GRAVITY

This movie is a glorified space disaster flick with a lot of media hype having preceded its release.  Since the entire film (except for the final minutes) takes place in outer space, there are a lot of earth and sky and stars and immense vastness photography. We saw it in digital and i think seeing the film at an IMAX theater would have added to my enjoyment.

Plot: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney (oh, i'm getting tired of his silver fox dimpled one-liners, his attempt to be charming in a goofy joshing manner, his bonhomie which is often jarringly out of place) are astronauts fixing something out of the space ship and they get knocked around by sky debris. Clooney fairly early on floats out into the nether among the nebulae and Bullock finishes the film.

She goes through low oxygen, no oxygen, running out of fuel, tangled lines, fire, and being lost. (amazingly on two occasions she pulls out a manual in the space module she is in and reads exactly what to do; goes right to the page!, has no trouble following the printed directions and i'm remembering all the times i've had to consult a manual and  then look away in wonderment and bafflement uttering "where in the fuck is THAT part? this looks nothing like the diagram.") And in the midst of these situations, I'll be damned but Clooney reappears to give her a pep talk; a you are woman and strong verbal shove. Oh, he is so thespianly wise.

I gave it a 5 and Bill gave it a 7. Wish we had seen this movie at our discount theater.

MOVING OUT

This is the premiere entry to my newly created road trip blog. Starting last week, either Bill or I will announce "this is our LAST friday" or this is our LAST saturday". and today is our LAST monday.

we have planned this for way over a year and in a way seems sort of unreal that it is finally happening.

I feel pretty on top of the packing and organizing with different color codes on the box labels to delineate which boxes need to stay by the door of the storage (cuz its stuff we will need when we finally leave tucson) or comes with us to our first Tucson rental. In fact, i think we might take a day off and go hiking tomorrow; on our LAST tuesday.

THE EAST

Pretty good film about an ecoterrorist group called The East. They target big companies who are polluting the environment or selling dangerous drugs. Brit Marling plays Jane AKA Sarah who is hired by a company to work undercover and infiltrate The East. She would then tell her bosses where and when and what the next target will be and measures can be taken to stop them and arrest the leaders.

There was a lot of tension and suspense throughout most of the film as Marling slowly worked her way into the group and dealt with various levels of suspicion. Naturally, she starts to get swayed by some of their ideas and feels  ethically pulled.

The ending of the film was a tad too heavy on the "message" part of the movie and the last scene was unbelievable.

We both gave it a 7. The acting was wonderful.

2 GUNS

This movie was surprisingly entertaining and it was fast paced with a fairly clever plot. Now it doesn't pay to go over the story line real closely since there are lots of things that don't make sense. But one doesn't go to this type of film (lighthearted mayhem? frivolous chaos?) because of a complex and tightly woven plotline.

Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg were very good; excellent in fact and their quick fire patter and one liners was done extremely well and all the dialogue was funny. They had a great chemistry together.

Denzel was an undercover DEA agent and Mark was an undercover special agent of the Navy. Neither of them knew this about each other at the beginning of the film. when they found out and realized that both organizations that they were working for was out to kill them and retrieve millions of dollars in drug money, they started working together. No one was a good guy in this film.

The music wasn't annoying and was not a constant loud rap noise. And the supporting actors were good too; edward olmos and Bill Paxton. Plus the gunfight scenes didn't last for minutes on end.

We both gave this film an 8.

BUSHI - TUCSON, AZ

I love this Japanese restaurant and the food was even better  than usual because we were there with my sister, Kathie, and my brother-in-law (who also happens to be her husband), Greg.

The atmosphere is so lovely and tranquil; lots of bamboo and black lacquer and dark metal art on the walls. and it is never crowded and they have comfortable booths and its a great non-noisy place to visit AND the service is wonderful.

I had chicken teriyaki and a vegetable tempura combo. This comes with a big portion of sauteed vegetables, rice, edemame beans, and miso soup. I didn't even touch the chicken, vegetables or rice; that will be my lunch today. We also ordered egg rolls which were really really flavorful. I had lots of vegetables; green pepper, onion, sweet potato, broccoli and carrot.

Kathie had the shrimp and vegetable tempura and she gave me one of her 6 shrimp and that's what i'm getting next time. the shrimp were so tender and sweet and light; absolutely marvelous. Bill got salmon teriyaki which he loved and Greg got sushi with mysterious names like firebomb and dragon's breath and tranquil stream. (well, those aren't the exact names of what he specifically ordered; just some of the many many labels that were on their sushi menu.)

I had green tea also which smelled too 'green' for me so I didn't take more than a couple of sips. I'm already looking forward to coming back.

SHLOMO & VITO'S DELI - TUCSON, AZ

This is the 3rd time I've eaten here and the first time i've been satisfied. but because their prices are so high, they are not going to be a frequent eating destination.

We ate outside on the back patio which was lovely in spite of the soft jazz organ/piano tinkling with bad renditions of the Staple singers' classic song "i'll take you there" and an even worse  and embarrassing interpretation of a Sly and the Family Stone song.

I had a half sandwich and soup. You can pick any sandwich and any of their soups. I tried Mish Mosh which was a chicken broth filled with a large dumpling and a smaller filled dough pocket and loads of chicken and veggies; absolutely delicious. and the sandwich was bacon and swiss cheese and ham and turkey. Loads of meat and everything was fresh. The side of macaroni salad was so-so; tasted like Reser's brand at Safeway. This meal was $13.

