Twelve Films in Three Days – Philadelphia Film Festival

31 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

Tags

"(T)error", "Anomalisa", "Dheepan", "Ixcanul Volcano", "Mustang", "Our Brand Is Crisis", "RAMS", "Remember", "The Club", "The Lobster", "The Pearl Button", "The White Knights, 24th Philadelphia Film Festival, Dalessandro's, Langiappe, PFF, Philly Cheesesteaks, The Best Philly Cheesesteak

Thanks to the encouragement and planning of long time friends, Ellen and I returned last weekend to Philly for its annual Film Festival. This time, between Thursday evening and late Sunday evening, we saw 12 films.

Many of these films are just now being shown in theaters across the country or will appear over the next six months. Many are subtitled, foreign films, some are documentary or documentary-like, and most are about women, families, or relationships that provided sobering assessments of the world, even though they were captivating films.

Here are brief notes on the 12, along with ratings by both Ellen and myself (five stars generally means an outstanding film, and anything rated below three stars, we clearly did not enjoy). We did not see each others’ ratings until I completed this post, but we did talk about the films with each other and with our friends throughout the weekend.

Yes. You Can Go Home Again.

25 Sunday Oct 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"A Sad Apology", "Home Is Only Two Blocks Away", "Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong", Edsel Ford Fung, Sam Wo's Chinese Restaurant, Thomas Wolfe, Thommie Award, World's Rudest Waiter, You Can't Go Home Again

SamWo2

Careful readers of MillersTime.net, assuming there are one or two, may remember three earlier posts (Thomas Wolfe Was Wrong, Home Is Only Two Blocks Away, and A Sad Apology) about our long time favorite Chinese ‘dive’ (Sam Wo’s) in San Francisco, it’s closing, and the hope that it would reopen or would resurrect itself in some way.

Also, one or two of you might remember that MillersTime ‘won’ the ‘prestigious’ Thommie Award for “outstanding literary work” on my blog” with articles on the topic of whether one could in fact go home again.

Well, I’m delighted to tell you that you can go home again (tho it might be a few blocks away from your previous home). Sam Wo’s has reopened in San Francisco under the same Ho family ownership and chef. Alas, its “world’s rudest waiter” (Edsel Ford Fung) has long since passed away, tho they are still looking for some night time help…

It’s new address is 713 Clay Street (a three minute walk or a 52 second drive from the former location at 813 Washington St.).

SamWo5 While it’s actually been open since Oct. 2 for a preview and a ‘soft’ opening, it had a formal, ribbon cutting re-opening Wednesday, Oct. 21. For all the details about its opening, its new location, its hours, and other such details, see this article:

Sam Wo Restaurant Reopens Among Throngs Of Well-Wishers, Dignitaries

There is also a second article you might want to see if you want more details about the new/old Sam Wo’s:

13 Things to Know About the New Sam Wo

Since I unfortunately do not have any immediate plans to be in SF (tho I would consider a quick round trip flight there if the price was right), I would appreciate any on the spot reports from those of you who are lucky/smart enough to be in the neighborhood or close enough to check it out, (Hint: Sal, G., Tom P., Leslie K., Lance B., Land/Ping W., Larry M., Robin R., etc.)

PS – Maybe there’s hope. When I just told Ellen about this post, she said, “It’s time to go back to San Francisco.”

Now that’s the right attitude for a spouse to have.

Anyone want to join us at the new/old Sam Wo’s?

Maine: Thru Ellen’s Lens

23 Friday Oct 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Damariscotta Lake, Ellen Miller's Photos, Maine, Marshall Point & Penquid Light House, Midcoast Maine, Nobleboro, Rockport., Round Pound, State Parks of Camden and Portland

Six photos and a link to a slide show by Ellen Miller from a very recent four day trip to Maine.

Most of the photos were taken from the midcoast area, including Damariscotta Lake, Nobleboro, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Marshall Point & Penquid Light House, the state parks of Camden and Portland, Round Pound and Rockport.

