doubles.

Hi there. We're back, and we're talking movies again--among a few other delicious and interesting topics.

So, we all enjoy a good flick, but it's rare that one comes along and blows the mind right open. Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal did just that. It's an ominous, metaphysical mystery--a rabbit hole of a film.

Gyllenhaal has teamed up again with Prisoners director Denis Villeneuve, but if you think you're going in for Prisoners II, stop right there. While both films are disturbing, Enemy is unsettling in a more cerebral way. It's premise is nothing new: man sees and becomes obsessed with his double. It's Jung's shadow run amok, but personally, I never tire of the infinite takes on this theme. Man suppresses his darker nature; chaos ensues. I am enthralled.

Everything about Enemy is deliciously dark and foreboding--the gloomy cinematography, the haunting score by Danny Bensi, the role city takes on as a character in the film. I'll never feel the same way about Toronto again (full disclosure: I had no strong feelings towards Toronto before this movie). And the spiders! Creepy, creepy spiders.

A note: Enemy features the song After the Lights Go Out by the Walker Brothers. This is a catchy tune, my friends, and worth taking a listen. You know one of my favorite joys is discovering the lesser-known music of the 60s.

 
Once you see Enemy (which released yesterday on Netflix), and you are all WTF???, I suggest you check out this video by YouTube film critic, Chris Stuckmann, which is excellent--virtually as mind-blowing as the movie itself. Stuckmann dissects it the way a Kubrick freak takes apart The Shining or Eyes Wide Shut. Lots and lots of fun.

Another note: Enemy is based on the novel The Double by José Saramago. The Nobel Committee is already on to this guy. I think it may be time to check him out.

One more note: I was (mildly) surprised to see that there is another film currently out called The Double starring Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska. Pretty much the same plot, too. I thought it could be fun to compare and contrast the two movies, but I promise I won't make you write an essay on it.

Moving on to some other revelations that are making me happy: let's start with the art of Gerhard Richter. I'm fascinated by any artist who blurs the lines between painting and photography. The documentary Gerhard Richter Painting is on my must-see list.

Also loving: the music of Max Richter (no relation to Gerhard), specifically his reinterpretation of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, featuring one of my favorite violinists, Daniel Hope.

I'm reading a stunning, new novel, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. The story of two doctors--one brilliant and one less-than-gifted--holding down an abandoned hospital in war-torn Chechnya, it's a book that makes you say, "How does anyone write this well?" Especially someone so young as author Anthony Marra. Amazing.

Next up on the reading front: the new Murakami story in The New Yorker.

A site I'm loving right now: Berfrois. Literature, poetry, art, philosophy and more--Berfrois is a rabbit hole for the intellectual. I'm particularly intrigued by this article that unites Mendelssohn, Annie Besant, Madame Blavatsky and Jack Parsons. ZOMG.

  "The music of Mendelssohn" via Berfrois.

OK, almost done--I swear. I also swear I could go the whole summer subsisting on nothing but gazpacho, ceviche and cold brew coffee. I've rhapsodized plenty about gazpacho on this blog (and made a big batch of it today), so let's talk a bit about ceviche.

There are plenty of articles lauding the most delicious ceviche in the city, like this one and this one, usually featuring the heavy hitters like this place and this place. But I have a personal favorite that all you L.A. foodies are overlooking: Antojitos Guerrero in Highland Park. This bright orange hole in the wall sprinkles some kind of magic on their food before they deliver it to your table, because everything is so simple, yet so freaking good. And their ceviche ranks with the very best.

I also had a chance to pop into Swork Coffee in Eagle Rock. I used to go here all the time, but it drove me a little nuts, because it's where hipster parents take their hipster toddlers, and you know...ugh. But I was impressed how they've completely re-worked the layout of the place. The café area feels like a mini library, with a chest-high wall shielding the play area for kids. Clearly, it was consciously designed this way, and I think it's brilliant.

But we're here to talk about cold brew coffee and Swork's is so satisfying--perfectly smooth and not at all bitter. It's totally worth the jaunt over to lovely Eagle Rock.

That's all for now, dear readers, but you know I'll be back soon. XOXO

thanksgiving.

Hello. It's Black Friday--truly the blackest day of the year. I loathe it, down to the deepest reaches of my soul. I hate that I actually contribute to it, working in the retail industry, even if my contribution is rather miniscule.

But the phenomenon of Black Friday that has exploded over the past couple of years has meant work, work, work all through this holiday week. I'm bound to my job and can't travel anywhere. No tragedy there, tough, as I find Thanksgiving to be barbaric and ridiculous. Hundreds of millions of turkeys are slaughtered. People settle back on their couches in food comas to watch large men in helmets pummel each other. And they pay exorbitant amounts of money to experience the hell of flying on the worst days of the year.

Combine it all with that horror that is Black Friday--and you can just count me out.

Isabel and Alfred. Alfred Coffee, that is.

But that all doesn't mean I can't kick back, relax, enjoy the day and give thanks in a way that's meaningful to me, so I'd like to show you how I did that this year.

First off, I went a little out of the way to pick up coffee at Alfred on Melrose Place. Gerry and I go there on Sunday after the Farmer's Market. Alfred serves Stumptown and is the perfect place to people watch, dog watch and write the Great American Screenplay.

Next, I finally started 1Q84, which my mom, my brother and I all gave to each other last Christmas. I am 40 pages in, and I am hooked! I hope I stay that way, because I have about 860 pages to go.

Then it was time to make my own little feast. It turned out to be a big one. It was nice to just spend an afternoon in the kitchen and not have to worry about anything else. The menu I decided on was:

Beet and Apple Soup

Wild Rice with Purple Kale and Radicchio

Roasted Cauliflower and Chick Peas with Harissa

Homemade Apple, Cranberry and Ginger Soda

The soda and the wild rice dish were my own recipes. Being from Minnesota, I'm a big fan of wild rice, and I love breaking it out when fall rolls around. The Beet and Apple Soup recipe I found at Epicurious and the Cauliflower and Chick Peas was from the delightful blog, familystyle food. I was excited to try harissa, and discovered that's not the easiest thing to find, especially the day before Thanksgiving. Bristol Farms and Whole Foods were both a no-go, so at the last minute (8 p.m. on Wednesday night), I called Monsieur Marcel in the Farmer's Market.

"Oh, we have it--five different kinds, in fact," Monsieur informed me. So yes, I did get in my car and drive to the Grove just to get my first taste of harissa, thank you very much.

Here are all the finished dishes--they all came out pretty well. Of course, I have beets splattered all over my kitchen, but that's the price you pay when...you cook with beets.

After dinner, we took a hike in the Hills. We made it back just before night fell.

Then we queued up a movie I really wanted to see when it was in the theaters, The Conjuring. You have no idea how excited I get to see a horror movie that's light on gore and big on a story. The Conjuring was just that, and it was both scary and satisfying. I can't remember being so riveted by a horror movie since I watched The Descent.

It featured some of my favorite actors--Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson and Lili Taylor--who killed it in the exorcism scene. I was surprise to discover this film was directed by James Wan, who wrote Saw, because it was nothing like that. No torture porn in sight, just a good old-fashioned ghost/Salem witch/exorcism story.

And so, filled with vegetables, fresh fall air and Lili Taylor's spinning head, I went to bed very satisfied and thankful for this day.

And this morning I woke to the colossal shitstorm that is Black Friday.

Thanks for reading..see you again soon!