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John Carter and Writing Don’ts

Jun15

Title: John Carter

Cast: Taylor Kitsch (Actor), Lynn Collins (Actor), Andrew Stanton (Director)

Genre: Science Fiction (liberally)

Watched:  June 9, 2012

Summary: Dull and overdone (4/10)

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When I first saw the trailer for John Carter I was intrigued and full of questions.

What is this? How do those late 19th century western images fit in with the “other world” and alien thing? I liked the music. Somehow I felt I was supposed to know who the hell John Carter was. I didn’t. It took me months to find out.

And the irony is that I’ve actually read A Princess of Mars, albeit nearly thirty years ago, but failed to remember the hero’s name. Perhaps a hint that this even was Mars would have helped.

In any case, none of that affects the film itself.

I’m not going to describe the plot, but instead talk about what works and doesn’t. Fundamentally, I think it could have been a great movie — but it’s not. In fact, only the effects make it vaguely watchable.

The writing is a mess. We have about four different beginnings. The opening prologue is set on Mars with the bad guy (sort of) that is totally useless and out of place. This is an “earth man goes to other world” story and by opening with the other world completely pops the mystery bubble. I’ll try to delete that scene from memory. The next is better, a bit of prologue presumably borrowed from the book’s attempt at verisimilitude where we learn that the titular John Carter died and left his estate to his nephew. This includes a journal of his adventures. Then we cut back to said adventures a decade earlier. In a fairly useless bit of Western which attempts to introduce our protagonist (in our third segment!) he illustrates that he is a jerk, belligerent, and manages to get himself teleported to Mars via Arizona. From there there the real story begins.

Several basic rules of straightforward writing are violated: 1. Start with your protagonist. 2. Make him or her likeable.

Plus, the direction is forced and hamhanded. In an early scene on earth, JC is “shows” he is resistant to authority by repeatedly (and foolishly) trying to escape the US army officers who merely wish to talk to him. This is done in a series of cuts. I know what the director was going for, but he fails utterly. The sequence comes off as forced and cheesy. In general, the over bombastic John Williams style score tries to sell a level of drama that the script does not create. The net effect is that you know how you are supposed to feel, but don’t: Melodrama.

This is not helped by the “additions” to the original novel’s plot. For some reason, a bunch of manipulating shape-shifting priests of undetermined origin and purpose are working behind the scenes to manipulate the moderately byzantine political landscape of Barsoom (aka Mars). This does nothing but make the principal villain seem lame and stupid. In short, a tool. Scenes feel rushed and suffer from a level of hamminess reminiscent of 1960s epic films. The actors who played Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in the excellent HBO Rome reprise their roles as campy Martian versions of the same part. In every scene they seem to be winking at the camera, all while wearing diapers and leather straps.

Even the effects and sets, as gigantic as they are, seem recycled. Part of this is a form of reciprocal IP theft between Edgar Rice  Burroughs, George Lucas, and the producers of this film. Lucas lifted all sorts of feel and elements from the original novel for the Star Wars universe, and the John Carter producers felt the need to emulate much of the visual style he created. I don’t blame George, his world is a unique vision build from the parts of pop and pulp Science Fiction. But despite the extraordinary influence of A Princess of Mars, the John Carter film adds nothing to the genre.

That is not to say that it’s bad looking (diapers aside). The effects are well executed and the big open Western-style spaces impressive and moody. It’s just that without any real connection to the cardboard characters, it’s hard to care.

For my review of the original 1917 novel, click here.

For more Film reviews, click here.

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By: agavin
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Il Grano Birthday

Jun13

Restaurant: Il Grano [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

Location: 11359 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025. 310.477.7886

Date: June 11, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: One of the best Italian meals I’ve had outside Italy

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This year, when my birthday rolled around, I spent some time searching for a dining destination worthy of a full Foodie Club outing and finally settled on Westside Italian Il Grano. I’d been a couple years ago, but a tasting menu post by fellow food blogger KevinEats.com had recently drawn my attention. Kevin covers the history of the restaurant and it’s chef/owner Sal Marino and Chef de Cuisine Water el Nagar better than I can.


I called up Sal and arranged for a custom menu for the night. He was incredibly nice and accommodating. I asked if I could bring wine and he suggested I send him a list of bottles and he would stage the food to match. I love putting my Sommelier skills to work, and given my recent certification in Italian wine I went for an all Italian slate.


We began the evening with the 1996 Dom Perignon. Parker 98 points! “The nose gives intense toasty, biscuity notes with an underlying fruit character of warm strawberries, golden delicious apple slices, oyster shells and chalk dust. Very crisp, fine, youthful and fresh in the mouth, the finish provides layers of minerals, citrus fruits and a pleasant creaminess in texture and flavour.”


Il Benvenuto. A trio of amuse. Sal may be a Neapolitan Italian American, but Il Grano is anything but old fashioned. It features a very Californian (and Italian) emphasis on first rate fresh ingredients, coastal Italian cooking, filtered through modernist techniques.


“Liquid Spinach Salad.” This is perfectly illustrated by this amuse. Spinach puree that has been spherized along with a dollop of goat cheese, olive oil, and a bit of fruit gel. The flavors of this deconstructed dish hit your mouth all at once.


“Maine fluke tartar, boysenberry, green almonds.” Three simple ingredients, but quite a flavor punch. The sweet berry paired perfectly with the subtle bit of sashimi.


“Pistachio soup, exotic fruits.” And my favorite of the trio. A bit of candied, or at least caramelized, fruits…


And then the addition of this wonderful “soup” of ground pistachio (and I suspect cream). There’s also a bit of chili oil at the bottom. Intensely pistachio — in a good way.


Bread.


Our second wine was the 2010 Castello Ducale Falanghina Sannio. This is a simple, classic, Italian coastal white from Campania. Crisp acidity, bright fruit, and a good bit of sapidity.


“Gamberone: Tomato gazpacho, santa Barbara prawn crudo, GGL cherries, sal’s 1st of season heirloom cherry tomatoes, yellow corn.”


To this already appealing pile of ingredients is added a bit of classic Andalusian tomato gazpacho. The soup itself tasted pretty much like the version we make at home, adapted from Jose Andres’ recipe. Some of us sucked the head dry.


Charred red snapper instead of the prawn for the non shellfish cadre at the table.


And with the gazpacho.


2010 Nugnes Falerno Del Massico Bianco Vite Aminea. Another white from Campania, this was quite different, with far less acid and a much more aromatic quality. Very, very interesting bouquet.


A trio of crudo.


“Wild big eye tuna & cucumber caviar.” This lovely bit of tuna is graced with cucumber in the modernist form. The caviar is a bunch of tiny balls of puree coated in calcium alginate. Pretty wonderful.


“Japanese snapper & blood orange caviar.” And so was this Tai, with a bit of fruit.


“Hokkaido scallop caprese.” But best of all was this scallop, drizzled in olive oil and with a bit of burrata and heirloom tomato. Incredible fusion of Japanese and Italian flavors.


The scallop is substituted with salmon in this variant.


2007 Montenidoli “Carato” Vernaccia di San Gimignano. The current release is, yes, five years old from the first Vernaccia to be aged in Barrique from a fine selection of free run grape musts, one can taste and feel the Leroy influence here. Deep minerality floated in creamy clouds. Grandiose, wild, and important. Here’s a pic of where this wine comes from. I discovered it last summer while Eating Italy.


“Zuppa di Porcini: Porcini soup, seared porcini, spuma al gorgonzola.”


The soup itself had a pronounced vanilla bean sweetness which made an extraordinary match with the mushroom and gorgonzola. The strongly aromatic Vernaccia only added to the mix.


“2008 Nugnes ‘Caleno’ Falerno del Massico Riserva.” The Caleno Riserva is a flagship rosso from Nugnes and, once again, it over delivers. This meaty, full-bodied red is produced from Aglianico and Piedirosso, two historic grape varietals that are thought to have originally been planted by the ancient Greeks.  The nose opens with dark fruits with layers of coffee, cigar box, and roast meats with hints of earth. The palate has sweet blackberries, plum, tobacco and a note of pepper. This is a wonderfully earthy Campanian red.


“Calmaro con caponata: Monterey Bay calamari, summer caponata, apricot-saffron emulsion.” The caponata had a bit of veal in it. The calamari itself was wonderfully tender.


“Vongole e piselli: boston steamer clams, English peas, green air.”


Tuna is substituted for the clam in this variant.


2004 San Giusto a Rentennano Percarlo IGT. Parker 96! “The estate’s 2004 Percarlo (100% Sangiovese) explodes from the glass with a stunning array of aromatics that meld seamlessly onto the palate, where endless layers of fruit burst forth in a composition of exquisite balance and sensuality. Packed with sublime, expressive notes of black cherries, minerals, menthol and licorice, it is an utterly captivating wine in every way. The 2004 Percarlo is without question one of the vintage’s finest wines and shows the heights Sangiovese is capable of reaching. Though irresistible today, readers who want to experience this wine’s fullest potential may want to wait a few years.”


“Prosciutto di Quaglia: House made quail prosciutto, Murray Farms summer berries, taleggio.” Not your everyday Turkey Bacon! The combo of quail, fruit, and sharp cheese was a wonderful reinterpretation of classic carpaccio.


The no meat crew received asparagus.


With asparagus soup.


