My Oscar Opinions

With the Oscars coming up tomorrow evening, I had to do a quick post about my thoughts on the nominees for Best Picture.  Especially since I busted my ass to make sure I saw all of them before the show.  To give you a little context, the Oscars are sort of the highlight of my year, television-wise.  They have been for a long time.  So here are my thoughts, and a prediction.

I am fairly certain, as are many other people, that The King's Speech will likely take home the Oscar for Best Picture.  It was, to be honest, a really great film.  Margo and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  If I got to pick, however, I would choose 127 Hours.  I really did not want to see this movie, and I cannot say that I enjoyed the experience of watching this movie, at least not all of it.  I was, however, amazed by how engaged and interested I was and by how much I enjoyed all but five minutes of the movie.  Now I'll give you my brief response to each of the nominated films.

127 Hours:  See above.  I really did not want to see this movie.  If it had not been nominated, and had not seen James Franco on The Daily Show, I probably would not have seen this movie.  That being said, I enjoyed the vast majority of the movie.  I was unable to watch the five minutes of the movie where the man was removing his arm.  It was far more gruesome and horrific than I was prepared for.  I also found it surprisingly inspiring.  And it gave me cause to spend some time thinking about whether I would be capable of enduring what he endured and of removing my own arm.  I think I probably would have just killed myself.

Black Swan:  I thought this movie was pretty well done.  It was disturbing, and there were a lot of elements (physical injuries) that totally grossed me out.  The sex scene was hot, and probably the main reason any straight men saw the movie.  I also thought it was a remarkable demonstration of the stress-vulnerability model.

The Fighter:  Another movie I wasn't particularly interested in seeing.  I'm not really into boxing and had been generally irritated by the fact that Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo had all been nominated for Oscars but Mark Wahlberg hadn't.  I'm a pretty big Mark Wahlberg fan, and have been sitting in judgment of Christian Bale, especially after seeing his hair and beard at the Golden Globes.  But we finally saw this movie last night, and it was really quite good.  And Christian Bale deserves his Golden Globe and I hope he wins the Oscar.  He was unbelievable.  Regardless of what I think of him as a person, that man is an INCREDIBLE actor.  The movie was inspiring and heartwarming and turned out to be about so much more than boxing.

Inception:  I saw this movie the first time at the IMAX.  It was a great way to watch the movie.  I enjoyed it.  It is a total mindf--k.  I've seen it again since, and enjoyed it the second time as well.  I don't know how I feel about Leonardo DiCaprio at this point (side note: I sent him an invitation to my high school graduation) but I enjoyed the movie.  And the visual effects are pretty awesome.

The Kids Are All Right:  This was a wonderful, although painful, movie.  I was appalled that it was nominated for a Golden Globe in the comedy category.  Occasional funny moments do not a comedy make.  The acting was superb and it was so real to life.  I could identify with both female characters and could imagine feeling the things they were feeling in their circumstances.  Excellent film.

The King's Speech:  Like I said, I think this one is going to win it.  This was a very enjoyable movie.  Colin Firth did an outstanding job of acting a speech impediment.  I've known a number of people with stutters, and he did it very realistically.  It was also heartwarming and inspiring, and I actually wound up doing a little reading up on King George VI when we got home, because I was more interested in the history than I had been previously.  I won't begrudge it it's Oscar.

The Social Network:  This was another movie I never would have seen if it had not been nominated and I did not have a secret love for Justin Timberlake.  I was pretty impressed at the way that they made what was essentially a deposition so engaging.  I left the movie feeling pretty sorry for the Facebook guy.  I also thought that the movie kind of made it seem like he has an autism spectrum disorder.  He reminded me of a guy I used to work with who had Asperger's.  I wouldn't have nominated this for a Best Picture.

Toy Story 3:  Another movie I definitely would not have seen without the nomination.  This nomination is one of the reasons I'm a little irritated that they increased the number of Best Picture nominees to 10.  It was cute, it made us a little faclempt, but it is not a Best Picture by any stretch.

True Grit:  I have to say that this is the movie that I enjoyed watching most out of all of them.  It was funny, it was compelling, I loved the actress who played the main character (Supporting Role, my ass!) and I always love Jeff Bridges.  In general, however, the Coen brothers are so hit and miss for me.  I find that I either really like their movies (The Big Lebowski is one of my all time favorite movies) or I am left feeling irritated, confused or feeling like I just wasted two hours of my life (A Serious Man, seriously?).  True Grit, however, is a big winner in my book.  I would watch that again, which is pretty unusual for me.

