Who's Making Love

Who's Making Love:

by Johnnie Taylor, who grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas (right across the river from Memphis, TN) and who died on this date in 2000. This song was recorded at Stax Records in Memphis.

Drinks in Art

Daily Art Magazine has an article on Drinks in Art which introduces its images with this:

What matters is always having a good drink within your reach. And there were a few painters who represented delicious (and dangerous) drinks in their artworks. So, prepare your tea, (or get a beer), sit back, and relax while I show you some of the most interesting drinks in art.

Click through and enjoy those lovely paintings. Such a variety! I'll be having tea:

Please share your own drink-related post and join us at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is a 2023 American fantasy heist comedy film based on the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, set in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. I know nothing about the game, though back in the '70s I tried without success to find somebody to play with. The movie is a straight-up adventure film, needing no knowledge at all of the game. Great fun, this movie. Nicely done, with good action sequences and comic elements that aren't detracting from the quest. Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Regé-Jean Page, Justice Smith, Sophia Lillis, and Hugh Grant star. I watched it on Paramount+.

trailer:

The Guardian calls it a "riotously enjoyable fantasy adventure." NPR has a positive review. 93% of Rotten Tomatoes audience reviewers loved it.

The Boogie Disease

The Boogie Disease:

recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis by Doctor Ross, who died on this date in 1993

Bon Cop, Bad Cop

Bon Cop, Bad Cop is an award-winning 2006 Canadian dark comedy-thriller buddy cop film about two police officers –one Ontarian and one Québécois– who reluctantly join forces to solve a murder. I watched it on Netflix at The Younger Son's recommendation and thoroughly enjoyed it.

trailer:

82% of audience members at Rotten Tomatoes loved it.

There's a sequel -Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2- that is also worth seeing. We watched both on the same night.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a 2022 Marvel superhero film. I confess I only watched it because I'm watching all of them. The Black Panther world is my least favorite of them all. Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. Critics loved it. I watched it on Disney+.

trailer:

Christopher Robin (2018)

Christopher Robin is a 2018 live-action Disney film starring Ewan McGregor as the title character now all grown up with a wife and daughter. We've always been Winnie the Pooh fans, and we even play Pooh Sticks every chance we get, and we thought this was delightful! I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it. They did a great job of taking the Winnie the Pooh characters and back story seriously while also giving grown-up Christopher Robin a solid reality we can get behind. I watched it on Disney+.

trailer:

Fear Street

Fear Street is a Netflix film trilogy. It's based on the R.L. Stine book. I was pleasantly surprised. You can watch part 1 here, part 2 here, and part 3 here. I made a marathon of it and watched them back to back.

trailer:

Reviews were positive. All 3 films get great scores on Rotten Tomatoes.

Green Tea: An Overview

Just One Cookbook has thorough and interesting information on green tea. They begin with this:

Green tea is synonymous with Japanese tea. It is the most consumed beverage in Japan, valued for its health and restorative properties. Drinking green tea (緑茶) is a custom that has been interwoven into Japanese culture, with almost every meal in Japan accompanied by a freshly brewed pot of green tea. It is a way of life and an embodiment of Japanese hospitality.

Before taking your next sip, let’s discuss the history of green tea, types of green tea, and the best way of drinking green tea for optimal health benefits.

Included are sections on history, types, health benefits and more. Most of this information was new to me, but I confess I don't drink green tea at all. I've had it in the past and enjoyed it, but I never included it as part of my life.

Please share your own drink-related post and join us at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering hosted by Bleubeard and Elizabeth.

Sherlock Holmes Day

Have a Happy Sherlock Holmes Day! Perhaps you might want to read about him at this Wikipedia article. From that article:

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

First appearing in print in 1887's A Study in Scarlet, the character's popularity became widespread with the first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine, beginning with "A Scandal in Bohemia" in 1891...

You could read one of the short stories online. An early one -A Scandal in Bohemia- can be read here. It begins,

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect reasoning and observing machine that the world has seen, but as a lover he would have placed himself in a false position. He never spoke of the softer passions, save with a gibe and a sneer. They were admirable things for the observer—excellent for drawing the veil from men's motives and actions. But for the trained reasoner to admit such intrusions into his own delicate and finely adjusted temperament was to introduce a distracting factor which might throw a doubt upon all his mental results. Grit in a sensitive instrument, or a crack in one of his own high-power lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a nature such as his. And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory.

Or perhaps you might want to watch one of the many adaptations. Wikipedia says, "It has been estimated that Sherlock Holmes is the most prolific screen character in the history of cinema." My personal favorite of the adaptations is the Jeremy Brett Holmes. You can watch The Speckled Band here via YouTube:

Enjoy the day!

