Chili

So, like many people we cook chili from time to time. And like many people when we cook chili we have a go-to recipe. In our case it is from The Fresh Market 25 Year Anniversary Cookbook. Their Whiskey Chili recipe is really quite good, once we found it we have never tried another.

Of course, with any familiar recipe we do deviate and play with it a bit. Sometimes chorizo goes in the pot for the sausage component. We have found that ancho chili powder is an quite excellent substitute for regular chili powder. A dash of espresso balsamic is subtle, personal, secret ingredient.

This time, we added a chipotle in adobo sauce. Smoky, rich, & tasty - I was very much looking forward to it. And I was not disappointed. With only one pepper added to the full batch, it still added just enough of a hint of flavor change that I was quite pleased with the results.

Here endeth your random food post of the day.

Do The Right Thing

Many moons ago when I was in college, young and convinced of my wisdom and ready to take on the world - as college students are wont to be - I saw the Spike Lee flick "Do the Right Thing". This film led to an extended discussion with my room mate at the time, someone of minority heritage who had grown up in a largely minority neighborhood. It is more than fair to say, that my life experience, despite my confidence and wisdom, was far removed from his frame of reference. Suffice to say, we disagreed.

I refused to believe that someone could so... callously? calmly? obliviously? Take another man's life.

And today we all confront an example nearly scripted out from the movie's scene.
Over a few cigarettes a man died.

Any yet, there is no accountability.

I wish I could find my room mate from so many years ago, and apologize. And tell him he was right. Even now, a quarter of a century later.

My Favorite Movie Scenes (vol 2)

I struggle with what my favorite movies are. People ask me... and I just cannot find a way to rank and sort the many movies I love for many different reasons.

On the other hand, I can put together a list of favorite scenes. Moments that leap out from film into crystallized emotion or thought or acting. Here is round two of this list with 6 more.

*****There are spoilers here. Consider yourself warned.*****

 If you haven't seen a film here. Make it a goal to see it.

These scenes alone make the experience worthy of your time.

Glory (1989)

This movie has some issues, the framing of the ending scene not least, but... "I love the 54th."

Denzel Washington plays Private Silas Trip, an escaped slave who volunteers for an all colored unit raised by the North during the Civil War. Trip resists integration and rejects acceptance by his white officers and by his fellow soldiers. He is a loner, self reliant and independent. He joined for his own personal reasons, not for shared identity or goals. The story progresses, events unfold, and history is told while the characters come together.

Before the climatic engagement, the soldiers of the 54th gather to share in comraderie. There are testimonials,  song, and worship. And Trip has his vulnerability and ache for companionship pulled out of him before the entire unit. He lays himself bare and joins his brothers in arms in an emotional and effective portrayal given an exclamation point by Denzel's wonderful ability to deliver a line:

"I ain't much about no prayin,' now. I ain't never had no family, and... killed off my mama. Well, I just... Y'all's the onliest family I got. I love the 54th. Ain't even much a matter what happens tomorrow, 'cause we men, ain't we? We men."

A man and a people given the freedom to display strength, pride, and character.

The Fall (2006)

(This, IMO, is a much watch film if you have not seen it.)

This is set in the early 1900s at the dawn of the Hollywood movie boom. A young immigrant girl, Alexandria, is in a hospital when she meets another patient - a stuntman named Roy. The story's outline is that Roy begins telling the girl a story of flamboyant heroes in an epic tale. This is done to entertain her and manipulate her into helping him get opium. The young actress (Catinca Untaru) is tremendously adorable as little Alexandria and just eats up screen time. Pair that with a visually stunning film - locations, costumes, colors... and it is an excellent movie.

The scene that matters comes  near the end. Roy has become increasing despondent, with both his own situation and with what he has done to Alexandria. He wishes to end the story, but she insists on completing it. His sadness and angry bleeds into the narrative and hence into Alexandria. She sits by him, crying and pleading for the story (and Roy) to become bold and happy again with a power that is so moving that I fall for it every time.

I am Legend (2007)

Okay, the movie is not faithful to the literary source but despite that, I can forgive it for being good at what it is.

Will Smith plays Robert Neville, the last 'man' left alone in a New York after a plague. (Disclaimer, in the written source it is a spread of vampirism, the movie makes it zombie-like.)

This film is wonderful at displaying Robert Neville's determined isolation, loneliness, and longing. His companion dog, Samantha, is the focal point of this and wonderfully scripted and filmed as a character in her own right holding up his sanity in the face of his stress, grief, and horror. But dogs are not immune, and when Samantha sacrifices herself to protect Neville it leads to a heart wrenching scene as his last friend leaves and becomes a foe. No other response is possible than to cry watching such sacrifice and loss.

Gladiator (2000)

The opening sequence to Gladiator is visually stunning. The might of Rome intruded upon a wilderness, grinding the woods of Germania to mud and tree stumps in an inevitable tide. The tribes shout their defiance, and the legion stares unmoved.

"A people should know when they're conquered"

And then the real organization, determination, efficiency of Rome is displayed as the technology, planning, & logistics are artfully portrayed with slick direction and stunning force. There is no doubt why Rome strode the Earth as they did.

(And I think they did know they were conquered.  But what choice did they have?)

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

Trapped and certainly doomed, as for once Scotty cannot work a miracle to save the ship, Spock seals himself in a certainly deadly situation and proceeds to save the ship. The joy of survival is destroyed as Kirk comes to face the dying Spock through a window, and he is powerless. Spock places his hand against the window in the classic Vulcan position and dies saying "Live long and prosper."

