Friday, May 23, 2008
Play time, boys and girls.
Just because I’m down, doesn’t mean I’m out. In the comments if you please.
1) Favourite Vampire film, campy and/or serious, and why.
2) Favourite John Wayne film and why.
3) And just to change things up, favourite dessert ... and why.
Me first.
1) It’s a definite toss-up between Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula and The Lost Boys — both of which were pretty damned campy. I’m still not quite sure if Coppola meant his movie to be taken seriously or not. What do you think?
And just because it always makes me laugh — Love at First Bite with George Hamilton.
2) Rooster Cogburn, the ultimate crotchety old marshall. I’m not really what you’d call a fan of Wayne — I think he plays the same character in just about all his roles — but that movie has always appealed to me. Maybe it’s the fact that Katherine Hepburn, whose presence improves any film, is in it. Her portrayal of Eula Goodnight is just about perfect, but then we are talking about Hepburn. When was she not perfect? And the chemistry between Cogburn and Eula is outstanding, not to mention completely hilarious at times.
3) My mom’s homemade lemon meringue pie – it’s beyond delicious. The lemon curd filling is almost too tart (but it’s not) and the meringue adds just the perfect contrasting sweetness. And the crust ... did I mention my mom makes her own pie crust from scratch? It’s flaky and light as air ... I think I have to call my mother. I’m sure she’s dying to make her poor, wounded baby girl a lemon meringue pie.
Now your turn.
P.S. My foot really hurts. I just thought you needed to know that.
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7 comments:
First, I thought the Rooster Cogburn movie was called True Grit. Or was Rooster the sequel?
1) "From Dusk 'Til Dawn". Two reasons: Salma Hayek and Robert Rodriguez, for completely different reasons. I also like the idea of vampires in the desert. It's so... American. "Near Dark" and "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat" are two other startling contrasts in the genre.
2) "Rio Bravo", 'cause Ricky Nelson's cool, too, and it's just a good flick. Though "Big Jim McLain" gets honourable mention for being so patently partisan, for being so anti-Hollywood, for being so absurdly patriotic, and for being so badly written. "The Shootist" almost made it for its insurmountable pathos (throat cancer!)
3) Upside-down caramel apple pie, with a really good vanilla bean ice cream. I make my own pie crust, also from scratch, and it kicks ass.
1) The Hunger Bowie, Deneuve and Sarandon. A very 80s arthouse vampire tale with Bauhaus providing a captivating reading of their classic Bela Lugosi's Dead as an opening stalking sequence unfolds. This film had more style and substance than the horror genre films that preceded it. With an international A-list cast and some steamy, sexy vampire loving from the lady leads, what isn't to love.
2) The Quiet Man because it is an unrelenting schmaltz of saccharine sentimentality. Wayne's one dimensional portrait of a big galoot in love is every bit as nuanced as one would expect from the cowboy asshole icon. Still, Maureen O'Hara was lovely and the rest of the characters were cartoon quality quaint caricatures. I remember seeing this film when I had a very high fever and it suited my delirium quite well.
3) Take a couple of slightly green bananas, peel them and slice them lengthwise. Put them in a non-stick pan with a few tablespoons of clarified butter and sautee over a medium heat for a few moments. Add a couple of tablespoons of demerara sugar, dissolve the sugar and reduce heat. In a food processor place two firm, pitted plums add a splash of coconut milk and puree. To the bananas in the pan add a healthy shot of rum and ignite. Pretty fire. When the rum burns down, remove the bananas and place them in dishes. To the pan add the plum and coconut milk and heat through, add a splash of blue curacao. Pour that over the bananas, add a scoop of real vanilla ice cream and serve.
The caramelized sugar and the sharp tang of the skin of the plums make a heady contrast and a complex collision of flavours in this variant on the classic bananas foster. You can experiment with other ideas, I had quite a bit of success serving something like this using firm nectarines and raspberries. And from the cook's stand point setting stuff on fire with booze is fun.
You get to make dessert at my place ... just don't set my kitchen on fire.
1) I'm kind of fond of "Fright Night" with Roddy McDowell and Chris Sarandon, but I'd have to give my vote to the orginal: Murnau's "Nosferatu". I first saw it in a film study class in my last year in high school and Max Schreck's Count Orlock seriously creeped me out for days after seeing it. For it's time it's a remarkably well crafted film. "Shadow of the Vampire" which took the making of Nosferatu in a different direction - with John Malkovich playing Murnau and Wellem Dafoe playing Max Schreck as though he WAS an actual vampire was a very interesting treatment of the concept.
2) Wayne's "The Quiet Man" and "True Grit" are favouites of mine, but I saw "Island In the Sky" the other day and he gave a surprisingly emotional and even vulnerable performance. It was a refreshing change from his usual swaggering bluster. I'm no fan of his war movies, but the one film I can't watch is "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance"; hearing him call Jimmy Stewart's character "Pilgrim" for the nth time just drove me nuts
3) My sister's pumpkin cheesecake. Runners up: her wine cake, my mom's pumpkin pie, anything with maple syrup, maple sugar, or maple flavour as a main theme
N.
1) I'll watch any movie that has a vampire/vampires. Great choices already. Two choices from the campy cult classic catgeory: Blacula. Love teh campy, cheesy old American International B-pix. William Marchall has an awesome voice. Bonus casting: Our own Gordon Pinsent as the investigating detective.
and
Comedy! Horror! Romance! A female vampire with a conscience! Pittsburgh gangsters! Horror meets humor when the underworld meets... ummmm... the underworld! Annie Parillaud! Talking John Landis' Innocent Blood. Great supporting cast of classic Italian-American character actors, and tell me where else are you going to see Don Rickles turned into a vampire Mafia lawyer?
2) John Wayne? Ugh. Wooden. One-dimensional. Walking, talking cliche. Not much of a fan here.
OK - If I have to pick something, True Grit (and yes Father Shaggy, Rooster Cogburn was the sequel) and, The Quiet Man.
3) Never been fussy about food in general and same goes for desserts. I like sooooo many. Although honestly I'm not real big on sugar (aka white death), for sheer indulgence bring on the pastry cart.
For classic simplicity nothing to me beats a home baked pick-your-own blueberry pie.
I could also easily become addicted to Nanaimo Bars.
My fave vampire flick is From Dusk Til Dawn. Mostly for the characters and the great lines.
"So what are you? A failed priest or a mean, motherfucking Man of God?"
And of course a smut writer like myself loves that scene with Selma Hayek. I wish I could get something that erotic down in words.
I can't remember the name of my favourite John Wayne flick. He was a naval officer in command of some small squadron of American ships in WWII.
The main reason I liked it was because John got laid. :D
My favourite desert is the type of things I write about in my erotica. ;)
Favourite Vampire Movie: Depends on my mood - either "Interview With The Vampire" (purely over the top campy, IMO - even if it tries to take itself seriously), and the 1990s "Bram Stoker's Dracula" - more serious, but a great rendering of the original novel.
Favourite John Wayne movie? I'm afraid I can't even name any of his movies offhand - which suggests that I don't really have a favourite - in fact, what few I've probably seen were clearly equally forgettable.
Dessert: An evil little creation my mother used to make on occasion that we called "Chocolate Gooey Pudding". (It came out of the old "Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook" - under the less interesting label "Chocolate Brownie Pudding"). It's simple, sweet and chocolatey - all in one dish! I still have memories of the stunned look one of my grandmothers gave us when we answered "Chocolate Gooey Pudding" when she asked what we wanted for dessert - she had no idea what we were talking about (and was the classic "prim and proper" British woman)
Desserts:
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