Murder She Wrote Cookalong: Glynis Johns and chicken paprika

The Murder She Wrote Cookalong is an event in which the goal is to cook recipes provided by the host blog, Silver Screen Suppers. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the link at the host site.

I’m excited about this event because it combines two things I enjoy: cooking and blogging. For those of you joining me for the first time, welcome. A brief background: over three years ago, I had a health scare that required me to do some time in the hospital. Long story short, I needed to improve my eating habits, exercise more, and shed a few pounds. In addition to medication, I took up jogging and long walks (I ran my second 5K race in ten months last month), I cut back on snack foods and ate more vegetables, but above all I started cooking, and once I did I found I liked it more than I thought I would.

From picking out meals to shopping for ingredients to the actual process of cooking, it’s a challenge unlike others I’ve undertaken, and I consider myself a creative person by nature. Physically, I feel better now than I did three years ago, and I have a new artistic outlet. My only regret is that I didn’t do this much sooner in life.

Rocketlinks

Normally I don’t talk about blogathons in advance other than my own, but I’ve signed up for one that represents another first for this blog. Silver Screen Suppers pairs movie and TV stars with recipes. You might be aware that I’ve gotten into cooking in recent years, and I’ve found it fulfilling. The blog’s creator, Jenny Hammerton, has self-published Hollywood cookbooks, and she’s currently working on one devoted to the show Murder She Wrote. She has a ton of recipes lined up and she’s giving her readers the opportunity to cook them before the book comes out. Instead of a blogathon, it’s a cookalong!

So yes, I intend to cook a recipe and blog about it here on WSW. The recipes in the cookalong are tied to the MSW cast and its guest stars, many of whom come from Old Hollywood. The one I’ve chosen is for a guest star, Glynis Johns. I’m unfamiliar with her; a basic search reveals she was in Mary Poppins, and was quite the hottie in her youth.

I hope to find the MSW episode she was in and write about that (no guarantees), but even if I don’t, I’ll cook the recipe associated with her, chicken paprika. Apparently it’s her own recipe, or at least it’s attributed to her. The cookalong runs from September 30-October 5. My post will go up in October. (EDIT: Just remembered this won’t be the first time I’ve cooked for the blog, but it will be the first time I’ve documented the process.)

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I’m afraid I don’t have much to say about Doris Day. I was never a huge fan. One of my mother’s favorite songs is “Que Sera Sera.” She used to sing it a lot when I was a kid. I’ve seen Day in Pillow Talk (liked it) and The Man Who Knew Too Much (don’t remember it). Ivan used to do a feature called “Doris Day(s)” that he keeps promising to bring back. Maybe her death will spur him into reviving it, so you should visit him and prod him if you’re interested. I know she wasn’t all sweetness and light, like her public image had been. Maybe if she had more of an edge in her films, I might’ve been more interested in them? Dunno.

As for Tim Conway, here’s an anecdote about him from Carol Burnett’s memoir This Time Together. Burnett was friends with Cary Grant, who was a big fan of her TV show. He particularly enjoyed Conway and Harvey Korman. Burnett introduced them to each other, and one day Conway, Korman, Grant, and their respective wives hung out together. Grant had an awesome time. He thought Conway and Korman were hilarious. The following week, Grant invited Conway and Korman out again, and again Grant was fully entertained by the duo’s antics. The third time, same thing, and the more this kept going, the more Conway and Korman feared they’d run out of material. But this was, after all, Cary Grant, and they didn’t wanna let him down. Finally, Conway got a call at the same time Grant always called him, and he said, “If that’s Cary Grant, I’m not home!”

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Sometime within the next week I expect to finish my experiment in binge-watching television. I chose the first seasons of two streaming programs, Ozark and Longmire. I’m watching the former one episode at a time, and when that’s done, I’ll watch the latter all at once, and then I’ll compare. The more I read about bingeing, the more convinced I am that I should take precautions when I binge — and some people have expressed concern (I ain’t no Morgan Spurlock), so for the record, I intend to alternate between sitting and standing often, snack healthily (fruit, nuts, berries, etc.) with a break for a home-cooked dinner. Given what I’ve read, and the responses to my inquiries about bingeing from my friends, I think I know what my results will be, but I’m gonna see this through anyway.

More after the jump.

New year's links

The Christmas/New Year's week was very good. Virginia and I spent Christmas Night at another holiday dinner with friends. On New Year's Eve, she and Sandi were part of a large chorus that performs a NYE show every year.

Afterwards, a whole bunch of us rang in the new year at the same bar and grill where Virginia and I first got to really know each other a year ago (we consider it our anniversary), so NYE has taken on an added significance for me. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am to have her in my life?

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The latest draft of the novel is done but it's not ready to go out yet. I know this for certain; it's better than it was a year ago, but it's not where it oughta be yet, so I gotta tighten it up some more.

The good news is I've got some beta readers looking it over, though I could use a few more — especially baseball fans. If anyone out there is interested, e-mail me at ratzo318@yahoo.com and let's talk.