2004 Le Potazzine Gorelli Brunello di Montalcino Riserva. Parker 93. “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva, from vines in Castelnuovo dell’Abate, is gorgeous, layered and elegant in its violets, tar, licorice and cherries. The finish is long and impeccable, but this is a somewhat ethereal style, with aromas and flavors that are already a touch forward relative to most 2004 Riservas. Ideally the wine is best enjoyed within the next decade.”


“Spaghetti con funghi, piselli e fave: Fresh egg pasta with our pancetta, chanterelle, pom poms, english peas and fava beans.” This wonderful pasta is in the “ham and pea pasta” family. A classic Italian variant can be seen at this restaurant in Modena. Of course everything is better with bacon, but Sal and crew add a smokey mushroom note and tone down the heavy cream / parmesan vibe. Really first rate.


The vegetarians, sadly, miss out on the bacon.


2003 Conti Boca, a new favorite of mine. “Shimmers on the palate with layers of fruit, mineral, and herbs. Stylistically the 2004 is a much more expansive, generous wine than the 2005, with layers of fruit that radiate with notable energy through to the mineral-laced finish. This fresh, vibrant and impeccably pure wine is a jewel.”


“Risotto alle Spungnole e fegato grasso d’oca: Acquarello organic carnaroli risotto, morels, shaved foie gras.” The “forest floor” and mushroom notes of the wine sung perfectly with this incredible risotto. Certainly it was one of the best risotto’s I’ve had in recent memory, up there with Roberto Cortez’s stunning coffee/Syrah version. The bits on top. Not truffles, but foie gras!


1997 Barolo Bartolo Mascarello. A stunning showing from this mature barolo. Parker gives it 94 points and says “I underestimated this wine from barrel, but now that the great old man of the village of Barolo, Bartolo Mascarello, has gotten it in bottle, it is an impressive, old style, heavyweight effort that will age for three decades. A dark plum/garnet color is accompanied by a striking bouquet of cinnamon, balsam wood, roses, tar, minerals, and cherry liqueur. There is good acidity, a broad, full-bodied, super-concentrated palate, and tell-tale truffle, leather, and dried herb notes. Powerful and long, this well-delineated, gorgeously pure, structured Barolo is a classic from the old school of Piedmontese winemaking.”


“Pappardelle al cacao con sugo di coniglio: Homemade cocoa pasta with hand cut rabbit ragout, apricots.” Sweet and savory!


Purple potato gnocchi with squash blossoms and butter sauce.


“Salmone: Copper River salmon sous vide, baby purple artichokes, suchoke puree.” This had that awesomely smooth sous vide texture. Medium rare, but even, and incredibly soft. Sal couldn’t stomach the idea of us pairing the salmon with my next wine (the Amarone) and threw in a round of pinot noir to match!


2008 Latium Campo Leon Amarone. I thought a rich Amarone would pair nicely with the cheese, they are after all a bit port-like, the grapes being pressed after drawing on straw mats in the sun (into raisons).


Apricot sorbetto for pre-dessert!


“Il Formaggio: Rinconada Dairy sheep’s milk cheeses, black truffle soft pecorino, asiago stagionato, Carol’s dry fruit cake.” A very nice little cheese plate. I liked the peppery “jelly” in the middle.


2006 Terre di Pantelleria Khareb Muscat Passito di Pantelleria. This famous passito is from an island off the coast of Sicily and is like apricot nectar.


Fresh summer fruit: Apricots, berries, strawberry. I have to say these were some of the best fresh fruit I’ve had in a long while!


“Panna cotta alle cilege: Cherry pannacotta, cherry crumble, cherry spherification.” Wow. This wasn’t a super showy dessert in the usual sense, but instead a really nice showcase of the in season cherry. Really delightful.

I was really blown away by this meal at Il Grano. It was everything I like: showcasing bright ingredient driven flavors, with numerous standout dishes, impeccable and surprising combinations, and just plain tasty. Combined with the epic twelve bottle tasting flight (you’ve never seen so many glasses on a table), it was a fantastic meal and birthday. Really, on par with the top 2-star Italian restaurants I enjoyed last year in Italy like Osteria Francescana, La Frasca, or Arnolfo. Il Grano is less formal, but the food was just as innovative, and perhaps more reliably delicious. Sal and staff were impeccable hosts too. They really pulled out all the stops, even recovering deftly from some minor goofs (involving which special needs diner got what). I find the kind of grace under pressure and flexibility they demonstrated to be hallmarks of really great restaurant experiences.

We’ll be back soon. I’m sure Il Grano knocks a normal dinner for two out of the park as well, but if you can, go tasting!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Or experience my gluttonous month-long journey through Northern Italy.

Or more crazy Foodie Club meals.

Related posts:

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By: agavin
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Snow White and the Huntsman

Jun11

Title: Snow White and the Huntsman

Cast: Kristen Stewart (Actor), Charlize Theron (Actor), Rupert Sanders (Director)

Genre: Fantasy

Watched:  June 6, 2012

Summary: Surprisingly excellent (9/10)

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I have to admit that the trailer for this film had me cautiously excited. It exhibits a certain style of fantasy storytelling that appeared cool and unique. Serious, yet referential to the source material. Visually original, but not silly. Still, I was worried. The bit about “from the producer of Alice in Wonderland” did nothing to reassure. That movie was so wretched I turned it off during the mind numbing final battle.

Oh, and despite my distaste for Twilight (I cover all four films and novels in detail) I’m actually a non-so-closeted Kristen Stewart fan. In fact, she’s the only thing that makes the sparkly vampires and talking wolves bearable. Plus, her work in the excellent and underrated Adventureland is top notch.

Snow White isn’t a perfect film, but it is a damn good one with a lot going for it. While the movie is a special effects showcase, the writing is fundamentally story and character driven. It has one of those flashback beginnings like the far inferior Dark Shadows (2012). This part of the film probably could have been cut and replaced with a few quick flashbacks, but once we’re into the present day it’s highly engaging.

The weird mythology and power of the wicked queen is complex and well developed. Visually she’s very effective even if Charlize Theron does deliver some of the cheesiest lines in the film. She looks great but her dialog is hit or miss. Some are great like the “mirror mirror” conversations. Her character is megalomaniacal to the extreme and lends toward overacting.

K. Stew employs her trademark naive and self-depreciating boldness. It works for me as it always does. Hemsworth is big, confident, and evocative of young Sean Bean in his comfortable portrayal of the Huntsman. The Queen’s brother is creepy. The dwarves surprisingly effective (who doesn’t love Ian McShane?).

This film could have easily gone bad in a number of ways. It could have been an incomprehensible and undeveloped special effects fest. We could have had a 45 minute all-CGI all-boring final battle. We don’t. We have a final battle, but it centers around Snow White and the Queen and the mutual nemesis factor. The film takes itself very seriously, yet is full of totally weird mythology. It could have descended into total camp or the incomprehensible. It doesn’t. Snow White strikes a balance between character, action, mythology and the like.

On an effects note, there is some really stunning work here. For all the over-the-top graphics, some of it is very understated. For example, the eight (soon seven) dwarves all have the faces of well known actors like Ian McShane and Bob Hoskins. I don’t know if they filmed real little people and then grafted on filmed faces or formed incredibly realistic computer models of each actor to composite in, but it looks great. Unfortunately, this does have the effect of putting short but talented actors (like the amazing Peter Dinklage) out of a job. Some of the made up sets like the fairy enchanted forest also have a fey quality, somewhat reminiscent of Pan’s Labyrinth or Hellboy II, that frankly took my breath away. Yeah, I’m a Dark Crystal kind of guy, but it’s good stuff.

Overall, it’s nice to have more well done serious fantasy. Bravo.

For more Film reviews, click here.

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By: agavin
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Diablo 3 – Barbarian 1-60

Jun08

I used the Diablo 3 Beta as a chance to explore each class, but my first 48 hours with the real game were thwarted by the login boss. Blizzard clearly had a few problems out of the box, but by Wednesday or Thursday things were mostly stabilized.

I rolled a Barbarian as my main. Thematically, I’m more a Witch Doctor type, but I didn’t love the indirect style of gameplay so I debated Barbarian or Wizard. Both were fun to play, but ultimately I went with the Barbarian because he seemed tougher (theoretically less dying) and his “jump right into the middle and kill” style was very satisfying. Over the next three weeks I played through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell, and have just started on Inferno.

Normal Mode

The game is pretty easy on Normal Mode, probably easier than Diablo II (it’s hard to remember). Personally I think the difficulty here is about right, there’s really no reason to be punitive given the game is intended to be played multiple times. A couple mechanical changes make for less downtime than previous games: You don’t have to corpse run. All you lose when you die is a bit of time and the cost of repair. Champions save the health you left them with, so zerging is possible. In normal I barely died, perhaps only 5-6 times.

Each play through took about a week of fairly casual play, with the increasing difficulty being matched by increasing familiarity. The end of Act I and Act II seemed the hardest. Bosses seemed pretty easy. Act IV very easy.

Game Size

The game is long and very linear. It feels about the right length. Acts I and II go on and on. Even on the second and third play throughs I kept saying to myself “oh yeah, this again” as I had forgotten all the varied sub areas. The random generation does mix it up fairly well. I, myself, usually explore every level completely, milking every last chest, monster, and elite out of it. This makes the game considerably easier than if you force ahead at the fastest rate. The way I did it, the leveling was perfectly paced, I reached level 60 just as I hit the last boss of Act III on Hell Mode.

