Some random elitist topics:
- A fantastic interview with Truffaut. Though if you can live-stream “400 Blows” on Netflix, do that instead of reading it.
- A fascinating piece about whether dry New York Riesling should have .8% residual sugar or .4% residual sugar. Roughly speaking, things start tasting sweet at 1% residual sugar so anything under that counts as dry. Most high-class French (still) dry white wine is bone dry (0.1% or under), but a some of the popular California chards are, or at least were (I stopped drinking them about ten years ago) much sweeter that (though probably not much higher than 0.5%). The exact residual sugar in dry white wines is a topic that is too often ignored. If I made any order of magnitude errors in the above, please pour pink Himalayan salt into my wounds.
- I guess this isn’t elitist, but are you guys watching the TCU-Oregon State game? Is TCU for real?
stuckinred
Damn, they are ranked 6th, what’s no for real? And after the Hokies derail the smurf turfs they can go even higher! How bout them Ole Miss Rebels?
KG
yes, TCU is for real. Had they not played Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl last year (in the gigantic BCS cop out), they could have gone undefeated.
I’m holding out hope that TCU and Boise play for the national title this year. I’m sure the BCS will find a way to screw them, but a guy can dream, right?
valdivia
Speaking of elites, if you’ve ever lived in NYC you will get this:
Best The Onion article evah!
stuckinred
@KG: You won’t have to worry about it after Monday night.
JWL
I’m a half-century old, lifelong fan of the NFL. College football has always been an afterthought.
And I spent childhood summers in Salem, Oregon.
But I hope TCU kicks Oregon States’ ass.
Stanford was up 37-3 over Sacramento State when I turned on a local station 45 minutes ago. College scheduling- the BCS “formula”- is an absolute joke. Stanford should be ashamed of itself, as should Oregon State.
schrodinger's cat
You want to be a real elitist? How about a Math post?
stuckinred
@JWL: OSU should be ashamed why?
Linda Featheringill
If you want to read about Truffaut, this seems to be a pretty good summation.
http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/03/truffaut.html
SiubhanDuinne
@valdivia: I lived in NYC from 1965-69, but just because it’s been four-plus decades doesn’t mean that wasn’t the Funniest. The. Onion. Article. EVAH.
Thanks. That’s a keeper.
Lysana
@JWL:
I’d say the BCS should be ashamed of itself for forcing that sort of thing to happen. Podunk CSUs should never face Pac-10 schools. Period.
Vico
I’m watching, but I have no idea what you mean. The game is tied, and it’s been close since the start. Maybe you mean TCU isn’t beating the s**t out of Oregon State? Ya, I think that 6 ranking is in jeopardy.
valdivia
@SiubhanDuinne:
so glad some else thinks so too! I’ve been reading it all day and cracking up.
stuckinred
@Vico: It’s tied a 21, 5 to go in the third. As for opponents, get over it. When the went to 12 games everyone in the country picked up a game like that.
MTmofo
MT Griz 73, Western State (CO) 2
There was an extended game suspension because of lightning so the remaining 5:25 of the 2nd quarter never was played. They resumed the game starting the 3rd.
PTirebiter
Depends on what you mean for real. They’re a really good program in a second tier conference. They’re good enough that a lot of big name schools won’t schedule them. There’s little upside to beating them and a big downside to getting upset by them. Kind of in the same boat Boise St. is in.
cleter
I watched University of Florida’s non-loss against South Ohio Barber College. Quite the magnificent triumph.
stuckinred
@PTirebiter: Oh Porgieeeee!
stuckinred
@PTirebiter: I assume you know the real story of Tirebiter?
Vico
@stuckinred: A game like what? Until a couple of minutes ago, it was evenly matched. I think it was one of the best games on today’s schedule.
MikeJ
I would honestly do a lot better if this post talked about Truffaut and wine in french and skipped the football.
