herbiehancock

-Erik (Jonas Rimeika) returns to his small town after three years to investigate the disappearance of his little sister, Smala Sussie (Slim Susie) (Tuva Novotny). Both helping and hindering him is the odd array of residents, who tell him of all the ways his sister had changed since he left, and who all seem to be in on something. -Characterization can be fuzzy at times, but this is a comedy, and something might've been lost in translation. - Clockwork Orange reference WOO! -I especially liked Tuva Novotny, who's somewhat tragic portrayal of the eponymous character in flashback is kind of heartbreaking. -The guy from the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is in it, in some weird role that's half plot device, half awesome. -But, really, the star is the soundtrack. God, Swedes are weird.

so as you know, this past weekend was a long holiday weekend for all of us in the states. the mr. and i were lucky enough to get 2 whole thanksgiving dinners with family AND we got to have a fancy date ushering in the christmas season. unfortunately i didn't take time from our ravenous dinner anticipation to capture many photos. i only have a few from thanksgiving dinner #2 which i snapped while we waited for the food to cook. in all seriousness, we actually did have a great time with our families, despite our photographic evidence to the contrary. { the words were finally uttered, "ok, don't look like you have low blood sugar!" } **** saturday night we had ourselves a little decorating date. we picked up a wee tree, made ornaments from paper and felt, ate curry, drank cider, and listened to the best christmas radio station ever { big r radio ~ christmas classics station under the "eclectic" tab in itunes radio}. it was a blast! { i made the stockings f

-Anna (Melonie Diaz), recently dumped lesbian who works at a plastic surgeon's office, by some turn of events, joins a group of radical feminists, and falls in love with their leader (Nicole Vicius). And they spraypaint stuff and shit. -Okay, pros: Anna is out, and her family isn't all pissy about it, in fact, they're all very nonchalent, which is always refreshing. When they aren't arguing about their love lives, the group (calling themselves the C(I)A, Clits in Action) is pretty entertaining, while they figure out new ways to stick it up the Man's ass. Melonie Diaz doesn't get nearly enough credit, always a secondary character or love interest, so it's nice to see her get a starring role. There's some funny lines. Enjoyable. Excellent soundtrack. -Cons: When Anna starts going off on her new-found feminist rants, it's all so painfully obvious . There's nothing new, nothing daring, all radical feminist cliches with nothing to back it up.

Ah, yes. If ever there was a time I'd end up with spammers/trolls, it'd be now. 1) Because everytime one of them starts singing some watered-down radio song under contrived circumstances and smugly feel-good smirks on their faces, I feel the compulsion to tape my middle finger to the TV screen until the end of the next week's promo. 2) Since I'm too late for the Modern Family bandwagon (I don't start shows in the middle. What am I, a barbarian?), this is the only non-reality show on Tuesdays. 3) The characters are poorly-written Anvil vehicles. The black, sassy fat girl who's super-sassy and has a big voice and a gay best friend and is sassy and has to learn to love and accept her self while sassy. The guy who (as of late) has rejected any negative/humanizing qualities to become the Magical Homosexual who's bullied a lot by a closeted football player (how original). Bitchy cheerleaders who never take off their damn uniforms. Brittney, who's admitt

-Cocky middle-aged businessman Leopold (Bernard Giraudeau) seduces carrot-topped 19-year-old Franz (Malik Zidi) into leaving his fiancee and living with him in 70s Germany (though everybody speaks French). -Based off the play by (who else?) Rainer Werner Fassbinder, seperated into 4 acts. Now, they seperately could be categorized as different genres: the first, a prolonged seduction/romance, the second, a tense relationship drama, the third, still a RD, but quieter, sadder, a bit stupider, and the fourth, a thoroughly bizarre sex comedy that morphs into a tragedy, all within the confines of Leopold's apartment. The first three end with scenes that echo each other, a fantasy that began with Franz and rounded out to his fiancee (who costars in the third act, but was such a poorly-drawn character. Played by Ludivine Sagnier), that I expected it to round out the movie as well, but no, it was instead a rather tortured shot of a character who I consider vaguely spoilerish to talk abou

That is, which ones are both self-sufficient and closed-off enough that they could shut down any travel and bunker down? This, of course, excludes Samuel L. Jackson. And pygmies. They are, respectively, badass, and badass motherfuckers. Seriously. Zombies are probably allergic to them. If one came waddling over, either/or would rip them apart, burp "What up, n00b?" and carry on their business. Or whatever. Discuss.

