Sideways
Adrienne and I saw
Sideways today. Mom and Dad had told us we had to see it and that, "we wouldn't believe how these people talked about wine". Sadly, not only do we believe it, we could've have written the stuff that came out of Paul Giamatti's mouth. When they first met Sandra Oh and she offers up some Cabernet Franc, I'm thinking "Cab Franc sucks". Then Paul Giamatti's character rags on it ... I died.
When the four of them were out to dinner for the first time and they kept offering up really good wines (Sea Smoke, Kistler...) I just kept thinking, "That's $500 just in wine they ordered, how the hell are they going to pay for that?" Coincidentally, the
Sea Smoke Botella Pinot Noir they poured was the same wine Adrienne and I had when were were down in Santa Maria in September. If you find that wine you should buy it...
Also, Virginia Madsen's character worked at the
Hitching Post. I haven't eaten there but we do have some of their wine.
I could tell the movie was filmed in 2003 (not a great stretch since it was released in 2004) because toward the end of the film when they pulled into the Unocal Station, you could see the Nascar tie-in with Unocal was still going on. That ended at the end of 2003.
It was a fun movie and fun to see places we've been. I can't believe I sound as pretentious as Paul Giamatti's character...
Year in review
Raise your hand if you owned
any of these stocks in the past year.
Bowls
My righteous indignation at Cal being left out of the
Rose Bowl took a 45 - 31 hit yesterday at the Holiday Bowl. What the f*ck are they doing losing to Texas Tech? I hate teams from Texas. Cal still deserved to go to the Rose Bowl, but it's a little harder to get worked up about it today. I still have $50 on Michigan (Go Blue!) to beat Texas and their whiny, *ssh*le coach Mack Brown.
Sonoma Visit
Adrienne and I drove up to Sonoma yesterday. We started out at
Acacia Vineyard where we tasted many Pinot Noirs. You can often find their wine at Cost Plus or Costco for $15 or so. One of the better values you can buy..
We then drove into Sonoma and stopped at
Sonoma Sausage. They were handing out samples -- Yummmmm. Our plan was to head to the
Vella Cheese Company after that, so we asked him what kind of sausage would be good to have with cheese. He asked us what kind of cheese we were buying and we looked at him with a blank look on our faces. He suggested we buy the cheese first and come back. So we headed to Vella Cheese and bought
Mezzo Secco and a Daisy Cheddar. We then trooped back to Sonoma Sausage where he suggested we pair that with a North Country Polish Sausage and a Hawaiian Portugese Brand Sausage.
Toyota Highlander
Adrienne and I test drove a
4x4 V6 Toyota Highlander Limited yesterday. It's based on the Camry platform and drives really nice. This one had 3rd row seating to carry 7 (although I'd hate to be one of the people sitting in the back row). We'd like to get something to drive up and down CA in that has more room than
Adrienne's car. Although if I want it quickly, I think I need to just go out and wreck
mine.
Bad Movies
I picked up today's
San Francisco Chronicle and saw they reviewed two movies I wanted to (or use to want to) see. Mick LaSalle had this to say about "Beyond the Sea":
"Beyond the Sea is jaw-droppingly awful, a mis-begotten and ill-conceived vanity project, in which Spacey takes an amazing showbiz story and kills it dead."
OUCH! I had wondered if Spacey would be able to pull off the role. He seemed too old to me, but he is a great actor. Here's what Mr. LaSalle had to say:
"He's wrong in the role in every possible way. In a black toupee, he looks nothing like Darin and more like a middle-aged woman." He continues, "Spacey sings the Darin songbook himself, and he's a good singer, in the sense that on any given night, he'd probably win a Karaoke contest."
Then I get to Peter Hartlaub
review of "Darkness". After reading his review, "Beyond the Sea" looks like a must see compared to this movie. Here's what he has to say about "Darkness":
"Imagine if some deranged janitor was sweeping up the cutting-room floor of "The Others" and decided to pick up all the snippets of discarded footage and patch the scenes together. In random order." and, "It's unoriginal, frequently incomprehensible and cheaply made, and moviegoers should avoid theaters that show this film just to eliminate the chance of walking in accidentally."
So, if you were thinking about either of those movies, you may want to save yourself the $10.00.
Love Actually
Adrienne and I rented
Love Actually on DVD last night. We really enjoyed it. This morning I was watching it again with commentary from the director and some of the stars. The opening shot of the movie is people greeting each other at Heathrow Airport. According to the director they had set up a hidden camera at the airport and when they got a shot they really liked they would send runners to get people to sign releases. Does anybody else remember the (I think it was a) Saturday night Live episode where Paul Simon (I think) performed "Homeward Bound" and they had a film accompanying it that had people greeting each other at a train station. Or am I just smoking
crack?