Maine.5

Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner

21 Wednesday Oct 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

"Consider the Lobster", Camden, Lobster Rolls, Lobsters, Maine, Natalie's Rstaurant, Red's Eats

Lobster1

Yes.

It is possible to have lobster three times a day.

At every meal.

Plus, a snack in between in case you can’t wait for the next meal.

On a very recent trip to Maine — ostensibly to see some friends, to enjoy the colors of autumn, and to give Ellen another opportunity to take photos — I tested my theory about how much lobster one could eat over a four day period.

Let’s just say our kids’ inheritance has been somewhat diminished as a result.

IMG_0987(5) We had lobster for breakfast (eggs benedictine with lobster), for numerable lunches (not only lobster rolls but also in soups and in salads), and for dinners (most notably a four course lobster tasting menu in Camden at Natalie’s Restaurant that may, by itself, be worth a trip to Maine).

Of course, we had lobster simply boiled, with and without melted butter, and also sauteed, fried, in soups, on toasted rolls, in salads, and with risotto and with pasta. And we had both hard and soft shell lobsters.

It’s been a good year for all who believe lobster is one of the good things in life. The lobstermen have done well for the third year in a row (see The Price of Lobster in Maine), and the price has been reasonable, unless you indulge for three meals a day for four days.*

Sorry kids.

(*There is a story I’ve heard at least twice but haven’t sought to verify — why mess up a good story? — that there was once a time when lobster was so cheap and plentiful that it was served to prisoners every day at every meal, until a law was passed preventing prisons from serving lobster more than three times a week. Oh, to be a prisoner in those days.)

PS – If you missed my earlier post Consider the Lobster, please check it out. Not only will you find a link to one of the best articles I’ve read on lobsters in a long time, I also recount a lobster tradition the Millers share with long time friends.

PPS – For photos from our recent trip to Maine, look for a post, probably tomorrow, Maine Thru Ellen’s Lens.

I Never Seem to Learn

17 Thursday Sep 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends, Go Sox

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, David Ortiz, Nats' Tickets, NY Yankees, Orioles, Sox, Washington Nationals, Yunkees

As you can see from the pictures below, I spent an entire Red Sox game last night wearing a Yankee hat.

endof game (Sox defeat Orioles, 10-1)

Why?

“Consider the Lobster”

13 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

"Consider the Lobster", "Consider the Oyster", Broome's Island, Calvin Trillin, Crab Cakes, David Foster Wallace, Gourmet Magazine, John McPhee, lobster, Maryland Blue Crabs, MFK Fischer, Patuxent River, Stoney's Restaurant

In a recent review of several movies (Five Movies to Recommend), I mentioned the name of a writer, David Foster Wallace, whom I somehow didn’t know. Or at least I didn’t know I ‘knew’ him. Thanks to an alert MillersTime reader (KC), I was reminded of an article he wrote in the now defunct Gourmet magazine in 2004 entitled Consider the Lobster. So I reread the article — I think I had never paid much attention to who authored it — and was again amused and delighted.

Wallace had taken on an assignment for Gourmet to write about the annual Maine Lobster Festival, held in July in the state’s mid-coast region. No doubt taking a page from MFK Fischer’s wonderful small book, Consider the Oyster, (written in 1941), Wallace’s essay took the opportunity provided by the festival to explore an issue many of us who love lobsters and prepare them at home occasionally ‘consider’.

Trust me on this one. If you’ve ever ‘considered the lobster’ and if you like the writings of Calvin Trillin and John McPhee (a high bar I know), I suspect you’ll enjoy Wallace’s Consider the Lobster. And be sure to read the 20 footnotes which are really just an extension of this amusing and delightful essay and likely the only footnotes you’ll ever read with pleasure.

Rereading Consider the Lobster also reminded me about how much Ellen and I have enjoyed an annual weekend that has been centered around lobsters and friendship.

