anxiety (a ng ˈzī-itē) - noun ( pl. -ties)
a feeling of worry, nervousness, or
unease, typically about an imminent event
Did I mention that we bought a condo?
Friday, October 7, 2011
We are moving
Down payments, points, interest rates, buyer’s realtors,
seller’s realtors, loan company, loan agent, underwriters, loan company buying
our loan from the other loan company, mortgage, mortgage insurance, condo
insurance, supplemental insurance, property tax, property tax credit, escrow,
HOA dues, plumbers, electricians, locksmiths, inspections, appraisals,
termites, bird poop, lots of bird poop, utilities, telephone lines, internet,
cable, HD cable box, address changes, condo keys, complex keys, mail keys, garage
door openers, intercom doesn’t work, scraping patching sanding priming painting ceilings, vacuuming, removing
mirrors, de-uglifying, new appliances, escrow errors, balancing multiple
accounts, multiple runs to Lowe’s, renting a moving truck, finding movers,
praying for a full security deposit return, High Holidays, producer’s notes on
script, generating new story ideas, broken router, scheduling donation pickups, massive stack
of empty boxes, packing boxes, early start on moving boxes, avoiding injury,
pre-moving injuries, new neighbors, new town, new kitchen, new bedroom, new
view, more escrow errors, f**k escrow, crowded old living space, dust, carpet
off-gassing, suspect dishwasher, bad backsplash, bad counters, painted over wallpaper peeling, terrible paint jobs, unwanted new flooring, pretending to be good
at handiwork, shift in diet, insomnia, lots and lots and lots of money leaving
aforementioned accounts, I AM FINE I AM NOT STRESSED NO PANIC HERE TOTALLY
RELAXED MELLOW CALM SUNNY CHEERY MEDITATIVE I DON’T KNOW THE DEFINITION OF
ANXIETY
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Single Malt Report: THREE(!) Bowmores
So far I've posted about only single malts distilled in the Highlands and Speyside regions. These regions make up 75-90% of the single malt labels you'll see at the bars and liquor stores in the US. They're the highest producing Scotch whisky regions due to their rivers and climate. These malts are also the starting point for most of us Scotch lovers. Their often creamy, mellow, vanilla, and dried fruit notes suit the American palate very well -- so the distributors load our shores with the Glenlivets, Glenfiddichs, Macallans, Balvenies, and Glenmorangies.
Though most of my Reports will be on that region, I'm going to make an effort cover the other regions as well since some spectacular and unique flavors are found in their single malts.
Today, I'll start with a distillery from the Islay region. The Islay island sits at the far southwest corner of Scotland, just north of Northern Ireland.
Islay (pronounced eye-lay) single malts are often known for their peaty palates. Peat, partially decayed vegetal turf, can be found in bogs all over the world, but especially in Scotland and Ireland. Many distilleries use peat fires to dry their barley at the start of the whisky making process which is where that flavor often sneaks in. And not all peat patches are equal. In Islay, specifically, the heavy sea air and coastal seaweed gives the peat salty, menthol, and iodine flavors. It's those sorts of strong aromas and tastes that turn off many scotch drinkers (and their significant others).
But, dear friends, don't let that scare you away from the Islays. They may take some time to warm up to, but those peat flavors provide a nice counter volley to the barley and wood elements in your drink. Whisky guides claim that more that 80 aroma compounds have been found within peat, plus it's full of antioxidants!
Bowmore. Sitting in the mouth of Laggan Bay, Islay's capital Bowmore is a little village of about 860 folks. Its distillery produces some of the most popular of the island's whiskies. Bowmore peats its barley malts for a lesser time than most of the other Islay distilleries. As a result, their bottlings have less of the intense medicinal phenol flavor that hits Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. Bowmore also tends to smoke the barley rather than heavily heat it which also results in different flavors than those distilleries to the south.
Normally, I report on one whisky at a time. But this past August I attended a free tasting at The Daily Pint, which provided the opportunity to sample three Bowmore whiskies. The atmosphere around these tastings can get a bit intense. There's six people per tasting shift, and about a dozen shifts. So while one is trying focus on the free delights in a LOUD dark bar, 50+ people are waiting impatiently all around. I'm not knocking the process. I'll never gripe about free whisky. The atmosphere just slightly compromises one's sensory skills, especially if one is a relative newbie. Amongst the hubbub of happy whisky fans, I tried the following:
First tasting:
Distillery: Bowmore
Age: 12 years
Finish: unknown
Region: Islay
Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Mild. Mild in everything. Color, nose, alcohol content, texture, flavor, finish. When in the aforementioned whisky tasting situation, sussing out subtleties is a struggle when given a 0.5oz pour. And this one was a challenge.
The color was a medium brass-like tone, the lightest shade of the three. Mild peat (more smoke than wet seaweed) on the nose and the palate. Otherwise, a little bit of lemon. Sweetens up at the very end which is a nice counter to the smoke.
Frankly, it was the least interesting of the three. But at the same time, the least peaty. So it's a safe way to ease into the Islays and it's one of Bowmore's cheaper bottlings. The prices are all over the place for this, as noted:
Pricing - Good at $35, Acceptable at $50
Rating - 77
Second tasting:
Pricing - Good at $60, Acceptable at $85
Rating - 80
Third tasting:
Distillery: Bowmore
Age: 10 years
Name: Bowmore Tempest, Batch 2
Finish: First-fill Bourbon Casks
Region: Islay
Alcohol by Volume: 56.5%
Cask-strength! Always a fan of cask-strength whiskies. If you check out the ABV, you'll see what I mean. Cask strength whiskies keep the alcohol content of the product sitting in the final maturation casks. They vary anywhere from 48%-62%.