On edit: By “do better” I mean understand more of the post. I can fake french well enough to order dinner, rent a car, buy a train ticket, etc. I can’t fake football at all.
stuckinred
@Vico: I was talking about the whining about the lesser schools that the DI’s play. Didn’t mean to directly respond to your post. This is a great game.
PTirebiter
@stuckinred: Are we talking George Leroy Tirebiter here?
stuckinred
@MikeJ: I’m sure there is a app for that somewhere.
stuckinred
@PTirebiter: Arf
PTirebiter
@stuckinred: Porcelain, is that you?
Mark S.
It looks like Oklahoma is struggling.
stuckinred
For those non Firesign Theater folks
George Tierbiter, USC Trojan!George Tirebiter was originally a scraggly, mixed-breed dog who became student mascot at the University of Southern California in the 1940s. One version of his legend says George wandered onto the university campus after his owner died. Others recall a USC student rescued the sickly, stray dog from a beach in Santa Monica in 1946 and brought him to campus. All agree that he was dubbed “Tirebiter” for his habit of racing alongside passing cars and bicycles while snapping furiously at their tires.
stuckinred
Ok, South Dakota State beat Kansas and Jacksonville State beat Ole Miss but the big schools shouldn’t be playing these stiffs, right?
arguingwithsignposts
To be fair to the scheduling, a lot of smaller schools make bank off these thrashings. My school got paid $600,000 to get their asses handed to them last year (similar to their ass-kicking today at the hands of a ranked oppo.).
It’s an odd form of trickle-down economics, I know, but just wanted to add that to the equation.
stuckinred
@arguingwithsignposts: People love to have something to whine about don’t they?
Bill Arnold
Talking about residual sugar, does anyone have any recommendations for NY Riesling ice wines?
DougJ
@Bill Arnold:
Oh, yeah, lots of great ones — Lamoreaux Landing and Casa Larga (especially the crazy cab franc one) come to mind. Heron Hill too, but they are a little pricey.
There’s one thing to watch for, there are “ice wines” and “iced wine”. “Ice wines” freeze on the vine whereas “iced wines” are industrially frozen. There are those who say that the “iced wines” can be very good, but I’ve never had one that knocked me out.
PTirebiter
@stuckinred: Great picture, thanks. I’m going to try and upload it for my BJFF mascot photo to replace my Chihuahua with an eye patch.
stuckinred
@PTirebiter: I hadn’t seen it in a while but your handle lit a spark!
Steeplejack
I interviewed François Truffaut back when I was a hustlin’ young newshound (circa Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which Truffaut had a cameo), so I guess all you guys are like three degrees of separation away from Catherine Deneuve. That should perk up your evening.
Oh, yeah, and I had dinner with Teri Garr and some studio P.R. weasel.
Yutsano
@stuckinred:
Thanks for that update. Now I have a good idea how a couple of friends of mine are doing. One is from South Dakota and the other is an Ole Miss alum. At least he and I can commiserate. We haz no defense.
@Steeplejack: Name dropper. :)
stuckinred
@Yutsano: JSU went for 2 in the second OT and it was an amazing touchdown pass, 2 yard run.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano: Hater.
stuckinred
The question has been answered, the Horned Frogs are fo real!
Yutsano
@Steeplejack: Well…uhh…I almost got run over by Ben Stein while he was on a bicycle. Idiot wasn’t paying attention on the sidewalk on Venice Beach. But his wife was a looker.
@Omnes Omnibus: I can’t play that game anymore. I’m only two away from Kevin Bacon via my friend Robert. His grandmother is one of his neighbors in Montana. Kyra is very sweet too.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: That’s better than the three from Kevin Bacon that I had before.
stuckinred
@Yutsano: a what? Oh, LOOKER!
Steeplejack
I am watching the LSU-UNC game–and by watching I mean I am too comatose from dinner to reach the remote and change the channel–and my take-away is that I hate Brent Musburger with the heat of a thousand suns. I didn’t know that I could still hate that much. And I didn’t remember that he is such a complete and utter douchebag. Ugh. If I could even just hit the mute button . . .