Plot

The plot as told in D3 is a bizarre mix of voice over quest text and three kinds of FMV. There is a brown ink on parchment style, in game boss talk, and the fully rendered advanced CGI style. I found only this last compelling. The full-rendered character models, notably Leah, are pretty awesome. So are the angels. The boss speeches are pretty laughable, almost Scooby Doo style. “Muuuhahhaha. Now I have become the prime evil!!!!”

The quest structure is pretty good, if entirely 100% linear. You can skip everything for repeat listening (or not). I also enjoyed the comments of the companion followers. They are well acted and occasionally amusing. Still, they do get a bit repetitive.

None of this detracts much from the game as it’s more about the combat and the overall mood than it is about the specifics of character and plot. Nevertheless, as a writer I suggest that Blizzard could use to… ahem… hire one. This is no Uncharted with regard to story.

Barbarian Build 1

It takes until about Act II of Normal Mode to really get enough of your skills for a full sense of the class. Once you do, the Barbarian is a real badass. Wading into a giant group of trash is very satisfying. Blood and bodies fly everywhere. I tuned my first build for maximum AOE damage output. Given the difficulty level of Normal this was fine even for champions and most bosses. Occasionally, I had to swap a skill for bosses.

Cleave (usually with Rupture) – This is a no brainer, it’s the AOE fury builder

Either Rend (usually with Ravage for extra range) or Seismic Slam (with Stagger) – More AOE. Rend is a little more practical, particularly against elites and bosses, but SS is so much more fun. It’s particularly exciting with huge groups of mobs.

Leap (with Iron Impact then Call of Arreat) – Great for opening a fight, or getting a brief stun, or escaping

Revenge (with Vengeance is Mine or Best Served Cold) – a combo fury-free heal/aoe

Battle Rage (with Marauder’s Rage) – a pure damage buff

Call of the Ancients (with the Council Rises) – If you get overwhelmed, this will sop up some monster attention and burn them down

Passives: Ruthless, Weapons Master, and Berserker Rage or Brawler – all of these are straight DPS increases

Follower: Enchantress, speced for buffs and DPS

For bosses I would sometimes swap Cleave out for Frenzy (Sidearm) for more single target DPS and COTA for Wrath of the Berserker (Insanity) to burn bosses down.

This basic build served me fine through all of Normal and Nightmare.

Nightmare

The second difficulty level doesn’t really feel any harder than the first. It’s more fun too because you have a much more complete set of abilities. In general, in both Normal and Nightmare, I would kill bosses in one try, maybe two. I barely noticed champion packs and would usually only die if I caught an Elite or Champion at the same time as a huge pull of trash mobs.

Hell

In Hell Mode, after the Skeleton King, things start to change. Suddenly, champion packs of three start to become a problem. Single elites and their minions can also be tough, but generally I found these much easier than champion trios with certain abilities. In Diablo, champion packs (usually 3) and elites roll from certain sets of abilities. Generally, they will have three or four. For melee classes like the Barbarian some of the worst are: Molten, Plagued, Fire Chains, Waller, and Frozen. If one of these movement impairing or area of effect skills is combined with something like Horde, Extra Health, Illusionist, or Shared Health it can be a real problem. Lethally a movement impairing effect, an AOE damage, and a health/numerical increase. The strategy here is to pick off the minions and then focus down one of the three champions, all the while keeping out of the deadly stuff. In Hell Mode, even a well equipped melee can die in seconds if trapped inside the bad zones.

By the post Skeleton King section of Act I, the “real bosses” (uniques) are no longer the problem. It’s these champion groups.

Build 2: Dealing with Hell’s Champions

For a while, in late Act I and early Act II Hell Mode, I was dying too often. Clearly I needed more survivability.

Cleave (with Broad Sweep) – I still wanted an AOE main as there are far to many enemies to single target down

Hammer of the Ancients (Smash for max damage) – This turned out to be a more useful way to spend fury. It allows for slamming down champion and elite health in a more focused manner

Ground Stomp (with Wrenching Smash) – This turns out to be a pretty awesome skill. Against trash it’s a great way to gather in a group for Cleave or Revenge and against champions it allows you to keep them stunned — briefly.

Revenge (with Best Served Cold) – a combo fury-free heal/aoe. The increased Crit helps you really smash and destroy

War Cry (with Invigorate) – exchanging the damage buff for this increased armor really helped survivability, and even better it has a self heal.

Furious Charge (with Dreadnought) – A short cooldown escape/closer with a heal and stun. This extra heal (besides your health potion) can really keep you alive.

Passives: Ruthless, Weapons Master, and Nerves of Steel – Replacing the last DPS buff with increased armor and gemming and gearing for more Vitality, Lifesteal, and Health per second really helped keep me alive.

Follower: Templar, specced fully for healing. Really, as a Barbarian, anything that heals you is good. If you can stay alive, you will prevail. The Templar also has a nice WOW Warrior style charge and stun.

For bosses, I would usually change out Cleave for Frenzy (Sidearm) and Ground Stomp for Wrath of The Berserker (Insanity). But at level 60, the need to keep up the Valor stacks (which reset when you spec) made me stick with the usual build. It wasn’t a problem, just without WOTB bosses took a bit longer.

This build worked wonders for my Hell Mode champion problem. With the first build, I would die again and again on certain champion abilities. Once I learned to play this build, use everything on cooldown, and keep moving, I rarely died more than once or twice on even a tough group.

Gear

One of the weird things about gear in D3 is that while rare drops come in a fairly steady stream and blues are a dime-a-dozen, it’s very unusual to find an upgrade in the game. The gear available on the auction house was almost always better and cheaper than finding or making it in game. I suspect this is because of the random factor. As a Barbarian (or any class) you only really want certain stats. Any Intelligence or Dexterity (or a host of other stats) on gear is near useless. The odds of perfect Barbarian gear dropping is low. But with millions of players the AH is choked with it. Same goes with the crafting. At first in Normal Mode I leveled the Blacksmith. But it gets very expensive by Nightmare and for the cost of just one skill level you can buy one or two better things on the AH. This trend, frustratingly, seems even more true in Inferno. You have to play inferno to earn gold to buy better gear on the AH, not to actually win better gear (unless you are very lucky). I don’t think this will be good for Inferno. The relationship between play and reward is too disconnected.

Inferno

I’ve only had a day or two to play Inferno and have only done so in the easiest section of the game, but it’s clearly a lot harder. Even normal trash hits for a wallop. I came across a champion pack with Fire Chains, which along with Molten, are my least favorite. They crushed me. You have to get in close as a Barbarian to do any damage and they just cross those chains over you — near instant death. If this persists I will experiment to changing all my passives to survival and stacking my gear with more resists. Still, I think it will be hard.

My guide/discussion to Barbarian Inferno play is in a separate post.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer system is great for hooking up with your battlenet friends. I did a bunch of that. I found cooperative a little slower, but perhaps more fun, than solo play. You often have to wait for the other person to do something, or go back to town and sell, etc. In solo, things go at your own pace. I played a couple of times with mismatched levels. This works but isn’t very fun. It was either hard to stay alive (if I was too low) or way too easy (if I stepped down). I suspect that once a bunch of my friends reach Inferno it will be easier. I was often concerned with not messing up my solo game or having to repeat. If you exit the game to join another and you aren’t at a checkpoint you’ll have to backtrack a little to wherever it lets you reset the quest to.

I also think to progress in Inferno will nearly require group play. We’ll see.

Overall

The game rocks. As I mentioned in my beta preview, it isn’t the most graphically advanced game. The camera is incredibly conservative and never changes POV. But the game is impeccably smooth and the responsiveness of the skills and varied monster deaths are awesome. The overall feel is exciting and it’s extremely gratifying to destroy demons en mass. Stuff destroys all over the place too, which is awesome. Class balance is also very good with a wide number of cool and useful abilities and play styles. Most games are really lame in this department and it doesn’t really seem to matter which skills you use and how you combine them. Not so here, there are all sorts of interesting synergies and the builds feel distinct.

Makes me wonder if I should level a Wizard!

Continue reading about my Inferno Mode experience here.

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  5. Diablo 3 – Commercial
By: agavin
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The Last of Us – E3 Gameplay Coverage

Jun06

E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo) has bought us an extensive new gameplay coverage video for Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic survival game, The Last of Us. Aside from the recently released Diablo III, this is my most anticipated upcoming game, and I suspect I’m not alone.

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By: agavin
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Obika Mozzarella Bar – Mall Good

Jun06

Restaurant: Obika Mozzarella Bar

Location: 10250 Santa Monica Boulevard, Upper Level, Los Angeles, CA 90067

Date: March 3, 2012

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: It’s in a mall, but it’s actually pretty darn good

_

The day I took my Italian Wine Specialization exam a bunch of us went to lunch. I passed the test, but I didn’t know it then so was both stressed and in serious pain from my recently broken wrist.


One of the instructors, Diego (he’s not pictured, above is Stefano), took us to Obika Mozzarella bar in the Century City mall. I usually loathe mall restaurants, and I detest the parking at CC for sure, but this place turned out to be a surprise.


The inside is clean and modern, fairly small.