The bad news about these hefty bottlings is that the ethanol can overpower all flavors and aromas. So most whiskies are diluted by the producer to both increase the amount of product and to make it better.
The good news is that you can play with cask-strength whiskies more, adding a little water at a time to find out what happens to the nose and the palate. Or you can sip them neat, but beware......it can numb your face. I know this from personal experience.
The Bowmore Tempest was done well. The alcohol does not overwhelm. In fact, this is like the 12 but a little hotter and crazier. It's not sweet like the 15yr. There's smoke and cinnamon on the nose. A little vanilla with some smoke in the palate, followed by some citrus. The peat remains in the background throughout. The finish is loooooong, warm, and spicy.
Though the emcee of this tasting was prone to exaggeration, he wasn't kidding when he told us that The Tempest was limited and difficult to find. Production was kept at 2000 cases so I'm not sure how much actually made it to The States. Dear Scotland, please share!
Pricing - Good at $80-90
Rating - 89
Though most of my Reports will be on that region, I'm going to make an effort cover the other regions as well since some spectacular and unique flavors are found in their single malts.
Today, I'll start with a distillery from the Islay region. The Islay island sits at the far southwest corner of Scotland, just north of Northern Ireland.
Islay (pronounced eye-lay) single malts are often known for their peaty palates. Peat, partially decayed vegetal turf, can be found in bogs all over the world, but especially in Scotland and Ireland. Many distilleries use peat fires to dry their barley at the start of the whisky making process which is where that flavor often sneaks in. And not all peat patches are equal. In Islay, specifically, the heavy sea air and coastal seaweed gives the peat salty, menthol, and iodine flavors. It's those sorts of strong aromas and tastes that turn off many scotch drinkers (and their significant others).
But, dear friends, don't let that scare you away from the Islays. They may take some time to warm up to, but those peat flavors provide a nice counter volley to the barley and wood elements in your drink. Whisky guides claim that more that 80 aroma compounds have been found within peat, plus it's full of antioxidants!
Bowmore. Sitting in the mouth of Laggan Bay, Islay's capital Bowmore is a little village of about 860 folks. Its distillery produces some of the most popular of the island's whiskies. Bowmore peats its barley malts for a lesser time than most of the other Islay distilleries. As a result, their bottlings have less of the intense medicinal phenol flavor that hits Lagavulin, Ardbeg, and Laphroaig. Bowmore also tends to smoke the barley rather than heavily heat it which also results in different flavors than those distilleries to the south.
Normally, I report on one whisky at a time. But this past August I attended a free tasting at The Daily Pint, which provided the opportunity to sample three Bowmore whiskies. The atmosphere around these tastings can get a bit intense. There's six people per tasting shift, and about a dozen shifts. So while one is trying focus on the free delights in a LOUD dark bar, 50+ people are waiting impatiently all around. I'm not knocking the process. I'll never gripe about free whisky. The atmosphere just slightly compromises one's sensory skills, especially if one is a relative newbie. Amongst the hubbub of happy whisky fans, I tried the following:
First tasting:
Distillery: Bowmore
Age: 12 years
Finish: unknown
Region: Islay
Alcohol by Volume: 40%
Mild. Mild in everything. Color, nose, alcohol content, texture, flavor, finish. When in the aforementioned whisky tasting situation, sussing out subtleties is a struggle when given a 0.5oz pour. And this one was a challenge.
The color was a medium brass-like tone, the lightest shade of the three. Mild peat (more smoke than wet seaweed) on the nose and the palate. Otherwise, a little bit of lemon. Sweetens up at the very end which is a nice counter to the smoke.
Frankly, it was the least interesting of the three. But at the same time, the least peaty. So it's a safe way to ease into the Islays and it's one of Bowmore's cheaper bottlings. The prices are all over the place for this, as noted:
Pricing - Good at $35, Acceptable at $50
Rating - 77
Second tasting:
Distillery: Bowmore
Age: 15 years
Name: Bowmore Darkest
Finish: Oloroso Sherry Casks
Region: Islay
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
Darkest indeed. Looks like maple syrup! It's been said that Sherry casks can impart the deep shades but this is so dark that I wonder if they hit it with some carmel coloring just to make sure that it is indeed "Darkest".
Immediate sherry on the nose. Sweeter aromas than the 12yr. The palate starts a little peatier than the 12, then sweetness zips in from behind. The sweetness isn't dried fruits nor caramel. Maybe toffee? It finishes with the same peat & sherry dance, though it sustains less than the 12yr.
These dark whiskies are always fun. They look like candy in a bottle and are often tasty even if the whole package isn't working. Another good way to introduce oneself to this whisky region, but more expensive than the 12. The prices are also spread out for this one, as noted:
Rating - 80
Third tasting:
Distillery: Bowmore
Age: 10 years
Name: Bowmore Tempest, Batch 2
Finish: First-fill Bourbon Casks
Region: Islay
Alcohol by Volume: 56.5%
Cask-strength! Always a fan of cask-strength whiskies. If you check out the ABV, you'll see what I mean. Cask strength whiskies keep the alcohol content of the product sitting in the final maturation casks. They vary anywhere from 48%-62%.
The bad news about these hefty bottlings is that the ethanol can overpower all flavors and aromas. So most whiskies are diluted by the producer to both increase the amount of product and to make it better.
The good news is that you can play with cask-strength whiskies more, adding a little water at a time to find out what happens to the nose and the palate. Or you can sip them neat, but beware......it can numb your face. I know this from personal experience.
