More Top Chef Nonsense

Hosea and Leah sittin' in a tree. Blarg, indeed!

Hootie Boo Hoo!

Carla, admittedly, it took me till about the mid-point of Top Chef Season 5 to realize that you were a true contender. Throughout this crazy, cookery competition, you were indeed the steady tortoise padding along, while consistently picking up the pace with each challenge. THEN, in this whopper of a final episode, your consistent stride came to a screeching halt when ya asked Casey (groan) for directions to the finish line. Sous vide? Why not braise or grill that beef? That would have been a cake-walk for you. A botched souffle? It's the FINALE!! Set the timer!

Personally, I think Hosea (a.k.a Ziggy) greased Casey's palms with some of his potential Glad Products prize money "to help turn her culinary dreams into a reality". I could also tell by his smug-ass smirk in the promo for the upcoming reunion show that he won the title, or at the very least, did the deed with Leah (The promo cut to her with her eyes welling up with "I had sex with a guy and shouldn't have" tears.). But, I digress...

I'm all about bringin' out the love in cooking and being collaborative in the kitchen, but Carla why on earth hand over the reins to CASEY of all people. Hung, Richard, Tifany, I get that...But Casey?? I'll stop whining, I've accepted the fact that you lost. You just had so much admirable talent and peppered the show with your kooky personality that I just had to root for you. I hope someone recognizes your ability and you open a restaurant of your own!

BONUS: Hosea's exit interview must be watched. What a dolt--so grating, yet entertaining at the same time. (Errr...although there is a fleeting, tender moment when he talks about his parents who are ill.) In his exit interview, he postures as a commensurate opponent to Stefan, claiming to have run neck and neck with the Finn! HA!

Congrats to Hosea, you executed the meal better than Stefan and Carla. Hootie Boo hoo!

Coraline

I think the moral of the story is that if you are lonely, bored and feel horribly misunderstood,  seek only temporary comfort in guilty pleasures such as, circus mice marches, personalized topiary, cotton candy canons, Scottie dogs, and mango milk-shakes served out of chandeliers, for fear of being forever banished to some strange underworld with weird, Olde-English speaking, stunted-baby ghosts.  But it's the guilty pleasures that visually delight in Henry Selik's Coraline, a lovely, artful stop-motion animated film. The  precision involved to make the movement in the film fluid and life-like is a technical marvel.  It took days to shoot merely seconds of certain scenes. It's astounding how much care and effort put into the design and blocking of each scene. If you like behind the scenes footage (yay!) and info on how the film was marketed, check out the following links:  

http://toysrevil.blogspot.com/2009/02/50-coraline-boxes.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0msoKWz4MjA

The website was well-designed and creates another world for the film-fan to explore. 

You have to mouse-around a bit to find them, but check out the custom tools. I "Coralined" myself here.  Fun stuff.  Oh, and watch the credits till the end, if don't already know to do that... 

The Class

A french film about a teacher and his students in Paris. Don't expect sweeping scenes of introverted kids, standing blindfolded on a desk and yawping "CARPE DIEM!"--it's hardly that. The verite depiction of the relationships are subtle, yet revelatory about class, culture, language and power. One of the very few worthy films I've seen, as of late...