Lodi is for Lovers

 

I've been to Guantonio's in Lodi twice, and I'm a super fan. I'm not alone! Me and smiller went on Saturday to celebrate V-Day. The restaurant opens at 5:00, we arrived at 5:10 and our wait was an hour to be seated (outside, near a heater). I would advise, you either need to get there at 445, or come around 7 and you won't have much of a wait. Definitely 530 or 6 is a bad time to arrive. 

Waiting is not too bad, because you can get an excellent brew or bottle of wine and stand at tables outside (also by heaters). Folks tend to chat amongst the tables. It's very friendly. We heard another table from Sacramento who was really making friends, and we talked to a Lodi couple about restaurants they like in Sac. We got a tip from those locals that the Lodi Airport cafe (only open M-F for lunch and Sunday brunch) has really good food. The motto is "eat. fly. skydive." but I would def subtract "skydive" due to the safety record of that skydiving business.

We were seated slightly after 6, which is not late to eat so it was fine. We got a bottle of an Italian red blend. The owner seems to come out to open every bottle and discuss it, so that's a pro tip if you want to give compliments to the chef.

Guantonio's has a very exciting menu. I will often look at a menu and feel pretty meh about everything, but because of the creativity of the app menu at Guad's, I usually want to get just about everything. This time we chose a deep-fried hardboiled egg. It has a breadcrumb shell and was served with house-made chive mayo and topped with trout roe. That's honey on the plate! Crazy! Nick G. loves honey, if you get his pie "Nick-style" it's a roni pie with ricotta and hot honey.

I love a winter salad! So if I see some pretty-ass chicory on a salad I WILL be ordering it. This one had yuzu AND grapefruit AND crunchies (in the form of peanuts) AND miso AND dukkah and like a true salad master (sadly rare) it all came together to make this salad off the chain. My only note: maybe pistachios instead of peanuts? I should not be giving a genius notes tho.

 On to the pie. It had Olympia Provisions mortadella. It just goes to show how hard charcuterie is that some of the best can't be found any closer that Portland (there's Molinari for closer), but anyway I really should be eating more mortadella (doctor's orders) so this was a natural to choose. Also, hot peppers. The pizza is quite good, it lacked a crunch or crisp or chewy factor, not talking middle sog, but edge crust, which was a little more crust than I need. It's so hard to write about pizza, as I found when I briefly worked for Slice (RIP to that website). There are many pizza styles in the world, but  my partiality to Masullo's pizzas colors my perception of this type, which I won't really call Neopolitan but I guess wood-fired.

We even got dessert, which we never do, but eff it, it's Valentine's Day. Buffalo milk vanilla and salted caramel soft serve.  We saw a lot of takeout orders leaving with "Noni's canoli" so those are probably good. I think his dad and mom were working the kitchen, so perhaps Noni was there. 

Later that night we went to Dancing Fox Winery, which has a very interesting beer list, and then in the morning we went to Charro's Birriera, which I had clocked the day prior.

You know I'm gonna get stoked when I order birria and they ask me if I want goat or beef. The answer will always be G.O.A.T.

OMG so good.

Here's a taco made from my soup.

Smiller got a birria taco and a quesabirria taco, so his breakfast was ridiculously cheap, got a little bowl of consomme too.

My check was expensive because I got the full soup and a Michelada too! Hair of the dog for the wine and beer at Guad's the night before

Conclusion: Lodi is rad (in some ways!)

Still craving Taiwanese food and tried Betty

After that pork belly bao I was still thinking about Taiwan best mart, so I went back on Saturday lunch with Smiller to try dining in. It only has two tables and both were full but within a few minutes of ordering both opened up. While I was waiting for a table I poked my head in Osaka Ya. There was a line of people for the mochi, but I noted that Osaka Ya is looking careworn. Using this word made me look it up and it means "tired and unhappy because of prolonged worry" so I am somewhat using it incorrectly. I guess I mean "worse for wear". They have that broken window that's been boarded up for a long time. Anyway, wondering what is going on and hoping Osaka Ya is thriving.

At TBM I ordered an oyster omelet. It had 5 or 6 big oysters in there, strong-tasting ones. I would describe the texture with the gravy, and rice flour out-muscling the eggs as "gloppy". It's my first oyster omelet and I ordered it due to being bummed to not have the opportunity to order an oyster omelet in Thailand, so for me it was swing and a miss but interesting! I'm sure it is quite different from a Thai oyster omelet so I think my ordering motives were not pure. 

One of the main dishes commonly associated with Taiwanese food is beef noodle soup. I have had tastier versions, including at Yang's (RIP) but this was good. The seemingly house made noodles were the best part. The bok choy was too chunky to be able to get good bites of it.

Smiller got sesame noodles with the same noodles above and he purported to like it, that dish is a bit plain if you don't add anything to it.

It was fun to eat there, and I am very stoked on Taiwan Best Mart and trying more of the dishes. 

I know you are marveling that I posted this here rather than saving for the Gram. This is like Instagram gold right here so feel privileged. This is the back patio at new Southside wine bar Betty. I hesitated to go in because I am ride-or-die on Good News and I always feel like I should spend my wine money there. A friend said Betty was really cute so I had to go. It is indeed, cute as hell. Smiller was wondering aloud who created the wine bar/store as pantry/larder concept? Who was the first to decide that a wine bar should sell foodstuffs such as drum roll please....tinned fish! I know Ordinaire has been hugely influential on natty wine stuff but they pretty much focus on wine, so it's not them.

I respect the vibe of the Betty selection, particularly in the store part. It's tough to order a glass when a place picks one wine for each category (like one white, one rose, etc.) because if I want a white wine but not the one they have on offer then what the heck do I order? But I loved the classic Euro feel of some of the picks on the shelves. I feel like it is respecting the greats and has lots of natural wine but is not trend chasing. It has such a female feel to it, due to the name, the owner being female, and the crowd when we were there being 80% female, so it's like the antithesis of natty wine bro. 