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Five Movies to Recommend

06 Sunday Sep 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 2 Comments

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"Althogh Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself", "Infinite Jest", "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation", "Phoenix", "Rolling Stone", "Rosenwald", Avalon Theatre, Aviva Kempner, Christian Petzoid, Conrad Anker, David Foster Wallace, David Lipsky, DC Shorts Film Festival, Documentarties, Films, Jason Siegel, Jesse Eisenberg, Jimmy Chin, Julius Rosenwald, Mount Meru, Movies, Nina Hoss, Renan Oztruk, Ronald Zehrfeld, Rosenwald Fund, Rosenwald Schools, Sears. Roebuck & Co., Shark's Fin, The Ciesla Foundation, Tom Cruise

Five more films to consider, including at least one that is available everywhere.

Phoenix ****

Phoenix poster.11191735_ori

Good filmmaking and very good acting make this suspense filled drama engrossing.

Writer and director Christian Petzold creates and tells a story about a woman who returns from a concentration camp badly disfigured and who undergoes facial reconstructive surgery. She then sets out to find her husband, who may or may not have been responsible for her arrest and imprisonment.

While the story has some implausible aspects, it nevertheless grabbed me and held me throughout. Both the women, Nelly (Nina Hoss) and her ‘perhaps’ husband, Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld), are intriguing characters, strikingly portrayed, and well acted, particularly Nelly.

Phoenix is not a thriller tho it is filled with suspense. Post-war Berlin is the setting, and there is something about the filmmaking that makes it compelling and enthralling.

Rosenwald****

In Case You Missed Some Summer Posts

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

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"Between the World and Me", "Cartel Land", "Go Tell a Watchman", "Love & Mercy", "Me, "Mr. Holmes", "Soy Cuba" ("I Am Cuba"), "Spy", "The Precious Ordinary", "When Marnie Was There", Early & the Dying Girl", Ellen's Lens, Ellen's Photos, Harper Lee, John Hersey's "Hiroshima", Kent Haruf, Marilynne Robinson, Movies, National Book Festival, Pico Iyer, Ta-Nehisi Coates

I thought I’d gather in one place a few of the posts you might have missed while you were enjoying the summer.

DC Area Book Lovers – Save the Date: a reminder about the National Book Festival that takes place here next Saturday, Sept. 5.

Why We Travel – Pico Iyer: one travel writers thoughts about why we enjoy travel.

Broadway as You’ve Never Known It: One very good and one terrific musical that are different from the ones you’ve known.

John Hersey’s Hiroshima: The New Yorker’s free on line release of Hersey’s recounting of what happen to six ‘survivors’ of the Atomic explosion.

Three Very Different Films: Mini-reviews of Cartel Land, Mr. Holmes, & Soy Cuba (I Am Cuba).

A Novel & a Memoir: Each Tells a Story Worth Discussing: Mini-reviews of Harper Lee’s Go Tell a Watchman and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me

Japan Through Ellen’s Eye: Photos from a recent trip.

Travels to Japan: On Being Schooled by the Younger Generation: Why it’s sometimes a good idea to listen to our kids.

Movies Movies Movies: Mini-reviews of Spy, When Marnie Was There, Me, Earl & the Dying Girl, and Love & Mercy. Plus, links to eight other films we saw in various film festivals over the past year that have now been released to the public.

Baseball Through Ellen’s Lens: Ellen takes her camera to a baseball game (Red Sox, of course).

Through Ellen’s Lens: A Weekend of Baby Sitting. More on the three grand children.

The Precious Ordinary: Reviewing four books by Kent Haruf.

Summer Fiction Update: Reviewing three by Marilynne Robinson.

“Why We Travel” – Pico Iyer

26 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Richard in Articles & Books of Interest, Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

"Why We Travel", Pico Iyer, Salon, Travel, Travel Literature, Travel Writing

glasses_antarctica

As readers of this website no doubt have noticed, we travel a lot.

