Tag: Bacon

Pizza and a Movie: Finding Dory

This (last) weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Bacon
  • Extra Cheese
  • Green Olives

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Movie:

Finding Dory

I had a spinach salad and two slices of pizza (although I’d planned not to have any pizza). He chose all the toppings, and since I’m trying to eat less (or no) pizza now, I suggested he choose jalapeños next time. (That’ll ensure I stick to a salad alone.)

I loved Finding Nemo, and this film was quite good too: entertaining, visually dazzling, funny, sweet, and everything good that is Pixar. The only thing I didn’t absolutely love is that Dory kept saying that she suffers from short-term memory loss (which we knew from the first movie, but that came out a long time ago, so there you are). She’s adorable, though, and I loved the story.

When my husband was a little boy, the story goes, one evening, after playing outside, he kept asking his parents the same questions, and couldn’t remember their answers. They realized he was “suffering from short-term memory loss” and took him to a doctor, who said he had had a concussion. He recovered, started remembering things again, and never had another concussion, thank goodness. I never had an experience like that, so I don’t know what it’s like.

But he never forgot.

 

 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: The Martian

This Last weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Arugula
  • Bacon
  • Sun Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

The Martian

Yes, I know this movie is no longer playing in theaters. We missed it when it was,* and since nothing at the cinema at the moment seemed interesting, we decided to go home and watch this film.

We had both recently read the book, and we both liked the movie. But, as is often the case, the book was better, and there were some things left out of the film 😦 But it was still really good.

What made it really good, for me (now I wish it had won an Academy Award; I think it was nominated for 3, including Adapted Screenplay, yay) weren’t the science of it, or the special effects. I don’t even (normally) like science fiction. Though I know we aren’t sending people to (make that, leaving people on) Mars yet, I felt like this story could actually be happening. Now.

No, what made it so good were A, the characters (all) – notice I didn’t say actors, though it was well cast; B, the humor (mostly in dialogue); and C, the story itself. And B was the best. Same thing for the novel by Andy Weir, which I highly recommend.

When is Hollywood going to figure out that it’s about the writing?

We passed on going to see The Boss, and I guess we will go see that soon. I hear it’s funny. However, it will be a different kind of humor than what Weir did in his book, and what was in the movie.

Now for the pizza. He wanted Arugula. The other toppings gave it the crunch and the tang (and flavor) we wanted. Yum.

Bon appétit.

*Two others we missed and plan to watch at home are Mad Max: Fury Road and Steve Jobs. We did see Creed, though, and it was fantastic. Blood and all.

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Pizza and… the SUPER BOWL!

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Chicken
  • Bacon
  • Ham

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That’s right – no movie this weekend! 😦

We planned to go see The Revenant, and we still do. But since the showtime at our favorite theater was a bit early, we decided to relax and enjoy our “meat-lovers” pizza instead.*  We won’t be eating pizza this evening while watching the Panthers and the Broncos (Carolina vs. Denver, in Super Bowl L – “50”). But since tomorrow is my husband’s birthday, we’ll have sandwiches, chips, and cake.

I can’t wait to watch the game (and the commercials!), and no matter who wins, I hope it’s a good one. In honor of it, here’s an (amusing) short excerpt of an article about it that we discussed in my French conversation class this week. I’ll quote this (simple) explanation of the game in French, and then give you the English translation, even though you can probably figure it out, with so many vrais amis (similar words). Words in parentheses are included for extra clarification:

“Sur un terrain de près de 91 mètres sur 49, deux équipes de 11 joueurs se disputent et galopent derrière un ballon ovale. Celui-ci est flanqué d’un lacet de fermeture, qui permet aux joueurs de lui donner un mouvement rotatif indispensable pour stabiliser sa trajectoire…”

“On a field of about 91 by 49 meters [100 by 53 yards], 2 teams of 11 players battle (contend, argue, dispute) and gallop (dash) behind an oval ball. The ball is locked/held together by a (shoe)lace, which permits the players to give it an indispensable rotating (rotary) movement, to stabilize its flight path (trajectory)…”

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*Meat-lover’s, since Lent begins on Wednesday. So, for the next 6 weeks, we’ll be eating vegetarian pizzas on Fridays.

