It's Oscar Time

I can't say that I am a huge fan of the televised presentation of the Oscar Awards, it is usually boring and often cringe inducing. What I do love about the Oscars are the nominations and seeing which of my favorites made the list.

In my humble opinion, this was a pretty good year for films. I enjoyed almost all of the films nominated for best picture:

Inception - I am not100% sure this movie deserved a nod for best picture, but in the expanded 10 movie structure, visually compelling movies that do well at the box office, are going to sneak in. In fact that is the whole point of the expansion, to get some crowd pleasers in there. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page were great in this film and it did keep me on the edge of my seat. It also had just enough twists and turns that you could argue what was real and what was a dream, throwing the entire movie into question. A fun film, that was visually stunning and had a good plot, but not the best pic or 2010.




The Kids Are All Right - congratulations to Focus Features for propelling another good movie into the best film category. These guys are amazing at getting their films nominated for awards, whether they deserve them or not. This one did not. I thought it was a good film; Mark Ruffalo and Annette Bening's performances were good, but they did not stand out to me as best supporting actor and best actress nominees. It was a strong ensemble cast that kept this story together. The fact that it doesn't have a Hollywood ending is what saved it from the trash heap for me.




The King's Speech - Now we are getting to the real contenders. I love period pieces and this is the ultimate period film. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are most deserving of their nominations for best actor and supporting actor respectively. I see Firth running away with it and Rush in a dogfight with Christian Bale. I was disappointed that Helena Bonham Carter did not get a nomination, but you can't have everything. At the end of the day this is the film that will walk away with all the awards. Hollywood loves this kind of film and God bless them for it. It is a great story, well told. We can ask no more.



127 Hours - And now we take a giant step backwards. 127 Hours, really? I don't even want to watch this movie on cable. Interesting news story, should have stopped there.










The Social Network - This movie got a lot of Oscar buzz early in the year, but was soon overtaken by The Kings Speech and The Fighter. It is a great film and it deserves to be in the running but it's like being in a race with Michael Johnson, in any other year you would have won. I know there has been a lot of controversy around the amount of liberties the writers took with this story, but who cares, the drama is great and you know everyone is lying to some degree. I have heard people taking Zuckerberg's side as well as the Winklevoss orNarendra's so obviously the writers gave everyone something to argue about. Another thing that has become brutally evident is that we won't be waiting 50 years to tell our stories, the future is unfolding so fast, that the movie has to be made while it is still happening.


Toy Story 3 - By the time to you get to the third of anything you are usually past done, but this is not the case with the Toy Story franchise. The genises at Pixar are able to keep the story fresh and interesting. As with all Pixar stories you know what is going to happen, but it is still a great ride getting there. Although there are some other great choices in the category, I have no doubt this will win the Oscar for best animated feature.






Black Swan- Review forthcoming.














The Fighter - This is my other favorite movie of the year, and honestly I can't remember a year that had two equally great movies that were so different. The Fighter is the opposite of The King's Speech in almost every way except they are both based on a true story and they both took a lot of effort to get to the screen. Mark Wahlberg went through several directors and a maze of financing to get this film made. I am not sure what was harder, getting the film made or the training he went through to be a convincing boxer. I have heard him tell the story and I think that would be a great documentary in itself. Like the protagonist, Micky Ward, Wahlberg is also the youngest of nine kids. They came up in the same neighborhood and both their mom's dotted on older brothers. And like Ward, Wahlberg had to keep fighting to get his shot. It was well worth it. This is a raw and ruthless film.


True Grit - I love the Coen brothers and I will watch any film they make, but I feel like it has been a while since they made a big movie. A Serious Man and Burn After Reading were both interesting but they did not have the gravitas of True Grit. Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld both deserve nominations for best actor and actress, they are fantastic. This is one of the few movies that is worth seeing on the big screen. Again, I have to say, if this weren't the year of The King's Speech, this would be a legitimate contender.





Winter's Bone - This was not the feel good movie of the year and that is why I loved it. It is a very raw look at a family that is dealing with rural poverty and the devastation caused by meth. I know it got a lot of critical acclaim, but I don't think this movie had a very long run in the theater, so my guess is that this nomination will get a lot of people to check it out on Netflicks or DVD. That's fine as this movie is all about the story, you don't need to see it on the wide screen. Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes are both excellent and it was great to see the are nominated in the best actress and best supporting actor categories. This is my sleeper of the year nominee.

Great Mediterranean food in NE Portland

Tabla Mediterranean Bistro is the newest offering from the folks that brought you 10-01 in the Pearl. While that restaurant never caught on, Tabla feels much more suited for the Portland palate. They have a small, well thought out menu, full of local ingredients that"add a modern twist to authentic Mediterranean specialties from regions such as Spain, France, Northern Africa, and Italy."



