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When We Were Kings is not a great documentary because the director did anything different or special.  There are no gimmicks; it’s a straight forward documentary.  What makes it so great is the subject matter, the footage and the personalities involved.  This is of course the story of the Rumble in the Jungle, Muhammad Ali vs. George Forman in 1974.  Ali had recently taken a beating from Joe Frazier.  In turn, Forman put a huge beating on Frazier.  Ali wasn’t given much of a chance.  Forman was younger and much stronger.  That didn’t seem to matter to the fans in Zaire where the fight took place.  Forman was the overwhelming favorite, but Ali was the overwhelming fan favorite and it may have taken a toll on Forman.  Read the rest of this entry »

I just wanted to circle back really quick about my trip to Supercuts yesterday.  The lady who cut my hair did not do a “fine” job.  Looking at it a day later; it looks terrible.  It’s completely uneven and she gave me a little pocket mullet.  I would like to shave the whole thing off, but I am afraid it would never grow back.  Damn Supercuts.

WHY I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO:

  The lesbian couple that is always making out in front of my work building.  It’s not like they are anything to look at (it’s pretty brutal out there), but the fact that they can feel comfortable getting it on in front of everyone.  This isn’t just heavy petting going on…

I got a response from a friend regarding the post on 1/16/2009 where I gave a recipe for Old Kentucky Skirt Steaks.  Thanks for reading Kevin.  He said that I should start a cooking show.  I think that is an excellent idea and something I have actually thought about before.  The name of the show would be called, What’s Cookin’ Good Lookin’.  Here is how it would work.  It would be your standard Food Network type cooking show with a couple of very slight modifications.  The first one is of course that I would be the host.  I am a solid cook, with some good recipes and am very good in front of the camera if I do say so myself.  The setting of the show would be in a kitchen that is connected to a room with some couches, a TV and stereo.   There would also be episodes that take place in the back yard with the BBQ grill or smoker.  Nothing out of the ordinary, right?  This is where the Good Lookin’ part of the title comes in to play.  The second modification is that I would have some assistants.  These assistants would be two women (and I would obviously have about 5 or 6 that I would rotate in and out of every show) probably under the age of 27 and definitely under the age of 30 (no offense to you more mature ladies, I just need some girls who are better at taking orders) that wear very little outfits.  I mean very very little outfits.  We would have themes like tailgate BBQ where the girls would wear cheerleader outfits.  We could do a seafood theme where maybe one of the girls is in a bikini and we dress up the other like a mermaid and put her in a big tank of water in my kitchen.  Maybe a breakfast show where I cook the food, then get back in to bed and the girls can serve it to me in lingerie.  If you use your imagination here the possibilities are truly endless.  So if any of you out there have the means to produce a TV show or connections with the Food Network (or maybe the Playboy Channel), give me a call and we can make this happen.  This is a can’t miss, right?  Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first of two movies that George Clooney directed to make my list.  Considering that he’s only directed three all together, I think his track record is pretty good so far.  Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was based off of the book written by the main character Chuck Barris.  Considering that and the fact that it was adapted for the screen by Charlie Kaufman there is no doubt that it’s going to be filled with plenty of weirdness.  

If you don’t know anything about or never heard of Chuck Barris, he’s the guy who created The Dating Game, The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show.  Yeah, he’s partly to thank for all of the lame reality crap that turds all over your television screen night in and night out.  He’s well aware that what he made was mindless garbage; he even says so in his book.   Maybe that’s why he also says in his book that aside from being a game show host/ creator, he was also an assassin for the CIA.  Yeah, he seriously made that claim.  He says that while he chaperoned couples that won on the dating game on trips to such random places as Helsinki and West Berlin he let the couples do their thing while he was actually on an assignment.  According to him, he assassinated 33 people.  Is this all actually true?  Probably not.  Does it matter?  Definitely not.  Half of the fun of this story is the whole what the fuck aspect of it.  Barris obviously didn’t think much of himself or his accomplishments in real life so he felt it was necessary to include his imaginary life in to autobiography.   

You would never guess that this film was made by a first time director, and George Clooney of all people.  The story is sort of half autobiographical and half fantasy and Clooney does a great job of adding that surreal element to it. Some people may be turned off by the way Clooney plays with color, focus and angles; but I think it adds to this mind goof of a story.  Not to get lost in all of this talk about Barris and Clooney is the performance of Sam Rockwell as Barris.  If you have seen Barris on TV, you’ll notice the great job he has done in capturing him.  If you haven’t, you can just take this as a job well done on an interesting character.  Rockwell has gotten some good roles since this movie, but I often wonder why he doesn’t get more.  Maybe he’s just better as a character actor than a leading man, but none the less he is always good.  Drew Barrymore does fine as his hippie girlfriend that he doesn’t deserve.  Julia Roberts takes on a small role here as a spy and mistress of Barris.  She’s ok, but to be honest I can’t really stand her in almost anything she does.  She has this sort of, I’m a sassy bad ass actress attitude in so many of her more recent roles and it really gets under my skin.  She’s not in enough of the movie to do any damage so I guess it’s not even worth mentioning.  This is a fun and funny movie and gets a lot darker than you might expect it to.  Well worth the rent.

Because of the unseasonably warm weather I figured that some of you may want to get out and do some grilling this weekend before it (hopefully) gets cold again.  If so, you may as well do something easy but different from your basic burgers or chicken.  One of my favorite things to put on the grill are skirt steaks.  You can use them for tacos, teriyaki, something southwestern or something completely different.  Here’s a recipe for something on the completely different spectrum that is pretty hard to mess up.  I am not going to take full credit for this recipe, but I have made some tweaks and will give you some ideas to make your own.  I’m going to call it the Old Kentucky Skirt Steak.  If I am having people over I usually like to make my own sauce or dry rub so they get a little something different  and I also think it makes you look a little cooler than just using a store bought marinade or rub.

