This weeks world tour of food takes us to Belgium! I knew one thing immediately I wanted to make- Liege Waffles! The rest we had to do some research on and everything turns out delicious. The main dish was a chowder called waterzooi – a rich stew with chunks of carrots, leeks and chicken. The bread was pistolet – a kind of European crusty bread. The side dish was mashed potatoes and carrots with bacon called stoemp. I rounded out the meal with an imported Belgian Dopple beer that paired with the food quite well. For dessert I fired up the waffle iron and cooked up some delicious liege waffles – chunks of pearl sugar forming a crispy crust on the outside with warm pockets of liquid goodness on the inside.
So lots of the things I did this year were fun but this one.. I kept putting off. I think filling my 50th year with all this stuff might have been a way to distract myself from my own mortality. Isn’t that what a midlife crisis is? Some people get sports cars or boats I chose to do this.
However, I wanted to ensure that if something happened to me then all my affairs are in order. So I set about making a will, a living will, a trust, and ensuring that there’s no question of how I want my estate divided. When my brother died, there was so much confusion and legal hurdles and I wanted to ensure my wife has one less thing to worry about if the unthinkable happens.
It’s pretty simple actually – I won’t go into private estate details but one thing I wanted to ensure was my guitars went to my kids. The Taylor guitar for my daughter as like her it is bright and happy and my Martin guitar for my son as like him it’s loud and energetic.
I put all this stuff into a folder with an encrypted drive with all my passwords and all the printouts of the things that would be needed.
The actual process was pretty painless but the idea around it was a bit stressful but I’m glad it’s done.
A sitting senator dies and a governor needs to replace him. Feeling pressure from wealthy lobbyists to appoint one of their guys to the post he is torn because his constituents don’t want him and he’s worried about his career. He eventually concoct a scheme to appoint a local man, Jefferson Smith, because they seem him as naïve and easy to manipulate.
Smith is a ‘true patriot’ and when he gets to Washington he immediately walks away from him handlers and does the full tourist experience in DC.. While his handlers go crazy because they have no idea where he went and they have meetings and press lined up for him. Once he eventually gets to his office he meets the secretary of the old senator Clarissa Saunders – who is jaded with politics and is considering leaving.
Smits is mentored by Joseph Paine who was a good friend of Smith’s father. He is part of a group of corrupt senators working with a ‘boss’ Jim Taylor to get rich through senate policy. Paine has a party at his house and invites Smith who becomes smitten with Paine’s socialite daughter who toys with him like a cat with a mouse due to his naivete. Shortly after the Washington press gets a hold of him unsupervised and it’s a bloodbath – they make him out to be a bumbling fool who doesn’t belong there.
Angered by the press Smith complains he’s not really doing anything in his new job Paine suggests he submit a bill and Paine will bring it to the floor. Smith thinks it over with Clarissa and decides to create a national boys camp with a federal loan that will be paid back by the boys with pennies. The problem with that is the particular parcel of land that he’s trying to buy is part of a graft scheme by Taylor hidden in a much larger appropriations bill. Taylor tells Paine to get Smith to drop it but Smith is too principled and ignores the directive and speaks about the bill in the senate the next day.
Taylor immediately puts his corruption machine to work and the results is an accusation that Smith already owns the land he’s trying to buy with the federal funds and this is all a grifting scheme (they even had a land deed and everything!) Smith overwhelmed by this runs away. Clarissa finds him near the Lincoln Monument and convinces him to stand up for himself and suggest he do a filibuster in order to hold up the senate and get them to see his point of view.
Armed with the policy of procedures Clarissa explained to him the get the Senate president to give him the floor against all of Taylor’s co-conspirators and once he’s given the floor he refuses to relinquish it filibusters late into the night. In order to dissuade him Taylor has all the papers he owns print attack ads and articles calling Smith corrupt. Smith sees these but still perseveres. Paine shows him fabricated letters from his home state saying they want him to drop his bill and face expulsion from the Senate. None of the other senators will support his bill and he is beginning to despair.
Meanwhile his boy rangers realize what’s going on and start making newspapers with the truth and start delivering them across the area. Taylor’s goon squad sees this and literally drive this kids off the road. Talk about heavy handed – I’m pretty sure in the good handbook attacking kids is a violation of goon ethics.
