Cupcakes and Stardust
I swear to god I know like fifteen people who have had birthdays within the past two weeks. It's like everyone's parents decided to get laid and knocked up on Halloween to have their devil children. Or, er, early November.
Ken and I have been trying to find accessories for our outfits for hagdirt's "Deeper into Limbo" LARP game. So far we have been failing. Ken is trying to look for a touristy straw hat and I'm trying to find black feather wings. We went to a bunch of thrift stores, some open and some closed, but to no avail. Anyone want to give us a lift down to the Party City on Sepulveda?
We did discover, on our uh, travails travels, a new gourmet cupcake place in Santa Monica called Dainties. They sell these chocolate cupcakes filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate ganache and flavored whipped cream on them for $3.00. The lady was very friendly, though, and near closing, so she gave us three cupcakes to try for free. I'm a novice cupcake baker, but I can attest that these cupcakes were very professionally baked, if a bit rich. They tasted yummy--and I'm normally not a chocolate fan.
I'm pretty much convinced that "specialty cupcakes" are the new Pinkberry. I mean, three bucks for a cupcake? Really? But at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills people wait two hours in line for cupcakes, and even buy cupcakes for their chihuahuas and their weddings.
It's kind of hard to believe that Ken and I have been dating for six months (0_0) yet we'd never gone to see a movie as just the two of us, a couple. We did so today because most of Enigma is out camping in Joshua Tree to watch the Perseids. It's a new moon this weekend so the meteor shower is exceptionally bright. We didn't get to go see them, so to compensate we decided to go watch officialgaiman's new movie, Stardust, which was pleasantly enjoyable and quite an acceptable and adequate adaptation to his adult faery tale.
Before the show we got to watch Screenvision (the worldwide leader in cinema advertising) which uh. Holy fuck. Read their pitch. I hate cinema advertising. Then we saw trailers for three movies, all of which seemed to inexplicably star the same eleven year old boy. (Upon reasearching the movies, 2/3 trailers DO star the same eleven year old boy and in the movie based on blackholly's book he plays a set of twins?) One of the movies starred Jonathan Rhys Myers and Kerri Russell, which just made me positively biased towards it, even though it could be sappy.
Then we saw the trailer for Neil Gaiman's Beowulf. Which is apparently what happens when the makers of The Polar Express discover textures. Dude. I do not remember Beowulf hooking up with Grendel's naked mother. I remember him killing Grendel's mother though. Maybe he will slay her with his massive textured rotoscoped peen.
The movie Stardust presented itself in some ways better than the novella it is based after, and in some ways worse. The fantasy world is solidly shaped and the story is elegantly narrated by Gandalf (Ian McKellan). Our hero's daddeh, a very prettyful Prince Caspian, goes across the Wall and knocks up an imprisoned princess and blah blah the kid grows up into an Orlando Bloom clone who must be a newer model than Bloombot because he has a vastly wider dramatic range. (Granted, Bloom has the dramatic depth of a legendary teapot.)
Anyhow, Charlie Cox does a top notch job as the charmingly naive dunderhead Tristan Thorne. Everyone else falls into generics, with the faint exception of Robert DeNiro as the (not really in the book) Captain Shakespeare. Who does the prancing. In the character of the witch you see some acknowledgment of ugliness and age that is otherwise ignored in Hollywood. It does seem like everyone had fun making this film, which added to the pleasantries
My only criticism of an otherwise perky and entertaining movie (okay, maybe not only, but my only MAJOR) criticism is that the ending was kind of lame. I mean, seriously deus ex machina there. And Lamia explodeys. Hooray. Shining star. But I at least the witch wasn't as stupid as Voldemort. It's just...I mean...the star lights up? And that's it?
And the movie makes this mistake of giving the story an utterly happy ending, instead of addressing themes of mortality and immortality the way the novella does. In the novella, Tristan dies happy, and it's because he's the only one who doesn't want to use the star for eternal life. I guess that means he deserves eternal life more than any other character in the story, so the happy ending is entitled. But I did miss the image of the Star, decades later, sitting on top of the tower lit and lonely...it seemed far more poignant and bittersweet than this generic "happily ever after." When I read the end of the novella I hated it because that meant Tristan was dead and the Star was lonely. But I did like that it really drew out the impermanence of things like happiness and life, and the whole enjoying the temporary. =/
Also, the pop song at the end of the movie almost gave me a brain aneurysm. WHAT WAS THAT? It was really jarring.
