Saturday, October 29, 2011

RANT - Thor

A complete and utter waste of time. So, those are the good points about this steaming pile of poo.

What on earth Kenneth Branagh was thinking of when he signed up to direct this dreadful mess is beyond me. I can't believe he can look himself in the mirror now.

Ah, what's the point in piling on the negatives?

Friday, October 28, 2011

Perhaps strange to give props to a story about how the global Finance community royally screwed us, but it's the telling of this story that places it so much higher than Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

The film starts with a large slice of one Wall Street brokerage firm getting laid off, and then develops as the dirty laundry is uncovered. Admittedly, this re-telling focuses more on the extent to which the brokerage is exposed, rather than the sub-prime mortgages, dodgy loans and other corporate excesses (all bundled together as "toxic loans") that caused the exposure.

I'm not sure whether to be more surprised by the enormity of the financial train wreck, or the fact that two of the brokerage's senior executives cannot read a spreadsheet.

When the top guys meet for a pow-wow, it's apparent none of them are Excel-aware. Jeremy Irons looks like a more angular Mitt Romney, which doesn't bode well should the flip-flopping Mormon get elected as our next president.

No doubt the real life experiences of many of these finance types aged them tremendously, but Kevin Spacey and Demo Moore are looking really OLD.

RANT - The Last Rites of Joe May

All too depressing for me to provide a positive review, I'm afraid.

Joe May is an aging hustler, just out of hospital after a 7-week bout of pneumonia. He returns to his chilly neighborhood to find that his apartment has been rented to a single mother and her 9-year old daughter. His scant belongings have been thrown out by the landlord who thought Joe had just moved away without telling anyone.

And it all goes downhill from there for the hapless Joe.

I'd like to say that Joe, or the movie, have some redeeming qualities that are revealed as the story s-l-o-w-l-y and miserably unfolds, but there are none.

This might be "the role of his life" as tagged by one Eye for Film reviewer, but Dennis Farina is much easier to watch in Law and Order.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

RAVE - Sushi Roku, Las Vegas

Other than for its vast selection of top notch restaurants, I pretty much hate Las Vegas.

Maybe it's because every time I go there it's for business (schlepping around trade shows, mainly) and not for pleasure. The hours are long, the standing around time is interminable, and the fresh air moments are all too rare.

I've just spent 8 days at 2 events - one of which was the IBM User Conference, delivered 5 presentations to 50-150 people at each, walked for 1 hour each day to get to and from that IBM Conference, and pretty much stood around the other 9 or 10 hours each day discussing document imaging and capture software with our customers and business partners.

I've eaten 24 times in 5 hotels, and only had one meal that is worth talking about.

We used to live in LA, within a block of Sushi Roku in West Hollywood, so I mostly knew what to expect. And I was looking forward to a fun evening with one of my co-workers. As I had experienced every time we ate at the West Hollywood location, the food was wonderful.

I'm not a cold, dead fish fan (I may even have used that very expression in one of my earlier sushi reviews) but here the Yellowtail Sashimi with diced chiles, Popcorn Rock Shrimp Tempura, and the various rolls we had were all superb. A few Kirin, and some wacky Japanese cocktails to wash it all down made it a great evening.

It certainly stood out alongside the dreadful buffets, fried food breakfasts, and Stoli-drenched meals on every other day.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

REVIEW - London Boulevard

Once you get past the stupid title (is it a musical, is it a travelogue?), which turns out to have nothing to do with the subject or plot, and the fact that this is probably the 5,000th movie about a newly-released jailbird trying against stiff odds to go straight-ish, this is a decent crime story.

Colin Farrell is the ex-con - we never find out exactly why or how long he'd been in prison, but he's a solid hard man, rather than a measly thief - and soon after his welcome back party in a pub full of half the criminal population of London, he's embroiled with Keira Knightly (a movie star always dodging the paparazzi), David Thewlis (her stoner companion) and big, bad Ray Winstone (the local crime boss).

The story's not that taxing, the action not that breakneck, but it's still better made than most of the other 4,999.

Friday, October 14, 2011

RAVE - PGA Hopefuls in Palm Springs

Probably should've said "PGA No-Hopefuls in Palm Springs", but our general lack of skill with the golf stick thingies was more than offset by the great company, our enthusiasm and good humor.

Lawrence, Gareth (pictured here in one of those rare 'not entirely horrible swing' moments), Amo and I spent Friday through Monday in Palm Springs, golfing at Cimarron Golf Resort on Saturday and Indian Canyon Golf Resort on Sunday.

Both days were scalding, with temperatures in the high 90s, but we were ready for that with our shorts, hats, and ice-boxes.

We rented a house through vrbo.com, and spent most of our down-time in or near the pool and hot tub.

Palm Springs had just enough to keep us occupied restaurant- and bar-wise along Palm Canyon Drive through downtown.

The heat sapped our strength a bit, so there were no disgustingly-late nights.

I don't know if I could spend longer there, as the heat would get to me, especially considering it's nearly "winter" there. Of course, "winter" in Palm Springs is like night-time on the sun - still way too hot for most normal humans.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

REVIEW - Bourbon Steak

Some time ago, celebrated chef Michael Mina moved his eponymous flagship restaurant from the Weston St. Francis Hotel to his old Aqua space.

After the move, the hotel location was re-branded as Bourbon Steak, and with my brother Lawrence visiting us from the UK, we decided to address his love of steak by visiting Bourbon.

The room is very large, too dark, slightly less classy than it was before the BS overhaul, but overall quite impressive.

