Archive for the ‘movies’ Tag
Finally saw Chef.
Now, looking for Spanish Lake
And Citizen Four.
Name: Hardy’s Bankside Rosé
Type: rosé wine
Venue: house
Review/notes: Everything I read about Chef used the term “food porn,” and the treats did look good but not obscene…I may not be able to fully define “food porn” but I know it when I see it (a perfect example being Big Night). Still a very pleasant little road trip/family picture, mind.
I snagged the suggestion from the same blog that, yesterday, pitched Spanish Lake — a documentary about a Saint Louis suburban neighbourhood where that author spent some of her teen years and which was just a few miles from my home in Glasgow Village. Lago was the place I formulated my theory that the housing built cheap but superficially “nice” was destined to become a slum in ten-to-fifteen years time; I’ve since watched it happen all over the States, but think it might be fairly satisfying to see it confirmed,here in particular, on celluloid. Don’t get me wrong, I loved St Louis (and still do); but it treated me worse than even I deserved at the time.
The third mention in the haiku regarded a documentary about the Snowden affair, most of it shot in the days either side of him being revealed as Wikileaks’ most famous contributor. Bravery and naïvety in this one, shit architecture and city planning in another, and tasty treats (not least of which include Sofia Vergara and Scarlett Johansson, what I might like to think of as bread for the ideal Cuban sandwich) in the other.
Wine was half its normal price. Good, but only worth 1/3 its normal price.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Re-watched Hard Day’s Night.
“God knows what you’ve unleashed on
the unsuspecting South.”
Name: Thatcher’s Katy
Type: cider
Venue: house
Review/notes: Another beautiful summer afternoon enjoying the garden with a cider. Katy is a single variety cider and evokes biting into a crisp, cool, and tart apple: sweet but not like treacle and with a distinct malic acid bitter aftertaste.
Hard Day’s Night is 50 years old this year. It’ll be wine, women, and song once you get a taste for it.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
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Spotted a sign on the street that the bar upstairs is open. Couldn’t resist, so dove in and found myself in a 100 year old film palace. They even have a book published with month by month entries of every picture that has screened there. Marvelous, and the small bar, playing nothing but girl groups on the tannoy during my visit, is very good as well. Baby, it’s you.
Catch-a Twenty-two.
Coulda been a contender.
You talkin’ to me?
Name: Negro Modelo
Type: lager
Venue: Phoenix Picture House, Oxford
Review/notes: Popped in for a lunch beer, and a Modelo seemed perfect with the sun pouring through the sky lights.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
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“Bad Day At Black Rock.”
“History of Violence.”
Good day for movies.
Name: Newcastle Brown
Type: brown ale
Venue: house
Review/notes: An early encounter whilst ordering a Newcastle Brown just after moving to England: “Go on, then, mate…say it,” I was taunted. “Say what?” I asked. “You know…’gis a broon!'” I paused for a moment then said, “I’m not a Geordie…I said I am from Georgia.” I think they were very, very drunk, and I hurried along to join them.
Last day of the holiday weekend and we called an early day to catch up on movies we recorded over the winter. There were a couple of crackers, too, noted above. We also caught Attack the Block and Darjeeling Limited this weekend–all of them surprisingly good.
[DT =Daily Tipple, explained in DT #000 here]
Monthly consolidations/compilations: January
February
March
A former friend of mine had a genetic condition known as 47.XYY in which an extra Y-chromosome exists (thus the designation 47 as opposed to 46, the normal number of chromosomes). This may or may not have contributed to his sociopathy, overt racism, his Aspergers-like lack of empathy for others, criminal tendancies, violence and, worst of all, his dreadful table manners. He eventually found professional outlets for these by earning a law degree and becoming a slumlord in Athens, Georgia (although on several occasions he has had major brushes with the law losing his license to practice due to defrauding a vulnerable client and being investigated for threats against a District Attorney).
