Please join me in honoring my friend and colleague Lori Hope on her birthday.
She is truly a quality human being, and I'm thankful to have her as a friend, sounding board, co-conspirator, elf, choir geek, diet buddy, furniture-assembler, coaster-rider, and Jill-of-all-trades.
I have to start this review with a disclaimer. I've been a Mission: Impossible fan since I was in roughly second grade. For me, Peter Graves was The Man, and there was a thrill when the fuse lit every week. My babysitter used to let me stay up late to watch it sometimes, which added a frisson of danger to the operation. But I digress.
This time out, Ethan and his team are out in the cold, on their own against a bad guy who feels as if he belongs in an earlier era. In fact there's quite a bit about this MI movie that has a throwback aura. The music, the witty banter, and the edge-of-your-seat, precisely timed antics all made me feel nostalgic in a good way. This one seems a bit less slick and overproduced, as if the producers had a few cocktails and loosened up a bit. I like it.
The action takes place in Budapest, Dubai, and Mumbai, and revolves around a somewhat cockamamie plot involving nuclear codes (yes, nuclear codes). But the plot driver doesn't really matter; we're all really there to watch Ethan cling, Spiderman-style to the outside of the Burj Dubai. I loved the addition of Jeremy Renner to the mix, as well; he adds a kinetic energy to the team.
When they announce MI:5, I'll be right there ready to plunk down for a ticket.
When I first saw the trailer for Hugo, I was perplexed. It looked like it was a movie for kids, but it was directed by Martin Scorsese. Now that's intriguing. I noticed also that it was in 3D, a format I usually just tolerate, not necessarily enjoy.
However, Hugo manages to smash all expectations. It unfolds in 3D like a magical pop-up book, wheeling and spinning through a dreamy time and place. Somewhere in Paris, some time around the 30's, with a cast of characters populating a train station. Look for a brilliant turn by Sacha Baron Cohen (yes, of Bruno fame) as a lovesick security guard.
This is not a movie for young children, although it revolves around a mystical quest by a 12 year old boy. It is grounded in gritty reality (he's an orphan), but flies around fancifully, tracking the whys and wherefores of how people tick. I can't say too much about the actual story without spilling some of the intrigue, but let's just say it's mesmerizing in the best possible way.
This is one of Martin Scorsese's masterpieces. Not to be missed.
It might look like a deflated chef's hat, but this is, in fact, a delicious apple pie muffin. Can I just take a moment and describe the alluring cinnamon apple aroma that was wafting around the kitchen when these were baking? Can I tell you how many times the kids asked if the muffins were done yet? Can I just admit that I ate two of them while they were still so hot I burned my tongue with the apple bits and I don't even care?
The edges of the muffin top are chewy/crispy and the inside is full of diced apple bits held together by moist, spongy muffin. My advice? Go make these now. I mean right now.
I think that mine turned out a little different than the ones on the website because I was in a hurry and didn't fret too much about measuring. My topping was not really crumbly, it was more of a butter/brown sugar paste, and thus it sank into the middle rather than being a crumbly streusel topping...but I think it was a happy accident because dang it was delicious.
Every morning brings a new batch of "stuff" washed up on our beach. Shells, sharks, jellyfish, sponges, sea pork, etc., all have shown up in recent weeks. Today was apparently the day of Portuguese "Man o' War" jellyfish.
This guy was moving around a bit, so I thought I'd shoot some video to capture him.
The color was just about the same color as Windex. These guys are really beautiful.
...and there was one lone Puffer fish stranded. He was dead already, or we would have sent him back to the ocean!
Thought we were going to get rained on, but it cleared up on the walk back.
If you're trying to get in the Christmas spirit, I highly recommend seeing the movie Arthur Christmas. I had been anticipating it for a while, after seeing the inventive trailer that shows a Mission: Impossible like scenario where Santa is trapped in a kid's room and has to be extricated with surgical precision. That scene alone is worth the price of admission, but there is so much more. In the morass of substandard, crass, and cynical kid movies out there (I'm looking at you, Happy Feet 2), Arthur Christmas is a beacon of warmth and intelligence.
Arthur comes from a slightly disfunctional family of Clauses, and his overachieving brother doesn't realize that he's really the linchpin of true Christmas spirit. He actually cares about each child on the planet, and spends the entire movie bringing everyone else along on his quest to make good.
Fun for the whole family, and wonderfully fart-joke-free, Arthur is reaching for a more lasting impression, and made it for me. It's not just a light snack, it's a satisfying, stick-to-your-ribs meal.
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