GI JOE Stop Motion

I went to the GI JOE Stop Motion animation festival at the BUG Theater last Thursday (It's been a hectic week so posts are behind...). This was the inaugural year for this small film festival. There were quite a few entries from around the country and some from around the world. The criteria for the festival was that the movies had to be stop motion and use GI Joe action figures (either the old school 12" kind, or the newer ones blown up in backyards around the country). Awesome.

There were some pretty funny shorts, it's amazing what people did with some GI Joes, a camera, some computer effects, and a little clay. I was surprised how many shorts had military themes. I would have thought an autobiography of Abraham Lincoln with GI Joe action figures would be pretty funny. The short from Taiwan was some mix of monster movie and an apocalyptic Eastern/Western religious hybrid vision. It was as weird and confusing as it sounds. My favorite of the night was "WAR American Style" which was a comedic view of a lineage of men from a family who fought and died (comedically) in every major American Military Encounter. John F. Kennedy cannibalising the rest of his life-boatmates was the most outrageous and funny clip. I'm looking forward to this next year, maybe I'll even have an entry.

Pena, a local indie instrumental group, played the intermission, they were loud and mathy - which i'm into- I'd see them again.

Food wise (last week) I made homemade hot and sour soup which was ok, the spicing and stock need some tweaking and I need to get better at ribboning eggs, but it was pretty decent. I roasted cauliflower (400 degrees for 45 min.) and made a Hoisin barbeque sauce, it was a good combination, I highly recommend it.

Going Going... Kong

We caught King of Kong tonight at the Stars Film Center in the Tivoli. The Tivoli is my favorite movie theater in Denver and it's got a special place now because they let us go in free because they started the movie early. Score. In any case King of Kong was so awesome. It unfortunately solidifies a lot of stereotypes of gamers (which are really entertaining). I had no idea about Twin Galaxies which is the official record keeping body of classic video games. These guys take it seriously. There's one dude who actually sits and watches video game tapes of people getting high scores. Can you imagine watching 3 hours of Asteroids? Ouch.

The film would be more comical if not for the hell that they and Billy Mitchell put Steve Wiebe through. The personalities and story are top notch in King of Kong, and the inclusion of "You're the Best" (from Karate Kid) during the montage really made it for me. The competition was fierce. I need to get a classic video game machine. GO SEE IT.

Sunny Garden and Obtuse Fortunes

We ate at Sunny Garden in the Safeway shopping center on Yale and Monaco. I've been hoping to find a Chinese restaurant in Denver that has fake meat on their menu. I thought all hope was lost, but a friend told me about this place. Their menu is pretty decent, it's not as extensive as Long Life Vegi House in Salt Lake City, or Budda's in Boston, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Alana got the Kung Pao beef, which was really good, and I got the Sesame Chicken (all fake of course). Their meat substitutes have a similar taste to the fake meats you'd find in an Asian market (duh) as opposed to the ones you would find in a Safeway or King Soopers. Mine had the distinctive flavor of the "black mass" found in some Asian meat substitutes. The sesame chicken was a little hard on the jaw because of the friedness of the balls of chicken, but otherwise it was delicious.

While we were eating, the hostess's little boy was playing pokemon with a friend. There's nothing like listening to 8 year old kids discussions. They would flip from Pokemon to divorce, to what grade they were in, to why his grandparents would take care of him - never a dull moment in the mind of a child.

The fortune cookies at Sunny Garden are incredible. Here's the one Alana got: "It's not the end yet. Let's stay with it." What are we supposed to do with that?! and mine was "It's up to you to make the next move." Indeed.

Mustard's Last Stand and a Quiche Were at a Party...

