Kinda Fantastic, Don't You Think?

To my dismay, at this time of year when I need to be most productive, the sheer volume of movies released seems to directly correlate with how much work I need to get done.... productivity FAIL.

So, in another procrastination spectacular, I hauled-tail over to the St. Anthony Theater to check out Wes Anderson's new stop-motion film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox. The prognosis? Cussing fantastic.

I'm incredibly glad that Anderson jumped on the rights to Roald Dahl's classic novel before anyone else did, because I highly doubt it could have been handled with such ingenuity, humor, or even sheer random depth in a cinematic undertaking by another director. As per Anderson's usual head-cocking randomness, Fantastic Mr. Fox was filled with laugh-out-loud WTF moments ranging everywhere from plot-furthering revelations like "Blueberries? Beagles love blueberries." to unexpected black-power fists for wolves on the hillside.

For the film, Anderson rounded up a solid list of actors to voice his puppeteered animals and their human enemies, including Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzmann, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson, and Michael Gambon. I will have to admit, it was a bit unsettling to hear Dumbledore's voice coming out of a crazed Hard Cider magnate, Mr. Bean, but Gambon breathed Dahl's quintessential English-Gothic villain to life despite his recent turns as Hogwarts Headmaster.

The story, about one Mr. Fox (Clooney) who decides to face his mid-life crisis (at the age of seven fox-years) by reverting to the chicken-stealing habits of his youth and ends up pulling his entire animal town into the melee, is very simple, but manages to be complex on screen. Mr. Fox doubts who he is, and despite being a husband and father, he wants the "glory" he once had (compounded by a not-so-subtle moment when he loses his tail). His adolescent son, Ash (Schwartzmann), is going through his own crisis of identity as well, and the Fox's talented houseguest, cousin Kristofferson, only compounds Ash's desperate (and hilarious) cry for reverence from somebody, anybody.

Where Anderson's other movies have left off, Fantastic Mr. Fox certainly picks up, but, I believe, with improvement. Unlike Anderson's previous films, Mr. Fox manages to keep pace or even pick up speed where many of his others lost their elements of absurdity to prolonged catharsis. Maybe this is because unlike Anderson's other films, Mr. Fox, no matter how entertaining to adults, can and should still be a kid's movie. There is adult humor, sure, but it is tacful and subtle, and Anderson even managed to turn adult emotion into kid-friendly fun by using the word "cussing" where streams of profanity could have been had it been rated higher. This tounge-in-cheek homage to "Yep, this sure could have been an adult comedy" keeps Anderson in his normal sphere while causing a little girl in front of me in the theater to blissfully laugh as hard as I did.

Example:

Badger: In summation, I think you just got to not do it, man. That's all.


Mr. Fox: I understand what you're saying, and your comments are valuable, but I'm gonna ignore your advice.

Badger: The cuss you are.

Mr. Fox: The cuss am I? Are you cussing with me?

Badger: No, you cussing with me?

Mr. Fox: Don't cussing point at me!

Badger: If you're gonna cuss, you're not gonna cuss with me, you little cuss!

Badger: You're not gonna cuss with me!

[Both start snarling at each other, and then settle down]

Mr. Fox: Just buy the tree.

Badger: Okay.


Surprisingly, my favorite aspect of the film was that it proved that audiences don't need computer-generated graphics, flashy visuals, 3-D, or enormous budgets to make a fantastic animated film. To say the least, it was a complete visual delight, and proved the artfulness and care it takes to produce puppeteered stop-motion animation did not go out of fashion with Wallace and Gromit. When you come right down to it, goofy expressions just look goofier on clay-based puppets than they do on a CG character... don't believe me? Go see how fantastic Mr. Fox is for your self, and try to cussing prove me wrong.

-K

That's Right, I Can BAKE Suckas!

This Thanksgiving, despite the nation-wide pumpkin shortage and my step-father's tri-store search for canned pumpkin, we managed to gather all the ingredients for, dare I say it, the BEST PUMPKIN PIE EVER. Read on, young grasshoppers, for my family-wide thumbs up recipie that made my non-baking soul believe that exact measurements and oven temperatures can indeed be worth the effort.

The final product, held by yours truly, the lumberjack.

Shiver Cities Pumpkin Pie

(Adapted from a recipie by the Southern butter-lovin Paula Deen)

Ingredients

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

2 cups canned pumpkin, mashed

1 cup sugar (or a little less, for a tangier taste)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg plus 2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 cup half-and-half

1/2 stick melted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 piece pre-made pie dough


Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.


