Couch Surfing

Due to a scheduling snafu, I was left without a DVD last Sunday night. So I decided to try "Play Now" online movies that Netflix offers. The first movie on my queue offered: Bruce Brown's Surfing Hollow Days.

First, I needed to download the viewer and all the little doodads needed to make this work. This took 40 minutes, including the system restart, freeze and restart again. YMMV, but the first time you use this, don't make the popcorn until you're all set up.

Next, picture quality. At full screen, below DVD quality, but not too bad. Most of Surfing Hollow Days was old footage that wasn't crystal clear anyway, so maybe this wasn't a big problem. I don't think it would work for a big screen SFX type movie, though.

Still, a nice benefit to Netflix, and I will continue to watch movies online. I'll keep you informed.

What about the movie? I've loved Bruce Brown's Endless Summer since it first came out, although I've never surfed and can barely swim. This film is not as epic as Endless Summer - it seems to be a collection of clips from Brown's surf safari's around the world (Hawai'i, Tahiti, So. Cal., Australia) from the early 1960s. There are some wrap-around segments of Brown from the 1990's as well.

The waves are great, and so is the surfing. But a big part of it is Brown's narration. It's mostly simple - the location, surfer's name and a comment on the style or waves. Sometimes there's a corny joke. All delivered in a laid back, yet stoked California twang.

Well, I'll admit it. I was watching on the couch, with my laptop on my stomach, after a long day, and, listening to Brown's stories of another wave, another surfer, I drifted off to sleep. I think I missed the part where they discover Pipeline.

Hard Cox

I can't quite accept that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story doesn't have Will Farrell in it. Of course, neither did Dodgeball, so I guess he hasn't cornered the market on this kind of story.

"This kind of story" is a lot closer to Blades of Glory than, say, Spinal Tap. The Christopher Guest fests are shot in a transparent documentary style, so the mocking is on the characters. Blades and Dodgeball mock the form - the inspirational sports film or bio pic. Walk Hard is also a little loopier, more surreal, more Airplane! than the mockumentaries. Very little like the realistic comedy of Apatow's Knocked Up.

So - funny? I thought I'd die. I haven't seen Walk the Line or Ray, so I probably missed a lot. But the adult sized teenagers ("I'm your 12-year-old girlfriend!"), the self-identified celebrities ("Even I, the Beatles' George Harrison,...") and stunt casting (Jack White as Elvis, Jack Black as Paul McCartney), great gags. Dewey's songs, pulled from the R&B, rockabilly, teen pop, punk, Dylan, Doors and Brian Wilson studiofests, are great - maybe too good to be silly.

Be sure to stay after the credits for a glimpse of the real Dewey Cox. The man, the legend.

Swashing Buckles

I'm a sucker for swashbucklers, so I figured I couldn't go far wrong with The Count of Monte Cristo. And I was right. Not the best ever, but a solid adventure flick.

Jim Caviezel (Jesus Christ in the Passion) plays Edmund Dantes, betrayed by his friends and thrown into the island prison Chateau d'If for 12 years. The Abbe Faria (charmingly played by Richard Harris) helps him break out and tells him where to find a fortune in gold - on the isle of Monte Cristo. Dantes returns to society disguised as the wealthy and mysterious Count thereof, and proceeds to wreak his vengeance!

His main antagonist is his ex-best friend Fernan, played by Guy Pearce. Since Pearce and Caviezel have very similar faces, the movie is basically clashing cheekbones. I don't think there is much "acting" going on (as opposed to posing in costume, chewing scenery, etc), so a large part of your enjoyment of this movie will be based on how much you like looking at hunky guys with chiseled features. Also, Luis Guzman, a lumpy-faced character actor who plays Dantes' henchman - one of my favorites.

Other strong points:

• Good art direction: The Chateau d'If looks positively Piranesi-esque in some shots.
• Naval scenes: Some scenes aboard a ship, more than in some pirate movies
• Sword, pistol, knife and rock fighting: General swashing of buckles

But in the end, I was a little underwhelmed. Did it lack a coherent vision? Weren't the actors hammy enough? Were the fights too weak? I'm not sure why, but I found this to be only good, not great. What do you think?

The World of Shochu

I promised to say a few words about shochu cocktails, so I will: sawa, chuhai, and Hi-Likki.

First, shochu, if you aren't familiar. It is a Japanese clear distilled liquor, made from barley or sweet potato or most anything you can ferment. It is pretty low proof for liquor, around 50 proof. It used to be completely low-class and pretty nasty - Japanese white lightning. Around 10-15 years ago, it started getting trendy, and now supports a serious connoisseurship. In America, the Korean version, soju, is more well known.

