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Philly Restaurants Garces Trading Co & Village Whiskey
It takes me a while, however, slowly but surely, I try to get around to all the Stephen Starr Restaurants and all the Jose Garces Restaurants in Philly. This post features two from Garces: Back in April for a belated Easter meal, I took my Aunt to dinner at Garces Trading Company (1111 Locust Street). And 2 weeks ago, I was treated to a belated birthday dinner at Village Whiskey (118 South 20th Street). See below slideshow for descriptions and Tine Ratings: You know me, I’m happy just to be out there dining and taking in the atmosphere. However, my overall impression of Garces Trading Co. – the tin roof…
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Partaking: A Polite Bribe
Was invited to a screening of a biopic on the Apostle Paul called A Polite Bribe by filmmaker Robert Orlando. For as long as I can remember, I’ve attended bible study classes; not continuously and never formally at a University or College, but regularly through a church. Sadly and disgracefully, I retain very little and can regurgitate nothing. In recent years, I tend to go not for religious instruction, or spiritual learning, but more for historical interest. Which is the perspective of A Polite Bribe. Told through chiaroscuro animation, a style which features a single light source, Orlando focuses on a man who possessed unwaveringly resilience and determination. Paul’s mission…
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Prometheus
If you make a film about aliens, the existence of God, origins of man, ancient myths, prophecies, hieroglyphics, space travel, throw in a lot of goo, birthing alien babies and an unnerving robot - then I'm most likely gonna love it...
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Nora Ephron: Remembering a Film & Foodie
Nora Ephron had many passions, most publicly her writing and filmmaking. But the author, screenwriter and director, who died Tuesday at age 71, also had great enthusiasm in her largely private work in her Manhattan kitchen. And she left behind a self-published cookbook, by turns droll and earnest, memorializing the zeal. Simply titled “Nora’s Cookbook” and bound with white spiral wire, the recipe collection runs 174 pages and blends Ephron’s wry observations about throwing a great dinner party and using clarified butter with relatively simple recipes for dishes like chicken salad, monkey bread and pot roast. “I have the book and use it all the time,” said producer Scott Rudin,…
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Just a Taste: People Like Us
Writer/Director Alex Kurtzman is known for writing high-tech, extraterrestrial, action flicks like Transformers, Star Trek, Cowboys and Aliens and TV shows like Fringe and Alias, so a family drama like his latest movie People Like Us, is quite a departure. But it’s the fact that this story was inspired by Kurtzman and writing partner Roberto Orci’s own life experiences with long lost siblings, that keeps them from being out of their depth. Sam (Chris Pine) is a fast talking, ambitious young man who in the initial scenes seems to be cocksure and on top of everything. All this comes crashing down around him when he makes a big oversight at…