Best Dressed at the Golden Globes 2012

So many pretty dresses came out to the Golden Globes this year. I narrowed it down to my six favorite looks of the night, in no particular order.

1.) Julia Louis-Dreyfus

This is not a dress that I would normally gravitate towards, but she looked so comfortable in it. I'm surprised how much I liked the tulle over the lace. And her makeup was perfect.

2.) Jodie Foster

Has Jodie Foster aged in twenty years? She looks phenomenal. Should I get a bob (again)? I need to schedule a visit to her dermatologist, stat. I love how edgy this dress is, how she dressed for how old she feels, not defining herself as a number. Or by anything else, as she so eloquently clarified in her moving acceptance speech. Besides being best dressed, she easily won my award for best speech. Not gonna lie, I needed a Kleenex when it was over.

3.) Isla Fisher

Ginger power! She just looked so glamorous, yet young and fresh.

4.) Naomi Watts

I love the illusion of her lack of legs in this photo. It practically takes a magical body to pull this dress off, anyway. I mean, look at the back.

Holy moley. I'm normally not crazy about trains, but I love this one.

5.) Jennifer Westfeldt (and Jon Hamm, I suppose)

Love the color. I just love how unique this is, and how she isn't afraid to bring it even though she isn't nominated, and many probably look at her as arm candy. But she's gorgeous, talented, superbly-dressed arm candy.

6.) Jennifer Garner

I don't know if she's ever looked better! She and Ben are so cute, best looking couple of the evening.

"Pastoralia" by George Saunders

A book review.

The stories in PASTORALIA are a cross between Ayn Rand's ANTHEM and Thomas Pynchon's THE CRYING OF LOT 39 with a hint of Christopher Haddon's THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME. The highlights were the title story and "The Barber's Unhappiness" which were both biting and darkly hilarious. But I couldn't help but think that I would rather be reading THE CURIOUS INCIDENT...**

Rating System:

**** = Amazing, Fantastic, Life-Changing
*** = Excellent & Worth a Read
** = Not a Complete Waste of Time but I Probably Wouldn't Recommend It
* = Blech!

And I don't do that half-star nonsense.

Mexican Restaurant Showdown: Tinga vs. Cacao Mexicatessen

Recently we ate at two higher-end Mexican restaurants and I thought it would be fun to compare. First off was Tinga, an open, high ceiling space snuck between the trendy boutiques and furniture shops on La Brea.

I ordered a mushroom pupusa, but they were out, so I guess go for an early lunch if you want to ensure one. So I made the conchonita pibil nachos my plan B. Of course, I forgot to take a photo, but they were good, smoky pork with a little orange and a little kick at the end. The tortilla chips at Tinga are excellent, very thick and pack a massive crunch. I only wished for some beans on the nachos. I think a creamy texture would've made them perfect.

Hubs had the Tinga tacos, spicy shredded chicken served in uncommonly good corn tortillas.

I really liked these, very flavorful and nicely complemented with the pickled onions.

We had a side of elote especial.

Anything with roasted corn tastes good to me. Top it with cheese, it's even better. So, all in all, this was a good meal. Not a restaurant that I'm dying to go back to, but the chips were great and I still want to try a mushroom pupusa.

For whatever reason, every time we try to go to Cacao Mexicatessen in Eagle Rock, it's closed. So going there when it was finally open was a victory in itself. And a table opened just as we placed our order. It was meant to be.

They're known for serving a poultry not often served in Mexican cuisine: duck. So we took advantage.

This was our meal. In the foreground, a duck chicharron taco and a duck carnitas sope. In the background, Hubs ordered two duck chicharron tacos. Plus an order of guacamole and a side of rice and beans to share.

The chicharrones were crispy. Hubs loved them. A little too salty for me. My sope was good, too, but the duck flavor didn't come through as much as I'd hoped. The guacamole was above average. We also shared a hot chocolate, which was as beautiful to look at as it was to drink.

Maybe my favorite thing we ate were the two salsas that the complimentary chips were served with. One was fresh and spicy, the other, green and comforting. When a restaurant gives you something great for free, that's always a good thing, and encourages another visit. Cacao has a huge menu. There are still things that we want to try.

All in all, I think the winner is Cacao, since it's the place I'm most excited to return to. Their homemade salsas sealed the deal.

Best Breakfast in L.A.?

The L.A. Weekly named Canele as the top breakfast spot in town. So Hubs and I got up early on a rainy Saturday, hoping the crowds would be scared away, to see if it was worth the hype.

I ordered the special, shrimp and grits.

The sauce burst with cajun flavor, a hint of heat, and a runny egg. Everything worked perfectly together. It's one of the best dishes I've eaten in awhile. Highly recommend.

Hubs ordered the fried farro with bacon, egg, and sriracha:

Perhaps not the most revealing photo, but there wasn't much to see here anyway.

This tasted like when I try to make Asian food at home. I feel like I put a million tasty things in it, but it still just tastes like soy. It was on the oily side, as well. Plus, the sriracha wasn't incorporated, so, what's the point? Don't advertise a condiment served on the side as part of a dish. Not impressed.