People brought wine. Big surprise! I wasn’t in the know before hand so didn’t have a chance to divest myself of some of my oversupply. These were all Italian, of course, and generally fall into the camp of really good terrior focused inexpensive wines. A few of these whites were really interesting. “The San Vincenzo is a fat, generous white with plenty of ripe apricots and peaches. The soft, caressing style flows through to the long, pretty finish.” It blew away your boring Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio.


This one is from Basilcata, a province in the insole of Italy I didn’t even know about before taking my class, but have recently become very fond of.


We began the meal with traditional meats and cheeses. Above is salami, proscuiotto, and mortadella di Bologna.


And the cheese, left to right, Burrata from Apulia, Buffalo Mozzarella from Campania, and smoked Mozzarella.


My plate. Good stuff. I love me some proscuiotto wrapped mozzarella (which I often had in Napoli), but truth be told, Burrata is best.


This Alto-Aldige white is pretty much in the Austrian style, but perhaps with a bit more Italian flair.


Because straight up mozzarella isn’t enough, we had both kinds fried with some fried artichokes as well. The smoked in particular was very yummy.


And this salad, a salmon, mozzarella, avocado, arugala salad. You’d NEVER see this in Italy, but it was surprisingly delicious.


You wouldn’t really see this either, burrata with beets, pine nuts, spinach, and balsamic dressing. It was great too, and you do find variants of these combinations all over LA. It’s typical that we American’s reinvent with Italian ingredients but without regard to their traditional pairings and forms.


A vegetable pizza. The crust was good. I would have liked to taste the sausage pizza, but such was not to be.


Diego was very excited for this buttery Risotto Milanese. Just straight saffron, good rice, butter, and cheese. Very rice and tasty.


Primitivo is also a rarely seen wine here in the states. It’s a relative of Zinfandel (the red, not the white), and has an incredibly fruity/spicy lushness. Very typical of Apulia, on the heel of Italy.


And finally, this Barbera D’Alba. “The Barbera d’Alba Superiore offers up dark cherries, flowers and licorice. The Superiore has a little bit more mid-palate juiciness and presence than the straight Barbera, but remains very much a classically built wine. I especially like the plush finish for its sheer sexiness.”


Out front they show off the meats. Only a few compared to some places in Emilia-Romagna which are graced with about 20 pigs worth.


And tubs of mozzarella (smoked).


And “plain.”

We didn’t really try and entrees. This was a “light lunch” and the meat, cheese, and simple risotto were more tuned to show off the wines, but if you’re catching a movie in Century City you could do far far worse than catching a bite here.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

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By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 20

Jun03

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 20 – June 3, 2012

Title: Valar Morghulis

Summary: Fantastic Wrapup

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The season finale has a lot of threads to cover, the extra long “previously on” clip covers no less than eleven major plot lines! Amazingly, the episode manages to do a pretty damn good job with them — even when many only get one scene.

We open with Tyrion — well his eye — suffering at the tender ministrations of the less-senile-than-he-seems Maester Pycelle. Ty learns he’s no longer hand, and we see what he does not, his father receiving the honors that Tyrion had a hand (haha) in earning. Then in a magnificent bit of public theater, Joffery casts down Sansa and takes up with Margaery Tyrell. Could the third marriage be the charm? With Joff? This begins a running thread about oaths that flows through the entire episode. For Joff, despite his lip service, oaths mean nothing. I do also have to give credit to the actor who manages to make every line, every gesture thoroughly loathsome.

I can't wait for his wedding

Sansa, freed of her engagement, is confronted by Littlefinger. He claims to be an ally, being the second man to offer her a way north. But does she dare? Personally, I would have gone with the Hound.

And speaking of Littlefinger, Varys visits Ros in the interest of plotting against his rival. It’s not entirely clear what the point of this scene is other than an update on everyone’s least favorite hooker and a restatement of the Varys/Littlefinger hostility. I prefered their “manhood” discussion in episode 10.

Jaime and Brienne only get one scene, but it’s a doozy. After the usual banter they run into a bunch of Stark men who recognize the Kingslayer. She totally kicks ass in her lumbering way. But her choices flow from her own oath: to Cat Stark. Her interpretation is literal in the extreme.

Robb and Cat discuss this very topic. He is in love with the nurse, she warns him of his oath, even invoking Ned and his own literal interpretation of said matters. Robb walks a different road.

Stannis broods with the Red Lady, nursing his pride. He tries to strangle her, but cannot. She shows him the secrets of the flames. We, of course, see only some flicking in his eyeballs. Is this hypnotism, or more? Certainly one of the weaker threads, but it has been all along. I guess Davos’ fate will be left to season 3.

Theon is surrounded and in his room with Luwin. The old man honors his own oath and gives Theon solid advice: run for the Night’s Watch. “You are not the man you are pretending to be, at least not yet.” This is a great exchange. “It’s too late to pretend to be anything else,” Theon answers. Then he gives a really nice speech to his troops — only to have them betray him. Poor Luwin is stabbed.

What is dead will never die!

Varys visits Tyrion and delivers news of further humiliations. I swear GRRM looks at every character every chapter and says: “on the way up, take ’em down. On the way down, take ’em up.” The Ty/Varys interaction this season has been great as both actors are spectacular. Shae is next. She removes his bandage. The scar is bad, but nothing like in the book where he has no nose! They couldn’t bring themselves to put Peter Dinklage through that much ugly (and he’s a good looking man anyway, unlike the pre-face-cut novel Tyrion). Shae at least is loyal (so far). Dare I say, honoring her oath? She tries to get him to leave the city with her, but stays when he won’t.

Robb gets married. A nice tiny little ceremony. Oaths oaths oaths. But it is still the second worst thread.

Dany walks through a cool garden to an even cooler tower-like “house of the undying.” She finds a magic entrance. I like these lightly handed mystical moments.

Jorah, don't let her out of your sight!

Arya, having escaped, is found by Jaquen. He tries to draw her to Bravos to train as a Faceless Man. She isn’t ready yet, and still seeks her family. He gives her the coin then as I hoped he might, changes his face. “That man is dead.” Awesome scene.

Osha and the boys emerge to a burnt and destroyed Winterfell. If those wolves are CG, they look pretty darn good. They find a dying Luwin and the old man gets a few final words in. Perhaps not realistic, but he’s been very fine in the role and so they’re well deserved. He sends them to Jon. Bran rolls north in a wheelbarrow!

Dany is back in the House of the Undying. She finds a room of doors and wanders through into a sequence of visions that gave me goosebumps. First the Iron Throne, its hall burnt by dragon fire. Then lured by the sound of dragons, through the door in the wall and into the north. There she finds Drogo’s hut and inside the man himself in a surprise reprise of his role. The Dothraki dialog between them brought tears to my eyes. I always liked the way his rumbly voice read the guttural language. But she is not to succumb to the “last temptation of Danerys Stormborn,” instead returning to the house to find her dragons. All three in fact — for the first time in the entire season. The warlock emerges. He uses the plural, but we only see one — before or now. “With the dragons returned our magic.” It’s nice to hear this reiterated. Makes one wonder. Is this true of the Red Lady as well? Not the White Walkers for sure, they showed up in the pilot before the dragons did. Or do they foreshadow coming of the beasts? Anyway, Dany is not one to take captivity lightly, she lights up the warlock like a bonfire. This scene was cool, but felt light on the effects. I would’ve liked to see the three dragons flying around laying waste to the house and it burning down. Sigh. Budgets.

Finally, we return to Jon Snow in the frozen north. Ygritte is marching behind him whacking him on the head with his own sword. That’s got to hurt both the pride and the noggin. The Halfhand grabs a sword and they fight. He forces Jon’s anger and this time, Jon doesn’t hold back and kills him. I’m not sure I bought this important moment 100%. I did, however, like the look Ygritte gives him as she backs him up and then leads him off to see the valley with the Wildling (CGI) camp. This vista looks fantastic as they just painted in the camp in a real Icelandic valley. It felt massive in scale, in contrast with the lightweight troop of a dozen Wildlings in furs marching around in the snow. The Lord of Bones has no presence.

Somehow the captive is the trustworthy one

Xaro is sleeping with Doreah. I guess that explains her absence. Dany and her dragons march in and steal his medallion/vault key. But the vault contains nothing. She locks him and the slave girl away. These are both changes from the novels, but while I will miss the girl on girl on girl action that is supposed to occur later (unless they bring it back with different girls) the relationship with Xaro makes more sense. In the books I never really understood what Xaro was up to or why Dany did what she did with him. Here she loads up with enough gold to buy a ship and move on.

I expected that to be the end, but we have an even better setup. Sam and the brother’s black are gathering frozen turds by the Fist of the First Men when the horn sounds three times. An army of zombies pass, lead by zombie horse riding White Walkers. That was pretty cool. It also helps to explain, at least to me, the difference between the wraiths (zombies) and the White Walkers (something more, and often mounted). This peculiar distinction has eluded me for five books.

Sigh again. The ten month wait begins. But in the meantime I’m heading myself to King’s Landing this summer. Well, Dubrovnik at least. It looked so good in the show that I booked a vacation there!