Service is almost perfect - a consistent feature in each of Mina's restaurants. The food here however, is only competent, and not stellar.

The three of us each had a different steak, but none of us believed it to be anything like the best steak we'd ever had. Needless to say, Mr. Mina prices his steaks like they are the best you'll ever have.

Overall, a great night out, with enough style to make it a great, special night out, even if you have to go elsewhere for the best steak (e.g. Harris', Lark Creek, or 5&5).

Sunday, October 2, 2011

RANT - Benu

Let's just start with a combined gastronimic and economic warning - don't waste your time and hard-earned cash eating at Benu.

The plaudits garnered from various culture magazines and repeated on Benu's web site must've been written after industrial-sized samplings from the great wine list, rather than experiencing the microscopic scraps of food on the fussy flop of a menu.

We had the tasting menu - 19 items (yes, 19 items) each - which revealed several things:

Way too much time is spent arranging tiny amounts of food into pretty little shapes, and no time at all is spent making sure those ingredients taste good
The huge feeling of disappointment as each dish is delivered, and each dish cover is removed, doesn't diminish over the 2.5 hours it takes to pick through the menu
Most of the dishes on the 'tasting' menu have no real taste whatsoever; this is a culinary feat in itself .. using so many normally tasty ingredients and rendering them taste-less
I'm already repeating myself: the food was taste-less and massively overpriced.

Service was impeccable, but not good enough to make Benu worth another visit.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

REVIEW - Blitz

Well this is a record. Two Jason Statham movies in 3 days!

This one is straight from the bottom of the quality pile, and barely more demanding than an episode of Law and Order.

To say he's prolific would be a massive understatement, as he's got FIVE films out this year, with three already in the can for release next year. My guess is that most of them are like this shallow piece of drivel, rather than the above average Killer Elite we saw earlier this week.

As they say about Statham, "you just have to take the rough with the, er, rougher".

Friday, September 30, 2011

REVIEW - Hello Sailor

Scottish stinginess is legendary, as is the almost impenetrable accent.

So, what does a Scottish rugby fan do when his friend in Australia says "I've got you a ticket for the game against England in the Rugby World Cup next year, in New Zealand?"

Realizing the ticket would have cost him $50 or more, he SAILS FOR 18 MONTHS FROM SCOTLAND TO NEW ZEALAND!

A moving story it's true, and one that I hope will be rewarded with a right royal thumping by the England team.

It's hard to express that sentiment without a few exclamation marks, so! here! you! go!!!!!

RAVE - Killer Elite

Alright, so Jason Statham is about as deep as a single sheet of tissue paper being flattened by Chaz Bono, but somehow this movie had enough depth, enough plot to keep us captivated.

It may be the same plot we've seen a dozen times before, but it's a proper plot nonetheless. Mr. Stubble and his fellow mercenary, played by the virtually-retired has-been Robert De Niro, do Stubble's "last job" in Oman.

Why this job, and the next one (so it wasn't his last job after all) centered on Oman must mean that either:

a) Oman is now the bull in the dart board of international evil, or

b) The film's producer is getting healthy kick-backs from Hertz in Oman.

Anyhow, Statham is persuaded to return from retirement in Australia to rescue De Niro by finishing off a job Roberto took but failed to complete - which resulted in his being held captive until that job was tidied up by Mr. 5 O'clock Shadow.

It turns out their employer, Sheik YerMoneyMaker, had 3 sons killed by the dastardly SAS and wants revenge.

Statham reluctantly agrees to exact the required punishment in order to free De Niro, and tracks down the SAS killers in their respective hideouts - mostly pubs in England and Wales. He bumps several times into ex-SAS toughie Clive Owen, invents a cure for cancer and turns down the $6m fee from the Sheik.

All in a day's work for JS.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

RAVE - Florio

This was our third time visiting, but first time reviewing Florio.

It's an energetic brasserie at the better end of Filmore Street - "better" if you're interested in eating or drinking rather than listening to live music.

My pate de campagne with rabbit and pork, black Jonathan apple and fennel compote was perfect. Pavey's soup - roasted kambucha and french butter pear puree, with creme fraiche - was lavishly named but otherwise un-noteworthy. My hanger steak frites with bearnaise sauce was above average. Pavey's oxtail ravioli, roasted early girl tomato sauce, gremolato, and grana padano, was excellent, if a bit heavy on the sauce.

Those "lavish" names blotted the otherwise great menu. Whoever wrote this menu is pretentious and probably still choking on the "Dictionary of Overblown and Pointless Ingredient Names". For example: "sausalito watercress". What on earth differentiates the watercress - something just a little bit fancier than grass - from Sausalito, from watercress grown in any other damp patch of earth in America?

It sounds like our food was just average, rather than rave-worthy, doesn't it?

However, the frenetic activity - we sat near the front bar, rather than in the quieter back, or in the semi-private room - and people-watching made this an enjoyable Friday night dinner.

RAVE - Moneyball

What perplexed me throughout this great movie was that, despite almost being able to see the Oakland Athletics' stadium across the water from our house, I don't remember a thing about this episode in their recent history.

Basically, in 2001-2 the A's general manager, Billy Beane had lost his top 3 players - Jason Giambi, Jason Isringhausen, and one other whose name I forget - to higher-spending competitors, and was desperate to build a new team given the money constraints imposed on him by the A's owner.