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A brief word about Penny Marshall: Laverne and Shirley was one of my favorite sitcoms and Big was one of my favorite films growing up. I vaguely remember being a bit surprised to learn she was becoming a director, but she turned into a very successful one indeed. As a comedienne, she was enjoyable and part of my childhood; as a director, she proved to have an even more special talent that deserved to flourish more than it did. She was a trailblazer for the likes of Kathryn Bigelow, Ava DuVernay, Greta Gerwig and more. She'll be missed.

More after the jump.

A star is linked

Not a whole lot to talk about this month. Cynthia Nixon was robbed, the novel rewrite is going great, and things between me and Virginia are swell. The Neil Simon Blogathon is in a couple of weeks; there's still time to join Paddy and myself for the occasion, if you want in.

Let's jump straight to the links for once!

Raquel answers questions from her readers.

Ivan discusses the century-old comic strip Gasoline Alley and the two films inspired by it.

Jacqueline ponders whether this Depression-era film endorsed socialism.

Jennifer talks contemporary high school movies and compares them with her own experience.

Le writes about a very early Ernst Lubitsch silent film which challenges gender roles.

Variety's coverage of Cynthia Nixon's loss in the New York primaries.

What are Feedspot's choices for the Top 30 Classic Film Blogs?

The Wizard of Oz ruby slippers, after having gone missing for 13 years, have been found!

Gauging the truthiness of films "based on a true story."

Bullwinkle and political satire.

Is it possible liking trash cinema makes you smarter?

Claudette Colbert liked cooking desserts.

Armie Hammer hearts scooters.

Finally, best wishes to Crystal of In the Good Old Days of Classic Hollywood, who's recovering from surgery.

Off-topic: cookies a la Paddy

So I was rummaging through Paddy's back pages and found this recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which she calls choir cookies (click the link to find out why). I've made a few desserts ever since I've seriously taken up cooking, but I hadn't tried cookies of any kind yet, so this seemed like a good time.

The good news is, they were edible!  I didn't follow the sequence exactly (I was finishing dinner at the same time I was working on these) and I thought they would come out wrong; plus, my oven didn't cook them all the way through the first time, so I had to bake them longer, but in the end, they looked the way chocolate chip cookies should look.

They're not as soft as I expected: firm shell outside, softer on the inside; tasted a little buttery (even though I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter); lots of chips. They're okay. I'm sure Paddy makes them better.

Super Size Me

The Food in Film Blogathon is an event devoted to movies with an emphasis on food, hosted by Speakeasy and Silver Screenings. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the links at either site.

Super Size Me
YouTube viewing

It wasn't the burgers or the fries that enticed me, not at first; it was the cookies. I remember the box they came in, with its colorful cast of characters: the clown, the burger thief, the burger-headed law enforcement official, the purple... thing. It's not like the cookies themselves were that special; I, like millions of American children, had simply fallen under the spell of those characters. Credit where credit's due; whoever thought of them was a genius.

They made me want to eat at McDonald's.

Link runner

I'm sure I've talked about this before, but I was reminded of it again recently and I feel like complaining. As you know, I come from a comics background. Marvel and DC Comics have broken into television and film in a big way now, to the point where secondary and tertiary characters, the ones only hardcore comics fans would have known in the past, are getting their moments in the spotlight.

If you still actually read the comics themselves, I imagine it's pretty exciting, though my passion for superhero comics cooled long ago. If you're a fan of a certain age, like I am, you can remember when they were - not a secret thing, exactly, but something that required specialized knowledge to fully comprehend, and only a minority possessed it. Having that knowledge made us unique and distinctive, if not exactly popular, but that was the price we paid for knowing important things like Wonder Girl's convoluted history or the fate of Cyclops' second brother.

It's more than a little grating to me to know the walls of the fortress called Comics Fandom have been breached; that anybody with a Netflix account can get a basic education on the fringe elements of the Marvel Universe, the kinda stuff that used to be the exclusive province of the fanboy. Even ten years ago, TV shows based on characters like Luke Cage and Iron Fist and now the Inhumans would have been nothing more than fodder for a Wizard magazine "Casting Call" column. It's just a struggle to accept (though I wonder how many people who watch these shows and films read the comics on which they were based).

Speaking of TV, between Discovery, The Orville and Feud, I've watched way more of it this year than usual, and um, how do I say this without sounding like a prude... It's surprising what you can say and do on TV now. You're all saying "No duh," but it's one thing to write about how shows look more like movies now and another to actually see it for myself. I mean, they were bandying the word dick around pretty casually on The Orville (it's a Fox show, so I really shouldn't have been surprised).

Feud was on basic cable, but even so, I couldn't quite get used to the profanity - which is odd, because if I were watching a movie on IFC or Cinemax that had profanity, I wouldn't think twice. Maybe it's because I know it's a movie that makes the difference?