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Bridge of Spies

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Artichoke Hearts
  • Bacon
  • Sun-Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

Bridge of Spies

This movie is my favorite one of the year, so far. (My second favorite is The Gift.)

I was riveted to this story about the exchange of prisoners (spies), and all the actors – especially Tom Hanks, in the lead role as Jim Donovan – did a fantastic job. I love stories set during World War II and the Cold War. This one was set during the latter, in the late 1950s. It was an amazing, true story, and well told. I predict at least one Academy Award.

Two things in particular about it touched me on a personal level:

  1. My parents went to Milligan College with the reconnaissance pilot who was shot down in the film, Francis Gary Powers. He was a year ahead of my mom in school, but she knew him well and they had a biology class together. She says he was very smart and somewhat shy. Like her, he grew up in a coal mining town in southwest Virginia.
  2. My daughter, who is studying in France this fall, recently visited Berlin.

I’ve never been to Berlin–it was divided into East and West when I spent a year in France as a college student, and getting to West Berlin was just too difficult back then. Until I saw this film, I hadn’t realized when the Berlin Wall was constructed, or what that was like. (I thought it happened not long after the war.) As I watched the scenes in East Berlin, I wondered what the city of Berlin is like today, and what it feels like to live there, with its history.

There were some tense scenes, and some very scary ones, and I felt myself propelled back to that time as the story unfolded. The dialogue was great, too. If you see the movie, you’ll notice that one character repeats this line over and over: “Would it help?” I won’t tell you what he or she means, but trust me, it’s a good line.

Now for the pizza. My husband wanted artichoke hearts, which I always love. I picked bacon (why not), and we agreed on the sun-dried tomatoes. It was yummy, and just right.

After taking last Friday off due to Thanksgiving, it was nice to be back at the Corner Pizza together. The only problem was that we somehow forgot to take home our take-home box of the pizza we couldn’t eat. Oops. We left it on the table by mistake. Next time I’ll put it next to my purse, so when I reach for it, I’ll grab the box, too.

Maybe that would help.

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Mistress America

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Artichoke Hearts
  • Bacon
  • Sun Dried Tomatoes

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Movie:

Mistress America

These pizza toppings were a particularly good combination. The pizza was tangy, yummy, and semi-healthy.

Ahead of time, my husband and I had agreed on the Artichoke Hearts. We waited until the last second to choose the other two toppings. Looking over the menu, my eyes fell on Bacon and his fell on Sliced Tomatoes, and after a short discussion, we modified that to the Sun Dried version.

A few weeks ago, we walked into Corner Pizza with no preconceived notions of what toppings to select. As we were discussing the choices, a young couple sitting at the bar watched and listened, and once we made our decision, they told us we were “cute.”

I took it as a compliment.

As for this week’s movie…well, I can’t give it more than a C. I didn’t think it was particularly funny or witty, and both of us later decided that the older step-sister was bipolar. I walked away thankful that A, I don’t live in NYC or up north, and B, I’m not the age of the characters in this film.

It would just be too complicated for me.

Now, if you’re a northerner, please don’t take offense. I love visiting “the city” and have traveled up north a good bit – but mostly in the summer and fall. Once I went to New York in January, but lucked out with the weather. It was simply very cold (freezing by Atlanta standards) but not horrible or blizzard-y. In fact, the folks I spent time with who live up there thought it was “nice.” Another time, I visited the city in December, and it was even colder (and windy) but it didn’t snow, thank goodness.

In the movie, I liked the fact that one character was a writer. But a lot of the dialogue seemed, well, pretentious. On the other hand, that worked (and was very funny) in the Woody Allen film Blue Jasmine. I loved that movie, and laughed a lot while watching it.

Now, I don’t like all Woody Allen films (who does?) but I admire the fact that he’s always working on something. He keeps on “showing up.” It’s what I try to do, as a writer.

