#seriously look at his eyes in that potato-quality close crop

[adh-d2]

His faces this episode are going to kill me 😭

This is a man who is terrified of hope but starting to feel it in spite of himself.

[marblefeet08-blog]

Chef Summit 2018

FTC Disclaimer:  This trip was sponsored by Certified Angus Beef® Brand in conjunction with a social media campaign through Sunday Supper LLC.  All opinions are my own.

Earlier this month Alexis and I were thrilled to attend Chef Summit 2018 at the Certified Angus Beef® Brand's Culinary Center.  Chefs from all over North America came to

get hands-on butchery lessons and break down a side of beef,

see the level of dedication and care that goes into producing the Best Angus Beef, and

gain a better appreciation of under-utilized cuts to use for delicious and profitable menu items.

Here is some of the fun that David Dial (Spiced...One Dash At A Time), Cindy Kerschner (Cindy's Recipes and Writings), Alexis and I had while getting to learn side-by-side with the chefs. 

Day 1

The first day was a reception followed by a dinner prepared by the talented chefs of the Culinary Center. 

Because the event started in the early evening, Alexis and I drove up instead of flying.  This allowed us to enjoy a casual drive through the slightly mountainous Kentucky/Tennessee border, rolling horse country of Kentucky, and the bucolic countryside of Ohio.

Tara opened the event with a session about the history of the brand.  Fun Fact: The Certified Angus Beef® Brand all started because a rancher got a flavorless, tough steak at a restaurant.

The brand began as a desire to foster quality beef.  This program was built on a foundation of quality specifications formulated by a meat scientist.  To this day, quality is the key to their pull-through marketing strategy.

Waste not, want not.  The chefs use trimmings from the Meat Lab to create tasty beef sausages. The tasso is a beefy spin on a spicy Cajun ham that we have made at home, and it was my favorite of the bunch.

Melon wrapped with cured beef - the salty and sweet combo worked well together. 

Shut the front door!  Poke-style cap steak on taro chips.  The very rare cap steak was lightly coated with an array of Asian flavors, and the crisp chip brought the texture.  This was my favorite dish of the appetizers, and I'd love to serve this at an Eggfest or cooking demo.

The Culinary Center's Lead Chef, Ashley Breneman (Cutthroat Kitchen, Chopped Grill Masters Napa, and Master Chef), talks us through the variety of dishes that they created for us.

Shaved Teres Major Flatbread would be a fun shared appetizer or an entree.

Pasta made with a luscious smoked chuck roll that was straight up comfort food.

The real show stopper, for me at least, was the Osso Buco-style Beef Short Ribs. I love beef short ribs anyway, but the presentation just makes it that much better. These were fan-freaking-tastic.

After dinner, Matt Shoup and I checked out the Culinary Center's dry aging and meat curing cabinet. They are lucky we brought our small car and not our truck or this cabinet "might have disappeared".

That's the funky stuff!  There was some 55 day dry aged beef in here.

Day 2

We hit the ground running in the Meat Lab the next morning.  I've gotten to experience the Meat Lab once before for Grill Talk but we were only breaking down primals then.  This time we were breaking down a half steer.  

I don't mean that we watched someone break down a half steer.  Each team of 4 or 5 people had our own side of beef to butcher. 

Ain't no party like a Meat Lab party.

The morning session opened with The Science Behind The Sizzle™, explaining how each of the 10 science-based specifications ensures a flavorful eating experience.

I harp on the 10 Science-Based Specifications because they are the important difference between Certified Angus Beef® Brand and other Angus brands.

Then the fun really kicked in! Diana Clark, Meat Scientist, took us through breaking down a side of beef, step-by-step.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated.  What's the best way to get over being intimidated?

To get over intimidation, you jump right in when they ask for a volunteer during the demonstration. And as fate would have it, I got to saw off the bone-in brisket.  I love brisket. 

I did that!  Can you see the brisket flat and point layered in there between the bones and fat? I have to say this gave me a better appreciation for and understanding of that glorious cut of beef.

David Dial got right in there too.

As soon as they showed us a step, we would go back and repeat (or attempt to repeat) that step on our steer.

At the lunch break, I was able to "IRL meet" Chef Gavin Pinto.  One of Chef Gavin's many roles is hosting Certified Angus Beef® Brand's Facebook Live videos like this one about smoking beef.

One of our lunch recipes was Shredded Certified Angus Beef® Chuck Roll Philly Cheesesteak with Parmesan Truffle Fries. 

I was a big fan of the chuck roll this weekend after having it in three different dishes.  It's like a cross between brisket and chuck roast. Beefy, tender, and luscious.

Asian Zing Stir Fry using Certified Angus Beef® Clod with Steamed Rice and Stir-Fry Veggies.

To move the large pieces of beef around, the Meat Lab utilizes a ceiling mounted rail system of suspended hooks.

Diana watching some of her students practicing what she demonstrated.

The class is an experience in understanding where the individual cuts come from and how its location affects the taste, tenderness, and appearance of the beef.  An example of this would be how the chuck eye and rib eye are right next to each other, so the chuck eye is close to the same palatability of the ribeye but usually at a much cheaper price.

First, look at the marbling of this skirt steak!  Second, did you know that the skirt steak is the steers diaphragm? 

Two of my teammates, Matt and JJ, fabricating smaller cuts.

Matt did the Osso Buco treatment to our beef ribs.  I can't wait to try this at home and create a recipe with it.  

After a long day in the Meat Lab, we were treated to dinner at The City Square Steakhouse.

Day 3

The third day started bright and early....well at least early, I'm not sure how bright I was...at Atterholt Farms.  This family farm owned by two brothers is a seed stock program (breeding for other ranches) with 50-80 head depending on the time of year.

This farm has 700 acres for the cattle, feed hay farming, and crops such as soybean and corn.

We learned that raising cattle to earn the Certified Angus Beef® Brand designation is no accident.  I was amazed at the planning and forethought that goes into it. The Atterholts start with artificial insemination.  Here's the quick takes of what I learned about that process:

Ranchers get a bull semen catalog that lists statistics about prospective bulls and their expected progeny differences.  This lets them select the ideal bull for meeting the 10 specifications.