It's not just the language. The production values on Feud, as I said at the time, were outstanding: sets, wardrobe, cinematography and editing. The aliens and ships in Discovery and Orville, not to mention the visual effects, make every episode look theatrical. It's no wonder film is suffering another downturn in sales. I guess that's why some theaters are so eager to install luxury recliner seats and have a wait staff bring you your food. What's next?

In other news, my novel is close to done. When it comes time to revise it, I'll have to do things like fill in research gaps, such as for medical and legal story details; rethink certain character traits now that I know more about them; rethink certain plot details; and rewrite where necessary... and it will be necessary. In a lot of ways, it's a bigger task than writing the story. This was a good idea, right?

Two blogathon posts for you this month, and now that fall is here, the good new releases will multiply. I may even write about a few.

Your links:

Ivan checks out an early film from dance legend Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Marsha explains why Marilyn Monroe made her cry.

Aurora has a terrific guest post from a woman who grew up a classic film fan in Spain.

Silver Screenings Ruth peeps behind the curtain at movie stars before they were glamorous.

Le looks at the friendship of Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow.

The reaction to Mother! is the latest example of the need for audiences to have everything explained to them. (Excellent article.)

One of my favorite childhood TV series, The Carol Burnett Show, debuted 50 years ago last month.

John Lennon once appeared in a fourth wall-breaking war comedy.

Ever wonder how theaters started selling popcorn?

Wanna buy some of Audrey Hepburn's old clothes?

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
seen @ Cinemart Fiveplex, Forest Hills, Queens NY

For almost as long as I can remember, comic books have made me want to create a sci-fi epic. I've tried, more than once: As a kid, I made my initial foray into self-publishing comics. Among my attempts included a Fantastic Four-inspired yarn set in space. I did them strictly for myself. I made no attempt to reproduce them. That would come much later.

In recent years, I started (but never finished) a comic that was a SF remake of The Wizard of Oz (substitute a wormhole for a cyclone) and an SF graphic novel originally meant to be a pitch to Marvel until I changed the names and made it an original. I have a bad habit of not finishing stuff, which kinda irks me. That's why I'm so determined to complete my novel (almost two-thirds done as of this writing!).

Comics were great for these kinds of tales growing up. Post-Star Wars, the movies were starting to get a better handle on the special effects, costumes, sets, props and makeup necessary to create better alien worlds, ships and beings. Comics, however, could go anywhere and do anything, on a way smaller budget.

To a ten-year-old kid like I was, these four-color sagas blew my mind. They also fired my imagination, right around the time I began to discover my artistic ability. The fantastic worlds and strange dimensions depicted in comics made me want to create a few of my own.

Comics are still capable of going anywhere and doing anything, but these days, so are the movies. While watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, I had to take a moment to, pardon the pun, marvel at what I was seeing: a talking raccoon with ray guns; a plant-like child alien; a godlike being and his heavenly home planet; a giant squid monster; sophisticated weapons and ships that move and function in ways that would've been impossible to depict thirty years ago.

Once, comics were the best at visualizing such things. Now, they're not only possible to create for the movies, they've practically become commonplace. I don't think we properly acknowledge this minor miracle enough. (I found it telling that the new Marvel Studios logo contains images from the Marvel movies instead of from the comics, like it used to.)

What does this mean for comics? Well, no one's stopped reading books because of the movies; I suspect the same will be true of comics. They still have their own unique properties - the comics theory books of Scott McCloud go into great detail about this - that should be emphasized if they're gonna move further in the 21st century. That's gonna mean way more than superheroes. But that's an argument for another day.

Director James Gunn wrote G2, as he did the first film. This feels a bit more like a Marvel Universe movie. Kurt Russell's character is one I never thought I'd see in a movie, because of its obscurity and its cosmic scale, but this is a franchise tailor made for both. Gunn found a way to not only bring him closer to human scale, but to tie him to the Guardians in a convenient way. In a series so eager to celebrate 70s/80s pop culture, casting Snake Plissken (and Sly Stallone too!) was a good call.

So what did Stephanie Zacharek think of G2? Previously, the film critic (now working for Time) sneered at "Fun! with a capital F" movies like Guardians. This time, sad to say, her opinion hasn't wavered: "[G2] feels not so much crafted as squirted from a tube.... This is a movie that praises viewers for being cool enough to show up and then proceeds to insult them - but only ironically, see?"

Needless to say, I did not feel insulted, ironically or otherwise, and neither did the audience I saw it with (who applauded at the end). G2 expands on the surrogate-family theme in the first film, contrasting it with conflicts within actual families. Granted, this is not unfamiliar territory, but it's all about execution. Gunn gives us enough human moments (for non-human characters!) in-between the humor to let us believe in these people and care about what happens to them. Special kudos go out to Michael Rooker, who was particularly dynamite here.

