The Mood is Set, Slow Jazz and Scented Candles and Axis and Allies

I am really curious to meet other Axis and Allies players. Just to see what they are like. When I close my eyes I picture balding dudes, living at home, eating Nutter Butters. Or dorky pimply kids, listening to the score of The Lord of the Rings and posting on forums (I also imagine the title of their forum to go along the lines of "how to use Brazil to prevent German naval advance and re-take Africa").

I am indeed a Axis and Allies devotee, as are many of my closest friends. My bachelor party in fact  featured a drunkenly epic match, in which all strategy and thought was thrown out the window. I'm not balding (yet, keeping fingers crossed. Man that would be terrible, my nose is not meant to go along with a naked skull.). I do enjoy Nutter Butters, but only on occasion. I don't seek them out at bodegas or anything.

Chuck Norris only plays the game with real bullets.

However, I do enjoy the game greatly. If anything, it provides an opportunity for me and my buddies to shoot the shit a little, drink some coffee, and catch up. We are all kind of interspersed between New York City, Long Island and Boston, and we were even more so when I was living in Philadelphia.

For those who don't know, the game is basically Risk but the game puts you in the middle of World War II. There's two sides, Axis and Allies. If you didn't know that those were the two sides of World War II, well just go ahead and either watch a movie, read a book, or slam your forehead into a brick wall repeatedly. Players assume the roles of Russia, USA, and Great Britain (Allies, eediot) or Germany, Japan, or Italy (if you play our nerdy mod of the game, yes there are modifications to this game. Stop laughing at us. Go watch some Honey Boo Boo or something).

Playing the game is always an event (an average game will easily take 3 to 4 hours), and always leads to a fair share of intimidation, smack talking ("You're taking Caucus already! P-U-S-S-Diamond.") and nervous sips of coffee. What can I say, me and my friends enjoy discussing the merits of invading Hawaii on the first turn.

The game is traditionally played via its physical board game set. This was how I learned to play, and is probably the best way to learn how to play. You just need to deal with about thousand little pieces that can be lost or choke a small dog or baby (if you're a real cunning mind you will realize that the little pieces are modeled after actual war units made by each country). We instead opt to play online, via TripleA, a desktop version of the game. Don't mean to boast, but I'm kind of a big deal. I can easily beat the computer within a few turns and on its hardest setting (the computer opponent is actually crazier than a bag of cats and will just randomly move pieces around without a thought as what is going on in the game).

As you can guess, my wife loves hates the thought of a lovely evening  turning to an Axis and Allies gank-fest. But I get it. However I would like to call out fellow "Joint Chiefs" to say let's play soon. I'd also like to thank Brittany for putting up with the occasional AAA game night, or accepting a dorky out of nowhere reference to the game. And for agreeing to marry me, as for many a women, this might have been a real game-changer.

Back to my original point, if someone out there reads this and enjoys this game, please do comment.

The Top 10 Greatest Beers I Ever Drank

Ok so after my last engaging post about the lack of half & half in the house (we are now good on half & half, I continue to enjoy coffee, and I've learned to stop complaining about inane details of life...well at least in written form) I thought I'd ease my back into the blogosphere with a good ol' list of the best beers I ever drank. For it is Friday, 3:37 PM, at the office...so this just "popped in there".

Best beers in no particular order...just too complicated a thing to figure out right now, get in touch with me if you want to split hairs over this.

1.Victory Prima Pils

Great, hoppy pilsner from Victory. Perfect Summer session beer.









2.Russian River Pliny the Elder

Killer IPA from Russian River. I've only had it a few times since it's near impossible to find in most states.






3.Founders Breakfast Stout

Great stout from Founders.









4.Russian River Beatification

Another rare Russian River brew (at least on the East Coast). Sour, funky, but ridiculously drinkable.











5.Old Rasputin

Really strong Russian Imperial Stout from North Coast Brewing. Boozy, but in a good way.










6.Jolly Pumpkin Oro de Calabaza

Peppery, spicy, slightly sour saison-style from Jolly Pumpkin.








7.Dogfish Head Bitches Brew

Imperial stout with all sorts of crazy ingredients.









8.Bell's Two Hearted Ale

Another great IPA. Good mix of alcohol and aromatic hops.












