Boardwalk Empire and Walking Dead: Hanging Murders

    Maggie is played by Lauren Cohen, the girl who played Bela  on Supernatural.
    Walking Dead
    The episode started off pretty weak, but then it got pretty good.  I will not lie, the whole debate between Rick and Lori about allowing Carl to live or die was pretty lame.  I almost fell asleep.  Also, the religious discussion between Glenn and Maggie was weak, although I did enjoy the blossoming romance between the two.

    Anyways, Shane makes it back with the stuff and he tells everyone that Otis did not makes, that he sacrificed himself for Shane to get away.  Unfortunately, as he shaves his head, he remembers what happened and it was nothing like what he said.

    As the two men made their escape and were running out of bullets, Shane shoots Otis in the leg and then takes the pack from him.  Otis tries to fight back and that is why Shane is shaving his head.  Hmm, this is a nice change from the comics.  Otis stuck around for a good bit and died a bit later from something else.  I have a feeling this is their idea of demonizing Shane more, that way things will be justifiable later...

    I did like the zombie hanging from the tree.  I also loved that Daryl was not going to kill it since he figured it was a waste of an arrow.  Such an awesome character already.

    Boardwalk Empire
    Just when things seemed to be going the right way for Nucky, a small wrench gets tossed into the gears.  Turns out that Senator Edge will get his revenge after all.  He decided to listen to the Commodore and Jimmy, and told the Attorney General that he wants him to prosecute Nucky.



    Then Jimmy finds out that Herman was working with Nucky.  The big Jewish butcher does not like this very much.  He invites Jimmy over and wants him to kill Herman.  They learn about Nucky's deal with Philadelphia and intercept.  Turns out the muscle is Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky.  They cut a deal to work together to bring Nucky and Rothstein down.  Oh man, that shit gets me pretty excited.

    Unfortunately, the Lucy storyline was shitty.  She had the baby, but Rose found out and now she is pissed at Nelson.  Ugh, I liked it better when he was murdering his partner.  Go back to that...

Happy Halloween

    Walking past Fortnum and Mason's earlier, i was curious to see the results of their annual pumpkin carving competition. So i popped my head in and was greeted by these beauties! Can you believe there was a £1000 F&M hamper up for grabs?! Definitely worth the inevitable stained orange hands and unavoidable carving battle scars.  Not sure who the winner was, but we'll find out soon, when their creation lights up the next window display. Major honour. Do you have a favourite?

Marvin the Martian Pumpkin

    I think I will post a picture of my brother's pumpkin every year...well as long as he keeps knocking them out of the park like this one.

    That is just incredible...

Jessica Care Moore Says Hi

    So I was browsing through the comments section of my blog as you do when I had a total wtf moment in the best way. Amazing US writer and performance poet Jessica Care Moore had stopped by Sober In The Cauldron to say thanks for the post I did about her. That is sweet and indicates what sort of woman she is. It totally made me smile because she's an incredible talent and role model. Jessica is an internationally renowned poet and playwright. She's performed and collaborated with Mos Def, Nas, Gil Scott Heron, Saul Williams, Talib Kweli, Ntozake Shange, Nikki Giovanni and The Last Poets amongst many others. She's been featured in Russell Simmons's Def Poetry show, Essence Magazine and Tv mini series I'll Make Me A World. She's the founder and CEO of Moore Black Press and Black Women Rock! A concert, panel and workshop series inspiring women who play rock and roll. If like me you love literature/spoken word to feed your soul and spirit, check out Jessica Care Moore. She's pretty kick ass.
    www.myspace.com/jessicacaremoore
    http://mooreblackpress.com



The Cool










XY Chromosome Sundae:Cary Joji Fukunaga






    Cary Joji Fukunaga is the director of Sin Nombre and Jayne Eyre. He's the son of a Japanese father and Swedish mother. He currently lives in New York but has also lived in Japan and France. He's hot, beautiful bone structure. There's something sexy about handsome men in glasses. Very niiiice.