However, Canele redeemed itself with the baked pancake with meyer lemon custard:

AKA, dessert for breakfast. The custard had the perfect amount of lemon to brighten the rich dish without tasting too lemony. Sweet and creamy. A winner.

All in all, the farro was a miss, but a good showing otherwise. Service was great, our coffee was always full. Plus, there were many items on the menu that appealed to our taste buds, so we look forward to a return visit and ordering all new items. Thick french toast, here we come!

Winter Smoothie

Using in season ingredients from the farmer's market and frozen fruit, this smoothie is packed with nutrients and tastes delicious. It has just enough sweetness, but I wouldn't call it a sweet smoothie. I think it confidently walks the line between sweet and savory. It also happens to be vegan and gluten free.

1/2 cup frozen berries (I use a mixture of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup pineapple, diced (fresh or frozen is fine)
1 very small apple, cored and diced
1/2 stalk of celery, diced
1/4 medium roasted beet, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 cup greens, very tightly packed (spinach, kale, beet greens, etc.)
3 ice cubes

If you have a good blender, I think you could throw everything in at the same time and go. I have an immersion blender and blend in the large measuring cup it came with. This is my sequence:

Blend berries, oats, and soy milk until smooth. Add water, pineapple, apple, and celery and blend until smooth. Add beet and spinach and blend until smooth. Add three ice cubes and blend. Optional: add more water and blend until desired consistency.

Makes 2 cups of smoothie. About 300 calories. Loaded with nutrition.

Twist & Shout

No spoilers, unless you haven't seen The Sixth Sense. In that case, child please...

I recently watched Gus Van Sant's, Promised Land, a character piece revolving around the environmental debate surrounding fracking. Interestingly, Promised Land has a twist that comes late in the film. The movie didn't seem like the type of film that would have a twist, and my initial reaction was, "Oh, a twist. Didn't see that coming. What a pleasant surprise."

However, that pleasant feeling quickly evolved into annoyance. The twist created too many questions, questions with answers that weren't fulfilling, answers that didn't make enough sense. The twist was too square for the movie's round hole.

Twists are difficult. They have to be a complete surprise, yet leave the audience sinking back into their chairs saying, "Ah, it was there all along. I'm such a dummy. A happy, happy dummy." Once the twist is revealed everything that came before and after it must fit together perfectly. Plot, characters, motivation. It all still has to flow seamlessly, even though everything has changed. Nothing tricky about that.

When I think of a film with a great twist, I always think of The Sixth Sense. It just works perfectly. Every scene has a hint that Bruce Willis is dead. It all makes, well, sense. You don't ask questions, nothing has changed, though everything has changed. You're suddenly watching the movie through a completely new set of eyes, yet everything still looks the same. Quite a feat.

When a twist goes wrong, it murders every good thing you had going in your movie. Those well-developed characters we've been admiring for 90 minutes, who the hell are they? The clever plot, oh, that was cute. The climactic dialogue, I can't hear it because all I can do is sit in the darkness of the theatre trying to figure out if I'm really, really stupid because the twist doesn't make sense. Most of the time it's the twist that's stupid. But I won't come to that conclusion until I'm angrily gripping the steering wheel on the ride home, cursing at that dude who just cut me off.

If you're contemplating putting a twist in your story, make sure you know what your twist is before you start writing. Layer it into every possible scene. In the end, the twist must feel like the story was designed around it, not the other way around. It should never feel like a device added in the third draft in an attempt to spice things up. I'm certainly not saying that Promised Land was guilty of this, but I found it to be a lesson of a twist not working in complete harmony with the movie that came before and after it.

2012 Writing Roundup and 2013 Resolutions

I wasn't as motivated to write in 2012 as I wanted (needed) to be. Yes, I wrote a fair number of things. I finalized some screenplays that have been floating around my life for a number of years. They are officially done, not to be revisited until I have someone expressing interest in them.

My best writing moments came from the first drafts I finished this year: an adventure comedy that I'd been mulling over for awhile, an Awkward spec that I love, a sitcom pilot, and a Two Broke Girls spec that needs minimal revisions to be ready for 2013 fellowship submissions.

So for 2013, I need to just write, write, write. More, more, more. For the first half of 2013, I will strive my hardest to accomplish the following:

1.) Finish the final drafts of my adventure comedy feature.
2.) Write the first draft of my adult comedy feature which I will lovingly refer to as Boys.
3.) Write the first draft of my contained thriller which doesn't even have a pet name yet.
4.) Do another (final) draft of my coming-of-age dramedy, Ten Seconds.
5.) Write a drama spec for fellowship submissions (maybe).
6.) Write first draft of drama pilot, tentatively titled, Bad Names.

And most relevant to this blog...

7.) Blog every Wednesday about writing in some form or another...on my new blog devoted to screenwriting, movies, and the film industry which is here.

I figure #7 will help encourage my ass' getting in gear and doing some actual writing if I have to write about it once a week.

Happy New Year!