9.Cantillon Classic Geuze

Only had this once at Monk's in Philadelphia, but it really stuck with me. Authentic Belgian funk.









10.Dock St. Man Full of Trouble Porter

Still the best porter I ever drank. Slight root beer flavor goes great with Dock St. pizza.

This is what happens when there is no half and half in the house.

I planned on getting to work on some long gestating projects today; but then at around 4 PM with most of the day already past me, I thought "maybe if I had a better keyboard...one with a better clicking sound...one that made my fingers and my brain happy when I typed...I'll be ready to write with one of those keyboards."

Failure.

This summer cannot escape me. I must work. Pay no attention to the lackluster keyboard (c'mon Apple, get your act together), or the fact that there's no half and half in the fridge for my coffee (I can't even look at a blank page without a cup of joe, and skim milk isn't cutting it).

Just do it.

I have one full treatment I can get started on and a fresh idea with the beginnings of a treatment to work on.

But first...I will need some half and half.

New York in the Movies: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

The Ninja Turtles. Those mutated pizza-loving turtles dominated my childhood. Some kids played with legos. Some kids liked to throw the ball around. I liked TMNT. My earliest memories of a birthday party was a TMNT themed party. Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents all ate cake off TMNT plates. They all wore little TMNT birthday hats. There are three gifts I got as a kid that are forever instilled in my memory banks. There was the original Tim Burton Batman on VHS for X-mas. There was the huge Millenium Falcon w/ Han Solo and Chewbacca toys. And there was the framed TMNT movie poster for X-mas. (Actually maybe four things, there was also the huge T-Rex from Jurassic Park for X-mas) It was the first friggin movie I saw in theatres.

Anyways I digress. Me and Brittany took a stroll down memory lane last night, and with a pie from Lenny's watched the first Turtles movie. What I found so interesting about the movie was how New York it is. Since working for the Gothamist and always being surrounded by New York news, I've been really interested in New York and it's setting in movies.

The first Turtles movie was unlike all the other movies. It was dark. Sometimes it was violent. It mirrored the tone of the comics, and strayed away from the cartoon. But it also depicted a dark, dangerous 1980's New York. Crime was high during those years before the Giuliani campaign. Crack hit the streets like an atom-bomb. Kids were peddling the stuff all over the city and crime was growing at an exponentially high rate.

One of the major plot lines of the movie was the booming rate in crime, especially amongst teens. Of course crack or drugs in general are never mentioned in the movie, but there are certainly parallels. Across the country there was a war on violent video games and naughty lyrics and the teens depicted in the movie are seen gambling, smoking cigarettes, and graffiti tagging walls. While it may be more reminiscent of the juvenile delinquents in Pinocchio, people were certainly afraid that their teens were spiraling out of control. There is a tacked-on sub-plot in the movie in which April's boss deals with his delinquent son. He constantly complains about his son listening to a walkman (which also happens to be stolen) and his slacking off in school. We are to assume that he is a single dad, and is totally consumed by his job. In a way, the fears of this character echo the fear many parents felt for their  teenagers.

Meanwhile, the movie depicts the turtles as everyday teenagers; Donatello is the geeky smart-ass, Leonardo the stoic and sometimes self-righteous leader, Raphael is tempestuous and is controlled by his emotions and Michaelangelo is a slacker. What these teens have that the other teens in the movie don't have is a respect for their elders (Splinter). There is one really melodramatic scene in which one of the teen gang leaders (played by Sam Rockwell!) tells Casey Jones that his fellow gang of miscreants are a family, that the Shredder is like a father to them. But, and in a way only Casey Jones could put it, their family is a fractured one based on carelessness and skewed morals.

In the end, April's Boss reunites with his son who realizes how much his father truly cares for him. And this is what the movie is really about...that teens will always be teens and that fathers will always care for their sons. The Turtles are the ideal role-models, they have fun and aren't necessarily straight-edge, but they are still good children.

Back to New York, there are plenty of familiar spots to see. There is Bleecker St, familiar looking Lower Manhattan-ish row homes, and Central Park. The movie was also shot extensively at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.

Also, got to love Raphael's heavy New York accent.