Place 1 pie crust (made from Betty Crocker boxed pie crust, use the directions on the box) down into a  pie pan and press down along the bottom and all sides. Pinch and crimp the edges together to make a pretty pattern. Fit a piece of aluminum foil to cover the inside of the shell completely. Fill the shell up to the edges with pie weights or dried beans (about 2 pounds) and place it in the oven. (DO NOT TRY THIS WITHOUT THE ALUMINUM AND WEIGHTS, it will get puffy and shrunken) Bake for 10 minutes, remove the foil and pie weights.

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer. Add the pumpkin and beat until combined. Add the sugar and salt, and beat until combined. Add the eggs mixed with the yolks, half-and-half, and melted butter, and beat until combined. Finally, add the vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger, and beat until it looks mixed.
Pour the filling into the warm prepared pie crust and bake for 50 minutes, or until the center is set. Place the pie on a wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Ta-DA! I also made some really incredible Almond-Spice Whipped Cream to top the pie. It was very easy, simply get heavy whipping cream, whip with a wisk or hand mixer until fluffy peaks form, and then add a tablespoon (or more, to taste) of almond extract, some vanilla extract, and ground nutmeg and cinammon and mix again. The pie and whipped cream complimented each other perfectly!

The final result....

I hope everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving as I did!

-K

The Hand-Turkey, Misinforming Children's Sense of Bird-Anatomy Everywhere

from nataliedee.com

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, I'll be sure to update about my catastrophies in pie-baking soon!

-K

AN EDUCATION: See It!

Last week I was excited to finally begin my Oscar-season movie viewing when I headed over to the Uptown Theater, grabbed a bag of popcorn, and plopped down in a seat for Lone Scherfig's Sundance-favorite, An Education.

I was initially excited to see the film because of the reputation of both its director and its starring cast, but I left the theater impressed not only with the talent it employed, but the grasp of the film itself. Jenny (Carey Mulligan), is a sixteen year-old student at a girls school in 1960's suburban London, and despite some stickiness in her studies of Latin, she is bound for an Oxford education. She is the smartest girl in her class, and is praised by her instructors, most notably her English teacher (Olivia Williams), who is her woman role-model in academia. She has doting parents, played by a hysterically awkward and gullible Alfred Molina, as well as Cara Seymour, whose lack of outright sophistication allows them to be as easily wooed as Jenny by the charms of David (Peter Sarsgaard), a man she meets who is twice her age. After giving her and her cello a ride one rainy day, David takes Jenny down the rabbit hole of the adult world she's never had, taking her to parties, clubs, concerts, and exotic cities on a regular basis. Of course, it is not all fun-and-games, as Jenny's involvement with David and his less-than ethical livelihood eventually threaten her standing in school, her relationship with her peers, and her Oxford future. Add David's glamorous friends, Danny and Helen (played by a suave but caring Dominic Cooper and a blissfully "blonde" Rosamund Pike), and the recipe for Jenny's sojourn "off the chosen path" gets more potent.

I won't let you in on any of the dicier plot details, because much of the roller coaster that David takes Jenny (and us) on stems from ignorance of just exactly what is going on, but I encourage everyone to go and see the film for themselves. The film is set to show at the Uptown all month, so eat your turkey and pie and get there!

Franconia and Fluttery Fall Foliage: Alliteration Trip Up the St. Croix Valley

Fall is on crack this year. Not to rag on either Fall or anyone who is currently struggling with addiction problems, but REALLY? Why is Mid-November suddenly 60 degrees? Has something happened and somehow we are not Minnesota anymore? Oh wait... we ARE Minnesota.... thus the eff'ed-upness of our wonderful super-spaz weather. Hooray!

Well, since we are in Summer once again, I feel that today is a good day to reminisce about Fall. We had a beautiful two days of it a few weeks ago, and true to form, Kellen and I went wandering Northward, via the "super-stretch" of Fall-colors that line the St. Croix River.

Starting in Stillwater, we took a nice drive up Highway 95, stopping along the way to check out the awesome views of the River Just north of Stillwater.

Look! It's the New World! Let's go give the inhabitants some smallpox.

We kept driving north, on our way to my family home in North Branch, and on the highway just outside Franconia (TINY TOWN) we stumbled across one of Minnesota's most commonly overlooked gems, the Franconia Sculpture Park! IT. WAS. AWSOME. Their website is here if you'd like to learn more.

