This month in music listening and movie watching, with patent-pending two-word reviews:
MUSIC
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Specter At The Feast – not bountiful
Son Volt: Honky Tonk – surprising simplicity
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Push The Sky Away – bad goodness
The Flaming Lips: The Terror – hookless weirdness
The Pilgrims: It’s Not Pretty – fun rock
MOVIES
Jiro Dreams of Sushi – unreal dedication
Argo – unrelenting tension
Wrath of the Titans – unrelenting ridiculousness
Visioneers – uneven dystopia
Friends With Kids – NYC-centered familiarity
Project X – bacchanalian bullshit
The Cabin in the Woods – fun ride
Reuben Tour of Columbus – Mark Kelley’s (Dublin)
I’ve lived in Dublin, Ohio for over six years, yet somehow had not made it to Mary Kelley’s Restaurant and Pub, which is not only famous for their variety of Irish dishes, but most notably for their dessert selection, specifically their massive slices of pie. But this isn’t a pie tour, it’s a reuben tour, so I’ll get to the review.
Here’s the scorecard:
Corned Beef – good cut, decent amount, not overwhelming
Sauerkraut – proper amount
Swiss Cheese – melted but not overflowing
Thousand Island – light, didn’t taste much of it, could have used more
Rye Bread – instead of traditional rye, two massive slices of Rubschlager pumpernickle
Mary Kelley’s scores a 4.5 out of 5. I would have preferred a little bit more thousand island for the added flavor, but this is a damn fine sandwich, and it’s huge to boot.
Here’s the scorecard:
Corned Beef – good cut, decent amount, not overwhelming
Sauerkraut – proper amount
Swiss Cheese – melted but not overflowing
Thousand Island – light, didn’t taste much of it, could have used more
Rye Bread – instead of traditional rye, two massive slices of Rubschlager pumpernickle
Mary Kelley’s scores a 4.5 out of 5. I would have preferred a little bit more thousand island for the added flavor, but this is a damn fine sandwich, and it’s huge to boot.
Retro Review: Firefly
Recently I revisited the lone season of the Joss Whedon created space western drama, Firefly. The series aired on Fox in 2002 and 2003, lasting only 14 episodes.
I discovered Firefly via the 2005 movie Serenity, which I saw many years after release thanks to the Filmspotting podcast. Nathan Fillion’s captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds was the closest anyone had come to capturing the spirit of Han Solo from Star Wars, and since I pretty much grew up watching Star Wars on repeat for several years of my childhood, anything drawing on that for inspiration was worth checking out.
It took a few years, but I finally got around to Firefly, and I’m glad that I did. Is the “space western” a bit hard to swallow? Sure, but in the context of the show, where young “terraformed” planets resemble the Wild West both in a physical and cultural sense, it’s logical. What really makes Firefly works is Whedon’s snappy dialog and interaction between the characters.
At times, the show walked the line between fun and camp, especially in some of the action sequences which didn’t seem particularly well done, though that may have been due to the tv-sized budget, a problem that did not impact Serenity. Overall, the series and Whedon made me want to revisit this show, and I was disappointed I only had the 14 episodes to check out.
If Netflix can bring back Arrested Development, maybe they can do the same for Firefly. Dare to dream…
I discovered Firefly via the 2005 movie Serenity, which I saw many years after release thanks to the Filmspotting podcast. Nathan Fillion’s captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds was the closest anyone had come to capturing the spirit of Han Solo from Star Wars, and since I pretty much grew up watching Star Wars on repeat for several years of my childhood, anything drawing on that for inspiration was worth checking out.
It took a few years, but I finally got around to Firefly, and I’m glad that I did. Is the “space western” a bit hard to swallow? Sure, but in the context of the show, where young “terraformed” planets resemble the Wild West both in a physical and cultural sense, it’s logical. What really makes Firefly works is Whedon’s snappy dialog and interaction between the characters.
At times, the show walked the line between fun and camp, especially in some of the action sequences which didn’t seem particularly well done, though that may have been due to the tv-sized budget, a problem that did not impact Serenity. Overall, the series and Whedon made me want to revisit this show, and I was disappointed I only had the 14 episodes to check out.
If Netflix can bring back Arrested Development, maybe they can do the same for Firefly. Dare to dream…
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