Then there's the songs. Zacharek says: "Freed from their original contexts and given flimsy new ones, if any, they toil in the service of a movie that's invested in little beyond smirking at its non jokes." I tend to agree with the part about the music. Outside of the song "Brandy" by Looking Glass, which plays a significant role, one does get a feeling the music's there in G2 because it's what we've come to expect now, not because it impacts the story in any way. This is always a risk when pop songs are a big part of your soundtrack. I would hope Gunn becomes more judicious in how he employs music in the future. Look at the way "Hello Stranger" is used in Moonlight and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Also, after a post-credit cameo in the last film, Howard the Duck makes another brief appearance in G2, a slightly longer one this time. Howard was a character from the 70s who was unique in that he had a very countercultural bent, reflecting the sensibilities of his creator, the late Steve Gerber. Unfortunately, he's remembered more these days for that awful George Lucas movie from the 80s. Could Marvel be setting us up for a Howard reboot - one in which he's done right? Sure seems possible!

Cinemart started screening G2 Thursday night, May 4, so I took advantage. Their renovation has continued; they upgraded their bathrooms, which was nice. Not that they were sub-par before, but this is better. I was dismayed to see, however, that their popcorn comes pre-salted, without a salt-free option. I sampled a really small bag. Couldn't taste the difference, but I won't eat it in the future, even if they are giving it away - which they were. Points off, but there's always candy. Perhaps they'll add healthier options to the menu in the future. I hope so.

Link in the shell

Why no links last month? Long story short, I was sick the last week of January (I'm better now) and I didn't have a great deal to say at the time, so I decided to forget about it. No big deal, really.

I never would have dreamed, in all my years of blogging, that my choice for film of the year would match the Academy's. Perhaps I should rethink what I had said about how the Oscars rarely reward the truly deserving. Warren Beatty's announcement faux pas aside, Moonlight winning Best Picture rights the wrong of Brokeback Mountain losing to Crash, anoints Barry Jenkins as a new directing talent (even if he did lose Best Director) and just plain makes sense. Bravo. Now Star Trek Beyond losing Best Makeup, on the other hand...

Bill Paxton was never flashy, but he was a reliable, down-to-earth presence in many high-powered action movies... and yes, he was in that Big Boat Movie, too. I think his best film might have been A Simple Plan, a suspenseful character study about greed and the ways it messes with your head. Also check out One False Move, another good thriller. He was a fine actor who had an excellent career.

I'm gonna try something different for the next two months: blogging about a new TV show as it airs. You may have heard by now about the forthcoming FX mini-series Feud: Bette and Joan, starring Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange as, respectively, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Obviously, this is of interest to film buffs, so I thought I'd try writing about it, week by week. It airs on Sunday nights, so my reviews will be the following Mondays. I doubt it'll be difficult; I hope it'll be fun.

The Jack Lemmon Blogathon is coming at the end of the month. Le and I thank everyone who's participating. Looks like we got a fair amount of contributors. That's great. I'll also return to the Queens World Film Festival, so look out for that. Busy times ahead.

No links last month means you get more this month:

Kristina interviews a filmmaker who looks for the connections between film and fine art.

FlixChatter Ruth provides an update on her debut film in progress.

Phyllis loves Carole Lombard's jewels.

Silver Screenings Ruth proves Erich von Stroheim was no dummy, even if he talked to one.

Fritzi goes deep in her analysis of a Paul Robeson melodrama.

Le reads Buster Keaton's autobiography.

Paddy, meanwhile, reads three books inspired by Keaton.

Dick van Dyke on Mary Tyler Moore.

Glenn Close is reviving Sunset Boulevard for the stage.

Finally, this isn't directly movie related, but the next time you watch a video at home, try cooking up this recipe for caramel marshmallow popcorn.

Lust for Life

The Kirk Douglas Blogathon is an event honoring the life and career of the actor-producer on the centennial of his birth, hosted by Shadows and Satin. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the link at the host site.

Lust for Life
library rental

When I ran a Google search on the name Vincent van Gogh, I was surprised at the number of recent articles about or related to him. For instance: there's a new book out containing previously-unseen drawings of his that some people say are fakes. Another new book about the 19th-century Dutch painter claims he cut off his ear because his brother Theo was getting married. A third new book claims the Metropolitan Museum of Art's VVG painting is fake too. Plus, there's an upcoming VVG biopic requiring over 60,000 original oil paintings to animate.

Over a century after his death, the strange life and brilliant career of VVG continues to captivate modern art lovers and incite discussion. Despite his talent, the dude had some serious mental issues. He was the original tortured artist. The theories as to why he was the way he was abound: he was bipolar; he was epileptic; he was a mama's boy; etc. It's unlikely we'll ever know the truth.

Fantastic links and where to find them

Things have been going good lately. I've been on a bit of a tear with the novel, which is why I took another week off from here. I had to force myself to break away from it in order to keep the blog going! I feel like I understand my characters better now, especially my female lead. I had been sort of feeling my way through her central conflict for awhile, but then bolt-of-lightning inspiration struck. My scenes are getting longer as a result because I have more to say. I'm still a long way from calling this manuscript finished, though.