IN SUMMARY: This movie is CUTE. Corny and feel-good. Stardust is a fantasy and romantic comedy film with enough humor and action to appeal to a general audience. Cox delivers a strong performance (for a former virtual nobody) with believable character development and maturation, and sports a sassy white jacket. Robert DeNiro is also sassy. There are some major and minor changes to the book. And I wish my boyfriend was a dormouse. Think of the money we'd save on airplane tickets. Irregardless, please watch this movie and support Neil Gaiman's capital in Hollywood because all I really care about is a resultant movie for American Gods, kthxbye.
I decided to try my hand at cupcakes again with this popular root beer float cupcake recipe that has been floating around the internet. This was the first time I had ever baked from scratch...
...and it wans't necessarily good times.
Let's just say...I didn't know jack squat about creaming butter and sugar. Or uh, sifting. Yeah, I didn't know much about sifting either (and I don't own a sifter). Or making glaze. Or glazing cupcakes. And I couldn't find root beer schnapps anywhere! (Who the hell drinks root beer schnapps? Oh, never mind, it actually sounds tasty.) I decided to use Amaretto instead, because it is the giggle!sauce and uh, tastes good in everything, and is my default baking additive of choice, but I think in this case it might have overpowered the root beer flavor. I did not know those things. But now I do.
So yup, that's a root beer float cupcake with modifications to the recipe--namely amaretto instead of schnapps, less sugar, crappily sifted flour, and jet puffed marshmallow fluff topping instead of a heavy vanilla buttercream (ew.) Oh! And a root beer jelly bean.
It is not as beautiful as a professionally made Beverly Hills cupcake, but I like it anyway. I think they went over well at my first Youxia Proxy game session, at least, I hope.
Frankly, I think the Almond Crepes I made last week went over better. Anyhow, photos of cookingage are all here.
Okay, and now it's time to glomp a dude in all his glorious snorescapades. Goodbye.
Ken and I have been trying to find accessories for our outfits for hagdirt's "Deeper into Limbo" LARP game. So far we have been failing. Ken is trying to look for a touristy straw hat and I'm trying to find black feather wings. We went to a bunch of thrift stores, some open and some closed, but to no avail. Anyone want to give us a lift down to the Party City on Sepulveda?
We did discover, on our uh, travails travels, a new gourmet cupcake place in Santa Monica called Dainties. They sell these chocolate cupcakes filled with whipped cream and covered with chocolate ganache and flavored whipped cream on them for $3.00. The lady was very friendly, though, and near closing, so she gave us three cupcakes to try for free. I'm a novice cupcake baker, but I can attest that these cupcakes were very professionally baked, if a bit rich. They tasted yummy--and I'm normally not a chocolate fan.
I'm pretty much convinced that "specialty cupcakes" are the new Pinkberry. I mean, three bucks for a cupcake? Really? But at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills people wait two hours in line for cupcakes, and even buy cupcakes for their chihuahuas and their weddings.
It's kind of hard to believe that Ken and I have been dating for six months (0_0) yet we'd never gone to see a movie as just the two of us, a couple. We did so today because most of Enigma is out camping in Joshua Tree to watch the Perseids. It's a new moon this weekend so the meteor shower is exceptionally bright. We didn't get to go see them, so to compensate we decided to go watch officialgaiman's new movie, Stardust, which was pleasantly enjoyable and quite an acceptable and adequate adaptation to his adult faery tale.
Before the show we got to watch Screenvision (the worldwide leader in cinema advertising) which uh. Holy fuck. Read their pitch. I hate cinema advertising. Then we saw trailers for three movies, all of which seemed to inexplicably star the same eleven year old boy. (Upon reasearching the movies, 2/3 trailers DO star the same eleven year old boy and in the movie based on blackholly's book he plays a set of twins?) One of the movies starred Jonathan Rhys Myers and Kerri Russell, which just made me positively biased towards it, even though it could be sappy.
Then we saw the trailer for Neil Gaiman's Beowulf. Which is apparently what happens when the makers of The Polar Express discover textures. Dude. I do not remember Beowulf hooking up with Grendel's naked mother. I remember him killing Grendel's mother though. Maybe he will slay her with his massive textured rotoscoped peen.
