Top 10 Movies Blogfest

This is a blogfest being hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh or, as somebody recently christened him, the Blogfather. If you click on the Ninja Captain's badge at the side, it will take you to his announcement.

At the moment, the top of my list is:
Avatar, fantastic movie, just wish I had seen it in 3D. I don’t want to know how it was done, but the idea of Pandora was incredible and I would love to be a Na’vi. If its sci fi, I enjoy it anyway. Its about scientists ‘driving’ avatars which are created with a combined genome of the local people and the human driver. One of the scientists dies and his twin brother, an ex Marine with a spinal injury, is sent to Pandora in his stead. He ends up getting really close to the Na’vi people.

The King and I, every time the king dies I cry, the film was just a fairy tale, the real Anna Leonowens wasn’t nearly such a nice person, not sure the king was either. Anna certainly thought they were all savages, if you read her memoires. Anna did help to modernise Siam though. Always liked Yul Brynner.

Anastasia, loved the concept that the Tzar’s youngest daughter might have survived. I always hoped she had. Yul Brynner again and Ingrid Bergman who was always a favourite. Such an elegant woman too, I think I saw most of the movies she ever made. One which comes to mind, was a slightly sad little move called The Yellow Rolls Royce which comprised three stories about the car and its current owners.

Gigi, lovely romance, lovely music. Liked Maurice Chevalier. In fact I made a point to see more of his films after I had seen this one. The time of the movie was an era I very much admired, clothing was so graceful and the lives they (well the rich anyway) led seemed to be admirable, or maybe ‘such a bore’.

The King’s Speech, well done and a good story based on fact. Colin Firth did an excellent job as the King and Geoffery Rush was a wonderful Lionel Logue. I was familiar with the speech done by the King himself although I didn’t hear it at the time, too young. Also, being too young, I had never heard about the king’s stutter which Colin Firth did beautifully.

Stardust, lots of magic and nasty witches; Michelle Pfeiffer was a great, but nasty, witch. More romance. Wonderful part played by Robert de Niro as Captain Shakespeare, one of the best bits in the movie. I first saw the movie on the plane returning from England and fell in love with it right away. Michelle Pfeiffer was a particularly wicked witch right to the bitter end. Of course there’s another love story. The hero has stars in his eyes.

How to Train Your Dragon, very funny although why Vikings should have Scottish accents, I haven’t a clue. A village is constantly plagued by dragons who steal their sheep and burn down their dwellings, the villages are excellent dragon fighters and know all about dragons from their many years of experience until the chieftain’s son, named Hiccup, turns it all on its head. The main love story here is between Hiccup and his dragon.

Dirty Dancing, great story and I love the dancing. Plus I was always nutty about Patrick Swayze. Certainly in his earlier films before he was struck by cancer. I loved him in Roadhouse and Ghost too although not so keen on Point Break which was a surfing movie, good, but not as good to me.  Particularly love Whoopie in Ghost, she played the most wonderful medium.

Starman, a love story with a twist and an alien played by Jeff Bridges. Earth has sent off invitations to aliens to come visit us. When one does, they shoot him down. He simulates a widow’s husband, but has to get back to his mother ship soon or he will die. At first she, the widow, is terrified but eventually, surprise, surprise, they kind of fall in love. OK, I love happy endings, so sue me!!

The Last Starfighter, you don’t have to be stuck in a boring life. A young man on a trailer park, fed up with spending his life fixing people’s power circuits and running errands. Disappointed about not getting a loan to go to a good college and take his girlfriend with him. His one pleasure is to play a video game of starfighting and protecting a planet against an armada. One day he breaks the record on the machine only it turns out it was actually a test for a real off world situation, not just a game at all. The only ‘name’ I know was Robert Preston of Music Man fame.

I want to say so much more on this subject, thinking about it, that I have started tomorrow’s blog about movies rather than make too long a post for the blogfest.
As this is all about movies, I thought a drink served on Oscar night would be appropriate.