Due to the limited selection, I had to order an Italian orange wine (shudder), this is an orange version of a pinot grigio and it tasted mostly just like a glass of white PG. I am kinda kidding when I say shudder but I find orange wine to often have off flavors and mouth textures (didn't say mouthfeel) that I don't enjoy. For my first glass I got an Italian white,

Betty is a cute (did I say mention it's cute?) new addition to the "scene" and hopefully Sac is big enough for all these places to find their niche.

Happy Lunar New Year I ate some dumplings

 I still want to post more about the food in Thailand, but I wanted to do a quick post on recent food "adventures". I have a new year's resolution to lose weight (I know) but also to eat more Asian food (in general and specifically in Davis when I am at the office) and to do more fine dining this year (trying out some fancy places is actually smiller's resolution but I am in favor) so those resolutions are really at odds!

Dating back as my time to SNR as food critic, I get news releases from people. A lady who flacks for Black Angus sends me stuff (I don't have the heart to unsubscribe, I guess I'm like what if I'm the last person left on her list who has not opted out of news releases with the subject line BLACK ANGUS STEAKHOUSE LAUNCHES NEW MOBILE APP), and also Paragary's related places. So I got an announcement that Centro is having crab month. That has set me on a seafood craving path. I def do not eat enough seafood (I mean if I see food....right?) Centro is really close to our house yet I never eat there. I was determined to go there for CRAB MONTH. I made this happen and these are Dungeness crab tacos. We discovered that they now have a tomatillo salsa with the free chips and not the pico de gallo we all remember. I got an excellent Oaxaca margarita with mescal. This food was very bland (I mean duh it's Centro). This made me realize that it may have been these specific black beans that made me think back in the day that I did not like black beans. They just tasted like salt. Now I know that black beans can be very rich and delicious and are the backbone of some regional Mexican food, like in Oaxaca. But when I was  young (days of yore) this was my intro. Also this rice is just...white rice, with maybe a little oil. No seasoning! We had a great time and don't worry Centro is exactly the same and was crowded on a Tuesday.

A friend (CH) recommended I try these juicy pork buns from Tasty Dumpling (Crocker Village). I was skeptical because some of these dumping chains seem really meh. She said it was not a chain, which seems to hold up upon Google research. Their specialty seems to be XLB soup dumpling; their menu is very interesting. She warned me that these juicy guys are squirters, and indeed they are! Make sure you let them cool before you get your juice bath. I put on an apron, but some juice squirted on my phone. They are a two-bite dumpling. They come with chili oil and vinegar. I will be back to this place! I got takeout but would like to eat there because the bready wrapper was steaming in the container and had collapsed

As part of the aforementioned resolution to eat at a fancy-ish place once a month, we ate at Mulvaney's. I def have affection for and support these people behind this restaurant but boy was this a disappointing meal. The entire cute main restaurant was reserved for a private event (I had made reservations for "dining room", which I assumed was the restaurant), so we were in the other area, which has kind of a warehouse feel. Not bad, but not cozy. I won't belabor all of it but it was an off night. We ordered this app, smoked salmon and brown bread, which is a Mulvaney's classic. It was good, although the onions were a bit strong and plentiful. But it's not like they can control the onion strength, I just avoided them. Although on second thought I do control the strength of red onions by lightly pickling them :) Our food all tasted good, but the beverage choices were not exciting.

DUDE LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY. I already knew Taiwan Best Mart was the bomb from semi-regularly getting their rice bowl with stewed pork, pickle and stewed egg. But today I thought: I should try something new. I saw this gua bao for only five bucks (it's about the size of a fist): pork belly, pickled mustard greens, cilantro peanut powder on steamed white bun. DAMN SON this is just as good as the one I got at cool guy LA spot Pine and Crane. I'm excited as you can tell. Fine dining is hard to deal with price-wise, because it's rare that anything you get for say, $38 is as delicious as this was, IMO. Here's an article on why fine dining is unsustainable in its current form. Many think pieces of this kind are coming out now due to Noma's announcement of their eventual closing.

I also got Zha Jiang Mian which they describe as zha-jiang (ground pork, beacurd, edamame, sweet flour sauce and bean paste) on noodles with cucumber and scallion. The noodles stuck together (this would be a better dine-in dish) but the zha-jiang was nicely salty/savory.

Beef noodle soup and roti

This beef noodle restaurant in Chiang Mai (Rote Yiam) is famous, and is in the Michelin guide. It had many pics of Thai celebs with the owners.

You pick your meat assortment, I got meatball, tendon and steak and you pick the type of noodle too. This was a delicious bowl of soup, especially the tendon. I would not have minded more pieces of it. Portions in Thailand tend to be small by our standards, which is kind of nice when you want to hit up multiple restaurants.

This is the big pot at the front that they mix your soup up from.

This pic above is from a roti shop in Chiang Rai. Remember how I said yesterday that my fancy hotel was right near tons of good restaurants? This Roti shop was less than ten minutes, and it was a fun walk down residential streets. I ended up talking to 3 little girls while they showed off their various cats to me. You can see pots of curry, with fried fish there in the middle and beef at bottom

Wiki reveals that Thailand is 5-10% Muslim and you see quite a few women in headscarves. So there are halal restaurants and some of them specialize in roti. Dessert roti booths are ubiquitous at night markets. The roti is fried up fresh and filled with nutella, bananas, what have you. I got a banana egg one that was bomb. Above is a beef curry soup and roti. Both were pretty small and since they were so good I also got...

Chicken-and-egg stuffed roti. I could eat this all the time. 

A great Chiang Rai restaurant Lab Sanam Keela

 I did a trip by myself to Thailand recently. Some people asked "why Thailand" and my answer was that I already knew I liked SE Asia, having previously visited Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia (just Phnom Penh), and that post-COVID I was feeling unsure about how travel would be so it seemed like a good idea to go a heavily touristed country. Of course the food was on my mind, and the question of what it would be like there vs. the Thai food in Sacramento and what I grew up eating.