The Bowmore Tempest was done well. The alcohol does not overwhelm. In fact, this is like the 12 but a little hotter and crazier. It's not sweet like the 15yr. There's smoke and cinnamon on the nose. A little vanilla with some smoke in the palate, followed by some citrus. The peat remains in the background throughout. The finish is loooooong, warm, and spicy.
Though the emcee of this tasting was prone to exaggeration, he wasn't kidding when he told us that The Tempest was limited and difficult to find. Production was kept at 2000 cases so I'm not sure how much actually made it to The States. Dear Scotland, please share!
Pricing - Good at $80-90
Rating - 89
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The George Herman Hitchcock project, Chapter 1: When Boys Leave Home
Introduction
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: When Boys Leave Home
RUTH
(1914-1915)
George Herman Ruth was called many names. Before 1914, due to his dark skin tone and ethnic facial features, most of those names began with "N*gger". In 1914, Jack Dunn, the owner of the independent minor league team the Baltimore Orioles, signed Ruth to join his team of young prospects who were often known as "Jack's babes". Because of Ruth's size and prodigious skill the local press enjoyed calling the boy, Babe Ruth.
Ruth had honed his skills for years at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore. He had a blinding fastball, strong curveball, and a big looping uppercut swing. No one in the pros swung like that. The objective for major league hitters at that time was to perfect the line drive, thus batters used a slight downward chop to achieve the right backspin on hit balls. Ruth instead modelled his swing after one of the Brothers at his school who used to clout massive drives that the little boys used to ooh and ahh and chase down.
Jack Dunn and his scouts found Ruth at the nearby boy's school doing everything on the field. For instance, in 1913 the school paper reported on Ruth pitching a complete game one-hitter, striking out twenty-two batters, and getting four hits. That's the kid that Dunn saw and that's the kid that Dunn signed.
And that's the kid that Dunn turned around and sold to the Boston Red Sox that same year when his financial troubles set in. The Sox saw a solid left-handed pitcher who rarely connected with his wild swing. So Boston sent him to their top farm team, the Providence Grays. For the Grays, the 19 year-old kid won 26 games and hit a home run into Lake Ontario.
In 1915, the Sox called Ruth back up to the majors to join the starting rotation. On May 25th, the 20-year-old kid hit a ball 475 feet, out of Sportsman's Park into the streets beyond. It was one of the longest home runs yet struck by a human being. It was one of three home runs Ruth hit in a four-game span. He hit four overall that year, playing less than 1/4 of his team's games. The rest of the Sox team combined had only ten homers. The league leader had seven. Though Ruth pitched well -- 2.44 ERA, second in the league in opponent batting average, fourth in winning percentage -- paying fans weren't coming to his games to just watch him throw. At some point, Ruth was going to have to get to the plate more often, but that wouldn't be for a little while longer.
Sources:
Creamer, Robert. Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1974.
Jenkinson, Bill. Baseball's Ultimate Power: Ranking the All-Time Greatest Distance Home Run Hitters. Lyons Press. 2010.
Jenkinson, Bill. The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger. Carrol & Graf. 2007.
Montville, Leigh. The Big Bam: The Life and Time of Babe Ruth. Broadway Books, New York. 2006.
HITCHCOCK
(1922-1927)
Alfred Hitchcock was born four years after Ruth, in 1899. Ruth's mother had died when he was a teenager, while Hitchcock's father passed away when the boy was fourteen. Both were sent away to live at boys' schools to learn a craft. In Alfred's case, he went to the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation. After graduating he went to work for an electric cable company putting his engineering skills to use as a technical estimator. His night school art studies at the University of London aided his transfer to the advertising department to work as an ad designer. From there, his enjoyment of cinema and his design skills helped him land his next job as a title card designer for the London branch of the Famous Players Film Company.
Title cards are the pauses in the action of silent films when printed text comes up providing dialogue or action description that can't be seen in the image. These intertitles can thus sculpt the film if the filmmaker doesn't capture the story in the moving images. By designing title cards for films Hitchcock was learning cinematic storytelling, and also meeting with screenwriters every day. With their help, he began writing scripts on the side.
When the American owners sold Famous Players to a British company, Hitchcock approached the new management for new work. From 1922 to 1925, he was hired as an assistant director on six films and the art director on nine. He also gained three screenwriting credits and one editing credit.
Sadly all of these films have been lost, like so much cinema from this period. The nitrate film stock from this era ages poorly, crumbles, and is highly flammable. On a positive note, the first three reels of 1923's The White Shadow (credited as assistant director, editor, and writer) were recently discovered in the New Zealand Archives. It's doubtful that one could learn everything about Hitch's early influences from thirty minutes of this melodrama, but it's a great addition to cinema history and culture.
From Hitchcock's personal descriptions of these films, they all appear to be dramas or melodramas. None of them action films or mysteries. And from his words, these productions gave him a solid understanding of the labor and mechanics behind a production as opposed to helping mold his style. Except in one case.
In his final art direction gig, the production of The Blackguard (co-produced by UFA) brought Hitchcock to Germany. While there, Hitch had the opportunity to watch a number of productions in process, including Murnau's The Last Laugh. Influenced by Expressionism, many German films at this time were much more visually intense and held closer to artistic styles than anything being made in the UK. Hitch took note of the storytelling being done within the images as opposed to the title cards. (The Last Laugh originally had NO titles.) It was a full commitment to the visual medium, free of associations with the printed word.
