The penultimate foray into Wine, Westerns & Wotsits before we switch to #SiFiPieFri in mid May for the summer season, and I was a bit anxious about this film I must be honest.
106th in my increasingly tatty list out of 120, it had been described as 'bleak', 'grim' and 'hollow' with 'a lack of respect for dead bodies' in the reviews I'd seen in the build up to tonight, but a bit like visiting pubs for the first time, going in with low expectations is probably the best way to be!
In fairness, you had to go up to #93 to find a film with better ratings on Rotten Tomatoes website. Yes, I had to clutch at straws where I could.
Unusually for #WWWSI nights, it was taking ages to work up an appetite so I ended up watching Eastenders, half of Corrie, and going for a walk around my neighbourhood where two hardy old souls were having an aggressive game of croquet as dusk fell.
Finally, I decided now was the time to stick the pizza in the oven. Continue the Sainsbury's thin & crispy range, it was time to finally bite the bullet and go with the always controversial Ham & Pineapple .....
Pineapple on pizza is one of those 'things that winds up people on Twitter' but I really couldn't give less of a shit about.
File under - jam or cream first on a scone / milk or water first in a cup of tea / bread rolls called cobs, barms or whatever. Seriously, I'm like 'get a life'. Doesn't matter. Let people do what they want. Life is too short. Chill the eff out maaaaan.
I got a few side bits prepped, and despite getting 2 bags of Wotsits out, I only had one just to show my improved post-Keto discipline!
On the wine front, I was in for a bit of a shock. In a boring humdrum routine way of course, which is what this entire blog is built on.
Zinfandel is the grape. I'd been assuming it was from South Africa, even trying to say it in a South African accent like a nicer leggier less murderous Pistorious.
But my red wine bible had other ideas. Croatia, spreading to Italy, and becoming the third most popular grape in California (not the one near Great Yarmouth) which is where I got mine from.
Want to see what a woman with a blue scarf who looks a bit like my friend's sister Linda who loves Bad Kitty and other classic stouts & porters thinks about it? Course you do.
Well, it was time to get it open .....
'Purple Paradise' was the name, and I was big fan of the purple dice shirt that our cool skeleton friend was wearing.
It poured fairly light, and what with the comedy skeleton and screw top, I thought uh oh, was this gonna be hipstery and lacking in substance?
Well I was wrong and you are too. Acidic, dry and full. Challenging. Just the way I like my wine. And at 14.5%, the joint strongest in #WWWSI history.
Time for a few tunes and knowing this films bleak reputation, and American hotel, motel, diner, 1980's setting, one of my favourite bands The Hold Steady seemed to fit the bill.
But then I remembered my CD player was knackered. Leading to me to muse 'are cassette tapes more durable and enduring?' If ONLY I knew a #WWWSI follower who may be able to answer that question!
Anyway, I put them on my Apple Music, and in doing so, I realised they had a new album out I hadn't been aware of, so that was a bonus innit?
Time to get the party started and enjoy my 'kitchen time'.
The oven ham n pineapple pizza pinged, and it was time to go through for the film ......
Well, it was a great film, I don't know what people were moaning about.
Twisty, turny and gripping throughout. You follow these three dour blokes whose stories intertwine.
There's a boring cop (Tommy Lee Jones) who doesn't do much.
There's a bloke who discovers some drugs who is supposed to be the nicer chap but is a bit out of his depth.
His wife, the irritating Scot, Kelly McDonald with her wet blanket face isn't too irritating here, as she's got a proper southern American drawl which makes her bearable for once.
And the psycho memorable dude with the terrible haircut is a proper uncaring machine, a bit like a Wiltshire pub landlord, and will do anything he can to get the drugs/money. Not sure how he got involved in it all, I can't have been concentrating early on. He keeps shooting people between the eyes in a silent way.
Not a lot of pubbing going on, but they all keep renting random motel rooms to store the suitcase of drugs, so there's probably a bar with Guinness and bottles of Brewdog Lost in the absence of cask, or whatever the 1980 equivalent was.
I won't spoil the ending (AKA I've forgotten what happens) - this night took place way back on Wednesday 12th April so quite a while ago now.
Tomorrow, on Thursday 4th May, I'll be tackling the 50th and final #WWWSI night of the season. We'll be watching 'The Westerner', drinking Zweigelt wine and eating a spicy chicken pizza. We also have new music courtesy of Uncle Matt.
After that, we'll be returning to #SiFiPieFi in mid - late May for a 'cost busting' combo of Space Raiders, Pie and cheap craft ales.
From a BRAPA POV, I think #ThirstyThursdays won't be very common in May as I (a) recover from Wiltshire and (b) have two bank holiday bonus pub trips planned to keep my ticking numbers at an acceptable level.
Until next time, vamoose ya varmints.
Si
I saw that film last year and loved it despite the lack of pubs.
Good to see someone else believes pineapple on pizza is the One True Way.
Cassettes aren't inherently more enduring. All physical media has it's weak points. Vinyl is reliant on a decent setup and good care of records. Cassettes are reliant on proper recording levels and a player that won't chew up the tape. Even CDs are reliant on a complex laser/sled mechanism and digital-to-analogue converter. The reason why everything but the tape player on your boombox has failed is because cost reduction works better for cassette mechanisms than the other stuff. Your Sony has what is called in tape circles as a "Tanashin Mechanism". Now, this isn't good by any stretch of the imagination, but it was developed in the 1980s to have as few moving parts as possible. Though it won't s…