First, here is what you need.

½ cup of bourbon
½ cup of light brown sugar
1/3 cup of soy sauce (substitute with some Chaka zesty sauce for a little bit more zestiness)
2 tbs. of Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp. of Tabasco sauce (or add more for more of a kick, but these steaks are meant to be more sweet than spicy.  You can substitute with any kind of hot sauce or use some cock sauce.)
1 tbs. of Dijon mustard (If you live in SF and can get to Memphis Minnie’s BBQ, their mustard works the best.  If not, I would use a honey Dijon or spicy mustard)
1 tsp. of corn starch
2 or 3 skirt steaks

(OPTIONAL)
You can substitute the brown sugar with honey if you want to make a little bit more of a glaze, but I would still go with the brown sugar.  Or, just add 2 tbs. to a ¼ cub of honey.  It’ll sweeten it up quite a bit, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

1 or 2 tbs. of horse radish.  This I actually recommend, but some people can’t stand the stuff so I put it under optional.

Remember that the better the ingredients the better the sauce.  If you use some garbage generic bourbon or French’s yellow mustard it is not going to come out as good as if you use something like Makers Mark and some fancy mustard you get at a nice market.

What to do…

Combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl and thoroughly mix until all of the brown sugar has dissolved.  Smell the sauce, it should make your eyes water a little bit, especially if you use the horse radish.  Don’t worry though, the longer the sauce sits, the more the ingredients will mix and that will dull the booziness a bit.   Then dump sauce in a big zip lock bag or Tupperware.  I prefer the zip lock.  Then add the steak to the marinade.  (Note: skirt steaks are usually very long, so you may have to cut each one in half so they fit in the bag.    It is also easier to manage on the grill if they are a little shorter.)  Toss the bag in the fridge and let it sit for at least 2 hours.  I usually try to start the marinating in the morning if I plan to cook it that night.  Let the steaks really soak up that booze.  Pull them out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you are ready to cook.

Preheat your grill until very hot.  When it’s heated, turn down to medium hot, spray some Pam on the grill and toss on the steaks.  You should only have to turn the steaks once.  Cook for 3 (rare) to 5 (med) minutes on each side then pull your steaks and put them on a plate.  Loosely cover the plate with foil and let the steaks sit for 5 to 10 minutes.  It is important to let them sit to finish the cooking process.  Cut the steaks in very thin slices and you are ready to go.

You can do this inside on a grill pan or something too.  I just think it comes out a little better on a fire grill.

If you have a lot of people over, this is great for an appetizer.  Or for a smaller group it is an excellent meal.  Serve over steamed rice with a grilled veggie of your choice.

To Drink:

Serve with large quantities of alcoholic beverages.  That’s how I like to serve everything I cook, but I guess it’s still great without.  If you are going to have something to drink with this I do have some options.  If you are doing wine you have to go red.  Depending on how much hot sauce you use, this isn’t very spicy.  With that in mind I would go with a pinot or smooth cab.  If you are going to have some beers with it don’t do anything too hoppy.  Go with something dark, but probably not pale ale.  Something like a Bass, Fat Tire or Anchor Steam is perfect.

Hope you all enjoy.  It’s good stuff.

So I am obviously trying to get through the top 100 movie list at a little bit of a faster pace.  Anyway, just wanted to make sure that you know this site hasn’t turned in to a movie only site, I just want to get some of these out of the way so it’s not five years before I get the countdown finished.  On with the movie…

So this entry is for the original 1962, Frank Sinatra version of The Manchurian Candidate and not the 2004 version with Denzel.  I haven’t seen the new version and probably never will.  In fact, I plan to watch the original again sometime soon and am choosing to ignore the new one.  I have noticed that remakes are seldom as good as the original; and with a movie as good as this why did they even bother? Read the rest of this entry »

I absolutely love old private detective movies and this is the first one of many on my list.  The plot of this movie is so convoluted and confusing that I’m not going to go too deep in to it, but it really doesn’t matter. The Big Sleep has it all; the world weary private eye, the two faced femme fetale, the thuggish brutes, the out of nowhere plot twists and lots of people getting randomly offed.   This is classic film noir.  Everything happens in dark shadows, no one can be trusted and the world weary detective is none other than Phillip Marlowe who is played by none other than Humphrey Bogart.   Marlowe’s main love interest in the movie was played by his real life wife Lauren Bacall and the chemistry between the two has become legendary.  The movie was directed by the great Howard Hawks. Read the rest of this entry »

Regardless of the character he played, Paul Newman made it very hard for anyone not to like him.  If there is one exception it’s probably Hud.  Especially during this period of time, Newman played flawed and rebellious characters that were usually deep down good people.  That’s not really the case here.  Hud Bannon is the meanest and most selfish man Newman ever brought to the big screen.  Read the rest of this entry »

Hello everyone.  I hope you all had a good New Years and 2009 is starting out ok for you.  The first thing I want to do is apologize to the girl with the small head I saw at a bar on Polk Street last Friday.  I wasn’t making fun of her, but I was pointing her out to my friends and looking in amazement at how small her head was.  I am not one to talk.  I have a really big head.  I mean, her head was smaller than mine is big but none the less.  She was dancing, laughing and seemed to be having a great time.  So I think we should all be really happy for her that she hasn’t let that small head hold her back.  I think a good New Years resolution for me would be to keep comments about other’s appearances to myself; especially if it is a physical appearance that they can’t help.  If someone is really dressed like and idiot though or has made a really bad hair choice, I think a little ripping is still appropriate.  Read the rest of this entry »