I thought of this turd while watching the wonderfully uplifting documentary, Mission to Lars, about a pair of siblings taking their brother with Fragile X (a genetic condition with much more severe symptoms) on a trip to see his hero Lars Ulrich (the drummer for Metallica). The herculean efforts just in transporting Tom, the focus of the film, to the States from here are worth the entire time spent watching the film and the tension builds to an unexpected pay-off albeit it precisely what was promised from the start. It avoids most of the obvious clichés and shatters some stereotypes. For instance, yes, the fans ALL throw the two-fingered rock horns but then Lars comes out looking like Disco Stu without the bling. A very pleasant show.
I had already seen ‘8 Men Out’ but it sort of goes with the Chicago reference
The Cubs ownership let me down this year, and a lot of inertia has to be shifted for me to get behind the Mets (again) as my National League team (I split my AL energies, these last few years, on the Sox–White and Red). Left without a good reason to seek out baseball broadcasts this year and with the weather too shitty to hit the cricket grounds, baseball movies seemed worth a go. I watched Moneyball (you can find your own movie link, this one goes to an article) on the flights home from Germany and found it a nice start to the Baseball Film Festival…based on a former Met from my last time around supporting the club and centered around the A’s (who along with the Tigers were my childhood American League favourites). The hook was set.
Somehow I never got around to Bang The Drum Slowly, although Moriarty and De Niro are a couple of my favourites. It is a bit dated, though not as bad as M*A*S*H; not only a little too sentimental it has a lot of the anti-hero AND baseball clichés you might predict. Still, De Niro’s Georgia accent is outstanding. If you like the movie, read the book (linked above); if you read the book already you might be a bit disappointed with the film.
Batting third was Bull Durham, which somehow eluded me despite my abiding love of minor league ball and the inanity surrounding it. I think I was avoiding anything that required Kevin Costner to work hard at acting, but this wasn’t it and I should have seen it years ago. Quite a pleasant bit of fluff.
Clean-up was Pride of the Yankees, which I’ve seen before and I get annoyed that every time the “luckiest man in the world” speech comes around it isn’t as moving nor as funny as almost every impression of it I have ever heard (and EVERY American over 30-years-old has a version of it, usually vibrating their cheek or larynx with a hand to simulate the Yankee Stadium echo…ask one of ’em to do Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech, if you don’t believe me, but don’t tell them why).
And pitching, of course was Dock Ellis. If you haven’t heard of him, he threw a perfect game on acid. Robin Williams tells the story well enough in two minutes here, but the better film is this little documentary, online, called Dock Ellis and the LSD No-No (and still it is only 5 minutes). I’ve done some amazing things on psychedelics under all sorts of stresses, but to perform at a top, professional level in any athletic endeavour whilst tripping your ass off is…if I need to explain it, you’ll never understand.
Short list of other good Baseball Movies worth a look:
‘Eight Men Out,’ John Sayles on the Black Sox Scandal
’61*,’ an epic journey to break one of the great records
‘Damn Yankees,’ ’cause whatever Lola wants…
‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ for the World Series scene in the day room
‘Ken Burns’ Baseball,’ as the ultimate documentary on the subject
and, the one that got away: ‘Cobb,’ because Tommy Lee Jones as The Georgia Peach has got to be worth a look.
The Endless British Pub Crawl 
A former friend of mine had a genetic condition known as 47.XYY in which an extra Y-chromosome exists (thus the designation 47 as opposed to 46, the normal number of chromosomes). This may or may not have contributed to his sociopathy, overt racism, his Aspergers-like lack of empathy for others, criminal tendancies, violence and, worst of all, his dreadful table manners. He eventually found professional outlets for these by earning a law degree and becoming a slumlord in Athens, Georgia (although on several occasions he has had major brushes with the law losing his license to practice due to defrauding a vulnerable client and being investigated for threats against a District Attorney).
I thought of this turd while watching the wonderfully uplifting documentary, Mission to Lars, about a pair of siblings taking their brother with Fragile X (a genetic condition with much more severe symptoms) on a trip to see his hero Lars Ulrich (the drummer for Metallica). The herculean efforts just in transporting Tom, the focus of the film, to the States from here are worth the entire time spent watching the film and the tension builds to an unexpected pay-off albeit it precisely what was promised from the start. It avoids most of the obvious clichés and shatters some stereotypes. For instance, yes, the fans ALL throw the two-fingered rock horns but then Lars comes out looking like Disco Stu without the bling. A very pleasant show.
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