Casino Royale

When it was first announced that Daniel Craig was taking over the role of James Bond, I was among the many who weren't thrilled. He didn't "look" the part, I thought. He just didn't seem like a Bond actor.

But looks can be deceiving, so I went to see Casino Royale with what I hoped was an open mind. And was pleasantly surprised, if not shocked, at how good this movie was. Craig proved to be a strong, charismatic actor, portraying Bond with a mix of suave arrogance and vulnerability that in many ways transcended the usual treatment of the character.

I've heard it said Craig's Casino Royale was the best Bond movie ever. I can't say that, as I haven't seen all the entries in the Bond franchise, but it was certainly the best Bond movie I've ever seen.

Casino Royale was released on DVD this past Tuesday. Looks like it has quite a few extras--enough to justify a second disc. I haven't watched them yet, but I'm glad they put out a two-disc edition that was the same price as the usual single disc of other movies.

Knitting Pattern—Open Stitch Scarf

Here's a quick and easy scarf pattern I tossed together one afternoon when I was in desperate need of a new scarf that didn't clash with my new coat. It knits up nicely on large (8+) needles, with a worsted weight yarn.

Knit 4 rows.
On the next row, wrap each stitch 2-4 times around the needle, then knit.
Knit the wrapped stitches.
Repeat until the scarf is the desired length.

This scarf has a lacey feel, but is surprisingly warm.

Movies—Flushed Away

I took my kids to see this when it came out in the theaters and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it didn't do well up against such competition as Santa Clause 3, and the critics panned it as a painful mismatch between DreamWorks's CGI-based approach and Aardman's trademark claymation. It also proved to be the movie that broke up the pairing between these two studios.

While I could see the point, to some extent, of critics who felt the movie was too American for Aardman and too English for DreamWorks, and never the twain should meet, I found the fusion of off-kilter British humor with frenetic American action to be quite entertaining. I laughed out loud more than once in the theater, and my kids enjoyed it as much as I did. It's rare these days to find a movie the whole family can enjoy without the parents being occasionally uncomfortable with off-color humor aimed more at adults. Flushed Away was definitely a family movie, and we all liked it, critics be damned. And the singing slugs? Hysterical.

Music—Shearwater

Shearwater is a small-label band with a neat sound. I'm not really sure how to describe it--they use banjos but it's not country music, and they have a good solid driving beat but it's not mainstream rock, either. Whatever you want to call it, it's good music. Check them out at Misra Records.

Cheeses

I try to make a point of buying one kind of new cheese every time I go to the grocery store (although right now I'm suffering from Cheese Buildup, so I might should skip a couple weeks...).

The last two samples have been Morbier, a French cheese, and the infamous King of Cheeses, Stilton. Both of these can safely fall into the Stinky Cheese category. The Morbier smells just horrific. I mean nasty. But once you get it cut and stuck on a piece of bread, the flavor is creamy, a bit tart but sweet at the same time, and really quite nice. The Stilton, on the other hand, doesn't have quite as strong a smell, but the flavor is stronger than the Morbier, and I don't like it quite as much, King of Cheese or no. It's a bit like Bleu Cheese, including the threads of blue penicillin for color (I wonder if I'd catch less colds if I ate a lot of this...but I guess that's a virus, not a bacterium), but a bit more bitter. On the other hand, according to the Wikipedia article linked above, as well as an article from Scotsman.com, eating Stilton a half hour before bed can cause odd dreams. I'm really tempted to try that out.

Quotes

My Starbucks cups are trying to tell me something. Twice in a row I've gotten the following quote on my Venti nonfat half-caf caramel macchiato:

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure. Never forget your Personal Legend. Never forget your dreams. Your silent heart will guide you. Be silent now. It is the possibility of a dream that makes life interesting.

You can choose between being a victim of destiny or an adventurer who is fighting for something important.—Paulo Coelho

CD Reviews

I joined BMG Music Service recently, and just received my CDs today. I've belonged to BMG before, and generally came away with a lot of music for a reasonable price, so I decided to try it again.

The initial order was for 6 CDs. Here's what I've listened to so far:

Kate Bush: The Whole Story. A "greatest hits" compilation from 1986, featuring her best-known songs, including "Running Up That Hill," "Wuthering Heights," and "Babooshka." I have a long-standing gooey love for Kate Bush, so this was a treat. I have the video compilation from this CD somewhere on VHS, but I'd never managed to buy the actual CD.