Bill had a 10# corned beef sandwich - well at least it looked and felt that heavy. The corned beef was sliced wafer thin and there were no ribbons of fat or gristle. Bill got french fries with the sandwich which was $14. He also has 1/2 the sandwich left over for lunch today.

The service was good.

BEYOND BREAD - TUCSON, AZ

Here it is October again which means "bratwurst with sauerkraut on a poppyseed pretzel bun accompanied by a large portion of German potato salad" month at Beyond Bread.

The sausage is excellent; not greasy or filled with  mystery meat parts that get caught in your teeth. The sauerkraut is mild and the cabbage is thinly sliced. The bun is crispy on the outside and oh, so doughy pillowy on the inside. I've never been enthused that much over German potato salad and its still not one of my favorite foods but Beyond Bread's is very good and filled with bacon and onions.

I really like this restaurant a lot. The atmosphere is always energetically friendly and I've never been disappointed with anything i've ordered. Plus its nice to have free bread with butter while you're waiting in line. Though i'm thinking its oleo  and i try not to delve too deeply into the germ population of the margarine trough.

IN A WORLD

In a world were often the first words spoken by the famous and now dead movie trailer voice of Don LaFontaine. This movie is about the struggle of a female in a completely male-dominated field to speak the trailer of an epic Amazon woman film. It is a lighthearted and funny story. The dialogue is great and snappy and all the scenes are fast paced.

Rob Corddry is in it and his series Children's Hospital also stars Lake Bell who is the lead actress and director of this movie  and also Ken Marino who plays  the leading contender for the epic movie job.

Its also a great commentary on how our voices shape people's perceptions of us. we rated this film a 9 in large part because bill and i had been off and on arguing all day with tensions mounting over our upcoming move. And this film made us laugh and restored our gratitude and joy and anticipation about our road trip and made me, at least, forget for 90 minutes the fact that bill's techniques of packing and storing are pretty much totally opposite mine. (and not as efficient either.)

GUS BALON'S RESTAURANT - TUCSON, AZ

This is a diner on the far east side that is family-owned for 3 generations. The food is good (not gourmet); portions are big; prices are very reasonable and the service is fantastic. The menu is fairly limited and they serve only breakfast and lunch.

I knew what i wanted several days before carol and i went to Gus's. I wanted a bagel with cream cheese, a small bowl of fruit and some cold cereal (cornflakes, raisin brain). The only thing available on my list of "needs" was frosted mini-wheats. The waitress told me that in her 8 years on the job no one has ever ordered cold cereal. so probably the mini-wheats had grey fuzz on them which would match the average age of the walker'ed and cane'd and oxygen tank'ed clientele.

So i ordered - in a moment of panic - an unhealthy meal. 2 slices of toasted raisin bread which was absolutely delicious; it was homemade. a side of french toast which i only had 1/2 of one piece but also ate 1/2 of one pc. of Carol's french toast made out of raisin-cinnamon bread, 3 football field long slices of bacon, and home fries which needed a lot of salt to bring out any flavor.

I'm slightly nauseated even writing this. I'll be back because my unsatisfying experience was due to my inability to keep a cool head and pick out my second choices; instead i just  froze on a culinary level.

KARUNA'S THAI PLATE - TUCSON, AZ

We used to go here during Tucson #1 but even though the food was good, the service was surly and unfriendly. I always felt like i should apologize to the waitress or waiter for coming in to the restaurant and putting them out by ordering some food and then paying for it.


So we quit frequenting this restaurant. However, the service has changed after an absence of 5 or 6 years. The food is still good though the portions are smaller but it is served with a smile and we are greeted warmly.

We ordered a chili, mint, ground pork, vegetable salad which had a great flavor though it was on the dry side. Also some of the meat pieces looked like and tasted like salty salami. Our other dish was a red curry chicken and vegetable with rice entree. Loads of vegetables and a great variety but there was probably only 5 pieces of chicken in the entire bowl.

We asked for both entrees to be mild spicy and they still had quite a zing. Towards the end of eating the curry dish, i bit into what  I took to be a carrot and it wasn't.!! it was an evil bright orange Thai ward-off-the-devil pepper. oh, mi god. i've never never had such a reaction; thought i was going to throw up, then thought i actually had burns on my tongue and lip, then thought i was going to pass out because i got dizzy.

to top this off, i touched the side of my face and the devilish toxic pepper oils set my face on fire.

So this was not a good ending to a good meal. But we will be back and i'll avoid anything skinny and orange.

RUSH

A solid 9 film. Its based on  true events involving Niki and James, 2 Formula One race car drivers in the 70's and their competition to be the grand champion.

The actors were fabulous. I didn't recognize any of them except Chris Hemsworth who played James and Olivia Wilde who played his wife or she could have been his girlfriend. He had dalliances with almost every female he met. And was also a drinker and drugger.

the opposite personality and character was his nemesis, Niki, who was Austrian and very methodical, rigid, disciplined and fairly emotionless.

Everything was in perfect balance in the movie; just the right amount of racing footage (a lot of it from the actual races), sex, rivalry-male-goat-horn-butting, crash scenes and pre-race preparation. I was totally immersed in this movie and it was fast paced with a lot of tension.

Highly recommended.