La Cabina

La Cabina (The Telephone Box) is an award-winning 1972 horror short film. In the 35-minute film, a man becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him.

In December 2021 a replica of the red phone booth was inaugurated as a tribute to the film and its director Antonio Mercero close by the filming location in Madrid.

The Storm

The Storm is a short story by Kate Chopin, written in 1898 but not published 'til 1969. You can read it online here or listen to it read to you at the bottom of this post. It begins,

I

The leaves were so still that even Bibi thought it was going to rain. Bobint, who was accustomed to converse on terms of perfect equality with his little son, called the child's attention to certain sombre clouds that were rolling with sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a sullen, threatening roar. They were at Friedheimer's store and decided to remain there till the storm had passed. They sat within the door on two empty kegs. Bibi was four years old and looked very wise.

"Mama'll be 'fraid, yes, he suggested with blinking eyes.

"She'll shut the house. Maybe she got Sylvie helpin' her this evenin'," Bobint responded reassuringly.

"No; she ent got Sylvie. Sylvie was helpin' her yistiday,' piped Bibi.

Bobint arose and going across to the counter purchased a can of shrimps, of which Calixta was very fond. Then he retumed to his perch on the keg and sat stolidly holding the can of shrimps while the storm burst. It shook the wooden store and seemed to be ripping great furrows in the distant field. Bibi laid his little hand on his father's knee and was not afraid.

II

Calixta, at home, felt no uneasiness for their safety. She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm. But she felt very warm and often stopped to mop her face on which the perspiration gathered in beads. She unfastened her white sacque at the throat. It began to grow dark, and suddenly realizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors.

Out on the small front gallery she had hung Bobint's Sunday clothes to dry and she hastened out to gather them before the rain fell. As she stepped outside, Alce Laballire rode in at the gate. She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone. She stood there with Bobint's coat in her hands, and the big rain drops began to fall. Alce rode his horse under the shelter of a side projection where the chickens had huddled and there were plows and a harrow piled up in the corner.

"May I come and wait on your gallery till the storm is over, Calixta?" he asked.

Come 'long in, M'sieur Alce."

His voice and her own startled her as if from a trance, and she seized Bobint's vest. Alce, mounting to the porch, grabbed the trousers and snatched Bibi's braided jacket that was about to be carried away by a sudden gust of wind. He expressed an intention to remain outside, but it was soon apparent that he might as well have been out in the open: the water beat in upon the boards in driving sheets, and he went inside, closing the door after him. It was even necessary to put something beneath the door to keep the water out.

"My! what a rain! It's good two years sence it rain' like that," exclaimed Calixta as she rolled up a piece of bagging and Alce helped her to thrust it beneath the crack.

She was a little fuller of figure than five years before when she married; but she had lost nothing of her vivacity. Her blue eyes still retained their melting quality; and her yellow hair, dishevelled by the wind and rain, kinked more stubbornly than ever about her ears and temples.

The rain beat upon the low, shingled roof with a force and clatter that threatened to break an entrance and deluge them there. They were in the dining room the sitting room the general utility room. Adjoining was her bed room, with Bibi's couch along side her own. The door stood open, and the room with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious.

Alce flung himself into a rocker and Calixta nervously began to gather up from the floor the lengths of a cotton sheet which she had been sewing.

lf this keeps up, Dieu sait if the levees goin' to stan it!" she exclaimed.

"What have you got to do with the levees?"

"I got enough to do! An' there's Bobint with Bibi out in that storm if he only didn' left Friedheimer's!"

"Let us hope, Calixta, that Bobint's got sense enough to come in out of a cyclone."

She went and stood at the window with a greatly disturbed look on her face. She wiped the frame that was clouded with moisture. It was stiflingly hot. Alce got up and joined her at the window, looking over her shoulder. The rain was coming down in sheets obscuring the view of far-off cabins and enveloping the distant wood in a gray mist. The playing of the lightning was incessant. A bolt struck a tall chinaberry tree at the edge of the field. It filled all visible space with a blinding glare and the crash seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon.

Calixta put her hands to her eyes, and with a cry, staggered backward. Alce's arm encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him.

...

*******

Dark Waters (1944)

Dark Waters is a 1944 American Gothic film noir starring Merle Oberon. I'm watching it because it has Elisha Cook, Jr. in it, and today is the anniversary of his death in 1995 at the age of 91. Before he died following a stroke he was the last surviving cast member of The Maltese Falcon, which might be his most well-known role. He's one of my favorites. I watched this movie on YouTube, embedded below. You can also watch it on Internet Archive.