Overall, a brilliant episode. I was worried that with so many threads each be starved of attention, But the producers saved a good percentage of the budget for these last two episodes. And more importantly the writers managed to draw most of the threads, although not all, to a satisfying conclusion. Still, the biggest flaw this season suffered, and it is a big flaw, is the compression of the large scale novel into only ten hours of programming. While a problem last season, A Game of Thrones is shorter than A Clash of Kings and the compression felt less pronounced. Season 2 did mostly address the problems of visual scope and mystical elements that bothered me in season one, but the new problem is even worse. With twelve episodes they could have mitigated it somewhat, but really the scope of the story needed perhaps sixteen. We can hope that by splitting A Storm of Swords into more than one season this can be overcome.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Boys like a challenge

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By: agavin
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Peking Duck at A-1 Chinese BBQ

Jun02

Restaurant: A-1 Chinese BBQ

Location: 2014 Pacific Coast Hwy. Lomita, CA 90717. (310) 325-6709

Date: May 19, 2012

Cuisine: Chinese

Rating: Great Duck

_

I recently joined a meetup.com foodie group and I noticed in the feed that people were talking about this place for great Peking Duck. I’ve long been a fan of the crispy foul, to the tune of eating it three nights in a row in Beijing, and it is scare represented on the Westside, so I thought a pilgrimage was in order.

If you decide to go you must call ahead to reserve/prep a duck. It takes too long for them to do to order.

This establishment is not about looks. It makes Din Tai Fung look like Cesar’s Palace.


Although, I do have to say the inside is one step up form Totoraku, and that is a high end joint!


Another great thing is: no liquor license, which means no corkage. Bring your own cork screw. This is a reliable (although not awesome) negotiant 1re cru. We had to drink it out of plastic “pizza hut style” glasses, so that didn’t help either.

NOTE: big menu, so keep scrolling for the food!

The menu is grungy and enormous.


We started with these “prawns with spicy salt, headless.” This is generally called “salt and pepper shrimp” and this particular version was one of the best I’ve had. I particularly appreciated the lack of head.


Then out rolled our feathered friend. He was carved back in the kitchen.


And served with the usual Hoisin sauce and the often seen in China but not as often here doughy buns instead of pancakes.


You put some sauce, some scallions, and some duck on the bun and enjoy. This was definitely some of the best duck I’ve had in California. The skin was perfectly crispy, and there was some, but not too much fat.


After this we switched it up to this awesome Rosso. “The 2009 Rosso di Montalcino is totally beautiful and elegant in its expressive bouquet, silky fruit and understated, harmonious personality. This is a wonderful, impeccable Rosso from Le Potazzine. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2017.”


This is “Chow Ma Mein” (I think). A spicy soup with noodles, shrimp, beef, chicken and various vegetables. It was good.


“Orange peel chicken.” Fairly typical of the type, but not bad.


“Dry braised string beans.” I like this dish when I usually have it, but this wasn’t the greatest version. It was too oily and lacking in garlicky punch.


“Sweet and sour pork.” The pork was a little tough, but flavorful. The sauce a bit goopy. Just so-so.


The check was awesome. $20 a person all in with tip.

Overall, the duck was fantastic, the shrimp and soup were very good, and the other dishes a bit mediocre. It was a very nice meal, and with a little more trial and error ordering probably could be totally first rate. I’m curious if any of you readers know any other places with great Peking Duck in LA. I’d love to find one that was 40 minutes from my house!

For more LA dining reviews click here.

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By: agavin
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Round 2 Closed!

May31

I’ve official “sold” all 100 tickets in ROUND TWO of the Naughty Dark Contest. So I fired up the Ruby interpreter and asked it to compute the appropriate pseudorandom number, which turned out to be 3.

Counting from zero − I’m such a programmer − this turned out to be a ticket owned by Levi Tinney of California!

They chose the following prize: A signed ARC of The Darkening Dream! I threw in a bonus poster too.

A signed ARC of The Darkening Dream

But just because ROUND TWO is finished, doesn’t mean you can’t win. Check out the rules and get submitting, round three is open. As soon as it sells out another 100 tickets, there will be yet another drawing. And the special prizes are available to anyone, anytime!

Which speaking of, we have two new special prize winners:

Zac Mitchell of Sydney Australia

and

Matt Wallace from West Sussex England

For more info on the contest, a detailed list of prizes and rules can be found here!

The prizes are below:

Zac went for a signed Crash 1 and I threw in some extra stuff

Matt is a double special prize winner with signed Crash 1 & 2

Related posts:

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By: agavin
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Avengers

May29

Title: Avengers

Cast: Robert Downey Jr. (Actor), Chris Evans (Actor), Joss Whedon (Director)

Genre: Comic Book Action

Watched:  May 22, 2012

Summary: Very good, but not perfect

_

Normally I take Marvel super hero movies with a grain of salt, but considering the buzz around Avengers and the fact that it was written and directed by Joss Whedon (creator of my favorite show of all time, Buffy) I was fairly excited.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9cuGZJ9DP0]

The setup is band of superhero misfits vs alien invasion (more on that later). Marvel has spent no small effort establishing the players: 2 Ironman movies, Thor, The Hulk, Captain America, etc. That’s all well and good, and I’m reminded slightly of the 80s “Secret Wars” stunt in the actual comics. To this vast array of characters we add Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Nick Fury (all of whom seem to have super strength and speed without any particular specified reason). Then we throw in some really weird aliens invading from another dimension/planet.

The attack is lead by heavy of heavies, Loki, reprising his role from the way stranger Thor. I wrote extensively about this movie before, and the Avengers villains descend from this bizarre mythology of Norse gods as aliens. This includes, but is not limited too, all sorts of undefined powers, immortality, lightning calling hammers of infinite weight, mind control staffs, cubes of limitless energy, beams of plasma used to drill worm holes in the universe, and much much more. And that doesn’t cover the earth based oddities. Super strength serums, invincible flying robot suits, and a flying aircraft carrier!

The strength of Jos’ writing transcends this recipe for disaster and makes an ultimately very watchable film. It’s often even very funny, full of action, and exciting. It’s not, however, a masterpiece. Given the crazy cast, the film tries its best to give each a bit of time a and story. This is ultimately most successful with Ironman, the Hulk, and Black Widow. Still, there just isn’t that much time, particularly given the rapacious demand for long and involved action scenes.

The villains are a bit weak. Loki is kind of fun, but he spends a lot of time preening and just waiting around. The mysterious skeletal-bio-mechanical hordes are just that, hordes. They exist to maraud and then to die.

The last third of the film is one long monster battle for New York with aliens drooling through a hole in the sky and the entire team of Avengers fending them off. For a while, this is pretty cool, but it does go on far too long. I don’t know whose fault this trend is — Transformers perhaps? — but it’s become standard for big action movies to have these monster (haha) final battles. In Harry Potter 7.5, it’s almost two hours long! Unfortunately, they have the side effect of stealing way too much screen time away from character development.

Effects wise, this movie is loaded with CGI. Probably almost every shot. It’s often quite good, but there is no focus on realism. This is comic book to the hilt, in every way, with all the look and feel, firing on all cylinders, expertly executed. It delivers, but there is no real jeopardy or pathos, and no totally unique feel (say in the vein of Sin City or Hell Boy). It feels like Thor or Ironman. In fact it’s about exactly on par with Ironman (the first film, the second sucked) quality wise.

On one hand, I’m relieved to have seen a comic book film with actual story and characters. On the other, I feel Jos could do better creating his own world. Maybe the success of this film will give him more leeway to try.

For more Film reviews, click here.

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By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 19

May28

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 18 – May 27, 2012

Title: Blackwater

Summary: Tight and intense

ANY CHARACTER HERE

With Episode 19, Blackwater, the normally highly fractured narrative of the show lasers in and focuses on a single place and night: The attack on King’s Landing by Stannis and its defense. Hallelujah, they finally show us a real battle! And not just a little one, but a multi-staged “Helm’s Deep” style battle. Sure, it’s not like Helm’s deep level visuals, but it’s pretty damn great.

This is certainly the most climatic scene from A Clash of Kings, although with so many threads it is but one of many. By choosing to focus, we are allowed to see the play out of emotions in King’s Landing with considerable more depth than the usual 2-3 scenes per thread allows.

We open at sea with Davos and his navy. I like the puke barrel the soldiers heave into. Then we cut to Tyrion in bed with Shae in a nice intimate pre-battle moment of intimacy. Cersei, in contrast, receives cold comfort in the form of poison from her silly and ancient Maester. Bronn parties with his men and a bevy of the usual whores (we keep seeing the same ones). The Hound enters and the two killers lock antlers only to be interrupted by the bells signaling the invasion.

Varys and Ty banter as usual, much to our pleasure. The master of spiders passes crucial information to Ty, and in a subtle nod to later, Ty admits that he trusts his squire Pod. In the books Pod is an actual character, here in the show, he’s just a role. Still, at least he has one.

The bells on the wall are met by drums from the ships. Ty and Bronn find Joff and the Hound in the throne room. Joff continues his obnoxious streak in saying goodbye to Sansa, and she cleverly appeals to his ego to try and egg him into the most dangerous part of the battle.

Everyone sallies forth to watch from the walls. In a very effective sequence we cut from the battlements to the ships and show the sailor’s surprise at finding only one Lannister ship, unmanned and leaking green fluid at that. Bronn sets the whole thing alight with a single flaming arrow and Stannis’ fleet is obliterated in a cloud of green fire. I do have to say, the green fire looked badass (for TV).

