Me + Lunch = Happy
By bukkhead | July 8, 2007
The GF and I like to play a game, call it food math. Thai food is a mixture of Chinese and Indian. Malaysian food is a mixture of Thai and Indian, which I suppose makes it three quarters Indian, one quarter Chinese. I say Thai is Chinese plus curry and coconut, and Malaysian is Thai minus coconut plus tomatoes. You probably have your own equations. But the food at the Banana Leaf in Vancouver,. While Malaysian, can even be compared to other non-Asian foods and be still viewed favorably. Read the rest of this entry »
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Red Hot Chili Opressors
By bukkhead | July 7, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘THE MISTRESS OF SPICES’
Written by Gurinder Chadha and Paul Mayeda Berges
Directed by Paul Mayeda Berges
Rated PG-13
92mins.
1 star
Tilo (Aishwarya Rai) was born with some kind of second sight, and here parents were murdered for it so she could be used by bandits to find treasure. But she escaped, to wash up on a secret island where an old woman runs a kind of nunnery for young girls who will become spice mistresses. When Tilo comes of age, she gets to walk across hot coals, and then go to a city of the old woman’s choosing, to sell spices and drift about languidly in her shop. And what great city is this? London, Paris, New York? No, it seems to be San Jose, and why not; Silicon Valley, after all, has an enormous Indian population (I mean, they must, right? There’s a tech industry there). Read the rest of this entry »
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Nothing Gained, Nothing Ventured
By bukkhead | July 7, 2007
It might seem pointless to write a review of a diner attached to a motel. But I’ve decided, while I have the momentum, to take the skater approach to blogging and reviewing. When you watch a skater video, you see the wow moments—and sometimes they even show you the really bad crashes. But what they don’t show you is the hundreds and hundreds of failed attempts, the boring misses. But skaters do it anyway, until what looks incredible to us is old hat to them. Read the rest of this entry »
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Rough in the Diamonds
By bukkhead | July 6, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘BLOOD DIAMOND’
Written by Charles Leavitt
Directed by Edward Zwick
Rated R
143 mins.
3½ stars
I haven’t seen Apocalypse Now, so it might be a bit silly to compare Blood Diamond to Coppola’s Vietnam-War Epic. But Apocalypse was such a huge movie, it is undeniably part of our pop-consciousness, and I have seen enough clips and heard enough anecdotes from the film to know what was going on. More or less. Maybe it’s a good thing I haven’t seen it, in this case of comparing it to Blood, since you will be able to understand what I’m talking about without having seen it yourself. Read the rest of this entry »
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The Sound of Fury
By bukkhead | July 3, 2007
CD REVIEW: ‘VENA SERA’
Artist: Chevelle
Produced and Mixed by Michael “Elvis” Baskette
Record Company: Sony BMG/Epic
Chevelle is hard rock stripped down and rebuilt on riffless lead guitar, heavy fuzz on the reverb, and a driving percussion underscored by coffin-lid bass. Vocals on top are either screaming or lyrical, less melodic and more punctuated by emotional intensity. Chevelle can be dropped into the genre of your choice: hard, modern, grunge, even punk if you’re so inclined. But their unique sound, hard to capture in black and white, is nevertheless immediately recognizable by fans and new listeners alike. Read the rest of this entry »
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Authentic but not Typical Mexican Cuisine
By bukkhead | June 30, 2007
Get on 85th Street north and head west. Keep going past Aurora, past 15th ave, even past 25th ave. Eventually 85th will end, and you can take a windy road right down to Golden Gardens. Instead, turn left, and tucked away behind the Caffe Fiora, you’ll find Cocina Esperanza. It’s worth hunting for. Read the rest of this entry »
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Be Sure Sin Will Find You Out
By bukkhead | June 30, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘THE NUMBER 23’
Written by Fernley Phillips
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Rated R
98 mins.
Plenty of films have been made based on comics and graphic novels, so it makes sense that the graphic novel aesthetic has begun to bleed into films that don’t take such materials as their source. Watching The Number 23, I would have sworn it was based on a graphic novel—the use of color, the framing of each shot, the use of narrative. Turns out I was wrong. But that’s okay—The Matrix, for example, was filmed and framed with a comic-book style, which pioneered a new camera technique. The Number 23’s cinematographer, Matthew Libatique, also did Pi, and Phone Booth, both of which evoke the same sense of paranoia and fear as The Number 23. So this is definitely a film to study. Read the rest of this entry »
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Even Better the Second Time
By bukkhead | June 29, 2007
I have had two occasions to dine at Sazerac now. The first was during a 25 for 25 event. This is Seattle’s bi-annual celebration of local restaurants, offering a three course prix-fixe menu for 25 dollars. I don’t remember much from this first time, except that the food was good, the atmosphere comfortable, the corn-bread was amazing, and the mayor of Seattle was sitting at a nearby table (someone had to point this out to me, though, as I just don’t have the patience to follow local politics). The corn bread was so good, in fact, that a few weeks later the GF and I called them up to order some, to go, for the chili she had made that night. Nothing doing, though—they wouldn’t sell any to us, giving us a take-away box full for free instead. Classy. Read the rest of this entry »
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Misfiring Line
By bukkhead | June 29, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘IN THE LINE OF FIRE’
Written by Jeff Maguire
Directed by Wolfgang Peterse
Rated R
128 mins.
I made the mistake of seeing Clint Eastwood’s In the Line of Fire (1993), well after I saw Blood Work (2002). So I found myself continually comparing the former to the latter, when it should have been the other way around. Both carry the same theme: aging law-enforcement official dealing with that tired conflict-triumvirate—sense of duty, a need to feel important, and an aging, broken body. There’s an old tradition in detective stories of the washed-out has-been, which usually evokes a strict moral code: even though he’s old and busted, the dick brings justice. The world doesn’t care, of course, but morality is morality. In the Line of Fire, though, seems to be less about morality and more about being old and busted. Read the rest of this entry »
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A Spy in the Ointment
By bukkhead | June 22, 2007
FILM REVIEW: ‘BREACH’
Written by Adam Mazer and William Rotko
Directed by Billy Ray
Rated PG-13
110 mins.
2 stars
Breach begins with a news reel from 2001, then Attorney General John Ashcroft speaking to the recent arrest of Robert Hanssen, America’s worst spy. Then we see a “two months” earlier blurb, and we meet Robert himself. So much for plot…
And if there’s no plot, then the movie is going to be about character, right? Chris Cooper gives us the scowly jowly face that we loved so much in American Beauty, and wields it in church, in the FBI offices, in his private den, in front of the FBI photographer recording his 25 years of service. Not much there. Maybe we are supposed to pay closer attention to Eric O’Neil, played by Ryan “Reese Witherspoon’s husband” Phillippe. Eric wants to be an agent, and we know because he that’s what he tells his wife, as they lie in bed together, fully clothed, on a chilly Sunday morning. And by the end of the movie, he doesn’t want to be an agent anymore. Now there’s some killer character development. Read the rest of this entry »
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