I don't think I ever, or rarely ate Thai food growing up. Moving downtown in the mid-90s Amarin Thai (now called Bangkok@12 Thai and frequently crashed into by cars) was the jam, I can't remember why. It was one of the few on the grid probably. I remember getting curries and Tom Yum soup. Working in Davis for almost the last 20 years, there are so many Thai restaurants (many have closed and the popularity of Thai with college students has maybe waned in favor of Chinese, especially boba chains) and coworkers always wanted to go to Thai for birthdays etc. I always kind of groused about that internally because I thought the food was bland and often too sweet, and never liked that kind of pounded out breast meat that was what you got when you ordered chicken as the protein. Sophia's of course is still going strong in Davis, which at times has served as a fun venue and which Davis loves for their sweet cocktails.

My knowledge of Thai food barely progressed past that really. I got into Laotian food from learning more about it at Hmong New Year and there's a definite overlap there but my curiosity to find good Thai food in Sac wasn't really piqued. I ate at Kin Thai once with KW before the pandemic (if memory serves) and then got takeout there once or twice during, and once the ordering process went really wrong so although it's walkable from my house and I could tell it's really popular I didn't eat there often.

Anyway, although I posted lots of IG-bait pics of temples to IG while I was gone, I didn't post as many food pics, so I wanted to do a whole post on the food. I'll start in the city where I ended my trip, which ended up being my favorite place I visited: Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is far north and kind of equidistant from Laos and Myanmar, very close to both. I still know nothing about Myanmar food, but I def had food in CR that I think of as Lao style.

I'll start with the first meal I ate when I arrived in CR (it was 4 hours via swank bus from Chiang Mai). I had decided to splurge on a 4 star hotel ($130 a night for White Lotus vibez) and I was a bit concerned that it was outside the city center, but I figured if that was annoying to get back into the center that I would just stay at the hotel a lot and maybe eat lame hotel food. But on the tuk tuk from the bus station  (10 minutes) we passed multiple crowded restaurants that were 5-10 minute walk from the hotel. I was so psyched. I checked in, gawked at the room/pool etc and right away headed to a very close place that specializes in larb, called Lab Sanam Keela. Their pork larb is pictured above. It has bits of liver, skin, unknown bits in there but was not gamy or particularly strong tasting, just delicious. It was warm and a bit saucy. Sticky rice seems more common in northern Thailand, probably the Lao proximity influence, not sure, and look at those herbs! The herbs were the real draw, and also cabbage and mustard greens to make wraps. Dude at the table next to me was eschewing implements to ball up the sticky rice in his hand and use it to scoop etc. so I did the same.

I isolated some of the interesting herbs. This one had an incense-like flavor. I just spent about 15 minutes browsing Thai and Lao herbs to try to find what it is with no luck. Even a reverse image scan didn't work.

The one above was slightly bitter and very sour and I made a joke on IG "it me". Pause for laugh.

And then you have fish mint, which I recognized from Vietnamese dishes I've had.

Here's what it looks like from the outside. I liked it so much that I went back for dinner the next day. The first day I went for late lunch, the restaurant only had a few others, the second time I was at prime dinner time and it was quite crowded, many big parties. Traveling alone and not being Thai I stood out and this visit was a bit awkward. I felt self conscious as a weirdo, and then they sat me directly in the entrance so then I'd be the first person that every party coming in saw so the awkwardness just kept rolling on but oh well.

On my prior visit I saw this dish at a table and the roasted squash sold me that I had to try it. It was not on the English language menu, but I looked up a pic from online reviews of this place and screenshotted it for ordering. There was some concern from the server about me ordering it, to the extent she brought someone out from the kitchen about it, but the language barrier just couldn't be overcome. I assured the kitchen guy I would not send it back. It was completely not spicy or unusual to a Western palate so I'm not sure what the concern was. Anyway, it's a mild green chili dip and veggies. Great!

This fried fish dish is a show-stopper, it's on many tables and the dip is the real story. Really heavy on the lime and so good. All the puffy bits on top of the fish are whole garlic cloves, deep-fried, some with a bit of papery garlic skin still on. The meat is filleted and fried and is resting on the skeleton of the fish. I think initially some of the concern is just that I ordered too much food, and true that, but I knew this would be the last time I could ever eat there so I had to go all out.

I wanted to capture this tableau because the best way to drink watery beer in a hot climate is of course on ice.

One last thing that was a little bit funny was after I had been served, the guy from the kitchen who had earlier tried to dissuade me from the dip plate brought me this little bowl of pork belly soup to see if I liked it. I feel like he was trying to get a feel for if it pleased a Western palate and I assured him it was great. You can see that it has cilantro, the varietal that's stronger tasting, and you don't see cilantro super commonly in Thailand in my eating experience in my limited time.

So that's that restaurant, probably my fave place all around that I ate but true to the awkward and experimental nature of travel not always easy and comfortable at all times.

First post since Valentine's one

 First post since Feb due to 1) desire to avoid whatever the hell is going on on twitter 2) in office and it's kind of a quiet day and I have many projects to avoid

This profile of the playwright Will Arbery is gorgeously written. I am excited that Capital Stage is staging the only play of his I've seen (online, early pandemic) "Heroes of the Fourth Turning". 

I recently returned to CapStage for (I think) first time since pandemic, unless I am forgetting a play. I went to see Gloria, which I knew was about a New Yorker-style workplace and I was like "right up my alley" but then there is also a workplace killing which shocked me. I had not seen the prominent "this play contains gun violence" sign at the entrance. It was an ok play, and now I have seen 2 OK plays by this same playwright at CapStage (the other being Octoroon). Octoroon featured an audience participation slave auction so that was one of the cringiest moments I've maybe ever had in live theater besides when my phone range during The Seagull.

I won't post too much about movies because that's all I ever do but I'm pretty excited about all the movies that came out today. I think I'm going to see The Menu today, but I also want to see She Said, Armageddon Time, You Resemble Me, Bardo, and Banshees of Inisheran. Of those I expect I won't like Armageddon time and Bardo, but WE SHALL SEE.