One shot is the charm

But undaunted, Stannis leads his surviving men aboard his medieval PT boats and rows for shore.

Meanwhile, we have been cutting back to inside the keep where Cersei has sequestered herself with all her ladies. This is all the more painful for Sansa when the queen singles her out for more attention. The queen’s dress is very interesting: Mostly medieval ladies gown, it does have a bit of Amazonian breast plate action going.

When Stannis mounts his landing Ty sends the Hound to command a defensive party outside the walls. Men storm toward the walls under fire and do their best with ladders. Lancel takes a flesh wound and heads inside where Cersei orders him to drag the king to safety. Cersei continues to talk Sansa and takes notice of Shae, something doesn’t add up for her.

The Hound goes to town butchering the invaders until the fire grows too close and he starts to freak out. This is certainly understandable considering his fiery encounters with his older brother. Stannis is a leader of the old school, and you can’t say he’s a coward because he storms the walls himself and lays waste to the King’s men.

Does anyone have the armor polish?

When the hold returns inside getting too close to the heat he is ordered back out again. He swears off the King entirely and leaves. The invaders batter at the games with a huge battering ram. Joff runs off with his cousin and Ty finds the courage to lead the men in a rousing speech and drag them out himself.

Lancel returns to Cersei again empty handed, and she runs off. Sansa finds her own strength to rally the women and Shae urges Sansa back to her rooms. But guess who’s there? The Hound, fed up with fighting for Joff the Toff and ready to take her back to Winterfell. But Sansa has been conditioned and she is too nervous to jump ship.

Can you toss me that rope on the dock over there?

Ty leads men through the sewers (setup with Varys and the map), comes out behind the invaders, and lays waste to them. He goes to town with his axe. This time around, the producers don’t shy from battle. Finally. Ty is fighting away only to be betrayed and attacked by one of the King’s Guard. He falls badly injured, although not seemingly as badly injured as in the book. More  troops invade and just as soon as all looks lost, a Lannister army arrives to save the day.

Cersei sits with her younger son Tommen on the throne and is about to take poison but Tywin rides in to save the day. So this is where he rode off too last episode!

Overall, this episode burned a lot of money. While it still feels like TV, it’s epic TV and the mix of wide shots and extra pounding action served well to convey the sense of a fairly large battle. I like the scope and intensity allowed by ignoring all the other threads, but I suspect that the final episode will be one rapid-fire whiplash!

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Things that say boom!

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By: agavin
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Tar & Roses

May26

Restaurant: Tar & Roses [1, 2]

Location: 602 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90401. (310) 587-0700

Date: April 27, 2012

Cuisine: American Tapas

Rating: Tasty and good value

_

Tar & Roses is a new American tapas-style place in Santa Monica, loosely in the vein of Rustic Canyon or Gjelina. Despite the relative crowding of this market, it’s a welcome addition in my book because it breaks up the Italian Domination (a crazy large percentage of westside restaurants are from the boot).

The Chef & Owner is Andrew Kirschner, a Santa Monica-native who grew up in a family with a strong appreciation for travel, food and wine, Chef Andrew Kirschner initiated his cooking education at the age of fifteen with a summer job in the kitchen of a local restaurant. Like many great chefs, his culinary journey started as a job, but quickly turned into a passion. After Kirschner became the sous chef for Chadwick in Beverly Hills, and then a chef/partner at the popular neighborhood spot Table 8 in West Hollywood, where he met and bonded with his Tar & Roses sous chef, Jacob Wildman.


The space is airy and pleasant.


Albiet a little loud.


The menu.


Lubricant. Nebbiolo d’alba.


Trio of bruschetta, left to right: “roasted cherry tomato, burrata, basil” then “braised leek, marinated white anchovy” and “wood roasted eggplant, feta, pickled tomato, mint.”


“roasted beets / feta  /  tarragon  / horseradish.”


“italian egg drop soup/ prosciutto / croutons / grana  / paprika.” The flavor of this was mild, like a minestrone, definitely in the Italian palate.


“ricotta gnocchi / asparagus / ramps / breadcrumbs.” These were yummy, with a strong cream component.


“balsamic glazed ribs / chili /  fried basil.” My favorite dish of the night.


“baby broccoli / parmesan pudding / breadcrumbs.” A tasty implementation of the vegetable.


“braised lamb belly / minted apple chutney.”


Cute check package.

Overall, Tar & Roses was quite good and I plan to try it again. It was very similar in style to Rustic Canyon, but the portions were larger and the prices cheaper. I wasn’t totally blown away by all the dishes, but they were solid and the restaurant is new. If they tune things up a little I think it could be great.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

Related posts:

  1. Rustic Canyon 3D
  2. Rustic Canyon 4
  3. The New Cal Cuisine: Rustic Canyon
  4. JiRaffe is no Joke
  5. Figs are in Season
By: agavin
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Posted in: Food
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Award Time!

May24

I’m excited to announce that The Darkening Dream recently won some International Book Awards, including:

Winner: Best Cover Design- Fiction

and

Finalist: Fiction- Fantasy

I want to offer a shout out to my collaborators who helped with this: The cover artist Cliff Nielsen and cover designer Pete Garceau as well as my brilliant and hard working editors.

Find out more about the cover or the book.

And you should buy it if you haven't!

Related posts:

  1. Cover Takes – Opinions Wanted!
  2. The Final Cover
  3. Primer – Thinking Time Travel
  4. Cover Commission
  5. Untimed – Meet the Tocks
By: agavin
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Dark Shadows – Why?

May22

Title: Dark Shadows (2012)

Cast: Johnny Depp (Actor), Michelle Pfeiffer (Actor), Tim Burton (Director)

Genre: Vampire Comedy

Watched:  May 19, 2012

Summary: Why? Just why?

_

My dedication to all things vampire made me see it. I swear.

One wonders if Tim Burton ever works with anyone other than Johnny Depp. But the issue here isn’t really Depp’s deadpan Deppist performance, which is certainly one of the better things about the film. It’s basically in the meta creative choices and the writing. The source material is long, dramatic, or rather melodramatic, and convoluted. It involves stories being woven out over many episodes (1991) or years (2800 episodes of the original!). Any comedy was inadvertent.

Not so much here. There is no backstory. Instead, what happened between Barnabus in the 18th century (involving his affair with the witch Angelique and the subsequent death of his lover and conversion into vampire) is spelled out in a quick prelude. This is the best part of the film and the least comic. But its presence also leaves no room for any sense of mystery.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpWvkFlyl4M]

Then cut to 1972 and the awakening of our entombed hero. For a few moments the fish out of water comedy is funny, even if it’s all in the trailer. But that’s about it. There is pretty much zero character development here. The creators shove in a large number of characters from the original, even if in mutated form, but there is so much time spent with Depp that everyone else (with the possible exception of Angelique) is anemic at best. There isn’t even an attempt at a character arc for anyone. The conflict is minimal and simplistic. In fact, the movie devolves into a kind of “we have to save the family business” rivalry type film, even including one of my least favorite Hollywood devices: “everything can be fixed with a good party.” Which includes a 1972 Alice Cooper who looks exactly like 2012 Alice Cooper. But even the lame business conflict line is underwritten. The second half was just boring.

There are a few good moments of visual or deadpan humor, mostly involving slightly esoteric riffs to vampire fans. Willy’s character is good. Chloe Moretz is cute but stuck with perpetual curled lip. Eva Green is confused but sexy. Depp seems to have blended Jack Sparrow, Hunter S Thompson, and Max Schreck. I like what he does with his pointy fingered hands. He pivots up unnaturally out of his coffin. Many younger viewers will know this best from Coppola’s Dracula, but he too borrowed it from the 1922 Nosferatu. I liked the image of the vampire sleeping in the linen closet. These are small things, and definitely not enough to save the film.

My thoughts on the 1991 revival.

For more Film reviews, click here.

Related posts:

  1. Dark Shadows – The Revival
  2. Near Dark – The Hurt Coffin
  3. Stake Land – Vampire Zombie Scramble
  4. The Way of Shadows
By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 18

May20

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 18 – May 20, 2012

Title: The Prince of Winterfell

Summary: A little rushed

ANY CHARACTER HERE

Last week’s episode ended with Brienne drawing her blade, but this begins at Winterfell with the titular Price of Winterfell, Theon, killing all the ravens to stop word of his treachery. His sister arrives and presses him to return home so as not to die. Somehow this scene felt stilted, her rapid shift from haughty to concerned a bit forced.

Then in the far north, Ygritte and her men deliver Jon to the Lord of Bones (wearing a plastic skull helmet). Qhorin is there too, captive as well, Jon’s fault. Bones wants to gut the bastard, but Ygritte repays her debt by convincing him not.

Robb strolls through pretty Irish countryside while talking to his girlfriend the nurse. I still don’t love their chemistry, even though they talk about Ned. Then Robb learns of the Kingslayer’s escape. New viewers will undoubtedly be confused, because he escaped and was recaptured last week.

Jon Snow or baby seal?

Some minor clarity (for those who haven’t read the books) is offered when Robb returns and confronts Cat. She tries to explain. Karstark is furious, but I wasn’t really feeling his acting. Robb arrests his own mother, which is vaguely Oedipal.

