One of those list of the year things
2013, in random fashion:
Telly:
The Walking Dead
One of the very first pub comedians I
went to see started off by apologising to any sensitive souls in the
audience... “but” he said “anyone who thinks they can
get a laugh without swearing is a ****”.
MM was home recently. Try this without
the swearing and it's not half as funny:
MM: Those slippers you're wearing? (I
was wearing, much to my dismay and eternal shame, slippers).
ME: Er, yep.
MM: **** me. You are an old
****.
Equally, there's no point making telly
without blood, splatter and gore when the technology exists to make
telly with blood splatter and gore. A decent plot, some
characters that develop over a series and from series to series, more
than enough good lines and cliffhangers to keep you engrossed. With
the added bonus of blood, splatter and gore.
Cookbook:
Heston Blumenthal: In Search of
Perfection
A £4 charity shop purchase has given
three great tips:
- Chips. When BLISS (a chip-sceptic, and when tempted, dead picky about her chips) describes what you dish up as “the best chips ever” you have to thank HB and the guys in the lab calculating the dry solid content of Maris Pipers, King Edwards, and Golden Wonders.
- Brining the chicken. Water. Salt. Leave it alone for six hours. Cook it. Okay, I've skipped the par-boil, and anything that involves goggles, gastight suits and gauntlets, but even so...
- Batter. Okay, again, I'm never going to go the whole hog. I don't have a soda syphon, and if I did, I wouldn't think about clogging it up with batter. But using cold fizzy water has improved the pakoras and tempura no end.
Book (new):
Richard House, The Kills
Long and sprawling over continents,
published as four books then a single volume, with online additional
material to tap into. Should've made it onto the Booker shortlist.
And:
Thomas Pychon, Bleeding Edge
No-one writes better dialogue. Long.
Focused. Very, very funny. Dot.com bust and 9/11.
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