1. I thawed two pork chops and built a braise to cook them in. I chopped up an apple and fried the pieces in butter and covered them with brown sugar and cinnamon. On top of the apples I place a sliced yellow onion and a several chopped up crimini mushrooms. In a bowl, I combined a can of coconut milk with yellow curry paste and one tablespoon each of fish sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. I had seared the pork chops and put them atop the apples, onions, and mushrooms and poured the curry sauce over the heap. I let this all cook for a couple of hours or so on a low flame on the stove top until the onions were soft. This gave the meat time to cook through, as well as the apples. I turned the heat off until later in the afternoon when we were ready to serve the meat and the braise, reheated, over rice. If I do this in the future, I think I'll chop up two apples instead of only one. I wanted more, not only of what the apple brought to the braise, but the brown sugar and cinnamon, too.
2. The other day, on Facebook, Doug S. posted that he was watching the movie, Once Upon a Time in the West. He called it one of his favorite westerns of all time, praising, in particular, Henry Fonda's portrayal of the bad guy and the movie's music score.
It's a movie I'd seen many mentions of and allusions to over the years while reading about movies, but I'd never seen it.
I decided it was about time.
I had watched the movie's opening sequence on Sunday night before I hit the sack.
It intrigued and mystified me.
I rewatched it today. I loved what happened cinematically in these first ten minutes: the postitioning of the three outlaws; the silence, broken only by a few spoken words, a creaky wind turbine, the buzzing of a fly, a drip drip drip of water from a ceiling, the jangling of spurs, and the cracking of knuckles.
The landscape is barren. Nothing really happens during these nearly ten minutes as single lines of the movie's credits slide on and off the screen. Honestly, I thought I was watching a western movie's version of Waiting for Godot, minus the witty repartee. Three outlaws wait. The camera alternates between views of the emptiness all around them, the fear on the faces of the two intimidated locals, and long facial closeups, long looks into the eyes of these outlaws and their soullessness.
I'll leave it at that. I don't want to give the story away.
I'll just say that once the story begins to develop, the mammoth stretches of empty land where this story takes place suggests spiritual barrenness, lawlessness, and amorality. Again, close ups of different characters' faces help us peer into the evil of some characters and into the insides of others who are more complicated. There's a haunted quality to Once Upon a Time in the West and, to further Doug S's point, what we see that haunts us is reinforced and deepened by the varieties of vocal and instrumental music in the movie's music score.
I think I first became aware of Charles Bronson when, in the 70s and 80s, I saw trailers of movies he appeared in that seemed to feature him as a vigilante or some other source of vengeance and violence. I never went to one of those movies.
I am almost certain that, until today, I'd never watched a full-length movie featuring Charles Bronson.
I thought his work was brilliant in this movie, especially all that his character told us about himself and his perceptions of things while speaking a minimum of words. The movie is, in many ways, built upon silences, built upon the long close up shots I mentioned earlier.
Charles Bronson, Jason Robards, Henry Fonda, and Claudia Cardinale, all played these silent moments beautifully.
As time goes by and as I reflect back on this movie, it's Charles Bronson who will occupy most of my thoughts, who epitomized the repulsion, admiration, fear, humaneness, and bravery that I thought this movie was inviting me to experience.
3. This evening, I wanted a change of pace after watching such an epic and often violent movie as Once Upon a Time in the West.
I hadn't checked in with Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II since I finished the first season of The Crown a while ago.
I returned today. I watched the first episode of the second season and enjoyed its juxtaposition of the Queen's family difficulties with the developing crisis in the Suez Canal as Nasser seizes its operation. By slight, but perceptible degrees, the Queen is maturing. The complexities of her trying relationships with both Phillip and Margaret are causing her to suffer. These difficulties chip away at her more innocent and youthful spirit. Her increasingly sophisticated understanding of the country's political matters is also evidence of her growth. Claire Foy portrays this incremental maturity skillfully.
My viewing went in another direction later in the evening as I watched DI Jack Frost lead the investigation into the death of one adult, the death of a boy, and a boy missing -- who was later found deceased. It was a grueling episode, focused on child abuse and pedophilia. DI Jack Frost often has strong feelings about his cases, but I don't think I'd ever seen him as angry as he was as this case developed and came to its conclusion.
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