Weird Et Al Humdinger:8 Foot Tall Lego Man Washes Up On Florida Beach

    Several days ago an 8 foot tall lego man embraced the American dream. He was discovered bobbing gently, ankle deep in the surf at the Siesta Key Beach in Florida. The front of his shirt was emblazoned with "No real than you are" and the name Ego Leonard was written at the back. Apparently, Ego Leonard is an artist and this isn't the first time lego man has washed up on shores unexpectedly. He's an intrepid traveller and has also visited Brighton in England and the shores of Zandvoort in the Netherlands. His adventures have been documented on YouTube.

Slice

    The Tuskgee airmen. The first black aviation unit. Awesome.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

    Hypnotic Brass Ensemble are PHENOMENAL. I'm kind of a little obssessed with their music. I listen to their tracks while I'm running around London and it sublimely adds a musical texture to the cityscape. It has jazz roots infused with a hip hop sensibility, the band is made up of brothers from an extraordinary musical family. They've worked with artists such as The Roots, Mos Def, Erykah Badu and Damon Albarn. They've even had a documentary made about them. Peruse through the website, their music is great!
    http://www.hypnoticbrassensemble.com

Dave Chapelle


    Dave Chapelle is one of my favourite comedians ever, infact he's reminiscent of Richard Pryor, one of the greatest. More so than a lot of other comedians who think they are. I love The Dave Chapelle Show which only ran for three seasons. I think Dave is a genius. That show was a massive hit and seemed to appeal to everybody; black, white,asian, hispanic.
    I remember being on holiday in America during it's peak and it was all anybody could talk about. Radio stations and the media were buzzing about The Dave Chapelle Show.

    So why was that show such a massive hit? I think the crux of it is this: Dave was able to mock the dynamics of race in a hilarious, intelligent way using fresh angles. Some of the sketches were incredibly controversial and I remember being surprised that white people seemed to love him so much and I wondered why that was. I think the answer is that Dave was mocking people's racial prejudices without making them feel guilty about it on the surface. He was commenting on said privelleges but in a very very clever way. And if you went away and processed some of the sketches, there were subliminal messages hidden behind the laughs.

    Dave walked away from a 50million dollar contract to make season 4 of the show (the higest paid contract on offer to a comedian ever). He disappeared to Africa leaving the media agog with speculation. Was Dave Chapelle having a mental breakdown? Had Dave Chapelle been doing drugs? Did he crack under the pressure? I think Dave Chapelle walking away from that amount of money shows he's a man of integrity. A lot of people would sell their souls to the devil for that kind of cash. Maybe he suspected he would lose creative control and the show would become a different animal. Maybe he didn't trust the people close to him anymore. I think Dave was in it for the craft, he's an artist and yes a certain level of fame was great but it was a by product. He was already totally freaked out by people recognising him on the street. I think that when the realisation dawned he was about to go stratospheric he knew he couldn't handle that level of fame and scrutiny so he gave it all up and walked away. He had to put his mental health first. So baffled were the media by this, a Time Magazine journalist tracked him down to Africa for an interview. Dave absolutely intrigues me. Check out The Dave Chapelle Show, it's easily available online through various channells, it's provocative and freaking hilarious.

Art On The Brain




    Ray Villafane's brilliant pumpkin art.

Bocce Ball Cookies (Almond Butter Sandwich Cookies with Orange Cream Filling)

    A special Kissing the Cook welcome to new subscriber, and long time Facebook friend, Pauline Motzko! (Pauline’s “Cookng Up a Storm All Over the World” site is a resource that may be of interest to KTC readers as well.)

    Should any readers be concerned that this is a recipe for a cookie inspired by a hard round item of sports equipment, fear not. The real inspiration for this delicious, sweet (and, as always, reduced-fat) cookie is an under-appreciated cocktail called a Bocce Ball, consisting of Amaretto (almond liqueur) and orange juice.

