The Most Inconvenient Bookstore, Paper Planes, Bauhaus, and more!

By Elizabeth Prata

It has been a busy and hectic week, as it usually is at school with mere 16 student days remaining. We have field trips, State Assessment testing, changed schedules, pollen allergies and sinus infections making one last grip on tired bodies, final standards to achieve...

In our area, we finish the school year by Memorial Day. We begin the school year at the very beginning of August. I like the schedule, but it has taken some getting used to after a lifetime in New England starting school, both as student and a teacher, after Labor Day and finishing in Mid-June.

This is a great season of the year though. The green of a southern spring is vibrant and lasts a long time. I enjoy watching the buds burst and the myriad bushes flower into a riot of color.

The anticipation of a sweet summer at home the most powerful lure of my job as a teacher's aide. It's one of the reasons I re-entered education a second time. I love kids and I love teaching them to the extent my teacher allows me to, and being with them and seeing their growth, and their silliness. Kids are cute. But I also love staying at home in the summertime. It's true that I need to live for 12 months on a 9-month salary, but I make it stretch without having to get a second job.

Of course I have a stack of books to read through this summer. I'll do some crafting. Photography before it gets too hot. I refreshed my patio so I'll read outside during the cool mornings. That is about it for plans this summer. No plans to travel. No plans to attend any big events. I call it "Hermit Season." Just church and grocery store. Then home.

Here are some light stories I've read this week. I hope you enjoy. They are along the themes I like: books, art and design, and sweet movies.

Here is a story about The Most Inconvenient Bookstore

Tucked away off the highway in Perdue, Sask. (pop. 300), Crawford’s Used Books doesn’t have a website—but it holds twice the number of volumes as the main library in Guelph, Ont.

Crawford works his way through his book shop in Perdue, Sask. (Photograph by Mark Taylor)

Somehow, even 100 years later, Bauhaus is still fresh. That makes me think about how exciting and ground-breaking it was back in the day.

Bauhaus then:

The Bauhaus school didn’t shy away from the impact of change, but instead embraced it. Students were taught to embrace modern technologies in order to succeed in a modern environment. ‘Form follows function’ was the key teaching of the Bauhaus, and this was applied in the school’s approach to graphic design and typography, as well as architecture.

Bauhaus-inspired now:


I enjoyed this movie out of Australia, called Paper Planes. It's not rated, being a foreign film, but Common Sense Media reviews it as appropriate for 10 and up. See their review at the link. I like clean, charming, small, quiet, movies and if it stars a kid I'm  even more interested. I enjoyed the main (child) actor, Ed Oxenbould.



Here are some spring scenes from my backyard and immediate area I'd snapped this morning.

The mulch awaits...



The Golden Hour...



Good morning: moonset over pine trees at 6:30 AM:



My hosta is growing:



I enjoy the different shades of green across the yard into the pasture next door:



Enjoy the day everyone! Thanks for reading.

Best Sports Movies

I don't like sports, and I rarely/barely played a sport. I was good at tennis, but never played on a team, just the community court after 5:00 when it was free. Also, I was center fielder on a field hockey team for one season, I was OK. That's it. I don't watch sports on TV or go to any sporting events.

When I was growing up, the Wide World of Sports on Saturdays was the sports show to watch. I think it was the ONLY sports show to watch, except for Monday Night Football. Remember, this was before cable.

The rotation on WWoS was indeed wide From gymnastics to figure skating to wrestling to swimming & diving to track & field to bowling. You heard me. Bowling. The IMDB summary of the show is:

ABC's weekend extravaganzas about everything that can be called a sports event.

I also remember the Wide World of Sports intro with Jim McKay intoning "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat", and the agony was always shown a clip of a ski jumper crashing ignominiously. (Czech jumper Vinko Bogataj). As Jim McKay said, Vinko appeared on WWoS more than anyone else.

Amazingly, for the few times I actually watched a sporting event, I was lucky enough to see several thrilling and memorable moments live as they happened.

1976: Nadia Comeneci earned the first perfect ten in gymnastics history. It was great.
1980: The US Hockey team beat the Russian team. "Do you believe in Miracles? Yes!"
1984: Doug Flutie's hail Mary pass to win Boston College over the Miami Hurricanes.
1974-1981: Bjorn Borg. Just any and all tennis with Bjorn Borg. He was an amazing athlete.