Valentine's Day Menu

This Valentines Day was a struggle. Earlier last month my car was towed in DUMBO, and although I was lucky to find this out quickly and was close enough to walk to the tow yard to pick the car up, I was down a couple hundred bucks. Needless to say, Valentine's was freaking me out a little bit. Luckily, we had enough basic groceries in the pantry and freezer that I was able to whip up a nice meal for Brittany, and Valentines ended up being quite nice. I started off with a risotto with asparagus and pancetta. We already had a little arborio rice, but not quite enough for a full serving. To make up for this I used some wild black rice that we've had stowed away forever. All I needed to buy was the pancetta. Next I made Chicken Francese, a meal I've tried and failed to make in the past. We had plenty of chicken in the freezer, so all I ended up buying was some lemons and a bunch of parsley. For dessert, I baked chocolate chip cookies with white and chocolate chips from scratch. Yeah. I bake.

Here's the recipe:

Wild-Rice Risotto with Asparagus and Pancetta

1/2 cup Arborio Rice
1 cup Wild Rice
handful of parsley
1/4 lb Pancetta, diced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
olive oil
3 tbsp Butter
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
1/2 lb. Asparagus


1.Boil about 3 quarts of water in a large pot. Add the asparagus and blanche for about 1 minute. Remove the asparagus and immediately put it in a bowl of ice water to shock the asparagus. Chop the aspragus lengthwise into 1 inch portions, and put it aside.

(Now you can do one of two things. You can either save the hot water that you boiled the asparagus in and use that a sort of vegetable broth, just keep the water on a simmer. You can also use chicken stock, just use low-sodium if that's the direction you want to go in.)

2.In a large heavy bottomed pan (at least three inches high), heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and pancetta. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, until the onions turn opaque and the pancetta is fragrant.

3.Add both kinds of rice to the pan. Toast the rice in the pan for about 2 minutes, until the arborio rice turns opaque.

4.Ladle in the warm asparagus water or chicken stock, enough to cover the rice mixture evenly. Bring the mixture to a slow boil. Stir constantly, seriously, your arms will hurt.

5.Keep stirring till the stock evaporates below the line of the rice, and then add more stock one ladleful at a time. Do this for about 15 minutes. The arborio rice should be creamy and the wild-rice should still be a little firm.

6.Turn the heat off. Add in the butter, parsley, and parmigiano-reggiano. Stir it all together, add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Chicken Francese

1 1/2 lbs Chicken Breast
1 lemon
handful of chopped parsley
4 eggs
flour, about 2 cups to dredge
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
olive oil
2 tbsp. butter

1. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the trimmed chicken breast till it's about a 1/4 in. thick.

2. In a large skillet or cast-iron skillet heat about 1/2 cup of olive oil.

3. Assemble your breading station. In a large dish, add the flour with some salt and pepper. Use a fork to stir it all together. In a separate wide bowl, scramble the eggs with about 3 tbsp. of water to make an egg wash. First dredge the chicken in the flour. Give it an even coating and then shake off any excess flour. Next, drop it in the egg wash. Let any excess egg trickle off the meat and then add directly to the skillet. You can probably fit about 2 chicken breast per batch.

4. Fry the cutlets for about 2 minutes each side, or until each side is golden brown. When the cutlet is done put it in a large platter to reserve.

5. Meanwhile, cut half a lemon into thin slices and reserve the other half.

6.When the cutlets are done, drop the thin slices of lemon into the pan and cook for about 1 minute. The lemon should become fragrant, just don't let it burn.

7. De-glaze the pan with white wine. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Then add the chicken stock, and the juice of the other half of lemon you were holding aside. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 3 minutes.

8. Roll the butter in some of the flour from earlier. Swirl it into the pan. The sauce should thicken.

9. Next, add the chicken back into the pan with the lemon slices sitting atop the chicken. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes in the sauce. When all the cutlets are done and are assembled on a platter, season with salt and pepper, then cover the chicken with sauce in the pan. Garnish with some chopped parsley.

Recipe: Yellow Rice

Earlier today, Brittany set out instructions for preparing some pork we bought the other night to be cooked in the slow cooker. After a relaxing day of Giants parade coverage, a perfect mid-day bloody mary, and anxious saliva inducing of watching a ridiculous piece of pork cook slowly, I came upon some inspiration to make yellow rice. It's a perfect bedding for a pulled pork kind of dish.




