Apocolypto and other observations

First, Apocolypto. Now, I avoided seeing this when it first came out because I thought, who wants to see a dude running naked in the jungle? Now for some of you faithful readers, I'm sure there are those that are jumping up and down right now with your hand proudly thrust high in the air, "Me, me, I do, I do". Fair enough. But, after all of these reviews came back saying Mel may have personal problems but the boy can make great films, I thought, well, I'll rent it then.

Lesson learned - I should stick with my gut, judging a book by its cover, 'cause it hasn't failed me yet. The movie didn't suck, it was beautifully shot, great cinematography, and some pretty sweet action scenes. But it was boring, ridiculously slow in a few long chunks, and pretty uninteresting. Although, there is one scene where a woman gives birth to a baby in water and we see the kid shoot out like a torpedo. That was pretty awsellent. Not quite sweetastic, but still awesellent.

Random thoughts and observations

I hate cab drivers. They drive like the world is their own personal bumper car ride. And they are almost always foreign...except for the coked up driver we had in Atlantic City. Nevertheless, I always hear about how these drivers were doctors in their home countries and they come here and have to drive cabs. So what do we learn from this? Doctors make the worst drivers.

(((Disclaimer: the following is merely an observation not an endorsement, opinion, view, or anything of the sort, just pointing out some faulty logic)))

I read an article (article is a bit of a stretch) but the headline snagged me, mostly because it had sex in the title. Basically it asked three men and three women their views on sex occurring early on in the relationship. It was funny because two of the women were talking about how women should hold out on sex because if that's all he's after then he won't stick around. The whole why buy the cow when you get the milk for free. Or if you do it too early the relationship will only be about sex. Now, I find that wonderfully bassackwards and void of logic. They take sex, wrap it up in a box and keep it under a Sexmas tree for the man to long after, and the relationship is not supposed to be about sex? Silly rabbits. Sounds like they could use an adventure with Dora the Sexplorer.

Why are black people better at EVERY sport? I have been going to Sport Rock now at least once a week for the past several weeks, and there is this one chick there, Jasmine, who is unreal. She twists her body in so many different ways, I think her pops was a pretzel and her mom was Venus Williams. Anyway, she just glides so naturally along the wall. More so than anybody else I've seen in there, the sole exception being one of the instructors, Gerrick. Oh well, I'll just wait for black people to overtake hockey any day now.

Speaking of Sport Rock, my hands and forearms are so unbelievably weak...I am laughing otherwise I'd be weeping. But I will say this, I think I am the heaviest person that climbs at Sport Rock, so if you put my forearms and hands on any other climber they would kick some wall a$$.

Why do ribs take so long to heal? It's been almost a month since I bruised my ribs and they still kill. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to pop Vicodin like candy. Loopy Fat Kid makes for great entertainment. It's a win/win.

Cereal Wars - The Battle for Deep Fryer Dominance

So, there are several reasons I love cooking - blending flavors to make a dish pop, sizzle, sing and initiate a gastrogasm when it hits your tongue; taking a concept to a completed plate; the intensity of a chaotic kitchen getting everything done and your entire focus is on one particular task at any given time; and of course curious experimentation.

Sunday was one of those days. First, it was chicken wings. Why have I never made chicken wings before? I have a deep fryer. But I don't have Hooter's girls to serve them to me, so that might explain part of it. Anyway, I decided to make a chipotle based sauce, and I gotta say, the wings were phenomenal! I don't care what anyone says, I loved them, and for those that know me, I very rarely like my own food enough to say I love anything. I don't know if I would have changed much, if anything at all. I think the guests agreed, as all of the wings were eaten.

For the main course, I made rosemary pork chops and for the sauce I reduced some apple juice with some honey and almonds. The pork was a little dry, but the taste was good, with distinctive flavors...or so I was told. I knew the pork would be dry because I cooked it about 3 minutes too long. Oh well. I also made a toasted almond rice with Kalua almond liqueur. Wow, that stuff is delicious. It's like liquid candy. The rice was just ok though, as I burnt some of the almonds.

For the dessert, I decided to go with a chocolate risotto. Instead of chicken stock I used milk and sugar to make the risotto and then added about 6 ounces of unsweetened chocolate and more almonds (the "secret" ingredient for today's challenge) I had the bright idea of using Cinnamon Toast Crunch as the outer layer for deep frying the chocolate risotto balls (which turned out to be like mini brownies). However, after trying to apply the crushed CTC, it wasn't happening. So, back to old reliable, Corn Flakes. Then, in order to give the risotto some sweetness, I topped them with honey and put them on a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream. They turned out rather good. So, the battle for supreme cereal goes to Corn Flakes. Next time, I'll use some milk chocolate to mix in the risotto and not even bother with other cereals.

And since I have some left over sauce for the wings, I think I'll have to make at least one more batch of wings this week. Anyone hungry for some wings?

Foreign Releases

Ok, so what the hell is going on? Apparently a CD can be released here in the US, but the same one that is released in Japan gets an additional two songs?!? I can't be the only perturplexed by this. (it's my new thing, combining two sweet words to come up with one awesome one...i.e. sweetastic, joygasmic, and of course grapentine fruit)

So, Incubus releases Light Grenades. And even though I'm a fan, I think that most of the songs they laid down on this album show growth, some new depth, with some goold ol' fashined rocking' going on. And then, thanks to all of the wonderful modern technology, You Tube comes along and WHAM! I get this.



AND THIS!:



Both of these are available only on the Japanese version of the Light Grenades album. And if I want to get them I have to pay a minimum of $21.83. But I already have the Light Grenades album. PFFFFFFT! With extra saliva. PFFFT. That's what I say. The songs are not available on iTunes or even on any of the black-listed P2P sharing programs. Or so I've been told. I don't play in any of those places. No telling what kind of rif-raf you run into there.

So, B-Side music only available to the Japanese, I say to you PFFFFT! Next time Sony comes out with a new Play Station, we here in the US should get and extra controller and free DVD with our PS4. But the Japanese, you get nothing with yours. It's a fair trade.