It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

Right on schedule Barbara has the Christmas tree up
(the day after Thanksgiving).

I did my part and got up on the roof to add the icicle lights.

We have the dinner table set and ready for Portland Christmas
(with Tish, Dede and family).

Brodie and Finlay are also getting in the spirit with their festive sweaters.


And they are hoping for a bone in their stocking.

No Country for Old Men

Coen brothers and Cormac McCarthy, do I need to say anymore?

OK, a little more. Here's what happens: Llewelyn Mossout (Josh Brolin) is out hunting in the barren wasteland that is west Texas. He comes up on a drug deal gone bad and takes off with the money (two million 1980 dollars). This is when he makes his first mistake. For some strange reason, he returns to the scene to bring water to a dying man. As they say, without this we got no story. The people who want the drugs and the money back are there waiting for him. In one of the best chase scenes in recent history Llewelyn makes his escape down river as he is pursued by a pit bull that would scare Michael Vick. Just when you think the pit bull is the scariest thing you'd ever want to be chased by, we are are introduced to Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a psychopath who will stop at nothing to recover the money and mete out his own twisted brand of justice on Llewelyn and everyone else who gets in his way.

While the chase is the star of this movie, an old school sheriff named Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is the next best thing. He investigates the case, but quickly becomes more interested in rescuing the fugitive from his pursuer than retrieving the cash. He also delivers all the good lines. Upon seeing the death and destruction of the drug deal gone bad the sheriff's deputy says, 'It's a mess, ain't it?," to which Jones replies, "If it ain't, it'll do until the mess gets here."

This movie is rated R and you should take this rating seriously. If you know Cormac McCarthy you know he doesn't celebrate violence, but he knows how to deliver it in it's rawest form.

Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Modest Mouse have been around for a while, in fact they released their first record in 1996. But this is the first great record they have made. Previously they were a strange, experimental, rambling mess. Experimenting has it's place, but after a while you need to figure out who you are. In 2006, Modest Mouse decided to become a little more conventional and it paid off. This is one of best records of that year.

They are still a little strange as you can witness on "Float On" and "Bukowski" two of the best cuts on the record, but they hit their stride with one of the best singles of the year "The Good Times Are Killing Me."

To all the old school MM fans this record may be an aberration, but I hope they keep mining this vein.

The Darjeeling Limited

How little plot and character development can you have and still make a good movie? This is a question that Wes Anderson seems to want to visit over and over again. His motto seems to be, it is better to look good than to feel good.

In his latest film, The Darjeeling Limited, Owen Wilson stars as Francis Whitman, the oldest of three brothers whom he has reunited under false pretenses. Recovering from undisclosed injuries he claims gave him a new found lease on life, Francis hatches a plan to reconnect with his younger siblings in India, coordinated down to the last detail (he has an assistant that provides laminated itineraries each day). His brothers each have their own issues -- Peter (Adrien Brody) is about to become a father, while Jack (Jason Schwartzman) is despondent over an ex-girlfriend. While Peter and jack are initially reluctant to open up to the prospect of a spiritual or emotional epiphany, they come together when Jack reveals the real reason for the trip -- to find their estranged mother Patricia (Angelica Huston) who is also in India working at a convent taking care of orphans. The family schism is a result of their father's death and their mother's failure to attend the funeral.

Much like The Life Aquatic, the setting -- a train ride through India -- is really the star of this movie. And like The Royal Tenenbaums, the characters only give you what little you need to keep you interested. If you are a fan of Anderson and his understated form, you should enjoy this film.

You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem

In his sixth novel, You Don't Love Me Yet, it's hard to tell if Jonathan Lethem (Fortress of Solitude; Motherless Brooklyn) is taking the piss or slightly out of his element. The Brooklyn boy takes on LA and if your not from there it's a little like using the "N" word if you're not black, stupid at best. He gets a lot of it right, but it is over the top and this is where it gets suspect. The story revolves around a nascent band and it's bass player, Lucinda. She works days answering a "complaint line' that is a conceptual art piece dreamed up by one of her ex-lovers, a boring gallery owner with plenty of money and all day to spend it (this rings true). Against all the rules she begins a relationship with one of the complainers, an overweight, hairy blob of a man (this does not ring true in image obsessed LA). He is a slogan writer (buying it) and Lucinda turns his stream of complaints into the beginnings of the bands first great lyrics (sort of buy it), but when he finds out he wants to join the band (not buying it) with disastrous consequences (funny). The rest of the characters are kids you could find anywhere and don't seem indigenous to LA in any way special. In fact, make the art less performance based, substitute the car journeys for subway trips and this story could easily be set in New York. So, LA inconsequential in my mind. What we have here is a funny story about trying to make it through your mid-20's and almost being great.