Penny at Lake Lure Cottage Kitchen is hosting her second annual  Kitchen Reveal . I'd love to peek into your kitchens to see where all of you come up with the wonderful recipes I see on your blogs and thought it would be fun to participate this year. So, welcome to my kitchen... where Karen cooks! Here's the kitchen from the dining room. This is a one-butt kitchen. More than that and it gets crowded real quick. These stand-alone cupboards and microwave stand were here when we moved into the house. They were white and my gardener painted them green this summer. They sure do help with storage, but one of these days, I'd like to have some built-ins in their place.  The ivory refrigerator was also here when we moved in, and eventually I'll replace it (and the microwave) to match the other appliances. Yes, the front of my refrigerator is always that clutter-free. I keep a calendar, a freezer inventory and a few pictures on the side of the fridge. The only thing on the front

last week i talked about a more practical form of giving back. this week, however, i'm going to suggest we all take part in something that is far more impacting than just giving an hour of our time. the organization is charter for compassion , a worldwide community that bridges all religions, political affiliations, ethnicities, and cultures in the powerful commitment to spread compassion to all people, no matter who they are, both publicly and privately. to take part in this world-changing movement, means being absolutely committed to treating all others with love, respect, and compassion. and by "all others" i do mean no matter what your differences, no matter what the situation, and no matter how these "others" are acting towards you. it's easy to be compassionate towards the older man who needs help opening a big door, or the mom taking her time at the bank because she has three small children in tow. but what about the office gossiper? or the peopl

(thanks to Sugary )

-Derrick Comedy group-- Community 's Donald Glover, DC Pierson, and Dominic Dierkes star (and write/produce/score with Dan Eckman and Meggie McFadden) as the Mystery Team, a suburban detective agency that must've been cute when they were seven, but now, eighteen and graduating from high school, is naive and creepy. When a little girl approaches them about solving her parents' recent murder, they decide to take it, to prove themselves as legitimate detectives. -Funniest movie of 2009, probably. Fuck The Hangover (which is 2009, right?). While the last two acts, plot-heavy, can't possibly touch the first act in general awesomeness, it helps that the GIC care for the characters as more than jokes, and take great care in keeping with the mystery genre, both murders and the Enyclopedia Brown genre. -Seriously, why didn't this get more attention?

-A man (Karra Elejalde) sees a woman lifting her shirt in the woods from his lawn, and, going to investigate, finds himself amid a time-travel loop which leads to a causeless crime. -This. Movie. Is. The. Shit. -It's so fucking cool . Best time travel movie ever (better than Donnie Darko , better than 'Looper' probably will be, better than all of them). -Touches on paradoxes (several, in fact, though only one is addressed), the event of a crime without a cause, government conspiracies, all from one man's point of view (that he only cares to go home to his wife)...fascinating stuff. -The protaganist is the stupidest dick on the face of the planet, though. To really highlight his idiocracy, I'd have to spoil the movie, which I feel is a terrible, terrible thing to do, but if you found his raging assholery so offensive you have to scream about it, the comments are always open.

-With prom around the corner, a teenager struggles to find a date, doing everything to avoid going with his best friend (Alia Shawkat), on top of dealing with his parents' respective love lives (Cheryl Hines and William H. Macy's pubic-hair wig). Making his increasingly desperate measures more painful is the knowledge that the biggest nerd/loser/asshole/whatever in school, Bart, uh, got a room. Nothing is better than William H. Macy's horrified look upon discovering this. -A low-key mix of Napolean Dynamite , various teenage coming-of-age movies, and that thing with that guy. -Fucking Florida.

   Santa (and a few other guests) arrived at our downtown square tonight.  As I wrote about in an earlier post , my town had its annual day after Thanksgiving parade and the library's entry included several storybook characters accompanied by our library lion mascot.  I didn't take pictures during the actual parade because it was dark and crowded and the characters were constantly moving, but I got some shots to share with you from at the library after the parade was over.    My older son helped out by wearing the costume for Skippyjon Jones, the Siamese kitten who thinks he is a chihuahua because he has such big ears.  In addition to bringing their children to meet "Skippyjon Jones" after the parade, some people even brought their pet chihuahuas in to meet him!    My younger son wore the costume for our library lion mascot in the parade and for the after party also.    They had a lot of fun getting their pictures taken with lots of little kids and also clowning aroun

Ciabatta cubes for dressing, ready to dry Cornbread cubes for dressing, ready to dry Cranberry mustard, prepped ahead of time for leftover sandwiches Cranberry sauce Pecan pie with 75/25 butter shortening crust The morning of Preparing Preparing Turkey Pretty turkey Gravy Dressing Mashed potatoes with butter overload Bird pieces My plate Steve's plate Cutting into the pie Homemade chocolate sauce It rained chocolate in my dining room Spatter Recipes (others): Cornbread Cranberry Mustard Dry Brined Turkey Mashed Potatoes Dressing Pie Crust Pecan Pie Chocolate Sauce Recipes (mine): Cranberry sauce: For one 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, stir together 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup water and 1 (scant) cup sugar in large pot. Bring to a boil and then pour in cranberries. Return to low boil for about 10 minutes or until almost all the berries have popped. Grate in fresh nutmeg and fresh cinnamon and throw in a pinch of allspice. Can be made a few days ahead and stored in the refr