Meanwhile, I've also been honing my culinary abilities, such as they are. I got my mother's old crock pot out of mothballs and after at least two decades of inactivity, it still works. I've made a bacon & corn chowder and a chicken parmesan pasta with the crock pot using recipes found on cooking blogs. They both turned out pretty good.

The support from my Facebook friends continues to amaze me. Not the support itself - I've got some terrific friends - but the strong opinions that cooking seems to engender. They say too many cooks spoil the broth, but that hasn't happened to me yet. All the advice I've been getting so far has been useful. My only regret is that I never learned how to cook when I was living in Columbus. I went grocery shopping every week, but almost never for food I could cook (as opposed to heat up in a microwave). I might have saved a fair amount of money if I had!

Three blogathon posts this month, including two in one weekend. I may have a lot of new releases too; it's that time of year. I know I won't be able to see everything, though. I never can. Also, the Alamo Drafthouse has finally opened in Brooklyn. I hope to write about my first movie there very soon.

Also, I wanna send a shout-out and good luck wishes to Ruth from the blog Silver Screenings. She's taking on NaNoWriMo this year. As you probably know, the novel I'm working on was the result of my experience with this annual novel-writing challenge. I think everyone who enjoys writing and wants to push their talent and creativity in strange and unexpected new directions should give it a try. It's not for everyone, but those who attempt it will learn a few new things about themselves and their work. 

Your links:

Le talks about the slapstick tradition in Brazilian cinema.

Paddy, guest blogging at Jacqueline's site, provides a Canadian perspective on American cinema.

Ivan reviews two books about essential genre cinema.

Raquel reviews a restored film noir from Argentinian cinema.

Jennifer strolls through haunted houses in classic horror cinema.

Bring me the head of Christopher Walken!

Robin Williams loved bicycles. (subscription required)

A parent-child relationship examined through the lens of Back to the Future.

Cinematic sex and violence, female edition: a critical discourse. (NSFW)

Finally, in honor of the end of the Obama administration, here's an interview where he talks Star Trek. It has been eight great years. Let's hope the next four are just as good.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille
Disney Channel viewing

My health scare earlier this year convinced me I need to start eating better. I've attempted to do so in the months since. Habits I had ingrained within me for so many years - the bag of chips bought on the way home, the box of cookies unthinkingly tossed into the shopping cart, the constant refills on soda - they all have to be broken.

Temptation is in my face every damn day. I have to make conscious choices to not buy certain food, to read the nutrition labels on packages, to be careful not to eat too much of something. I have successful days and unsuccessful ones.

Then I started to do my own cooking.

I had a very mild interest in cooking for awhile, but it was never serious. I considered making spaghetti a culinary triumph. Now, though, my health has given me a reason to learn how to cook, and my whole outlook has changed. I've taken baby steps in a few directions. For instance, I used to be horrible at making rice. It would always burn. Now, I can make it in my sleep. I like cooking it in a broth and adding chicken cutlets cut up into pieces.

My mother has been a tremendous help. She always knows how something should be fixed, at what temperature and for how long. Learning from her hasn't been as difficult as I thought. When she demonstrated how to cook fish, she showed me not only how to turn them over in the pan so they won't fall to pieces, but also how to buy them at our local fish market. I've only cooked fish twice so far, but I find it less intimidating now than before. Definitely couldn't have done it without her.

The big surprise has been the outpouring of support I've received on Facebook. A number of my friends have been incredibly encouraging, offering advice, suggestions and recipes. For instance: I met Tricia in Columbus. She was one of my bicycling friends. Don't even know her that well. She sent me a package of basmati rice with spices!

Most friends, though, have stuck to providing words of wisdom. Lynn has been a big help. Recently, she suggested I try sautéed vegetables, which I may do the next time I make noodles. Melissa is a friend of Andi's. I don't know her that well either, but I've picked her brain for advice because she cooks for her girlfriend all the time.

Jen and I have had lots of conversations about food. As a child, her mother fed her junk food literally all the time, and it took years to restore her health to normal and to lose weight. (She's writing a memoir about her rough childhood. There's a beautiful passage where she describes walking for exercise for the first time and how liberating it felt.) She has a pretty good understanding of what I'm going through, and I've confided in her a great deal. She recently suggested I visit a supermarket in Elmhurst, an Asian neighborhood, because I can get things like noodles dirt cheap.

In the beginning, I stuck to the basics, but I've slowly begun trying to cook with a flourish - adding a spice or an herb here, a vegetable or two there. I recognize it's a matter of trying out what works and what doesn't, but I'm still learning about so many things: portions, tastes, smells, cooking techniques. I certainly don't expect to learn even a fraction of it all. If I never cook for anyone other than my mother and myself, that would suit me fine. Melissa seems perfectly happy cooking for her girlfriend. (I had mistakenly thought she cooked for a living.)