On his travels he found Paul DePodesta - played as "Peter Brand" by Jonah Hill in the movie, because real-life DePodesta objected to being portrayed merely as a statistician - a Harvard graduate and mathematics expert working on the Cleveland Indians' staff.

Beane learned from DePodesta / Brand that every major league baseball team was undervaluing, and not drafting the real talent - people who could make a real contribution to those teams without costing millions of dollars to sign and keep each year.

Thus was born Moneyball: Beane hired Brand to apply his statistical data to the A's acquisition and deployment of new players.

After a rocky start to the 2002 season, the Athletics just missed out on the playoffs, but won the same number of games as the mega rich Yankees, at less than one fifth of the cost per win.

Those are the facts. The movie tells them with great atmosphere, lots of excitement, and plenty of laughs (although this is not a comedy).

Of course, with the memory of their neighbors' (the SF Giants) World Series win last year, where absolutely everyone, and his or her dog, was a rabid baseball fan, I'm unlikely to miss another Moneyball-type episode here on the best coast.

REVIEW - Catch

Not much to say about this place - it's a middle-of-the-road, seafood-oriented spot in The Castro, but it was only a quick dinner spot between an afternoon at the Folsom Street Fair and a few drinks while trying to look straighter than straight in a couple of bars on Castro Street.

My crispy duck dumplings (no double entendre intended here!) were good and tasty, while my braised chicken was unadventurous - although I hadn't planned for an adventure with the chicken, so shouldn't have been surprised by this dish.

All in all, it was a very sedate affair, with neither Reggie nor me attempting to push the conversation far from work-related gossip.

I guess I'll get a tee-shirt that says "nothing particular to drag me back to Catch".

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

REVIEW - Folsom Street Fair

I've never been to Rio for Carnival, and only seen the New Orleans version on HBO's excellent Treme series. With that disclaimer, I can say that Folsom Street Fair, here in San Francisco is one of the most eye-popping spectacles on the calendar.
Targeted at the leather-wearers among you, it attracts guys and gals, hunks and grrrls, bears and cubs, fetishists and freaks from far and wide.

Despite the yuppie lofts that have appeared on and around Folsom Street over the past 10 years, the area is still gritty. Realtors might describe it as bohemian ("boho"), but that's putting a typically over-bright label on a neighborhood full of bars, night clubs, workshops, automobile fixer-uppers and smut-peddlers.

The Fair supercharges Folsom and the connecting streets with hundreds of stalls, music stages and side-shows for the weekend.

I don't have the body for tank tops and leather shorts (maybe I never did), but the photographer and voyeur in me is thankful that many people do. So, along with my trusty cub buddy - Reggie - I gawped the length of Folsom Street on an overcast Sunday, trying not to peer into every mini tent (afraid of what I might see), glugged beer and margherita, and generally had a whale of a time.

Monday, September 26, 2011

REVIEW - The Moss Room

It's stylish, good-looking, in an interesting location, but the lousy service lost this place its Rave rating for me.

Our weekend guest and I arrived at The Moss Room at 1.15pm Saturday, sat down and chatted with our lunch partner for one hour fifteen minutes before we got our first course - pate and a couple of salads. Not exactly demanding or time-consuming for the kitchen.

It started badly, when we were there for 20 minutes before anyone came to our table to ask us what we wanted to drink!

After getting and eating our appetizers, our server came to me and said that chef was "not happy" with the Pork Sugo he'd prepared for me, and it would take too long to make it again. Would I care to order something else? I did, and the Fennel Sausage (another trivial dish to prepare) added another 20 minutes' wait for our main courses.

Everything tasted good, but thank heavens for the cocktails and company, because it took a total of 3 and 3/4 hours for our lunch!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

RANT - Facebook updates

As one who is thoroughly sick of Facebook and related mania, and therefore more than normally p****d off with the enforced changes this week, I particularly enjoyed this arty rant.

RAVE - Living in San Francisco

Don't you just hate it when someone crows about their new car, new house, new girlfriend, ad nauseum?

Right. Therefore, I'll try not to bang on about how great it is to live here in SF, where the weather never gets too hot or too cold or too humid; where the violence hasn't reached Baghdad proportions; where there may be transients and beggars, but you know where they mostly hang out and you can have money ready, or avoid them; where (isn't this where I break out into The Lumberjack Song, a la Monty Python?)

As an Englishman I - a) always craved a life in the California sun, b) have enjoyed every minute of the 14 years I've spent so far in San Francisco, and c) still check bbc.com before any other site, for news.

So ... I loved today's BBC review of life in SF.

REVIEW - Detective Dee

The full title: Detective Dee and The Mystery of The Phantom Flame, is both too long to use in my review title, and too Harry Potterish to properly categorize the film.

This is an LSD trip of a movie, and not in an altogether good way. It's well made, well shot, and well intentioned. I think. I can't say that it's well acted though, as there are too many unintentionally funny (i.e. silly) sequences, as so often appear in this genre.

The dialog drags on a bit. I'm not saying I only enjoy these pseudo martial arts movies for the action, but this one just had too much pointless talking and not enough action.

Whoever described it as Crouching Tiger Meets Sherlock Holmes got it close in some respects, but inflates Detective Dee way too much.

So, one for the enthusiasts, rather than Joe Public.

Monday, September 19, 2011

RAVE - Red State

A genuinely original storyline: 3 teenage boys lured to a trailer by the offer of sex with an older woman are drugged, then dragged to a local Fundamentalist church led by a crackpot Pastor wanting to punish "wrongdoers" on behalf of God.