For all my sports-avoidance, it seems I've watched quite a few sports movies in life, lol. Cool Runnings was fun (Jamaican bobsled team with John Candy), and Bull Durham, (baseball with Kevin Costner) Tin Cup (golf, Costner again) and The Karate Kid (Ralph Macchio) were all pretty good.

I know a lot of people insist on putting Chariots of Fire (track) and Rudy (football) on their lists but I've tried several times and have never been able to get through either of them. I absolutely hated Field of Dreams. I hated it at the time and I hate it now. It's a stupid, stupid movie. Obviously it is not on my list.

But some sports movies are great, just great. No other word for it. Here are some of those sports movies that I consider worth watching. Not all are feel good. (Moneyball). Not all of them have the team win at the end (Rocky anyone?). Hoop Dreams is a documentary. But all of them have something to say, especially the ones based on real events, which is to say, most of them.

Rocky (Boxing)
Rocky Balboa, a small-time boxer, gets a supremely rare chance to fight heavy-weight champion Apollo Creed in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect. With Sylvester Stallone. He also wrote the film.

Hoosiers (Basketball)
Based on a true story. A coach with a checkered past and a local drunk train a small town high school basketball team to become a top contender for the championship. With Gene Hackman.

The Blind Side (Football)
With Sandra Bullock and Tim McGraw. Based on a true story, The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

Remember the Titans (Football)
The true story of a newly appointed African-American coach and his high school team on their first season as a racially integrated unit. With Denzel Washington.

Hoop Dreams (Basketball)
A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.

Moneyball  (Baseball)
Based on a true story and the book of the same name. Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to assemble a baseball team on a lean budget by employing computer-generated analysis to acquire new players. With Brad Pitt.

The Sandlot  (Baseball)
In the summer of 1962, a new kid in town is taken under the wing of a young baseball prodigy and his rowdy team, resulting in many adventures. Inspired by a true story, albeit one that was in real life a bit darker- so the writer changed his own history by writing The Sandlot.

Eddie the Eagle (Ski Jumping)
The story of Eddie Edwards, the notoriously tenacious British underdog ski jumper who charmed the world at the 1988 Winter Olympics. With Taron Egerton.

Splinters (Surfing)
Splinters is the first feature-length documentary film about the evolution of indigenous surfing in the developing nation of Papua New Guinea. In the 1980s an intrepid Australian pilot left behind a surfboard in the seaside village of Vanimo. Twenty years on, surfing is not only a pillar of village life but also a means to prestige. With no access to economic or educational advancement, let alone running water and power, village life is hermetic. A spot on the Papua New Guinea national surfing team is the way to see the wider world; the only way. Surfing. You can see this film for free at Snagfilms.com

We Are Marshall (Football)
When a plane crash claims the lives of members of the Marshall University football team and some of its fans, the team's new coach and his surviving players try to keep the football program alive. Matthew McConaughey.

I'll leave it to you to check imdb.com reviews (general movie reviews/expert movie reviews) or Common Sense Media (reviews from a parent and family perspective) or World Movie Reviews (reviews from a Christian perspective) to decide if the movies I've listed and recommended suit your preferences or match your family viewing habits.

There are a lot of movies out there that are good to watch with a thought provoking story to tell, even if you're like me and don't like sports!

Mid summer update

I made a boo-boo. When I made paste paper on thick cardstock, it was fun. I did a passable job of making some attractive paste paper patterns. When it dries, the combed patterns have heights and valleys, making it even a bit thicker. Then I printed out some verses and pasted them on the back.

When all was said and done, the piece was too think to laminate. Oh, I laminated it all right, but almost right away the laminate peeled off. The paper etc. was too think to have properly sealed and the top layer came off. The plastic is still stuck to the bottom. Oh well, live and learn.

I scooted into town this morning to do a few errands, picked up a very few groceries and tried to get home before the heat hit. Nope. Didn't make it.

I saw the movie Last Holiday with Queen Latifah which was good, if light and slight on the plot, but serviceable for a feel-good movie. I also watched some of  Joyful Noise with Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton but that was a terrible movie. There were a lot of famous people in it (Kris Krostofferson, Jesse L. Martin, Courtney Vance...) so acting was good but the plot was unrealistic and it just was generally unwatchable.