Bull semen costs about $20 a vial which is good for one attempt.

Bull semen can be frozen and lasts indefinitely so it is possible to breed using semen from a champion steer that has been dead for years and years.

The Atterholt's success rate with A.I. is about 60%.  

They target the same calving date each year (during January - March) so about 285 days prior to the cow's last calving date, they attempt the A.I.

The month after A.I. attempts, any cows that go into heat (meaning A.I. didn't take) are placed with a "clean up" bull to attempt normal insemination.

Page from a bull semen catalog. It's kind of like Match.com for cattle.

The tag on the ear has 3 numbers.  The large middle number is the cow's ID# with the first number being the last digit of the year the cow was born (in this case, 2015) and the next three digits are just the order of birth, so this was the 25th calf in 2015.  The top number is the mother's ID# and the bottom is the birthdate.

Expected Progeny Differences are statistics that let the rancher know the genetic worth of a prospective bull and the probable traits of its offspring.

The calf on the left is Ferdinand.  He is a "bottle calf" meaning his mother rejected him and wouldn't care for him so the Atterholts had to bottle feed him, requiring a lot more resources and effort.  Murphy, the dog, loves Ferdinand.

This shot was taken in June....not February.  It was just a cold snap.

After the ranch, the chefs had a session on marketing while we bloggers got a tour of the facilities.

Certified Angus Beef® Brand headquarters has a wonderful set up for their photography and video productions.  The prop closet alone is a food blogger's dream.  

They have kitchens every time that you turn around.  I think they had a total of 4? This is the kitchen that they use for their FB Live videos.

I found out that the Certified Angus Beef® Brand is a great employer to work for.  They have an onsite physician, psychologist, and a lawyer for the staff to utilize for their personal needs! I was seriously impressed.

G-schedules are specifications set out by premium brands for the USDA graders to determine if the beef they are examining meets the premium brand's requirements. There are hundreds of them.  Certified Angus Beef® Brand's schedule is Schedule G-1 because they were the first such program in the country.

Me, Alexis, David, and Cindy in one of the many kitchens.

Cook-off

The last part of the event was the cook-off using the 5 teams.  We had to pick one of the cuts that we trimmed out on Day 2.

Scoring was based on taste, texture, appearance, presentation, and cost-effectiveness.  You also got bonus points for using more obscure cuts of beef.  We went with the mock tender.

We had access to farm fresh produce and anything in the pantries and freezers.

I was on a super-talented team, it was fun just getting to watch them in action and help out. Jorge, Matt, and JJ were rock stars.  I need to learn to cook with their speed and efficiency.

With 5 cook teams, you can imagine the kitchens were crazy busy.

Alexis shredded smoked chuck roll for her team's dish.

We used the mock tender for this Cuban-style tartare with a red-eye gravy aioli, crispy fried potatoes, a sous vide egg, and blue corn Johnny cakes.

I forget the description for this one but I know that it used the inside skirt steak

Smoked chuck roll ragu.  They smoked the chuck roll for 4 hours and then braised it to finish.  This was my personal favorite of throwdown recipes.

Thin sliced coulotte, blackberries, radish, fennell and Fresno chiles. 

The winning dish was Soy Braised Beef Belly Bao Buns with Pickled Cucumbers and Onions.

Here is the costing sheet for our dish.  You can see how using these lesser known cuts really boosts the profitability of a menu item.  Use beef tenderloin instead and you have a much different bottom line.

Before we knew it, the Chef Summit was over and it was time to bid the Culinary Center farewell.

Source: http://www.nibblemethis.com/2018/06/chef-summit-2018.html

[anyway-i-love-vanderwood]

The Mystic Messenger Harvest Moon AU No One Asked For

✿ But I did anyway because I’ve been binging Stardew Valley nonstop.

MC

Occupation: Farmer

One day, you drop everything and spend your meager savings on purchasing a small plot of land in Mystic Valley, a town that’s marketing itself as a great new start for those looking for a new life. Upon arrival, you realize that the farm you bought is overgrown with weeds, riddled with stones, and more forest than arable land, and the town around you is slowly dying due to the absence of the local Goddess. The crops won’t grow right, the animals get sicker than they should, the bounty of the sea is less... bountiful, and the wind feels dry, poisonous, and far different from the scenic country town you expected.

But you decide to take a shot at living there anyway, because there’s nothing left for you in the city... and hey. Nothing else in your life has worked out; it’s not like you aren’t used to disappointment, right?

Yoosung

Occupation: Rancher

Loved Gift: Tomato, Melon, Flowers

Hated Gift: Coffee

His mom and dad own the farm right by yours, but instead of growing crops, they raise animals. Yoosung seems to like this well enough, but it’s fair to say being a rancher isn’t something he’s passionate about. For awhile, he had dreams of going off to school and coming back with new, amazing skills that could help his small town thrive... but those dreams have since died after the death of his cousin, Rika. Now, he’s complacent to let Mystic Valley slip into obscurity as he plods along, taking care of chickens, cows, and not thinking too hard about his dying dreams.

When his cousin, Rika, was still alive, he helped her with all sorts of “improvement projects” to aid their ailing town. This included an attempt to wake the local deity - the Harvest Goddess - up and return her blessing to the land, but it failed, leaving Rika strangely reclusive and despondent. After her “suicide”, he gave up hope entirely, and quietly abandoned all those improvement projects in favor or goofing around.

It just seemed pointless to try without her, y’know? But maybe the cute new farmer can give him his drive back...

Zen

Occupation: Musician

Loved Gift: Gemstones, beer, Bungeoppang (fish bread)

Hated Gift: Tiger’s Eye

Once a gang member in a nearby city, he - much like you - dropped his entire life to come to Mystic Valley. He came a few years before you with a guitar and a hat full of dreams, and those dreams haven’t quite died, even though all of his efforts to start a theatre in town have been thwarted by the mayor, Jumin, who says “it would be a waste of already scant resources.”