Really, Cat sent Brienne off to haul Jaime back to Cersei and trade for the girls. And we see this now, but the show’s need for brevity has trimmed it to the bone. Still, Jaime is great fun teasing Brienne and it’s fun to watch him muscled around by this enormous girl.

Arya is doing table duty again when she learns that Tywin is about to ride and she is to be left behind with the Mountain (uh oh). She runs off past some grisly hung men and finds Hot Pie and Gendry, but she’s really looking for her pet assassin. Presumably she has finally decided to use her third death to rid the land of Tywin. In the book, this has a real feeling of urgency. The show’s efforts to make Tywin more human have diluted that, but everything has trade offs.

Back to Jon. Qhorin hints that Jon should try to infiltrate the wildlings and starts to taunt him. This is extremely brief, and also likely to be lost on new veiwers, but it’s an important bit of info.

Tyrion and Bronn have an amusing chat and Vary’s shows up again. Oh, how I missed him. They discuss the difficult task of defending the city. All three of these actors are in fine form.

Sly minds think alike

Sam and the Crows, still on the Fist of the First Men, are digging latrines and find an ancient cache of obsidian blades. What could those mean? Something obviously as it got two minutes of precious screen time.

Arya finds Jaquen too late. But, always too clever for her own good, she forces him to help her escape by naming his own name. In order to avoid killing himself, he reluctantly agrees to help her.

Tyrion and Cersei are eating lamprey pie (again a nod to the books). Last week’s moment of fraternal love is long gone, for Cersei announces that she holds Shae and is holding her as ransom against Joff’s security. Ty plays it cool, even when she’s brought in and revealed to be Ros (good riddance). Afterward Ty is not so reserved with Shae. He even extracts from her what is akin (in a hooker kind of way) to vows.

Robb talks to Bolton to put pressure on the Bastard retaking Winterfell. Then Talesia (sic?) comes in. He’s stressed, and as usual doesn’t really play much of the king with her. Contrast him with the insufferable Joff! This time around their chemistry is much better as she tells a story of her brother’s near death. There seems to be a sibling theme going on in this episode because we have this story, Theon’s sister’s about him as a baby, and the rivalry between Ty and Cersei. Robb throws his Frey engagement to the wind and plays some serious doctor with the nurse. Do any of the actresses in this show not have nudity clauses in their contract?

Why, why don't I get any respect?

Arya, Hot Pie, and Gendry sneak through the gate Jaquen has prepared. All the guards have been viciously murdered and propped up. Jaq’s quite the killer.

Stannis and Davos sail toward King’s Landing. They talk of Davos’ rescue of Storm’s End. His whole Onion Knight story is being spooled out in tiny doses. I wonder if the non-readers will get it, but it’s nice to hear.

Joff is playing at being a proper soldier. One just loves to hate him, from his manner to his ridiculous girly man posturing. I can’t wait for… Anyway, Tyrion and Vary’s have another great talk. I do love V. Ty unveils his desire to stay hand (and alive) while V lets slip the threat of Dany and her dragons.

Speaking of, a brief scene where Jorah and Dany discuss what to do. He councils safety, she won’t leave her dragons. Although she has only this one moment in the episode, it’s a good one.

In Winterfell, Maester Luwin sees Asha and tracks her down into the crypt to put our minds at ease. Given the gratuitous hint dropping, I doubt most viewers really thought they were dead. In the books, it was pretty worrisome, as GRRM has killed before!

Overall, this episode had some great scenes but felt rushed and disjointed. So much is going on here that the writers trimmed aggressively to set everything up before next week’s Battle of Blackwater. They’ve done the best they can, but I wonder if noobs (non-readers) will make perfect sense of it.

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Related posts:

  1. Game of Thrones – Episode 17
  2. Game of Thrones – Episode 12
  3. Game of Thrones – Episode 16
  4. Game of Thrones – Episode 9
  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 13
By: agavin
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Primer – Thinking Time Travel

May19

Title: Primer

Director/Stars: Shane Carruth (Director)

Genre: Time Travel

Watched:  May 7, 2012

Summary: Brilliant and confusing

_

This is very much a thinking man’s thriller. It’s a slightly Momento-esque time travel film supposedly filmed for a mere $7,000! I’m skeptical that it was actually that cheap, but it certainly was cheap. Even so, it rarely suffers for it.

The film is very short at 77 minutes and the first half elapses before we see any actual time travel. We follow a group of engineers speaking a nearly incomprehensible technobabble. Even as an ultimate techie (M.I.T. grad degree in EECS) I could not follow most of it — the writers did not intend us to — but it’s actually fairly reasonable. I had more problem with all the engineers wearing shirt and tie even during leisure hours. In any case, they accidentally invent a peculiar kind of time machine. It allows very limited (and fairly awkward) backward travel.

If you want to try and understand it, which isn’t easy, read this page.

The second half is a dizzying series of overlapping events as the two main protagonists loop and reloop across a few sleepless days. Understanding the exact sequence would undoubtedly require numerous viewings. The creator spares little effort to make such complex matters easily digestible.

As someone who has recently (last year) created his own time travel scheme, for my novel Untimed, I appreciate this complete, well thought out, and fully coherent scheme. This is old school hard sci-fi of sorts, and it’s refreshing in this era of marketing driven watered down drivel to have to puzzle something out.

For more Film reviews, click here.

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By: agavin
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Ink – At the Cutting Edge

May17

Restaurant: Ink

Location: 8360 Melrose Ave. Ste 107. Los Angeles, CA 90069. (323) 651-5866

Date: May 5, 2012

Cuisine: ?Modern?

Rating: Very tasty, hard to pigeonhole

_

I’ve wanted to go to chef Michael Voltaggio’s Ink since I first heard of it last fall. One glance at a few photos of the food told me it was the kind of place I like. But the midtown location and the difficulty of getting reviews — not to mention my busy dining schedule and broken arm — delayed maters considerably. But then Foodie Club member Ryan’s birthday rolled around…


The location is that of the former Hamusaku east (a decent high end sushi place I used to eat at all the time in Westwood). Even planning a week ahead, we had to take a 9:45pm reservation (on a Thursday) and wait nearly half an hour to sit.


The bar.

The cocktail menu. Like most modern LA joints Ink employs some serious mixology. Being a wine nut and pseudo-pro sommelier (I recently got my Italian specialization, working on Burgundy) I’m  not really that knowledgeable about cocktails.


Still, I tried this: “Tequila. jalapeno, passion fruit, agave, lime.” It was good, spicy, and somewhat of an attack on the palette.


And this “Scotch. toasted coconut, ginger, lime, cardamon.”


The space is sleek, cold, and very loud. It even still has a sushi bar.


They had both a tasting and ala carte menu. We ordered from both, supplementing the tasting meal with… well pretty much a whole extra meal.


I brought this Brunello to from my cellar to start. “The 2004 Brunello di Montalcino is a fresh, vibrant offering bursting with dark cherries, violets, underbrush, minerals and sweet toasted oak on a medium-bodied frame. The wine reveals terrific balance in an energetic, focused style, with firm yet ripe tannins. The finish is long, clean and refreshing. This is a gorgeous effort from Loacker. Anticipated maturity: 2011-2019.”


“crab, charred avocado, whipped fish sauce, mushroom chicharron.” While these dishes were hard to split four ways, they sure did taste good. Like Red Medicine (which has a similar presentation), it’s a little hard to get all the flavors in the mouth at once. I liked the sweetness of the crab with the avocado and the fish sauce. The chicharron made me think a little too much of pork rinds.


“carrots, coconut ice, cardamom soil, pea tendril mojo.” This was a surprising and amazing dish. The vegies are what they are, but that white dusty stuff is basically nitro-frozen Tom Yum Goong! It melted in the mouth and really made all the produce spectacular.


“spaghetti, giant squid, squash, hazelnut pesto.” The noodles under there are actually made from squid. This was tasty too, with a bit of an uni type vibe without any uni. The pesto itself made the dish.


“beef tartare, hearts of palm, sea bean chimichurri, horseradish, rye.” I was a little disappointed in this dish. It sounded great, and there was nothing off, but the beef itself didn’t really pop the way it does with truly great steak tartare.


“foie gras, waffle, smoked maple, hot sauce.” But this was wonderful. I love foie in this kind of mouse-like texture profile. It went amazingly with the smoked maple.


Here is the tasting menu for tonight. This had to be done for the whole table and the portions, while individually smaller, resulted in considerably more per dish per person.


Boca is one of my new favorite wines, a total insider’s wine from Northern Piedmonte. 70% Nebbiolo, 20% Vespolina and 10% Uva Rara. It shimmers on the palate with layers of fruit, mineral, and herbs.


“east coast halibut, caesar tempura, melon, espelette.” The individual components of this dish were great, but the whole thing didn’t mesh fully. The tempura is actually balls of caesar dressing, and they were great. The melon was fantastic and good with the fish, but it overwhelmed and him the subtle halibut.


“morels, egg yolk gnocchi, mushroom hay, sorrel.” This was a great mushroom dish and paired perfectly with the Boca’s earthy tones. The gnocchi had an interesting texture, like circus peanuts.


“black bass, fava bean guacamole, puffed corn tortilla.” Mostly, this was just fish. Good fish, but not as exciting as some of the other dishes.


Glee star Matthew Morrison across the way.


“milk-fed veal, asparagus, curds and whey of buttermilk.” Pretty tasty.