The movie Stardust presented itself in some ways better than the novella it is based after, and in some ways worse. The fantasy world is solidly shaped and the story is elegantly narrated by Gandalf (Ian McKellan). Our hero's daddeh, a very prettyful Prince Caspian, goes across the Wall and knocks up an imprisoned princess and blah blah the kid grows up into an Orlando Bloom clone who must be a newer model than Bloombot because he has a vastly wider dramatic range. (Granted, Bloom has the dramatic depth of a legendary teapot.)
Anyhow, Charlie Cox does a top notch job as the charmingly naive dunderhead Tristan Thorne. Everyone else falls into generics, with the faint exception of Robert DeNiro as the (not really in the book) Captain Shakespeare. Who does the prancing. In the character of the witch you see some acknowledgment of ugliness and age that is otherwise ignored in Hollywood. It does seem like everyone had fun making this film, which added to the pleasantries
My only criticism of an otherwise perky and entertaining movie (okay, maybe not only, but my only MAJOR) criticism is that the ending was kind of lame. I mean, seriously deus ex machina there. And Lamia explodeys. Hooray. Shining star. But I at least the witch wasn't as stupid as Voldemort. It's just...I mean...the star lights up? And that's it?
And the movie makes this mistake of giving the story an utterly happy ending, instead of addressing themes of mortality and immortality the way the novella does. In the novella, Tristan dies happy, and it's because he's the only one who doesn't want to use the star for eternal life. I guess that means he deserves eternal life more than any other character in the story, so the happy ending is entitled. But I did miss the image of the Star, decades later, sitting on top of the tower lit and lonely...it seemed far more poignant and bittersweet than this generic "happily ever after." When I read the end of the novella I hated it because that meant Tristan was dead and the Star was lonely. But I did like that it really drew out the impermanence of things like happiness and life, and the whole enjoying the temporary. =/
Also, the pop song at the end of the movie almost gave me a brain aneurysm. WHAT WAS THAT? It was really jarring.
IN SUMMARY: This movie is CUTE. Corny and feel-good. Stardust is a fantasy and romantic comedy film with enough humor and action to appeal to a general audience. Cox delivers a strong performance (for a former virtual nobody) with believable character development and maturation, and sports a sassy white jacket. Robert DeNiro is also sassy. There are some major and minor changes to the book. And I wish my boyfriend was a dormouse. Think of the money we'd save on airplane tickets. Irregardless, please watch this movie and support Neil Gaiman's capital in Hollywood because all I really care about is a resultant movie for American Gods, kthxbye.
- Ken: We need a Grendel.
Me: Why? He eats people.
Ken: That's only because he doesn't like parties and music. So whenever the frats have a party or the neighbors play loud music...
Me: Wham.
Ken: Grendel comes in and smashes their sound system.
Me: And carts some of them off for food.
Ken: Exactly.
Me: You think that's weird, in December the Hulk is going to play Henry the VIII. And Natalie Portman is going to play Anne Boleyn.
Ken: They should play Henry the VIII as the Hulk. HENRY!SMASH!
Me: I WANT A DIVORCE! SMASH!
Ken: And the Pope can be Iron Man.
Me: No divorce for you! We're sending you to the moon!
I decided to try my hand at cupcakes again with this popular root beer float cupcake recipe that has been floating around the internet. This was the first time I had ever baked from scratch...
...and it wans't necessarily good times.
Let's just say...I didn't know jack squat about creaming butter and sugar. Or uh, sifting. Yeah, I didn't know much about sifting either (and I don't own a sifter). Or making glaze. Or glazing cupcakes. And I couldn't find root beer schnapps anywhere! (Who the hell drinks root beer schnapps? Oh, never mind, it actually sounds tasty.) I decided to use Amaretto instead, because it is the giggle!sauce and uh, tastes good in everything, and is my default baking additive of choice, but I think in this case it might have overpowered the root beer flavor. I did not know those things. But now I do.
So yup, that's a root beer float cupcake with modifications to the recipe--namely amaretto instead of schnapps, less sugar, crappily sifted flour, and jet puffed marshmallow fluff topping instead of a heavy vanilla buttercream (ew.) Oh! And a root beer jelly bean.
It is not as beautiful as a professionally made Beverly Hills cupcake, but I like it anyway. I think they went over well at my first Youxia Proxy game session, at least, I hope.
Frankly, I think the Almond Crepes I made last week went over better. Anyhow, photos of cookingage are all here.
Okay, and now it's time to glomp a dude in all his glorious snorescapades. Goodbye.