Zen thinks that music, acting, and culture would restore the town to its former greatness and make it a thriving tourist hotspot, and when Rika was alive, she tried to get him the theatre he so desperately desired. It never got built, however, and after her death, the project lost all steam. Zen still hopes, but for now... it seems like all he can do is practice until his fingers bleed and try to forget his parents telling him that he’d always be a failure.

Perhaps the new farmer has some insight into his problems?

Jaehee

Occupation: Secretary

Loved Gift: Coffee, Tea, Picture of Zen

Hated Gift: Dirt, Stone

A profoundly overworked civil servant who is trying her best to keep the town running despite the profound unpopularity of her boss, Jumin. The financial wellbeing of Mystic Valley is dicey to say the least, and she often needs to go to elaborate lengths to make the most of very, very few resources.

She came from the city when she was fresh out of college, and is bound to the town by debt and fear of unemployment. Jumin was the first person to offer her a job in a shaky job market, so part of her is loyal to him and Mystic Valley for that... but part of her just wants to give up on everything, because she’s been trying so hard and nothing ever seems to work.

Every time she listens to Zen’s music, she remembers the dreams that brought her to Mystic Valley in the first place, and she finds the strength to continue. Perhaps you’ll help her position become a bit more secure?

[the others are under the read more]

Jumin

Occupation: Mayor

Loved Gift: Wine, Tiger’s Eye, Pancakes

Hated Gift: Beer

Jumin’s father was the mayor, as was his father before him, and his father before him, so he feels Thoroughly Entitled to the position he now wields. However - despite his best efforts - the town finances have been getting worse and worse, and he’s been considering the offers a big company has made to buy the town very seriously.

With that money, he could help everyone find places to settle where they’d be more successful.

The locals are still defensive of Mystic Valley and do not want to see it fall into corporate hands, making Jumin very unpopular for advocating this idea. He thinks it’s the only hope the people in his charge have, though, and he’s getting close to making the decision to sign it all away.

Will a new farmer affect anything?

707

Occupation: Wizard

Loved Gift: Starfruit, Herbs, Potato Chips

Hated Gift: Spinach

For as long as anyone can remember, there’s always been a strange person living in a strange tower on the highest hill in town. No one can really say if it’s always been the mysterious Seven-oh-Seven, but he acts like he owns the place so who questions it?

He’s not often interacted with by the majority of the townspeople, though he’s sometimes consulted by starry eyed lovers about their fortunes. He has a huge telescope and an observatory he uses to predict the future, but most people think he’s just a goofy weirdo. His main source of companionship were those who associated with Rika before her death, but many of them have stopped coming to see him, aside from Yoosung (who comes to him to play games), Zen (who is so into having his fortune told, you don’t even know), and V (who brings him food on a regular basis). The jeweler, Vanderwood, often pays visits too, but they claim its just “for business reasons”.

Rika was often seen heading up the hill to his tower, even before her attempts to bring the Goddess back. What was that about?

V

Occupation: Restaurant Owner

Loved Gift: Wine, tobacco

Hated Gift: Radishes

Once Rika’s fiancee, V has become much more quiet and secretive since her death. He was integral to ‘town revitalization’ projects due to owning the main hotspot in town, the main restaurant/bar that everyone visits at night. After Rika, he’s been... difficult to motivate about anything to do with saving the Mystic Valley, which frustrates Yoosung to no end.

Zen often plays at V’s bar in the evenings, and there was talk of V using the space to hold art shows, but that has since died down. Strangely, he’s taken to wearing sunglasses at all times, and seems oddly.. sickly, which means he can’t keep the bar open as often as he used to.

He took lots of beautiful pictures of the town in his glory years, one of which was used to lure you to Mystic Valley. He’s seemingly put down his camera forever, though... 

Unknown (Saeran)

Occupation: Unsettling Forest Maybe-Demon Who Might Kill You

Loved Gift: Ice Cream, Cake, Candy

Hated Gift: Spinach

What is up with this dude? Who knows? He lives in the deep, dark, overgrown woods and threatens you every time you come close. He - from his house - seems to be involved in some kind of... cult? Dark magic? Look, you really shouldn’t be here, alright?

He has a striking similarity to the star wizard up in the tower, but if you bring him up, he gets really scary and really violent. If he could go to town, Unknown says, that false wizard would have his sins brought to light. But the day when he’ll be able to leave is coming soon, when the Magenta Goddess comes to save the valley and all its people.

Ooookaaaaay then. Back away slowly.

Vanderwood

Occupation: Jeweler/Ore Refiner

Loved Gift: Amethyst, Gold, Hamburger

Hated Gift: Apples

Vanderwood claims that they’re “just a normal jeweler”, but man, they’re weird. Sometimes they appear without you having heard anything, sometimes they walk into another room and seem to disappear without a trace, and they seem to be doing something weird in the mines. Like they’re... looking for something...? Anyway, they’ll turn your ore into bars, inspect your gemstones for quality, and turn your best stuff into jewelry that you can wear or.. sell or.. whatever.

They don’t seem overtly passionate about the state of the town, implying that if things go bad, they can just go elsewhere. They don’t spend much time around anyone else, though they do visit the Wizard, 707 on a routine basis. They say it’s to deliver materials he asks.

Seven says it’s because they’re his maid.

✿ Well, I hope that was an enjoyable deviation. Let me know if you like it! I might write heart events if people do.

[placetobenation]

A commentary on the Best Picture Nominees for 1994.

1994 was a great year for movies. Through the coarse of this retrospective on the year 1994 in movies the most difficult part will be deciding which movies not to cover. Though the best place to start would be the movies considered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be the best for the year. A wise man that I recently spoke to put it like this “ There were three all timers and two how the hell did they get nominated.” The movies in question are Four Weddings and a Funeral, Quiz Show, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, and Forrest Gump. While all five are excellent films in their own right, three certainly stand out as having stood the test of time. There will be spoilers ahead as these movies are twenty five years old. If you haven’t seen these movies, I recommend all of them and they are their easy enough to find. I am going to try to not dig too deep into the meat and potatoes of the plot details, instead focusing on the elements that made these movies exceptional, the culture impact they had at the time, and their lasting legacy. So with no further delay, let’s get started.