It's often drunk in cocktails. Aside from shochu and water or hot water (mizu wari and oyu wari), we find:

• "Sawa": a shochi sour. Shochu, lemon and soda.
• Chuhai: A shochu highball. Shochu, something and soda. The "something" can be lemon, grapefruit, or orange juice, or something more Japanese, like oolong-cha (iced tea) or ume (pickled plum)
• Hi-Likki: This is a brand of canned chuhai. I only included it because: 1) they sell this stuff in cans, and 2) don't you love the name?

A typical Japanese dinner usually features beer, wine, sake, whiskey and shochu cocktails. It depends, but I think a lot of drinkers like the chuhai best.

Try it, why don't you?

High Corn

Speaking of cruelty, I watched Judy Canova's Lay That Rifle Down the other night. Canova was known as the Queen of Corn, a kind of Minnie Pearl character. She was in vaudeville, had a long running radio show, etc. I'd never heard of her, but I'm always game for that sort of thing. You find a lot of hidden gems.

But not in this case. This one stunk. Judy Canova plays Judy Canova, an orphan girl who slaves for an evil aunt. But she owns a heavily mortgaged ranch, where Gramps the taxi driver and his orphaned grandkids all live rent-free. This ranch looks to be worth big money when some con men come to town.

Judy sings a few songs and does a little slapstick, not well. She talks like a hick, but not in a comic way. The location for the movie isn't specified ("Greebeville"), but it looks a lot more like California than Iowa. The whole thing was just annoying. And I watched it all.

However, it was short. So it wasn't that bad.

Cruelest Cocktail

I not only mix drinks, I also make my own infusions - put some strawberries in a pint of vodka for a week, then throw away the strawberries, drained of all flavor and color, and you have strawberry vodka.

I made up a batch of chili-lime tequila like so:

• Grate lime peel (one lime)
• One large jalapeno, quartered
• One pint tequila

Let marinate for a week, then strain.

This batch came out about as hot as straight Tabasco. A friend had made some clementine liqueur, so I tried to make a Guatemalan Insanity Margarita:

• 1 shot jalapeno tequila
• 1 oz. clementine liqueur
• 1 oz lemon juice
• Pinch sugar

It was way too spicy to drink. After I diluted it 1-1 with a regular margarita. Brutal. After I poured it out of the glass, and refilled it with a plain margarita without rinsing the glass, it was noticeably spicy.

I saved these cruel cocktails and plan to marinate chicken for grilling in it. And henceforth will use the tequila infusion only like the vermouth in a very dry martini.

Rock and Roll Circus Animals

Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus was made in 1968. You get to see:

• Jethro Tull, with Ian Anderson acting looney
• Marianne Faithfull, looking lovely and singing a surrealistic ditty about blue whiskey
• Taj Mahal singing "Ain't That a Lotta Love" (Sam and Dave by way of the Burrito Bros.), with Jesse Ed Davis on guitar
• The Who, doing their 9-minute rock opera, "A Quick One (While He's Away)"
• John Lennon, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards and Mitch Mitchell, playing "Yer Blues". They are later joined by a violinist and Yoko Ono. They encourage her to sing. This doesn't come out so hot.
• And finally, the Rolling Stones

All this in an intimate circus setting with the audience in strange hats and yellow ponchos. We get to hear "Winston Legthigh" (John Lennon's real name) chatting with Michael Jagger (as Winston likes to call him). We get to see the Who, all singing (the Ox! Moonie!) like choirboys: "You are forgiven!" We get to see Keith, trying to grow into the face he has now.

We get to see very little of Brian Jones. He is present, but will be dead within months. He does a sweet slide on "No Expectations", but is otherwise rather absent.

Of course, Keith Moon is no longer with us, nor John Entwhistle. John Lennon is dead, too young. Jesse Ed Davis is a name you may not know - he was behind Klaus Voorman in The Concert for Bangladesh. He was behind a lot of people, a studio guitarist who made Taj Mahal, John Lee Hooker and Eric Clapton sound good. A Kiowa Indian from Oklahoma, a quiet steady presence. Dead at 44, drugs and alcohol.

But I was listening to Marianne Faithfull singing about blue whiskey, and realized, this is a happy song - Marianne Faithful is still alive. She had some very bad times, but came out the other side. Mick and Keef, still present against all odds. Taj Mahal and Ian Anderson. Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell, even Yoko Ono. Bless them all, they survived acute stardom. And though some of them may still succumb to chronic fame, they are all too old to die young.

There are some extras, but the only additional songs were 3 Taj Mahal numbers. They are great, and the camera loves Jesse Ed Davis.