Ingredients:
1 spanish onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 celery stalks
I used 2 small Asian chili peppers, but any pepper you would like would work. I prefer a little heat, so I like to use chilis.

1 tsp Turmeric
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Butter, unsalted
3 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of Jasmine or Long-Grain Rice

1.In a medium saucepan or wok, saute your vegetables with the butter. Cook for about 2 minutes
2.Add the turmeric, cumin, cayenne and oregano, stir, let cook another 30 seconds.
3.Add the water and salt and bring mixture to a boil. When the boil begins, add the rice and stir well. Lower the temperature to your lowest setting and cover the pot. Let it cook for 18-20 minutes, till all the water has evaporated. Stir the rice together and serve.

Movie Review: Drive (or a Steve McQueen movie for Hipsters)

I recently got around to seeing "Drive", a movie I had been reading about for months. People really got into this movie, which I thought was strange. The trailer makes the movie out to be nothing more than a standard car thriller; a few car chases, a fight or two, some revenge gets enacted so on and so forth. But there really is a lot more than what the trailer shows, or maybe less?

I only say less because the movie is surprisingly light on vehicular mayhem. There's no obnoxious POV shots of nitrous oxide pumping through the souped up injectors of some glued together foreign car. In fact, if you're a guy and expect some bad ass car action, you may be slightly disappointed. Also, you may be curious about the pink opening titles and 80's synth soundtrack of the movie.

But for people who could care less about the 0-60 speeds of every car in existence, you're going to love this movie.

Ryan Gosling plays the Driver, a man with no name, who barely furnishes his apartment, barely speaks, but can always be identified by the scorpion embroidered on the back of his racing jacket. He lives two lives, one as a mechanic and stunt driver working for Shannon (Bryan Cranston); the other is as a getaway driver. He has rules as a wheelman, from the time his clients walk in their destination they have 5 minutes to return. After that, he will take care of the rest. He doesn't want to know the details of the clients work, he is only concerned with finishing the job and getting paid.

While we've seen this character done before, most recently in the insanely preposterous "Transporter" series, the opening scene of the Driver on the getaway is one of the most tense and well-done scenes I've seen in a long time. It's a scene without a loud car chase through LA streets, but a quiet cat and mouse game between LAPD squad cars and helicopters. The pacing of the scene sucks you into the movie, and it's done without showing a lot of action. This is true throughout the whole movie; there's an overall tenseness and feeling of dread that hangs over the movie. I think it must be the minimalist approach by director Nicholas Winding Refn ("Bronson"), the viewer is always guessing and is always on the edge. A great example of this is an elevator scene later in the movie. Half of it is elegant, and feels very much like an old classic. But it is soon cut with a brutal fight scene that hits with sudden Tarantino-like precision.

Soon, the Driver begins a relationship with a neighbor played by Carey Mulligan. Her husband is recently arrived from a prison stint, and it is later revealed that he is in trouble with the local mob. They want him to pull a robbery at a pawn shop, and if he doesn't they will hurt him and his family. In order to protect Carey Mulligan and her son, the Driver agrees to help the husband with the pawn shop job. Things go awry during the robbery, and the Driver ends up in trouble with a local mob duo.

The plot is routine, but is lifted by the sharp dialog and the performances of its entire cast. Gosling barely says anything in the film, but his performance isn't dull at all. He exudes this Steve McQueen-like vibe, he says little and when he does speak his words pack a punch. He's the man with no name, and a great example of the existential hero. He exists only to drive.

The rest of the cast is also brilliant, especially Albert Brooks who plays his mob boss like a classic heavy. He is scary and brutal, and he gives probably the best performance of this kind since Joe Pesci in "Goodfellas". Bryan Cranston is also very good as Shannon, the father-figure to the Driver. Christina Hendricks and Ron Perlman also have small roles and are both very good. Perlman especially chews up his scenes, and he gets several of the movies best lines.

The 80's-ish soundtrack is quite different for a movie of this type, but it is catchy and really adds tension to the film in a strange way.

Overall, "Drive" is a macho-action movie for Hipsters. It features a catchy 80's soundtrack, sharp dialog, minimal action and a lead character that will surely be imitated in years to come for Halloween.
Also, it's one of the best crime movies to come out in years. Highly recommended.

**** (out of 4)