Back to the Senate where Smith is flagging and all the other senators have walked out but a smile from the Senate leader renews his determination to go on – until not long after he passes out from exhaustion. Paine upon seeing the dedication Smith had to doing the right thing is overcome with guilt and runs out of the senate and tries to eat a bullet. The other senators stop him and then in the commotion he runs back an and admits on the floor his guilt, that Taylor was behind it and Smith is innocent.
5/5 – Just a great feel good movie about doing the right thing and sticking with your principles no matter what the cost. Jimmy Stewart shines here as a conflicted man outwardly peaceful but with a simmering rage directed at people who he considers unjust. The corruption angle and patriotism is a bit heavy but for the time the film was released it makes sense. There comedy parts are laugh out loud funny and the drama is moving even if it seems a bit cliched to modern tastes. Overall a really enjoyable movie with well acted parts!
I went into this album knowing a single song from it (You can call me Al) which really is a catchy pop tune that you find yourself humming in quiet moments during the day after you’ve heard it. I did some research into what the album is about and saw that Paul Simon purposefully injected traditional African beats, instruments, and melodies into the music (Specifically an African accordion band)
Overall the music really has a mid-80’s vibe to it with lots of synthesizer tracks typical to the time period. This really works with Simon’s dense lyrical prose which is filled with allegories and references. I’ve always enjoyed Simon and Garfunkel and pop-folk is one of my favorite musical genres (to play as well as listen to) and he continues this folk mentality with songs that tell entire stories
What this album reminds me of: I didn’t really hear this album until this challenge – which is a shame because it falls into the wheelhouse of the kind of eclectic music I enjoy. When it came out I was 12 years old and wouldn’t have gotten the same experience from it that I have now with age and well, a life lived. Honestly, I would have bailed after a few songs because at that age I was REALLY into top-40 and Hip-Hop so folk music would have been a hard sell.
Rating: 3/5 – While I enjoyed the album for it’s lyrics and progressive melodies sometimes it can get repetitive and while I prefer lyrically dense songs some of the tracks were a bit repetitive – after a while the tracks started blending together. Some of the lyrics are too obtuse to really infer what he was trying to say. I don’t mind lyrical allegory but I don’t want to work too hard deciphering lyrics!
I was tinkering with ways to make a pesto pizza besides my usual fig jam pizza. Since the pesto was rich and salty I wanted something lighter to offset it. I ended up settling on tomato bruschetta topping. It was light, textured, but also was a flavor bomb that could hold its own against the pesto sauce. Overall it was amazing and flavorful My only change would be a sturdier crust – since the soft Neapolitan pizza crust I was using couldn’t really stand up to the weight of all the toppings like a NY crust would.
I was wandering around the grocery store trying to decide what looked good for meals that week when I saw the fresh brussel sprouts basket and wondered how they would taste on a pizza. Some internet research paired brussel sprouts with red onions frequently so I decided to make the base of my pizzas a layer of marinated red onions slowly cooked down until they were super soft. Topped off with some dry mozzarella and brussel sprouts shaved super fine (so they cooked / charred consistently).
I mean – I didn’t have to create an entire meal as part of this challenge as I cook Italian food all the time – but since I was making all the elements (bread, pasta, dessert) I figured I’d count this meal. Mangia! (Manicotti, Rosemary Focaccia, Zeppole, and Summer Berry Granita)
The good: The Red Bull won in a decisive fashion with some stunning forward play and an aggressive attack.
The bad: It was pouring rain – I mean biblical rain that the wind blew in great sheets as I sat in what I thought was a great seat. Also, it was about 45 degrees and no matter how I tried either the cold, wind, or rain was making me uncomfortable. Also, I didn’t own rubber boots (I certainly do now) and there was a shallow lake between the train station and the stadium so my feet were soggy and cold the whole time as well! Also Messi pulled out at the last minute with a sore hamstring so I didn’t get to see him play.
The Amazing: The play where Morgan sprinted to catch up to the ball before it went out of bounds, reestablished a dribble then scored. (4:47 in the video) – Also the Morgan hat trick!