The UK cop show Line of Duty season 3 was out this past March and I binged on the show till the finale. Fortunately UK series only have 6 episodes or I might have just expired from the tension. It isn't a gory show or a bloody show or a sexual show. None of that. It's written in such a way that in genius fashion builds the tension from episode to episode. It really keeps you guessing. I mean, they aren't ashamed to do anything with any character. In one season, early on they threw a major character out a window. One guy who is the worst of the worst corrupt has gotten away with it for two seasons. So it isn't a given that any character you're attached to will or won't make it, or this one or that one might or not be be corrupt ("bent" in UK parlance).

I have also been enjoying the Nextflix presentation of Irish Castles. Not only are the castles gorgeous and the scenery scrumptious but the history they present is done in a seamless but educational way. VERY interesting. I'm trying to hurry up through it because my Netflix is going away in a few days. I canceled it. Though I do occasionally enjoy a documentary, I need to cut expenses and entertainment is the first to go. I really don't use Netflix enough to warrant the monthly bill. I got rid of Hulu a while ago.

We're halfway through summer and it has been a fabulous June so far. One more month and I will be back in the swing at school. August 1. I love summer, and I'm reveling in the 4 more weeks of vacation.

This summer I've been reading theology books as well as novels. I study the Bible, listen to sermons, and write. I am also investigating the world of ePublishing and formatting an eBook. It's not for the fainthearted.

I love that days and days go by and I don't have to talk to anybody or go where it's noisy or get exhausted just by being in public.

Lunch today was salmon salad on a brioche with a thick juicy tomato slice, green salad, dessert of fresh figs with bleu cheese crumbled on. Lemon water. Mmm.

Then, nap.

Some recent pics.

Have a great week everyone.

More bookbinding, several movie reviews

I wrote a few days ago that I'd made a book and some collages. The cover of the book is fabric.

When you glue something you start at the center of the piece, whether it is paper or fabric or leather or cardboard, whatever. And you work the glue into the item in outward strokes, applying some pressure so the glue seeps into its holes, nooks, and crannies. The items will stick better and more evenly if one takes care at this early juncture.

The problem with fabric is that as you press the glue to the edges and beyond, the threads at the edge come apart. The fabric looks like it needs a haircut trim.

I always think that something needs a border. The cover looked unfinished to me. So I added a border. This was a doo-dad that a friend had given me in a box of ephemera. (God bless friends cleaning out their attics!) The color matched and I liked how the circles picked up the circles in the fabric's pattern. I cut up the collages to make bookmarks, lol

I also made  this: it is a single signature, softcover small notebook with a collage on the front.

This is a multiple signature, hard cover with a spine, and a collage on the front.

I've been watching movies each evening. They were all excellent. It is such an advantage to have the internet these days, and I can look up reviews and rating of a film before investing time or money into it. And can switch it off after a few minutes if it's objectionable (Like the tv show satire of politics, Veep, starring Seinfeld alum Julia Louis-Dreyfus politics- CLICK!)

An Unfinished Life, 2005. Starring Jennifer Lopez, Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman. Movie blurb: "A down on her luck woman, desperate to provide care for her daughter, moves in with her father in-law from whom she is estranged. Through time, they learn to forgive each other and heal old wounds."

Beautiful scenery, great acting, understated and moving, nothing objectionable, some scenes of or references to domestic violence, necessary to the plot. One or two curses. Recommended.

The Butler, 2013. Forest Whittaker, Oprah Winfrey, Cuba Gooding Jr, Clarence Williams III, Robin Williams, John Cucack, Alan Rickman, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Mariah Carey. Based on a  true story. Movie blurb: "As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society."

Incredible acting, dramatic history, yet despite the thirty year sweep of a most turbulent time in America, a deeply emotional, personal, haunting movie. Nothing objectional, if you discount the racism and actual historical scenes of KKK firebombing kids on a bus...anyway, no terrible language, no nudity. N-word used in historical accuracy. Intimation of rape (off screen), drinking, smoking.

How To Steal A Million, 1966. Audrey Hepburn, Peter O'Toole. Movie blurb: "Romantic comedy about a woman who must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries, and the man who helps her."

Two hours, two minutes long. Set in Paris the scenery couldn't be better, except the scenery fades into the background every time Audrey Hepburn appears. Luminous and compelling the woman simply was gorgeous. Her clothes are given by Givenchy, the cars are classic and incredible, and Peter O'Toole couldn't be more handsome and commanding. The story drags a bit in the third act, I skipped ahead 20 minutes with no loss. The Butler is actually ten minutes longer but feels 40 minutes shorter. Needless to say, there is nothing objectionable in the movie with regard to profanity, nudity, or adult situations, discounting the movie's premise, which is a life of crime.

