by Christina Waters | Feb 22, 2007 | Movies |
Who can resist making Oscar predictions? Not me – so here goes.
In a word – Babel, Babel, Babel. I like this intricate love song to trans-cultural existentialism to win Best Picture. Babel should also take Best Director, but given the collective guilt the Academy feels over not having awarded Martin Scorsese the directing award for his Howard Hughes film, it will probably be the much-unOscar’d auteur who steps up to the podium for his directorial work in The Departed.
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker – pretty obvious.
Best Actress: Who else? The Queen. What a terrible year to have been anyone other than Helen Mirren.
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, because he is a national treasure.
Supporting Actress: Little miss Abigail Breslin
Original Screenplay: Babel (you should be detecting a theme here…)
Foreign Language Film: Pan’s Labyrinth, because it turned cinema into archetype
Animated Feature: Happy Feet – cute overload, and who doesn’t love penguins?
Original Score: Gustavo Santaolalla’s haunting, trans-ethnic music from Babel
Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth, such dark and charismatic film stock
Cinematography: Pan’s Labyrinth
Makeup and Sound: Apocalypto – calm down! such over-the-top sensory miracles should be rewarded
Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth, made by the man who should have been the current president.
Film Editing: UCSC alum Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise, for Babel.
by Christina Waters | Feb 22, 2007 | Art, Home |
Erin V. Sotak: Squeeze – A cunning and curious installation dealing with pomegranates — lots of them — fills the Sesnon Gallery up at Porter College, now through March 17, 2007. Open Tues – Sat, noon to 5pm, the Sesnon continues to offer sensory-cerebral treats for those who like their artworks more edgy than not. Sotak’s work explores loss, decay and the passage of time in ways that often border on the playful and delicious. Not for those who like it tame. Sesnon Gallery – the link gives ample info to help you get on up to the UCSC campus and dive into this juicy installation.
by Christina Waters | Feb 8, 2007 | Food |
Quickies: Sitar, at 1133 Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz, is flashy and it’s open. Malabar ditto, fresh and sparkling in its new Front Street location. I’ll let you know what I think in a week or two. . . Hula’s is still a good place for high-performance theme visuals and well-made mai tais. But after two more forgettable Hula’s appetizers, Katya and I went to Soif for an amazing dish of duck leg braised in red wine with collard greens and prunes. The duck cost the same as two appetizers at Hula’s, but the difference in the experience was, well, stunning. And since it was Tuesday at Soif we got to listen to some choice blues from the piano of Art Alm. .
Readers want to know: Who has the recipe for the original minestrone served at the old Santa Cruz Hotel? and where can I find a genuine pastrami sandwich in Santa Cruz county?
Nice to see jewelry czarina Kate Nolan back in the Many Hands store on Locust. Great for downtown, bad for my checkbook. I cannot resist Nolan’s ancient Roman-style earring designs. . . Don’t miss the atmospheric black & white photography by Katie Cater (who moonlights behind the wine bar at Avanti), now showing at Riva, on the Santa Cruz Wharf. . . and save the February 28, 4-6pm date to join radical filmies up at UCSC’s Bay Tree Building for a screening and talk by Saul Landau. With yet another incendiary political tome, “A Bush and Botox World,” and new film on the cultural impact of globalization, called “We Don’t Play Golf Here,” Landau is the busiest act in polit-biz. Reception afterwards. I’ll see you there!
by Christina Waters | Feb 8, 2007 | Home |
Looks like there is life after India Joze after all. The spacious Center Street Grill makes a terrific design statement. Already attracting a lunch and dinner following, this spot packs even bigger visual punch at night — when the glowing ochre and terra cotta walls provide a bold hit of sophistication. Huge abstract paintings, creatively-placed track spotlighting, and acres of well-tended plants make it one of the nicest interiors in downtown Santa Cruz. And let me praise the care taken by the management not to cultivate a generic look. Plenty of small touches make Center Street Grill seductive. Good-looking polished wood furniture, table lamps, velvet curtains framing doorways, even intelligently-placed mirrors and custom grillework all work to maintain a sense of dining identity and intimacy — no small feat in this over-sized restaurant. Right, Christina. But how is the food? Read on. (more…)
by Christina Waters | Feb 8, 2007 | Food, Home |
Time for a little grousing about rude restaurant behavior — from the management’s point of view. Ted Burke has been running a mighty successful establishment — Shadowbrook Restaurant — for decades. He’s seen it all in the rude patron department. But here’s what’s got him seeing red a week before Valentine’s Day. “Too many people interested in dining on St. Valentine’s Day,” Burke said in his recent email, “will make several reservations around town — this happens on New Year’s too — and decide at the last minute which one they want to keep …and then not bother to cancel any of the others.” (more…)
