Taxing meat pies? Oh, the humanity!
Archive for March 29th, 2012
…and a pussy’s good for maybe six or seven at the most…
Thursday, March 29th, 2012Cahiers du cinéma: Jiro Dreams of Sushi.
Thursday, March 29th, 2012This should be fairly short, since I’m not sure I have much to say other than this:
If “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” plays anywhere near you, I recommend that you go see it. If you have teenage children, I would seriously consider taking them along.
This is a movie about more than a world-class (as in, three Michelin stars) sushi chef. It is also a movie about finding work that you love, trying to be as good as you can at it, and working hard every day at it. In some ways, I think this is a movie about virtues we as a country have lost, and virtues that may be passing away in Japan as well.
Setting that aside, there’s also a lot of wonderful shots of Jiro’s sushi, the Tsukiji fish market, and raw tuna being prepared. It is a beautifully shot movie, worth seeing on a large screen.
(Jiro talking about his routine reminded me, of all things, of a quote from Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine
Scrape them off, Jim.
Thursday, March 29th, 2012Apparently, the great science fiction author Norman Spinrad wrote a script for “Star Trek: Original Recipe” that never got used. The script resurfaced a few months ago, and Spinrad began selling copies of it online. He also made arrangements with the “Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II” folks to do an adaptation of it.
At least, all this was going to happen until CBS put the kibosh on it.
Question: the Onion A/V Club describes the script as being about “the Enterprise crew’s encounter with a self-proclaimed messiah”. So how, exactly, does this differ from…well, pretty much every “Star Trek” episode written by Gene Roddenberry? Not to mention “Star Trek V”.
(Feel free to post in the comments and tell me I’m wrong. Especially you, A.T. After all, my hatred for “Star Trek” is a well known fact. But I think it is also a pretty well known fact, pointed out by notables such as Harlan Ellison, that “the Enterprise meets God” was a recurring obsession of Roddenberry’s.)
Obit watch: come and listen to my story about a man named Earl…
Thursday, March 29th, 2012…Earl Scruggs, that is.
Edited to add: By way of FARK, here’s a nice tribute to Earl Scruggs from the New Yorker.
Edited to add 2: The Onion A/V Club’s very nice obituary.