    And so we have Bocce Ball Cookies, delicious almond butter sandwich cookies with orange cream filling. If you don’t want to use almond butter, peanut butter might work as well, but since I have never liked peanut butter I didn’t try it. Besides, almond butter comes with some real health benefits! Click here to check out what the folks at livestrong.com had to say about almond butter.

    Speaking of ingredient substitutions, it’s possible to use either almond extract or Amaretto when making the cookie dough. The choice is yours. Also worth a mention is the fat-free half-and-half that helps make the orange filling so good. It’s an ingredient I can recommend as an important part of your low-fat baking tool box.

    This recipe makes 18 sandwich cookies, each about 2-1/2” in diameter.

    Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

    In a medium bowl, sift together 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, ¾ teaspoons baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt.

    In another bowl, using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment, combine ½ cup of very cold butter substitute (I used Smart Balance for its texture, which is firmer than many other butter substitutes), ½ cup granulated sugar, ½ cup packed brown sugar, ¾ cup of almond butter (either creamy or chunky), and 1 teaspoon of almond extract or amaretto. When combined, beat in 1 egg substitute egg and 2 tablespoons skim milk.

    Add the flour mixture to the almond butter mixture and beat till combined to form a soft dough.

    Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for about 30 minutes.


    While the dough is chilling, make the orange filling as follows:
    • Melt ½ cup of orange marmalade and 1 tablespoon of butter substitute in a medium saucepan over low heat.

    • Add ½ cup of fat-free half-and-half, little by little, waiting till each addition is incorporated before adding more. (Adding the half-and-half too quickly may cause it to separate.)

    • Simmer until the mixture is reduced by half, about 10 minutes, stirring very often avoid burning. Once the mixture is reduced, pour into a separate bowl and set aside to cool until ready to use.

    Roll the dough out to 1/8” thick, and cut into about 36 cookies with a 2” diameter cookie cutter. (They’ll spread to about 2-1/2” in the oven.) Bake about 12 – 14 minutes on parchment lined sheets, turning the cookie sheets halfway for more even baking.

    After the cookies have finished baking, allow to rest on the baking sheets for 2 minutes, then transfer to racks till cooled.

    Turn half of the cookies over so that the flat sides are facing up. Spread about a teaspoon of filling to each flat-side-up cookie, and allow to rest until the filling has cooled.

    After the filling has cooled, gently place the flat side of the remaining cookies on top of each frosted cookie. Serve immediately or, even better, after chilling in the refrigerator.


    Also: here’s a link for a bonus “rerun” recipe for your cooking enjoyment! Peach Crepes

     
    Enjoy these delicious, low-guilt cookies! And I hope you’ll visit again next week for another kitchen-tested, reduced-fat recipe! Till then, stay well, keep it about the food, and always remember to kiss the cook. ;-)

NFL Week Eight Pick 'Em

    Well last week was at least a winner.  I went 7-5 putting me at 48-49 on the season and in 8th place. 

    No Carl video today, instead I just want to make an observation about the whole Terrell Owens mistaken suicide thing.  Here is the story

    People have been making jokes about it and I am sure that at some point I will make a few jokes myself.  I do want to remind people though that depression is not funny and anyone can suffer from it and even hide it from their friends and family. 

    With that being said, T.O. should probably just not have a publicist.  Also, why do these women have free access into his home.  Does he not have a butler who refuses entrance to people when he is sleeping?

4,422,517,553

    According to an estimation by some science people, I was the 4,422,517,553rd person on the planet back in 1980.  Even better, using some estimation from 50,000 BCE, they figure that I was the 78,994,111,977th person ever born.  


    If you want to punch in your birthday and see where you land, here is the website.  Let me know your number.

Wheel of Time Casting: The Foresaken

    The major bad guys from the books.  They strike fear into everyone who encounters them.  Unfortunately, since I am not finished with the series, some of them will be tough to cast.  Also, some of the Foresaken use a different look when dealing with people, so that will be for a later post, when I am closer to being finished.

    Aginor
    One of the first we meet.  He and Rand battle at the Eye of the World for the saidin inside.  Everyone thinks that Rand killed Aginor, but he actually overdosed on the power. 

