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Thanks Mike Sciarappa -- side dish mystery solved!
FoodPalaver: Bruno's of Jersey City Lives On in Minty, Chocolatey Dessert
If you're hosting any holiday dinners and would like to include a no-effort dessert, you might want to try what my parents served up one night over Thanksgiving weekend: a bowl of Edy's peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was a revelation, and not just because the peppermint and ch...
Thanks for your comments Wendy and Mike -- Bruno's really brings out the nostalgia in people!
FoodPalaver: Bruno's of Jersey City Lives On in Minty, Chocolatey Dessert
If you're hosting any holiday dinners and would like to include a no-effort dessert, you might want to try what my parents served up one night over Thanksgiving weekend: a bowl of Edy's peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was a revelation, and not just because the peppermint and ch...
I'm pretty sure the small screen in Canada reference comes from one of your brothers Karen.
MoviePalaver: Oscar Pix 2014
Alright, alright, alright. It's pretty sad when Matthew McConaughey makes more movies in a year than I write blog posts. Here are my speed comments on the best picture nominees. You can find the ballot here, and everything you want to know about the coverage here. American Hustle: Enter...
Best to avoid international incidents!
SportsPalaver: More Federer Funhouse on ESPN(?) at 3:30 am
I believe it was ESPN's Chris Fowler who said yesterday, during Roger Federer's elegant return to form in his 4th round win against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the Australian Open, that it was "turn-back-the-clock night at Rod Laver Arena." Fowler also said today -- if I did not dream this -- that ...
Thanks for the link Betsy! I want Robert Emmet's ring!
MusicPalaver: Blurred LInes -- Il Tormentone Estivo di 2013?
I learned a phrase in Italian class a few months ago that I think of whenever I hear Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" on the radio. "Tormentone estivo" literally means something like "big summer tormenter," but refers to catchy, blockbuster songs that burrow into your ears at the beginning of...
Thanks Betsy! A friend just emailed a bunch of us the other day to see if we want to go to this exhibit. I've been wanting to check out Hillwood for a while, so this seems like a good excuse. Once the storm passes!
ArtPalaver: I Only Have Eyes for You at the Hirshhorn
There's only a few more days to catch this eerie, trippy, mellow art event on the mall. Doug Aitken's "Song 1" runs through this Sunday, May 20, from sunset to midnight. It's a 360 degree video projection onto the circular walls of the Hirshhorn Museum, accompanied by various renditions of t...
I'm glad you liked it!
RestaurantPalaver: Mintwood Place (the restaurant, not the street)
Photo c/o CityEats Gradually, but decisively, Adams Morgan changed from being an eclectic neighborhood packed with good, ethnic restaurants to one jammed (mostly) with places for drunk people to buy a slice at 3 a.m. My discouragement peaked when one constantly-changing space took the na...
@NorthernOutlaw -- The sequel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQK2pANtARU
MoviePalaver: Oscar Ruminations 2012
A few last-minute thoughts about the best picture nominees. As you can tell, I wasn't wild about this crop. And expanding the list beyond five movies is terrible. Why didn't they ask me? The Artist: Thought I'd see it and think "brahvo." Instead I found it delightful. Just a plain o...
I hope I live to see it.
MusicPalaver: New Irish Music Galore!
Maybe three new CDs by Irish artists don't count as new music galore, but galore comes from the Irish “go leor,” and is fun to say. Here are my extremely quick, non-thoughtful takes from a quick listen to each. Sinead O'Connor, "How About I Be Me (and You Be You)?" Good album, with a lot o...
This reads like one of those robocomments seeking to sell Nikes, but more clever.
TheaterPalaver: Yea Yeats!
If you're looking for a literary way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day this weekend, Scena Theatre is staging readings of three plays by William Butler Yates on Sunday. Purgatory, At the Hawk's Well, and The Death of Cuchulain will be read at the H Street Playhouse at 7 pm. Tickets are $20. I'...
What songs were you singing in your childhood?
MusicPalaver: Somebody I Used To Know
This song gets under my skin. I can't get it out of my head (am I mixing metaphors?). But it's now on every radio station every 7 minutes. Will it be like Circus Peanuts? (By the way, what's up with the ex-girlfriend having her friend collect her records? Do they still listen to records in ...
Say what?!
CommunityPalaver: Time To Clean Out the Closet
Got stuff you don't need? Holy Trinity and Annunciation churches are holding their annual clothing drive this weekend, Saturday (Nov. 5) from 9 to 5 and Sunday (Nov. 6) from 9 to noon. Items needed include gently used clothing, coats, blankets, linens, and small, useful household items that...
Coincidentally, I just made the simpler Martha Stewart asparagus and gruyere tart last night. I found the puff pastry at the Tenley Whole Foods and got the last (non-chocolate) one. I hope that's not the last one for the season! On the other hand, it cost a (to me) shocking $10 for one sheet, so maybe it won't be a regular item on my shopping list anyway.
Asparagus and Cheese Tart
Food Network Magazine (April 2012) Sometimes when you're cooking dinner for guests, you just need to roll with the punches. Usually, that works out A-OK. Happy guests. Clean plates. Satisfied hosts. Sometimes, not so much. Zach's parents recently stayed with us for a few days. Since they've v...
slopine -- The first movie I remember seeing Brad Pitt in was A River Runs Through It, and I remember thinking boy, he needs to play Robert Redford's son in a movie. I never dreamed he and Jon Voight's daughter would later become king and queen of the prom.
MoviePalaver: Oscar Ruminations 2012
A few last-minute thoughts about the best picture nominees. As you can tell, I wasn't wild about this crop. And expanding the list beyond five movies is terrible. Why didn't they ask me? The Artist: Thought I'd see it and think "brahvo." Instead I found it delightful. Just a plain o...
