Bottle Shock

We saw this at closing night of the 2008 film festival. Whether or not you’re a wine enthusiast, this is a fun movie with a long list of talented actors. Set during the early days of California wine making, the plot revolves around the famous blind Paris wine tasting of 1976 that was orchestrated by English vino merchant Steven Spurrier. Though parts of the story are set in in Paris, much of the film is shot in California’s wine country, and a good portion of those shots are of the characters’ beat-up jalopies cruising country back roads.

Bottle Shock (at IMDB)
Judgement of Paris (at Wikipedia)

800 Degree Pizza Ovens & WALL-E

Someone recently sent me a link to a New York Times article about pizza making. Or rather, about a passionate individual who circumvents the cleaning lock of his electric stove to achieve the high temperatures necessary for baking a pizza–I am jealous. For the past few months, we’ve been experimenting with baking pizzas at home, sometimes with discouraging results when the toppings overcook before the crust has had a chance to rise. Making dough seems fairly straightforward, the ingredients are simple and it’s mostly just attention to detail. But baking is a pain, as most conventional home ovens don’t seem to be up to the challenge of ultra-high temperature.

A New York Expatriate’s Magnificent Obsession: Pizza

However, there is hope. This afternoon, I watched a film called WALL-E and learned that pizzas can be grown from seeds. Perhaps I will start growing pizzas on my back deck. I’ve listened to a lot of hype about this movie in recent weeks. The film is extraordinarily well made, entertaining, socially conscious, and worth seeing.

WALL-E (at IMDB)