So is this chicken perfect, or what?
I was inspired by Jeffrey Steingarten’s rapturous description of rotisserie chicken in his book The Man Who Ate Everything, and so I got one for my new grille.
The chicken tasted as good as it looks, though the cleanup was a little messy.
Apropos roasting, it’s what I’ve been doing for the last few weeks. As of Tuesday, we’ve had 12 days where the temperature hit 100 degrees or more. Then we had a new front move through that cooled things down for a couple days, but now the temp’s climbing again. By the weekend, much of New Mexico should resemble the skin of that chicken, only crispier.
And speaking of overheated, check out Interior Desecrations, featuring home and office interiors from the 1970s. Chill to the lavish use of Harvest Gold and Avacado Green! Quail at the ankle-deep shag carpets! Cringe at the— at the— what the hell is that, anyway?
From the same folks who gave you the Gallery of Regrettable Food, featuring grilled potatoes in cream, melon balls floating in Squirt, and Many Things to Do with Velveeta.
Oh, and on Karen’s recommendation I checked out Hum Aapke Hain Koun, hours of endless Bollywood froth with a punch in the eye in the last 20 minutes. Elder Brother is in an arranged marriage with Low Forehead Girl, but it’s okay, since they love each other. In the meantime, teen idol Younger Brother meets spunky Younger Sister, and they fall in love instantly. Naturally, this being a Bollywood film, nothing actually happens for about three hours, except that Younger Brother and Younger Sister get a lot of screen time in which they sing, dance, flirt, and dress in increasingly outrageous outfits. Huh!, I thought. A movie totally without conflict! Never seen that before!
Despite these two committing musical comedy with one another for hours, no one else in either family notices that they’re in love. Which becomes important in Act VIII, when Low Forehead Girl trips on her sari, falls on the stairs, and actually dies!
Holy fcking Krishna! They killed off the second female lead in a musical comedy!
Which means that hey, Elder Brother has to remarry, because he’s a busy executive, and he and his father, cousins, in-laws, Younger Brother, and a houseful of servants can’t possibly raise the baby on their own. And who should he arrange a marriage with than Younger Sister, who is in love with Younger Brother but will sacrifice her happiness for the little baby’s sake!
What this family clearly needs is a seminar on communication.
Anyway, thanks to Krishna, things work out, and in the meantime everyone gets to wear more fabulous outfits. The end.
Oh, I’m going to have to pick up this Hindi movie.
On a completely different note, have you seen OMKARA — Hindi version of Othello? It’s brilliant, with glorious cinematography and great acting. It also bucks a lot of the established Indian cinema assumptions. It’s set in modern day Uttar Pradesh, where provincial politics are run by gangs of criminals. Othello, Iago and their buddies are part of one of these gangs.
The actor who plays Iago is known for light romantic comedy, but he really chews up the screen as Iago. I got the impression that he was delighted to play a villain.
The few musical numbers are all performed by Cassio’s girlfriend, who’s a dancing girl. And apparently the lyrics of her songs are shockingly explicit.
Since the dialogue is in a rural dialect that most Indians can’t understand, the English subtitles are excellent quality. I can’t recommend this movie highly enough.
For Kelly, or anyone else who wants to watch Hum Aapke Hain Koun, you can watch the first twenty minutes for the setup, the last twenty minutes for the denouement, and skip hours and hours (and hours) of stuff in the middle. You won’t have missed a thing. Trust me on this one.
I watched it over several days, and the middle part was reasonably entertaining because I didn’t have to watch it all at once, and because I was working out on the elliptical machine at the time, and Indian musical popcorn is just fine for that.
Right now I’m watching the BBC series Hex. Is Cassie the stupidest heroine in television, or what? “Oh, I know this guy is a fallen angel who ritually sacrificed my best friend, but he’s really sexy, so I’m going to boink him anyway.”
Can we get rid of her and just make the show about the lesbian goth girlfriend?
Fortunately Ella the Demon Slayer has just turned up, so I suspect things may get a little more lively.
Philistine 🙂
It’s not a musical comedy, it’s a masala movie. Masala is a spice mixture; masala movies have everything. Love, comedy, action, singing and dancing.
Well, this one was a little short on action …
If you want Bollywood action, allow me to recommend Dhoom 2, which is full of frenetic meaningless action. Motorcycles. Explosions. Babes in bikinis. Great dancing by Hrithik Roshan.
Sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4kSLdussVY
Note strong MTV influence.
I =like= masala movies. I particularly like Asian movies because they can change the mood at any time, from light comedy to scenes of extreme brutality to farce to action, and all very fast.
It has to be saidm, though, that in Hum Aapke Hain Koun, all the masala is in the last 20 minutes.
Since you posted this I keep seeing Calls to Beer Can the Chicken everywhere. A book near the checkstand. In this week’s recipes. I went from never thinking about beer can chicken to thinking about it more than I want to.
Thanks, Walter.
Comments on this entry are closed.