Montysano
I knew that Netflix On Demand was out there, but it just never occurred to me to use it, until tonight. I just watched “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, an excellent documentary about Roky Erickson of the Texas psychedelic band 13th Floor Elevators. I came away from the movie thinking that I should quit bitching and consider myself lucky. Some people have real problems to overcome.
Also too: picked up a pair of Pioneer CS-99A speakers at a thrift store for $20.00!
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Was there a specific act of douchebaggery or is it general douchebaggery?
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: Good God, how big was that damned tater?
ChrisB
@stuckinred: Wow, just saw the highlights on SportsCenter. The tying touchdown before that 2 point conversion was amazing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Montysano: This Roky Erickson?
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s chronic, I think. But tonight, specifically, he is fluffing every player on the LSU team (“He got beaten on that play, but he’s got all the tools and he’s going to be someone to reckon with in the future at that position”) and, on the other hand, acting like UNC is understaffed because of some horrendous natural disaster, not the exposure of widespread corruption in the program.
Corner Stone
@ChrisB: That was strong.
Love that shit.
PTirebiter
@arguingwithsignposts: Same reason that back in the day, there was never a shortage of ham n’ eggers who were more than willing to take a beating from a contender. They could make more from a single loss than all their career winnings combined. Understandable, but except for the once in a blue moon upset, not much fun to watch.
stuckinred
@ChrisB: It were a wild one indeed! The Fresno State Cincy game has possibilities.
Montysano
FYWP. Ate my link and then when I tried to edit it, WP sez “Denied”.
Pioneer CS-99A speakers. Mid-70s speaker with the cheesy lattice grills. They used some sort of natural pulp material for the woofer and the mids. Even with a 15″ woofer, the bass is a little weak, but the mid/highs are brilliant.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Because of my weird work schedule and night-owl lifestyle, I rarely have a sit-down meal, much less a feast like the one tonight. So I was ill-prepared. But Brent Musburger says I’ve got all the tools and in the future I will be someone to be reckoned with at this position.
Just opened a bottle of champers to break the digestive logjam and help me tune out Musburger. He’s even making me feel sympathetic toward sideline wench Erin Andrews.
Corner Stone
@stuckinred: I love West Coast games. Cincy is gonna wipe FS out.
stuckinred
@Montysano: Ha, those are the dudes I shipped back from the Nam, the back screwed off fairly easily if you know what I’m sayin. . .
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: If you need help with EA….you do not have all the tools.
Steeplejack
@Montysano:
That’s what a separate subwoofer is for. Good score on the speakers.
Corner Stone
Nasty bunt for a hit by Dirty Sanchez on the Astros!
Corner Stone
Holy shit! It’s the Ghost of Mike Hampton coming out for the Dbacks!
WTF!?
KG
@stuckinred: As a general rule, in college sports, I’m going to go with the team that went undefeated last year and then returned every single starter. Boise has had a hell of a run and I really want to see someone that is not Texas/Alabama/USC/Florida/Ohio St win the national title.
Montysano
@Omnes Omnibus:
That’s the one. This is him 3 months ago. Quite an amazing recovery, considering his condition in the late 80s.
stuckinred
@Corner Stone:@KG: I married into a Hokie family 15 years ago and I really like the program. They do some serious hitting.
KG
@Corner Stone: I just turned on Wisconsin-UNLV. I do not know why, other than the fact that I am one of 17 people to have the Versus Network.
Montysano
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, a powered sub is high on my list, but when Dubya slithered out of office, my extra cash for toys went with the cocksucker.
KG
@stuckinred: They’re always dangerous, that’s for sure. I just think this is the year that the BCS busters get to play for the national title.
stuckinred
@KG: Yea, the Pitt Utah game was on that the other night.
