Full and happy

Los Angeleno by birth, Northwesterner by choice, Second-hander by nature. Librarian, housebound chef, father, and lowly subject ruled over by the needs and whims of a very old house.
Partial to Mexican, Italian and Vietnamese cookery but will eat damn near anything. Collector of many strange things..the result is chaos and anarchy and a very pleasant place to live.
There is pleasure in accumulation, not just "collecting": music, books and film, in all their multi-formated glory. Outsider artists and those kinds of prints you would recognize if you took liberal studies classes in college. Cooking implements and gadgets for recipes still untried or those ventured. Glasses for most types of libations. Flowers in the garden, herbs in the pot.
It's a life of the senses and a good home life reflects that. Walking helps take in all the rest. Requires no special equipment, opens up the pores, brightens the taste buds, clears the decks for further adventures, puts on the miles, widens the eyes and helps fuel the imagination.

Live boldly, play graciously and love with all your heart knowing that true love comes only once or twice in this lifetime. Speaking of which..donde estas, Empress of my Heart?

Salud!

"Lack imagination and miss the better story" Yann Martel

"Life is a great adventure and I want to say to you, accept it in such spirit. I want to see you face it ready to do the best that lies in you to win out. To go down without complaining and abiding by the result....the worst of all fears is the fear of living." Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

"Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you
You must travel it for yourself" Walt Whitman


And above all, friends should possess the rare gift of sitting. They should be able, no, eager, to sit for hours-three, four, six-over a meal of soup and wine and cheese, as well as one of twenty fabulous courses.

Then, with good friends of such attributes, and good food on the board, and good wine in the pitcher, we may well ask,

When shall we live if not now?

-From Serve it Forth,
M.F.K. Fisher


Monday, December 21, 2009

Brutal, relentless, beautiful


Michael Mann's Public Enemies, right along side Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde and the Coen Brother's Miller's Crossing, is the quintessential gangster flick. It has all the trademark features of a Mann film that you've come to know and love: lush cinematography, incredible set and costume design, fantastic acting, a rousing score, roaring action sequences, all of it. It is one outrageously mesmerizing film, but, as a reviewer put it, one without humor or let up. You start the movie, take a breath and finally breathe out two hours later. How good was it? Okay, I don't usually watch a movie twice in the span of twenty four hours these days, as I have too many movies backed up and only have so much time in the day to watch them. But this one? I didn't have to think twice about what film would be my kick off flick for the evening. And I look forward to seeing it again soon.

Incredible stuff, Public Enemies. Watching Johnny Depp play Dillinger will wipe away all those images you might have of him playing that simpering Jack Sparrow character for Disney and have you believing in him and his acting abilities once again. Check it out and be sure to bring an oxygen mask, you'll need it.

Salud!
Roger Ebert's review:
DVD Verdict review:
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