I'm excited that there's another Magic Mike next year and it's directed by Soderbergh. 

Where are we all at with remote work? While I would jump at the chance for 100% remote, I have reluctantly returned more often to the office lately and I'm adjusting. The chance of some WFH makes it more bearable, and I think my workplace is never going back to that mindset that you sit in your office from 8-5 so that people know you're working. So the flexibility that offers (for instance, working from home for a bit in the morning, then heading in) helps as well. Little things make a big difference. It is ridiculous how much satisfaction I am getting from having set up a tea area (with vintage tablecloth) and that some of the students I work with are using it. I'm still just mostly zooming from my office though, but trying to not think about how it's silly that anyone cares where I do that from.

I like to text NH when I'm up very early reading the comics. I know she will always be up before me and will appreciate anything comics-related. This comic is disgusting on (at least) 2 levels

Not dying, indeed living, if not your best life, A life, is excellent, but one consequence of longevity is that you live to see things die, fail, go away etc. And one such thing is the motherfucking print edition of Parade Magazine noooooo!!!! Where will I go for my mild celeb interviews? For the advice of the smartest women in the world (TM) Marilyn Vos Savant? Founded in 1941. I will not be seeking it out online. This is sad. 

This is the horrible creep that home-invaded a neighbor and she is still trying to bring him to justice, vigilante or otherwise. If you see him around for real call 911 and you can hit me up for more info. He deserves it, he tried to home invade her neighbor as well. Boulevard Park area. At least text me with info on his whereabouts if you don't want to call the police. His name is Jesse. Yes, that is the awesome flier I designed before we knew he had actually done the main crime. Graphic design is my passion.

Oakland for my Valentine

 I got a cute AirBnB in Temescal for 3 nights and smiller joined me Friday.

Started out Thursday by breaking the bank at Snail Bar, both on fancy snacks and then I took 2 bottles of wine home too. So worth it though and I don't do much at home in Sac. Snail Bar is super popular but I knew as a solo at 5 on a Thursday I'd be fine to get a spot

Started with oysters, the wine is the Mosse chenin blanc. I bought a bottle to take home and also bought a bottle of their grolleau 

As I sat I listened to what seemed like a first date where a guy told his whole life story. Quote, "having sex at burning man is actually very hard, because everyone is gross"

Then I got the snails, cuz it's snail bar and ya hafta. They were buttery of course and chewy, the best touch was the slice of lemon zest. I loved these snacks but def one of these two dishes messed my stomach up for days. I tried to blame Burgers N' Brew, where my boss dragged me for work, but since I got an Impossible Burger there, I'd say the oysters are the most likely. Are you interested in my intestines??

 

I schlepped from Snail Bar to Redfield cider bar on College with two bottles of wine  in my giant tote. I had a glass of Dupont cider at Redfield, and then headed to Ramen Bar. OMG their ramen is so good. This is the smoked duck and it's so smoky and maybe the best part are on the left there the slices of sunchoke. Unexpected and fucking great!!!

In the morning, since I had Friday off I knew that was my chance to try Boichik bagels with likely a minimal line. I was right. Biochik was interesting. Very firm, very glossy. I was slightly put off by the fact they recommend you order untoasted (uh, no) and I can't say it toasted up well when I got some for the second day. Also, they push whipped cream cheese on you (uh no yet again). I liked Boichik, maybe not a love affair.

Sunday I went to Beauty's Bagel, which I know is now Wise Sons. I figured since it's not cool anymore it probably wouldn't be that busy and I was right. I got the sesame to go and they are still good, not detectably different from when it was Beauty's. Perhaps they kept their recipe.

On Friday we had a res at Belotti on College. Still mostly outdoor dining so that jankness of the sidewalk and lighting of the streetlight was not the most romantic. They don't have any type of patio. It was so dark that an elderly guy tripped over the heat lamp and the table of youngs next to us turned on their cell phone flashlight and just set it face up on their table to be able to see their food.

Nevertheless, the pasta was super good. Polenta stuffed tortelli with a thyme and rabbit sauce!!

I wish I would have taken more pictures! We had a lot of fun around Lake Merritt, including at the bonsai garden area.  I am out of practice taking pics cuz of not having much to take pictures of usually.

Really good beers dranken: a dank West coast IPA at Temescal (dank beers and I are having a moment), not great brews at Wondrous Brewing company in Emeryville including a pilsner that somewhat offended me, De Garde Midi Brais at Redfield (tasted like the poor man's Cantillon Saint-Gilloise)

Oh yeah, and ate at Tacos Oscar, I got the fried egg taco that is an oily mess in the best way, dripping with salsa macha, and the chicken with guajillo. I can't wait until Tacos Oscar opens their side area back up, but I am glad they have seating in the front now. Last time I ate there I crouched on a curb.

Should I change blog title to heckamovies?

 I watched Bergman Island. I wanted to see the internet's boyfriend this Scandinavian guy who is a working doctor and also in this move and Worst Person in the World (which is supposed to come to Tower but I'm not holding my breath). He is indeed handsome. Bergman Island reminds me of a movie I love, directed by Joanna Hogg, called Archipelago, which is about privileged people vacationing in an island-type setting but still not being that happy and riding bikes around. But Bergman Island throws in lots of Bergman discourse and a movie-within-a-movie (with some sexy sexy scenes with the Dr.) and has some fuzzy ideas about art and marriage. I enjoyed it, it could have been a bit shorter (as most movies could!). I really want to visit the Bergman Island, except it's overtouristed by Bergman nerds so probably a nearby Swedish Island would be better.

I was reading about it after I watched it, and it turns out that Greta Gerwig was cast in the wife role, but dropped out, and instead it was Vicky Krieps (so memorable from Phantom Thread). I think this movie would have been terrible with Gerwig in it. I like her a lot but she doesn't exactly disappear into a role. Then I was reading what she is up to and she is writing and directing the Barbie movie with Margot Robbie and Gosling as Barbie and Ken. This sounds like a terrible idea.