The stadium: It’s my first time at the Harrison stadium (I’ve seen them play at Giants stadium a bunch of times) and I rather enjoyed it. It’s a nice size for a soccer stadium and designed with the fans in mind – every seat seemed close. There was an entire drum section that led the cheers and the crowd was really into it – even with the awful weather. The food options didn’t really stand out – they had some higher end options like BBQ and hot chicken but the lines were ridiculous so I opted for generic chicken tendies and a soda, which admittedly were pretty good.
I really enjoyed seeing them play and I’d definitely go back – and hope for a better weather outcome.
Another visit to Chaplin’s tramp character. This time he’s working in a factory where everything is regimented and watched over (very big brother like) by the boss via television screens. Chaplin’s character is starting to show stress from the repetitive nature of the work and then goes off the rails in a madcap dash around the factory -eventually getting stuck in the gears in a pretty famous scene
He’s committed to a hospital and when he gets out accidentally gets involved in an anti govt protest and ends up in jail. At some point in prison he ingests a bag of cocaine and goes full Tony Montana (only without the guns) and in his rush around the station he stops a breakout attempt without even realizing what he’s doing. The cops are so thankful they give him a cushy cell with lots of amenities which the tramp seems to really enjoy. However – his time in prison is soon to be over and he unsuccessfully tries to convince the police that he belongs back in prison since he gets three meals a day and a comfortable place to sleep.
One released he struggles to find a job – eventually finding work using a letter of recommendation from the police captain at a shipyard where he’s given a simple job of hammering some piles in – however he didn’t understand the instructions (in true tramp style) and ends up launching a ship that… wasn’t quite ready to be launched. Dejected from his inability to find work he’s walking down the street when he sees a young girl stealing bread and when the cops ask him what happened he said he stole the bread trying to get back to his cushy prison cell. Witnesses tell the police that he didn’t really do it and he’s freed back onto the streets.
Really determined to go back to jail – he goes to a restaurant and eats a ton of food and then doesn’t pay – tracking down a cop to come arrest him for it. He’s locked up in a paddy wagon – and lo and behold, the girl from earlier is in the wagon with him! He tries his charm on her and she seems to vibe with him.. When suddenly the paddy wagon crashes and they escape in the chaos.
He tries to go straight for the girl and takes a job as a night watchman at a department store – he has a great time roller skating around and sharing what the store has to offer with her but then three goons break in and try to rob the place – the tramp realizes they’re fellow factory workers who are just hungry and desperate. He decides not to call the police and falls asleep in a very unfortunate location where he is discovered the next day and promptly fired.
The girl gets a job dancing in a nightclub and convinces the owner that the Tramp is a singer and waiter but he’s terrible at the waiting part and his last chance is the singing performance. He’s really nervous but the girl helps him write the words on his cuffs so he won’t forget them – but he loses the cuffs during the dancing part! What’s he to do? That’s right.. He channels his inner Eminem and goes full five mile on them: Chaplin Modern Times ‘non-sense song’
Things are seeming up for these two lovebirds, but then the police track the girl down from her previous escape and her and the Tramp are forced to flee once again. The stop at the site of the road and the girl desparis at they have nothing left but the tramp reassures her and they set off down the road into whatever awaits them.
4/5 – Great move and one of Chaplin’s finest performances
I think this is the first time you hear Chaplin’s voice in one of this films and he uses it to sing a nonsense song that somehow conveys an idea without using an actual language (he made it all up). The slapstick comedy was tight and funny and the camera work and direction was engaging. Some of the ‘special effects’ were really well done practical effects that he sold with his conviction and body control. Reading into it somewhat it was a commentary on industrialization and the political climate of the time and has eerie echoes into the current day with AI threatening to displace a lot of people’s jobs. It was one of the last silent films of the era and Chaplin’s last performance as the tramp and I’m glad he got to set off into whatever future awaited him with someone by his side.
Standard NY style dough with a san marzano tomato sauce base, some parmesan and slices of hot cappicola. The only thing I’d change is having the butcher slice the salami very very thin – the slices I got were pretty thick and ended up a bit chewy, throwing off the whole textural experience. The heat from the salami wasn’t too hot, so I threw on lots of fresh red pepper flakes which did the trick!
50for50tony.me 