complete and utter miscellany Fried chicken, fast food.. got to hold down the low end of the blog. I have a fried chicken obsession that is developing. Fried chicken used to mean Roy Rogers (back in the day when there were 2 or 3 Roy Rogers within as many blocks in Ardmore, PA) and then KFC. KFC is just too greasy and then they are always also Taco Bells and that smell! That smell of grease is just sometimes too powerful, I can't actually go inside. Powell's chicken in the Fillmore was a new find thanks to a fellow classmate. But I think their chicken (and fried okra) is just too salty for me. So then I tried Hard Knox Cafe down the street from me -- for $9 you get enough food for two meals. I wasn't super impressed by their collard greens or rice and beans, but their mac and cheese and their corn muffins are delicious. It's a funny little place, Southern joint run by asians. Recently I went to Popeye's for the first time. Y U M. It wasn't nearly as greasy as KFC tends to be, and it had that particular spicy kick that you can only get from chain fast food. However, when you reheat their chicken in the microwave, it loses its crunch and becomes very KFC-like. Next time I'll try the oven reheat. On other fast food -- are there other chains that emulate the In-And-Out model? Fresh ingredients, cheap barebones menu, and good pay? It's so successful out here I don't know why everyone isn't doing it -- and it's cheaper than McD's?? And naturally the one closest to me is in the same parking lot as Krispy Kreme. Talk about a heart killer. YUM. I've discovered the flea market -- apparently the one remaining flea market within city limits. This weekend for $4 I acquired an old Le Creuset frying pan and some measuring spoons. Pancakes come out spectacularly on cast iron. Has anyone used emusic? I signed up for the 50-free-download trial and it's fabulous. Wait what's this? I just found a link for 100 free downloads. Maybe I'll have to cancel and resign up.

first off, this has got to be one of the weirdest food-related sites i've ever seen. this project will give you an idea of what it's all about. tasty ... somewhat recently seen ... The Lady Eve (1941) preston sturges continues to impress. a popular auteur in his day (often writing the films he directed), he isn't as generally known nowadays as he should be. in this film, like his others, characters do things just a bit differently then you would expect them to in a film, but their actions are emotionally believable and oftentimes thought-provoking. his "romantic comedies" are what every romantic comedy should aspire to be: literate, witty, thoughtful, and memorable. definitely recommended. Sons of the Desert (1933) laurel and hardy flick. andy found a good L&H collection. this was the longest of the bunch (a bit more than an hour) but still packed with gags (including a scene where laurel sneaks bites out of fruit from a bowl at ollie's house only to find out that they were made of wax). hadn't seen any L&H before, and they're classics that are still funny today and def. worth watching. particular favorite moment was in "another fine mess" in which laurel and hardy somehow find themselves pretending to own a mansion, with ollie pretending to be the millionaire owner and laurel forced to pretend to be both the butler and the maid. Kurenai no buta (1992) (Porco Rosso) working my way through the miyazaki canon. as usual, miyazaki's obsession with flying and his anti-war preachiness feels overly familiar, but his animation is still thrilling and his characters are still completely endearing. this one, with a wonderfully improbable story about a pig pilot and his adventures, has jumped near the top of my list of favorites and makes me want to go back and re-watch the others. and although i know winnie isn't a fan of american dubbed voices, michael keaton does a great job as porco. i've ordered the 6-disc chinese set that winnie has (legit release i think, w/ 2 movies on each disc), which, having come out several years ago, lacks the american voices and extras of the more recent disney 2-disc releases, but will still be great. oh, and david ogden stiers continues to amaze me. he's done cogsworth and the narrator in beauty and the beast and the governor in pocahontas, but here he plays a wacky grandfather. The King of Comedy (1983) de niro impresses as a geeky, irritating wannabe stand-up comedian who, along with sandra bernhard, worships late night impresario jerry lewis to the point of stalking him. not a comedy, and not as visceral as it could've/should've been, but has its moments mostly thanks to the acting and the direction by scorsese. Young Frankenstein (1974) mel brooks movie that should've been way funnier than it was. cloris leachman was amazing though as the housekeeper, and the other two female leads were also pretty funny. skip this. Shimotsuma monogatari (2004) (Kamikaze Girls) if you like amelie i think you'll like this. this has the same sort of quirky humor, although the morals are a bit looser. the protagonist is an aloof daydreaming girl who's obsessed with wearing rococo clothes, while the girl that intrudes on her life is in a biker gang. has the larger-than-life characters and stylized action and reactions that i've been loving from reading manga lately. def. recommended. To the Manor Born (1979) another classic british TV comedy. this one has a widowed aristocrat forced to leave her beloved manor, only to see it bought by a supermarket mogul. a riot of class humor ensues. brisk pace, some good one-liners, and engaging leads make this worth watching (although andy has to explain things to me every other minute, like how to spell "fforbes-hamilton" which is supposed to be with two small "f"'s. yes, those brits are strange).