I also watched A Hero, directed by Asghar Farhadi, who directed A Separation, which I've never seen but I know a lot of people like. A Hero is grueling to watch, it has shades of Bicycle Thief (I think, but I haven't seen it in 20 years so I could be wrong about that). It factors in social media in a deft way that will age well since no specific platform is mentioned. The star Amir Jadidi is so good, he does amazing things with a melting smile and duplicitous eyes. It's interesting to see home and business scenes in contemporary Iran.

Glengarry Glen Ross and a bad back

I threw out my back. I know, "fascinating" you think, "tell me more". I think it is funny that I did whatever I did (sprain? strain?) when I was bending over to wipe my drool up off the floor of the UC Davis gym because I was filling a tube for my COVID spit test. I've gotten like 80 tests and I've never drooled. I must have been really hydrated!

Anyway, I almost audibly heard a "sproing" in god knows what muscle, above my butt and pretty quickly it became painful and scary to sit down or stand up. Walking was fine but changing positions was hard. I went to see Parallel Mothers at the Tower after work and the getting in and out of the car sitch was tough.

I liked Parallel Mothers, I don't think I love any Almodovar movie. I just do not vibe or relate. My fave was probably that recent one with Banderas subbing in as elderly Almodovar (with back troubles!)

I had to call in sick to work the next day. Luckily, I had a million muscle relaxers from old injuries because docs give those things out like candy. After the one day I could work but not much else. It's been 8 days and I am really hoping I can go for a short run tomorrow.

I still managed to go see The Lilies play at the Starlet room (is that what it's called?) and that was fun despite being masked. It is easy for me to resist drinking when there aren't good options.

Me and Smiller watched Glengarry Glen Ross last night because he had never seen it. I think it holds up! I still love it. It came out in 92 and I'm pretty sure I saw it in the theater. It hits different after you've worked in the office. The Ed Harris character reminded me of a guy on my team who never stops complaining! It's like dude there's the door you are free to go. Even though women's stories interest me more these days I can still appreciate this movie and revel in the masculinity, swim in the testosterone, luxuriate in the hairy posturing.

The topic of GGR came up because I watched House of Games the other night. So good! I love Mantegna, and I can never not picture him as the Simpsons character he voices (also love him in Criminal Minds!) I didn't know that Lindsay Crouse is Zosia Mamet's mom, I thought it was second actress wife. No shade on short hair at all but I think that is one of the least flattering cuts of all time. It is flowbee material. I love her all beige outfits however. I have a goal to do more monochrome dressing, but I don't know how to get the tights shades matched (also I barely go anywhere so not much opportunity to work on outfits or show them off)

 Glad I can at least crack myself up with the banner photo. Every time!

How to stay sane in the current times??? Reading (Eve Babitz, Hilton Als, Gary Shteyngart currently on rotation with New Yorker of course). No Didion read or planned to read, and I'll leave it at that....

Cooking: Japanese beef curry. All ingredients from Oto's, which was bangin' around New Year's. I used the curry roux blocks rather than making my own from S&P curry powder. Those are the traditional pickles to serve with (fukujinzuke), which of course Oto's had. I've had curry at restaurants but don't recall having the pickles before. Served with a 12 degrees from Urb, so good! A surprise to me is that most curry recipes have a grated apple in there, but it lent a really good sweetness to it. I want to make it again with chicken katsu.

I also nixtamalized and ground the last of my corn I bought from LA boutique corn vendor Masienda in early pandemic. It was a relief to finally use it all because I won't be grinding my own corn anymore until I find a better corn grinder than the La Victoria hand crank one. It just doesn't yield pliable tortillas. But I have masa flour from Bob's Red Mill and a blue corn flour from Masienda right now so I'm good. I also made handmade flour tortillas the other day. Those are easy and really good. I made the mole amarillo from the recipe from La Guelagetza but now I'm realizing that their recipe is maybe weird (it is certainly hard to follow!), nevertheless it was quite good. Hard to argue with fresh ground spices (like oregano, allspice, cumin) and dried guajilllo chiles as a base for anything. Did not snap a pic of my handmade tostadas with mole amarillo as the roughly ground corn made them kind of  ugly.

This was the best sweet thing I ate. The last couple of years Smiller's mom has been gifting me a panettone for Christmas and I've been making French toast out of it. It's insane

Final PTA post Do I Like Licorice Pizza with spoiler for the ending

M.R. had warned me that LP didn't have much of a plot: "it's a vibe" in his words, so I was prepared. Let me start with the fact that the ticket at Tower was 17 BUCKS!! Is that because it's 70 mm? Also, no previews, so we missed the first five minutes. Is there an awesome credits/title sequence? IDK.

Once I accepted that I had missed the beginning of a movie which has only happened to me once in years and then only because I had the start time wrong, I settled in for the Haim-ish ride. Get it? Haimish? (that's a Yiddish joke). I greatly enjoyed it, although it really felt like a cross between a Wes Anderson and PTA film at times, what with the precocious kids and on-screen theatricals. 

The only truly bad is the really stupid Japanese accent parts, which were very jarring and also had a dumb "payoff" punchline. PTA has said that his Japanese step-mother-in-law has had the experience of people speaking English to her in a "Japanese" accent, and well, maybe? I'm not sure I buy that but that part still should have been cut. I'm sure some far better scenes were left on the cutting room floor. In it's WTF-ness it did authentically feel like a scene from a 70s or 80s film but so what not worth it.

Alana Haim is as dynamic as everyone says and there are so many just beautifully shot scenes. Most of the cameos are really good (Sean Penn and the casting agent come to mind, could have done without the B. Cooper) and again, their randomness lends itself to the 70s shaggy filmmaking vibe. It's sweet and funny. The 10 year age gap does not bother me as it's not realistic that they would be together, so I choose to disregard any conclusion from the ending that they are going to be and think that the kiss was a fluke. 