When you think about it, Mistress America sounds like it could have been the title of a Woody Allen movie. Right now, I’m struggling with a title for my next thriller. I’ve finished writing it, and it’s been edited and is ready to go, except for its name.

I may just have to figure it out at the last second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: The Gift

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Italian Sausage
  • Pepperoni
  • Mushrooms
  • Bacon
  • Green Peppers
  • Onions
  • Garlic

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Movie:

The Gift

Yes, that’s 7 toppings, not just 3; we went off the page (or, to the bottom of it) this time, and ordered a Specialty Pizza called “The Upper Crust.” It was very good – and colorful.

Then we went to see the film, a suspense that, at times, seemed to borrow from Hitchcock. I was on the edge of my seat (literally) during most of it, and was thankful I had someone’s arm to grab (my husband’s). It was so scary that once or twice I even had to remind myself, This is a movie! It’s not real!

Maybe I liked it because I write thrillers. Or maybe because it was super suspenseful, and was well done. Perhaps both. In any case, if you like that kind of thing, I think you’ll like this film. The bad guy was very bad, and in my opinion, he got what he deserved.

One thing that intrigued me was the title. There were several gifts in The Gift – I didn’t count them up, but like our pizza toppings that night, there were more than 3. Let me put it this way: every time someone opens up one of them, brace yourself.

And make sure you have somebody’s arm to grab.

 

 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Amy

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Bacon
  • Black Olives
  • Shallots

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Movie:

Amy

This weekend’s toppings were (eerily) similar to the “BBC” pizza we had a few weeks ago when we saw the film Inside Out, and there was a little negotiating involved:

  1. My husband initally suggested something other than Bacon (I don’t remember what, exactly, but I think it was vegetarian). I vetoed it, though, saying we needed something with a little crunch, so we chose Bacon.
  2. I pushed back on the Black Olives (proposing Green ones), but he didn’t agree.
  3. And – the Shallots were his idea.

Like every pizza we’ve ever shared at Corner Pizza, it was delicious. However, we decided that we’ve had enough Black Olives * for a while.

Now, for Amy:

I like documentaries, and this one was very good. I didn’t know much about Amy Winehouse before I saw it, but I learned a lot. The music was fabulous and haunting at the same time. And there’s something about true stories…

I knew how the story would end, and watching such a talented singer spiral down so fast and so hard was difficult. But – maybe because of that, and because she was so talented – I still enjoyed it, tragic though the story was.

Life can be very complicated, even – or, especially – when it’s short.

* And after last week’s film and then this one, I’ve had enough of sad movies for a while, too.

 

 

 

 

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Pizza and a Movie: Inside Out

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

  • Bacon
  • Black Olives
  • Capers

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Movie:

Inside Out

Call it our BBC pizza, and like the British (maybe), it was a bit salty. I didn’t tell my husband, but I had mentally selected the toppings before we arrived (I don’t know why, but they just randomly occurred to me). When it was time to place our order, though, he agreed to my choices. We had talked about another vegetarian pizza, but bacon seemed appealing, for some reason.

You can hardly see the capers, but they’re there. And we hadn’t had black olives in forever.

The two of us had decided earlier on what film to see. We love Pixar, and I was expecting another Toy Story-like experience. I liked Inside Out a lot, and it was very clever, but was just a tad less good than Toy Story (any of them). It was funny and heartfelt, however; you may have heard that some of the characters are actually the main character’s feelings.

If you ever had to move when you were a kid but didn’t want to (I have), you’ll relate to it. All in all, I thought the movie was well done and very enjoyable, and it had a satisying ending. As a bonus, all the feelings had (sometimes, surprisingly) important roles…

There was one scene in particular I found very funny (but there were many). This isn’t a spoiler, but it had to do with remembering people’s phone numbers, the names of presidents, and a vacuum cleaner, of sorts. That’s all I’ll say about that. 🙂

Final verdict: entertaining, funny, and well-written. On the pizza: tasty, and unusual. Both were memorable, and evoked very good feelings.

 

 

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