Quiz Show

Quiz Show is a historical drama about the rigging of a 1950’s game show and the scandal that followed leading to a congressional investigation. The movie stars John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes, and Rob Morrow also is directed by Robert Redford. In the early days of television, game shows became popular programming which made household names out of its contestants. NBC had a show called Twenty-One. To sweeten the ratings, the producers gave the answers to a contestant Herbert Stemple, played by John Turturro. People tuned in to see just how much he would win as the prize money grew from week to week. When his ratings plateaued, they asked Stemple to take a dive so they could replace him with a more attractive star, Charles Van Doren played by Ralph Fiennes. Stemple takes this pretty hard and happily does his part to blow the lid off the whole thing when congress decides to investigate the quiz shows. Rob Morrow plays Dick Goodwin, the person asked to investigate the case and it’s remarkable how close he became to Van Doren. Van Doren plays a long with the scam for as long as his conscious will allow it. He is a Columbia professor from a family of intellectuals so this whole matter puts his reputation and family honor on the line.

It’s going to be hard to comment on the legacy of this film or its cultural impact since I don’t think Quiz Show has much of either. The movie was loved by critics but it bombed at the box office. Reading some of the reviews, I think the critics were reading too deep into the material. The story is a curiosity at best. It is interesting how much people cared about whether or not game shows were on the level, so much so that congress would get involved. All I could think is if they cared this much about quiz shows why didn’t they investigate wrestling, which was also very popular in the early days of television. The movie plays with the quaint notion that people on television would be admired for their intellect, something that even by 1994 was no longer the case. Quiz Show received several nominations by various organizations for Best Adapted Screenplay which I call bullshit on. I found the writing to be the weakest part of the film. There are clunky lines of dialogue like “He’s famous like Elvis.” or “Sputnik will land right on your head!” They had to keep reminding you in the dialogue that this movie takes places in the 50’s and every film student knows that is a screenwriting faux pas. Structurally, the writing is sound but unlike films like Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, or Four Weddings and a Funeral, the film doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I hate to engage in conspiracy theories but the praise Quiz Show receives from the critics and Academy can only best be explained as a love affair they have with Robert Redford.

With everything I just said, I don’t want it to sound like Quiz Show is a bad movie. It’s a perfectly acceptable film but definitely the weakest of the bunch. What the movie does do well is capturing the 50’s. This movie is an example of some excellent acting. John Turturro was particularly exceptional as Herbert Stemple, a nebish trivia expert who has difficulty dealing with taking a dive and being in on the fix. He is awkward and excitable. Turturro’s performance really is the strongest of a strong crop. Ralph Fiennes as the WASPy intellectual Charles Van Doren was also particularly well done. Robert Redford did an excellent job getting the best out of everyone down to the extras in terms of making these people feel authentic. I was born in 1980 so I don’t know for sure what people in the 50’s were like but all of these characters felt to me like what people in the 50’s acted like. The other remarkable aspects of Quiz Show to me were the production design and cinematography. This movie also looks authentically 50’s or rather my perception of that decade. If I were instructing film makers who were interested in making a period piece on the 50’s, Quiz Show would make the list for study material.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

I am so glad I got to rewatch this movie as part of this project. At first glance, one might remember this movie as one of the many Hugh Grant romantic comedies. That was a genre that ran its coarse by the mid-2000’s. I don’t like rom-coms. But Four Weddings and a Funeral is an exceptional romantic comedy. It casts the die for this type of movie and simultaneously breaks it. The movie follows Charlie, played by Hugh Grant, and a group of his friends as they attend four weddings and a funeral over the course of a year or so. We know little about these characters and their regular lives but that doesn’t really matter. All that does matter is how they interact in these type of social settings. We have all had to attend weddings and funerals and most of us know that we become different people in these settings. The only story connecting these events is Charlie meeting Carrie, an American played by Andie MacDowell, whom he falls in love with but can’t have. They meet and the only time they see each other is at these gatherings. Somehow they manage to have a type of relationship that is very touching. What makes this movie better than most of it’s genre is the writing, the comedy, the acting, and how it is structured. Comedy doesn’t always have to be loud and over the top, although sometimes that helps. Sometimes comedy can be just a look from the actor or a look away. It can be a subtle tick or body language. The supporting cast is very strong and whether they are giving a one- liner in passing or taking part of an entire scene, everyone invests into their character something to make them unique. The way the story is laid out is quite good too. Gareth, the character that is most full of life is the one who dies. The speech his lover Matthew makes at his funeral feels incredibly real. The funeral in this movie isn’t part of the comedy. It is played completely seriously. We don’t get the Big Show Daddy’s funeral here. You would think having an entire sequence that changes the tone of the movie would derail it but instead it adds to the experience and makes everything about the movie more authentic. Like most romantic comedies, the third act has a lot of surprises and turns where everything works out for the best in the end. But unlike most rom-coms, the ending feels earned. Hugh Grant says I do but the results are completely unexpected.

Four Weddings and a Funeral is an incredible accomplishment as an independent film. Made on a budget of roughly $3 million, this movie took in $245 million in worldwide box office. Today people could spend $3 million on four actual weddings and a funeral much less make a feature film of this quality for that much. Part of this movie’s success has to do with a press tour Hugh Grant does in America that charms the nation. That coupled with the movie would make Hugh Grant a star. He would go on to be a romantic lead for years to come. The other legacy for this movie is the string of romantic comedies that would come. They are less common now than they used to be but for many years that would follow 1994, it seemed you would get at least two rom-coms a month. The writing for romantic comedies became formulaic and the plots contrived. For a while, they would be the easiest money a studio could earn. Much like the slasher trend of the 80’s, studios rarely lost money on a rom-com and they kept pumping them out. I am sure there are examples of romantic comedies before this movie, Annie Hall comes to mind. But Four Weddings and a Funeral started an explosion in this genre.

