Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Don't Buy For Me from Argentina...

...The truth is, their wines are very variable.

However, one very good red is the one I won in a raffle yesterday: the Waxed Bat (I kid you not!) Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon-Malbec.

This is really quite good and goes well with (for example) even medium-strength cheeses and meats such as pork (including gammon, bacon and pepperoni), lamb and venison.

Earlier years had the Petit Verdot grape* in the three-way blend instead of Cabernet Sauvignon, and that I haven't tried as yet, so for now my recommendation applies only to the version I have described. If I can get hold of the other variety, I shall give it a try and report my findings in a later post.


(*  Petit Verdot is a grape I have previously encountered only once, and that in another three-way blend, Hardy's Voyage series red.)

Monday, 13 August 2012

Keeping It Real

We all know (don't we?) that Rastamouse and Da Easy Crew are most famous for "making a bad ting good".

In this interview from Salford we also discover that the Mouse is also a fan of Usain Bolt, and we are also reminded that he has a very positive attitude to life. What happens in Mouseland applies elsewhere too, of course.

As he says...
"Nuff nuff people see a bad ting an' feel it should stay dat way den complain 'bout how bad it is. But we know a bad ting can turn into someting good wid love, care an' understandin'."
– Now that's my kinda guy! –

Odd Video of the Week – Ghetto Equestrian Dressage

Well, it's certainly a bit different...

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Dark Knight, Sheds Light

There is a very interesting discussion of the film The Dark Knight Rises at The Commentator that is well worth a read. It is, as the piece indicates, the norm for Hollywood to (in effect) promote the idea of wealth-making as a positive thing, even though that is how the world of human society works best.

Indeed, it's the only way society actually can work, as other models have shown through their own failure.

This reminds me of one of the paradoxes of life on Earth: Hollywood is dominated by Jews: producers, directors, executives, purse-string holders. Jews tend to support the political Left (hence Hollywood's general slant, for one obvious effect of this) yet it is the Left who support their enemies, especially the Palestinians, while rather obviously paying mere lip-service to 'friendship' with Israel, the Jewish State. Indeed, our own BBC is so slanted (as has been reported on several issues in the last week or so alone) that it really is a mystery why that Left-supporting situation still exists.

Anyway, that's where we are; and perhaps it is sign of change, of the Hollywood bosses finally waking up to reality in at least one (probably two) direction(s), resulting in a shift toward more realistic scene-setting in the dramas they produce. The writer of The Commentator's article is described as a "researcher at a pro-Israel education organisation", making this all the more intriguing.

It is about time that, especially in this era of special effects-laden superhero (and similar) fantasy, some real-world factual basis to stories being told came into the movies. We in Britain were always so good at this, years ago; and the likes of The Ipcress File and its sequels, Get Carter, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and others from around that era carried a lot of factual and (especially in hindsight) contextually obvious material within them. One could learn a lot, and get a feel for how and why things operated thus.

Anyway, I shall now have to seriously consider going to this new movie myself, to appraise its message validity personally; but by the sounds of it the job has been done well, so I might just wait for it to appear on television as is my usual practice. We shall see...

Wednesday, 1 August 2012

An Ironic Hug

When a tweet popped up that claimed that "hugs and holding hands can be good for one's heart" I had a look at the linked post on this topic. As I have (significant, but not very serious) heart issues myself, I felt it'd be a bit daft just to ignore it, despite looking like it wouldn't be applicable to me.

As a loner I was of course right about that latter aspect; so offer this just as a bit of public information, primarily aimed at those with what the post terms a "significant other" – which I gather is a kind of catch-all term for those in marital, civil or common-law partnerships or are "just good friends" as the saying puts it.

So there you go: never say that I am not kind to my readers, even when there is no relevance or benefit to me personally(!)