Things quickly get out of hand, and this develops into a great horror flick.

James Parks as the crackpot Pastor, and John Goodman as the ATF commander play outstanding characters as church and state battle it out at their most unhinged.

There are some fabulous twists and turns in the story, which is told at a perfect pace throughout.

A really scary movie, and even more so when you realize rural America is riddled with these nutcases.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

REVIEW - 54 Mint

It's always tricky when the votes are mixed.

Tonight, Mrs. Page really liked her meal at 54 Mint. I was satisfied, but underwhelmed.

She loved the place. I thought it was way too noisy.

She was OK with our waiter. I thought he was a clumsy dork, constantly knocking into me, or our table, whenever he went past.

So, what coulda shoulda woulda been a RAVE if it was her blog, and a RANT if mine was the only vote, averaged out to a REVIEW between the two of us.

Her Prosciutto di Parma and cheese appetizer was "the best I've ever had", and her Gnocchi with ground beef and port ragu earned similar praises. My Polpette (veal meatballs in a chunky tomato sauce) were not as good as those we had at Piccino earlier in the week, and my Costata di Maiale (pork chop with cannellini beans and sauteed mustard greens) had great texture and color, but lacked punch in the taste department.

Her newly-patented phrase "plenty of ooh, but not enough aaahh" was a well-placed critique on the evening.

There are plenty of better Italian restaurants in the City, so it's unlikely we'll be shouting across the table again at 54 Mint.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

RAVE - Contagion

The 'rave' is in recognition of the quality of the movie, not because it's great - it's not particularly exciting, or thrilling; it's not even that suspenseful.

It's a perfectly made account of the spread of a deadly virus - there's no romance angle, no chase, no explosions, no big star performances, and even the closing sequence - where the source of the virus is revealed - is just a "so what?" moment.

Strange that with all those negatives, or non-events, the overall product was so good and tight.

I have to call out Jude Law. While his acting was solid as usual, why oh why pick an Englishman to play an Australian? Heaven knows there are enough Australian actors available - they're usually playing the English roles in every 'historic' movie. He played a pseudo journalist who drew this criticism from Elliot Gould's character: "Blogging is not writing. It's graffiti with punctuation".

;?";;!!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

RAVE - Innuendo Bingo

Facebook is generally a less-than-stellar experience now - full of tired old drivel that should be kept to personal emails, and only slapped on Facebook because people are too lazy to use other forms of baby picture distribution systems.

There, I've got that off my chest.

However, occasionally I learn things from my friends' and family's postings. Like BBC Radio 1's Innuendo Bingo podcast.

It's not particularly highbrow, but it IS very funny if you're that way inclined.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

RAVE - The Debt

A tightly-wound thriller about 3 Israeli agents who re-live a mission 30 years ago where they captured The Surgeon of Birkenau, a mad Nazi doctor who performed human experiments at the German concentration camp.

The mission was in 1969, and the doctor is now working at a maternity clinic in Germany. The story unwinds in flashback, with the 3 agents hooking up in 1999 and having to recount the events.

The whole thing was marvelous - a great cast, great script, and great action (although I wouldn't say it's an action film).

The huge constraint put upon the film - and the only real negative in my view - was that none of the three main characters, maybe none of the four, if you count the doctor - looked anything like their former selves from 30 years earlier.

In real life, you can look at a photo of a group of people taken 30 years ago, and pick out the people you know from today. They will have aged of course, their hair will be grey now, their bodies heavier, their skin less perky, but you'll still recognize eyes, or lips, or a jaw. Something. But with Helen Mirren the older Jessica Chastain, Tom Wilkinson the older Sam Worthington, and Cieran Hinds the older Martin Csokas, there was not a shred of likeness. I found myself having to think of something else, rather than how much each of them had changed in the intervening years.

Annoying though that was, we still enjoyed the movie immensely.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

RAVE - Drink Psychology

I love these amateurish-but-literate generalizations.

I can just imagine the writer and his or her assistant coming up with the list in their cubicle at the Cosmo or GQ office. This one - "What Your Drink Says About You On A Date" - comes from The Daily Meal today.

Martini: If you're a guy, you're trying to impress (and it's probably working). If you're a girl drinking a dirty martini, you're a hot mess: the dirtier, the messier, the hotter.

Vodka on the Rocks: Too self-conscious to actually order a martini.

White Russian: Obsessed with The Big Lebowski, and probably The Daily Show. Or, you just like to drink dessert.

Bud Light: You're easy going, laid back, and at home at a sports bar. If you're a girl, you know how to hang with the guys.

Stella Artois: You have no particular knowledge or affinity towards beer so you just order "Stella" cause it's familiar.

Lillet/Campari/Aperol: You're twee, and possibly like to throw around words like "mixology."

Vodka Cranberry: When in doubt, you stick to what you drank in college.

White wine: You're definitely a woman. You're possibly a little uptight.

Prosecco: You're often a little uptight, but tonight you're looking to party.

Whiskey, neat: You're hot. Regardless of gender.

Jäger: Secretly wishing you were hanging out with your buddies.

Vodka Gimlet: You're a huge dork, but you hope sort of in a cool way?

Appletini: You've left the kids with a sitter and you're ready to have fun!

Pimm's Cup: You're an Anglophile.

Old-Fashioned: Mad Men is your favorite show — you either want to be, or sleep with, Don Draper.

Margarita, on the rocks: You've decided to have a good time tonight.

Margarita, frozen: You're in Cabo.