Killer of Sheep

Killer of Sheep is a 1977 drama film depicting the culture of urban African-Americans in Los Angeles' Watts district.

via Internet Archive:

It's on The National Society of Film Critics list of 100 Essential Films. Roger Ebert placed it on his list of Great Movies. Rotten Tomatoes has a critics consensus score of 98%.

A Brief History of Coffee and Tea

A Brief History of Coffee and Tea is an overview from the Mental Floss web site. It's adapted from this 18-minute video:

which is described on YouTube: "The history of tea and coffee touches on science, politics, culture, and more. Did you know that coffee doesn't come from beans? Or that the history of tea is directly related to the Opium Wars? Learn all about coffee and tea's fascinating history."

Please share your own drink-related post at the T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

Personal Shopper (2016)

Personal Shopper is a 2016 award-winning supernatural psychological thriller film starring Kristen Stewart as a young American woman in Paris who works as a personal shopper for a celebrity and tries to communicate with her deceased twin brother. I had trouble maintaining attention to it, I think because I expected more "thriller" and less haunting atmosphere. I should re-watch it. It got great reviews. I watched it on Tubi.

trailer:

Roger Ebert's site gives it a glowing 4-star review that concludes,

if you want to see a movie that offers thoughtful meditations on materialism and mortality, includes a couple of sequences so quietly hypnotic and stylish that Hitchcock himself would have bowed down in sheer admiration, and is centered around what is sure to be one of the best performances to grace movie screens this year, “Personal Shopper” is an incredible work that will continue to haunt you, long after it is over.

The Guardian says, "Stewart is outstanding as a haunted fashion-biz assistant in Olivier Assayas’s enigmatic ghost story and quarterlife character study." Criterion calls it a "melancholy ghost story" and "A stirring depiction of grief in the form of a psychological thriller".

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a 1986 teen comedy film I watched because it was on a list of top 10 1980s movies and it was one of the two I'd not seen. These "teen" movies and "coming of age" films just don't appeal to me, but -hey!- I'm willing to give anything a chance. It was more fun than The Breakfast Club and was definitely cute, but one of the best 10 from the '80s? What can I say? Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy. Everybody _else_ seemes to like it. I watched it on Paramount+.

trailer:

Spirituality and Practice closes a positive review with this:

Ferris Bueller was the Huck Finn of the 1980s. To be a teenager is to be vulnerable, raw, and anxious as well as confused about family, school, friends, and what tomorrow will bring. Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a fantasy that allows us to experience the mastery, the glory, the fun, and the power of being in control of our destiny for at least one carefree day of total freedom.

Empire Online has a glowing 5 out of 5 star review and concludes,

No other teen comedy either in the 80s or beyond would serve up such an innocent, generous, upbeat cheerfulness that would become unthinkable during the cynical 90s or in the slew of OOs teen movie homages. Life, as Ferris famously remarks, moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around you might miss it. Ferris Bueller is one of the things you should definitely make some time for.

Roger Ebert opens a positive review with this: "Here is one of the most innocent movies in a long time, a sweet, warm-hearted comedy about a teenager who skips school so he can help his best friend win some self-respect." Rotten Tomatoes has an audience consensus score of 92%.

Rosemary & Thyme

That "42" address appears in the middle of the 5th episode of the 1st season of the cozy mystery series Rosemary and Thyme.

Deep Dark (2015)

Deep Dark is a 2015 horror film about a failed artist who finds a way to create award-winning sculptures. I watched it on Tubi.

trailer:

Moria has a spoiler-filled review. Horror Cult Films calls it "a surreal, gripping tale of what one man will do for success and how partnerships aren’t without consequence. Dark, twisted and utterly captivating..." Bloody Disgusting says, "Boasting some excellent acting, a melding of fantastical ideas that work, and great skill behind the camera, Medaglia has crafted a strange fantasy horror film that capably uses an age-old morality tale as its base."

Window Water Baby Moving

Window Water Baby Moving is a 1959 Stan Brakhage experimental short film. The film documents the birth of the director's first child and is one of his best-known works.

via YouTube (but it's age-restricted and you'll have to click through to view the movie):

Image Journal concludes,

Window Water Baby Moving exists, like all the best works of cinema, as a record of love. It reminds me that such tender, romantic, passionate, and quiet love, even if it changes, even if it goes away, has existed. And in that reminding—the reminding that is, for me, the heart of cinema—it manages to exist in a kind of continual, mysterious, and eternal present.

TCM has information.