Today marks five years since my friend Joe got a job offer in Canberra. It wasn’t an easy decision for him to make since it would mean leaving his family, friends and two dogs behind as he traveled to work on the other side of the world.
Month: April 2017 (Page 8 of 10)
Every Tuesday, I review the newest Blu-ray releases and let you know whether they’re worth buying, renting or skipping, along with a breakdown of the included extras. If you see something you like, click on the cover art to purchase the Blu-ray from Amazon, and be sure to share each week’s column on social media with your friends.
“Hidden Figures”
“Hidden Figures” is a crowd-pleaser in the purest sense – it’s a charming, heartwarming and inspirational tale that skillfully combines light-hearted comedy with racially-charged drama to shine a light on the African-American women who helped put John Glenn and others into space during a time when neither African-Americans nor women were given those kinds of opportunities. Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe are excellent as the real-life mathematicians on which the film is based, while Kevin Costner provides good support as the NASA boss in charge of the space program. Although the movie hits a number of familiar beats along the way (after all, it’s basically an underdog sports drama for the STEM crowd), there’s nothing ordinary about the incredible true story at the heart of it.
Extras include an audio commentary by director/co-writer Theodore Melfi and actress Taraji P. Henson, a five-part making-of featurette and more. FINAL VERDICT: RENT
Throughout the history of video games, developers have been fascinated with the idea of giving players a little bit more. Back in 1979, gaming saw its first Easter egg in the form of a hidden credits room in Atari 2600 title “Adventure.” In the proceeding decades, studios have continued to take pride in adding bonus material to their titles, with mini-games and side content becoming more conspicuous and outlandish as time has gone on. The Spider Tank in “Watch Dogs,” a hallucinogenic “digital trip,” serves to illustrate just how fond software developers are of mini-games.
Today, we’re taking a look at two of the most celebrated mini-games in video games history.
Work takes up a substantial part of your life, so if you are continually bringing work stress home with you, you need to find healthful ways to de-stress and unwind. Chronic stress has been medically proven to lead to health problems, so it’s important to discover how to reduce work stress to safeguard your health and enhance your well-being. With the following tried-and-true tips, you can ward off work stress and enjoy your life once you’re off the clock.
Perhaps the rarest of all experiences in my cocktailian explorations is discovering a new base spirit to build mixed drinks around. After all, most of us who drink to any extent have made at least a passing acquaintance with vodka, whiskey, rum, tequila, gin and brandy, and usually in about that order. With cocktails, you basically start out with at least some knowledge of most of the basic building blocks, so it’s definitely a kick to find a strong liquor that isn’t one of these.
This week’s drink is built around kirschwasser, also called kirsch. I first learned of its existence at a pretty advanced age the first time I saw Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger’s masterpiece of English cinema, “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp.” If you’ve seen it — and you probably haven’t, so go use your Amazon Prime membership to correct that error now! — you’ll remember that career soldiers Clive “Sugar” Candy (Roger Livesey) of Great Britain and Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook) of Germany bond over kirshwasser during a series of increasingly cordial social meetings in the company of their respective ladyfriends.
Given the genteel setting, I always assumed that kirsch was a sweet but complex cherry brandy that was more like a cherry liqueur. In fact, it’s a species of what’s called eau de vie, unaged fruit brandies. It’s no sweeter than whiskey or cognac and pretty strong stuff — one of the brands I used for this was 90 proof — but the cherry notes are definitely there. The Rose is a classic cocktail featuring kirsch that’s appeared in a number of early cocktail texts, including “The Savoy Cocktail Book” and the revivalist booze bible, “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.” Having now tried it many times, I honestly can’t tell you why this drink is less popular than a martini or a Manhattan except for the fact that most of us have never even heard of its most important ingredient.
Let’s start changing that now.
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