LIKE DANDELION DUST

This movie was released in 2009; straight to dvd. Its a gem of a movie; surprised both of us with the good story and the great acting.

the affluent Campbell's adopted a baby boy 6 years previously. On the low economic scale are the Porter's. The wife is played by Mira Sorvino (terrific) and the husband by Barry Pepper who was nothing short of amazing and where the hell has he been lately in reference to the cinematic world?

Pepper is Rip who is a rage-aholic and alcoholic and wife beater and the movie starts with the cops arresting him for breaking his wife's arm. shortly after he's imprisoned, she finds out she's pregnant and gives the baby up for adoption. At this point, she feels incapable of taking care of a baby by herself plus not even sure if she's going to stay with Rip after he gets out of prison.

Well, she waits for him and he comes out rehabilitated and clean and sober and seemingly calm and able to find other outlets for the annoyances of life. So after she tells him about the baby, he is determined to get the boy back. and this is the story.

The movie has twists and turns that were totally unexpected and it did a great job of highlighting both sides of this adoption issue and the child's role in it which is often forgotten in the possession battle of the couples.

THE LINCOLN LAWYER

I rate the entertainment value of this movie a 10. Matthew McConaughey as the smarmy, cunning, glad-handing, slick, shrewd, crafty, sly, wily and extremely good-looking lawyer (as in Lincoln Lawyer because his office is the back of a pimp-mobile Lincoln Continental and he is driven around by - you got it! - a black man named Earl) i rate a 27!!

For plot believability and reasonableness, i give this movie a 6. As simple as the 'twists' were, i have to confess that i got lost early on; however, it made no difference in my enjoyment of this movie. McConaughey was absolutely perfectly cast. His ex-wife was played by marisa Tomei (who had a fantastic 1940's wavy hair style) and she was wasted in this role - plus her relationship and behavior with The Lincoln Lawyer (including a Blair Witch photographed short sex scene) had me puzzled as to why they were divorced. They had one brief argument in the entire film and that was very forced and wimpy.

William Macy was the investigator and Ryan Phillippe was pretty good also. The music was wonderful - rap and hip hop - but it wasn't overdone and there were no group dance scenes. So it was a very fun evening at the movies for us (bill felt the same way as i did) and i'd hire McCoonaughey as my lawyer any day.

HORSESHOE CAFE & BAKERY - BENSON, AZ

We met my sister, Kathie and her husband, Greg and my niece, Bonnie for lunch. They were heading back to Las Cruces. The delightful company added a lot to the very pleasant dining experience.

Its a large place with 3 separate rooms. They got really busy starting shortly after we arrived (post-church worshippers, i think) and Kathie overheard one group tell the waitress that they had been waiting for 40 minutes for their food but we had prompt service - or did i lose track of time given the scintillating (word for the day, Greg) conversation.?

Bill ordered an open face roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. He declared it one of the best sandwiches he's ever had. I had a meatball sandwich with sweet potato fries and coleslaw. Excellent plus the fries were very good. A lot of times the potatoes are fried too long and sweet potatoes rapidly become tasteless but these were done just right.

Now to give a balanced review from the Bernat-Lennes side of the table - no one bitched about their food but Bonnie said she never got her avocado with the chicken tender entree and Kathie said she never got the bread with her chef's salad. I tried some of her thousand island dressing and it was just the way i like it.

Glad that this restaurant was so good because we are staying in Benson in a couple of weeks for a hiking trip and this will be a welcome addition to Wendy's and Denny's.

FISH TANK

A scathing and ultra-realistic (is that redundant?) and gritty and tragic 'coming-of-age' film. it involves a 15 year old girl in England. so naturally the accents were thick as yorkshire puddin' and thank god, the movie was not heavy on long speeches because we missed whole sentences of dialogue though never felt lost because of the kind of movie it was.

The English accent reminded me of a fantastic SNL skit which was broadcast when Russell Brand was host. The skit involved a robbery movie filmed with British accents. Hilarious.

Evidently, the lead female role was played by a non-professional actress and you'd never know it. She is angry and alienated and has no relationship with her mother who is also angry and alienated. Mia, the daughter, develops this complicated and multi-layered relationship with her mom's boyfriend and this is the situation which leads to unbearable tension.

The photography was excellent; the music was great and there was lots of dancing in the film because that's how Mia found acceptance and approval.

PITA JUNGLE - TUCSON, AZ

I thought this restaurant (which opened about a month ago) was similar to other pita and wrap places we've been at; simple ordering at the counter, inexpensive, unpretentious and fast.
Not so.

I should have been alerted by the level of dimness which made it difficult to read the menu, the proliferation of 20-somethings scuttling about, and the screeching bossa nova music. It was like a disney-rupert murdoch creation with a thin veneer of sophistication and hipness. We were the oldest people in there by about 30 years which did not add to the comfortability of our dining experience. also when bossa nova wasn't playing, rave rattle crystal-meth speed tunes were howling.

Why did we stay? good question.

We shared. One entree was a veggie burger with garlic potatoes. I've never had a veggie burger so didn't have anything to compare it to. Pretty good; tastier than i would have thought. It came on lightly toasted rye bread. The garlic potatoes were lukewarm but fairly good. The other entree was a mediterranean chicken wrap. There was a lot of tender chicken but it was dry so i had to order some tahini sauce, which took a while as our waitress was busy 'catching up' with a sugar-daddy appearing male at the bar. He had one of those pencil thin unsavory and "up to no good" moustaches.

The wrap didn't come with a side so we ordered (for $3) a bowl of mixed beans which were mushy and bland.

So the summary of this jungle expedition was that the food was not horrid but it was overpriced for the quality and quantity and the atmosphere was grating. Oh, and the bathroom sink was a long beige-brown stone trough. i've seen these things before on tv shows where the person is making extra money by cleaning salmon during a run and the depression in the concrete canal is for the run-off of the guts and fishy blood.

