About Us: Glendale!

I'm writing from "the bubble". As you may have seen on the news, there is currently an absurdly large conflagration right above our town. When I woke up the other day I wondered if the house was on fire because it smelled so much like smoke. The smoke makes it very hard to breathe, and we don't have air conditioning to filter the air. So we bought an air purifier and the little machine seems to work well -- my eyes, throats and sinuses have stopped burning -- but it's only for a small room. So I've moved into the bedroom, taking with me the TV, DVR, Computer, Printer and things, and I call it 'the bubble'. I intend to stay here until we leave for Iceland in a few days.

Same city, not on fire

We live in sunny Glendale, California. We've lived in the same little bungalow for almost 5 years now. Our house is very old in California terms, being built around 1920. The bungalow in the back of our row used to be the Mayor of Glendale's House. Because of this we have four really giant palm trees in the front of our house that were a gift to the Mayor almost a century ago.

Another big thing going on in Glendale, is it's where they're going to bury Michael Jackson this week. Originally it was going to be on his birthday last weekend but has been pushed back a couple times for whatever reason. Last I heard it's supposed to be tomorrow, but I kind of hope they keep pushing it till after we're gone, because the cemetery is just a few miles from our house and we have wedding errands to run!

About Us: Bollywood!

Note:If you subscribe to the RSS feed for this blog, you probably won't see the imbedded videos in this entry.

Matt & I are big Bollywood fans. Bollywood is the name for the Hindi-speaking Film Industry in India. And all major Bollywood films are musicals! Not kidding, they're all musicals. It's awesome.

We watch the Bollywood music video shows every weekend on a local channel. And a couple times a year we travel to Artesia, where the Indian Movie Theater is, to see the new releases. (They even offer samosas at the theater!)

There are more releases in Bollywood per year than in Hollywood, so we don't keep up with absolutely everything. But we do keep up with their big star vehicles.

Now, I will inundate you with videos.



Shah Rukh Khan has been the biggest movie star in Bollywood for at least 15 years. I think he's the best movie star in the world. He's not traditionally good looking (with a big nose and his signature flopsy hair), but when SRK (as his name is often abbreviated) laughs, you laugh with him and when SRK cries, you cry with him. Like millions of Indians, I am a big fan.

This first video, which I warn you is a little long, is one of the most famous musical sequences in Bollywood history. It is from the film Dil Se (1998), which is actually about a man who falls in love with a female suicide bomber. Coincidentally, it was one of the first Bollywood movies that both Matt and I saw, before we even knew each other. The music is by A.R. Rahman who recently won two Oscars for Slumdog Millionaire.





Om Shanti Om is a really super great movie that came out two years ago. It is full of Bollywood film history, so it's not a good film to start with because you won't get all the references. But this song, "Dhoom Taana" is actually a good intro to Bollywood film history -- showing films and film styles from the various decades. The lead character, played by Shah Rukh Khan again, is watching a film in the theater, and then becomes part of the songs in his mind.





I'm really tempted to post Dard-E-Disco, from the same movie, also starring SRK, which is a joke song mocking the new style of Bollywood musical sequences (instead here is a link if you happen to be particularly interested). These new sequences are more Western in dance style and overtly sexy. Dard-E-Disco, which translates as "Pain of Disco" is very funny when you know what they are making fun of. SRK even shows off his six pack even though he never usually does shirtless scenes like a lot of the other Bollywood actors.

Alternatively, I shall show you some thing in the style of what they're actually mocking. Dhoom 2 (sequel of course to 'Dhoom' which we've actually never seen - Dhoom means 'have a blast' in Hindi), is one of my favorite movies (we saw it twice at the Indian movie theater). It's not a good movie, it's a big over the top blockbuster, but I enjoy watching it's slickly made ridiculousness.

It stars Aishwarya Rai, who is a former Miss World. She is one of the most internationally known Bollywood stars -- you may have seen her in Revlon commercials or movies like The Pink Panther. Note the amusing number of costume changes...





It's worth mentioning that Aishwarya is not usually as thin as she is in this video. She had gained weight for a previous role (the Hollywood cross over film Bride & Prejudice) and while losing the weight for this role ended up losing too much. This is the thinnest I've ever seen her. Indian movie stars, who I think are blessed with amazing DNA in some cases, are not generally as thin as American movie stars. (For instance, here's Bipasha Basu, who I think is the hottest woman ever. And she's a size 12, which for a movie star is a lot. That video is from Omkara which is a retelling of MacBeth).

But back to Ash (as Aishwarya Rai is commonly referred to), I could show you any number of musical sequences in which she is dancing in traditional Indian style, while wearing a Sari. Surprisingly, I can only show you three movies ever where Ash stars with SRK since he vowed to never work with her again after an incident where her boyfriend at the time showed up on set yelling and screaming and interrupted filming. Amusingly though, SRK is still friends with the screaming boyfriend -- he just won't work with her again.



The super hot guy who appears briefly in that video with Ash is Hrithik Roshan. Sigh... Matt has given me permission to leave him for Hrithik if the opportunity ever arises. But Hrithik married his childhood sweetheart, so I think we're safe. Hrithik is known as the best dancer in Bollywood (Here's the last movie he did. Not actually his first circus themed dance scene though, strangely enough).

