Haines His Way

Add to my TOD list:

Mr. Minnelli's "An American in Paris" -- exquisitely filmed in Technicolor, it's a joyous explosion of color and light and music.  The Gershwin score  is magnificently orchestrated and performed. By no stretch of the imagination a perfect film, it's overlong and has an Oscar-winning screenplay that was not worthy of a nomination.  What it does have is a glorious "I Got Rhythm" with Gene Kelly and some adorable kids, a hauntingly beautiful "Our Love is Here to Stay" pas de deux by the rvierside between Kelly and Leslie Caron; an infectiously delightful "I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise" with Georges Guetary on a stairway featuring director Vincente Minnelli's landmark lighted-stair-step effect; and one of the screen's great leaps of imagination -- the "An American in Paris" ballet featuring sets designed to  recreate great works by French artists brought to scintillating life by Minnelli, Caron and a terrific Hollywood corps de ballet.  There are dollops of kitsch, sappy sentiment, a rather sad  character played by Nina Foch, and more than  one or two groans liberally strewn throughout, but they never affect the musical presentation except, perhaps, in the numbers  featuring Oscar Levant...but then when did anyone ever capture the sardonic humor and wit that  Oscar  Levant  was supposed to have been famous for.  Dated, yes.  But its great moments are  truly great.

As for the Topic of the Day...

Off the top of my head - which is currently in a cookie-baking-induced haze - the three that come to mind right now for me are:

"An American In Paris"
"The King & I"
"Tommy"


And I guess I'd have to add my sentimental favorite - and source of my first audition song - "Flower Drum Song".  

DR Jose, those peanut butter cookies look yummy, baked just the way I like them.

I've been working on my reports and listening to "Windflowers: The Songs of Jerome Moross." Philip Chaffin began "Ridin' On The Breeze" and I totally lost it. It's like "The Cowboy Waltz" sung by Mr Guy Haines: somethng in the performance, the text, and the music reaches into your chest, grabs your heart, and tears it out.

DR Ron Pulliam and I will have to disagree on AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, even though my beloved Johnny Green worked on it: I don't like the musical arrangements, I detest the Big Ballet primarily because I think Irene Sharaff's work is ugly, I love Leslie Caron in everything but this. I did like Georges Guetary and Nina Foch.

Which reminds me, re the TOD:

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Time to do an Hasta La.

DR Cilla, I’m sorry about your squirrel.  In the past we have become attached to some of our backyard visitors.

Thanks.  I know it sounds goofy, but he was so unique.  It was definitely him.  There are a couple squirrels out there today, but none of them are even going near the bird feeder.  Twinkletoes would have been dangling there all day.  

I was searching for a pattern among the cookie sheets.  I thought I detected batches of 12, but then one batch had only 11, and a  couple of batches seemed to have only 9 or 10.  So....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

I guess the baker has some prerogatives.    

DR Ron Pulliam - I guess I'm flattered in a sense that you chose to pay such close attention to the "patterns" on my cookie sheets, so, in return for your attention, I offer you the following breakdown:

I ended up with 35 Peanut Butter Cookies this time round.  The original recipe actually yields 18 large(!) cookies, but cookies that large just don't seem conducive to "friendly" distribution.  So, instead of using a 2 oz. scoop/disher, I used a 1 oz. one which sometimes yields me 36 cookies, sometimes 37, sometimes 35.  By the time I had taken the picture, I had already bagged up some of them.*

As for the Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip-Pecan Cookies, this morning I ended up with 46 cookies - which would explain the batch of 10 on one sheet.  The original recipe - which I doubled this morning - is supposed to yield about 36 cookies (so I should have ended up with 72 cookies, give or take a few), however, I make them slightly larger than the "rounded teaspoon" called for in the recipe.  (Again, I used my 1 oz. disher.)


*Since I had forgotten to adjust my baking time accordingly due to the smaller size of the cookies I was making, I ended up with one sheet getting a little "dark" on the bottom.  So, as soon as that batch was cool enough, I went ahead and tasted one just to see if tasted burnt.  It did taste a little burnt, but more like burnt caramel, rather than burnt flour.  Needless to say, the over-baked ones are not going to the theatre, but they should be good crumbled over some vanilla ice cream sometime later today.  

DR Jane - The Peanut Butter Cookie recipe I use is sort of unique.  First of all, the dough is mixed up, then scooped out into balls, then those are placed in the freezer to harden up for at least 30 minutes before baking.  They have a relatively high peanut butter to flour ratio (1-1/2 cups of PB to 1 cup of flour), so they need to firm up a bit before baking in order to help their "spread" as they bake.  -The recipe also calls for 2 cups of brown sugar, 2 eggs, 12 tablespoons of just-melted butter, (and 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 cup of coarsely chopped peanuts),so it's a very loose dough and needs the time in the freezer to firm up.  -The very nice thing about this part is that you can also make up a batch way in advance, and then bake them whenever you want to have a just-out-of-the-oven peanut butter cookie.

Secondly, when the cookies first come out of the oven, they are still quite fragile.  They have to cool before you can pick one up off of the cookie sheet without it falling apart in your hand.  Otherwise, it would be like eating "molten" dough.  Ouch!

DR Cillaliz -

-Sorry about squirrel.
-It's nice to know you can relax and have a bit of fun this weekend.
-Paul's exhibit - and art, in general - sounds and looks wonderful.
-Your gift idea is sure to be something he'll treasure.

Thanks Jose. I appreciate it.   Time to get moving. I have many things to do before going to the art center and only a couple hours to get it all done.  

Your cookies look wonderful....

Laters!

DR Elmore:

You asked me about this the other day, and I'm happy to tell you that the second season DVD set of PSYCH will street (so sorry, DR George)

Yeasurewhatever.

I'm certain our esteemed BK could point out one or two of Miyazaki's ouvre as examples - I'm really only familiar with Spirited Away (my bad).

I'll say, "bad".

Also sitting on the shelves:

Howls Moving Castle
Princess Mononoke
Kiki's Delivery Service
Castle in the Sky

der Brucer

Quite possibly...from near the end of season one?

Yes, m'am, as in J. O'M.

Thanks.  I know it sounds goofy, but he was so unique.  It was definitely him.  There are a couple squirrels out there today, but none of them are even going near the bird feeder.  Twinkletoes would have been dangling there all day.  

Why Twinkletoes was so agile:

Quick and nimble, tree squirrels are able to make their seemingly gravity-defying movements through the trees primarily because of the structure of their feet and ankles. Flexible and rotatable, the joints of their ankles can instantaneously adjust to most any surface, while their slender toes with sharp, pointed claws enable them to hold on. Thus, squirrels can easily accomplish feats, such as descending trees headfirst, at an astonishing pace with very little effort.

I have my own version who constantly delights by hanging upside-down to nibble at  the caged  bird-seed bar. He also enjoys a total upside gymnastic to defeat the "squirrel proof" bird feeder that would close up if he stepped on one of the perches. Who said "dumb beasts"? (While he is engaged in enjoying the birds food, they, in turn, are making frequent trips to his squirrel food box to steal corn and peanuts).

der Brucer

Next, I finished watching APOLLO 13 on HD-DVD. Like '1776,' we go into the film knowing how it's going to turn out, and yet so craftily has the movie been put together that it's still super-suspenseful and a tremendously emotional experience watching it.