There are some great choices on the menu, but the first decision you should make is to get the $24 three course meal that allows you to choose one selection each from the appetizer, pasta and entree choices. We started with an excellent winter soup and a very nice charcuterie board. The pastas were equally good and difficult to choose from. The waiter recommend, and we tried, the Tajarin with truffle butter and parmigiano reggiano, and the Tabla Ravioli (pictured) with chard, ricotta, poached farm egg and poppy seed butter. This is hand-made in the restaurant and tastes as amazing as it looks.



For the entree we made the mistake of getting the same thing, the Spanish Seafood Stew (pictured). This was not a mistake on my part, as I thoroughly enjoyed it, but Barbara was not as happy and had nothing to trade for. In the future we must remember to try different things.


To top it all off we had a great lemon desert and a couple of scoops of their hand made gelato.

The Tabla Bistro is a great addition to the Portland restaurant scene. It is a cozy space, with great service and an affordable wine list. I look forward to a return visit.

Tabla’s hours are Monday – Sunday from 5:30pm- close.

Tabla Mediterranean Bistro
200 NE 28th Ave.
Portland, OR 97232
503.238.3777

The Forgotten Highlander by Alistair Urquart

Alistair Urquhart grew up in Aberdeen, Scotland and was enjoying a pretty good life until Hitler declared war on the British. As a 20 year-old he joined the local army regiment, the Gordon Highlanders. He was shipped out to Singapore, where he languished through a boring year shuffling papers and perfecting his ball room dancing.

Then everything changed and what ensued is one of the worst stories I have ever heard. He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 when they invaded Singapore. Forced into slave labor as a POW, he survived 750 days in the jungle working on the notorious “Death Railway” and building the bridge over the River Kwai. During this time over 100,000 men lost their lives and Urquart was very luck not to be among them. Things went from bad to worse when he was transported on a Japanese “hellship,” in a hold where you were unable to move because the men were packed in so tightly. Almost one in three of the POWs on these ships died in the hold. To make matters worse his ship was torpedoed, and nearly everyone on board died, but not Urquhart. He drifted on a make shift raft for five days in the South China Sea, and while others were rescued by the American submarine that sunk them, he was rescued by a Japanese whaling ship and returned to the enemy.

The misfortune does not end here, as he was taken to Japan and forced to work in a mine near Nagasaki. Two months later, he was just ten miles from ground zero when an atomic bomb was dropped knocking him to the ground. In late August 1945, he was freed by the American Navy, and on the way to the boat he drove though radiated dust, which later lead to cancer. At this point the 5' 6" 135 lb Urquart had been reduced to 82 lbs and he looked like a living skeleton after three and a half years as a POW.

The greatest insult of all was that the British government never gave him any compensation nor did they provide medical help for his litany of maladies: cholera, beriberi, dysentery, malaria, and the subsequent cancer from radiation exposure and skin cancer from sun exposure. Despite the constant nightmares and never being able to eat anything but the simplest, blandest foods for the rest of his life, he married and had a happy family. He finally sat down to tell the world his story in 2010. At 91, he still lives in Dundee and spends his time teaching retired people how to use the computer and attends and teaches ballroom dancing.

After reading this book I don't think I can ever complain about anything, ever. He is truly part of the greatest generation.

Best Super Bowl spot

W+K won the Super Bowl with this great new spot for the Chrysler 200.

The best records of 2010

I know we are already into February, so this is a little late, but I still wanted to get my favorite records for 2010 out there. Some of them were late adds, so I m glad I got a little more time with them.

The nominees:
Brothers by The Black Keys
I love this record, it didn't win my record of the year, but it could have. One guy on drums and the other on guitar, what's not to love. They play stripped down rock and roll that is passionate and powerful. They also won the Colbert sell-out-athon with more songs in commercials than Vampire Weekend. You can hear the songs from this record on Cadillac, Subaru and about 25 other commercials. You know why? Because they are great songs. I have no problem with selling your song to a car company, you didn't create it for the commercial. You just made a great song that someone wants to pay you a lot of money to use, go for it.
Lucky Shiner by Gold Panda
What a beautiful record. If you just want to chill out and listen to something that will take you away to another world this is it. If I could make one record the sound track to my life this is it. I don't want to get into the exotica of electronic music and what is and isn't dubstep, I am too old for that. I just know this is awesome and I still can't stop listening to it.




My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
I'll be honest, I did not want to like this record. When Carrie Brownstein named it her record of the year on NPR's All Songs Considered, I thought she was crazy. I only liked one song the first time I heard it, because Kanye sings, "this is for the douche bags" and I thought he was talking about himself. Well damn it, this record has grown on me so much that I love it now when one of the songs pops up on my iPod. Kanye you are a douche bag. You are famous for being famous. You are now writing songs about the downside of the fame you don't deserve, but turns out they are great songs.