Despicable Me, 2010. Animated. Voices of  Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Julie Andrews. Movie Blurb: "When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better."

Yes it is funny and good and clean. Not even any double entendres that some animated filmmakers put in to keep the adults happy.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 1955, black and white. (TV anthology show). TV was clean in 1955. The FCC prohibited "obscene and indecent" material. It still does, but definitions have changed. In one of the early episodes in the 1955 season 1 of AHP, a married couple was depicted as sleeping in separate beds. The wife was later attacked in the episode but there were not even any bruises showing. The angle of the camera, music, and acting had to do the work of what today would simply be a garish visual.

Movie blurb: "Series of unrelated short stories covering elements of crime, horror, drama and comedy about people of different species committing murders, suicides, thefts and other sorts of crime caused by certain motivations; perceived or not."

Hitchcock was intelligent, and the language of his introductions and closing was brilliant. The writing in each episode is also brilliant. And I love the twists. It's an enjoyable 26 minutes.

It's the weekend for all of you who are not on vacation or don't work in education. So...happy weekend!

Movie reviews: Chef's Table, On the Way to School, A Princess for Christmas

Since summer started and I'm not working at school, I have been watching some movies and television shows. It's admittedly hard to find anything good. By good I mean well-produced, written, and acted, (quality); and good in the sense of nothing offensive, gory, profane or blasphemous (morality).

I would like to recommend three items. The first is called Chef's Table and it's on Netflix and Youtube. The blurb says-

Chef's Table goes inside the lives and kitchens of six of the world's most renowned international chefs. Each episode focuses on a single chef and their unique look at their lives, talents and passion from their piece of culinary heaven.

The chefs are: Ben Shewry, Niki Nakayama, Francis Mallmann, Dan Barber, Massimo Bottura, and Magnus Nilsson.

It has a 9.0 rating on Internet Movie Database (imdb.com)

I haven't seen all 6 segments, only 5. I'm looking forward to that sixth one, it is about Magnus Nillson. You will know him from Chopped and other cooking shows. I enjoyed them OK but the first one I watched, the one about Massimo Bottura of Modena Italy, astounded and moved me. Maybe because I connect with Italian food, or that I enjoyed the scenes in Italy, or just that his personality and that of his wife fit together so well and I loved seeing their marriage, but the segment was brilliant.

Probably it was because of Massimo's creativity on the food. Italians are very traditional and do not like change in their foods or designs. I remember when we were treated to a personal tour of Ubaldo Grazia's pottery (majolica) factory in Deruta (Perugia), he said his family had been in that location developing artistic dishware for 500 years. There are traditional patterns that the Italians like and they do not like deviating from them. He had hired some art students from the Rhode Island School of Design to paint some variations of the old patterns and he was encountering a lot of resistance.

Traditional Grazia designs on left, modern on right

Bottura said the same thing in the segment. Tortellini soup is tortellini soup- it's supposed to have a broth and a ratio of ten tortellinis per bowl. Italians always want pasta and more of it. Instead, he envisioned tortellini soup this way

His own tortellini evolved provocatively with a version he served at Francescana in 1998. Six dumplings were arranged on broth set with agar gelatin. A pour of hot broth melted the gelatin, so the tortellini actually moved, “walking on broth ... "

I tried to find a photo of it but could not. The concept for the dish is funny, it's witty and a pointed joke toward the Modenese as well. For all the world it looks like a solemn lineup of soldiers proudly marching to their death. Bottura's cuisine is inventive and witty. In one part, he explained that everyone likes the crunchy-burned corner of the lasagna dish. So he made an entire dish called

... La Dame et son Chevalier (The Crunchy Part of the Lasagna). It is made of four triangles -- two Parmigiano-Reggiano wafers, two of spinach pasta (first boiled and then baked until crisp) -- perched over spoonfuls of ragu and bechamel, with a long stripe of tomato terrine running down the side.

It looks nothing like traditional lasagna but evokes all the heart and love one remembers from Nonnie's lasagna pan, and hoping that you'd be the one this time to get the crunch corner. It's essence of lasagna. I don't know how he does it. But I'm totally with Massimo on all his dishes.