His first directing job was on The Pleasure Garden. The film (unavailable in the US) is a melodrama about a chorus girl whose new husband cheats on her, kills his mistress, and then tries to kill his wife. In his conversations with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock has much more to say about the production of the film than the content or quality therein. He's entirely dismissive of his next film, The Mountain Eagle, saying bluntly "It was a very bad movie." Nothing remains of this film and Hitch doesn't seem to be too saddened about that.
The Lodger (1927)
Hitchcock's next film, The Lodger, is available everywhere, even in the public domain, thus resulting in many cruddy home video versions. The copy I own is particularly poor.
The story: While a Jack-the-Ripper-type serial killer targets blond women throughout London, a very odd man takes up lodging with a small family. The daughter of the family, a blonde model (of course), takes a weird liking to this stranger. Her boyfriend, a police detective (of course), gets jealous. His feelings mix with circumstantial evidence and he begins to suspect that the lodger is the murderer. Suspense ensues!
The film is soaked with German Expressionist influences: high contrast lighting, exaggerated performances, and distorted imagery. The style is strongest in the film's eight minute opening sequence of a murder and resulting word-of-mouth news. It's a well paced montage with an exceptional amount of cuts for an English film of its time. Like the rest of the movie, the titles are kept at minimum but when they are used they're stylized (likely influenced by Hitch's title card jobs).
The editing and visuals hold up better than the acting and screenplay. There's a lot of coincidence and characters making unnecessarily dumb horror-film-cliche decisions. The lead, Igor Novello, plays very weird just so that the audience suspects him, then is suddenly completely normal when the weirdness is inconvenient for the story. But again, the visuals are dynamite -- overexposed kissing faces, feet pacing back and forth on an invisible floor, the silent screams of the murder victims. The aforementioned opening is comparable to Fritz Lang's 1931 masterpiece, M.
We also witness the birth of much of Hitchcock's style. The obsession with blondes. The meddling mothers. The pursuit of the wrong man. The grim gallows humor. Upon hearing about the first blonde murder, a newspaper man exclaims, "Tuesday's my lucky day!" A brunette model announces, "No more peroxide for yours truly."
I can't imagine how audiences of the time reacted to that sort of happy irreverence over manslaughter. Ultimately the film itself was a box office success, so audiences did take to this new director's style. This afforded him a future. But could he keep this burst of style burning? And what sorts of films would he direct next?
We'll explore this and more in Chapter 2: The Ring.
Sources:
Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side Of Genius: The Life Of Alfred Hitchcock. De Capo Press, New York. 1999.
Truffaut, Francois. Hitchcock. Simon & Schuster, Paris. 1984.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: When Boys Leave Home
RUTH
(1914-1915)
 |
| (Source) |
Ruth had honed his skills for years at St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore. He had a blinding fastball, strong curveball, and a big looping uppercut swing. No one in the pros swung like that. The objective for major league hitters at that time was to perfect the line drive, thus batters used a slight downward chop to achieve the right backspin on hit balls. Ruth instead modelled his swing after one of the Brothers at his school who used to clout massive drives that the little boys used to ooh and ahh and chase down.
Jack Dunn and his scouts found Ruth at the nearby boy's school doing everything on the field. For instance, in 1913 the school paper reported on Ruth pitching a complete game one-hitter, striking out twenty-two batters, and getting four hits. That's the kid that Dunn saw and that's the kid that Dunn signed.
And that's the kid that Dunn turned around and sold to the Boston Red Sox that same year when his financial troubles set in. The Sox saw a solid left-handed pitcher who rarely connected with his wild swing. So Boston sent him to their top farm team, the Providence Grays. For the Grays, the 19 year-old kid won 26 games and hit a home run into Lake Ontario.
In 1915, the Sox called Ruth back up to the majors to join the starting rotation. On May 25th, the 20-year-old kid hit a ball 475 feet, out of Sportsman's Park into the streets beyond. It was one of the longest home runs yet struck by a human being. It was one of three home runs Ruth hit in a four-game span. He hit four overall that year, playing less than 1/4 of his team's games. The rest of the Sox team combined had only ten homers. The league leader had seven. Though Ruth pitched well -- 2.44 ERA, second in the league in opponent batting average, fourth in winning percentage -- paying fans weren't coming to his games to just watch him throw. At some point, Ruth was going to have to get to the plate more often, but that wouldn't be for a little while longer.
Sources:
Creamer, Robert. Babe: The Legend Comes to Life. Simon & Schuster, New York. 1974.
Jenkinson, Bill. Baseball's Ultimate Power: Ranking the All-Time Greatest Distance Home Run Hitters. Lyons Press. 2010.
Jenkinson, Bill. The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs: Recrowning Baseball's Greatest Slugger. Carrol & Graf. 2007.
Montville, Leigh. The Big Bam: The Life and Time of Babe Ruth. Broadway Books, New York. 2006.
HITCHCOCK
(1922-1927)
 |
| (Source) |
Alfred Hitchcock was born four years after Ruth, in 1899. Ruth's mother had died when he was a teenager, while Hitchcock's father passed away when the boy was fourteen. Both were sent away to live at boys' schools to learn a craft. In Alfred's case, he went to the London County Council School of Engineering and Navigation. After graduating he went to work for an electric cable company putting his engineering skills to use as a technical estimator. His night school art studies at the University of London aided his transfer to the advertising department to work as an ad designer. From there, his enjoyment of cinema and his design skills helped him land his next job as a title card designer for the London branch of the Famous Players Film Company.
Title cards are the pauses in the action of silent films when printed text comes up providing dialogue or action description that can't be seen in the image. These intertitles can thus sculpt the film if the filmmaker doesn't capture the story in the moving images. By designing title cards for films Hitchcock was learning cinematic storytelling, and also meeting with screenwriters every day. With their help, he began writing scripts on the side.