The music was mostly apt for the scenes. Bonus for making me be like "this is a great Doors song" and props for Smiller for instantly naming it as Peace Frog. Also love to hear Barabajabal in any context. Or to have an excuse to say it, or to get it caught in my head.

I fully applaud PTA making it so that he could hang out and pay tribute to where he grew up/lives and to cast friends. I saw the budget was a surprising 40 mill (I don't really follow the movie biz so maybe that is not surprising?) and as of a couple days ago it had made 6 mill despite really wide release so I think it's not going to be considered a hit.

In conclusion, for my college application essay: I do very much like Paul Thomas Anderson.

Death by GPS

 Tahoe is all snowed in and a bunch of freeways are closed. I've been on twitter a lot because it's that dead week at work between Christmas and New Year's and I usually choose not to take vacation. I remember in the early days of Heckasac Smiller would despair because there was no one online and he was the only one working. At my prior job my boss would give me the time off and not make me use vacation, that was pretty cool!

Back to my point about Twitter, I am seeing a lot of snarky traffic posts about trying to drive in the snow, including like from the CHP. It's a bit jarring to see the jokey tone from CalTrans and cops, but I guess it's a Twitter thing. One person tweeted about how Google Maps was showing people alternative routes that would cause them to get stuck in the snow.

This got me thinking about a time many years ago (how many? no idea - ten? more? aha, I checked my email and it was 2009, so 12 it figures I would guess ten because of how the pandemic made the last two years simultaneously long and also meaningless) when GPS almost got me and my friend JM killed.

We were heading to a ghost town in Nevada, no, not the one I've been to a few times that many people go to, but some other one. I have never been to this day so I can't tell you what it was called. We must have been using some first gen GPS I'm guessing, like a Tom Tom. My mom still uses my old Tom Tom when she's in the states, although since that's been two years as well I'm wondering if it will work if she can ever come visit again. She was supposed to visit in about 3 weeks but ya know, Omicron.

We set off, probably without maps and followed the GPS. After hours we ended up on dirt roads, and finally gave up when it was sending us dirt roads that were too narrow to turn around, with big deep ruts on both sides. They were obviously not for cars, maybe for ATVs or I don't know, 1800s cattle drives? I remember at one point getting out of the car to direct her and because I was getting to scared to be in the car which I though might fall off the road (I am notorious for being like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, I will abandon you and get myself to safety)

I don't know how long this went on (sorry, my memory is too bad for my stories to be great) and then we drove back into some town and asked them. Maybe it was the town museum. We told them the name of the ghost town (I swear it maybe had the word green in the name) and I think they gave us another pointer, but we either tried it and it looked sketch or we just were too tired to try.

At this point we decided to give up and drive home, our friends were in a ghost town and everyone had flip phones so there was no way they would get reception. I remembered the Four Eyes were playing in Nevada City, which was on our way home. I think it was at the Mineshaft. I think smiller was there? My friend JM was beat but he dropped me off so as a bonus to my 12 hour day stressed in the car I got to see my friends/great band.

addendum: I blogged about this in May 2009, made an obscure joke about deciding not to camp (not sure why I didn't say we got lost) and the show was actually in Placerville! And there are also pics from Biz's graduation https://heckasac.blogspot.com/2009/05/friday-cruise.html

Do I like Phantom Thread

 I forever associate this movie with going to see it at DoCo with Scott and arriving to the window to discover I had dropped my wallet in Coin Op. That's the one and only time I've ever been (or will probably ever be) in Coin Op, and we were there for a complicated reason that had to do with thinking Katy Perry was playing at Golden 1 that night and wanting to avoid the crush or something.

Anyway, we didn't go that night so had to go back and see it another time. I did not find the wallet and canceled everything (it only had a little cash in it) but then months later it was dropped through our mailslot with my cards, but cash gone. So I now have 2 valid driver's licenses, which could come in handy some day.

I liked it but I vaguely felt like Woodcock was problematic and a dick (natch, it's in the name). Rewatching last night, I had a strong and unexpected reaction: I could not stand his wife. Whether or not you like his dowdy-ass clothes, this man is an artist, and art is important. Yes, he just outfits rich woman, but his work is meaningful to them, and other women who can't afford the clothes and he is living a life of authentic art-making. Being a good romantic partner is not the end-all be-all of life. Not everyone has to be one. Sometimes people are more preoccupied with other things. Yes, that sucks if you date them, but if you are free to go you are able to walk out. 

It's different if someone is abusive, and for sure Woodcock is throwing up red flags all over the place at first, including wiping off her lipstick on their first date and negging her about her figure. He is a dick and a terrible partner, but they are just wrong for each other and she should go.

I understand that the gender dynamics are problematic because the trope of the great artiste is almost always male, but I also think it's fine for a women to exist with other priorities that don't make her a great romantic partner whether it's being an artist or a doctor or whatever. 

Like Woodcock, I enjoy a peaceful household and also treasure my quiet in the morning so I think I just took her toast scraping and spoon biting too hard lol. There is nothing wrong with wanting peace and harmony in your house, and maybe not being a boisterous party person, or even not being "fun". I don't necessarily identify with all of that (I'm "fun" at times, I hope, ok probably rarely), but there are other ways to be and seriousness and focus are important too.

There's so much that could be said about their relationship and his draw to Alma and his lack of self awareness about what he needs in a partner. Her age and origin is never discussed, but there is an over 25 year age gap between these two actors.  But I'll just wrap up with wow Daniel Day Lewis' embodiment of this character is insane. This person felt real to me in all his quirks and idiosyncracies. Sister Cyril, the old so-and-so was also great, and Alma too. If Oscars were a real measure of quality this should have taken them all around.

PTA's first movie set outside of America, I wonder what the Brit's take was on whether he got those details right. I think this and Boogie Nights are his masterpieces.

Do I like Inherent Vice

 I surprised myself with the strong emotions this movie provoked in me. Mostly because a) I'm dead inside and b) I did not remember much from seeing it when it came out beyond a vague feeling that it was good.