In fact, we have been away almost (not exactly) as much as we’ve been home over the last year, in part because we’ve had a good deal of freedom since Ellen has retired from her professional work. (I got a jump on retirement, when about six or seven years ago I left the school a group of us had created in the mid-70s.)

Traveling has always been important to us. For more than 50 years we have made leaving home and exploring other places a significant part of our lives.

A number of years ago we were reorganizing our library and discovered the number of books relating to travel (guides and travel literature) was growing much faster than our acquisitions of professional books (education/psychology and political/governmental). Then, a couple of years ago we have had to build new space just to contain our travel related books.

In fact, travel literature is another way to leave home without having to step outside of the house. While I prefer to travel than to read about travels, there are a number of wonderful writers that fill the gaps between trips.

All of the above is to introduce an article I stumbled across a couple of weeks ago by one of the travel writers I enjoy — Pico Iyer.

Broadway as You’ve Never Known It

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

"Fun Home", "Hamilton", 2015 Tony Awards, Alexander Hamilton, Alison Bechidel, Best Musical, Broadway, Circle in the Square Theatre, Emily Skeggs, Founding Fathers, Jeanine Tesori, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Lisa Kron, Michael Cerveris, musicals, Ron Chernow, Sydney Lucas

I’m not really a Broadway musical kind of guy. In a ‘former life’ I certainly enjoyed South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, and, in ‘more recent times‘, I’ve also enjoyed such shows as Hair, Les Miserables and even Book of Mormon. Generally, however, I find I prefer dramas to musicals when we are looking for plays to see.

Last week made me question that preference a bit. We saw two musicals on Broadway that were outstanding.

Mind you they were nothing like the traditional musicals.

One was about a dysfunctional family and a suicide (Fun Home), and the other was about the least well known of our Founding Fathers who was killed in a duel (Hamilton), neither of them traditional material for musicals.

Fun Home has won five 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and Hamilton, which has just opened on Broadway, will no doubt and deservedly win every award for which it is eligible.

Here, in the order in which we saw these two remarkable productions, are mini-reviews of the best plays I’ve seen on Broadway in many years.

DC Area Book Lovers: Save the Date

12 Wednesday Aug 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

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Authors, Books, Busboys and Poets, Library of Congress, National Book Festival 2015, Politics & Prose

BOOKFAIR 17551409420710

(Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post photo)

If you love books and are in Washington this Labor Day weekend, don’t miss the annual National Book Festival on Saturday, September 5.

Don’t plan anything else for that day.

Three Very Different Films

30 Thursday Jul 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

""Autodefensa", "Cartel Land", "I Am Cuba", "Mr. Holmes", "Soy Cuba", 'El Doctro', Arizona Border Recon, Dr. Jose Mirales, Ian McKellan, Kathryn Bigelow, Knights of Templar, Laura Linney, Mathew Heineman, Mikhail Kalatozov, Milo Parker, Sherlock Holmes, Tim 'Nailer' Foley

We’ve seen three very different films over the past couple of weeks. Hopefully, at least one of the three may have interest for you.

Cartel Land ****1/2

large_MV5BMjE1MzI2MzcxOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTE2Mjk4NTE_._V1__SX1216_SY640_

A Novel and A Memoir: Each Tells a Story Worth Discussing

21 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 6 Comments

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"Between the World and Me", "Go Set a Watchman", "The Atlantic", "The Beautiful Struggle", "To Kill a Mockingbird", Harper Lee, Pulitzer Prize, Ta-Nehisi Coates

Here are two books that consumed me in the past week. I read them back to back and think there is good reason to read them together. They are very different in major ways, one being a novel that takes place in the 1950s and the other being nonfiction, a letter to the writer’s son, written this year. Both are short and both deal with issues of family, race, and society in our country.