When the American owners sold Famous Players to a British company, Hitchcock approached the new management for new work. From 1922 to 1925, he was hired as an assistant director on six films and the art director on nine. He also gained three screenwriting credits and one editing credit.
Sadly all of these films have been lost, like so much cinema from this period. The nitrate film stock from this era ages poorly, crumbles, and is highly flammable. On a positive note, the first three reels of 1923's The White Shadow (credited as assistant director, editor, and writer) were recently discovered in the New Zealand Archives. It's doubtful that one could learn everything about Hitch's early influences from thirty minutes of this melodrama, but it's a great addition to cinema history and culture.
From Hitchcock's personal descriptions of these films, they all appear to be dramas or melodramas. None of them action films or mysteries. And from his words, these productions gave him a solid understanding of the labor and mechanics behind a production as opposed to helping mold his style. Except in one case.
In his final art direction gig, the production of The Blackguard (co-produced by UFA) brought Hitchcock to Germany. While there, Hitch had the opportunity to watch a number of productions in process, including Murnau's The Last Laugh. Influenced by Expressionism, many German films at this time were much more visually intense and held closer to artistic styles than anything being made in the UK. Hitch took note of the storytelling being done within the images as opposed to the title cards. (The Last Laugh originally had NO titles.) It was a full commitment to the visual medium, free of associations with the printed word.
His first directing job was on The Pleasure Garden. The film (unavailable in the US) is a melodrama about a chorus girl whose new husband cheats on her, kills his mistress, and then tries to kill his wife. In his conversations with Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock has much more to say about the production of the film than the content or quality therein. He's entirely dismissive of his next film, The Mountain Eagle, saying bluntly "It was a very bad movie." Nothing remains of this film and Hitch doesn't seem to be too saddened about that.
The Lodger (1927)
Hitchcock's next film, The Lodger, is available everywhere, even in the public domain, thus resulting in many cruddy home video versions. The copy I own is particularly poor.
The story: While a Jack-the-Ripper-type serial killer targets blond women throughout London, a very odd man takes up lodging with a small family. The daughter of the family, a blonde model (of course), takes a weird liking to this stranger. Her boyfriend, a police detective (of course), gets jealous. His feelings mix with circumstantial evidence and he begins to suspect that the lodger is the murderer. Suspense ensues!
The film is soaked with German Expressionist influences: high contrast lighting, exaggerated performances, and distorted imagery. The style is strongest in the film's eight minute opening sequence of a murder and resulting word-of-mouth news. It's a well paced montage with an exceptional amount of cuts for an English film of its time. Like the rest of the movie, the titles are kept at minimum but when they are used they're stylized (likely influenced by Hitch's title card jobs).
The editing and visuals hold up better than the acting and screenplay. There's a lot of coincidence and characters making unnecessarily dumb horror-film-cliche decisions. The lead, Igor Novello, plays very weird just so that the audience suspects him, then is suddenly completely normal when the weirdness is inconvenient for the story. But again, the visuals are dynamite -- overexposed kissing faces, feet pacing back and forth on an invisible floor, the silent screams of the murder victims. The aforementioned opening is comparable to Fritz Lang's 1931 masterpiece, M.
We also witness the birth of much of Hitchcock's style. The obsession with blondes. The meddling mothers. The pursuit of the wrong man. The grim gallows humor. Upon hearing about the first blonde murder, a newspaper man exclaims, "Tuesday's my lucky day!" A brunette model announces, "No more peroxide for yours truly."
I can't imagine how audiences of the time reacted to that sort of happy irreverence over manslaughter. Ultimately the film itself was a box office success, so audiences did take to this new director's style. This afforded him a future. But could he keep this burst of style burning? And what sorts of films would he direct next?
We'll explore this and more in Chapter 2: The Ring.
Sources:
Spoto, Donald. The Dark Side Of Genius: The Life Of Alfred Hitchcock. De Capo Press, New York. 1999.
Truffaut, Francois. Hitchcock. Simon & Schuster, Paris. 1984.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Quick(ish) takes - a few films and more!
Whisky Galore! - I watched this little postwar Ealing Studios British comedy on Saturday and loved it tremendously (and wrote a brief review here). Netflix (or Qwikster?) carries this delightful confection, though snooping is required to purchase it in the US. CONFESSION: I drank gin while watching this movie. For the next viewing, I'll try to find an old-school blend to match it up properly.
What's Up, Tiger Lily? - Punctuation in movie titles! - WOW has this film dated poorly. But its constant objectification of women is spectacular. The best part, really.
On the surface, it seems like the movie would be pretty good. A young Woody Allen, fresh off of his screenwriting, TV, and stand-up successes was hired to direct his first film. So he took two cheesy Japanese spy films, recut them together, and dubbed over irreverent dialogue to create comedic intrigue about the search for the world's greatest egg salad recipe.
I can't really recommend Tiger Lily as a good example of early Woody Allen. In fact I'd recommend any other early Woody film: Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Play it Again Sam, etc.
Breakfast at Tiffany's - A terrifying film about an out-of-control narcissist who uses every creature she comes across for sex, money, attention, and fame, hurting everyone including herself in the process. But the real horror is that Holly Golightly was ever seen by anyone as a hero or role model.
 |
| (Source) |
My wife correctly pointed out that self-obsessed a**holes (my term, not hers) were and are more acceptable when they're men as opposed to women (in film and elsewhere). I have no beef with that statement. That's one of the reasons I've never warmed up to The Western genre, which more often than not romanticizes the Arrogant American Male. But I don't think Holly's glorification is comforting either.
