Chick Flicks

Fried Green Tomatoes – Deep South story of love, betrayal, abuse and murder. Kathy Bates shines and the story will get you craving for food too. Also stars Jessica Tandy and Mary-Louise Parker. Thelma & Louise – This is a classic film where going out in a blaze of glory is better than being repressed. […]

Mind Blowing Film Scores

Psycho – Anything Bernard Herrmann did is magic but he makes this shower scene. American Beauty – Thomas Newman‘s score of this 1999 film makes a plastic bag beautiful. The Painted Veil – This one is rarely on other’s lists but the Alexandre Desplat score is haunting. Vertigo – Another Bernard Herrmann masterwork. Beautiful and […]

Drives in the U.S. West

Highway 101 –  US Route 101 hugs the Pacific coastline almost all through Oregon.  Incredible views of Heceta Head and lighthouses.    Crashing waves and rainbows abound. Glacier National Park – Going-to-the -Sun-Road winds through Glacier National Park and is one beautiful vista after another.   Road to Hana – The Hana highway in Maui, Hawaii […]

Five Incredible Hot Sauces

Sriracha – Add this to Mayo for some serious flavor. People are so in love with this stuff they made a documentary on it. Worthy candidate it’s that flavorful. Gochujang – This Korean hot paste is the bomb of flavor. Make sure you get one with real fermented soybeans and no corn syrup. Cholula Chipotle […]

Five Underrated Films

Mrs. Brown – Judi Dench rocks as Queen Victoria later in life. Shutter Island – Martin Scorsese directs and a Max Ritcher piece make this a haunting psychological thriller. The Painted Veil – The soundtrak by Alexandre Desplat made this an epic tale of love, betrayal, remorse and forgiveness. Chronic – Tim Roth stars as […]

Damaging Desire Films

Vertigo – This Hitchcock film stars Jame Stewart as a man who is consumed by unobtainable obsession.  History repeats and so do emotional patterns.   Lolita – Stanley Kubrick directed a story of a middle aged man’s obsession with a pubescent teen.   Based on Nabokov‘s novel.  This controversial book is not sugar coated by Kubrick.    […]

Great Detective TV Shows

Bron/Broen – This show has been remade multiple times but it is the original in Danish and Swedish which rocks Prime Suspect – Helen Mirren plays a detective in a field fraught with misogyny. The Fall – Jamie Dorman is a serial killer and Gillian Anderson is the DCI after him. This BBC series has […]