Healthy Holidays
From the American Heart Association comes
10 Heartwarming Ideas for the Holidays. I think they're out of touch on number 10 though, "Bake cookies with the family, then give them away." Yeah, like I won't eat 8 pounds of dough while I'm making the cookies...
Silver Bells
A friend and I were discussing the origins of various Christmas songs. One of my favorites has always been "Silver Bells" -- Words & Music by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, 1950 (who also wrote among other pieces "Que Sera Sera" and "Tammy"). According to
this article, it was done for the movie "
The Lemon Drop Kid" and performed by
Bob Hope and
Marilyn Maxwell.
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air
There's a feeling
of Christmas
Children laughing
People passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on ev'ry street corner you'll hear
Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day
Strings of street lights
Even stop lights
Blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush
home with their treasures
Hear the snow crunch
See the kids bunch
This is Santa's big scene
And above all this bustle
You'll hear
Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them sing
Soon it will be Christmas day
Rumsfeld feels grief to "core"
According to this article,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that U.S. casualties in Iraq affected him profoundly and that,
their grief is something I feel to my core". Sorry, I just don't believe it. He's now lying about feeling grief to try and save his job. More interesting in the article though is his take on the future of Iraq:
"He was less upbeat about Iraq, saying that "ultimately," Iraqis would have to protect themselves. "It's their country," he said."
Funny, we've been acting like it's our country for awhile now...
Buy Blue
Here's a website that provides you information on who gave what to what political party this last election cycle. For instance, before you head down to Walmart you might want to know that of the $2 million they contributed last election, 80% went to Republicans. On the opposite end,
Barnes and Noble gave 98% of their $103K they contributed to Democrats. Mark Morford wrote an excellent
article about this in today's SF Chronicle.
BJ and the Bear
I was watching
VH1's "I Love the 70's" last night and they were talking about
BJ and the Bear. I thought, "I loved BJ and the Bear". And then it dawned on me, I was a dork in high school. One of the commentators was saying, "Think about it. Guy, alone on the road with a chimp. How disturbing is the phrase, "BJ and the Bear"?
They went on to talk about
CB Radios and showed an old clip of some lady sitting at her CB radio at home going, "breaker, breaker, Helen I hear you have a great apple pie recipe." Then they had
Steven Weber talking about how he put up an 8ft whip antenna for his CB radio outside his bedroom window so he could be one moron on a CB radio talking to other morons on CB radios. I died.
Father Christmas
In the spirit of the season, check out
this video.
Lucy's Tamale Factory
If you're in the San Jose area and want really good Tamale's, go to
Lucy's Tamale Factory. They have chicken, pork and jalapeno and cheese (a little too hot for me), and they as authentic as tamales come. Don't plan on eating there (at least the one on Story Rd...) just pick up and take them home and enjoy with a
cold beer.
Fix Your Life
U.S. New and World Report's latest issue includes a section entitled
50 Ways to Fix Your Life. It includes sections on Simplifying, Stimulating, Organizing, Getting Well and Taking Stock. One suggestion is to move to Bismarck, ND. I'll Pass. The section on quitting your job appealed to me.
The final suggestion is to Forgive. It details the death of Amy Biehl and her family's amazing efforts at forgiveness, start
here. Then look at her
foundation's web site.
Chickenhawks
I was reading the
stories of Donald Rumsfeld not bothering to personally sign letters of condolences to the families of those killed in Iraq, and one thing that came to mind was what a chicken hawk the guy is. As long as it's not his butt on the line, he's happy to send these guys out without
adequate armor. So I was poking around the internet and found
chickenhawkcards.com. They're selling a deck of chickenhawk cards with all of the famous Bush chickenhawks gracing the deck. This sounds like a perfect gift for a certain Republican I know.
Get Fuzzy
Rob sent along this
link. If it wasn't so true it'd be funny.
Willow Glen Christmas
Here's the
article of how the Xmas Tree tradition started in Willow Glen. Frank Badagliacca, who began doing this 48 years ago, lived just a few houses down from us. He passed away this past Thanksgiving. I'm glad the local paper picked up his story.