Paris's Crimson Champagne Cocktail

Epicurious | February 2008

By Lara Shriftman and Elizabeth Harrison


yield: Makes 1 drink

Ingredients

Brandy-cranberry syrup

• 1 quart cranberry juice cocktail
• 4 slices fresh ginger
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 piece star anise

Champagne cocktail

• 1/4 cup brandy
• Champagne
• 1 fresh cranberry, for garnish

Preparation

For cranberry syrup
In a medium saucepan, boil the cranberry juice cocktail, the ginger, the cinnamon stick, and the star anise for half an hour or until reduced to 1 cup. Let cool.
For cocktail
Fill a Champagne flute half-full with Champagne and add the brandy. Add 1 ounce Brandy-Cranberry Syrup and mix. Garnish with fresh cranberry.
Cook's note: The syrup recipe makes enough for 10 drinks.

Have a great day

HST, Taxes, World Cup.

We are about to have a new tax in Canada called the Harmony Sales Tax. This combines Purchase Tax and Value Added Tax and is causing much aggravation to everyone. I personally cannot see why, but then I am not very 'up' in these things, but at the moment those two taxes amount to 13% and the HST will also be 13%. I believe there are more things which will carry this new tax however, but I don't know what. That being said, to compensate us all for the burden of this new tax, the government are being kind enough to give us all a benefit to tide us over this new tax!! We got our first installment today and are due for another in December and a third next June. Well and good, thank you, but what about our income taxes - I assume we have to declare it as income - and then pensions, it will be considered income so in our case at least, will mean a reduction in the supplements we receive. In fact, I think it is all a bit of a waste of time. Its rather like the system several years ago when everyone was laid off for one day each week and the government paid you for the extra day. This was supposed to help the economy. I am not sure how much it helped, but I know I gave every bit of that money back when I did my taxes at the end of the year. (I have now been told that in fact we do not have to declare this money. I think I had better check it out officially though). This makes me think of all the budget mess they have in New York State, so what are they doing? Reducing money given to schools and seniors, closing parks, several other things, but does anyone actually working in the State government suffer for the mess up they are making? No of course not. This is of no personal concern to me of course, being in Canada, but we get the news about it all the time and I find it pretty disgusting; but don't get me started on what I think about politicians or we will be here all night. I assume there must be some honest, straight arrow guys in politics, but if so they are well hidden in the background of any government I know about. We are having some friends in for dinner tomorrow night so I have been working on preparations and so has Matt. Lot more to do yet of course, and no, the menu is not being listed because at least one guest reads my blog. I don't know why I like to keep it secret, but I do. It will, of course, consist of foods we enjoy so we hope our guests will too. Something I heard on the radio made me smile, apparently the referees for the World Cup soccer games have had to learn the four letter words which could be used towards them along with the gestures. I don't know whether its true, but I understand that it is only in the English language that we have swear words, other languages have ways of expressing the same thing, but not in one word. This may not be so any more, but 40 years ago I was told that was so. But I guess if a player swears at you in his own language, as a ref you have to know what he is saying so you can send him off.

Last night I finally got round to watching Avatar on my laptop - I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can imagine what it would have looked like in 3D, sorry I missed it now. I can highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys such stories. You can click on this link to buy it from Amazon if you are interested in getting it. I am certainly planning on buying it. Which reminds me I received my copy of Stardust yesterday too. I only ordered it on Monday, I think that is great service.

Here is another strawberry recipe from Eagle Brand which sounds good to me. I wish I hadn't planned my dessert for tonight because either yesterday's recipe or this one would have been great. Strawberry Summer Delight

Eagle Brand A strawberry lover’s version of tiramisu, with orange juice instead of coffee (so perfect for the whole family, including kids). Serve with additional fresh succulent strawberries. Prep Time: 20 minutes Serving: 12-14 servings Freezing: not recommended Ingredients: 1 lb (500g) container mascarpone cheese, room temperature 1 can (300mL) Eagle Brand® Regular or Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk 1 cup (250mL) whipping cream 1 tbsp (15mL) orange zest (optional) 1 tsp (5mL) vanilla 2 cups (500mL) strawberries, sliced 2 cups (500mL) orange juice 36-40 Italian ladyfinger cookies

Preparation: 1. Beat mascarpone and sweetened condensed milk until well combined. Reserve. 2. Whip cream in a large bowl until it holds stiff peaks. Add orange zest and vanilla. Gently fold into reserved mascarpone mixture until combined. Fold in sliced strawberries. 3. Dip both sides of each ladyfinger cookie into orange juice. Line bottom of 9” x 13” (3L) baking dish with 18 ladyfinger cookies in 3 rows, trimming edges if necessary. Spread half the filling (3 cups (750mL) on top. Dip remaining ladyfinger cookies in orange juice and arrange over filling in pan. Spread with remaining filling. 4. Chill, covered with plastic wrap, at least 4 hours or overnight. Tips: Serve with additional sliced strawberries. Have a great day

