TV Bites: The In-Laws

THE SNACK:
Grandma's Turkey Split Pea Soup



Happy Thanksgiving!

So instead of a Hitchcock double bill, you get a caper comedy double bill. Not bad....

I've been dying to add this movie to the "Chef du Cinema collection," as it may well be the funniest movie ever made. But the reason I chose it for Thanksgiving was that one of the only foods referenced in The In-Laws is pea soup, which comes in the scene when Sheldon and Vince are in the cafeteria early on after the shoot-out at Vince's office.

Now I have two associations with pea soup. One is that whenever I drive I-5 between San Francisco and Los Angeles, I always make it a point to stop at Pea Soup Anderson's for lunch. The other is that in my family, usually a few days after Thanksgiving, my grandmother or my mother would make this soup with the leftover turkey carcass. The smell of the soup cooking always takes me back to childhood and it's a big comfort food winter meal for me to make ever since.

So then how perfect is it that early on during the commentary track on the DVD, Peter Falk notes: "How many people in America take this picture, The In-Laws, and whether it's on Christmas, Rosh Hashanah – some holiday – and they get the whole family together and they run it? And they run it every year. And they've been doing it for 10 years."

Like the Redesign?

I was doing that staring at the computer screen last night just surfing. no big plan. just surfing.

I found myself looking at several Blogger template websites and I suddenly realized that I should give the web site a little update. The original design I made like the week after the first class and while I found it amusing it was time to make some changes.

So I decided to think about it more in the morning, but instead it had me tossing and turning all night until I jumped right out of bed and had a plan and began to implement it. I finally crashed about dawn and then woke up about five hours later and went right back at it. There really needs to be a good CSS editor on the market. I guess developers have figured out if they DID make on, it would soon put them out of highly paid work. And someone's got to keep the economy going, right?

But I did as best I could. Hope you like it too.


one last peek...

The Class: A Fish Called Wanda

THE MEAL:
Beer-Battered Fish & Chips
Creamy Coleslaw
Homemade Tarter Sauce and Ketchup
Jamie Lee Curtis' Favorite Lemon Cake w/Ice Cream



Well, I lied. This is not part two of a Hitchcock double bill. Well, not really lied... it's coming in December. But today I just saw some rare Hitchcock home movies as part of some screenings during the AMIA film archivist convention that's been here in town for the last few days. My old pal Steve Parr, aka Oddball Film, is staying with me. Good times catching up, but also opportunities to see some rare films from various film archives around the world. Steve had some great footage including an incredible interview by some local tv reporter in the early 1960's with Andy Warhol and someone's home movie of the Jefferson Airplane at the Filmmore West. I also saw some amazing home movies from Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, and film shot at a costume party given by William Randolph Hearst at his Santa Monica home. The last film featured shots of people like Clark Gable, Henry Fonda, and Carole Lombard all in costume.

But by far the home movies of Alfred Hitchcock, circa late 20's or early 30's, narrated by his daughter Patricia, were quite the sight. A young Hitchcock riding a bicycle, playing tennis, and one really weird sequence which I'm not really capable of trying to communicate, but it was a bit, well, interesting.

Tickets Available NOW!! - The Royal Tenenbaums, January 14th!

Time: Saturday January 14, 2012 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Central Market North, 4001 North Lamar, Austin, TX
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE

For my 10th Chef du Cinema class, I'll be presenting The Royal Tenenbaums and serving a menu of recipes I've culled from some of film's stars.

Gene Hackman, who won a Golden Globe for his performance, plays an errant patriarch of a dysfunctional family of geniuses. The 2001 film, narrated by Alec Baldwin, also costars Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Owen & Luke Wilson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Bill Murray, and Danny Glover. Co-written by Texans Owen Wilson and director Wes Anderson, the Academy award nominated screenplay has been described as a “hilarious, touching, and brilliantly stylized study of melancholy and redemption.”

THE MENU:
Anjelica Huston's Rustic Irish Soda Bread w/Smoked Salmon & Crème Fraiche
Mixed Green Salad w/Gwyneth Paltrow's Vinaigrette
Gwyneth Paltrow's Sea Bass w/Salsa Verde
Alec Baldwin's Red Beans & Garlic (& Rice)
Danny Glover's Sweet Potato Pie