PBR: You're drinking quickly on your way to a non-profit fundraiser, followed by a poetry reading in a former industrial warehouse.

Tequila Shots: You're either getting laid, or just getting through it.

Long Island Iced Tea: You have a drinking problem.

A beer, while at a cocktail bar: Overprotective of your manhood or unadventurous.

A cocktail, while at a dive bar: Insufferable.

I'm pretty sure that, at one time or another, I've had all of these except for the Vodka Cranberry. So heaven knows what signals I've been sending out.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

REVIEW - River's End

If you haven't heard of this gem of a restaurant, it's because it's perched on the coast at Jenner, north of Bodega Bay, which is itself north of San Francisco - a total of 2 hours' drive.

While the Labor Day weekend, seafood-centric lunch was excellent, it wasn't quite worth that drive. Our oft-visited Redd, in Yountville, Napa IS definitely worth the 1.5 hour drive for lunch, but River's End is not.

The place was built in the 20s, and has a clientele that mostly looks like it was born around the same time.

It has a rustic, park-rangerish feel about it (the restaurant, not the clientele) and today's weather (sun absolutely everywhere, except the 2 miles of coast around River's End) did it no favors at all.

Still, her ladyship enjoyed her day out immensely, and as the great accountant in the sky will tell you, that's all that matters.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

REVIEW - Brighton Rock

A claustrophobic remake of a 1940s original, which was based on a classic Graham Greene novel.

"Claustrophobic" because, while set in mid-60s Brighton, on England's south coast, there's very little to show what the life and times were really like.

One or two scenes of Mods and Rockers tearing up the seaside resort don't hide the fact that this felt like a play rather than a movie.

Maybe the whole point was to tone it down, but it lacked what could and should've been kick-ass musical references, and a ton of other things I'd like to have seen to break the monotony.

It seemed to lurch from scene to scene without building story or tension, featured clunky performances from everyone, including Helen Mirren, Andy Serkis, and John Hurt, and therefore was definitely not "a masterpiece", "thrilling", or "spellbinding" as the poster advertizes.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

RAVE - The Whistleblower

I've seen some reviews of this film where the writers have expressed outrage over the sex trafficking that's portrayed; not the portrayal exactly, but the fact that it went on during and after the war in Bosnia.

Now, I don't know what kind of coverage was given to that war here in the USA (I was living in England at the time), but when the daily news was of massacres, ethnic cleansing, and other atrocities perpetrated in the name of war, it seems naive to be surprised that other inhumanities (like prostitution, and trafficking) were to be found later.

Based on a true story, this was a suitably dour movie, with no attempt to make a thriller out of it. Amo even thought it was documentary-like, and I saw what he meant.

So, definitely not a date movie, but then who takes their date to the cruddy little projection rooms at the Opera Plaza? Oh, me.

It may be somewhat inappropriate in the context of the film's subject matter for me to mention that Mrs. Craig (Weisz married Bond, James Bond recently) is hotter than molten lava, but there, I've said it now. Shoot me.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

RANT - Salty Myth

I rarely comment on health topics, usually because they're dull. But, I do like salt, and I know it's bad for me, so this item in today's New York Times caught my attention.

Really? The Claim: Sea Salt Is Lower in Sodium Than Table Salt

THE FACTS

Recently, the American Heart Association surveyed 1,000 people nationwide about their thoughts on sodium and heart health. Sixty one percent said that they believed sea salt was a low-sodium alternative to table salt.

They can be forgiven for thinking so. Sea salt is marketed as a health food, added to soups, potato chips and a wide variety of packaged snacks labeled “low sodium,” “all natural” and “healthy.”

But in reality, sea salt and table salt are not terribly different, at least chemically. The real differences are in how the two are used in cooking.

Table salt comes from underground salt deposits. Companies that sell it typically add an anti-caking agent to keep it from clumping, as well as iodine, an essential nutrient. During processing, table salt is stripped of many of its natural minerals.

Sea salt, on the other hand, is made from evaporated seawater. With little processing, it retains most of its magnesium, calcium and other minerals, which some cooks say give it a better flavor.

But both contain the same amount of sodium chloride by weight, which means they contribute equally to total sodium consumption and have the same effect on blood pressure.

Officials recommend that adults consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day, equivalent to a teaspoon of salt. You should eat less if you are black, hypertensive or older than 40. Yet most Americans consume more than double the amount they need, mostly from processed foods, so it is best to limit salt — of any kind.

THE BOTTOM LINE
Sea salt is no lower in sodium than table salt.

Monday, August 29, 2011

RAVE - Point Blank

In my single-handed quest to get my friends and family to see more foreign-language films, I trudged out tonight to see the truly outstanding Point Blank, a French story about a male nurse whose wife is abducted in order to persuade him to get a criminal out of the hospital where we works.

I've often tried to distill the essence from foreign-language movies - work out what exactly it is that makes them pound-for-pound (euro for euro, or maybe kilo for kilo?) better than their Hollywood equivalents.

Maybe it's that extra bit of concentration needed to follow the story, and the subtitles. Or maybe it's that they're no so annoyingly obvious in the way they're constructed. Whatever it is, this one's a corker.

RANT - Religious Politicians

Does this country create dipsh*t politicians, or just attract them?

Sure to be a repeated presence on Bill Maher's weekly list of stupid campaigners, Republican Michele Bachmann today trumped her "Dumbest things I've said" list by claiming that God sent last weekend's hurricane in order to chastise the US government for over spending.