Shawshank Redemption

Based on a Steven King story, Shawshank Redemption is the story of Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, making the best use of his time. Told through the eyes of Red, a convict played by Morgan Freeman, this is about how Andy quietly escapes from prison. By the end of the movie you see how Andy bides his time, used his remarkable intellect, and carefully planned his escape from the first day he arrived at Shawshank Prison. The storytelling is so masterful that by the end of the movie you see everything Andy does through has a purpose with the focus of getting out. Also you see the friendship between Red and Andy grow over time. You see how Andy plays the Warden and the head prison guard, brilliantly played by Clancy Brown, putting together a money laundering scheme that makes everyone rich. There is so much that can be said about this movie, it really is a masterpiece. The acting performances were amazing. The setting and production design was incredible. Shawshank Redeption brings this environment to life and the prison becomes a character itself. All of the characters have the feeling of real people. Even Tommy, who we barely see for an act of the movie, makes you feel heartbroken when he is shot. Brooks is another character that we meet for only a brief moment in the movie. He has a hard time adjusting to life on the outside. The way they told his story was so good that you can identify with a man who feels more comfortable in prison than out of prison. Really, all I can say about Shawshank Redemption is that it’s about hope and living with purpose. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing. And no good thing ever dies.

Shawshank Redeption did not do well in the box office. Once awards season rolled around, it started to gain some buzz. It became one of the top rented movies for 1995. Once TNT started showing the movie almost daily, they had found their audience and people began to appreciate Shawshank Redemption for the great movie that it is. It’s hard to say that if this movie or Seven was the film that launched Morgan Freeman into being a bankable actor in a supporting role but it certainly helped. Putting this film into the context of what it meant in 1994 is kind of difficult because it didn’t have much box office success at the time. However, what the movie does have is a timeless quality. People born in 1994 are finding this movie and enjoying it today. Somewhere on cable, this movie is being played as you read this. Every streaming service I can think of has Shawshank Redemption available. That is the mark of a truly great film, that it will be around forever.

Pulp Fiction

A landmark film of the 90’s, Pulp Fiction follows three separate stories, told out of order, surrounding a group of criminals, over the course of two days. Structurally, Pulp Fiction is unlike an other movie we have seen. There are seven different sequences that tie together tangentially. We start at the diner at the beginning where two robbers that we can affectionately call Honey Bunny and Ringo are plotting to rob the restaurant they are in. Then we meet Vincent Vega, played by John Travolta, and Jules Winnfield, played by Samuel L. Jackson. They discuss cheeseburgers and go on a mission to retrieve some propriety for their employee from some small timers who only had the best of intentions. The third sequence is Vincent having to take his bosses wife on a date. After what can best described as a successful date, Vincent’s date Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman, has an accidental overdose and Vincent finds a way to discretely have her revived before anyone can find out. The next sequence is Air Force Captain Koons, played by Christopher Walken gives us the significance for a gold watch being given to Butch, who will grow up to be a boxer and played by Bruce Willis. The next sequence shows the after match of what happens when Butch doesn’t throw a fight he was suppose to throw for mob boss Marsellus Wallace, played by Ving Rhames. Butch has to return to his apartment where gangsters will be waiting. Butch gets the watch back and then things get weird. If you didn’t know what a gimp was before, then you will now. From there, we go back to what happened after Vincent and Jules retrieve the briefcase. Jules has a spiritual experience and while discussing theology in the car with their friend Marvin, Marvin gets shot in the head accidentally. Jules has a friend in Toluca Lake named Jimmy who can hide them for a little while until his wife comes home but they have a serious problem driving around in a car soaked in blood with a headless dead body in the back seat. Mr. Wallace calls in Winston Wolfe, played by Harvey Keitel. Mr. Wolfe may be one of the coolest characters in the history of movies. He cleans up messes and does so with such style, you really have to see it. With the situation cleaned up, Jules and Vincent go to lunch at a diner, the one that was going to be robbed at the beginning of the movie. When Ringo and Honey Bunny decide to rob the place, Jules puts the breaks on it by gaining control of the situation. Jules breaks down his interpretation of Ezekiel 25:17, which is terribly misquoted and out of context in any bible translation you might have. Regardless, Jules puts a bow on the movie with what he tells Ringo before making a quiet exit.

Quentin Tarantino has made so many great films over the years but this one still is considered by many to be the best. To make a movie that is as popular as Pulp Fiction is with such an unorthodox structure is an achievement in itself. Every single character pops and comes alive. Even Christopher Walken’s character, who makes a brief cameo and gives a roughly two minute speech, feels lived in and authentic. Holding an audiences attention with a monologue like that in a static shot with nothing visually taking place is one of the most difficult things to pull off but here it’s done masterfully. I think I have heard every line from this movie quoted or referenced at some point in my life. Royale with Cheese, Ezekiel 25:17, What does Marselles Wallace look like? Say what again! I am sure you have your favorite line. Point is, no one else can pull off this kind of wordy, clever dialogue but for Quentin Tarantino. I have seen attempts to copy this style,whether it be in movies, tv, or comic books, fail time and again. That is what makes Tarantino a master amongst directors. Also, this movie makes the characters likable, relatable people. Almost every character in the movie is not what one would call a good person. They are criminals, remorseless killers, dregs of society, lowlifes the whole lot of them. But through the writing, directing, and acting these become characters that we like, enjoy spending time with, and even want to see succeed. While Tarantino broke many of the established rules and conventions of film making with Pulp Fiction, there is an obvious love for the craft that can be seen in this and all of his movies. I could probably write a book on Pulp Fiction but to sum up this part of the article, Quentin Tarantino made a masterpiece with Pulp Fiction. It’s considered by some critics to be the greatest film ever made.

