Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hamlet 2

Funnier than it was made out to be by the critics (who failed to see some of its cleverer elements.)

Worth renting for a laugh (or three.)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Santino 2003 Syrah

If I recall correctly, I bought this wine for something in the order of $5 at TJ's in early December for a camping trip. We ended up not drinking it, so the wine sat in my storage unit through December, and eventually made it to San Diego during the great move of 2009, to be opened as the first bottle of the new apartment. And it did not disappoint! Wow! What a fruity syrah! I've been sipping it for three nights now and it's consistently excellent.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The True History of Chocolate

Brilliantly researched; endlessly informative; witty and insightful.

A scholarly work by Sophie D. Coe (food historian and anthropologist) who unfortunately died young of cancer while working on this book.

One of the more entertaining parts of the book is to see who of the who's who of history were total chocolate-addicts.

Foodies and chocoholics rejoice!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Revolutionary Road

Very disappointing movie. Unlike the book which I liked a lot.

Partly out of a choice of where to compress. The book is written in an explicitly spelt-out three-part structure. They kept all of Part 3, and reduced Part 1 to less than 15 minutes. This is just bad. The characters all come out flat with the two leads (and some of the supporting cast) salvaging whatever they can.

Basically, the screenplay sucked, and there's only a handful of excellent moments.

There were tons of "historical" mistakes. The design of the service in the restaurants is a late-90's thing. Those shapes don't exist in the 50's. And beer cans with rivet and pull-tabs were invented in 1962. Also, the liquor bottles are all the wrong shapes and forms in a movie where everyone boozes and smokes non-stop.

The reviews keep saying that the movie is "thought provoking". If this is thought provoking then maybe, just maybe you don't "think" enough.

Monday, January 5, 2009

Long way down

This is the second TV series based on Ewan McGregor's and Charlie's motorcycle travels across the world. In this one they go from Scotland to South Africa, and the series is only 6 episodes long to the previous series' (Long way round) 12 episodes. However this one is edited in a way that makes it really fun and enjoyable, whereas the previous one was repetitive and more like an MTV clip. Superbly well done this time around.

Μετόχι 2002, 2003

This was the only Greek red wine I've had during this visit that really impressed me. It's cab sauv and merlot and a little fragrant, but mostly really really delicious.