I think it was maybe just too much to process on first watching. It snapped me out of my Joaquin Phoenix negativity. He's really funny in it. I mean, this movie is wackadoodle for sure, but I guess chalk that up to the Pynchon base material. I have never read any Pynchon and I'll never say never but nothing from him resides in my current giant stack of books that is oppressing me from my bedside table.

This movie really affected my sleep, the scenes kept playing in my head, especially the mesmerizing Katherine Waterston one, yes if you've seen it you know the one, but not in a dirty way, more like the woozy lighting on her hair and face.

There are obtrusive and gratuitous celeb cameos (Martin Short the most egregious) that make it seem Tarantino-esque, and an unwelcome Owen Wilson brings a soupcon of Wes Anderson to the mix, but this movie seems to have tapped straight into my subconscious and today I'm feeling all the feels (it's annoying me to write that even as a joke). 

It inspired me to listen to Harvest today which TBH is not good for my mental health. Nothing makes me sadder than that album and looking at and singing along with my dad's 8 track of it is as strong of an early childhood memory as I have.

I'll have to do a final ranking once I rewatch Phantom Thread and then if Licorice Pizza ever opens here.

Do I like The Master

 Short take: ew, no

Longer take: I watched it maybe 3 weeks ago and then I went to LA and work has been busy so I have not been able to write about it. But I must continue because Licorice Pizza whilst be anon soon, as it has already been open for weeks in actual cities.

While I marinate on the Licorice Pizza trailer which I've seen at least 3 times while seeing movies in the theater, Spotify wrapped has revealed to me that both my #1 and #5 songs from 2021 were from Haim, so I guess I am a Haim fan but I'm not even sure I like them. Anyway, Alana Haim stars in Licorice Pizza.

When I first saw The Master (in a theater) The Joker movie did not exist, which I'm sure made Joaquin Phoenix easier to take in The Master. He is a skeletally thin and hunched alcoholic in The Master. He is utterly repellent (meant to be) but my hatred for The Joker made it so I just could not stand the character. And did not buy that he would be relatively attractive to women, although I guess because he's tall, dark and unhinged (and hates women) that might be attractive to some.

The Master had mostly faded from my memory, with the only thing remaining being the Amy Adams weird handjob and the pseudo-Scientology "auditing" scenes. 

What is it saying? What is the point? PSH plays an L Ron Hubbard daddy type, I guess he bonds with Joaquin Phoenix over their shared alcoholism, although PSH keeps his mostly under control. Watching folks pour effort and feelings into Joaquin's empty vessel of a person I just did not buy it, why would they latch onto this person for anything? I'm sure this cult would take any converts, but they elevate him to a prominent position and it's hard to understand what they see in him. 

There's a parallel to Punch Drunk Love and TWBB in the sudden bursts of violence that come out of these protagonists. 

Really did not like this on rewatch.

Do I like There Will Be Blood

 PTA's true next movie was a documentary about some Radiohead solo thing or somesuch (no watchy). So, here we have TWBB, five years after Punch Drunk Love. So clearly he got kind of burned on Magnolia, came back with quick, lighter fare inspired by his love of Fiona Apple, and then it took 5 years for him to go back to something more ambitious.

I remember I saw it in the the theater (which I guess is true for all his films), liked it a lot, never saw it again. It's a mark of how old I am that I think of a movie that came out 14 years ago as "recent". Getting past middle age means always being confused about how long ago stuff was.

It's 2 hours and 40 minutes long and I'm not planning to watch it all at once. I am sort of liveblogging while it's on.

With the mining, as a safety professional: total nightmare. The correct safety protocols are NOT in place. Working alone, improper PPE etc. 

But right away, I'm loving it. Yes, strident score but I'm getting goosebumps at the oil discovery scene. Love that it's silent for the first 15 minutes but in a way that's necessary (it's all about physical labor) and not showy (although it's showy, too). DDL's speaking voice is a fun surprise and also Paul Tompkins is in this (but I think he had one line)

I'm on the second or third well death well: this movie is basically about occupational safety.

I stopped liveblogging and then just watched the rest. I really remembered very little of this movie, just "I drink your milkshake" oil wells, plaintive score.

I had remembered way more Johnny Greenwood musical shenanigans but they weren't so bad. 

This movie has two of those PTA showstopper scenes: the baptism and I drink your milkshake. They are both delightful. Eli is a wonderfully loathsome character. I guess they could have cut the brother subplot and it could have been about two hours, but it was entertaining so...

Long story short: loved it!! Second to Boogie Nights so far. 

Now I again feel I should read the Upton Sinclair it's based on, but I've never had anyone say they read it or recommend it. Only the first part of the book was factored into this adaptation. 

Do I like Punch Drunk Love

For starters it's only 90 minutes, which is a nice palate cleanser after the bloated Magnolia. It felt like a short comparatively!

I like the music use in this one again. I VERY FREQUENTLY get that Olive Oyl song sung by Shelley Duvall in Popeye in my head, and it drifts in and out of this movie. 

I do like this less than when it came out however, watching with a current lens it occurred to me that this is a love story where both lovers are manic pixie dream girls/guys. Feels the most like a fairy tale or fable of any of the movies so far.

Sandler is great, there are many funny lines. I am a moderate Sandler fan, I don't seek everything out but I like him in dramatic roles but now that I look at his filmography I haven't seen that many of the comedies. 

This movie is fizzy and sweet and low stakes. Clearly a swerve from Magnolia and I still like it, but it didn't make me all emo like it did when I saw it in the theater. Maybe because I was still searching for love, but now I've found it so I don't need to wonder if I can find it with a shy man-boy who punches stuff. Instead I've found it with an outgoing boyish man who has never punched anything except a Tower timeclock

Do I like Magnolia?