Steeplejack
@Corner Stone:
Humor fail. Just riffing on a name I mentioned is not enough to build the comedy pyramid. It’s as if I said, “Hey, if the ghost of Mike Hampton scares you, you shouldn’t be watching the game.” Get it? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.
Omnes Omnibus
@KG: I have it on as well.
Corner Stone
@KG: Still watching Astros in AZ, trying to close it out.
But I love me some fall asleep watchin Hawaii (WAC) vs anybody games.
It’s a bonus that I find Cincy exciting to watch.
stuckinred
@KG: Look at it like this, last time the Hokies played at FedEx they played SC and had THE worst offensive pass interference call in the history of football called. They would have gone up 14 in the third but, noooooo. SC went on to win the National Championship that year.
Speaking of which, Leinhart got his walking papers.
Corner Stone
@Steeplejack: I don’t even know what you’re talking about anymore. Let’s leave it at that.
Yutsano
@Corner Stone: This shall indeed make JenJen haz a major happy.
ChrisB
@stuckinred: Not unless Fresno gets its act together.
The Bearcats look quick.
Corner Stone
@Yutsano: Cincy has a nasty defense with a wide open passing game offense.
FS has a good running game.
I’m thinking Cincy will come out on top.
Steeplejack
@Montysano:
Which reminds me, one of my infrastructure projects this weekend is to hook up the Polk subwoofer I recently purchased. A modest unit that will no doubt elicit sneers in some quarters, but my needs are modest, not to say monastic, and I think this will work in my current setup.
stuckinred
@ChrisB: Yep, and on that note, Good Night Miss Calabash. . .wherever you are. If you are in LA my brothers Pink Floyd cover band has a free gig at the Hermosa Pier at 11am tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
Borland is good.
Montysano
@Steeplejack:
Looks like that should do the job.
I’ve got my eye on this one.
goblue72
Haven’t tried anything from the Finger Lakes, but have sampled a fair number in the Anderson Valley (Mendocino County), where local climate (including a very close proximity to the Pacific Ocean) makes it excellent growing conditions for the grape. Most the wines from the region seem to hew closer to the higher end (0.8%) of residual sugar than the lower end on their dry rieslings.
My favorite by far was from Navarro Vineyards, who put out a riesling that will just knock your socks off and leave your toes riggleing for hours afterward. (they also do an equally tasty late harvest riesling – always fun to try the same varietal in different styles from the same vineyard)
burnspbesq
Oh, dear.
Those fine upstanding young men from Chappaheeya are taking it in the shorts.
Que lastima.
And on a weekend when the Snot-Nosed Yankee Brats, the Damn Baptists, and the State Teachers’ College all won.
To the fainting couches, y’all.
Steeplejack
@Montysano:
I looked at that one, and it is sweet, but it’s overkill for my 600-square-foot studio. I don’t need the “house-shaking power.” Just want more bottom. (Don’t we all.)
Corner Stone
UNC is making this a game.
burnspbesq
I heard an astonishingly good pair of $600 speakers today: the Era D4.
http://signalpathint.com/index.php/Design-4-Series/
Bill Murray
@Yutsano: well it was North Dakota State that beat Kansas, so us South Dakotans probably won’t care that much
Yutsano
@Bill Murray: Oops, I wuz misinformed. I shall now hang the shame curtains.
@Corner Stone:
Yesh. But hopefully they don’t score too quickly.
EDIT: Never mind. Tiggers got this one.
Bill Murray
@KG: The BCS is pretty specifically designed so this won’t happen, or if it does the team will be another big conference drone.
Also, Vs. has the Mountain West TV contract, which is why the home games from Utah and UNLV.
and Fresno has tied Cincinnati as the half is ending
Kristine
@Montysano: I saw Erickson on Austin City Limits several months ago. I knew some of his story, and thought he looked not quite right but functional during the interview. He’s one of those folks you just have to pull for.
Corner Stone
@Bill Murray: FS scored 2 quickly to make this a half. I have to stick to my guns and say Cincy is the better squad.
