
Tuesday night I went to my JPN102 night class for the first time and I learned I didn't like the instructor. His pronunciation is bad and his handwriting is even worse. I really wanted to take JPN102, but I didn't think I could do it with that instructor so I decided to switch into the morning class, which meets Monday thru Friday and starts at 7:50 in the morning. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with waking up early every morning. I've had two days of morning class and it hasn't been too bad. I hope I can survive 5 months of this.
"I know you.
I know you've seen her.
She's a sad tomato.
She's three miles of bad road."
- REM "Crush With Eyeliner"
Here are some restaurants that have been making me happy lately and deserve plugs. I've been eating at Viva Maria @ 32nd St. & Thomas in Phoenix at least once a week since the first time I was taken there. Sonoran-Mexican food doesn't get much better. It's About Time @ Guadalupe & Alma School in Mesa has been providing me with some tasty soul and Louisiana cooking which has been especially appreciated since Down Home Soul Food hasn't been around for months. Finally, Takamatsu @ 43rd Ave. & Dunlap in Phoenix is the only Korean restaurant I know of on the west side of Phoenix. Their Korean food is great so I hope they're around for a long time.
Last night I went to The Monkey Show to watch "Punk James". What an interesting time. The Monkey Show is a micro-cinema, with seating for about 34, in downtown Phoenix which specializes in independent film. "Punk James" was a movie shot in Phoenix by Jeff Cochran, who also runs the theater. I can't say the movie had much in the way of production value, acting, or story, but it was an experience. (It reminded me of "Coven" and if by some weird stroke of luck you've seen that movie or the documentary "American Movie: The Making of Northwestern" which followed Mark Borchardt's, the director of "Coven", quest to finish his movie "Northwestern", then you know what I'm talking about.) Both the theater and the movie are Phoenix oddities, and Phoenix doesn't have enough oddities so I would recommend checking them out. I know I'll be at The Monkey Show next weekend for the showing of "Independent Exposure".
Last night I also had a chance to smoke a cigar. I gave the honors to a Padron Anniversary maduro "Exclusivo". You can read about it on the cigars page.
I thought I would never actually get around to writing about my experience at Restaurant Hapa.
We had plans earlier in the night, so our reservations were for 9:30 New Year's Eve. Rather late, but there was a lot of snacking going on so it wasn't bad. We got there on time, but we didn't get seated for a while. To apologize the hostess gave us a glass of champagne on the house. The champagne was surprisingly good. We waited some more, and still were not seated. That's when the hostess brought out a little snacky item. It was stack of minced raw tuna and raw salmon on little taro crisps. Those weren't too bad for raw fish.
We eventually got seated around 10:15 or so. I tried to look at the menu, but my attention was immediately drawn to the tasting menu for two and I couldn't really concentrate enough to read after that. We agreed that's what we'd order, and I wondered if we'd live through all six courses (previously four courses were the most I'd ever eaten at a restaurant).
The first course was goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms (deep fried) served with some sort of spicy Indian flavored vegetables. The squash blossoms were pretty good by themselves, but I found them lacking. When they were eaten with the vegetables, they were great. It allowed you to enjoy the depth of the Indian spiced vegetables, while utilizing the goat cheese to cool your palate and enhance the flavor. There was also a trio of oysters prepared three different ways: baked, poached, and raw. The baked oyster had a very good flavor, the poached one was ok, and the raw one was horrible. My date said, "It tastes like the sea smells." Sounds accurate to me.
The second course had foie gras served two ways: regular and seared. I never expected to try foie gras in my lifetime knowing what it actually is, but the night was special so I decided to give it a try. To my surprise foie gras didn't taste like liver. Of course the seared one tasted like a big wad of cooked fat, but it didn't taste like liver. I didn't care for it though. The regular one was on a bit of toast, and when I ate it it just tasted like the toast was very nicely buttered. It wasn't gross, but I think if I want to taste buttered toast I'll just butter my toast. The other item was a mushroom soup with mushroom ravioli. Let's say I don't appreciate the "earthy" taste of mushrooms so I didn't enjoy the soup.
The third course was decidedly more Asian. It was tempura tuna sashimi and a soup with uni, crab, and lobster served in a sea urchin shell. The tempura tuna sashimi was unusual. The tempura was extremely light and the tuna just had a very slight cooked edge. I'm not a big fan of raw meat, so the slight cooked edge provided me with enough cooked meat flavor to make it decent. The soup was very impressive. I don't know what they put in the cream sauce, but it was great. I'd never tasted uni before, so I tried it straight and let me say with authority that it tastes like crap. Luckily the uni could be scooped out and easily avoided.
The fourth course was a raspberry and ginger sorbet. It was crisp and cooling. Just the thing to refresh tired tastebuds, and we had been putting them through a lot that night.
The fifth course was veal with sweetbreads and mashed potatoes and a squab with seared foie gras. As much as I disagree with veal in principle I tried it and damn it if it wasn't a great piece of tender meat with a nice char crust. The sweetbread wasn't bad either. It was actually a good thing I didn't know what it was before I ate it, otherwise I probably wouldn't have tried it. (I wish I knew exactly which part of the animal that was that we were eating just for curiosity's sake though.) The squab was a tough little bird. I also found out that squab has a liver aftertaste. Doesn't look like I'll be eating squab again any time soon.