My favorite piece... built to look like the cable was pulling up an entire piece of earth.

Five!

Big lizard sees you...

Very Seuss-esque

Never been the same since that house fell on my sister... er... boyfriend...

The BEST thing about Franconia's Sculpture Park? It's free!

So get out and enjoy our second summer, because it's probably going to snow sometime soon!

-K

Monday Mood Brighteners

Happy Monday everyone! The year is wearing on and the work is getting harder, and I thought I would lend a hand to whatever procrastination you are partaking in this morning with a few random lessons on life in general... with help from the incredible internet of course.

1. You can do anything if you work hard enough, and dream big enough...

From superpoop.com

2. Always apologize to the people who are important in your life...

From nataliedee.com

3. Always be sure to explain what you mean...

From failblog.org

4. Don't eat shit like this:

 

From thisiswhyyourefat.com

5. Don't let pre-conceptions get you down...

From icanhascheezburger.com

6. Make logical connections...

From upnextinsports.com

7. And finally, smile big....

From sexypeople-blog.com

-K

The First Non-Embarassing Halloween Ever! (And two whole costumes to boot!)

Well, Halloween weekend came and went, and now November is upon us. This weekend I managed to sucessfully host a Halloween party for the ages, and attended one as well, with TWO costumes, neither of which, you will be surprised to hear, were embarassing in the slightest. Conclusions? Halloween WIN.

First, my housemates and I hosted a spectacular shindig as the color-centric characters from the boardgame CLUE, with my boyfriend dressing as the Tim Curry-esque butler from the film. I was a fiendishly proper Professor Plum.

From Left: Prof. Plum, Col. Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Mr. Green, Miss Scarlett, Mrs. White, and the Butler

Milo dressed as his favorite thing: a paper bag.

Murder in the eyes..

Next, Kellen and I attended another party on Saturday night, huriedly changing costumes because two lonely Clue characters minus their posse just didin't make sense. Thanks to my fabulous red trenchcoat, I was geography-theif Carmen Sandiego. Kellen went as the Tour de Franzia...

Yes, I did steal the Eiffel Tower

The king of class.

So there you have it, shiverers, a successful Halloween gone by, not a clown or Xena Warrior Princess character in sight. My mother would be so proud.

-K

Marmaduke is Soooo Last Season: The Comic-Goodness of Sharing Machine

I love being an adult. There is really nothing like waking up early, making some coffee and sitting down in front of the computer for the daily mature task of checking out webcomic updates. Wait...

But really, webcomics are a really fabulous way to start the day, and never fail, I always hop on to one of the various crass and often crude comics that the Sharing Machine group hosts. These four comics: Nataliedee, Married to the Sea, Toothpaste for Dinner, and Superpoop all put that little pep in my step that I need every morning, despite the inevitable spitting of coffee because I normally end up laughing too hard to keep my breakfast blend in my mouth.

So happy Wednesday, shiverers, and enjoy some of my all-time favorites from Sharing Machine.

NatalieDee

Superpoop

Married to the Sea

Toothpaste for Dinner

-K

Concert Night: Saul Williams and the Afropunk Tour at the Varsity Theater

Only in America can beat poets become hip-hop gods. Well, if they're Saul Williams they can...

Williams, an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam was kind enough to grace Minneapolis with his magnanimous presence last night at the Varsity Theater as the headliner of the Afropunk Tour. The tour, which also featured Dearling Physique, No Bird Sing, and American Fangs in this stretch, has been a huge success in every city it has stopped in so far.

Williams' purple peacock look.

Williams' set included songs off of his 2007 collaboration with Trent Reznor, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, his self-titled debut album, as well as the incredible spoken-word that first made him famous including the intro to The Dead Emcee Scrolls, his most recent undertaking.

It was a high-powered, chest-pounding show that, as any good small-venue should, left you throughly deaf afterwards.

Some of the evening's highlights were the most unanticipated moments, including:

Williams, pre-tackle...

-a tiny 5-foot nothing white girl dancing awkwardly and then eventually tackling Saul Williams when he came down into the crowd by trying to hug his legs.

-the tour's Budweiser and Converse sponsorship, which led to random outbursts of "Budweiser!" by performers throughout the night, including the emcee's assertion that they were cool enough to sponsor the tour, so the least we could f---ing do was "drink Bud and wear Chucks."