The bubbling septic tank of BS was joined by equally stinky radio host Glenn Beck who described the hurricane — which has already killed at least 25 people and caused $billions in damage — as a “blessing” because it will remind people to store more food.

As today's Yahoo News says: It’s ironic that God would use a hurricane to send a memo about cutting government spending, considering that the damage it causes is likely going to increase government spending. Meanwhile, leaders from various religions have come out against further spending cuts on services for the poor.

Here's a more likely message from God to politicians: If you're going to claim I'm speaking directly to you, at least get your stories straight!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

RAVE - Senna

No, it's not a new Brazilian restaurant in the city.

It's a not exactly delayed, but nevertheless several years after the fact documentary about the life and death of Brazilian Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna.

Maybe I shouldn't have expected any different, but it was a 90% male audience - exactly the opposite of a romantic comedy. It was clear from the F1 entourage on film that a high percentage of Senna's adoring fans were female, but perhaps that adoration didn't stretch to the USA in 2011.

Viewing film that was shot from the mid 80s to the mid 90s, it was startling to see how far technology has advanced, whether it's the quality of film, the speed of the cars, even the speed of pit stops.

Having followed F1 since I was a boy, I can't say I ever really liked Ayrton Senna. Experts - and this film - say he was the best racing driver who ever lived, but as he was always competing against my favorite drivers, my countrymen - Derek Warwick, Jonathan Palmer, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Martin Brundle, and more - that always got in the way of a rational comparison from me.

The film made a big deal of Senna's deep religious beliefs, so it was no surprise to learn he was a hypocrite (criticizing Alain Prost for always complaining about the deficiencies in his car whenever he didn't win, yet doing exactly the same when his Williams was "uncontrollable") and arrogant (failing to praise his contemporaries when asked who were his favorite competitors).

All in all a great movie about a great sport and a pretty damned good driver too.

RAVE - Limitless

Unlike so many modern thrillers, this one doesn't veer into Inception-like complexity and stupidity.

The Limitless performance that most people dream of, and which has been delivered in film with the help of partners, animals, masks, even aliens, comes courtesy of a silver pill in this movie. It's called NZT.

How Bradley Cooper gets it, uses it, loses it, regains it, even kills for it, kept us riveted throughout.

Admittedly, there's another pointless inclusion of Robert De Niro. It's not quite Focker-worthy, but a nevertheless shameful under-utilization of the former Taxi Driver.

I wonder if your local pharmacist will be getting any requests for NZT.

RAVE - Essential Killing

There are a number of reasons why this was no automatic Rave ...

1. Vincent Gallo plays a Taliban fighter. Aren't there any Afghan or Pakistani, even non-American, non-white actors available for this kind of role?

2. Gallo's role in part glorified The Taliban. Aren't they irredeemable?

3. Gallo didn't say ANYTHING in the movie. I don't mean he didn't say anything important. He didn't have any dialog, in Pashto, Urdu, English, or any other language.

It starts, and finishes quite abruptly. Gallo The Taliban springs a solo ambush on a small group of US soldiers in a dusty ravine in Afghanistan. He's captured, blindfolded and transferred to somewhere cold and snowy in central Europe, where he's tortured and escapes. That's all in the first 5 or 10 minutes.

The rest of the movie has him stumbling through forest and field, with the occasional grunt or yelp, as he tries to make good his escape.

To counterpoint the 3 main negatives, he does look the part (let's face it, Vincent Gallo is not James Bond material), perhaps the world does need to see more of these conflicts from the other side, and the film was still very powerful, even with the only star keeping his heavily bearded trap shut throughout.

Friday, August 26, 2011

REVIEW - 1300 Filmore

Where do I start?

San Francisco's "Heritage Jazz District" must be a shadow of its former self. 1930s posters in this restaurant show the area as it used to be ... grimy, blue collar, with Jazz greats performing at dozens of local bars and clubs.

The area is still grimy, perhaps less blue collar and interspersed with yuppie-dom, and minus almost all of those bars and clubs.

It has had tens of millions spent on Yoshi's, an excellent, modern Jazz and RandB venue, and on that block sits 1300 Filmore.

The restaurant attempts a difficult combination: high-class and soul food, and a (surprise, surprise) English chef.

I'm not sure how soul-full the Pork Belly, Catfish, Beef Rib, and Fried Chicken were, but they met with mixed reactions from Molly, Gareth and me.

Therefore, I'm not sure how suited to the place was the English chef.

We all agreed the service was far from first-class though, with the restaurant and bar staff being helpful but mostly useless - not knowing what was on their wine list, not knowing one wine from another, not having half the vodkas or rums for their cocktails, and so on.

Forget all of that though - just make sure you're taken out by wonderful friends (like I was) and you'll love it.

RAVE - Edinburgh Fringe

Last night's fun dinner at 1300 Filmore (see separate review) was further perked up by Molly trying to re-tell a joke she'd heard from the Edinburgh Fringe.

Being American, she fluffed the joke (didn't know who or what BandQ was - it's like Home Depot, but smaller - and got the town name wrong), but she needn't have worried, seeing as it won "worst joke of the festival", and came from has-been Paul Daniels.

"I said to a fella 'Is there a B-and-Q in Henley?' He said 'No, there's an H, an E, an N an L and a Y'."

I'm no expert on the Edinburgh Fringe, having never attended, but I do chuckle vicariously through the published reviews. Here are the Top 10 jokes voted for by whoever are the voters:

1) Nick Helm: "I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

2) Tim Vine: "Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels."