In our post-film discussion, Kristen also referenced my dislike of Scarlett O'Hara, another strong but ruinously self-obsessed woman. The thing is, I believe that Scarlett loves Rhett Butler; it's in the script and the acting. But I do not believe that Holly can love "Fred". There's no precedence for it in the script, nor is a sudden turnaround believable.
I'm not saying the film is bad. It's actually a very interesting character study of a malignant narcissist running amuck in hyper-consumerist Manhattan. I'd watch it again if I wasn't haunted by the hideous Asian stereotyped(?) character, courtesy of Andy Rooney, that Blake Edwards clearly finds uproarious. Unless that's also part of the horror...
 |
| (Source) |
Ugh, just a little more space away from that image...
... ... ...
Mad Men (Season 4) and The Wire (Season 1) - To end on a positive note, I'm experiencing such writer's bliss watching these two series fully explore characters through subtle narrative progression. Tectonic shifts happening quietly, gradually; gracefully handled by the writers, directors, and actors. A feature film, by its nature, is a best-of scene sequence. To establish shading and subtlety takes considerable work, luck, and brilliance when one has only 100 minutes to tell a story. When there's 600, 800, or 1000 minutes with which to work, the creative possibilities grow exponentially. Though it takes steady hands to not get lost amongst all of the opportunities. And when the process works right, this viewer feels no guilt watching television.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
WHISKY GALORE! (The Film!)
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| Nominee for the greatest title EVER |
Narrator
But in 1943, disaster overwhelmed this little island. Not famine nor pestilence. Nor Hitler's bombs. Or the hordes of an invading army. Something far... far... worse.
Bartender
There is no whisky!
In the middle of WWII, the small Isle of Toddy (100 miles from mainland Scotland) runs out of whisky. Panic, woe, and melancholy consumes the populace. Prayers are issued to the heavens for more whisky. The answer arrives in the form of an English cargo ship that crashes on their shores. Overhearing that the ship contains 50,000 cases of whisky, all of the men in the town sneak out to rescue the whisky cases before the boat sinks into the sea. Joy instantly returns to the island. Amidst the revelry, the locals must keep the whisky bottles hidden from the English military who are trying to bring the whisky back to the UK market so that government can collect tax on the sales.
I'm not sure how funny this 1949 film would be to anyone who doesn't find bliss in a brand new bottle of Scotch. But for whisky lovers, this film is divine. We are its demographic and it panders shamelessly to us.
"Four whiskies and the man is a giant?!" exclaims a woman about her young fiancee.
The local doctor replies, "It's a well known fact that some men are born two drinks below par." Amen.
There's a lovely singing montage as the whisky cases are opened and thoroughly enjoyed. Looking carefully, I saw bottles of Ballantine's, Black & White, Cutty Sark, Johnnie Walker, Islay Mist, Lang's, and Mackinlay. And when the montage ends, the narrator slurs through his voiceover.
The great Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers, Sweet Smell of Success), directing his first feature, does a solid job keeping the story hauling along. His visuals are crisp and smart; especially the depiction of the English military detectives as a faceless shadowed mass of hats. (There's a clear Scottish versus English undercurrent running throughout the film.) The editing is great. The end chase sequence works well and has a very appropriate emergency conclusion.
There's a last minute awkward shift at the end of the film that allows the picture to conform to the British Board's morality standards of the time, though upon second viewing this addition seems to be parodying the censorship.
Ultimately, there's very little deep or profound about this film other than its love of the uisge beatha. Sláinte Mhath! to that.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Shana Tova, y'all!
Yesterday (actually Wednesday night) marked Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I spent a good chunk of yesterday at services with my mom in Isla Vista, CA. It was thus necessary to shirk blog duties. Wikipedia has a very impressive Rosh Hashanah page, but I'll give you a brief recap right here:
Rosh Hashanah the start of a ten-day period wherein one takes stock of the previous year, or more specifically where one screwed up and hurt other people. Rosh Hashanah is day one, the Day of Judgement. Yom Kippur is day ten, the Day of Atonement.
In the literalist view of these ten days of Teshuvah, G-d determines what the next year holds in store for each individual. On Rosh Hashanah the big Book of Life opens. On Yom Kippur the determination is made and The Book is closed.
On a more personal level, it sets aside time for introspection. The religious practices enable that. One takes off time from one's usual daily schedule, gets dressed up, and goes to seriously loooooong services. Lots of prayers. Standing and sitting. Sitting and standing. Standing and sitting. Repetition Repetition. At some point, the mind slips away from the words and actions. It goes to a quiet place and floats over the year left behind and all that's to come. Sort of a Kosher meditation. And because it's Kosher, there's a whole lot of "Man, I f----d that up" observations going on.
It's also a time for apologies. And a time to consider what a real apology is. It's not "I'm sorry if what I said offended you." Rather it's "I hurt you. I was wrong. I'm sorry." Culturally, we hear so much of the former and so little of the latter, that we need to make sure that when we say we're sorry we're truly apologizing and not transferring the burden to the other person. And once we apologize, we neither expect nor demand forgiveness.
This is also the holiday wherein we hear the blowing of the shofar, formed from a ram's horn. From a distance it looks odd and out of place. But once sounded, it conjures feelings and images, primal and ancient. I still enjoy it after thirty-three years.
We also eat sweet stuff to symbolize a sweet new year. Apples and honey always head the list and I recommend that they be pared with white wine, brandy, cognac, or a Speyside single malt (of course).