The effects of Pulp Fiction on the culture were wide and sweeping. This movies success launched the career of Quentin Tarantino and gave him the creative license to do whatever projects he wanted, which he has for the last twenty five years. The success of this film had a great effect on how people in and outside the movie business saw independent films. No longer were indie films reserved simply for the art houses with a limited appeal and a niche audience. The career of John Travolta was revived because of this movie. The Simpsons joke about a bartender looking like John Travolta was not far off from the truth. A series of critical and commercial bombs throughout the 80’s left Travolta at the lowest point of his career. This movie put him back on the map and made John Travolta cool again. Pulp Fiction elevated the careers of Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman. Both had been respectable, working actors prior to this movie but Pulp Fiction made both actors leading role material and marketable entities. Bruce Willis was also helped greatly by his performance in Pulp Fiction. Bruce was pretty well established as an action hero but this movie helped him be taken seriously as an actor that can do a lot more than most action stars. As I have stated before, Pulp Fiction has been referenced and quoted countless times throughout pop culture. When Fall Out Boy made a song about wanting to dance like Uma Thurman, they weren’t talking about her performance in Batman and Robin or The Avengers (1996). Movies from Space Jam to this years Captain Marvel have fit in references to Pulp Fiction. The sountrack was fantastic. Many of us remember the ECW interview segments with the surf guitars in the background that most fans simply call “Pulp Fiction.” There are few movies that can be called game changers but Pulp Fiction is most certainly one of them.

And the Oscar goes to…. Forrest Gump.

Forrest Gump is about a simple man with an extraordinary life. Forrest, played by Tom Hanks, is a character that is slow but wise. He finds himself in the middle of almost every major cultural event from the last half of the 20th Century. Somehow he is oblivious to the significance of these events. He teaches Elvis how to dance, plays football for Bear Bryant, fights in Vietnam, meets Presidents Johnson and Nixon, invests in Apple Computers, runs a few laps around the United States, founds a successful shrimp company, and so much more. Forrest Gump doesn’t see any of this as impressive. His main focus is the love of the first girl he saw on kindergarten, Jenny. They have moments where they pass through each others life. Forest is smitten. Jenny has other priorities in live and while she finds Forest to be sweet, she doesn’t take him seriously. That unrequited love is at the center of who Forrest is and no matter what happens, he loves Jenny. In the end, Jenny dies but not before giving Forrest a son.

Forrest Gump was an unexpected blockbuster that captured the imagination of the country. I remember being taken to this film along with the rest of my school under the pretense of a history field trip. The most remarkable thing about that field trip is how this movie held the attention of my entire 8th grade class. Even the small town junior thugs sat still and paid attention to Forrest Gump. The movie manages to not be overly schmaltzy in it’s nostalgia but also not cynical about the past. Seeing these events through the eyes of a man like Forrest Gump helps. He is the kind of guy who can meet John Lennon and not know who he just met. That keeps this movie from being the sort of thing that is laughable like in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. My Dad saw this movie in the theater and my Dad never goes to the theater. This movie took the country by storm and I don’t believe the producers could have seen the success of this film coming. On a budget of $55 Million, Forrest Gump made $677 Million at the box office, second highest grossing film of the year only behind The Lion King. This was a film that almost everyone saw and the line “Life is like a box of chocolates.” was quoted frequently.

One of the last legacies of this film is what it did for Tom Hanks career. He was launched from a fairly popular comedic actor having worked on films like The Burbs, Dragnet, The Money Pit, and Joe vs the Volcano. With Forrest Gump, Hanks went to become one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, a wave that he is riding to this very day. Tom Hanks came to be taken seriously as a dramatic actor with a lot of versatility. When you look at the wide range of characters Hanks has played over his career, all of it is owed to what he did with this film. The very humorous line in Tropic Thunder about “not going full retard” is very amusing but actually really good acting advice. The way Hanks plays Forrest with so many layers, it really is an amazing performance. Also a lot of credit should be given to the writers as well as director Robert Zemeckis. Together, they crafted an amazingly rich character. The way this character behaves is consistent through the years. He is unchanged while the world around him keeps on changing at a rate that may have never been seen in human history. Forrest Gump is an example of a protagonist who effects the world around him but has no traditional character arc. With his performance, you see a person who impacts those around him and makes them better, particularly Lieutenant Dan, played by Gary Sinise. Lieutenant Dan has a character arc from when we first meet him to where he ends up at the end of the movie. Forrest is more or less unchanged. Thanks to what Tom Hanks showed in this movie, he became a bankable star that has been given a wide range of roles over the last twenty-five years and he has to be considered one of the greatest American actors there have ever been.

Speaking of Gary Sinise, the impact Forrest Gump had on his life has been long lasting and powerful. Lieutenant Dan is Forrest’s commanding officer in Vietnam. He has a long history of the men in his family dying in the battle field in all our wars. It looks like Dan will proudly follow in his fathers footsteps when Forrest Gump steps in and saves his life. Dan is not at all happy about this. Not only did he fail to live up to his family legacy but he also will live the rest of his life without legs. Dan pops in and out of Forrest’s life in the coming years, struggling hard to adjust to life outside the military and without legs. He eventually finds peace and a purpose thanks in part to the friendship of Forrest Gump. After this movie came out, the character really resonated with veterans and many gave their touching stories to Gary Sinise in person. He has talked about this at great length and even to this day he gets very emotional when discussing the conversations he has had with veterans over the years and just what the character of Lieutenant Dan has meant to their lives. This led Sinise to doing a lot of work with veterans groups over the years, helping people out with trauma. You can look more into the work for yourself he has done over the years but the point is that it has meant a great deal to many people and he has really came through for veterans. All of this because of a movie. That is the power of films and how they can touch the lives of many people.

It’s worth discussing the soundtrack to this movie. The two disc set for Forrest Gump containing hits from the 50’s to the 80’s along with the score is in many ways the soundtrack for the Baby Boom generation. It sold over 12 Million copies and reached number two on the Billboard charts. This is unheard of for a movie soundtrack. Using popular music was an important aspect of Forrest Gump and clearly it resonated with many people. The right music used at the right times can really make the movie feel authentic. It’s hard to equate it to anything today. I suppose Guardians of the Galaxy might be the closest comparison. I was shocked to find out how well this soundtrack performed on the charts and it’s a sign of the long reach this movie had.

Did they get it right?

So those are our five films that the Academy deemed to be the best of the year. So did they get it right? Well, in my opinion, they could have done better than selecting Quiz Show. I think movies like Ed Wood and The Lion King were worthy of consideration for Best Picture. Prior to rewatching Four Weddings and a Funeral I would have said that movie had no business being nominated but my opinion has changed. It was going to to break through this crowded field but it certainly was worthy of consideration being that it is the best example of a genre that had not yet been played out.