3) Hannibal Buress: "People say 'I'm taking it one day at a time'. You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works."

4) Tim Key: "Drive-Thru McDonalds was more expensive than I thought... once you've rented the car..."

5) Matt Kirshen: "I was playing chess with my friend and he said, 'Let's make this interesting'. So we stopped playing chess."

6) Sarah Millican: "My mother told me, you don't have to put anything in your mouth you don't want to. Then she made me eat broccoli, which felt like double standards."

7) Alan Sharp: "I was in a band which we called The Prevention, because we hoped people would say we were better than The Cure."

8) Mark Watson: "Someone asked me recently - what would I rather give up, food or sex. Neither! I'm not falling for that one again, wife."

9) Andrew Lawrence: "I admire these phone hackers. I think they have a lot of patience. I can't even be bothered to check my OWN voicemails."

10) DeAnne Smith: "My friend died doing what he loved ... Heroin."

Sunday, August 21, 2011

RANT - Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys? Check
Aliens? Check
Monsters? Check
Story? Kinda
Depth? Er

How on earth you can have a movie that includes cowboys AND aliens AND Daniel Craig AND Harrison Ford and yet end up with a bore-fest is beyond me, but that's what smartass director Jon Favreau has delivered.

What should have been jaw-dropping shock after nerve-tingling stunt turned out to be cliche after cliche and snooze after seen-it-all-before. Favreau treated us to re-runs of every western plot that's gone before and shines a bright light on Harrison Ford's over-the-hill-ness.

I never thought I'd have such a negative review of what should have been an outstanding movie.

REVIEW - Contigo

I've had Contigo on my "must visit" list for months now, but after last night's meal I'm wondering what all the fuss was about.

It's a basic Spanish-centric Tapas place - as opposed to the Italian and Mexican ones littered across the city - and it's that "littering" plus the downright ordinariness of this place that has flipped Contigo from must visit to meh for me.

Iberico or Serrano ham on toast or bread, with olives or anchovies, Bocadillos - which I thought were meatballs but turned out to be tasty but fatty mini-burgers, corn and chanterelles (excellent), calamars a la planxa (i.e. squid a la revolting), patatas braves (I've had much better elsewhere), and so on.

Nothing whatsover to draw one's posterior to Castro and 24th, an otherwise desert of fun. Stick to any one of the other 30 places where Tapas is served, and better.

So, it's good to have lists, but not good to become too attached to them.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

RAVE - Rise of The Planet of The Apes

While not wanting to admit to being a connoisseur of the Planet of The Apes series, I have seen all of them, and enjoyed most of them.

Naturally, the very first one was a landmark movie. Even if the humans in the chimp and gorilla suits look impossibly clunky now, the notion of a world ruled by apes is still sci-fi story-worthy, and the scene where Charlton Heston and his fellow survivor(s) round the beach on their horses and see the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand is still huge for me. I can remember when I first saw that final scene it confirmed that "the planet" was in fact Earth at some time in the future. I just wish the Tim Burton-directed Planet of the Apes, with Mark Wahlberg and Helena Bonham (sigh) Carter had included a similarly enlightening scene, so that I knew what the hell had happened, and how the chimp in the space-pod who left Earth before Wahlberg managed to automagically land at Wahlberg's location AFTER him.

Anyhow, back to 2011: this latest Rise of features wonderful CGI (computer generated graphics), with what I think were only two apes played by humans in motion capture outfits, a great story, and great location shots in and around San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Of course, it doesn't work so well if you try to spot logic holes in the plot. Just accept that it's all ridiculous fun, and enjoy it.

And if you just cannot accept it without some facts, make like a nerd with this cheat sheet.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

RAVE - The Guard

I was half-tempted to not give this a Rave, seeing as it wasn't quite as funny as cousin Amo said. Maybe half of the problem was that I was Billy-no-mates for the evening. Coincidentally, right after I settled into my seat at The Landmark, Amo's business partner Gareth strode into the opposite end of the row in front of me, with Molly. I decided not to bundle my way into that row to try and sit with them, and maybe that was why I didn't find The Guard as funny as Amo had said. For me, it's usually easier to laugh out loud when I'm with a couple of friends doing the same.

The fabulous Brendan Gleeson plays a cynical Garda officer in tiny Connemara in Ireland. FBI Agent Don Cheadle arrives to warn the locals of a drug gang expected to land its dodgy cargo.

General merriment ensues as Gleeson proves he's not to be overawed or outdone by the FBI big-shot.

All in all, a very funny film that I clearly didn't get into the spirit of.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

RAVE - The Devil's Double

The first film to tell (part of) the story of the US-Iraq war from the Iraqi side, when it was fashionable to have a double - Saddam Hussein and his son Uday both had them.

Slightly improbable was the fact that Uday Hussein met his double at school, and they lived their very different lives until Uday decided to pluck Latif Yahia from the relative obscurity of the Iraqi Army to be schooled and molded as his twin.

Uday needed this twin, to represent the regime while he was coked up and drunk in some other part of Baghdad. While he went about his unhinged life, raping and murdering whoever he chose, Latif was forced to dress like Uday, and do the things Uday didn't want to do.

I'm not sure how representative the film was of life in 1990s Iraq, but for everyone around Uday Hussein it must've been one scary place.

A fantastic performance from Dominic Cooper. In playing both roles, he had to switch from normal human being to screaming, psychopathic monster in a couple of seconds. I know my wife manages that regularly, but she has me to help her whip up that alter ego. I don't know how Cooper did it.