Winter's Bone:  This movie was depressing.  I did not enjoy watching it, although I thought it was good, if that makes sense.  It definitely confirmed for me that I do not want to cook meth, nor do I want to live out in BFE with all of my f--ked up relatives who cook meth.  There is no happy ending when that's your life.

So there you have it.  Hopefully I haven't given anything away.  I tried not to do that.  I'd love to hear what your pick is and what you thought of the movies.

Glass and Snow

A while back, I bought two passes to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma from Living Social.  The half price price was particularly attractive because we hadn't been particularly excited by it the one other time we visited.  This time was a very different story.  Two exhibits in particular, Glimmering Gone by Ingalena Klenell and Beth Lipman and Kids Design Glass really blew us away.  Unfortunately for all of us, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the galleries.  Glimmering Gone had this really amazing installation piece that was a forest made out of many many different pieces of clear glass hanging from the ceiling.  It's hard to describe in words and the pictures on the website don't do it justice.  If you live in the area, I recommend you go see it.  Kids Design Glass is this amazing project that the Museum does where children who visit the museum (or are receiving treatment at an area children's hospital) can draw pictures and write artist's statements that they submit to a monthly contest.  The Museum then chooses a drawing each month to be reproduced in glass by a glass artist.  The glass pieces are displayed with the original drawings and artist statements.  Totally amazing and inspiring and hilarious.

Here are a few pictures I took of the glass installations outside of the museum.

Before we headed out this morning, it occurred to me that I still needed to visit a new park this month.  I did a little searching on the interwebs and came up with Delong Park.  Margo was initially not enthused at all because it was COLD today.  When we pulled into the parking lot, her enthusiasm dropped even further when we saw what appeared to be a field with a track around it.  We soon found a trail leading into the woods with views of the wetlands.  We had been hoping to see some birds, but the snow and iced over water resulted in us seeing only a lone seagull.  But it was really beautiful in spite of all of that.  Here are some pictures as proof.

I was especially fascinated by the juxtaposition of snow and moss, as you can see from a couple of my pictures.  All in all, a pretty good outing, and a park that I may want to revisit in nicer weather.

We also did some thrift store shopping on the way home.  We scored some pretty good deals, including a bunch of picture frames, a cool green glass jar and a few other fun things.  Margo broke my heart when she wasn't impressed with the dining room table I fell in love with.  I've never been so upset about a piece of furniture before.  I literally almost started crying in the store.  But ultimately it's important that we're both on board with major furniture pieces.  So we'll keep looking.

A Day Late and a Dollar Short

So, I know that I promised a blog post yesterday.  And I also publicly shared my plans to go to the conservatory, among other things.  But here's what happened:  I blew my nose.  Now let me explain.  I've had a bit of a cold for about a week, truly the mildest cold I think I've ever had.  I've had a bit of mucus over-production in the head and that's about the extent of it.  So yesterday afternoon, after getting all my things in order, I blew my nose before heading out.  And seriously messed up something in my inner ear.  I was instantly on the floor, with the room spinning wildly out of control around me while I tried not to vomit.  It took about 15 minutes before I felt well enough to even move and my inner ear parts moved back into some sense of order.  It was pretty awful and I felt nauseous for the rest of the day.  So instead of going on an adventure and stocking the pantry, I laid quietly in a dark room, listening to nerdy podcasts (and eventually falling asleep).

But I promised you some other topics, so here they are.  My new recipe a couple of weeks ago was for a Toasted Barley Asparagus Risotto.  I started by toasting the barley:

I then chopped up some red onion and garlic:

Sauteed it in the pan:

Added the barley and some broth (which I made using the water I blanched the asparagus in: tasty and conservationist!):

And stirred.  And added broth.  And stirred some more.  And repeated, for way too long.  Then I added the parsley and the blanched asparagus and some tomatoes.  And it was good.  But man it took a long time.  I'd start it earlier in the day next time (I think I started it at around 5:30 or 6:00PM, not good planning).