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee, 288 pages

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Japan: Through Ellen’s Lens

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures, Family and Friends

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Buddhist Temples, Bullet Trains, Ellen Miller's Photos, Golden Pavilion, Golden Temple, Hakone, Hiroshima, Japan, Japan: Food Picture Slide Show, Japan: Summer 2015 Slide Show, Japanese Baseball, Kanazawa, Kyoto, Maiko Performance, Mt. Fuji, Nikko, Ryokans, Shinto Shrines, Takayama, Tea Ceremony, Tokyo, Tokyo Tower, Torii Gates, Tsukiji Fish Market, Tuna Auctions, World Heritage Sites, Yokahama DeNa BayStars, Yomiuri Giants

As I promised last week, below are a few of Ellen’s favorite pictures from our trip to Japan. If you want to see more — lots more — check out her slide show of 126 pictures.

While the 15 photos below mostly capture gardens and temples, our activities were hugely varied. We went to the Tsukiji Fish Market and Tuna Auction at 5 AM our first morning in Tokyo, wandered through the teenage fashion and anime centers, viewed the city from the Tokyo Tower, and took a hands-on sushi-making lesson. We were treated to a full-on Tea Ceremony and a Maiko (Geisha apprentices) performance. We soaked our weary selves at three different Ryokan onsens (hot spas) until we shriveled. We saw Torii gates, Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples everywhere we went (in Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Takayama, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, and Kyoto). We visited a Gold Leaf museum/factory and a Sake museum along with the Edo/Tokyo museum, a ‘float’ museum, and the chilling museums and monuments in Hiroshima. Of course, there was a baseball game in the Tokyo Dome where we saw the Yokahama DeNA BayStars beat the Yomiuri Giants. We traveled by car, by van, by subway, by train, including the bullet trains, by boat, and we walked at least five or six miles everyday. We saw Mt. Fuji (barely), lakes, waterfalls, bamboo groves, and the wonderful Golden Pavilion. Everywhere there were gardens — miniature gardens, Emperor’s gardens, temple gardens, strolling gardens, rock gardens, ancient ones and modern ones.

Travels to Japan: On Being Schooled by the Younger Generation

07 Tuesday Jul 2015

Posted by Richard in Escapes and Pleasures

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bamboo forest, Bohemian Restaurant, Geoge Nakashima, Gora Kadan, Hakone, Heiruki Sushi, Hida Beef, Hiroshima, Honkawa Elementary School, Ikuzi Teraki, Japan, Kakinuma Restaurant, Kanazawa, Kenrokuen Garden, Kyoto, Lake Ashi, Mt. Fuji, Nara, Nikko, Romulus Craft, Ryoanji Zen Garden, Sekitei, Takayama, The Golden Pavilion, Tofukuji Temple/HoJo Garden, Tokyo, Tsukijiki fish market, Wansato, Yakitori's Memory Lane ("Piss Alley")

golden temple

Once again our children (this time our younger daughter and her husband) have taught us a thing or two.

Although we have traveled much of our lives, we had never included Japan in those travels. My reasoning/excuse was a prejudice that it would be hard to get ‘inside’ the country (the way we have in India), and we would just be “visitors” there.

Well, I, should have known better. Almost without realizing it, we have been drawn to Japanese art and artisans. Two rooms in our house are furnished with the wonderful Japanese-American furniture of George Nakashima, and in our kitchen, our cupboards are filled with pottery, including our everyday dinnerware, made by another Japanese-American artisan (Ikuzi Teraki of Romulus Craft) who is located in Vermont. We also have two small Asian gardens, one outside of the kitchen and one outside of our sun room. And I just learned that my mother particularly loved Kyoto, something I may have vaguely known but clearly had forgotten.

Anyway, a while ago we suggested to our daughter Elizabeth/Beth and son-in-law Brandt that we take a trip together to a place of their choosing. They almost immediately chose Japan.

Promises have a way of coming due, and so we have just spent two weeks in Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Lake Ashi, Takayma, Kanazawa, Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Nara.

four of us