Having watched all five films this week, I will say that Pulp Fiction was probably the best movie in 1994. That being said, I can see why they went with Forrest Gump and it wasn’t a grave error. Forrest Gump was the safe pick. Everyone had seen the movie. It was a fantastic film, worthy of Best Picture in any year it could have conceivably been released. Most importantly, the subject matter was safe. A nostalgia film about the baby boom generation vs a movie about criminals filled with sex, violence, and foul language. The Academy is going to go with a film like Forrest Gump every time. There are plenty of other years where one can criticize the Academy for not picking the right film for Best Picture or nominating a bunch of movies no one has seen or cares about. 1994 was not one of those years. Picking between Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and Forrest Gump was not an easy task. These three films will be watched and talked about forever.

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No Excuse for Starving

A Colorful History

There is no excuse for starving, especially in Florida. They have citrus of all kinds (orange, tangerine, grapefruit, lemon, lime, cumquat, and loquat), mango, grape, guava, bamboo, banana, plantain, sugarcane, avocado, acorn, dandelion, purslane, podocarpus, papaya, lychee, lemon grass, garlic grass, hickory, chestnut, coconut, cattail, coontie, cactus, cassava, Jimaca, and cabbage palm. They are all edible, all delicious, and each can be found growing throughout much of the Sunshine State, if you just know where to look. Nope, there’s no excuse for starving in Florida.

Florida has been home to many colorful characters throughout its history, from the pre-Columbian Chatot, Timucua, Tocobaga, Tequesta, Ocali, Apalachee, Asi-Jeaga, and fierce Calusa tribes to formidable Spanish Conquistadores like Hernando de Soto and Ponce de León to blood thirsty pirates like Jose Gaspar and Caesaro Negro to the wily Seminole and Miccosukee warriors like Osceola and Holatta Micco to Confederate blockade runners like Captain Archibald McNeill.

For me, the most interesting aspect of Florida’s history has always been the Seminole Indian Wars, partly because the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes are the only Native American tribes to never lay down their arms in abject surrender to over whelming Federal forces. Even the indomitable Comanche and Apache ultimately surrendered, but not so the Florida tribes who melted into the Everglades where Federal troops dare not follow. These two tribes were part of the Civilized Nations; they wore spun calico shirts, smoked clay pipes and were fond of their smooth bore muskets. They survived forty years of warfare (1817-1819, 1835-1842, 1855-1858)1 against a modern and well equipped army, not because of any technological superiority—although the Seminole and Miccosukee were excellent marksmen with bow and musket—but because they were adaptable and were able to live off the land in the wilds of Florida’s untamed swamps, wetlands, mangroves, and hammocks. As it was for the Seminole and Miccosukee, living off-grid in a SHTF scenario means having to live off the land.

Long-Term Scenario

We all pray that SHTF events never happens in our lifetime, but we prepare for them anyway. The Seminole and Miccosukee survived their own SHTF; will we survive ours? Our SHTF, when it comes, may come upon us slowly or suddenly. Regardless of the cause, we owe it to our children to survive, so we pray for the best and prepare for the worst. I don’t have a cabin in the mountains. I don’t own a cattle ranch. I don’t have a fortified bunker with motion sensors and early warning systems. I am forbidden by our home owners association from installing claymores in my yard. Heck, I don’t even own any night vision optics. I just a private citizen who wants to see his family to survive. Faced with a SHTF event, I know that the acquisition of Water, Food, Shelter, and Security will be imperative to ensuring my family’s survival.

Most coastal Floridians have already faced SHTF scenarios—we call them hurricanes, and we take our hurricane preparedness seriously. Since Hurricane Andrew destroyed the southern tip of Florida in 1992, many households have maintained a family sized “hurricane box” containing enough gear and supplies for the home team to survive for at least a few of days. That may not seem like a lot by Prepper standards, but the hurricane box is not part of our Prepper provisions. It’s just a seasonal precaution. We stock the hurricane box in spring, watch the Weather Channel from May (Caribbean hurricane season) through October (Atlantic hurricane season), consume our hurricane supplies through winter, and restock the following spring. This rotation keeps stock fresh and it beats having to run to Publix for a last-minute can of green beans so my wife can whip up one of her tasty casseroles. Preparing for the future requires forethought; the more you accomplish before an emergency event, the less you’ll need to accomplish during or after one. Stockpiling alone, however, can only carry you so far. You must be able to find renewable food sources. Once the SHTF, it will be too late to harvest Ramen at Walmart. Even if you could get your hands on that last brick of tasty noodles, fighting a gang of thugs for looting privileges is not sound tactical advice. If the gangs control your local Walmart, what then? Wouldn’t you rather be able to safely feed you’re your family from home than having to wander the means streets of some post-apocalyptic city scavenging for a nice clean dumpster? So, let’s assume you’ve already taken care of your short-term physical needs. You’ve got plenty of Evian and MRE’s on hand, your storm shutters are up, and everyone on your team who’s tall enough to ride the bog roller-coaster is strapped. No gun fight at the OK Walmart for you, but what about long-term survival? What about replenishment provisions? Have you considered that once your MRE’s run out, you will need to restock your larder with what you can hunt, fish, or grow?

Florida waters are teeming with fish, crabs, shrimp, crawdads, and turtles, not to mention the abundant squirrels, and various fowl that populate our area—with the notable exceptions of birds of prey and carrion eaters, pretty much most fowl are edible. For deer and hogs, we would need to go further afield. Barring a catastrophic decimation of wildlife, protein will most likely not be a problem for Floridians, especially for those of us living along the Coast. Carbs, however, will be much harder to come by.

The average healthy adult requires approximately 200-300 grams of carbohydrates daily.1 My favorite carb is rice, but what we’ve stored won’t last forever. We could try growing our own, but growing rice is a complete mystery involving paddies and some kind of water buffalo. We could try going native by harvesting acorns—a good source of carbs: 1 oz dried acorn (2-3 acorns) contains 14.6 gr. of carbs—but the acorns in South Florida tend to be rather small, and harvesting them is labor intensive, requiring patience and lots of water for blanching out the tannic acid. Acorns are a great supplement—make acorn-raisin cookie—but they are not a staple food.