Given all of this, you can imagine how differently I now view a movie like Ratatouille. I may not have Remy's culinary instincts, but I think I understand his love for cooking better. It is a form of self-expression, as individual as art or music or writing. It's a language I'm only starting to speak, but native speakers like Remy are eloquent.

For Remy, cooking is not just a fun hobby; it represents an escape from the conservative traditions of his clan and a window into a new culture, a new way of thinking. That's a powerful metaphor. I think this is one of the finest of the Pixar movies; it's certainly one of the best American films of the 21st century so far.

Frank Sinatra's Hoboken, then and now

The Sinatra Centennial Blogathon is an event devoted to the life and career of Frank Sinatra on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his birth, hosted by Movie Classics and The Vintage Cameo. For a complete list of participating bloggers, visit the links at either site.

I think the first time I visited Hoboken might have been after I started seeing movies at the Loew's Jersey City, which would've been several years ago. On the PATH train, Hoboken is the first stop in New Jersey from Midtown Manhattan, and Jersey City is a little further down. Every once in awhile, I hang out in the former before I make my way to the latter.

I had heard that Hoboken was a happening place these days, and I suppose it is, in its way. I've seen it called "the sixth borough." It's so small, it doesn't seem like it could legitimately be called a city - the whole of it could easily fit inside Queens with room to spare. The main drag is Washington Avenue, where City Hall and the overwhelming bulk of the retail businesses are located. Carlo's Bake Shop, where the popular TV show Cake Boss is set, is on this street too, and it always attracts a big crowd of customers. There are tons of sports bars all over town, and in terms of local culture, there's plenty to do. And of course, the first organized baseball game was played here, though Cooperstown, NY, may argue the point. Still, if there's one thing that this riverside burg is known for, above and beyond everything else it has to offer, it's this: Hoboken is the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.

New release roundup for March '15

- Deli Man. My first 2015 movie of the year is this delightful little documentary about the traditional Jewish deli, its glorious past and its diminished-but-still-thriving present, including testimonials from notable Jewish celebs such as Jerry Stiller and Larry King. We see the difficulty and the stress of working such a hectic place as a deli, as well as the camaraderie and the fun, and Jewish culture and history get their fair share of attention. Not as New York-centric as you might imagine, although the Big Apple is well-represented. We also see Jewish delis in places like Houston, Toronto and San Francisco, among other places. While I don't frequent them that much, here in New York I've been to Katz's on the Lower East Side and the Carnegie in midtown. They feel rather touristy, but as a unique New York experience, they're worth going to. If you can't make it, though, at least see this movie.

- Red Army. Fascinating doc about the Soviet hockey team of the 70s and 80s - the team that utterly dominated its opponents in the name of the greater glory of the USSR and the Communist way of life. I have vague memories of "Miracle on Ice," when the US Olympic team upset the Soviets in 1980. I certainly remember the pro-US fervor that gripped the country around that time, even if I was too young to understand the reasons why the Soviets were the so-called "Evil Empire." The movie focuses on superstar player Slava Fetisov: his career, his contentious relationship with his coach, his eventual move to America and the NHL, and his post-playing career. He's a prickly sort, to say the least, but hearing him talk about living behind the Iron Curtain and what the Red Army team represented to the Soviet people, particularly the government, is riveting. Much more than just a sports doc.

Guardians of the links

I already announced this on the Facebook page, but part of the reason why I missed a big chunk of July is because I've begun work on a WSW compilation book. It'll collect select posts from the first two years of the blog and also include some new material. It's early yet, so I don't say too much more than that right now, but I believe that the combination of my movie posts and my City Mouse cartoons will make this a unique and highly personal book that you're gonna want for yourself. More to follow.

So this hasn't been the best season for outdoor movies so far. I've only written about three; the rest of the ones I've had scheduled for June and July were either rained out, canceled or were shows I blew off for other reasons (for instance, I saw Life Itself after deciding not to see an outdoor movie). Certain individuals on Twitter who fancy themselves comedians have taken the opportunity to treat my nighttime excursions as if I were sneaking out of the house past my bedtime or something, but despite such tomfoolery, I expect the rest of my schedule to go well.

Your links for this month:

Jennifer ponders how much truth there is to the belief that classic film actresses were considered washed up after age 40.

Maureen O'Hara and The Quiet Man mean a great deal to Kellee.

The Lady Eve goes on a ramble about dessert food and champagne and manages to tie it to movies.

Monstergirl is in her element with a truly wacky horror B-movie featuring a truly bizarre-looking monster.

Aurora returns to upstate New York for Capitolfest, and here she interviews one of its heads.

The analysis on Boyhood's Oscar chances has begun.

An oral history on the flawed but adorable Galaxy Quest.

Who to turn to in order to make your R-rated movie into a PG-13.

And finally, I wanna wish a happy 25th wedding anniversary to fellow film blogger Dorian and her husband, Vinnie.