-Williams, in his second song after the encore, forgetting the lyrics and instead singing, on perfect pitch and timing: "To forget all the lyrics you ever f---ing wrote, trying to remember the lyrics to this song that nobody f---ing knows"

It was a great show, and yes, Saul, some of your fans do know your insane lyrics well enough to know when some are out of place... but we love you anyways.

A Few Videos I managed to crappily record at the show:

Love from this city,

K

A Halloween Retrospective: I Was An Embarrassing Child

With the approach of my favorite holiday next week, I've been thinking back on some of my greatest and not so great Halloweens. Costumes, parties, and mishaps - there have been some interesting times...

I was an embarrassing kid. God bless my mother, she let me be my own person, but I bet I would've saved myself a whole lot of grief as a kid by not "being myself" so much. Halloween is a great example. While I had my share of "normal" costumes, a great many of my costumes as a kid were super creative, but SUPER weird to my peers at the same time. You, fortunate reader, now get to travel with me on my costume-retrospective and relive the best with me.

1. Costume: Clown
The first Halloween I remember, I was about 2 years old. We lived in Duluth and yes indeed, it was the year of the infamous Halloween blizzard that shut down the entire city, except for trick-or-treaters, of course. I remember sitting in the front hall, helping hand out candy, and my mother making me get back when she opened the door because everytime she did about four feet of snow would fall into the house.
2. Cotume: Cowgirl
We had just moved to South Carolina, and I was five. Northern blood be damned, I decided to flex my Southern side. Haphazard as my costumes were, I couldn't even do it well, and I wore my mom's Australian outback hat because we didn't have an actual cowboy hat. I was a cowgirl with a Crocodile Dundee hat. AWESOME.
3. Costume: Princess
The days of dress-up meant that frilly dresses (which I absolutely REFUSED to wear otherwise) abounded, and I was a princess, complete with aluminum-foil crown.
4. Costume: Pocahontas
All political correctness and the fact that I was a blonde girl aside, this was an awesome costume. I had real moccassins, I won an apple-bobbing contest because as the rest of the kids dunked their faces in water I figured out that you can bite the stem, and my mom (very poorly) braided my hair.
5.Costume: Clown
Odd, because to this day I am absolutely terrified of clowns, like TERRIFIED of them. Yet, this was the second time (per my mother's idea) that I was one for Halloween.
6.Costume: Mariah Carey
Yes, that is not mistaken. I loved singing, like really loved it, and the thing that first got me into it was Mariah. Laugh all you want. This was one of my most embarrassing costumes, and it didn't help that I had just moved to the hostile city of Columbia, Missouri where kids were mean and, if you put your hair in a side ponytail and hand-decorated a cardboard "MARIAH" on your belt with glitter, they were even meaner.
7. Costume: Gabrielle from Xena Warrior Princess
In fifth-grade I was an Amazon woman from a Kiwi TV-show who ended up being a lesbian. You can just infer the peer-torment here.

8.Costume: Mad Scientist
In sixth-grade, I was obsessed with wanting to be a scientist, so I had a lab coat, a beaker, and unfortunately for my field of vision, my Uncle's coke-bottle glasses. I fell off the front porch. Twice.

9.Costume: Twin
Incredibly lame, but I loved my best friend, and we had matching shirts.
10. Costume: Pink Lady
My friend Paige and I volunteered at the city's Halloween charity carnival and the highlight of the evening was when an older guy thought we drove ourselves there. Age 13.
11. Costume: Hippie
Thanks to my mom, who didn't throw away some of her best shirts from the 70's, this was a repeat costume whenever I didn't have a better idea. So pretty much all of highschool....
12. Costume: Panther
My first year of college, two of my best friends and I all went as big cats. Kate was a leopard, Rachel was a lion, and I was a panther. I got pissed because everyone (legitimately) thought I was a black cat all night.
13. Costume: Dr. Frankenfurter from Rocky Horror Picture Show
Is it weird that the sluttiest costume I ever had was when I dressed up as a guy? Oddly enough, I found out that my boyfriend was also Dr. Frank one year.

14. Costume: Eliott Reid from Scrubs
I'll admit it, I'm obsessed. It was fun getting to run around all night saying "frick" and blowing my bangs out of my face though.

So there you have it- some of the best costumes I've had, and some of the worst. Expect a post soon about this year's costume (or costumes!) and see if I've yet to out-embarrass myself.