Years of shared experience as a viewer of the series encapsulate all the emotional investment into show, setting, and characters in that one moment. It benefits from nice pacing of the moment, and a brevity of dialogue delivered with some of the best acting those involved ever managed together. I admit I teared up the first time I saw it, and I still do today.

(They never should have brought Spock back. It was one of the truly great character deaths on screen.)

(Oh, and JJ Abrams can just suck it.)

Star Trek: The Next Generation "Family" S4:E2 (1990)

Okay, this is not a "movie scene", I know, but it is a scene worthy of being highlighted in this list without question.

The Season 3 Finale and Season 4 first episode is as fine a dramatic and action filled story in all of Star Trek. And Episode 2 is a critical component of that story arc, it is the heart and soul of what makes the previous episodes' succeed in my opinion.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard has recently been rescued from incorporation within the Borg (Season 3 finale and Season 4 first episode in as fine a dramatic and action filled story in all of Star Trek). The Enterprise returns to Earth for repairs, and Picard takes leave to the surface and returns to the family vineyards now run by his brother Robert. He connects with his nephew, his sister-in-law, and struggles with the idea of leaving Starfleet after his recent travails. Robert stalks around the scenes gruff and dour as any Klingon...

And then the scene: the brothers come to blows, wrestling in the mud of a French vineyard. When they stop to talk, there is a powerful heartfelt brother-to-brother conversation that rings far too true-to-life. Picard sobs and cries, pouring out his humanity and weakness in some wonderful acting:

"They took everything I was. They used me to kill and to destroy and I couldn't stop them. I should have been able to stop them. I tried. I tried so hard. But I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't good enough! I should have been able to stop them. I should... I should..."

and his brother says the things that need to be said, in the way they need saying.

"So... my brother is a human being after all.

This is going to be with you a long time, Jean-Luc.

A long time."

Depth of character, family dynamics, and tough love classically depicted.

And the definitive moment for me in what makes Jean-Luc Picard The Best.

Syria Chaotica

So, at one time the Moderates in Syria had a clear opportunity for victory. A US policy decision was on the table to arm, train, and support the Moderates to contribute to the goal of toppling Assad. Someone talked the Administration into believing that was a bad idea, because we would just end up arming militants. Turkey asked to go in and handle things, and we stopped them. NATO/EU tried to come up with a intervention, and we stopped them.

(As a side note: Russia is buddies with Syria, so we were trying to play nice with Putin by being nice to Syria - fat lot of good that did.)

Some of the people fighting Assad got desperate for aid and turned to militants for help. A flow of arms, fighters, and leaders from the chaos the US helped create in Iraq gave the militants muscle. These militants got organized, became the IS, and were not bashful about attacking the Moderates as much as Assad. The Moderates were beaten back in a two front war. No one paid attention until the IS grabbed land in Iraq, because they astutely took advantage of an opportunity presented. In doing so they gained credibility, more arms, and attracted more fighters to their cause.

The Administration finally started to notice that they may have made a mistake, and that sometimes doing nothing is worse than the pain of doing something.

I have seen several reports that conclude that the Moderates have lost, with few meaningful enclaves remaining. In a recent major battle/last stand against Assad, IS attacked their flank and rear and the Moderate opposition was largely shattered.

It is now we are going to arm and train the Moderates to win in Syria and face off with the IS... Moderates that have already lost the war they wanted to fight, and we are going to ask them to fight a war they probably don't want to fight. This situation is going to take a lot more will and investment from a lot more sources to clean up.


In my opinion March of 2003 was the worst mistake in US foreign policy history. And we have been in a disastrous tail spin ever since with mistake on top of mistake, and it is all coming home to roost.

Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

Am I the only one that thinks it is in Israel's best interest to strength Fatah in the West Bank. It seems to me that a process of reasonable negotiations, moving towards a Palestinian state focused there with economic engagement and incentive would marginalize Hamas. I can easily envision disenchantment by the Palestinians trapped in Gaza under Hamas when they saw a peaceful process with the West Bank. They would see that the message/action of violence and hate from Hamas as less desirable than prosperity and peace...

..right?

Why isn't this a viable path for Israel to take?

Some Words, From Others, to Ponder upon the Subject of Past, Present, and Future

"The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future."
-- Teddy Roosevelt

"What is history? An echo of the past in the future; a reflex from the future on the past."
-- Victor Hugo

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
-- George Santayana

"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."
-- Karl Marx

"And history with all her volumes vast, Hath but one page."
-- Lord Byron

Because my mind works oddly at times

For no particular reason, okay, that is not true. I have been reading Joe Abercrombie's First Law series - an entertaining fantasy yarn, incidentally, well worth the time - in which he presents a creature in his world called the Shanka. This is clearly his stand in for the standard non-human monstrous threat, very much in the same vein as Tolkien's Orcs in terms of being a 'created' species by a evil wizard-type.

Anyway... I challenged myself to to remember (without looking) the names of traditional monstrous humanoid races that function and act together in fantasy. And this is as far as I got.

• Goblin
• Kobold
• Gnoll
• Orc
• Hobgoblin
• Troglodyte
• Troll (this is a bit of a reach, generally portrayed in small numbers, but often along with some of the above)

The following are not always 'good', and certainly are non-human:

• Elves 
• Dwarves
• Gnomes