The second item I recommend is a movie, also on Netflix. It is called "On the Way to School" and it is a 2013 film. I mention this because there is another movie with the same title, issued in 2008. They are not the same thing. The blurb says

Jackson, the Kenyan; Carlito, the Argentinian; Zahira, the Moroccan; Samuel, the Indian... four children who live light years away from each other and who have never met but who have a common point : they have to cover tremendously long distances to reach their school. On foot, on horseback or in a wheelchair, but all with an extraordinary determination...

The documentary is filmed in National Geographic style, with sweeping vistas which include the landscape itself as a character. The film trails each child as they make their way over harsh terrain each day (or in the case of the Moroccan girls, each week to boarding school) walking, jogging, in one case, hiding from a growling lion, traipsing over the Atlas Mountains or scurrying across elephant infested African bush. The kids walk for hours, cheerfully, so they can have an opportunity to advance from their little village and make something of themselves. The children have dreams and hopes, and the movie in its quiet way, presents those to us, and completes it with interviews at the end.

These children are not high school seniors aged 18, or 20 year old youths attending a higher education- these are kids, 6 years old or 9 or 10. Maybe I gravitated to the film because I work in education and know the entitlement some American children or their parents feel. It was poignant when the teacher in the African segment started the school day by looking at his large class, asking if anyone was absent, and noting all present, thanked God that they all made it "with no accidents." Meaning, no one got trampled by elephants, eaten by a lion, or fell down a ravine.

Watch it to be inspired, to see some of the world's harshest and most beautiful terrain, or to show your surly, entitled tween or teen. It's all good.

The third movie is a change of pace from the previous two. It's mindless, sappy, beautiful to look at (because, castle) and a total chick flick. If you want to watch something just plain nice, here it is.

A Princess for Christmas, on Netflix.

See? TOTAL chick flick. From Hallmark.

This is a fantasy, fairy tale story of two orphaned kids and their struggling young aunt who now takes care of them. It turns out that her dead brother-in-law was son of a Duke in fictitious Castlebury (actually filmed in Romania) whom the Duke cut off when he married a gal from Buffalo. Turns out, the Duke is older now and regrets not seeing his dukelings, and sends his butler, Paisley Winterbottom, to fetch them. Turns out, the aunt (Jules) just lost her antique store job and is at a loss with what to do with her shoplifting nephew who is about to turn bad if something isn't done. Turns out, the Duke has another son....

It has a happy ending. With a rose-laden carriage.

I'm not giving anything away here. You knew where this was going the minute
Paisley Winterbottom showed up in Buffalo.

And for all you naysayers, hey, it can happen. As a matter of fact, it just did:

I should also mention that I finally watched 2010's Despicable Me. I waited all this time to see it free but it never was free nor was it ever on my streaming Netflix, so I caved and rented it it streaming from Amazon. I liked it very much! It ranks with Cars, Toy Story and Up as my animated favorites.

I hope you enjoy these. Please feel free to share your favorites as well. I'm always looking for GOOD entertainment.

Of movies, books, and art

I had fun last night watching a terrific one hour documentary on the iconic London Department store, Selfridge's. What an amazing man Harry Gordon Selfridge was! (1858-1947). He was an American, which I did not know, self-made from dire poverty and a single family home (dad deserted, mom brought him up.) He or Marshall Field invented the phrase "The Customer is always right" but nonetheless Selfridge used it so incessantly in his advertising and in training his clerks and so it is often attributed to Selfridge.

He focused heavily on customer service, was the first to use advertising and promotion so well. He was the first to use mass electricity (he kept the window display lights on after closing). Selfridge was the first to bring makeup from the dim recesses of the back of the store to the front, pairing it with perfumes to create a department store template used by every department store today. He dispensed with class distinction within the store. He invented browsing. He was the first to use and make acceptable the concept of publicity stunts. He created a safe place for Edwardian women to be in public without a chaperone. And to go to the bathroom while they were out. All that and more. It is a great little documentary and I loved all the vintage still photos from the Edwardian era and the early movies too. It is called Secrets of Selfridge's and it's on Netflix and Youtube

While I was watching I crafted. A colleague had given me some vintage Christmas wrapping paper from the 1940s and '50s. I decided to do a little painting and a collage. The painted papers were drying and I turned to the collage and here is the result. I am not being disingenuous when I say that I'm not good at it. I can write and take photos but making something with my hands is a desire is never well executed. I yearn to make pretty things but my compositions are usually clumsy and unpretty. Still, I had fun.