Corner Stone
@Yutsano: They gave it a go.
Corner Stone
That’s WAC yo!
Yutsano
@Corner Stone: They win by the skin of their teeth honestly. Two receptions that aren’t drops and this is a HUGE teeth gnasher for South of I-10.
DougJ
@goblue72:
Navarro is the bomb. Their dry muscat is a true classic. Love that winery.
arguingwithsignposts
@Montysano:
Also recommend “The Devil and Daniel Johnston” (not on NetFlix streaming atm, unfortunately) to make you feel blessed with sanity.
Montysano
@burnspbesq:
Nice. The Peachtree Audio Nova caught my eye, mostly because it’s stylish.
My system is all vintage gear, and while function is most important, I love good industrial design. My Luxman R-1070 receiver is a thing of beauty.
Bridgier
@MTmofo: FTG.
dhd
Rieslings from the Finger Lakes are damn near impossible to find anywhere outside New York – NYC is like a Shop-Vac that sucks up all the good wine from the rest of the state leaving nothing but Manischewitz (also a fine Finger Lakes product) for the rest of us…
This is sad because NY and Alsace are the only places that really do dry Riesling, it’s usually a semi-dry to sweet wine everywhere else.
A few years ago my wife and I spent a week camping outside Ithaca and came back with a case of Cayuga White, which is apparently a grape developed at Cornell University, and makes a great wine which is like a dry Riesling at half the price…
Bill Murray
@arguingwithsignposts: I’d recommend “We Jam Econo” about The Minutemen and “Teenage Kicks: The Story of the Undertones”, but have no clue of these are available for streaming
burnspbesq
@Montysano:
The Nova is a sweet piece of gear. You noticed, I assume, that it has a cavity in the back in which you can hide a Sonos ZonePlayer. Which makes it a great choice for a home-office system if you’re running Sonos all through the house (as I am).
I just replaced the headphone amp in my desktop system today. Out goes the Ray Samuels Audio Raptor (I’m just not a tube guy, as it turns out – it’s for sale if anyone is interested), in goes the Luxman P-200.
Montysano
@Kristine:
One of the points made in the documentary was that, even before the drugs, mental illness, and shock treatments, Erickson was, as one friend put it, “not of this world”.
aretino
Riesling wine with residual sugar content of less that 1% is a perverse affecation.
That is all.
KG
@Bill Murray: oh, I know the whole bug/feature thing of the BCS, but I also know that if TCU and Boise are the only two undefeated teams at the end of the year, and they don’t get to play for the title, there will be hell to pay.
burnspbesq
Holy crap – Duke ran for 192 yards tonight. Yes, it was against Elon, but I don’t think they ran for 192 yards all last season.
Montysano
@burnspbesq:
Yeah, I had a cheapo Bellari tube phono preamp with a headphone output, but I got rid of it. It just seemed like the mids were way too out front, and it was noisy.
If I had money to spend, I’d go nuts with phono cartridges. IMHO, there is no other piece of gear with as much personality. Currently I’m using a Grado Red, and I love it.
burnspbesq
@KG:
And if they do get to play for the national championship, the states with SEC schools may secede from the union.
Hmmmm …
Yutsano
@KG: If TCU and Boise State go undefeated you won’t see either one of them anywhere near a title game. National champion HAS to come from one of the major conferences because shut up that’s why! This tone was set when BSU dared to win the Fiesta Bowl instead of being grateful minor conference cannon fodder.
@burnspbesq:
Your task, should you choose to accept it, is to explain why exactly this would be a negative. Other than putting Duke in a foreign country.
burnspbesq
@Montysano:
Agree. If you get it wrong at the source, it’s wrong all the way to the speakers. I have a Clearaudio Aurum Beta S. Nostalgia almost got me for a minute – I almost went back to a Denon DL-103, which I had in the early 80s. But where speakers and phono cartridges are concerned, the advances in materials science over the years have allowed designers to make moving parts lighter and more rigid, which is all good.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
There are no SEC schools in North Carolina or Virginia. Never were. However, that would put four ACC schools on the other side of the border. If we lose Clemson, GaTech, FSU, and Miami, we’ll add WVU and Pitt, make deals with Georgetown and Villanova in which they play in the ACC in everything except football, and pick up Cincy and Louisville for football only.