-K

Liu Bolin: A Real-Life "Where's Waldo"

For some people (like myself) who aren't gifted in the visual arts department, great displays of artistic creativity can be frustrating and intimidating. Not for me! Today, I discovered this man, Liu Bolin, a Chinese visual/performance artist who makes himself practically invisible simply by painting his body. That's right, no photoshop, no digital effects, he just paints himself and stands in front of something. Amazing.

The idea of "art" being something that makes its name by blending in rather than standing out is unique and actually refreshing. I think subtlety is highly under-utilized in visual art, and something that doesn't scream "look at me!" but instead sort-of taunts "see if you can find me," is infinitely more compelling. 

Here are some of my favorite Liu Bolin pieces:

If as intrigued as I am, there are many more examples of his work, just Google Liu Bolin to see more!

-K

Music and Movie Mondays: Bon Iver Live at the Riverside

Another broody Northerner...

For all of you Milwaukeeans who were lucky enough to have seen Bon Iver's last tour stop for what will be a year or two, I'm jealous. Luckily, I managed to catch Bon Iver last year at First Avenue here in Minneapolis, and the experience was incredible! For all of you who have seen them, or haven't been blessed enough yet, I've scratched up a recording of their stop at the Riverside in Milwaukee on October 11th. I've listened to the whole thing a few times through already, and I must say, I'm a bit hurt that my Bon Iver concert memories, such as Justin Vernon having the entire audience scream at the top of our lungs at the end of "The Wolves" seem to be far from unique, haha. But who cares? Still AWESOME. The performance, in its entirety, for yours (and my) listening pleasure!

Bon Iver Live at the Riverside

Brinner with Jane and Kya, or "Cooking with Swine Flu"

Well, badass immune system be damned, yours truly came down with a bad bout of the good 'ole flu this week. After being thoroughly mopey for a whole day: wondering if I should stay home, going to a doctor who told me to stay home, and then eventually staying home wishing I wasn't staying home, I decided to use the H1N1 opportunity to try out some of my foodie-liscious new Hells Kitchen recipies. Luckily, Jane was there to help me make a delicious breakfast-for-dinner and be the clean hands to my wealth of viral plague.

On the menu? My favorites, Vegetable Benedict and Mahnomin Porridge

Homemade Hells Kitchen-style Veggie Benedict

Mahnomin Porridge

All in the Presentation...

Stick around for my next cooking-adventure!

-K

Music and Movie Mondays: Vinyl Lovin'

There are some things that, by default, just suck money away. Rent, gas, groceries, etc are all the bane of my wallet's existence, and, while I enjoy eating, having a house, and being able to travel in my car, none of these things really give me any great joy. Being a frugal femme, I'm not a huge fan of spending copious amounts of money on anything, much less things I don't really need for basic subsistence. This is where the concept of "the splurge" comes in.

A "splurge," for those of you who don't know, is the occasional shelling out of too-much-money for something that, while more expensive than you'd like to pay, is an every-once-in-a-while indulgence that puts a smile on your face. While for most women, the "splurge" normally is applied to something in the way of clothing and accessories, for me, it is always applied to music. Not just a 9.99 iTunes download of an album, but a short drive (see, that's what the gas is for) over to the hallowed halls of the Electric Fetus for some good old-fashioned vinyl.

Mmmmmm vinyl. Honestly, I used to be a skeptic of every hipster-kid's assertion that you haven't really "heard" anything until you've heard it on LP, but after doing a compare and contrast of digital, CD, and vinyl, I'll admit that I'm full-fledged on the "I heart vinyl" train.

Old vinyl is spectacular: nothing can really compare to cranking up Earth, Wind, and Fire on LP, but something I'm a big, big, fan of is how new artists are jumping back to releasing their albums on LP. This is great for a few reasons, a. it frickin sounds better, and b. along with most new releases on vinyl, the band will include a download code for the digital copy of the album too. It's a simple measure that I hope will encourage more current artists to jump on the LP train, because their fans can have a great copy of the record as well as the music on their iPod/mp3 players - ta da!

Some things I'm cranking up right now on the record player:

-Beirut's Gulag Orkestar
-Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago
-The White Stripes Icky Thump
-Kings of Leon Only By The Night
-Iron and Wine The Shepherd's Dog
-Silversun Pickups Swoon

All of these are current artists who have realized that the depth, volume, and layering of sound that an LP provides gives their listeners a really badass musical experience. In the TC, check out the Electric Fetus or Cheapo for all your vinylicious needs.

So come on, jump on the bandwagon, I promise you won't be dissappointed!

-K