Troll 2

Troll 2
seen @ Videology, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
6.6.14

I'm not a vegetarian. Never have been, don't think I ever could be. I'm familiar with the basic arguments against eating meat. I've read Fast Food Nation; I'm aware of the inhumane tactics used by this country in making burgers, although I haven't eaten a McDonald's hamburger in many, many years. Whenever possible (read: affordable), I try to buy organic or free-range or cruelty-free or whatever the alternatives to standard-issue meat are these days (which includes luncheon meats as well), but those times are rare.

If I absolutely had to, I imagine I could live on nuts and berries, fruits and vegetables alone, but to be honest, I don't want to. Period. I'm not interested in the ethical implications of eating meat because humans have been eating meat since the dawn of time. I try to balance it out with other kinds of food as often as I can (though I don't always succeed) and I exercise by taking long walks, but that's the extent of it for me. If that still makes me a bad person, so be it.

I'm sure I must know more people who are vegetarians, but the only one I can think of at the moment is my pal Eric - Bibi's husband, not the one from high school. Bibi and Eric were in town this past Saturday and they were telling me about their European vacation last month. Eric said that he had to forego his vegetarianism temporarily because they were staying with relatives and he didn't want to force them to make special compensations just for him. He dealt with it fine. He's not the type to push his meat-is-murder beliefs on other people (though I doubt he's quite that militant about it).

Which brings us to Troll 2. Despite what you've no doubt heard, I wouldn't call this the Worst Movie of All Time. (Like I said on Twitter, I'd happily concede that title to Manos: The Hands of Fate.) It's lousy, make no mistake about it, but the production values are a wee bit above average; the location shooting was a nice touch; the gore quotient isn't bad for a low-budget horror movie; and yeah, there were a couple of moments here and there where I genuinely flinched. And I'm convinced that underneath the bad acting and shoddy dialogue there's a germ of a seed of a halfway decent idea. I can't say that about The Room.

As part of some kind of family-exchange program (?), a typical all-American family spends a summer in the small rural town of Nilbog (yes... that's the actual name), where the natives are vegetarians, but the food they eat isn't exactly the kind you'd find at your local Whole Foods. The young son is haunted by the ghost of his late grandfather, who knows the truth about the townspeople - they're actually man-eating goblins straight out of ancient legend (not trolls... goblins) - and it's up to the boy to keep his family from eating of the Nilbog food, which stirs a biological change that turns humans into a bizarre kind of plant life suitable for eating by the goblins. It's one part Soylent Green, one part Grimm Fairy Tales, one part Dungeons & Dragons.

Troll 2 (my understanding is that the first Troll movie has absolutely nothing to do with this one) should've been played for satire. In the hands of, say, Mike Judge, this could've been an intentionally funny spoof that would've skewered both vegetarian health nuts and redneck meat-eaters alike, and also provide a critique on the American food industry in general. Apparently, though, Italian director/co-writer Claudio Fragasso (a.k.a. Drake Floyd), along with his wife and co-writer Rossella Drudi, wrote the screenplay in bad English, which they insisted was to be read by the actors verbatim. Sounds like they - like Tommy Wiseau, like Harold P. Warren, like Ed Wood - thought they were geniuses who couldn't be told anything.

Cracked recently did a piece on how to distinguish "good-bad movies" from legitimately bad ones, and I'd say Troll 2 fits most of the criteria. There was lots of unintended humor, the awfulness definitely escalates, and one can certainly learn from Fragasso & Drudi's mistakes on how to write a screenplay. That said, however...

...I really wish I saw this with a bigger crowd. I saw Troll 2 at a place called Videology, in Williamsburg. For years, it was a simple video store, but recently, they made a drastic overhaul and now they're a bar and restaurant that screens movies and TV shows - in addition to still renting videos! This was my first time in the place. I remember how it used to look because I'd often pass by it when I worked in Williamsburg. It's completely different now. The bar is in the front, with seating space; in the middle is a booth where one can rent and return videos, along with bathrooms and the kitchen; and in the back is a larger dining room area where the movies are shown. DVDs line one wall off to the side, and a door and curtain separates the room from the bar area. It's very nice.

By the time the movie started, I was the only one in the room. I got there about a half hour early because this was a free show, and I figured a movie with as big a cult following as it has would mean a large crowd. Not so. A couple of guys came in about five or ten minutes into the movie, and they chattered to themselves here and there, about the movie and other things, as I munched my very salty popcorn. This was one time, though, where I didn't object to people talking. I knew that Troll 2 was the kind of movie you don't watch the same way you watch, say, a Scorsese movie, and I was fully prepared for some audio commentary from the crowd. I kinda wished they were more vocal in their heckling!

Noah

Noah
seen @ AMC Fresh Meadows 7, Fresh Meadows, Queens, NY
3.28.14

Pastor Fred Phelps is dead.

For over fifty years, the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas preached the gospel of the Bible to his congregation. In recent years, however, he and his constituents became notorious for sitting in judgment on their fellow man in a fashion numerous Americans found reprehensible.

