For All Mankind (2019) - 5 of 5 Lunas
Just finished Season 1 of the show. When I tweeted that I was watching it, a friend of mine replied as follows:
Overall, I loved the first season. It wasn't perfect and I have my gripes, but I heartily recommend it to others to check it out.
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Daily Rituals - 3 out of 5 cups of tea
I finally finished this book. It's a string of entries about the habits and routines of famous artists, authors, architects, etc. I started out reading every entry but by about halfway I began skipping entries for people I'd never heard of. But it was still interesting to be able to compare Isaac Asimov to Stephen King to other great authors, etc.
It's firmly infotainment, no shocking revelations - the vast majority of entries boil down to "Put in the hours to get the work done" no matter the type of art or work they do. Very few claim to be driven purely by bolts of brilliance rather than dogged determination and work habits.
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The Gray Man (3.5 out of 5 shades of gray)
I wouldn't call it great. It's a good first step for a new action franchise. It sets up the myserious "Six" and dumps him into action against his handlers. They've already greenlit a sequel and I'm not mad about it. Am I clamoring for it? Not really. But I'm a sucker for action movies.
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The Bear (2022) - 4/5 beef sandwiches
Starring Jeremy Allen White, who I know from the US adaptation of Shameless, The Bear is about a struggling Chicago restaurant. White, who plays Carmen Berzatto, a chef who trained and cooked for some of the best restaurants in the world - has come back to his family owned eatery to take it over after it was left to him by his brother. A brother, who we learn is a drug addict, and also who commit suicide.
The show is entertaining and also vexing. I really enjoyed its first season and was tempted to give it a full 5 out of 5, but it is unevenly paced and leaves you with some pretty big questions going into season 2 - the biggest of which is sure to be the entire premise of season 2.
I also need to shout out the performances of Ayo Edibiri, who plays Sydney, as well as Ebon Moss-Bachrach who plays Richie. I wasn't familiar with either of them, but I really appreciated their performances and seeing the evolution of their characters in this eight episode season.
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Death on the Nile (2022)
My Rating: 3 out of 5 Belgian Mustaches
Been meaning to watch it and finally sat down with Katie and her mother. Overall it was fine, but it was nothing amazing.
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Only Murders in the Building - Season 1 (2021)
My Rating: 4 out of 5 murders
I held off watching this, but have ended up bingeing it while my mother-in-law is here. Quite enjoyed the first season. Haven't jumped into season two yet.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
My Rating: 3 out of 5 Lightsabers
I wanted to like the show a lot more than I did. I'm not hating anyone who loved it, to each our own. Overall I found it plodding and unremarkable. By far my favorite part of the show was Moses Ingraham.
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The Courier (2020)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Rachel Brosnahan in a Cold War era film. My first movie of 2022. Overall quite good though the ending dragged.
3.5/5
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Dune (2021)
I just got home from seeing Dune, and this is my spoiler free review.
TLDR: The movie does a lot to get the book to screen adaptation right, possibly too much. I'm not sure how much people who aren't familiar with the story will enjoy it.
Now my longer thoughts:
First, some very important context: I have read the book probably a dozen times. It was one of the books I'd name as being very formative for me, and has been a mainstay for me as something I regularly would revisit. I have a half-dozen copies of it in various printings. I love the book.
Second, the story itself has its problems as it comes from another era. Sexism, racism, and all sorts of other -isms. Looking at it requires looking through the lens of awareness and time.
Now, I saw the movie in just a regular theater. And, for a solid portion of this movie, I had tears leaking from my eyes at the beauty and story that was on screen in front of me.
There have been a number of previous attempts to tell this story on the big screen. First was the movie that included such names as Patrick Stewart and Sting. Second was the TV miniseries for Syfy.
This one nailed it in so many ways. I don't agree with everything. I don't agree with all of the casting. But... man they got so much right.
That said, to make the movie they did, they had to cut from the story. A lot of what they cut would have made a lot of what they kept make more sense, or in some cases, is completely needed for things to make sense.
For example, there are people in the story called Mentats. You'll know them by a black stripe on their bottom lip. They are essentially human computers. Why are they there? What do they do? You get no context to them in the movie. And there is importance for them to the sides in the story.
The soldiers in the movie all fight with blades, even though you see lasers and projectile weapons? Why? The book gives you a reason, but they skip explaining it in the movie so you are forced to just accept this.
