Things I Liked Last Week 050910

01: Kanellos The Greek Protest Dog: The Greeks aren't afraid to protest, and even riot a bit, when their government fucks them over. As an armchair anarchist, it makes me sad that the American people have been, by and large, taken advantage of by our government and big business time and time again, but we're too fat and complacent to do much more than bitch about it with friends and coworkers. Nobody is taking it to the streets except the Tea Partiers, and I'm fairly convinced their entire movement is built on a solid foundation of racism, because the tax rates under our current black president is pretty much in line (and in many cases lower) with the tax rates under every other president over the past 50 years. In other words, where were these white, middle class people during the Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Carter and Nixon years? The top marginal tax rate during the Reagan years (their beloved political hero) hovered around 50%, while it sits at 38% under Obama? But now I'm getting wildly off-topic. Follow the link, and see 14 pictures of Kanellos, perhaps a more "involved" citizen than most of us.



02: Community: "Modern Warfare": S1-EP23: As the season has progressed, Community has grown into its own, and has grown on me. At first, I thought it was a fairly good comedy - good enough to kick off NBC's Thursday night comedy block, but not as strong as the three shows which follow. Well, sad to say, The Office has been quite underwhelming this year, and may be ready to head out to pasture, while 30 Rock is still great, but not as insane as it was last season. Parks & Recreation is currently the strongest of the four comedies, but I believe this "Modern Warfare" episode of Community is a welcome indication of just how good this show can be. Every week we can count on the writers to sneak a number of sly movie references into the show (via the character of Abed), but this particular episode is simply remarkable in that respect. Plus, it's just plain funny.

03: Screamo Kitty: I believe this picture speaks for itself.

04: Sherlock Holmes: I didn't love this movie, if only because I'm rather protective of the character and stories of the creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and this adaptation is not only a non-canonical story, but the illustrious detective, as played by Robert Downey Jr., is painted with rather broad strokes. As I mentioned two weeks ago, I'm partial to Jeremy Brett's portrayal in the Granada TV series of the 1980's, which showed Holmes in all his bitchy, egotistical glory, to say nothing of the homosexual undercurrent running throughout, which I believe to be one of the more important aspects of the original character. Is he gay, or merely asexual? Doyle leaves us guessing. Here, with the introduction of Irene Adler, as played by Rachel McAdams, there is no mystery, and that's a shame. Having said all this, I'm still a sucker for the characters of Holmes and Watson, a sucker for London circa 1890ish, and dammit if Guy Ritchie doesn't know how to make superb action films. This movie might not have been what I wanted, but it is damn entertaining nonetheless.

05: EVERYTHINGATHON! v101: Hats off to Dan Dierdorf, who tells a horrifying story of his trip to Burning Man several years ago, mixing a bunch of great heavy metal into the podcast for good measure. Check it out for the rest of this month.

06: Super Kohinoor Indian Food: I love Indian food, and thankfully there are a couple of very good Indian restaurants in Madison. However, I do not eat in restaurants very often because it's hard to justify the cost, and while I'm a pretty good cook, Indian cuisine is one of the more difficult to do well, I believe - I'm certainly not very adept. That's where the Super Kohinoor brand comes in. You might laugh when I tell you that this particular line of products (among many other Indian foods made by Kohinoor) is nothing more complicated than boil bags - boil the bag for 5 minutes, and then simply pour over rice. So simple, even a caveman (such as myself) can do it, but considering the nature of this product, it more than satisfies my Indian food cravings when they arise (I always keep a few of these Kohinoor products in my pantry). They make about 8 different "dishes" in this line, but I'd have to say Awahdi Aloo Mutter is my favorite of the bunch, which is really nothing more than peas and potatos in a vibrant curry. Available in most supermarkets, I'm sure.

Hotcha! Hank