 Much like Pitchfork with Interpol, I would like to downgrade my initial rating of Magnolia. Came out in 1999. PTA was obviously flying high from the commercial and critical success of Boogie Nights so he decided to do something modest like release a three hour movie that explains, what? I'm not quite sure, coincidence? Regret? He is on record saying he wish he would have chilled out and cut 20 minutes. Probably more like 45 would be good.

The use of this music in this movie is terrible, almost from the first scene. Well, the first scenes are old-timey Ripley's Believe it or not-style coincidences that could def be cut. 

Then we have Aimee Mann covering the Nilsson song "One". I really love Nilsson and this song of course is good, not one of my faves. But PTA plays the entire (7 minute) cover as he sets up his many, many intertwining stories, over dialogue and even over snippets of other music. It was super irritating and put me on edge for the start of my long filmic journey. 

That, and the incessant use of a tense score to create building tension that the scenes have not earned through what is actually happening in the scene really hurt this movie for me.

There are so many plots, I may not even hit them all.

The dimbulb kindhearted cop plot did not age well. Fuck this guy.

The entire quiz show plot, including both the prodigy kid and the host, not interesting.

Quiz show prodigy grown up, also not that compelling.

Game show host daughter, I guess sort of interesting. She does so much coke that it made me wonder how much coke PTA did in his heyday. It's also hard to trust anything that's going on with her because she's so high out of her mind.

The sole interesting plots are the two intertwining ones of Tom Cruise as incel pickup artist guy, and Jason Robards as dying dad with Julianne Moore as regretful trophy wife. Philip Seymour Hoffmann is affecting as nice guy nurse with  moist eyes. 

Jason Robards is amazing, and deserved awards. Julianne Moore does a lot with a thankless role, and Cruise brings the little bit of fun to be had in this movie.

If you cut out all the trappings like the old-timey coincidence intro and outro, the rain of frogs, the music use including the mid-movie singalong and you are just left with the two intriguing plotlines. Maybe that would have been a really good movie, hard to say.

When it came out, I saw it in the theater and I was somewhat into it. I was sucked in and didn't mind the musical sing along part. It felt like it had something to say, but now that I think about it I'm not so sure.

Do I like Boogie Nights?

 Fuck yes. End of post....JK!

But serial, this movie is lightning in a bottle, it's a canary in a coal mine, it's the chocolate to my peanut butter, I'm soaking in it!

I'm not a movie re-watcher, but I saw this in the theater and I've watched it at least once more later, probably more. Nevertheless, it had to have been at least a decade so I was watching with fresh eyes.

This movie is just so appealing! It's like a warm hug from a polyester double knit garment. It's a fairy tale. I noticed the structure more this time - joyful and on the upswing for almost exactly the first half, peaks on NYE 79 and then starts to go down, down, down, then on to the happy ending we crave that does not feel cheap. Yes, Scotty doesn't get his man, Amber still doesn't have her son, and it's not that realistic that Dirk would kick drugs but I don't care. They are a chosen family and I want them to be together.

The set piece in this one is the drug dealer, Sister Christian scene, which is just as fun as I remember. There is a good use of music in this movie (foreshadowing for my take on the poor use in Magnolia). It's pretty perfect in fact, and I am as sick of these songs as anyone, but they work.

Marky Mark is problematic as hell, and in his uptight Catholic later years he has disavowed this movie, but he has for sure never reached these heights again.

Still not loving John C. Reilly, maybe ever. I think he could disappear from this movie and it would not be much worse off despite being the source of a couple laughs.

This movie is ecstatic, energizing and so fun and it ends with male full frontal - what's not to like!!!

Trippy food for thought: it came out in 97, probably filmed in 96, and set in the late 70s/early 80s. So despite the campy fashion and tunes, it was filmed about 15-ish years after the dates depicted. And now it has been out for 24 years!!!! But think back to like 15 years ago and it feels to me like not a whole ton has changed in fashion and music. Probably just part of getting older, but that was tripping me out when I thought about it.

Do I like PT Anderson

 Sometimes I feel the need to put disclaimers about how self-involved this thing is, but then again, it's my blog so of course it's what I'm thinking about or doing, sheesh.

The last two movies I've seen (Titane -which I keep thinking is called Tartine, and Lamb - dumb) both had the preview for PT Anderson's new movie Licorice Pizza. It doesn't look particularly intriguing and I was distracted by the Haim and trying to figure out how old she is and how old she is supposed to be in the story. That is why celeb casting can be annoying!

Anyway, it got me thinking - do I really like PT Anderson or do I just think I do? Note that I'm not saying "is he good?" that is too lofty and I'm not qualified. Love movies but not a film nerd.

So I decided to watch them all in a row. Naming his movies with smiller I bet he might be the only director where I can think of all his movies but I did forget Hard Eight. Smiller was like "Boogie Nights can't be the first!" He was right.

Hard Eight came out in 1996 and I went to see it in the theater. I would have been 22 or 23. Reader, I walked out. I probably theater-hopped to something else. Gwyneth annoyed me, and the casino plot did not grab me.

I watched it the other night. I'm pretty sure this is the only time I've seen the ending. Gwyneth still annoyed me. Seeing her prep school ass play a Reno sex worker is just irritating. It was weird seeing it close after The Card Counter because it had so many similarities. Men, searching for daddies and sons, in seedy casinos. Card counting mentioned in the beginning, and then never again. 

It didn't really feel like a PT Anderson movie yet, although I guess the hotel room scene is the signature scene. I know there was some issue with the movie getting cut by the studio and then recut by him, so maybe they tried to cut out his auteur stuff. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a poignant cameo, and he uses the laugh-to-hide-crushing-insecurity laugh that he would employ as Scott in Boogie Nights.

Casting Samuel Jackson a couple years after Pulp Fiction gives the scenes between him and Philip Baker Hall a Tarentino-esque feel, which is definitely weird for Paul Thomas Anderson.

Overall, it's ok but I'm sure after my walk out I had no thought I would go to see his next movie. I wish the Reno Peppermill still looks the way it does in the movie. I mean, maybe it does but I doubt it.