CRACKER BARREL - TUCSON, AZ

The few times we have eaten at this chain restaurant, we have been coming back or going to a hiking trip. So eating here last night had that feeling of anticipation or accomplishment which made the whole experience really enjoyable.

It wasn't as crowded as it usually is and we were seated in a back room so were far away from the biggest gang of screeching toddlers and road weary travelers. The service was excellent as it has always been. The food is its usual rich and calorie laden and gravy'd and sauce'd american glutton-sized but oh, so good.

I had a sampler plate which included a slice of sugar cured ham, meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, green beans, carrots (in a brown sugar glaze, naturally), mashed potatoes and a biscuit. The only thing that wasn't tasty was the bland biscuit but once i added jelly, making it into a tiny pie and hey, that's the cracker barrel way!, it was fine.

Bill had corned beef and cabbage which he absolutely loved and has leftovers for lunch today. The prices are really reasonable too. both of our dinners were about $8.50.

Now, i do have to add that i barely made it home this morning from my walk before massive amounts of diarrhea were expelled. was my gut unwittingly barrel'd?? only time will tell.

UNKNOWN

I gave this movie a 5 and Bill rated it a 7. I didn't expect much but it was less entertaining than I thought it would be.

January Jones was thoroughly disconcerting with her wooden, restrained, expressionless, flat affect, catatonic appearance. It works for Mad Men but not here. She plays Liz, the wife of Liam Neeson (Martin) and fortunately, she is not in most of the movie.

Martin gets in a car crash soon after arriving in Berlin for a biotech conference and when he wakes up, his memory is all screwed and he finds out that another man has moved into his life role, along with his wife Liz.

The movie was filled with so many unbelievable scenes starting with Martin leaving a very very important briefcase with documents and passports and identification papers at the airport!!!!!!! and its the race back to the airport (without informing his wife who is checking in at the hotel; this was unbelievable #2) which results in his accident and then his memory problems.

The car chases - way too many - could have been taken from any other movie; nothing unusual including the fact that absolute mayhem can occur including ruined property and wrecked cars and markets and stores plowed into all through the city and there never appears any law and order personnel. Its like the police are all busy eating sugar doughnuts or bratwurst.

Even though the twist at the end involving Martin and Liz's identity was clever and unexpected, the movie continued and the real ending was stupid as Martin suddenly changed from a bad guy to an upstanding good guy.

I wish this movie had stayed Unknown. and January Jones is now on my list of people which is composed of 'actors' that i will avoid seeing in movies if they are part of the cast. Keanu Reeves is on that list along with Adam Sandler.

ALICIA'S SPRING 2011 VISIT

Some great pictures (21 out of 157!) taken during alicia's visit 2/26 to 3/5.

MILAGROS CAFE - TUCSON, AZ

This location has been several other Mexican restaurants. The first one we ate at was a somber, pretentious and over-priced experience though the food was good. The second time was very disappointing; the food was just OK and the atmosphere was sad and abandoned with hardly any decorations and no other customers. - Oh, except for the wannabe customer who was trying to pay for some take-out with a hundred dollar bill which was obviously fake. Even from the distance I was looking at it, the bill looked like Monopoly money.

This third time was the very best and we will definitely be back. In fact, Milagros will become one of our neighborhood favorites.

There are 2 big rooms. The service was excellent and friendly and fast. The prices were extraordinarily low for the quality and serving size. To use the bathroom you had to walk through the kitchen but when i sneaked a peak (in these circumstances I usually have my head down and i don't glance either way because I don't want to see dirty dishes, bugs of any kind, floor mats that are encrusted with dried beans, or raw meat.) everything was clean and orderly and sanitary.

The chips and salsa were excellent and the chips were fresh. We ordered guacamole which was chunky and absolutely delicious. I got 2 green corn tamales and Bill got chicken mole and we shared each entree. the tamales were incredibly good and the chicken was very tender (2 breasts) but i liked the mole sauce better at El Indio; this sauce was too thin and it could have used some spice.

Each entree was accompanied with spanish rice with lots of vegetables in it, charro beans with tomatoes and queso fresco and a small salad.

The owner gave us a complimentary slice of flan which was a little too dense for me but awfully rich and decadent tasting.

I've already got my next meal here planned.

ECLECTIC CAFE - TUCSON, AZ

This restaurant is similar to Blue Willow in the sense that one has great or at least pleasurable expectations because the wait staff are young and personable and efficient and friendly and the restaurant is decorated with bright prints and posters and lively colors and the menu reads like a frequent diner's wish list with wonderful delicious words.

However, the above does NOT translate into good food. Eclectic Cafe is overpriced with small portions and even with a coupon (which they run in magazines and newspapers about 4 times a week) it is not worth a return trip.

Bill and I ordered a corned beef sandwich based on our experience of several months ago. The corned beef at that time was razor thin and without one ribbon of fat or gristle. Obviously, the meat supplier has changed. The corned beef resembled thick flesh-colored slabs of tongue lolling out of the rye bread which was cut so thin it did not stay together. In order for Bill to eat his sandwich he had to roll up the meat and bread pieces into a dough disc and hold it like a tennis ball.

I couldn't even do that because the meat fell far below my edible standard. The fries were cold. The sandwich alone was $8.00 and the fries were extra and the small green salad was extra.

Alicia had 3 halibut flautas which she said were really dry. This $10 entree came with a small salad and a shot glass of guacamole. Beans were extra and they were the usual sloppy unappetizing glop of refried's.

We came close to having to wait for a table and too bad that didn't happen cuz then we would have gone next door to Mongolian Grill and i would not have been so culinarily disgusted.