The final course: dessert. They called it a "dim sum of desserts"; it just meant there were a lot of choices served in bamboo steamers. I do have to admit that I liked the presentation. On to the desserts. There was two types of homemade ice cream: toffee and chocolate. The toffee ice cream was pretty good; creamy in a way only homemade ice cream can be. (I tried the chocolate ice cream, but I don't like chocolate ice cream so it's not a big surprise that I didn't like it.) There was a "tropical" tapioca. I think someone forgot to put the "tropical" in it, so it just tasted like tapioca. There where homemade peanut butter cups. Those were pretty tasty. Finally there was a coconut creme brulee, topped with caramelized bananas, and coconut ice cream. The creme brulee was good, but not as good as the coconut creme brulee at Buster's in Flagstaff. The coconut ice cream was also good, but I expected it to taste like Thai coconut ice cream and it didn't. There was sort of a light, fragrant quality about it that reminded me of desserts that contain rose water. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have the preconceived notion as to what it would taste like.
Overall I enjoyed Restaurant Hapa, but after writing my review I wonder if it was more for the discovery than the actual food. I can tell you that I will go back to Restaurant Hapa sometime hopefully in the near future.
Today is the beginning of Anthony Bourdain's Food Network series, "A Cook's Tour". Anthony Bourdain travels the world sampling exotic fair, hopefully without it killing him (the trip, not the food). It should be fun.
Anthony Bourdain also wrote a book based on the series called "A Cook's Tour". I haven't read it yet, but I don't think watching the series will ruin the reading experience. Anthony has written a couple of books including, one of my favorites, "Kitchen Confidential" which is about chefs, restaurants, food, and all sorts of things you didn't want to know about the people who prepare your food.
Yesterday was a pretty good day. Especially since it was based on chance. I had an amazing lunch at Pappadeaux (which I've never been to before), smoked two really good cigars (that I've never had before), and saw a really good movie on IFC, "The Lover" (which I'd never heard of before).
Pappadeaux is a Louisiana style seafood house that is kind of on the expensive side, but very tasty. We had the Oysters Pappadeaux, which consisted of oysters, crab meat, spinach, and hollandaise sauce all baked together to form one outstanding combination. All of the ingredients were good by themselves, but it was when you had them all together (with a squirt of lemon) that they were truly incredible. For an entree, I had the grilled Mahi Mahi with dirty rice. The Mahi Mahi was excellent with a steaky texture, but the dirty rice was too dry for my tastes. Finally we had a excellent creme brulee for dessert. (I can't get enough of good creme brulee and was tempted to order two more servings.)
The cigar shop I stopped at yesterday was Stag Tobacconists. The last time I went there to buy cigars I was in high school and didn't know the first thing about cigars. Well I was surprised at the selection they now have. They carry my all-time favorite cigar, the Ashton Aged Maduro "No. 20", and my second all-time favorite cigar, the Padron 1964 Anniversary "Principe". I also found a couple of cigars that I've been dying to try. It looks like the next couple of weeks will be good cigar weeks for me. : )
Finally, The Independent Film Channel (IFC) demonstrates why it's the best channel on cable. Where else on cable can you find a someplace that will play "King of New York" commercial free and uncensored? Not only that, but they play films that you've never heard of that totally suck you in. Once I almost missed work because they were showing "Double Happiness" one morning. (Actually, there were quite a few times I almost missed work because of a movie they were playing.) Last night they were playing "King of New York" (a great early Christopher Walken movie) followed by "L' Amant" ("The Lover"). "The Lover" isn't a plot based movie, but a study of the two main characters, a 15 year old French girl and her 32 year old Chinese aristocrat lover. It was interesting watching the interactions between the two, everything from awkwardness, to passion, to disturbing, but hardly loving. Add to it the setting of 1929 French Colonial Vietnam and you have a very interesting and beautifully executed movie. I highly recommend it, even though it's not the sort of movie I normally watch, but it's not for the faint of heart. There is nudity, some very graphic sex scenes, and a very young looking female protagonist. (The director was French. What do you expect?)
Needless to say that I haven't written about my great experience at Restaurant Hapa. I was also reminded that I haven't finished my page for my most recent New Orleans trip. Actually, I still haven't finished the page for my Europe trip either. The only thing that has been updated often has been the cigar page. I'm not sure what that says about me.
Speaking of the cigar page, I just smoked a La Perla Habana the other night. I had it in my makeshift humidor for about two months. When I took it out of it's plastic sleeve last night I knew it had been over humidified. The poor thing felt spongy, but I was willing to give it a try anyway. Of course you can read about how it was on the cigar page.
Anyway, it looks like a busy weekend so I doubt I'll get time to write anything, but at least I'm working on putting my photos together from my New Orleans trip. It's a start.
I've been a little busy lately. Last weekend I went up to Flagstaff and had a great time. New Year's Eve I had reservations at Restaurant Hapa. That was truly an interesting food experience. We had a six course meal for two and the menu was full of things I have had yet to try. Hopefully I'll get around to writing about it tonight at home.
