Gary Wright 2

So Monday night I watched Planet Rock, which did a profile on the Foo Fighters, on Fuse TV. My friend Brian has been leaving me nice comments on MySpace recently, including invitations to visit him again in West Lafayette. Last week I made my first Thanksgiving dinner. Last night with Klaralyn, we were chatting about her dream, and she was also telling me how I should try to assimilate Cary Grant's style and meet a girl in a bar as such. I think I've laid the subconscious matrix for the dream I had, so here goes.

I was driving on the Interstate and with the vehicle in front of me another car pulled up to them two times while a woman got out of one vehicle and into the vehicle with her presumed beau. So there were two guys in the car in front of me and twice did women climb out of a van type car to get into the car with their mates. Whoever I was driving with, I was trying to explain how stupid it was that they were doing this and that they should have just met at the same exit with the other vehicle and made a much safer transition. Also, at least twice, I saw the drummer from the Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins, on a Ninja/crotch rocket type motorcycle. Most of the time I saw him on his bike, traffic wasn't going anywhere, and he was leaning forward, flat on his bike looking over at me. I would wave and call out his name, but I didn't get much response from him.

After I reached my destination, I was welcomed into the hotel room that Casey, Gretchen, Mindy, Brian, and I had. We weren't ready to go out, so we put in a movie, something that the girls enjoyed. While we were watching the movie, I was sitting next to Brian, and we were like really good buddies. It was a hockey movie with Richard Gere and Rob Lowe. I had managed to be in the movie as well and spent most of my scenes reprimanding Richard Gere. After losing interest in the movie, the five of us decided to go out, so Mindy gave me back my cell phone which she had apparently taken the liberty to take from me and turn off during our movie viewing (I don't actually own a cell phone). I had a text message from someone, sorry I can't remember what it said. I am sure it wasn't from Taylor Hawkins, whom I did see a third time on our way to the night time establishment.

At various times throughout the dream, I would visualize people separating into cubic squares. I think it had something to do with worrying about whether I had made enough turkey for the cubic volume of my guests. Which brings us to the last part of my dream, I was a Thanksgiving meal hosted by our associate accountant at AdventSource, Cassi, who used to be a student worker in my area. Mike from the Production department was also there. She brought out the turkey and was struggling greatly to carve it. She got pretty frustrated, so I offered to help her with it. It was an all dark meat turkey. I guess my dream ended with me offering some turkey to Mike.

So what does it all mean?

New Mexico

This last weekend I went to the movies No Country for Old Men, Superbad, and 3:10 to Yuma. I enjoyed each of them on their own terms. My favorite of the three was the first.

No Country for Old Men is an adaptation of the book by Cormac McCarthy. I've only read a bit of McCarthy in a 20th Century Writers literature class and wasn't that excited about him (then again I wasn't that excited about any school work at that stage in my studies). According to Ebert's review and an interview with the Coen brothers, directors, the book has Tommy Lee Jones' character, the sheriff, providing monologues every other chapter. The movie uses him effectively as a chorus while including him in its fabric. If you're familiar with the Coen Brothers' work, you'll be used to exemplary work from the character actors and this film is no exception. One nice touch I noticed was that there was a pharmacy in the film named Mike Zoss Pharmacy. Which just so happens to be the name of one of the producers.

Superbad is a fun character based teen comedy.

3:10 to Yuma is a solid Western. It is a remake, of which I haven't seen the original. Most interesting to me was comparing the acting ability of Russell Crowe and Christian Bale (how do two non-Americans get cast in this Western? see Colin Farrell as Jesse James). I've been impressed by both previously, but Crowe wins the head to head matchup. Each has taken on challenging roles, physically (see Gladiator, The Insider; American Psycho, The Machinist) and emotionally (see Romper Stomper; Empire of the Sun), but the Aussie seems to have more arrows in his quiver compared to the Welshman.

The reason for this post's title is because No Country for Old Men takes place in Texas and 3:10 to Yuma is in Arizona, but they were both filmed in New Mexico. I think the NM film board is doing a bang up job of getting people to film there.

Mary Zophres is the costume designer for No Country for Old Men.


Ruaidhri Conroy is an actor in the movie Moondance (any hints on pronouncing his first name would be appreciated).

My First Feast

Left: This is me rubbing butter, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper in and around my organic turkey. Right: This is our main spread with Wendy's green bean casserole, my butternut squash with fresh grated cinnamon and nutmeg, turkey, creamy garlic mashed potatoes, Tofurky, fresh cranberry compote, and the turkey gravy my sister made.

A Nice Sunday Updated!

Grab the Ritalin 'cuz there's hyper-linking now.

Last Sunday was an excellent example of what can be done if you plan/schedule a little bit.

At 1 pm Marcy and I left for Brownville, NE (right on the border of Nebraska and Missouri, south of Nebraska City and East of Auburn) because a photographer friend of hers was having a gallery showing from 11 to 4. We arrived a bit after 2:30 and spent about an hour looking at Nathan's show and walking the historic main street of Brownville.

We left Brownville around 3:30 and drove the 70 miles north on I-29 to Council Bluffs. The reason I needed to go to Council Bluffs is that only in Iowa and parts of Illinois is Templeton Rye Whiskey available, and only recently was their second batch made available to the Iowa liquor board for distribution. So I made a stop at the Metro Wine and Spirits store for my bottle of "the good stuff."

After driving down Dodge Street to West Roads and Regency Court, we browsed and got some chocolate and coffee at Whole Foods Market. After negotiating the labyrinth of roads, we arrived on time to our reservation at 6pm for PF Chang's.

