fiddy-fiddy

Great news! I've decided to expand my commentary on life beyond food and housewivery and not having a job and food and the suckage of the academic market and the folly of becoming a historian and ice cream! I am going to now include film reviews! Today's selection, 50/50. First off, you should know that if you have cancer, or have ever had cancer, or know anyone who has cancer, this is probably not the movie for you. It is a SAD movie, despite it being billed as a heartwarming comedrama. I've never written a real movie review before (despite writing about film all the time in my professional life) so I'm going to try very hard to keep my impressions from giving too much away--but I make no promises, so read on at your own spoilage alert. First up, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I love me some JGL. Since Heath Ledger went on that big walkabout in the sky, Joesph Gordon-Levitt has become one of the cutest patooties on the silver screen (and believe me the similarities between them don't hurt). And he can act! This is one of the primary reasons I wanted to see this movie. I thought he was genius in 500 Days of Summer and he didn't disappoint here either. Unfortunately the fact that he remains gorgeous was probably a bad thing in this movie. I totally bought the emotional despair, but physically, he still looked like JGL. His losing weight was a matter of personal/directorial interpretation (we can't all be Natalie Portman) and sure they shaved his head, but I think they should have done his eyebrows too. It bothered me through the whole movie. A stocking cap and some dark under-eye circles seemed unfair given the magnitude of what this movie was trying to convey. Second, Seth Rogan totally nailed his part and gets double kudos for delivering the movie's best line with consummate panache ("here's what I like to call Exhibit WHORE!") The rest of the acting was also good, although the writing fell apart in other places. For example JGL's therapist, a grad student named Katherine (played by Anna Kendrick) was simultaneously spot on and completely unbelievable. Kendrick did a great job of conveying that not-so-rare academic combo of book-smarts and cluelessness. She also captured that look of being young and frail and awkward and earnest and herself just a little crazy that I've seen on many a grad student. But the rest of her character was just nonsense. Who lets a 24 year old grad student see patients by herself? (No one, that's who!) And how does someone who at best had only three years of training get an office in a hospital, not to mention an office that's bigger than my apartment?) And well, there's more that I truly hated, but I don't want to ruin the movie. Speaking of, I hate, hate, HATED the way the movie ended. Not the part where we find out whether JGL lives or dies--that part I was totally fine with. No, I hated the very end, which was some of the dumbest, campiest, most cliched writing I've seen in a long time, which threatened to ruin what was to that point a perfectly reasonable, if dead-depressing movie. I'm a big fan of endings, and I don't mind sacrificing characters for the sake of the narrative. But this was, to use the German, total quatch. I'll leave it at that. I'm going to give it a 7/10, a generous assessment, not because I'd ever want to see 50/50 again, but because I can't stop thinking about it. In fact, Steve and I have been celebrating Halloween by working our way through the Bela Lugosi collection (with heavy help from Boris Karloff), and yet four days later, this remains the movie giving me nightmares. I'm not sure what that says, but it certainly says something.

fenugreek

After a relatively fruitless morning trying to describe my 300 page dissertation in as few words as possible (I hit a rather ineffectual low of 274 before yo-yoing back up to an equally ineffectual 295) in my admittedly vain and increasingly half-hearted attempt to find a tenure track job in the greater metro area I now call home, I've decided to pause and tell you about my new favorite spice: fenugreek. You may know all about it, but it's new to me, which has made it, well, the flavor of the week. For those of you have yet to be initiated into the fold, fenugreek is mostly used in Indian food, and I've heard (but can't confirm--and possibly made up) that it's what makes curry taste like curry. I bought it in powdered form, but I think one can also buy the seeds. It's more or less white--like pollen--and has a sharp planty taste. It also has a unique, but unoffensive smell that may be reminiscent of a combination of celery salt, fish, old cheese, and something else I'm clearly missing. I know I'm not selling it super hard, but I used it to make the most lovely lentils! I started with this recipe that I found on the internets: http://vegeyum.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/dalmakhani/ but I won't bother to print it here, since I'm not really sure that what I made in any way resembles this dish. I always forget that one of the problems with searching for and then bookmarking Indian recipes is that outside of not always being able to find the ingredients, they're always in British and I have no real way of knowing if what I'm using is 10g of ginger etc. The easy solution would be to buy a scale, but instead I started throwing random measurements into a pot, with surprisingly wonderful results. So, for the "ingredients" I used 3/4 of a cup of tiny dark green French lentils from the co-op (they weren't the Indian black kind but they looked like them), one can of dark red kidney beans, 1 T of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 jalapenos finely minced, and enough beef broth to cover the lot (hey, I never made any claims about authenticity or religious sensitivity). For the tadka I used 1 T butter, 1 tsp cumin seeds, a pinch of celery salt (since I couldn't find any asafoetida), a full tsp of fenugreek and a small can of tomato paste. Then I added as much butter and cream as I wanted. I also used the masala and the chili to taste and added a couple tablespoons of fresh cilantro. It was freaking amazing. (I get it that my four friends probably aren't going to run out and make this, but I'm also trying to document my changes so that someday I can make this again. But seriously guys, this was totally delicious, you should run out and make it.)

Steve and I also went to see a truly horrendous bit of performance art at the Reputable Modern Art Museum, but since it was too bad for words, I'm sort of hoping someone will post a copy of it on youtube so you all can see for yourselves. If not, I'll tell you about it the next time I reach the breaking point on my job letter.

hack

It does not pay to do the right thing. At least where my stupid body is concerned. Sure, I signed up for my race (another half marathon) next Sunday rather late and with very little training--but you could even consider that doing the right thing since I had no particular inclination to push myself on speed or distance while the heat index was still over 80. But this was a conscious choice and one I don't tend to regret. However, I was left with little time and less stamina--and I really could have used a long run on Monday, the one that was scheduled to be my last before pre-race tapering. But I have a chest cold (yeah, I know it sounds a bit Victorian, but there's really no other way to describe it), and I've made myself run with a cough before and it doesn't end well, so I relaxed instead. I even took yesterday off: plenty of fluids, lots of sleep, a nice healthy dinner, and even a very short walk in the sunshine to keep the circulation going and the dry rot from setting in. I did all of this because I would like to get healthier in the shortest possible amount of time. But doing the right thing is bullshit. I don't feel better; I feel worse! I should have just run on Monday if I was going to end up convalescing all week anyway. So on that note I decided that if I were going to have a shot of Theraflu expectorant (the color and the bottle may indicate orange flavor, but truly, it tastes more like gasoline) for breakfast, by gum I was going to have a chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sandwich too. And sure, my stomach threatened to reject this unholy alliance, but I powered through and now I have the pleasurable sensation of having eaten ice cream for breakfast and that floating feeling from whatever the active ingredient in Theraflu might be. This reinforces what I've been thinking all along: doing the right thing is wrong. Ice cream is right.