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United States, North Carolina, Carrboro, English, Paul, Male, 56-60, All Music, All Food.

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Saturday, December 04, 2004

Here’s A Picture for Leah   It’s half a pork loin submerged in a brine of (mostly) sugar, kosher salt, bay leaves, cracked pepper, smashed garlic, and oregano. Tomorrow I’ll roast it up, crisping the fat under the broiler first, then cut thin slices to be served on fresh Saigon baguettes. Chief Kerik, please don’t shoot me 42 times just because my menu has Cuban pork and Vietnamese bread! I didn’t make this eclectic plan to irk you with Communist food. They just sounded good together. Honest.   4:59:27 PM    comment []

Celebration   Was just reminded that it is the anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death on Dec. 4, 1993. I didn’t hear about it until the 7th, but I do remember exactly where I was – a great neighborhood bar called The Red Baron at one time, but by then it was Dave’s Seafood. I supplied them with smoked salmon for years and got mine for free. It was a real good deal-o, out on a highway, rollin’ a wheel-o.   But my celebration on this day is purely coincidental. It was today, Dec. 4, 1999 that I smoked my last cigarette. I enjoyed it thoroughly and haven’t wanted one since. Five years is that magic number upon which they say your lungs are repaired to the same point as a non-smoker. Not sure I believe that, but it makes quitting a more worthwhile goal so I encourage the propagation of it even if it is a myth.   It was a day like today, temperature in the low 50s and lots of sunshine, a beautiful late autumn day. I smoked my last cigarette with Tania, a pleasant young African American woman who wore brightly colored clothes and told off-color jokes. We chatted, but I didn’t tell her or anyone that I was quitting for two weeks. It was quarter to four, just as it is now. I walked to my car and spent the whole weekend on the sofa, getting up only to light incense (the “burn anything else” approach) and take tiny sips of Remy Martin. Apparently that was the mojo I needed.     3:48:01 PM    comment []

A Package For Movie Lovers Who Speak In Tongues   (linked to Netflix when they have it, to ImDB in italics when not)   There are many kinds of books. There are bedroom books, the ones you read sitting up in bed. There are office books, references that you’ll use to work or study. There are coffee table books, oversized with glossy pages, to page through during short moments of rest or to entertain your guests. Then there are books for the crapper.   Never Coming To A Theater Near You, by film critic Kenneth Turan, is one of those. That is not to denigrate it in any way. I anticipated its arrival ever since I heard Mr. Turan plug it on NPR’s Morning Edition a couple of months ago. The only reason I didn’t get it until now is that I used the super-saver shipping at Amazon and I didn’t reach the $25 minimum until I ordered another book (Culinaria Germany, one for the coffee table). For some reason, my order of Stan Ridgway’s Snakebite: Blacktop Ballads & Fugitive Songs didn’t qualify. I checked my order status a couple weeks back and found out that availability of the Culinaria book had pushed my estimated delivery date back to February, 2005!   I could wait. No problem. However, without any intervention on my part, Amazon decided to ship the available items last week. The Ridgway (vocalist alumni of 80s band Wall Of Voodoo) arrived yesterday, just in time for me to savor the burnout humor of it all on a day that the imminent sellout of my GBD division to the Chinese hit the mainstream press. It could be worse. I might find myself driving down a freeway in a stolen car loaded with drugs, as Stan relates, 115mph on a date with destiny to crash into my house, in King For A Day. That would really suck.   I still had the option of sitting on my own throne, reading Never Coming To A Theater Near You since it arrived on Wednesday. It is perfect bathroom reading. Each review is short and concise, rarely exceeding a page and a half. Without getting into the physics of it all, this gives one the opportunity to peacefully read a review of two, maybe more, depending on the amount of fiber in one’s diet.   Now, with all the introductory crap out of the way, this installment of linked movies concentrates on Turan’s selection of foreign films. Not surprisingly, the Netflix inventory scored well once again, missing on only 4 out of 43! These were more difficult to track down than the English language films because, well, the titles are frequently in foreign languages and are not always translated the same. If you see a discrepancy between Turan’s listing and the title that pops up at Netflix, it is because of this.       After Life Aimee & Jaguar Un Air de Famille Autumn Tale The Blue Kite Celebration The Circle Un Coeur en Hiver Cronos Cure The Dinner Game Divided We Fall The Dreamlife of Angels Dry Cleaning Eat Drink Man Woman The Fast Runner How I Killed My Father Intacto In The Mood For Love Italian for Beginners Lamerica Leolo Lamumba Ma Vie en Rose Monsoon Wedding Nowhere in Africa Prisoner of the Mountains La Promesse Read My Lips Red Russian Ark A Self-Made Hero A Single Girl Spirited Away The Terrorist Time of Favor Time Out Tito and Me Together The Town Is Quiet The Vertical Ray Of The Sun Y Tu Mama Tambien Yi Yi     9:43:23 AM    comment []