They also barely provide the context that is the intergalactic setting for the defining conflict of the story. You get bits of it, but I am not sure how obvious it is to people who don't have the book in their head to fill in the gaps and it definitely lacks some of the larger context.
Now, I get it. Things had to go otherwise this would be a series of four four-hour epics. But I air these as examples of why I think reading the book before seeing the movie is so beneficial, it lets you appreciate the story at a deeper and more complete level.
The visuals and the way they portrayed the story is largely true to the book. It also hits the tone and epic feel of the story; unfortunately I think that to hit those things, lends to the way that many will find the movie slow and plodding.
I am thrilled to see it getting such good ratings on Rotten Tomatoes; I am just worried we're about to see those ratings dip as others are enticed to see it.
Lastly, I understand why they did it, but it was not advertised that this is not the whole Dune story. It's just "Part 1." No, I don't mean multiple books as the story of Dune. I mean the first book of Frank Herbert's series. My estimate is that they see it being a trilogy, but I have no idea if we'll get more than just this movie.
We'll see.
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Hank Green's - An Absolutely Remarkable Thing
I just finished the audiobook for Hang Green's latest book. I haven't read any of his other books, but this was overall an enjoyable listen. I won't say it is amazing, it feels for much of the book like a thin veil over the events of 2020 but it is still an enjoyable story. As with most books, I found the finish of the book a bit unsatisfying. I don't know if I simply have too-high expectations for books, if endings are that hard to pull off, or more likely a mixture of both.
I give it a rating of 🤖 🤖 🤖 / 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖 🤖
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In case anyone was unsure, Hidden Figures still remains an amazing movie
I put it on the TV while I was making chili this morning. I saw it when it came out in theaters and I came home to immediately told every friend who would listen to go see it and I stand by that assessment. It reminds you simultaneously about the social low of segregation and that what is going on today is not a new issue, while also reminding you the amazing heights to which humanity can rise if given the opportunity.
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The Towering Inferno - 🔥🔥🔥/5
I was in the mood for a disaster movie last night, so Katie and I watched The Towering Inferno (1974), starring Paul Newman & Steve McQueen. Overall it was good, though in the modern day felt kind of quaint in its effects and narrative.
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Beyond Meat - End of Week Thoughts
So this week I made my lunch for the week. An orzo dish that I whip up and eat over the week. Normally I use chicken or Italian sausage and this week I decided to give Beyond Meat Italian Sausage a try. I'd never tried any form of Beyond Meat so I was going in blind. I also bought normal sausage (it was on sale) as a backup, so I was covered either way.
Cooking
I normally boil the sausages on the stove and then finish them as coins in the meal while the orzo boils. Can't do that with Beyond Meat, as I quickly realized. About 60-90 seconds into them heating up in the water I realized the water was getting extremely oily and my brain clicked that their casings wouldn't be meat, so were likely soy or something that was deteriorating in the water. So I pulled them out of the water. The casings felt like some sort of jelly. So I dumped the water and cut the sausages and cooked them in the pan with oil as coins. Cooking was fine, but it also was the first clear sign that this wasn't meat. It left a lot on the pan, more than I would expect from similar sausages. Is it a big deal? Not really, there was still plenty of meat, but was a bit of a pain to clean.
Once I was convinced they were done cooking I decided not to transfer them to the cooking orzo, for the same reasons I didn't boil them to cook them. I didn't want the boiling orzo to ruin the casings and the sausage to disassemble. Once the Orzo was mostly boiled, I added the sausages for the last few minutes of cooking.
Eating
The food was put into a plastic container and refrigerated overnight. The next day I reheated a portion for lunch. The meat reheated fine, and the best part of the Beyond Meat product is the mouth feel. It feels like meat when you bite into it. The sausage was supposed to be "Hot Italian" but it honestly barely registered for me. The flavor was muted, if anything. It didn't have the umami of sausage, but also, it didn't taste like anything else to me. So as a vehicle for other flavors, it works well enough. It held up through the week with no discernible shifts in flavor or texture.
Verdict
Overall, I'm a fan. I am not going to be giving up sausage all together, but in this recipe I think it works and I'll be trying it again when I make it for lunch next time. There's another brand friends recommended, Field Roast. I plan to give them a try next and we'll see.
The truth is I've considered going vegetarian for health and environmental reasons, but... I love meat. Steak is so delicious. Burgers. Sausage. Chicken... I love it all. But if I can begin to cut into the ones I eat and find the suitable replacements, that is exciting. Maybe one day I'll be a Vege-steak-tarian. We'll see.
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