Mary Chapin Carpenter: time*sex*love. I'm about halfway through this one--I'm listening right now. This is a beautiful CD. Chapin Carpenter is a wonderful, emotional songwriter, with a voice like velvet.

Patty Griffin: Living With Ghosts. I accidentally bought this one twice--once from BMG and once from yourmusic.com (which looks like it might be affiliated with BMG, but that's another story). Anyway, this isn't my favorite of Patty Griffin's albums, but it's still very good. An entirely acoustic CD with powerful songs, it's very much worth the money. Patty Griffin is also a great songwriter. While she's not received the attention she's deserved, some of her songs have. The Dixie Chicks had a big hit with Patty's song "Top of the World," on their album "Home."

Three more to go after these...

Caramel is King

Today I had lunch with the kids at Macaroni Grill. They have a new (or new since last I was there, which wasn't that long ago) drink. A caramel macchiato martini. The caramel macchiato is my drink of choice at Starbucks, so this sounded fantastic. Unfortunately I'm a lightweight when it comes to liquor, so I didn't get to try it today. Maybe another day.

My Favorite New Gadgets

Every once in a while I feel the need to buy a new, cool gadget. Here's some info about a couple I've purchased recently and have really enjoyed. I got them both at Target.

iHome. This nifty little iPod dock turns your iPod into an alarm clock. You can also use it to set music to play for a certain amount of time while you drift off to sleep. With a little manipulation of my playlists, I can drift off to Iron and Wine and wake up to Cake.

RCA DVD Recorder. This is a gadget I've been waiting for half my life and only just now managed to acquire. Record from TV directly to DVD, or convert old VHS tapes to DVD format. It's easy, the quality is equal to whatever quality you put in (recordings from the DVR look great), and DVDs use up a lot less storage space than those old videotapes. There are lots of different brands available--shop around and see which one fits your needs the best.

Recipe—Black Bean Soup

I made this recipe up the other day when I wanted some soup and didn't have a lot of time or energy to come up with something.

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can chicken broth
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 package taco seasoning
chopped chicken, turkey or ground beef, about 1/4-1/2 pound or whatever looks appropriate. I used some leftover chicken, maybe half a chicken breast.

Put all ingredients in a pot and stir. Cook until warm. This makes a surprisingly nice soup with very little effort.

The Coming Weekend

It looks like we're about to get a well-earned respite from the yucky weather. The sun is shining, the snow is melting, and predictions are for a bright, partially warm weekend. I'm looking forward to it--I have some family coming in from out of town, and we'll just kick back and relax for a few days.

Valentine's Day—Continued

While the rest of you were out getting wined and dined, I sat at home nursing a chest cold and watching the snow fall. At least I had a friend available to send me links to good fanfic to read.

People tend to refer to Valentine's Day as a Hallmark Holiday. This bugs me because it's not entirely accurate. It's been around a heck of a lot longer than Hallmark.

Here's a nice article from history.com with some details.

Valentine's Day

I keep trying to just put it out of my head that tomorrow is Valentine's Day. I don't have anybody to celebrate with, after all.

Oh, well. Maybe I should just have fun, buy myself some flowers, celebrate a bit with my kids. We'll just have to see what the day brings.

Too Many Potatoes

I get a sort of co-op box of food every month, and their produce box always includes lots of potatoes. I'm not a big potato eater, so I've had trouble working out what to do with the darn things. Last month I gave half a bag to my ex-husband, I was so desperate to have them get used and not thrown out. This month I ended up tossing half a bag, so I decided to get creative and figure out how to use them.

So tonight I took a potato, scrubbed it up, and made French fries out of it. It was incredibly easy and really tasty. Also low-fat.

Here's the "recipe."

Slice the potato into matchstick portions (I left the skin on)
Place in a cookie sheet
spray with non-stick cooking spray
sprinkle with salt
Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Tell Her to Make Me a Cambric Shirt

Somebody emailed me last night asking me what a cambric shirt was. Of course, I knew right away that the person in question was listening to Scarborough Fair, and I wondered why I'd never bothered to look that up, even though that song was a lullaby staple at my house for years.

According to dictionary.com, cambric is "a thin, plain cotton or linen fabric of fine close weave, usually white." And here's an interesting article at Wikipedia about the origins of the song.

First Post

Life is for blogging. So I'm here to blog about life. Books I've read, music I've enjoyed, movies I've seen, interesting things I've found on the Internet. Anything goes. I hope you'll join me.