While scrolling movies . I came upon a favorite I haven’t seen in a long while. Big Night . Opening scene with the starch argument . Priceless . Reminds me of myself. Lol .
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A classic!
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My PIC was inspired to make the timpano for a party one time. An incredibly labor-intensive dish that — at least to me — is nothing but a glorified pasta bake.
Pardon the spectacularly bad photo quality — these are well over a decade old 
Great movie, tho!
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Oh I was wondering what that was about. I loved The Mole Agent.
Oh, <3 Big Night so much.
I always thought the timpano was supposed to contain more than pasta. I seem to recall versions with whole hard boiled eggs within, as well as various fish. But I suppose it’s one of those dishes where you can include whatever you like.
Though I will go along with everyone else when I say the single most delicious things in that entire movie were the eggs Segundo (Tucci) made for Primo (Shalhoub) at the end.
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I just watched all 8 episodes, not really for me though. Best part was beautiful scenes of SF. The tents and drug addicts don’t make it up the steep hills to Nob Hill. I’m afraid people are going to watch this, book a vacation here and then get a rude awakening. I get Netflix with my T-Mobile account and the ads kill me.
I also disliked the obvious “product placement” of a local coffee chain.
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Yup, this has HBEs in it as well, and many other things — like an entire layer of salami, IIRC. As I mentioned, the photo quality is garbage, so it’s difficult to recognize the details.
The kitchen was a disaster zone, and the prep involved many different steps, bowls, cooking vessels. Absolutely not worth the end product IMO.
Just started listening to Tucci’s new book, What I Ate in One Year. Perfect content-food and some tv/moviemaking in between.
Finished up Lincoln Lawyer and thought it was a pretty good season. They’ve already set up next season’s storyline in the last 5 minutes. Hope they get renewed. I love the actor who plays Mickey Haller, some of the other supporting people are a bit cliche but it’s all good. Also finished up the Diplomat (both on Netflix) and I think I liked this season better than the first. Also set up storyline at the very end for 3rd season. Good actors, interesting although somewhat convulted plot lines and nice scenery. I read that next season is being shot in NYC.
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While I agree with the simplicity of the eggs at the end, I also enjoyed this scene.
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Its a great scene. The Omelet. I dont know how many times I have failed the Jaques Pepin French Omelet.
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All the times. All of them, Katie.
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Prompted by a relatively recent NYT interview with Gillian Anderson & being all by my lonesome last night, I decided to give Sex Education another shot — we’d watched 2 epis when it first came out, but it didn’t quite grab us — and I ended up binging the entire first season plus the first 2 epis of the second season, bc I have no self-control & also greatly enjoyed it… until past 3am 
And now I am really tired. Might have to finish the second season tonight.
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Experiment in Terror (1962) - dir. Blake Edwards
Some movies are more entertaining to have seen than actually seeing. By that, I mean that the film is an excellent starting point for a lot interesting discussions, without being a very good film in and of itself. Which isn’t to say Experiments in Terror is without merit. It certainly has lots to recommend it.
To start, there’s the brooding, dark, but jazzy score by Henry Mancini. Then we have Lee Remick who is convincingly frightened yet brave, as Kelly Sherwood. In the opening scene, she’s driving home to her Twin Peaks, San Francisco home. In her garage, she’s assaulted by a mysterious figure with an asthmatic wheeze who threatens to kill her and her younger sister Toby if she fails to follow his instructions. Instructions that will have her robbing the bank she works at later in the week. And she’d better not go to the cops, or else… Edwards’ camera does a workman-like job. It’s all very competently done, without being terribly noteworthy.
Naturally she calls the FBI straight away, and is transferred to Agent George “Rip” Ripley (Glenn Ford), a no-nonsense G-man firm in his post-war convictions and a sense of his own competence. From a brief phone call, “This is Ms. Sherwood, a man’s threatening to kill me…” and then a sudden cutting off, he springs into action, pulling in all available resources. … He has agents go through every “Sherwood” in every Bay Area phone book, calling them all back. They finally reach the right one, instantly believe her entire story, and seemingly pull in the entire San Francisco office of the FBI on the case, setting up 24 hour watch on her home and arranging clandestine meetings with her at the bank she works at.