KG
@Yutsano:
North Carolina doesn’t have any teams in the SEC, so they would get to stay.
ETA: in the old days, a couple of non-big conference schools actually managed to win the national title. BYU got a share in the mid-80s. So it is/was possible.
arguingwithsignposts
@Bill Murray:
We Jam Econo is, sadly, not available on NetFlix. Hadn’t heard the other one before. RIP D. Boon.
Montysano
@burnspbesq:
Believe me, I’ve got nothing against contemporary gear. But on a tight budget, you can’t beat vintage gear. 2 channel stereo gear is like film cameras: people are giving it away.
Yutsano
@KG: Get to stay yes. Choose to stay may yet be another matter. Barring putting up a massive idiot, I don’t see Obama winning NC in 2012. Not that he’d need it. IIRC it was pretty much over when they called Pennsylvania for him.
burnspbesq
Because it’s incomplete. It leaves Texas and Missouri in the wrong country. It also doesn’t address the need to partition Illinois and Indiana so that the cracker parts of those states end up where they belong.
arguingwithsignposts
@Yutsano:
The GOP has been doing that for years!
KG
@Yutsano: you don’t think Obama can hold NC? I actually expect him to make progress in the South. I’d say VA, NC, SC, and GA should be winnable (I still don’t really consider FL to be part of the South other than geographically).
arguingwithsignposts
@burnspbesq:
Hey, as someone who lives in the “cracker” part of one of those states, I resent that remark. Carve up the Cali. crackers while you’re at it.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
I think if you put it to a referendum, North Carolina would choose to stay. There is a corridor about 15 miles wide on either side of i-85, from the Triangle to Greensboro/W-S to Charlotte, that somehow made it into the 20th century, and that’s where a strong majority of the population is.
Virginia is a slam dunk. A majority of the population lives where eemom and Steeplejack live (the DC suburbs), and they’re practically Yankees, even if they do root for teams with too much damn orange in their unis.
Yutsano
@KG: NC is turning more and more purplish true. I was almost convinced he would win Georgia in 2008 until the conservatard counties around Atlanta were called from Grandpa. And I have zero doubt if Walnuts hadn’t been from AZ Obama would have won there. But purplish can go either way, and if the Reps put up a decent candidate (yeah it looked funny when I typed it) then all kinds of things fall into place. Obama won’t win SC though. Too much voter suppression happening there.
burnspbesq
@arguingwithsignposts:
We’re counting on La Reconquista to take care of that lot. When fluency in Spanish becomes a requirement for citizenship, they’ll all pack up their RVs and move to Idaho.
Bill Murray
@Corner Stone: and now one play into the fourth, Fresno is up 28-14. UC may lose for the first time in 18 regular season games. Losing the coach can do that
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
There’s still a foolproof way to do subliminal messaging to North Carolina voters. Remember when Dole ran that spot about two weeks before the election, suggesting Hagan wasn’t much of a Christian, and Hagan ran a hastily prepared response?
Remember what Hagan was wearing in that hastily prepared response? Yup, a Tar Heel Blue suit (the joke among Dookies at the time was that she borrowed it from well-known fashion felon Sylvia Hatchell, the UNC women’s basketball coach). If you can position yourself as the biggest Tar Heel in the race, you’re home free.
goblue72
@DougJ: I was recently in the Columbia Gorge area and stupidly failed to seek out any dry riesling (or dry gewutrztraminer) producers. Got all hung up on chasing pinot noirs. I blame on the hypnotic spell of Mt. Hood on the horizon.
