johnnyhongkong says…

Mary Milan and I are gonna act like we’re 20-year olds and go see the 12:01 am showing of Live Free or Die Hard tonight at The Grove. Considering that this version of “Die Hard 4″ with the Apple guy isn’t my version of “Die Hard 4″ with the Apple guy, I’m somewhat ambivalent about seeing it at all. Who am I kidding? I can’t wait…

If you want to join us, tickets are still available.

Mary Milan is a Nigerian 419 scam artist!

From: mary milan <mary_milan11@yahoo.co.in>
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 10:23:23 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: ASSISTANCE.from: mary milan

Introduction.
Dearest,

It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my Son Moussa ,intend to establish in your country.
Though I have not met with you before but I believe, one has to risk confiding in succeed sometimes in life.
There is this huge amount of ($22,700,000.00) which my late Husband deposited in a security company in cote d’ivoire before he was assasinated by unknown persons.

Now I and my son decided to invest these money in your country or anywhere safe enough outside Africa for security and political reasons.We want you to help us transfer it into your personal account in your country for investment purposes on these areas:
1). Telecommunication
2). the transport industry
3). Five star hotel
If you can be of an assistance to us we will be pleased to offer to you 10% Of the total fund.
I await your soonest response.
Respectfully yours,

Mrs mary milan

I’ve apparently been assassinated by unknown persons. 

Word.

On the eve of the release of Live Free or Die Hard, Slate has released its annual Summer Movies issue.

Today’s installment brings us two gems: a deconstruction of “yippe kai-yay, motherfucker” vis-a-vis action movie one-liners and an examination of the re-appearance and rise of the ninja in popular culture.

What’s of note in the second article is that it finally gives credit where credit is due for all the “bad” action movies that we grew up watching and loving every second of in the 80′s – Israel’s Six Day War which gave rise to Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, the two most important men in 80′s bad action movies:

That conflict established the legitimacy of modern-day Israel, and without modern-day Israel, there would be no modern-day ninja craze. In 1979, Israelis Yoram Globus and Menahem Golan established Cannon Films, and in 1981 Golan directed Enter the Ninja starring Sho Kosugi, a Japanese karate-champion-turned-stuntman-turned-actor, who would become the most iconic on-screen ninja of the ’80s. The film’s success led to more landmark ninja movies from Cannon: Revenge of the Ninja (1983) and Ninja III: The Domination (1984), both directed by Israeli Sam Firstenberg.

Anyway, I am soooooo hoping that this summer brings some joy and excitement back to the summer blockbuster rather than the uninspired, bloated dreck that’s been polluting our popcorn fun for the last, oh…decade.

Let’s hope that two 80′s icons – John McClane and Optimus Prime – can bring back the fun. I’m warily hopeful.

The countdown is on.

Energon cubes, baby…energon cubes.

On Saturday, we had Lee-Roy and Jamie over for the first dinner at Maison MHK (Milan-Hong Kong) in quite some time.  Since it has been so hot, I figured it’d be nice to do a duo of ceviches, a duo of scallops, and a crab roll.

Going clockwise from the top: a seared scallop, a salmon and papaya ceviche cooked with grapefruit and orange, a scallop cold poached in lemon, a tuna and mango ceviche cooked in lemon and lime, and a crab roll on top of a pea shoot salad in the middle. 

Lee-Roy had the presence of mind to take a photo of it.  I always forget…

The recipe is ridiculously easy.  Just be sure when you are making your ceviches, to follow these rules:

Fresh fish + fruit + citrus = crazy delicious. 

Rotten fish + fruit + citrus = crazy disgusting.

David Mamet is making a movie about mixed martial arts.  It’s called Redbelt and it centers on a Jiu-jitsu master who has never fought in the ring but because his honor is besmirched by “a cabal of movie stars and promoters,” he must enter the octagon to settle the score.

Seriously?  Doesn’t a Pulitzer prize winning playwright have anything better to do than writing and directing what is essentially a mid-80′s martial arts movie?  I mean, come on, Best of the Best, anyone?  No Retreat, No Surrender?

A-B-C.

Always Be Choking.

Practical jiujitsu maxim.

Lots of culinary stuff to catch up on:

I’ve been meaning to blog this for a while.  Time Magazine has this great photo essay on what people buy and eat from different cultures around the world.  It’s real fascinating stuff my obsession with shopping lists aside.

Been watching the Summer batches of the food reality shows – Top Chef, Next Food Network Star and Hell’s Kitchen – all of which Mary Milan wanted me to submit for.

The new batch of kids of Top Chef doesn’t grab me; The Next Food Network Star has aped Top Chef’s format and none of their contestants are compelling; and Hell’s Kitchen is, well, Hella Staged, as I just cannot believe that anybody with cooking/restaurant experience can be so lost during service.  Still, as I’ve mentioned before, I dig Gordon Ramsay in his quiet moments.  Anthony Bourdain’s been blogging The Next Food Network Star over at Michael Ruhlman’s blog.

So the government is still trying to get more pomo with the organic label by watering it down even further.  Now as you know, I’m no fan of corporate organic and Whole Foods but for the love of god can we stop diluting the organic label as it is?

Pending legislation proposes that casings from the processed intestines of conventionally raised swine and cattle be labeled as “organic” ingredients.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I’m not even talking about the intestines or whatever, I can give two shits about eating that stuff (it’s quite good, by the way).

My frustration is purely at a linguistic and meaning level.  Using a conventional ingredient in something labeled “organic” just makes me crazy.  The spirit of the organic label was that the product with the label was not messed around with, grown in pure conditions and while not necessarily more healthy for you, it could be trusted for negation; that it didn’t have all the crap in your conventional food.  Now, I’m not so sure.

And besides, pig shit is “organic” but it doesn’t mean that I want to eat it.

Take action! 

And finally, we had some Copper River Salmon tonight.   It was good but like I mentioned last year, I don’t know what the big fuss is.  So it’s nuttier than your regular sockeye salmon.

And yes, we bought that bitch ass fish from Whole Foods.

I hate myself.

Here’s the first promo clip from Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, There Will Be Blood.

Is it just me or the turn of the century milieu that has me feeling that Anderson’s main inspiration for this film is not the Scorsese/Altman one-two of his previous films but more Terrence Malick?

Speaking of the Malick, Mary Milan and I met the second unit DP on The Thin Red Line last night. He had great stories about rolling around the Solomon Islands shooting Malick randomness and the indigenous people. There’s this huge framed photo in his house of the four Melanesian kids who play the rock games and swim in the ocean in the beginning of the film.

Surprise, surprise – he said he had a hard time nailing down any direction from Malick so he ended up just shooting whatever which turned out to be exactly what Malick wanted.