Final product

Final product scanned and digitally added-to

The reason I think that the above is just OK is because there's no theme, no statement, no cohesive thought. Aside from the fact that I love paper and digital art of clocks with no faces, there isn't a unifying interest. Just some pretty things glued on a paper.

These next two are collages I made that have a theme, so they make sense.

It references Revelation 20:1-3,

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

Interestingly, I made this collage before I was saved or knew the bible.

Or this one,

That one I did make after salvation. It references the fact that the lost look for God but cannot see Him despite creation being in front of their face. (Romans 1:21-22; Ephesians 4:18) For the saved person, we can see Him but he is so holy that often we can't even look, (Exodus 34:30, 2 Cor 3:7-8) we must look away and bow in humility. Third, I long for the day when we can look Him full in the face and understand Him more, with our glorified mind.

The problem is, I have lots of stuff to make collages and art, but not the thought. It has all leaked away. Maybe if I pray about it, my mojo will come back.

Meanwhile here is some real art to look at. I enjoy art. The art I have is mostly good, of quality if not extremely valuable. I have two Fratelli Brothers Alinari with sticker on the back indicating its origins, Via Condotti Rome. A Fred Thompson hand coloured turn of the last century photo. As this website reports, a Thompson recently sold for $3500, though the one I have is much more common and is worth perhaps $50-100.

Who in the world is "Fred Thompson"? Fred Thompson was a photographer from Portland ME who, like his contemporary Wallace Nutting , sold hand-colored photos during the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, Thompson even visited Nutting's Southbury CT home around 1905 and collaborated with the much better- known Wallace Nutting.

Here is a bit more on Fred Thompson from an article titled Rare items not necessarily valuable:

Answer: Fred Thompson was the signature used by Frederick H. Thompson (1844-1909) and his son, Frederick M. Thompson (circa 1876-1923). The older Fred founded the Thompson Art Co. in Portland, Maine, about 1908. His son joined the company shortly before his father died. The Thompsons knew Nutting, and they produced hand-colored photographs similar to Nutting's. The most popular Thompson photos are of Maine outdoor scenes.

So what I have is not at the Monet level. I have a signed lithograph of a limited edition from American painter Edward Ripley (b. 1929). I believe its title is "A Farmhouse" at least that is what a copy on another website said. It's not worth a huge amount, but the Tate Gallery in London holds another of Ripley's landscapes. So apparently I'm not the only one who likes looking at his work. Currently it hangs by my couch, where I look at it when I lay down.

I've got some other stuff, and one is really intriguing. I've mentioned it before, it is an oil painting from an Italian in the late 1950s early 1960s of Naples Bay. My landlord gave it to me. He said he'd gotten to know the painter who was part of a family that ran a trattoria by the Bay when my landlord was in the Army. When he was re-deployed the painter gave it to my former landlord as a memento. I really wish I knew the artist. If my landlord told me the name I have forgotten.

I've also got some Winslow Homer watercolor reprints. I love Homer. One is of a storm at Nassau, palm trees bent over rooftops from the strong wind. One is a small but bright print of the Adirondack series. A third is a seascape of surf and rocks.

Well it's past noon. I better get a move on. Vacuuming awaits. Then books!

And maybe a nap.

Best Food Movies!

Now that I've recovered from my turkey-stuffing-green beans-sweet potatoes-cranberry-roll-apple spice cake Thanksgiving dinner, and the obligatory leftovers of turkey-cranberry sandwich on toasted rye with sweet potatoes on the side, let's discuss the best food movies ever!

I blogged about Jiro Dreams of Sushi at my other blog, from a Christian perspective. But if you want to every detail of sushi from the buying to the preparing to the eating, and see a lovely, incredible art form of making sushi at its world highest level, this movie is for you. You WILL be hungry for sushi after.

Babette's Feast. (In Dutch with subtitles) I saw this when it first came out in 1987. It is so hard to believe it has been that long. Sigh. Anyway, it is an amazing movie. As Epicurious.com describes the film:

Almost a quarter-century after the film's release, the culminating scene of this quietly urgent Danish drama still stands as the most beautifully rendered depiction of a lavish meal ever committed to celluloid. But it's not just spectacle for spectacle's sake: The triumphant banquet sequence also communicates volumes about the movie's central theme, the eternal tug-of-war between self-denial and sensual gratification.

