Saturday, December 18, 2010

Carnage du Jour - 17 December 2010

from grandteuton.blogspot.com

Pork chops are a staple around our Cleveland, and it's no wonder, considering how versatile these little guys can be.
 
This time it was a simple sear and pan-roast operation.  The butterfly chops were liberally salted, peppered and beau monded, then seared quickly in some olive oil.
 
While they rested on a plate, waiting for the rest of their cooking, into the pan went a large handful of grape tomatoes which popped nicely (although not nearly as dramatically as slow-motion popcorn!) in the pan.  Then some jalapeno stuffed olives, some kalamata olives, and some nice pickled cocktail onions went in, along with just a touch of tomato sauce - which was simply tomatoes from our garden which Heidi had run through the Mouli to keep that lovely garden-fresh flavour.
 
Back in the pan on top of all that goodness went the chops, along with a drained and rinsed can of cannellini beans.  It was only a few minutes for everything to meld and finish up, then the chops were again removed and some cooked spaghetti was added to the pan and all was finished.

Oh, I forgot to mention the roasted asparagus that accompanied - just simply roasted with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper - delicious indeed!

So there you have it, or rather, then we had it, and it was a lovely dinner.

Monday, December 13, 2010

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

(from grandteuton.blogspot.com)

Well, we made it to the show on the opening weekend, and I wouldn't have missed it.

First, let me list my disappointments, then I'll balance it out with what I really think:
The first disappointment was that there were very few people in the theatre when we arrived - very few indeed.  More folks arrived in dribs and drabs before the feature began, but it was still a largely empty house.  Heidi says they did a bad job of advertising, and too few people knew about it - that may be true, but I had seen the trailer online a long time ago and was receiving regular updates leading up to the release, so I can't really say.

The next disappointment was the alteration of the storyline.  As in the previous installments, I understand that there are cuts and changes that will need to be made in order to present the novel in movie form, but this time it seemed excessive to me.  When cutting scenes, there is likely to be information that needs to be restored somehow, and that necessitates adding something.  I get it.
Still, adding characters and changing the nature of one of the threats seemed jarring to me.

OK, that's it for disappointments.
As always, these films have actors, settings, and effects which simply look the way they did in my head when I read the books.  It's uncanny, but they seem to match Heidi's internal scenery as well.  Perhaps Lewis was just that good, or perhaps these films are good enough to make us realise that, "That's just what that looked like!" at each turn.  I don't know, and I don't really care - it's just wonderful that it works.

The music is great - I don't remember who wrote it, but it worked throughout by supporting the action and not really quite drawing attention to itself.
The effects are actually quite seamless - I think I only once saw anything that took me out of my willing suspension of disbelief, and that was a very quick scene of a faun jumping and landing with his knees going the same way mine do, but it was only a very quick flash.
So, my disappointments really come down to a preference for the original storyline, and the lack of folks in the seats at our showing.  Perhaps we chose exactly the wrong time to see a big audience, as it was at "normal" people's dinner time.
At the same time, the movie really was a joy, and I very much hope to see the rest of the Chronicles hit the silver screen.  (I think it's going to take a bunch of us buying tickets and DVDs to ensure that.)  It will be interesting to see if the original children of the film will be old enough to play themselves as adults when we get to the Last Battle.

To sum up - do yourself a favour and go see this movie.  It's an excellent adaptation of the novel (despite my quibbles), and it's an excellent movie on its own.

Enjoy!