Treats by Sleigh Bells
When Robin Hilton named this his record of the year on NPR's All Songs Considered, he got unmitigated sh*t. People turned on him like a pack of wolves. I think Sleigh Bells is a band that provokes that kind of emotion, you either love them or you hate them. As Hilton said in his review, when I hear these songs I want to punch someone in the face. For that, I love them. The energy on this record is unparalleled. The funny thing is, the song that was a big radio hit was the one softer song. Go figure.



Love And Its Opposite by Tracey Thorn
I reviewed this record earlier in the year and it stayed with me as one of my favorites. Tracy Thorn is one half of the band Everything But The Girl. This is her third and best solo record. The emotion and rawness of this record is amazing. It also heartening and brave to see a women put out an age appropriate record.





What We Lose In The Fire We Gain In The Flood by The Mynabirds
Another record I reviewed earlier this year that didn't seem to make into any of the top 10 lists I saw out there. Laura Burhenn is a beautiful reincarnation of Dusty Springfield with a little Cat Power thrown in. "Numbers Don't Lie" is a candidate for my favorite song of the year.





This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
This is a record that got a lot of attention from all the major critics. As I said in my review, I missed out on LCD's first record and was glad to get acquainted with him this year. This is my favorite dance record of the year. The beats are amazing, you can't stop moving when you hear them, and as a bonus he has a great sense of humor. "Drunk Girls" and "Dance Yrself Clean" two candidates for song of the year.




Come Around Sundown by Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon rock. Done. Buy this.









New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh by Erykah Badu
I didn't want to buy this record. Frankly New Amerykah Part One was a mess and I did not enjoy it. This record is much more analog in the instrumentation and much more emotional in the lyrics and song choices. I hate to say this, but she went old school and it works all day. This is why we love Erykah Badu.






(And the winner is...) Record of the year:

Good Things by Aloe Blacc
This record rose to the top because it has everything. A great single, "I Need a Dollar," that was used as the title song in the HBO show, How to Make it in America; a singer with a great voice and a bunch of really emotional, passionate and grooving songs. I feel like Aloe Blacc is the Marvin Gaye for the new generation. His words are political and thought provoking but they are sung so smoothly and beautifully that you somehow feel like it's going to be all right.




Single of the year:

"F*** You" by Cee Lo Green
I saw that Cee Lo Green was going to be on Saturday Night Live and all I could think was how can he play that song on TV, he says the F word like 100 times. Because I have stopped listening to the radio, I didn't realize there was a radio friendly version of the song, where he sings "Forget You." What a let down, that version sucks. So that raises the question, do I only like this song for the shock value. Maybe, but it's also a good tune and he has so much fun with it, that it's still the one song that I have to stop everything and sing along with when it comes on.

Don Younger, July 11 1941- January 31 2011

Portland lost one of it's great citizens this week with the passing of Don Younger. He was the founder and longtime owner of our favorite local pub The Horse Brass. You might think it is strange to lament the loss of a publican in a town like Portland that is renowned for great pubs and great beer, but the truth is Portland wouldn't be all of those things if it weren't for Don Younger. He is hugely responsible for the Portland becoming Beervana. He was one of the first people in Oregon to support and promote the craft beer movement. The Widmer Brothers credit him with helping them get their brewery started and giving them the early support that helped get their beer on the map. He created Oregon Craft Beer Month and was a leading authority on all things beer.

The first time I met him was pretty intimidating. He was a tall man despite his hunchback, and he had long white hair and a shaggy beard. I was in his smoke filled office, across the street from the pub, to ask that he keep our client Henry Weinhard's beer on tap. Miller had bought the brand when Stroh's went out of business, but they did not want to buy and maintain the old brewery in the Pearl District. People in Portland were super pissed off that the brewery was closing and they blamed Miller. My point was that Miller had saved the brand and even though it was not being brewed here anymore, they were still making it in the Pacific Northwest up at the old Olympia Brewery. I knew it would be a hard sell and things got off to a bad start when Don opened the conversation with, "so you are the assholes that closed the brewery." He was having none of our appeal and told us he would never carry Henry's as long as it was brewed outside Oregon. I have to say, I left in total agreement with him. I was as sad as anyone that the brewery was closing, but I was also bummed that we would no longer be selling Henry's in his hugely influential pub.

The next time I encountered Don Younger was on a very busy Friday night as he sat at the end of his bar having a beer. The smoking ban had just been initiated and I knew he had been adamantly against it. He was a heavy smoker, and he had lobbied hard to stop the measure, going as far as saying it would hurt his business. I know I probably shouldn't have incited him, but I couldn't help myself. I made a quip about how full the bar was and that the smoking ban may actually be helping business. For the second time in my life, he growled at me, and told me to "f--- off." I wear it as a badge of honor.

He was a great man and he will be missed. If you are so inclined, you should visit The Horse Brass on SE Belmont, order a pint of Rouge Brewing's Younger's Special Bitter (named after his late brother) and toast one of the men that made us the beer capitol of the U.S.