Mr. Death Soundtrack - Caleb Sampson

This is a tough one. One of my favorite directors in the world is Errol Morris, not only because he makes amazing, quirky (Oscar winning) documentaries, but also because he directed all our Miller High Life commercials back in the day. For a while we were bugging him to get us copies of all his movies on DVD. On the day he finally delivered, I got an unexpected bonus, the sound track to Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. by Caleb Sampson.

It is one of the most beautiful collections of songs you will ever listen to and while the songs are a great sound track to the movie, I think the biggest compliment I can pay this soundtrack is that I now think of it and the movie as two completely different (and wonderful) entities. So, here is the sad part. The day after getting the CD I wandered back into the production office to tell Errol how great it was and the first thing he told me was Caleb committed suicide a few weeks after completing it. All time downer.

Fife Restaurant

Finally made it to Fife after driving by it several times, thinking: we should go there some day. Located on lower Freemont this restaurant has great ambiance and is helping revive a pretty cool old neighborhood. Unfortunately all was not good on this night. The cocktails were uninspired. The Ruby Rose - fresh squeezed ruby grapefruit and vodka in a sugared martini glass, $8 - was watery and tasteless and the Loretto County Orange - Maker's Mark and Frangelico with fresh orange juice, $8 was overpowering. For an appetizer, I chickened out on the fried livers and went with the Split Pea soup, $7, while the hint of lime made it refreshing it was a little unwelcome twist on a classic. The Maryland style crab cakes, $9 were nice and loaded with crab. Then there was an hour wait for the entree. To her credit the hostess did come by to tell us the kitchen was going through some growing pains. The Monk fish with lentils, $18 was excellently prepared and well presented. I had asked that the Hanger Steak, $24, be cooked to medium, although the waitress recommended medium rare. She won out and brought it undercooked.

The wine list was pleasant with good descriptions and fairly reasonably priced, with a couple of good values in the mix. Unfortunately, the long wait and indifferent service will not afford Fife a return visit.

Hours of Operation:
Tuesday-Thursday - 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Friday-Saturday - 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM

4440 NE Freemont St.
Portland, OR 97213
Phone: 971.222.3433
info@fiferestaurant.com

Giraffe by J. M. Ledgard

It should make sense that a book entitled Giraffe's opening chapter is narrated from the perspective of a giraffe, but it doesn't, as it immediately takes the book off course into a bizarre dream like trance. This book, could have been a brilliant short story in the New Yorker or a novella at best. Based on a true story of the largest group of giraffes in captivity, the novel tracks the giraffes from their capture in Africa to their ensconcement in a Czechoslovakian zoo in 1975 to their subsequent slaughter. The underlining story is hugely interesting and the layers of communist bureaucracy are also intriguing to parse through, but the strange long diversions each character takes are off putting.

J. M. Ledgard is a well know correspondent for the Economist, and it is disconcerting that a reporter should choose to tell this story this way. At the end of the day, this is a sad story well told, with an amazing climax, if you some how manage to skip the first half of every chapter.

Live. Run. - New Nike Running spot

Here is the latest TV spot we created for Nike Running. It will start airing in Latin America only on 12/11, so don't look for it on TV in the US or Canada. We shot the spot in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Interesting split screen devise. On the left we see a young man enjoying a fun night out, where he obviously overdoes it a little. On the right we see the same guy getting up to go for a run. As he runs, he is "undoing" the damage of the night out on the left.

The song is Good Morning Life, sung by Dean Martin.

Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo

Russo's last book, the Pulitzer Prize winner, Empire Falls was one of my favorites. Russo is extremely adept at creating interesting characters that you become invested in. Much like Empire Falls, he again explores small town life in upstate New York. This time we are in Thomaston, N.Y., where the local tannery is slowly poisoning the residents as it dumps cancerous dyes into the local river.

Russo tells a story within a story as the main character Lou C. Lynch (unfortunately nicknamed Lucy due to the teachers mispronouncing his name the first day of elementary school) writes his life story while moving forward in the current narrative. A nice device that allows the story to move smoothly back in time and provides great insights into the unfolding real time story.

For the first 100 pages or so, you are buying into Russo's theory that small town life is idyllic and something to be honored. But slowly, he starts to expand the characters and their flaws appear in a very natural way that allows you to enjoy their complexities. You can no longer just glide through the book thinking Lou is a good guy living a happy life in the same small town he was born and raised in. You start to understand that all decisions and life experiences, no matter how small, have consequences.

While the ending takes a strange left turn, I don't think it hurts the overall story. Another great American story.

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Talk about bloated corporate 70's rock, there is no better example than Fleetwood Mac. The band is like the TV show Friends. Everyone dated or married everyone else in the band at least once. But somehow, between the coke binges, divorces and nasty break ups they managed to make some pretty great music.

Fleetwood Mac purists would probably choose one of their older, bluesier records, but this is one of the best selling records of all time and these are the songs that made them famous. If somehow, you held out and you don't own this record, now added to the lineup is the previously unreleased studio track "Silver Springs," recorded during the "Rumours" sessions but not included on the original album due to time constraints. Bonus.