This godless heathen believes Phelps was a small-minded, bigoted, intolerant, hypocritical sham of a human being and that the world is a vastly improved place without him.

But he was not in any way unique.

The Wind Rises

The Wind Rises
seen @ Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers, Yonkers NY
3.11.14

Even if you don't live in Texas (I don't), chances are that if you follow film at all, at some point you've heard of the Alamo Drafthouse chain of theaters. Simply put, they are the model by which all modern movie theaters should be judged. A lot has changed in the way we watch movies these days - Netflix, online streaming, video on demand; these have all become viable and profitable options when it comes to watching movies. For those of us who still prefer going to a theater and seeing a movie with a crowd, it's fair to say that nobody does it better than the Alamo. I've read about it, and now, I can finally say I've experienced it firsthand.

Next year, an Alamo theater will open in downtown Brooklyn, but for now, the closest one near me is the one in Yonkers, up in Westchester County. From where I live, it's a long trip: a bus to the subway to another bus, though I saved a little by walking to the subway. The 4 train, like its Lexington Avenue-line brothers the 5 and 6, traverses up the east side of Manhattan and deep into the Boogie Down Bronx, passing Y-nk-- Stadium along the way. It was the first time I had seen the new ballpark. I suppose it looks impressive enough, though it's not like I've been there very often.

Of course, once I got off the train, I took the wrong bus (actually, it was the right bus; it just didn't go as far as I needed it to) and got off at the wrong stop. I can't remember the last time I had been to Yonkers. I think it may have been back in my college days. I remember going to see Star Trek VI on opening night with friends in Yonkers, though where exactly, I couldn't tell you. It was dark and rainy and we had driven up there.

Anyway, from the outside, the Yonkers Alamo looks like any other theater in a strip mall, until you go inside. For one thing, there are the posters: reinterpretations of classic and contemporary movie posters with magnificent art, all of them much more imaginative and creative than the ones you normally see. 

Then there's something very peculiar: they have a re-creation of the bomb from the climax of the movie Dr. Strangelove - the one Slim Pickens giddily rides on the way down to destruction - and apparently you can climb on board it and have your picture taken on it. It even comes with a replica of the hat Pickens wore. I think all the Alamo theaters have something like this. If I had been with someone else, I suppose I would've had my picture taken, but I didn't, so I didn't. (And no, it didn't occur to me to use my cellphone to take a "selfie.")

The movie I saw was The Wind Rises, an animated film based on the true story of the Japanese guy who invented the zero wing airplane. The Alamo did something clever: before the film, they played videos and shorts related to it. (I assume they do this sort of thing for all their films.) They played WW2 newsreels, old footage of attempts to create flying machines, videos of Wind director Hayao Miyazaki, even a Simpsons clip that was an homage to the films of Miyazaki. Needless to say, all of this was much more entertaining than your average edition of "The 20."

Perhaps you've heard about how the Alamo offers restaurant-quality food in addition to traditional theater snacks. When you go into the auditorium, the aisles of seats each come with long shelves in front of them, on which you can eat, and underneath them are the menus. There are ushers who double as waiters, and you write down your order on a piece of paper, position it upright in a slot on the shelf in front of you, and that's how they take your order. The emphasis is on quiet, since you can do this during the movie as well as before it, though that wasn't an issue on Tuesday; it was a tiny crowd. I had a burger called a "royale with cheese," just like out of Pulp Fiction, with fries and a root beer, and it was great, though expensive. I think next time I may settle for an appetizer. Did I mention that the waiters here also expect tips?

And then, of course, there's perhaps the Alamo's most well-known element - their zero-tolerance policy on talking and texting. Again, it wasn't an issue on Tuesday because there were so few people, but I still got to see it in action: slides and video clips remind the audience - humorously but firmly - that if you talk or text during the film, you get a warning first, and then an ejection with no refund. I had read about this, of course, even wrote about it here, but actually seeing it for the first time, and knowing that the Alamo cares enough to enforce this policy, was a quite unusual feeling.

So that's what going to the Alamo is like. I also copped an issue of their in-house magazine Birth Movies Death, which had articles about the monthly features and current movies playing at the Alamo. I think if when I go again, I'd like to go for one of their special events, but again, getting there is a long trip. Still, I'm familiar with it now, so it won't be as intimidating... and I'll know which bus to get on!

As for the movie itself, well, I thought it was okay, but the problem I had with it was that it seemed a bit too rosy-colored. Jiro Horikoshi, the main character, keeps saying throughout the story that all he wants to do is make awesome planes for his country, yet he must have known that they would be used as weapons of war. There's some talk about Japan's political and economic situation leading up to WW2, but the war itself seems far away. Hitler is mentioned only once. And the second half of the story is dominated by Jiro's relationship with his girlfriend-turned-wife Nahoko and her illness. There wasn't enough war-related material to suit me, and I felt like there should have been.