Aches and Pains, Movies,

Not a whole heap of interesting stuff going on in our lives at the moment. Matt started physiotherapy for his back yesterday and now is walking around like a cripple. I hope and pray this will improve. He also has had some more shaking episodes but as nobody seems to know why this happens, or to care much either, he just pops a pill and hopes for the best!!! There was a woman bowling on Monday who was obviously in major pain in her hip/thigh area. I asked her about it and all she is doing is taking Tylenol arthritis. She's nuts, I told her to get something from the doc (we take Mobicox) and if that doesn't do the trick to get a hip replacement. People are reluctant to do that, I understand why if you have never had one, but really, they take a little while to recuperate but after that, you are as good as new. This woman looked so bad, it hurt me to watch her, personally I wouldn't have been bowling anyway (not that I was from the look of my score). At the crack of dawn (well it is to me) I had to go down to the lab to get my regular bloodwork done for diabetes. I got there at 6:25 a.m and there were already two guys in front of me. It was raining and miserable and I was not looking forward to standing there for half an hour or so before the doors opened. However, got chatting to No. 2 in the line and told him I wasn't good at standing, so checking with No. 4 that it was OK, he suggested I go sit in the car. I was very grateful. Talking of bowling, we watched The Next Karate Kid last night, in which there were a bunch of Japanese monks who went 10 pin bowling and through prayer and concentration got a strike every time. They were teaching those around them how to do the same thing. It was quite funny. I enjoyed the movie, it starred Pat Morita who was also the teacher in the first Karate Kid (which I see they have re-made and is being released on Friday) and Hilary Swank as the student. He didn't get away with the wax on wax off trick with Hilary Swank. I have always remembered that from the first movie. I also downloaded Avatar onto my laptop which I might well buy if I enjoy the movie as much as everyone says. Yes I know, I should have seen it in 3D but I didn't. I have since heard some health concerns voiced about 3D so maybe its just as well I didn't. If this blog looks a trifle disjointed, its because I am trying out new things with Amazon.com - there are all kinds of ways one can add links and advertising. I find Amazon very efficient, if you order something from them it appears to arrive in next to no time. Having downloaded the movie several times from iTunes to find it didn't run properly each time no matter what, I finally ordered Stardust from Amazon yesterday and it is already on its way to me. Excellent service. Went over to Barrie's Bros. again yesterday for an asparagus refill. Getting to the end of the season, but they stay open all year these days. They are already selling strawberries. I didn't get any but I do need some for Saturday, didn't figure they would last though. It seems, from checking, they sell all kinds of fresh vegetables too, I hadn't realised that. I also hadn't registered that most of their stuff is gluten free which is useful for people who are allergic to it. Everything they sell is organic and as far as possible local, although I guess there is no-one in Ontario who grows coffee beans, LOL. I introduced Matt to Tim Barrie yesterday, the place is so busy I never get to talk to him much any more which is a pity for me, great for him. Plus a lot of their products are being sold in other stores, I know of one local to me which is carrying their salsa and probably their asparagus, I'm not sure. I came across the following salad recipe in Joe Barkson's World Wide Recipes yesterday and as I liked the look of it, I saved it and may well serve it on Saturday. I much prefer seedless cucumbers although I am not quite sure why they are called that. They certainly have seeds but not like the cucumbers most often used here which have large and often inedible seeds and need to be peeled. Pear, Cucumber, and Walnut Salad http://www.wwrecipes.com/ 2 ripe pears (variety of your choice) 2 cucumbers (I am assuming just 1 English or seedless, cucumber and no peeling) 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped in large pieces Small bunch Italian flat-leaf parsley 1/4 cup basic vinaigrette dressing 1. Remove core and stem from pears and cut into bite-size pieces. Peel cucumbers and slice in half lengthwise. Scoop seeds out with a spoon and discard. Slice cucumber into 1/4-inch (1/2 cm) slices. In a bowl combine the pears, cucumbers, walnuts, leaves of Italian parsley, and the vinaigrette, gently tossing to mix the ingredients Servings: 6 Source: WW Recipes Have a great day