Three delicious courses (I had Chang's ribs, Chengdu spiced lamb, and banana Spring rolls. Marcy had spring rolls, chow fun chicken, and flourless chocolate dome.) later we were a little over an hour out from the main event at 9, Sondre Lerche's concert. So we stopped at Omaha's Jake's Cigar and Spirits Shop, and I got a pipe and some tobacco to put in it.

Then I had some excellent Trappist beer (Rochefort), and we played three games of pool. At the end of our third game, it was time for the show.

The show was excellent with Dan Wilson and Sondre both delighting myself and the crowd (each of them played Gibson acoustics and then Fender and a gold Gretsch Golden Anniversary respectively). Then at 11:45 we left Benson, and after an uneventful drive home, we arrived 12 hours after we left at 1 AM.

Merle Grey

I've already made this announcement on mySpace, but I know that circle and this don't always mix. Wednesday Marcy and I got Merle, a four year-old cat, from Duane and Kelli Wehling. I really like him. I'll try not to spend too much time in this space informing you of how intuitive he is, but now that he's a part of my life, he will be a part of this blog. The picture is of how he likes to sleep.

Diamonds Are Forever.

Actually they aren't. But whoever DeBeers has doing their commercials chooses some really good music. The first song that I really enjoyed was a Cat Power cover of a Cat Stevens song (wow, that's the first time I made that connection). Man drapes a diamond necklace over the woman lying next to him in bed while Cat Power sings, "How can I tell you I love you? I love you. I'm always thinking of you."

And now there is a commercial with a man demonstrating very poor driving technique (trust me, it takes one to know one) by staring at his wife in the passenger seat. The song playing is "Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop," and can be heard here on Landon Pigg's MySpace page.

And while I'm on the topic of music, I'm going to a Sondre Lerche concert in Omaha on Sunday. Dan Wilson, formerly the lead singer of Supersonic, is opening.

Michael recommended Sondre to me a long time ago (I want to say it was my visit to Berrien when I had dinner with him and Buffy at El Toro.) I took to him almost immediately jumped at the opportunity to see him live. I got my ticket before my sister asked me if I knew who he was. She had seen Dan in Real Life (a fine film that I recommend, MUCH better than The Family Stone), and Mr. Lerche wrote original music and score for the film, including performing with his group, The Faces Down Band, in the film.

Celebrities and Their Voices

The latest celebrity voice I've picked out is William Hurt doing a commercial for Hyundai. The campaign has thinkaboutit.com at the end of it. There are a couple in the series that I've seen. One has a woman driving down the highway with a voice over and then it is just her floating in air while a semi barrels down on her. The other has a man driving.

I've shared in this space previously how I don't care for actors who get perfectly good money in front of the camera, stealing even more money from those who make their living not only behind the camera, but behind the microphone. This isn't to say I don't like William Hurt's voice, quite the opposite in fact.

Another celebrity endorsement that confuses me is a Cadillac commercial (Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit) with Bob Dylan. So much for being the face of the counter-culture. If I were Pete Seeger, I'd be more upset about this than I would've when he went electric.

Green Curry Blue Orchid Ruddy Oat

Before I went to Lust, Caution on Saturday night, I went to lunch at the Blue Orchid with Angela and Karen. This was my first time there, and on recommendation from Mark (de Mill), I chose the Green Curry (bamboo shoots, green peas, and basil leaf in an oak and peppercorn flavored curry). I really enjoyed it, and I really liked the tom kha soup that was my first course.

One of my student workers acquired a self-diagnosed allergy to wheat at Villa Aurora in Italy. Apparently, she ate too much pasta. Well after some good natured ribbing, I needed her to appreciate what an excellent baker I am, so I got some oat flour from Open Harvest (I am now a member!) to make my pie crust with.

I should have asked my resident food scientist at work (literally, she has written her dissertation on one of the egg proteins), but I did not, and the oat flour crust smelled so good whilst mixing it up. It was lacking the necessary gluten to layer with my chilled fats for which to make a flaky, flaky crust. [It was the first time I remembered missing someone while they were still there.*] So after some struggling with the sticky paste, I rolled out the crust twixt parchment paper and plastic wrap (a technique I'm going to use a lot more) and put it in the oven with crossed fingers and stars.

Instead of the flakes that one is hoping to achieve, I ended up with a mealy, crumby crust, which I felt unworthy of the reputation I'd established. So now Marcy and I get to eat a half-ways decent apple pie (I'm getting really good at apple pies, and the fresh shaved cinnamon and nutmeg are nothing to turn your nose at either.) instead of sharing with my coworkers, allergic or not.

*My friend Brian recommended the "very short story" Pet Milk by Stuart Dybek. He says it is his all-time favorite, and after listening to Mike Nussman read it for Chicago Public Radio's Stories on Stage series (scroll halfway down to Ties That Bind originally aired 11.23.02) I can see why.

Rick Shaw

Last Saturday night, I went to Lust, Caution at The Ross. It is directed by Ang Lee and stars Tony Leung and Wang Tei (in her film debut). I think it's appropriately rated NC-17 for some violence in their sex scenes. I enjoyed the film and part of my pleasure in it is that it embraces emotional ambiguities. Tony Leung is strong as ever (see 2046, Infernal Affairs, In the Mood for Love, Hero), and Wang Tei carries her hefty part of the film quite capably. My Jeffery Wright (actor with small part but huge presence) for this film is Anupam Kher, who plays the jeweler.

I saw Michael Clayton with George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson when it came out, and both that film and Lust, Caution start in medias res and then go back to the start. I like this technique. I think it works because it hopefully grabs you at the beginning, and then keeps you hooked as you anticipate the event and the development of the characters to reach that scene. It is also effective because you get to understand the scene with new light the second time, and hopefully more meaning is wrapped into it, yet the film has the untying remaining.

Ha Sorajjakool