Warning

You probably did not want to know this.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

I took a photography class one summer while I was in college and one of the many wise things my professor said was that if you're lucky, you'll get one good photo in a roll. This was one reason why he said it was important to take a picture every day - I think the idea was producing many, many bad pictures is the only way to get a really respectable quantity of decent ones.

If I had to pick one picture from this evening, and toss the rest, it would without a doubt be this one:




I don't really understand teenage boys, blood relatives or not, but this photo is delightful. A seething blur of incomprehensible violence - and Sean's crystal clear expression of utter horror.
I hear ya, man. I really do.

For the rest of the photos, check out my flickr account.

My job was to bring dessert

Christmas Eve dinner with the family up in LA. We were charged with bringing dessert, so I made two things.

1. Chocolate Cherry Heering Truffles. I figure everybody would want a little truffle with coffee after dinner, and I've never tried to make them before. It was easy, but very hands-on:


2. A lemon mascarpone tart with an almond lavender crust. The lemons are from my grandparents tree, and the lavender is from my parents garden. Doughs and crusts are a challenge for me, but I think this one turned out ok.


I'm about to put on my party dress and hit the road. I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday!

So excited

It's official: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

What could it mean? Other than that the book is really going to come out next year?

am I in the target demographic, or not?

You know that Dunkin Donuts commercial with the hipster song about how hard it is to place an order at fancy coffee shops? The customers in the commerical look at the menu and the song goes "is it French, or is it Italian? Perhaps Fritalian."

Every time I watch that commercial I laugh, because right after "perhaps Fritalian" the ad switches to advertising seasonal latte flavors, and cappucinos. I laugh because - ha ha - those are Italian words.

nb: I decided to write this down while I was ordering a latte at Dunkin Donuts.

silver screen

Some movie reviews.

off the black

I went to see this because a friend of Prue's directed it - it was the opening weekend and the director was hoping to up his sales figures however he could. Also, it really is exciting and inspiring to see people my age (not that I'm very young anymore - I turn 26 in two weeks) and people who I'm only a couple of degrees of separation away from accomplish something so huge.

The movie is good - not just good for a first movie, or good for his age, or whatever, legitimately good. Good scene setting and atmosphere, good dialogue, well acted. The story is as old as the hills - an unlikely friendship develops between a boy on the cusp of manhood and a man with one foot in the grave. Life lessons are doled out generously. It's the sort of story that bears retelling, if it's done well, and it is here.

I will say, however - it's definitely a guy movie. Not just the whole sacred masculine friendship thing. There's a lot of baseball. Playing baseball, dreaming about baseball, reminiscing about baseball. And if you're going to go see the movie, you've got to be prepared for a soundtrack of Nick Nolte's inarticulate grunts and groans. He grunts when he sits, he grunts when he stands, he grunts when he ruminates, he grunts in order to express primitive, sub-verbal thoughts and feelings. Phlegmy, rumbling, straight-from-the-gut grunting. As Nick Nolte would say: ugh.

Eragon

I went alone, because I know by now that nobody else is interested...and for once, the naysayers were right. It was deeply, almost miraculously, atrocious. In order to be bad this movie had to squander:

(a) a story about boy hero and his dragon - if you are the target demographic for this plot, you will be inclined to like it no matter how mediocre the execution. I know I certainly was.

(b) Jeremy Irons! He has a huge role and he is, as always, reliably magnificent. It was tragic, really, to see him on screen, so gorgeous, so capable, giving all his horrible lines such grace and dignity. His perfection only highlighted the awfulness around him - he really made the dopey blond lunk playing Eragon look pathetic.

(c) John Malkovich! Who usually makes a fantastic over-the-top villain, and should have been able to phone this one in with flying colors...and yet he's awful! Wooden and awkward and buried under his massive costume and silly throne. What happened, John Malkovich?

(d) Rachel Weisz! Who does the voice of the dragon. She sounds as though she's speaking through a tin can and delivers all of her lines with truly painful sincerity and gusto.

The movie was unsalvageable, even by a trio of fantastic actors whose agents must be really upset about their clients not getting roles in the Harry Potter series. There's a boy, and all this cool stuff just drops right into his lap. A dragon! A dashing mentor! A daring escape! A girlfriend! A big red sword! Magic powers! A fabulous suit of armor! An epic battle! And then respected elders congratulate him as though he'd worked hard to obtain these things. Eragon is more like a sword-and-sorcery wet dream than an epic journey or heroic quest.

Rice to Riches

A couple of days ago I went to a rice pudding shop, Rice to Riches. All they sell is rice pudding. And coffee. I really like rice pudding, and I like the idea of a store that sells only rice pudding because it is kind of absurd. It turns out I also like their brand identity, because the store is papered all over with slogans like

"We sell rice pudding, if you don't want that, you can have rice pudding, and if you don't want that, you can have rice pudding."

or

"I'll diet when the earth runs out of food"

or

"eating three sensible, balanced meals a day will only spoil your appetite for rice pudding"

or

"all calories consumed here are yours to keep"

or

"eat all you want... you're already fat"

For some reason, I found it very cheering to read these little slogans while eating rum and raisin rice pudding off of a translucent yellow paddle (offered in lieu of a spoon). Also, the rice pudding was good.