Bill Murray
@burnspbesq: wait are you saying the Hands ad wasn’t subliminal? or that it won’t have the impact today?
burnspbesq
@Bill Murray:
You mean the Helms “hands” ad from the campaign against Gantt? That ad was many things, but subliminal wasn’t one of them (subtle wasn’t one of them either).
It’s not, in my judgment, an overstatement to say that there are still two North Carolinas: the I-85 corridor, and the rest of the state (which periodically has to be reminded that their side lost the war). A spot like the “hands” ad would still have an impact outside the I-85 corridor; but a clear majority of North Carolinians now live in the corridor, and they have embraced the 20th Century.
Yutsano
@burnspbesq: That curiously enough is reminding me of Rossi’s unforced error in his first ad here. He emphasizes his Seattle roots and takes a position on…absolutely nothing. Patty is running just about everywhere pointing to tangible stuff and saying that exists because of her. Rossi is choosing the wrong candidate to run against.
Walker
For all you all bitching about NC outside of the 85 corridor, be aware that substantially east of 95, particularly the northeast around the sounds is the “black belt”. Those are counties with majority black populations. That had a significant effect on the Obama NC outcome.
suzanne
I just found out that one of the most amazing and devastating books EVAR, “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro, has been made into a movie by Mark Romanek. I don’t know how I feel about that. The book is so great that I don’t know how a movie could measure up. Also, it’s so fucking sad I don’t know if I could sit through it again.
MTmofo
@Bridgier: That was profound.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: I was watching that game before I went out tonight, and I feel the same way about Musburger. I was gnashing my teeth as I listened to him drone on and on and on.
Anne Laurie
@suzanne: Y’know, I really wanted to appreciate “Never Let Me Go”, but my life as a sci-fi geek got in the way. Sensitive, thoughtful, depressing as hell, okay — but the combination of early-1960s daily life and 21st-century medical science just wouldn’t gel for me. I actually kept thinking that the story would have worked as anime, but the worldbuilding wasn’t convincing enough for a novel. (Of course, I also can’t tell how much of the problem may lie in the translation.) As a live-action movie… well, it can’t possibly be as bad as A.I., which is the all-time-worst example of that particular failure to think through technology and its effect on how ordinary people live.
Xenos
@aretino:
Like many pleasures, perversion is part of the game. Maybe I am a wine snob, but I just can’t bear sweet wine. A dry Reisling lets you taste the grape, and it can be awfully nice.
There are some fairly dry German Reislings, too. I never ran across them in the States, though.
aretino
@Xenos
Like many pleasures, perversion is part of the game. Maybe I am a wine snob, but I just can’t bear sweet wine. A dry Reisling lets you taste the grape, and it can be awfully nice.
The true snobbish pleasure of a Riesling wine comes from savoring the balance between acidity and sweetness. But a dry Riesling just ruins the whole effect.
If you must have a dry wine, please use some other grape actually suited to it.
mclaren
Americans had our own New Wave cinema revival in the early 90s with Tarantino and the Coen Brothers and Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects. Not quite the same as the French new Wave, but, damn! I miss those dialogue-heavy intricately plotted films of the early to mid-90s.
Today, nothing but spandex-clad superhero crap. The movies are all made for 7-year-olds.
You have to wonder if there’s a connection twixt the infantilization of the American people at the movies and their bizarre disinterest in America’s unwinnable and seemingly endless foreign wars. Perhaps it doesn’t matter if American troops die like flies in Afghanistan as long as Iron Man kicks butt on the big screen…
groundhum
@Bill Arnold: Anthony Road 2008 Riesling Trockenbeeren, which is pricey. The 2008 Martini-Rheinhardt Riesling Berry Selection is also tasty.
Not Riesling, but on the dessert side I’m also partial to Hunt Country 2007 Late Harvest Vignoles, and 2006 Vidal Blanc Ice Wine. And McGregor Late Harvest Vignoles (08, I think).