We also ate dinner at BOKA a couple of weeks ago and it was delicious.  We started with drinks and truffle fries.  Now, maybe I just have an underdeveloped tongue, but I (so far) haven't really understand the big deal about truffles.  Maybe someday I will, but for now, I don't get it.  I did have a delicious White Peach Cosmo, however.  Then I had the Rabbit Schnitzel and Margo had the Brick Chicken.  I've never eaten rabbit or schnitzel before (sorry Beth), but it was quite delicious.  It was served with this amazing spaetzle that was rich and caramelized and had brussel sprout leaves in it.  Some of you may know that brussel sprouts are my favorite vegetable of all time.  I love those things.  Margo's chicken was also delicious and came with a tantalizing and creamy celery root mashed potato puree.  Yum yum yum.  We will definitely go back there.  We also had fantastic service, which didn't hurt matters at all.

My most recent new recipe was not a success, I'm afraid to say.  I made (or attempted to make) pita bread to go with my tabbouleh (which is always a success!).  I used the recipe in my Joy of Cooking but had to make a few changes as a result of my inadequate flour supply.  The recipe called for three cups of bread flour, but I had 2 1/4 cups of whole wheat pastry flour and some buckwheat flour to make up the difference.  I also declined to knead the dough for the suggested 10 minutes.  My best guess is that, somewhere along the line, between the flour substitution and the inadequate kneading, I failed to develop enough gluten.  I'm not sure why they didn't puff up like balloons as the cookbook indicated they would.

Here is the finished product on day one, piled high with delicious tabbouleh:

At that point, I was still able to wrap it around the tabbouleh with no ill effects.  Here is what happened when I attempted the same maneuver the following day:

An almost unmitigated disaster, I'm afraid.  So I promptly cut the remaining pitas into triangles and turned them into pita chips.  Which are solid and crispy and delicious.

That's enough for tonight.  And I just have to say that this blog post would never have happened tonight if Margo hadn't made me do it.  There are a lot of positive things I might not do in my life if I didn't have her there to nudge me along.  And I'm grateful for where her nudging pushes me, even if I hate it in the moment.

Pathetic, I Know.

It seems as thought my blogging output:intentions ratio has suffered from my new position.  It's as though I am using so much of my brain power at work right now that there is nothing left after those 40 hours are up each week.  Even sadder is the stunning lack of progress that I've made on goals over the past few weeks.

I have, however, tried two new recipes (one of which was a relative success and the other of which was mostly a failure.  We had a delicious pre-symphony dinner at BOKA.  I've seen 9 of the 10 Best Picture-nominated films (plan to see #10 on Friday).  I've kept up the exercising, mostly.  I taught my friend Heather how to crochet.  Margo and I played the Wii last night.  Things are happening, I guess.

Today is a holiday, and I'm heading out to take some pictures, maybe do some thrifting, stock up on some pantry staples, and have dinner at Tutta Bella with a friend I haven't seen in a while.  I'm hoping to come home and upload some pictures and write a blog post (or two) tonight, giving you a little more info about the subjects I've glossed over in this post.  I've got pictures waiting to download, I promise.  And I'll have a few more after I hit the conservatory this afternoon.

Quick update

I realize it has been over a week since my last post.  The new job is kicking my ass and I have had little or no energy once the day is over to devote to anything besides sitting on the couch staring blankly, sometimes at the television.  I realized recently that this is the first time I've ever started a position where I was expected to be working at 100% on day one.  Let me tell you, folks, that's totally overwhelming.  There are plenty of understandable reasons why that is the case, but it's still kicking my ass.

I am, however, still exercising regularly.  In fact, the best hour of my week so far was the half hour I spent at the gym yesterday (I busted my ass during that half hour).  I'm looking forward to another good workout tomorrow after work.  Friday night is the symphony, which will be, in every imaginable way, the exact opposite of work.  Harmony, beauty, serenity, etc...  You get the picture.

Not a ton of updates on goals, I'm afraid.  Although we do have a firm reservation for dinner at the Herbfarm with two of our very good friends.  Let me tell you, that is a pricey expedition, pricier than I care to spend too much time thinking about.  I'm sure it will be amazing, though.  I'll tell you all about it after the fact (we're going on 5/6).  Still no fishing has happened.  I have a couple of potential fishing buddies, but have not hooked up with them yet.  I also bought my friend Jenny a plane ticket to come and visit me in May, which I am very, very excited about.  I'm looking forward to showing her around this part of the world that I have so fallen in love with in the years that I've lived here (almost 8 years now).

That's all for now, folks.  I need to go to bed.  I'm hopeful that in the next week or so I will be able to muster up the energy to write another post, maybe with a picture this time.  Hope you're all well out there.