Gracie
Gracie is the cat we discovered nursing a kitten on our patio. With advice and the loan of a cat trap from Susan of
Angel Paws Rescue I trapped both Gracie and her kitten (that Adrienne named Georgie) . We took Gracie in to the vet and had her spayed and de-flead (sp?). We asked the vet "How feral is she" wondering if it would be possible to get her adopted into a home. The answer was, "Very Feral". So we brought her home, had a cat door installed in the garage and feed her. She loves Adrienne and hates my guts. Georgie found a home through Susan and is happy hanging out with 2 sisters.
Rosie on the heater
This is Rosie's way of keeping warm, sitting on our heat vents.
California Culinary Academy
Adrienne and I went to my company's holiday party last night. It was at the
California Culinary Academy in San Francisco. It's a great venue and the food was amazing (in quality and variety). In addition to the cold appetizer buffet and the assorted cakes and pastries for dessert, the hot entree buffet consisted of:
- Flank Steak Roulad with Wild Mushroom Duxelle served with Green Peppercorn Sauce
- Pork Loin Stuffed with Pancetta and Cilantro served with Carmelized Onions
- Turkey Breast Roulade with a Sweet Potato and Walnut Stuffing served with Orange Cranberry Relish
- Prime Rib marinated in Fresh Herbs with Beet Horseradish Sour Cream and Natural Jus
- Prawns Sauteed in Butter, Lemon, Wine Sauce with Tomato Concasse and Topped with Fried Capers
- Halibut with Tapanade Crust Served Over Arugula Orzo Salad
- Seared Duck Breast Served with Pomegranate Sauce
- Rabbit Braised in Red Wine with Carrots, Cippolini Onions, and Celery, served Over Soft Gorgonzola Polenta
- Black Pepper Crusted Rack of Lamb served with Trumpet Royale Glace de Viande and Garnished with Gremolata
- Leek and Celeric Souffle
- Butternut Squash Soup with Sage Oil
- Ratatouille with Eggplant, Zucchini, Onion, Tomato, Mushrooms and Lavendar
- Roasted Red Beets with Sauteed Chard and Balsamic Braised Cippolini Onions
- Kabocha Squash Gnocchi with Brown Butter and Fried Sage
- Lemon Parmesan Risotto Cake with Tomato Basil Relish
- Yukon Gold Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes with Truffle Oil
- Cannelini and Cranberry Beans tossed with Garlic Confit and Basil Pesto
At the end of the evening, we got to choose from several gifts from the gift shop. I chose a hat, and Adrienne chose "Tapas Made Easy" by Tomas Garcia. I was looking through it and there is a section just on stuffed eggs. Besides a basic deviled egg, you can make tuna-stuffed eggs, stuffed eggs with ham, stuffed eggs with crab and stuffed eggs with capers and gherkins. Who knew?
Bush Christmas Video
Bush's Christmas video is stupefyingly (is that a word? If not it needs to be for this video) bad. These people are stiffer than corpses. Compare that video to the
Clinton Final Days video. That one is funny.
It's a Wonderful Life
I'm not exactly sure how to describe this, other than to say if you've ever wondered what "It's a Wonderful Life" would be like if it was condensed to 30 seconds and done by bunnies, look
here.
Bush Press Conferences
One of the most frustrating things for me to watch is a George Bush press conference because he never answers the stupid question (and often the questions are stupid). Mike Allen of the Washington Post wrote an
article about George Bush press conferences and what reporters go through trying to get a decent answer from the President. Read it and you'll understand why I'm a fan of John Dickerson of Time magazine. He's the one who asked:
"In the last campaign, you were asked a question about the biggest mistake you'd made in your life, and you used to like to joke that it was trading Sammy Sosa. You've looked back before 9/11 for what mistakes might have been made. After 9/11, what would your biggest mistake be, would you say, and what lessons have you learned from it?"
Which led to Bush's answer, "I wish you would have given me this written question ahead of time, so I could plan for it,". He went on to say he could not think of a mistake he had made, providing months of fodder for his critics.
Gary Webb
Gary Webb
committed suicide on Dec 10. If his name sounds familiar, he's the journalist who wrote the series of articles in 1996 that exposed the Reagan-Bush administration’s protection of cocaine traffickers who operated under the cover of the Nicaraguan contra war in the 1980s. Read
this piece to understand why we owe him a debt of gratitude and why there are so few real journalists left.
Sinclair Broadcast Group
It's been over a month since I've posted. I thought I'd wait until I was less bitter about the election results, but that may take awhile. In the meantime, news still happens.
Media Matters for America has launched a
campaign against the Sinclair Broadcast Group to protest their continued misuse of public airwaves. I've written about Sinclair previously, and I'll be taking the website's suggestion and contacting advertisers.