It's also a great time to put together some realistic New Year's resolutions; resolutions that can be achieved through basic actions and adjustments. For instance, for my new internet year, I'm removing all the hate-spewing blogs from my daily reading cycle. Besides saving 30-45 minutes, it also removes considerable negativity from my day. That poisonous energy is easy to come by, it's harder to part with. I'm also removing as many distractions as possible from my iPod Touch. At some point I started playing more App games than actually using my favorite toy for music. These seem like simple little fixes when in fact they'll save me a lot of time and help clear my head for more productive writing sessions.
And on that note, I leave you with this mariachi band serenading a beluga whale:
Rosh Hashanah the start of a ten-day period wherein one takes stock of the previous year, or more specifically where one screwed up and hurt other people. Rosh Hashanah is day one, the Day of Judgement. Yom Kippur is day ten, the Day of Atonement.
In the literalist view of these ten days of Teshuvah, G-d determines what the next year holds in store for each individual. On Rosh Hashanah the big Book of Life opens. On Yom Kippur the determination is made and The Book is closed.
On a more personal level, it sets aside time for introspection. The religious practices enable that. One takes off time from one's usual daily schedule, gets dressed up, and goes to seriously loooooong services. Lots of prayers. Standing and sitting. Sitting and standing. Standing and sitting. Repetition Repetition. At some point, the mind slips away from the words and actions. It goes to a quiet place and floats over the year left behind and all that's to come. Sort of a Kosher meditation. And because it's Kosher, there's a whole lot of "Man, I f----d that up" observations going on.
It's also a time for apologies. And a time to consider what a real apology is. It's not "I'm sorry if what I said offended you." Rather it's "I hurt you. I was wrong. I'm sorry." Culturally, we hear so much of the former and so little of the latter, that we need to make sure that when we say we're sorry we're truly apologizing and not transferring the burden to the other person. And once we apologize, we neither expect nor demand forgiveness.
This is also the holiday wherein we hear the blowing of the shofar, formed from a ram's horn. From a distance it looks odd and out of place. But once sounded, it conjures feelings and images, primal and ancient. I still enjoy it after thirty-three years.
 |
| I LOVE this picture for so many reasons. (Source) |
It's also a great time to put together some realistic New Year's resolutions; resolutions that can be achieved through basic actions and adjustments. For instance, for my new internet year, I'm removing all the hate-spewing blogs from my daily reading cycle. Besides saving 30-45 minutes, it also removes considerable negativity from my day. That poisonous energy is easy to come by, it's harder to part with. I'm also removing as many distractions as possible from my iPod Touch. At some point I started playing more App games than actually using my favorite toy for music. These seem like simple little fixes when in fact they'll save me a lot of time and help clear my head for more productive writing sessions.
And on that note, I leave you with this mariachi band serenading a beluga whale:
Shana Tova! A good year to all!
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Single Malt Report (x2) - The Glenrothes 1994 AND 1991
Happy Whisky Wednesday everyone!
Last night I enjoyed the Raise the Macallan event in downtown LA. Later in the evening, at another location, I made the rookie mistake of drinking bourbon, well bourbon. Don't know if I should blame the waitress or the bartender for interpreting "whisky" as "bourbon". But I give myself a sincere FAIL for drinking all of it.
I'm also awaiting an exciting delivery from Master of Malt who have been great with previous orders and customer service.
So much great whisky to write about! Without further ado, the conclusion of my Glenrothes reports: The 1994 and 1991 vintages.
The 1994
Distillery: The Glenrothes
Age: 11 years (bottled in 2006)
Finish: mixed casks
Region: Highlands - Speyside (Rothes)
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
thekrav's notes:
Let's begin with the name. Why "The Glenrothes"?
Within Scotland, whisky production is divided up into six geographical regions: The Lowlands, The Highlands, Speyside, Islay, Campbeltown, and the Islands. Speyside is actually within The Highlands region, but (due to the powerful River Spey) almost two-thirds of all of Scotland's malts are produced there so it gets its own regional status.
Within Scotland, within The Highlands, within the Speyside region, lies the town of Rothes. Rothes sits on the west side of the River Spey in a glen surrounded by the rocky hills. The "The" designation is something that it shares with other whisky brands like The Macallan, The Glenlivet, The Balvenie, and The Krav (one of these is not like the other...). Though it seems showy and highbrow, it designates that the whisky within this labelled bottle contains product distilled and distributed by the whisky's producer -- and not distributed through an independent bottler like Signatory or Cadenhead's. I also think Glenrothes includes "The" in its name because it shares the one-street town of Rothes with four other distilleries. Thus it tries to establish itself as The whisky from the Rothes glen.
The previous two Glenrothes bottlings that I'd reviewed (Select Reserve and 1998 vintage) were included in a three-100mL-bottle-set that I bought at Royal Mile Whiskies in London. This one was not. I enjoyed this vintage at a free Scotch tasting at The Daily Pint on June 16th.
I'm grading this similarly to the 10-year 1998 vintage. The honey note is still present in this one, but vanilla stands out the most, especially in the nose. It's more dry than sweet. Like its Glenrothes brethren, this whisky's finish is very short.
Also similar to the previously reviewed vintages, its texture is very light, though each one seems to be getting richer as I progress into the older bottlings. Of course that could be psychosomatic; knowing a whisky is older and more expensive may subconsciously alter one's perception.
So that's something that I really caution other rookie whisky tasters: Forget about whisky age and price when tasting. Miracles of chemistry form the flavor. Sometimes hotter, livelier, youthful batches will be more to one's liking. Sometimes a 12yr from one distillery will be smoother than an 18yr from another.