Big Night: two Italian brothers in 1950s NJ run a restaurant that's failing. The elder brother (Tony Shaloub) mourns that the locals do not appreciate his delicate touch, while the younger (Stanley Tucci) persistently trues to convince his brother to try new approaches. They pin their last hopes on cooking for Louis Prima.

Kings of Pastry: once every four years French pastry competition. Lovely artistic sugar creations! Coupled with the drama and heartbreak of competition. It's gripping and absorbing...and beautiful.

The Moo Man- Yes, it is about milk. Wikipedia, "The film focusses on a small dairy farm run by Steve Hook, which produces and sells raw, unpasteurised organic milk. Near Hailsham, Sussex, Longleys Farm is situated on the Pevensey Levels. The farm was started by Steve's father Phil, who is still involved in the business, and who also features in the film, along with Steve's wife and four children. The film covers Steve's struggles to keep the 55-head-herd farm afloat in the face of the power of the supermarkets, and shows his close relationship with his cows, especially Ida, a 12-year-old Friesian. The documentary was filmed over four years." It sounds boring. It isn't.

Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers: documentary is an ode to "the stinking rose". As the reviewer in IMDBcom said, "This is a very good movie about garlic with shots from the Gilroy Garlic Festival and lots of good information about cooking with garlic from some of the best cooks in the SF Bay Area. I view this as a comprehensive guide to garlic provided in a very entertaining fashion. "

The Restauranteur: IMDB, "A film about the grueling construction of not one but two world class restaurants. We follow Danny Meyer, arguably the most successful restaurateur in America. Our cameras follow the creation of Eleven Madison Park and Tabla during the hellish eleven month construction process. Meyer imparts his business and restaurant philosophy while trying to keep his cool. Jumping back to the future, 2009, we learn how the restaurants have evolved, EMP receiving a coveted four stars by The New York Times. The title card sparked cheers in the audience at The Sonoma Film Festival, where the film was awarded Best Documentary - Food." It's really fascinating to get an insider view of what it's like to build and maintain a restaurant, and the restaurateur's philosophy of the food/dining experience. Look for a young Tom Colicchio- with hair.

Other films with food as an important plot point but not about food per se are Mystic Pizza with a young Julia Roberts and Bagdad Cafe with CCH Pounder, Jack Palance and Marianne Sägebrecht. For sheer quirk-to-food information ratio, you can't beat either of those movies.

TV show- The Supersizers Go... A BBC production of food history in Britain. Restaurant critic Giles Coren and comedian Sue Perkins live and eat their way through the cuisine of six different eras in Britain's history. The duo are seen by a doctor prior, then they eat, live, and dress as if they were actually living in the era (Edwardian, Restoration, WWII, Elizabethan, 1970s, and Regency. My favorite episodes were the 70s and Wartime (WWII). After ward they are seen by a doctor again and some of the eras provide surprising results as to how healthy or unhealthy their diet was. The Restoration era offered some truly sickening food but it was normal to the people living at the time. I mean, Lamb's face?  And worse. They pair gamely eat all of it. Extremely interesting, and also very entertaining!

Movies, and Blogs

I'm watching Time Bandits. The best line in the movie, and the best line I've heard for a long time:

"Oh, no! It's the invisible barrier!"
"Ohhh, so THAT's that the invisible barrier looks like!"

I stumbled upon some new-to-me blogs. PressingTheHerald is one outraged dude, frustrated that the Portland Maine daily newspaper is as careless as it is with the oh, say, the news, the facts, the readers, mundanity...He busts them report by report, story by story.

Another guy doing the same kind of thing is a media High School teacher in central Maine, but doing it Tongue-In-Cheek . The latest post is called "We Regret The Era" a sly, funny, witty pun on newspaper "clarification" posts, not to mention the northerner's accent.

Crazy Aunt Purl is a woman in CA writing about her life. What makes her blog distinctive from all the other middle-aged. divorced women writing about their lives (ahem) is that she is a great writer.

If you like to see fantastic digital photos, they are here.

Surviving After Armageddon might be a little hard, so look up tips up here, where the baking soda post has already come in handy. And it's not even Armageddon yet.