“poutine, chickpea fries, yogurt curds, lamb neck gravy.” This was amazing, but ridiculously rich. Again with the circus peanut texture, but I was digging it.


“lamb shoulder, lamb’s quarters, tongue, vadouvan, yogurt.” Also very good, and very rich. We probably over ordered, but we still managed to kill it. The fact that the vegetables are tempura fried perhaps threw us over the edge.


“yuzu curd. rhubarb, matcha, jasmine, chamomile.” This was the weakest dessert, but it was still wonderful.


“apple, caramel, burnt wood ice cream.” This one was amazing. Unexpected interplay of textures and flavors.


“chocolate, ice cream, spiced tofu, sesame cake.” Also excellent. Notice the similarity


“greek yogurt, strawberry, japanese peach, coconut.” This also was great. Like strawberries and cream with a wonderful granite. Or maybe like a perfected Hawaiian shave ice?


Coffee made table-side.

Overall, Ink was pretty spectacular. Not every dish worked, but it’s very modern and experimental in a good way. The interplay of textures and flavors — not to mention the “dust and ball” style plating — reminds me of Red Medicine when it first opened (before the even more experimental Elfin period). Despite the very similar look, the flavors at Ink remain much more grounded in American modern and a sort of gastro-pub sensibility. Still, the textural experimentation alone puts it at a very high level. Roberto Cortez has a similar kind of modern too, although his preps are more sophisticated and his palette more subtle and balanced – but that’s beyond restaurant food.

With this kind of uniqueness, it’s no wonder Ink is doing well. It also seems Voltaggio mixes up the menu frequently, so I’ll be back soon — provided I can score a convenient reservation.

For more LA dining reviews click here.

See more Foodie Club meals here.

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  3. Upstairs 2 – Modern Tapas, Lots of Wine
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  5. Takao Top Omakase
By: agavin
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New Last of Us Trailer

May16

The Last of Us, Naughty Dog’s new game in development, has a cool new trailer. Check it out!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=iv&src_vid=9NVfBfJHatc&annotation_id=annotation_51749&v=ShP5xn9Tz90]

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By: agavin
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From Sketch to Final

May15

Dave Phillips, the awesome artist I commissioned to illustrate my time travel novel, Untimed, has been quietly cranking away. A couple of weeks ago he finished the rough versions of all twenty-one images. I thought I’d use this post as an opportunity not only to show off his brilliant work, but to shed some light on the process. The images on the left are the roughs, and on the right the finals.

End Game: Tick-Tock TLCEnd Game: Tick-Tock TLC

We use the roughs to establish composition and for me to check that all the details are consistent with the novel. I give him feedback and he then spends the time to polish the image up. Neither of these images required any major changes, but it’s fun to see both how well the rough makes an impression, and how much more detailed the final is.

To get a close up look at this, click one of the images and it will bring up a Smugmug lightbox. You can then use the arrow keys to flip back and forth between the images, including between the rough and the final to see the differences.

This particular image, released previously, shows the mysterious Tick-Tock gloating over a dying Ben Franklin — oops!

Looped: Meeting Mr. and Mrs. FakeLooped: Meeting Mr. and Mrs. Fake

And this new one occurs 80 years later across the English channel. Ever wonder if you’d like yourself? Time travelers can find out first hand. Or, perhaps, meeting yourself will destroy the very fabric of the spacetime continuum!

Find out more about Untimed here.

Related posts:

  1. Untimed – Out on Submission!
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By: agavin
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Game of Thrones – Episode 17

May13

Title: Game of Thrones

Genre: Historical Fantasy

Watched: Episode 17 – May 13, 2012

Title: A Man Without Honor

Summary: Just before the storm

ANY CHARACTER HERE

The title of the episode refers to the return of Jaime Lannister, who after a five episode absence, is back with a vengeance. This is the section of the story, in the middle end, where things move very rapidly. There are themes of trust and themes of captivity, but none jumped out at me as totally dominant.

We open with Theon waking to the missing boys. With the killing of Roderick he’s turned down a dark road and becoming increasingly comfortable with the shadows. Case in point, he beats the crap out of one of his men in frustration.

We briefly see Bran, Osha, Hodor and the wolves (yay wolves). They pass a farm and note that they used to play with the farmer boys. This tiny remark sets up something big, but it will probably be lost on the first time audience.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaVcUyzc-dA&feature=youtu.be]

Better to be cruel than weak

Then we cut to John dragging his prisoner Ygritte across the frozen waste. These are my favorite moments of the episode. Broken into three sections, Ygritte gives John a delightful hard time. About his bone and stones. About his people. About freedom. She tempts him with sex. She tempts him with freedom. And it’s all good fun to watch. We even get one iteration of her signature line from the books, “You know nothing, John Snow.”

Then we’re treated to a gorgeous view of Harrenhal and some cruel work at the hands of the Mountain. The place is huge and pretty cool looking. These big vistas do a decent job of making season two look bigger than season one. Tywin shows his mean side in setting the Mountain loose. In the books, he comes off much more evil as he surounds himself with scum of the earth like Hoat, the Mountain, and Lorch. Here, he has more restraint. He and Arya have some more inappropriate conversation. It’s a little weird, but the chemistry between these two fantastic actors makes it totally worthwhile.

Speaking of chemistry, Sansa bumps into the hound. This brief scene serves to reinforce their peculiar relationship too. Nod to the SanSan crowd that it is.

And then Dany and Xaro have a bit of a convo where he tries to get her to trust him. I never understood Xaro’s angle in the  books, and I don’t here either.

All you have to do is die!

Another big view of Robb’s camp. These Robb scenes, being as they don’t exist in the book, are  lacking the intensity of emotion GRRM is so good at. Here we see a junior Lannister returning the message from Cersei. We also learn Robb is off for a couple of days, and determined to take the “hot nurse” with him. Perfunctory really.

Riffing on the prisoner situation, Theon is at the farm looking for Bran and Rickon, and not having a great time of it. When he interrogates the farmer he announces his new motto, “better to be cruel than weak.” So he has chosen, and if one were to put it in classic medieval terms, at the cost of his immortal soul.

Jorah and Danny talk about trust. Xaro’s observation and subsequent revelation to her that he’s in love with her has shifted the dynamics of their relationship. Can she trust him? He’s got such blue eyes!

In the third John and Ygritte installment she really lays on the seduction thick and crude. The actress does a fine job with the character too. She runs again, and John finds himself in a bit of a turn around. These last two episodes have really brought the John arc back into the forefront like they are in the books. His movement was feeling a bit anemic for a while.

Sansa dreams of death and wakes to her first period. Shae tries to help her conceal this, but the hound stops by. So on to have a chat with Queen Cersei. The queen really is much more sympathetic and complex in the show than the books. In the novels, she more than Joff instigates a lot of the negative goings on. Here she’s just lost control of her son. In her own cruel way, she gives Sansa sincere advice, like “love no one but your children.”

Then the return of Ser Jaime. He’s in proper form talking to his cousin (or third cousin or whatever). He even tells a Ser Barriston story, because we know we haven’t seen the last of that fine actor. Alas, it’ll take more than captivity alone to make a nice guy of Jaime. He’s not to be trusted. And don’t get in his way.

Jorah is on the hunt for the dragons and goes to visit the new character: prophetess, metal mask fashionista, and masseuse. Cut to Dany meeting with the council of thirteen. The warlock admits to taking the dragons, Xaro gives a speech, and lots of people die. This is all pretty diferent than in the book and I can’t say that I fully understood what happened. Was Xaro in league with the warlocks? Seemed perhaps so, but I don’t see why.

Enjoying your first hunt, old man?

Jaime is recaptured and Cat is there to stop the troops from killing him. Barely. Karstark is pissed. This is a little different than the books where I think the Karstark boy was killed by Jaime in one of the battles, but essentially similar. Jaime is in fine and classic form with his quips though.

Cersei and Tyrion share an interesting scene. She admits she doesn’t control Joff and he actually offers her some solace. For a moment it looks like they might hug, but not. Again, there is more complexity to their relationship here than in the books. Some things gain, some things lose.

Cat interrogates Jaime in his pen. He’s really amusing as he tries again to draw her anger to a murderous boil. If he’s going to die, he wants to die in control. His comments to Brienne are especially hilarious. “Is that actually a woman?” and “Where did you find that beast?”

Finally, Theon is back at castle black. And things are black indeed. Let’s just say I was reminded of that bit in Star Wars (“A New Hope”) where Luke finds out what happened to his aunt and uncle. Pretty grisly.

All in all, a great episode, if not as quite as good as the one before it. All my favorite characters were represented. I don’t miss Stannis and Davos. Sure we only get one Arya scene and one Tryion scene, but things are really moving. I swear, when plotting these books, GRRM must draw out each thread and say continually to himself: “make them do well, make them suffer, make them do well, make them suffer!”

See my review of A Dance With Dragons.

If you liked this post, follow me at:

My novels: The Darkening Dream and Untimed

or all my Game of Thrones posts or episode reviews:

Season 1: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

Season 2: [11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]

Season 3: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]

Season 4: [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40]

Season 5: [41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50]

Season 6: [51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57]

Maybe picking his nose with the blade wasn't such a good idea!

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  5. Game of Thrones – Episode 11
By: agavin
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