We had a potluck tonight (one of a few this weekend) and we brought my mom's world famous crustless spinach quiche. (I chopped the onions, my lady did the rest this time) I'm still undecided if I'm going to release this recipe to the world. Regardless, it's bitchin'. (I think my mom got it from a snooty Northshore cookbook in Chicago.) We were the talk of the party - that bad boy didn't last 10 minutes on the table. You can always judge how successful your food is at the potluck by how much other stuff gets eaten before/after your dish. We got there late and it was gone before mostly everything else. Sweet. I think potlucks are bringing out my competitive side. Unfortunately, this potluck had a lot of meat in the other dishes so I ended up hungry, which led me to Mustard's.

Mustard's Last Stand on University down by DU is usually the mecca of the veggie dog for me, but tonight they came up short. I rely on Mustard's to take me back to my childhood growing up in Chicago - with the exception that I get the soy dog now instead of the vienna beef. I got my dogs to go thinking that the tight wrapping of the wax paper would further steam the bun and make it the deliciousness of my childhood. Well Mustard's, thanks for the stale bun and the lackluster dog! I'm so disappointed, but I'll give you a second chance, I always do, it may have just been an off night. Steve's Snappin' Dogs on Colfax is quickly pulling up along side you, even though they don't use the right kind of buns for their dogs. Mustard's, if you're going to import the real Vienna Buns you could at least make sure they're fresh!

Hot Dog Idea: Barbeque Sauce and Coleslaw? I'll keep you posted.

TAKI TAKI BO BAKI

Dinner at Taki's was very good. I know from the outside this place looks like a crappy Japanese version of a Burger King. It's actually quite delicious. Two words: Real Plates. No plastic here, it's real plates, real silverware, real bowls, and real spoons for the miso soup. I had the tofu and udon bowl which was terrific. you get a bowl of soup as big as your head with big chunks of tofu, a good amount of udon noodles, vegetables, and tempura vegetables. It's about 6 bucks, which isn't bad. I had a side order of veggie gyoza as well, which are also terrific.

Alana had the tofu steak which we've found is served differently every time. Tonight the sauce was drizzled on the side, which is fine, but I think that when it's actually drizzled on the tofu it looks much better. Anyway, the moral of the story is eat at Taki's, especially if the sassy Japanese (I believe that's her ethnicity) in the beatnik hat is running the register. She's worth the price of admission.

Dinner & a Show Post 1: Delpy and Damascus

Blog post #1, here goes.

I am aware that usually it's dinner and a show, but we mixed things up tonight by hitting the show then dinner. It's a good plan, because then we could talk about the movie at dinner. It's genius I tell you!

The show was 2 Days in Paris - Julie Delpy's new film. You'll probably recognize her from Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. The movie played out almost like a Linklater written comedy. Adam Goldberg's character played a great foil to Delpy's neurotic French artist eccentricities. Overall it was enjoyable and quite humorous in parts. In my 10 minute deconstruction following the film I surmised that it was mostly about the truly important things happening in this world (war, racism, Bush's policies, American perceptions abroad) vs. the microcosm of your own life. I'm not sure what the overall thesis was, but this seems to be the ground it was treading. My only complaints are that Delpy didn't interweave some stylistic elements into the film as seamlessly as I'm sure she would have liked and at points her exposition is overdone. Overall it was a good flick , plus Alejandro Jodorowski's son was in it. Can you imagine growing up with Jodorowski as your dad?

Dinner was at Damascus, a Middle Eastern Restaurant which is located just south of 1-25 and Colorado. I hadn't been there before, I've been to a few other Middle Eastern restaurants in the mile high city, but not this one. Damascus was a pleasant surprise. It's located in a pretty beat up strip mall, but getting out of there for $20 after ordering the vegetarian combo platter, a falafel sandwich, and dolmas was a steal. The food is good, I'd say definitely better than Jerusalem, and on par, if not a little bit better, than Shish Kabob Cafe on Colfax. Damascus wins in the baba ghanouj category, but the prize for hummus goes to the reigning champ Shish Kabob Cafe. I'm not sure what they do to their hummus, but it's either a secret you wouldn't want to know or it's illegal. Service -wise Damascus wins, a kind older man that mumbled when he spoke was our wait staff and it was quite endearing.