The interesting thing about this film is its basic form and structure. This is one of the very early “police procedural” variations. While watching it, I was struck by the sudden realization: This is a proto-Silence of the Lambs. We have the serial offender (the culprit is a man who has apparently attempted this twice before, killing the victim each time). We have authority patiently digging through clues, narrowing in on the suspect. The suspect stalking his victim. The last act confrontation and violent resolution (in this case, a shootout on the pitcher’s mound of Candlestick Park, following an SF vs LA game).
The only problem is, the ‘fun parts’ of those sorts of movies, the detective being clever, outsmarting the suspect, are waved away in the uptight, censor-driven patriotic zeal to present the FBI as hyper competent and dedicated. There’s no apparent sleuthing going on. The bureau immediately narrows down the suspect via some digging around we aren’t privy to. Just “We got him! It’s this guy!” and “he’s fond of movies, amusement parks, nightclubs” and has a history of dating “Oriental” (it was a different time) women. The FBI’s plan? “I want every movie theater, nightclub, and park in the bay area staked out!” Well! The FBI seems very motivated indeed to crack this case!
From there, things go more or less according to formula. The film in an of itself is… fine, but has some glaring flaws, mostly in the hilarious contrast between what the FBI actually does, and how wonderful everyone seems to think it is. The deference and clear ‘respect for authority’ is just smeared all through this film, in what I can only imagine is the last gasps of the Hayes Code. Things were loosening up just a little. You can tell because little sister Toby (Stephanie Powers) is made to strip down to her bra and slip at one point. But the FBI is only staffed by all-business father figures, all just seemingly in their early 40’s forever, all of whom wear hats and trenchcoats, and who are single-minded in their pursuit of ne’er-do-wells. The othering of the suspect, too, seems very ‘of its time’. The asthmatic breathing, implying he’s defective. His preference for women of other than his own race, clearly a mark of abnormality. All of it feels right at home in an era of Red Scares and HUAC.
But still, the basic structure for one of the most popular and long-lasting genres is all right there, coalescing right before your eyes into something that will be instantly familiar in every era film from then to now. And for that alone, it’s really fascinating.
Let’s call it 2.5 out of 5 fedoras.
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Just because I thought it was genuinely different and amusing, I thought I’d point out that Hundreds of Beavers, which I have previously reviewed here, is now available in the US on Kanopy, a streaming service that many public libraries subscribe to. It’s also available for free on YouTube, though there will be ads.
If you’ve ever wanted to see what is, basically, a live-action cartoon, and aren’t put off by an intentional ‘dumb silly fun’ vibe, I really do recommend this. @linguafood wasn’t a fan, as I recall, but people like different things.
I thought it was hysterically funny. Check it out.
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I’ve been bingeing PBS.
Just started DI Ray with the wonderful Parminder Nagra (remember Bend It Like Beckham?)
Finished the last season of Granchester, which was a bit of a stretch, but still in the warm and fuzzy murder solving bucket.
And ran right through Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, with Lesley Manville, Conleth HIll, and Tim McMullan, based on the murder-within-a-murder books.
All good comfort watching, often in the background.
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I’m usually all for dumb silly fun, but I couldn’t get past the first 5 or 10 min 
Maybe I wasn’t in the appropriate state of mind…
3.5 fedoras for me. i really enjoyed this one (it’s on Tubi). the Direction is outstanding (Blake Edwards can really shoot a film, who knew 
), solid performances, and locations. the set up hooked me in. the third act meanders and doesn’t really pay off. i agree that when the film focuses on the ‘g-men’ it’s weakened. i see that this is his follow up the the all time classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s – a creative at the height of his powers. thank you so much for highlighting a movie that i had never seen.
I will grant you that the first 10 minutes or so are probably the weakest portion, if only because the song lyrics are exposition and were difficult to decipher without the ability to stop and rewind.
I urge you to take another toke or two amd give another try
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I can do that 
, especially since we already watched the beginning and can ffwd.
I shall report back!
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This was interesting. I’ve been to Seattle twice, but never had teriyaki there. I ate it a lot in Southern California and to be honest, this style of teriyaki really isn’t found in Japan where the only commonly found teriyaki in a fast food place are teriyaki hamburgers…which I’m not a fan of (terribly messy and gooey with both mayonnaise AND teriyaki sauce).
Also, until watching this video, I’d never seen video of J. Kenji López-Alt, only photos of him. I know he has both his fans and detractors, but I liked him in this video.
I’m interested in hearing the opinions of Seattle area HO members on Seattle teriyaki!
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