REVIEW - Burke And Hare

I really wanted to like this comedy, and to be honest, there was a lot to like in it.

A terrific cast, with Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis as the lead troublemakers, supported by a host of serious (Tom Wilkinson, Hugh Bonneville, Christopher Lee) and comedic actors (Bill Bailey, Ronnie Corbett).

Based on the true story about the famous murderers, Burke and Hare follows the exploits of these two men as they fall into the highly profitable business of providing cadavers for the medical fraternity in 19th Century Edinburgh, then the centre of medical learning. The one thing they were short of was bodies.

But (and there's usually a 'but' with these reviews), while the film was funny, and sharply acted, what let it down was that it took an already extreme story and insisted on trying to ice the cake: by claiming that William Burke's body was taken from the gallows to Edinburgh Hospital, and now his skeleton hangs in a glass cabinet at Edinburgh University; that Burke was a direct ancestor of Charles Darwin, and that Dr Robert Knox, purveyor of the bodies harvested by Burke and Hare, ended his days performing magic tricks at Wild West shows in America.

RAVE - A Better Life

An honest, gritty film about the hard lives led by Latino immigrants. This story centers on Carlos Galindo, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, scraping together a living as a gardener in Los Angeles, while taking care of his son Luis. His wife left them some years earlier, so the two share a house but mostly lead their own lives, with Carlos working from dawn 'til dusk in the gardens of the rich in Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, while Luis dodges the gangs at school and at play.

Carlos borrows money from his sister to buy his about-to-retire boss's truck, so he can earn enough money to get Luis out of the ghetto and into better education. He switches from employee to employer, but on the very first day his day laborer employee steals his truck.

The movie is about how he and his son work together to try and find the thief and the truck.

A simple story, but heartfelt and emotional, in a way that simple stories are better able to deliver.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

RAVE - Toast

Even the casual visitor to these pages will have noticed that I often start my reviews with an admission, framing the review with the caveat that I'm a Brit that's spent the past 14 years in San Francisco, or that I hate fish, or have a passion for Joy Division, and such stuff that may appear irrelevant, but to me necessary in order to show that there's usually a deep-rooted influence (or bias) to my opinions.

Today's admission is that I like Helena Bonham Carter. Really like her. In fact, I'm often reminded by Mrs. Page that I once revealed I even liked HBC when she was made up as a chimp in Planet of the Apes. That's hard core liking, in anybody's book.

With that said, Toast is a fabulous film. It's a true story based on the early life of Nigel Slater, who eventually became a renowned chef, writer, and TV food presenter in England.

The first half of the film started with Slater as a 9-year old living in Wolverhampton with his overbearing father and sickly mother. She was a hopeless cook, eschewing fresh meat and vegetables for anything in a can, and more often than not resorting to toast when other culinary efforts failed.

She suffered from and - this is not much of a spoiler, since it's telegraphed from the start - eventually dies from asthma. Enter Mrs. Potter (the still looking delectable at 45, Helena Bonham Carter), who starts out as their maid, and through excellent chef-ery and a penchant for real stockings and garter belts, winds up as Nigel's stepmother. Meanwhile, Nigel works on his own cookery skills, and he and Mrs. Potter compete heavily for his father's attention with their respective cooking.

Things don't end well for father and stepmother, and Slater Jr winds up in London as a trainee in the kitchens at The Savoy.

I had a smile on my face throughout the movie, and it was only partly due to HBC's stockings and garter belts.

Only partly.

A great film, and heaven knows how you'll get to see it, as the lean British Film festival (with a small f) is almost done here.

Sunday, July 31, 2011

RANT - Captain America

Now I know what it's like to spend $140m on dinner at a Swiss ski chalet ... 2 hours of wall-to-wall CHEESE.

A big cast of mostly unknowns, with the notable exception of Hugo Weaving as the evil Skull, Tommy Lee Jones as the harrumphing general, and a walk-on role (justly un-credited) at the end for Samuel L Jackson; a pointless appearance with an equally pointless eye-patch.

To its credit, the film spent the first 45 minutes on character-building, and to its dis-credit, the next one and a quarter hours doing nothing with those characters except firing bullets and pulse-weapons at them.

At least Captain America wasn't bitten by a radioactive hamster. Instead, Stanley Tucci playing the ex-Nazi-now-turned-and-working-for-zee-Americans injected a weedy Chris Evans with an industrial quantity of turbo-steroids. The resultant Captain America ended up with a pumped body and Olympic-caliber running and jumping skills.

All in all, the film came across as a blend of early James Bond and Inglorious Basterds, with neither of those example's wit or tension.

Oh, and the 3D didn't save it either.

RAVE: Trust

I shouldn't really post this review, as my lovely wife wanted to see this movie and now, with her out of the country, I saw it single.

Of course, her motives for wanting to see it - the fact that it starred Clive Owen - were entirely different to mine. I think Mr. Owen has aged badly over the last 13 years, since appearing as a suave Croupier, but there's not a shred of jealousy in that observation. Honest.

Trust tells the story of Owen's daughter, who is stalked by a texter who turns out to be much older than her 14 years. The family is torn apart when the inevitable happens, and thereafter divides its time between how father and daughter deal with the aftermath.

Now, I regularly diss Hollywood endings, but strangely, this movie would have been perfect if it had a Mel Gibson-style 'wronged daughter blasts offender with sawn-off shotgun' styled conclusion. It doesn't, but it's still an excellent film.