The Lowly Sweet Potato

To resolve to the how-to-get-enough-carbs-so-I-don’t-starve dilemma, I would recommend the same carbohydrate-rich staple that was grown by the Seminole and Miccosukee and helped them survive as a people while they waged a forty-year long guerilla war. Even if you’re able to fight off the first wave of spam-starved zombies, a single-family dwelling can suffer an extensive amount of damage from a break-in, let alone a firefight. During a SHTF event, we must be able to survive off-grid inconspicuously. This means living under-the-radar. It’s your choice; you can hang a “Welcome” sign over your green house door, or you can hide your food source in plain sight. Because they are so well camouflaged, the only true enemies of these delicious uber tubers are mice, floods, and weed whackers. It grows wild in many parts of the South, not just in Florida. The sweet potato is not a magical cure-all food, but it does have many dietary and strategic qualities that American Preppers may find advantageous. A store-bought sweet potato weighing approximately 7 oz. contains about 3 gr. of carbs while the same amount of rice has almost three times as many carbs (11 gr.), rice is labor intensive. Have you ever tried hitching a water buffalo to a rice plow? Though it lacks the carbs of rice, an average-sized sweet potato does possess many other essential nutrients including: potassium (48 gr), Vitamin A (2,026 IU), and Beta-carotene (1,215 mcg).3

The Growing Process

When germinating sweet potatoes, I employ the “science project” method. It is the skin that produces the buds or “eyes” that become roots, so all you will need is the outer portion of the potato. Slice out one-inch wide slips of skin from the potato. Make them about as half as thick as a pencil (1/8 inch) to lend support to the skin. Suspend—do not submerge—the inch-wide slips of skin in cool tap water by using string to form a “hammock” or tooth picks spears to hold the slips at water level, skin side down. Each slip should have its own container; too many slips in a confined space can cause the delicate sprouting roots to tangle. Direct sunlight can quickly bake young sprouts, so store them in indirect sunlight.

In about two weeks, you should see several healthy root tendrils sprouting downward from the slips into the water. When the tendrils grow to about six inches in length, it’s time for planting. Gently remove the sprouted slips from their containers and plant them about 4-6 inches deep and about 12 inches apart.4 Much of the soil in South Florida tends to be sandy and poor, so you may need to prep your soil before planting. My property is sandy and wonderful for growing sandspurs—they are the reason Floridians don’t walk around bare-footed. I do not prepare my soil before planting sweet potatoes. The whole point of the exercise is to establish a renewable food source that will grow well without any help from me. After about three to four months—depending on the variety of sweet potato, rainfall, soil, soil prep, pests, etc.—the crop will be ready to harvest. You’ll know it’s time to harvest when the leaves turn yellow on the vine, and the growing tubers cause the ground to bulge as though there were moles tunneling beneath the soil. I live in Hardiness Zone 10 (South Florida); your results will definitely vary.

Sweet potato vines can cover ground almost as quickly as kudzu and drop roots at the nodes their entire length. The potatoes grow close to the surface and can be harvested easily with bare hands. I don’t use my bare hands because Florida is home to the dreaded Brazilian Fire Ant, six different venomous serpents, and an ever-growing population of pythons. This is a genuine concern when weeding or harvesting because sweet potatoes attract rodents which in turn attract snakes, and the ground cover from the leaves can be so dense that you would never notice a coiled pygmy rattler until too late. All the prepping in the world won’t save you from a coral snake bite either—they are part of cobra family—with no way to refrigerate rare anti-venom serum during a SHTF scenario. “Don’t stick your hand in there!” is a good rule to live by in Florida, so use a little common sense and employ a small cultivator rake carefully to avoid damaging your crop.

For my first attempt at sweet potato gardening, I cut eight slips, but two failed to germinate. I planted the remaining six slips in a three-foot by five-foot patch of well-drained sandy soil. My little garden yielded 14 medium-to-large sweet taters. These were germinated from one store-bought potato. Not too bad for a first attempt considering the small size of the plot and the fact that I did not water at all. The Florida August monsoons did the watering for me. The rains come so regularly in late summer, between 3:00PM and 5:00PM, that you can practically set your watch by them. That particular crop of even survived a record-breaking three-day freeze just prior to harvest. A three-day freeze might not impress most Northerners, but it is big news in South Florida.

After my first crop, I let the vines continue to grow on their own, hoping for a second picking from the same planting. Unfortunately, the potatoes did not survive my wife’s attempt to clean up the back yard with the weed whacker. The best sweet potatoes are the large ones near the original slip planting. The further away from the original plant that the nodes take root and become potatoes, the smaller the tuber will be. The stunted golf ball-sized sweet potatoes, though still technically edible, are rough and not very tasty. These became seed crop for the next planting.

Another nice thing about the sweet potato is that it can be grown almost anywhere: apartment window boxes, small backyard gardens, empty lots downtown, power line easements, around the edges of county parks, or the woods behind your house. With their dramatic purple blossoms, the attractive broad-leafed vines are used as an ornamental plant. They make such great ground cover that they are regularly incorporated into landscaping around buildings, mailboxes, lakes, canals, trees, and other shrubbery.

There is a storm canal easement behind our property. Like Johnny Apple Seed, I’ve started planting germinated slips on this property. Several plantings have taken root and are growing well. When the summer rains begin, they should really take off. The early success of this off-property experiment has encouraged me to try other locations. I’ve germinated and planted sweet potatoes at my mom’s house, my brother’s house, and at a friend’s house. They’re going to enjoy the attractive ground cover around their shrubs, and I will enjoy helping them establish a prolific and renewable emergency food source.

I’ve started scouting other areas as well for strategic planting locations that will be self-sustaining. Anticipating future fuel shortages, I’ve kept my scouting to within bicycling distance from my property. There is a long tract of scrub woods along the river near our home which will make a good planting zone as the average non-agricultural zombie wouldn’t know the difference between potato vines and kudzu. My plan is to hide a strategic and productive potato pantry in plain sight. Nope, there’s no excuse for starving in Florida.