There will certainly be some Bollywood songs at the reception. When the song "Pehli Nazar Mein" from the movie Race came out I said to Matt -- good thing we're not getting married right now, or I'd have to change this to our first dance song. So when you hear this slow song in Hindi -- you'll know it was almost the one.

One constantly amazing thing about Bollywood videos is that they regularly manage to get very very busy places looking very very empty. The most amazing is Time Square with no one in it (for the song "Hey Shona" from Tara Rum Pum , but I've also always been impressed by Saint Mark's Square with no one in it (from Bachna Ae Haseeno).

A funny thing about Bollywood (the big films anyway) is that they never kiss onscreen (and of course a sex scene would be absolutely out of the question. They do what we always refer to as "suggestive nuzzling". In Dhoom 2 mentioned above, two of the lead actors do kiss and they were sued for indecency (for kissing in a movie!). It was a big deal at the time.

Someone asked us recently to recommend some Bollywood films, and it was honestly quite hard. I guess it depends what you are looking for. They have comedies and dramas and silly blockbusters like anywhere else. They actually remake a lot of Hollywood films (sometimes even better than the original! I'd say 'Partner' is better than the film it's remaking 'Hitch').

And I could show you videos all day -- how amusing Abhishek Bachchan is, the hotness of another Miss World winner Priyanka Chopra, or Bollywood's best female dancer Madhuri Dixit.

But I will leave you with this song from "Jab We Met" -- a movie which is essentially a remake of "It Happened One Night". This is a wedding song and it's not in Hindi, it's in Punjabi. In Bollywood films, there are often these fun Punjabi songs in wedding scenes.

This song stars Shahid Kapoor, who is also known as a great dancer. I always refer to him as "Boyfriend" because he actually looks a good deal like Matt! Matt often has similarly flopsy hair and you should see Shahid with glasses on. Shahid is definitely Matt's long lost Indian cousin.





Hope you enjoyed your Indian adventure!

About Us: Chocolate Snobs

I never liked chocolate very much, even as a kid. I particularly disliked dark chocolate -- at least what I thought was dark chocolate. But shopping at Whole Foods, they often have a wall of gourmet chocolate by the register and Matt, who likes chocolate just fine, would occasionally get one. And I would go on about how I don't like dark chocolate. But then, one fateful day, I also had a bite. And curiously, it did not taste like what I expected. Real dark chocolate is something all together different.

Real dark chocolate only requires two ingredients: cocoa mass and sugar. But the only company we know who actually makes chocolate that way is Domori from Italy. Usually the ingredients will consist of cocoa mass, cane sugar, cocoa butter, vanilla (and perhaps the emulsifier lecithin). That should be it.

Last year, Hershey's and Nestle lobbied the FDA to change the legal definition of chocolate, so they don't have to actually have chocolate in them. They also often have milk in them and real dark chocolate doesn't have milk. So yeah, that's not what we're talking about here.

In the gourmet chocolate world, some chocolate is 'cru' which is a term picked up from wine connoisseurs, meaning all the cacao comes from a single origin. These are the best (and generally most expensive) chocolates.

There is a fairly new award given to the best chocolate of the year from the Academy of Chocolate. Since they started the award in 2006, best dark chocolate bar has gone to an Amedei. The first year was to their Amedei Chuao bar, which is also considered the best bar by seventypercent.com -- a well known chocolate website.

We would agree. It's the best we've had. It's the the king of dark chocolate bars. The taste is very subtle and reveals different layers of flavor as it sits in your mouth. (If that doesn't sound like chocolate snob talk I don't know what does).

But if you are not used to artisan chocolate, a good place to start might be the Amedei Porcelana, which is in some ways the opposite of Chuao. It doesn't have the complexity of flavor of the Chuao, but is very smooth and consistent and just tastes really really good. It's easily the best tasting dark bar in existence for just regular taste. We still prefer the layers of the Chuao, but this is a good starter bar for someone who wants to know what dark chocolate can taste like and may not have developed much of a palate for it yet. Unfortunately, it's also the most expensive bar we've come across. It retails around $15 a bar. The Chuao is usually around $12 a bar.

Amedei vs. Valrhona -- for some reason we find Valrhona Cru kind of difficult to find, despite being probably the most well known gourmet company. For instance, the regular Valrhona dark, but not Cru, is fairly easy to find -- they always have it at Trader Joes for instance for about $4, but is not really much to write home about. We were fortunate to receive a truly awesome present from my sister, a wooden box, not unlike a cigar box, with several bars of 3 different kinds of Cru.

The Valrhona chocolate consistency and texture is kind of awesome. And it definitely beats Amedei on that front. But as for taste, I'd definitely have to go with Amedei. Matt leans a little toward Valrhona.

When we went to Italy, we came back with a bag full of chocolate bars (we actually still have one Domori left). I expect France will be somewhat similar.

But next we're going to try some of the American gourmet chocolates. There's a couple companies that are getting noticed such as Amano and Guittard. Always more chocolate to try!

I keep a chocolate journal, like wine connoisseur sometimes keep a wine journal, and we partially want a wine cooler just to keep the chocolate in (it is generally best kept at a similar temperature). We keep our chocolate in a cooler at the moment, to keep the temperature as best we can. So as you can see, we are totally chocolate snobs. But it's something we enjoy doing together!