Keeping all of that in mind, I think that these Glenrothes prices remain too high. For something of this age, quality, and high supply it costs too much. I shouldn't be able to buy three bottles of Glenfiddich 12 for the price of one of these.
Pricing - Overpriced! at $70-80
Rating - 74
The 1991
Distillery: The Glenrothes
Age: 13 years (bottled in 2005)
Finish: mixed casks
Region: Highlands - Speyside (Rothes)
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
thekrav's notes:
During that enjoyable (all free scotch tastings are enjoyable) Scotch dramming at The Daily Pint, the exceedingly enthusiastic Glenrothes representative kept pressing on us how rare the 1991 vintage is and how lucky we are to be sipping it.
It's not rare, but I was quite lucky to get a free sample. AND I also have this 100mL from that three-pack of The Glenrothes purchased at Royal Mile. So I've been able to sample it a few times, both neat and with water. And it is my favorite of the four Glenrothes that I've tried.
The nose is sweet and sugary. Definitely a dessert whisky. Add in a tiny measure of water and the sweetness mellows, bringing forward the vanilla note from the 1994 vintage.
The palate, the best part. Marshmallows and shortbread cookies. The texture is very smooth, enhancing the dessert-y nature. Adding water brings oaky notes to the forefront. Thus I prefer it neat.
It almost evaporates on the tongue......and so does the finish (alas, sadly) like the other three Glenrothes bottlings.
The price range isn't great. $90? No way. $75? Getting closer but still steep. Again, between the four The Glenrotheses sampled (Select Reserve, 1998, 1994, and 1991), this one suits me best. I've even saved a dram for another try with dessert some time very soon.
Pricing - Overpriced at $75-90
Rating - 83
Last night I enjoyed the Raise the Macallan event in downtown LA. Later in the evening, at another location, I made the rookie mistake of drinking bourbon, well bourbon. Don't know if I should blame the waitress or the bartender for interpreting "whisky" as "bourbon". But I give myself a sincere FAIL for drinking all of it.
I'm also awaiting an exciting delivery from Master of Malt who have been great with previous orders and customer service.
So much great whisky to write about! Without further ado, the conclusion of my Glenrothes reports: The 1994 and 1991 vintages.
The 1994
Distillery: The Glenrothes
Age: 11 years (bottled in 2006)
Finish: mixed casks
Region: Highlands - Speyside (Rothes)
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
thekrav's notes:
Let's begin with the name. Why "The Glenrothes"?
Within Scotland, whisky production is divided up into six geographical regions: The Lowlands, The Highlands, Speyside, Islay, Campbeltown, and the Islands. Speyside is actually within The Highlands region, but (due to the powerful River Spey) almost two-thirds of all of Scotland's malts are produced there so it gets its own regional status.
Within Scotland, within The Highlands, within the Speyside region, lies the town of Rothes. Rothes sits on the west side of the River Spey in a glen surrounded by the rocky hills. The "The" designation is something that it shares with other whisky brands like The Macallan, The Glenlivet, The Balvenie, and The Krav (one of these is not like the other...). Though it seems showy and highbrow, it designates that the whisky within this labelled bottle contains product distilled and distributed by the whisky's producer -- and not distributed through an independent bottler like Signatory or Cadenhead's. I also think Glenrothes includes "The" in its name because it shares the one-street town of Rothes with four other distilleries. Thus it tries to establish itself as The whisky from the Rothes glen.
I'm grading this similarly to the 10-year 1998 vintage. The honey note is still present in this one, but vanilla stands out the most, especially in the nose. It's more dry than sweet. Like its Glenrothes brethren, this whisky's finish is very short.
Also similar to the previously reviewed vintages, its texture is very light, though each one seems to be getting richer as I progress into the older bottlings. Of course that could be psychosomatic; knowing a whisky is older and more expensive may subconsciously alter one's perception.
So that's something that I really caution other rookie whisky tasters: Forget about whisky age and price when tasting. Miracles of chemistry form the flavor. Sometimes hotter, livelier, youthful batches will be more to one's liking. Sometimes a 12yr from one distillery will be smoother than an 18yr from another.
Keeping all of that in mind, I think that these Glenrothes prices remain too high. For something of this age, quality, and high supply it costs too much. I shouldn't be able to buy three bottles of Glenfiddich 12 for the price of one of these.
Pricing - Overpriced! at $70-80
Rating - 74
The 1991
Distillery: The Glenrothes
Age: 13 years (bottled in 2005)
Finish: mixed casks
Region: Highlands - Speyside (Rothes)
Alcohol by Volume: 43%
During that enjoyable (all free scotch tastings are enjoyable) Scotch dramming at The Daily Pint, the exceedingly enthusiastic Glenrothes representative kept pressing on us how rare the 1991 vintage is and how lucky we are to be sipping it.
 |
| Well, if it's so darn rare, why do I have some here right now at my desk? |
The nose is sweet and sugary. Definitely a dessert whisky. Add in a tiny measure of water and the sweetness mellows, bringing forward the vanilla note from the 1994 vintage.
The palate, the best part. Marshmallows and shortbread cookies. The texture is very smooth, enhancing the dessert-y nature. Adding water brings oaky notes to the forefront. Thus I prefer it neat.
It almost evaporates on the tongue......and so does the finish (alas, sadly) like the other three Glenrothes bottlings.
The price range isn't great. $90? No way. $75? Getting closer but still steep. Again, between the four The Glenrotheses sampled (Select Reserve, 1998, 1994, and 1991), this one suits me best. I've even saved a dram for another try with dessert some time very soon.
Pricing - Overpriced at $75-90
Rating - 83
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