Probably. At tennis this morning I must have shouted "mercy!" a dozen times. But no shrieking!
SportsPalaver: Foxy Tennis Players
I'm watching Victoria Azarenka play Kim Clijsters in the Australian Open right now. Azarenka, like many professional women tennis players these days, is a screamer. She's almost as bad as Maria Sharapova. I've tried turning the volume off when these women play, but I just can't enjoy watching...
I thought it was fun. They seem to have edited out the notorious "as if" comment!
tvPalaver: Downton is Back
Downton Abbey returns to PBS tomorrow night for season two. I saw the first two episodes in London in September, where everyone was (rightfully) atwitter over a character's use of the phrase "as if." As if! It was strange watching this over there, where it airs on an ad-supported channe...
My comments get so filled with spam ads for sports shoes and get rich quick schemes I sometimes miss these wonderful real posts.
I thought I'd share my mother's memory of Bruno's: "Bruno's steak sandwich - thin slices of toast covered with thin slices of delicious steak. I'm quite sure that there was some butter involved and maybe a touch of garlic. It was accompanied by chow-chow - mustard pickles and probably some kind of potato, although Dad and I can't remember what kind of potato, if indeed there was some. I probable told you this story a hundred times, but here I go again. Dad and I were crossing the street, heading to Bruno's, when my obstetrician drove by and wagged his finger at me. We went anyway. Mom"
@J O'Mara: My father said he remembers there was a Jersey City politician named O'Mara back in the day.
FoodPalaver: Bruno's of Jersey City Lives On in Minty, Chocolatey Dessert
If you're hosting any holiday dinners and would like to include a no-effort dessert, you might want to try what my parents served up one night over Thanksgiving weekend: a bowl of Edy's peppermint ice cream with chocolate sauce. It was a revelation, and not just because the peppermint and ch...
Oh, I don't know. I think if your biggest accomplishment in life is to have cut a record that girls all over the country danced to in their rooms with their best friends, that's pretty good.
MoviePalaver: Bridesmaids
Despite the rave reviews, I thought there was a 50/50 chance I'd come out of "Bridesmaids" saying it was too gross and/or dumb and/or cliched, but it was none of those (well, it was gross at times, whole-audience-laughing/yelling-out-loud gross in more than one scene). It was seriously funny...
That would be great. Get right on that!
TheaterPalaver: Swampoodle
I don't know what to make of Solas Nua's latest theater offering. The Washington-based Irish arts organization is staging a "promenade show" called Swampoodle, starting this weekend. All their website gives by way of description is: It's the question on everyone's lips: What on earth is Swam...
Separated at birth.
MoviePalaver: Bridesmaids
Despite the rave reviews, I thought there was a 50/50 chance I'd come out of "Bridesmaids" saying it was too gross and/or dumb and/or cliched, but it was none of those (well, it was gross at times, whole-audience-laughing/yelling-out-loud gross in more than one scene). It was seriously funny...
Not until now -- bwaaannng! I loved Franklyn Ajaye.
MoviePalaver: Bridesmaids
Despite the rave reviews, I thought there was a 50/50 chance I'd come out of "Bridesmaids" saying it was too gross and/or dumb and/or cliched, but it was none of those (well, it was gross at times, whole-audience-laughing/yelling-out-loud gross in more than one scene). It was seriously funny...
You're so right Lynn -- he was great. Tonight I told my dad that I didn't want to build "Win Win" up too much in case he and my mom were disappointed, and he said he wasn't worried about that, and that with a McCarthy movie "you almost don't know why you like it." That might sound like a back-handed compliment, but I think it's a full-on compliment, and so true.
MoviePalaver: Win Win
I've been meaning for weeks to rave about the movie "Win Win," and now need to do so before it leaves your local theater (if it's too late, save it at netflix.com). If you loved "The Station Agent," you'll love "Win Win." If you didn't see "The Station Agent," see it. If you saw it and did...
Trey -- I thought True Grit was a better movie, but you've got to hand it to Black Swan for having such a dramatic effect on me. I think. Reminds me of Bill Murray's "saw it on a small screen in Canada" non-review.
http://www.mbpalaver.com/mbpalaver/2007/02/moviepalaver_th.html
MoviePalaver: Swooning Over "Black Swan" (or More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About My Fainting Incident)
In December I mentioned that I fainted during "Black Swan." A lot of people have asked me if it's really that gory or scary. It's not, really. Both "True Grit" and "The Fighter" were more violent, but I stayed seated upright throughout both of them. It's hard to explain why "Black Swan" d...
My favorite line of episode one was when Maggie Smith asked "What is a weekend?"
tvPalaver: Upstairs and Downstairs at Downton Abbey
Nothing like a good English period drama to look forward to on cold, tinsel-free, January Sunday nights, and make up for the fact "Dexter" is over. (No one can say I don't have eclectic tastes.) Tomorrow night PBS airs the first of four episodes of the new miniseries "Downton Abbey." It was...
The content of the movie was just increasingly unsettling. I almost fainted in a few other movies in my life -- see, e.g., http://www.mbpalaver.com/mbpalaver/2008/02/moviepalaver-os.html -- but here I made the mistake of thinking walking out to the lobby would make me feel better. Though I did feel very peaceful and comfortable lying on the ground with my eyes closed with a bunch of strangers hovering over me asking if I was okay. I thought it was a dream.
MoviePalaver: "Black Swan" -- Movie Review Haiku
Fainted in "Black Swan." Paramedics on the scene. Missed end. What happened?
More...
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