    The thing about Aginor is that he was closest to the Seal when it was closed and unfortunately, he kept aging while most of the others stayed young.  Also, we learned at one point that he is responsible for the Trollocs.  Yes, he used to breed humans and animals, apparently he was a brilliant geneticist when he was an Aes Sedai.

    Which actor sounds like he could pull off the role?  How about Christopher Lee?  He is pretty much the definition of the evil, demented old guy for every movie nowadays.

    Balthamel
    Aginor's little buddy that joins him at the end of the first book.  He suffers the same problem as Aginor, but his tongue is missing.  I think he wears a mask because he was so vain.  I am guessing he must be pretty damn ugly at this point.

    He attacked the Green Man and pretty much killed him, but the Green Man fired back and killed Balthamel with some poisonous mushrooms.  That just seems kind of funny to me.  Also, can anyone else think of the Green Man without picturing Charlie from It's Always Sunny

    In fact, just for the sake of being funny, how about we have Charlie Day play Balthamel?  It would just be a nice twist, the Green Man killing the Green Man.  These things make me laugh.  Plus, Balthamel would probably be a good amount of make-up anyway.

    Lanfear
    She plays a major part early in the books.  She at first comes to Rand as Selene (as well as to Mat).  At some points she seems to be trying to help Rand.  She ends up helping him bind Asmodean as Rand's teacher.

    She was also working with some of the other Foresaken with a plan to try and turn Rand to the dark side.  Unfortunately, her plan never came to fruition because she found out that Rand banged Aviendha.  She attacked Egwene and Aviendha, almost killing them, then Moraine tackled her into a doorway ter'angreal, which took them to the same place Mat visited twice and received his gifts.  At least I think it was same one.  I am guessing they both had been there before and since Mat's little visit, the folks there were probably pissed about people breaking the rules.

    Lanfear is described as extremely beautiful (although in her disguise as Selene she must have been super hot).  Something tells me that Angelina Jolie is pretty much the actress that everyone has in mind for Lanfear, and I cannot really argue.

    Asmodean
    My favorite of the Foresaken, since he ends up being Rand's teacher.  He tries to attack Rand and then gets his ass kicked and Lanfear binds him so that he can use enough of his power to teach Rand the ways of the power.

    The best part about him is the fact that he went to the Dark One because he was a musician who wanted immortality to gain greater fame.  Obviously he must be pretty full of himself.  I love the way he would play music while explaining things to Rand and act like it was nothing.  Such a dick.  After awhile though, he kind of grew on me.

    I honestly think the perfect actor to play him is none other than the lead singer of Bush:  Gavin Rossdale.  Dark hair, dark eyes...and has that musician thing down.  Perfect.  And I have the perfect dickbag from a show I watch to play him when he is the gleeman Jasin Natael...

    Rahvin
    This is one of the ones who I do not think used a disguise.  He basically went to Caemlyn as Lord Gaebril, used his power to seduce Queen Morgase and basically control Andor.  Once she broke free of his power, he declared himself king.

    Once Rand heard about the queen's death, he went there in a rage and attacked Rahvin.  He killed a bunch of people, including Mat, Aviendha, and Asmodean.  Luckily Rand used balefire, which caused time to be reverted like Rahvin never existed, therefore those three did not die.   Although, someone killed Asmodean moments later, I still do not know who...

    Anyways, Rahvin is described as being a very good looking guy.  In fact, he is the male version of Lanfear (I honestly debated using Brad Pitt since it would make sense), but I thought about the guy that every woman I know thinks is sexy:  George Clooney. 

    Be'lal
    Another one of the guys who pretty much did not take a disguise.  He just became the High Lord Samon of Tear and waited for Rand to show up.  Once Rand pulled the sword, his goal was to kill Rand and take the sword.  Unfortunately, he did not expect Moraine to show up and blast him with balefire.  Oops.

    Apparently back in the good ol' days, he, Sammael, and Lews brought back the idea of using swords in battle.  Before that it must have only been a sport.  I am guessing he was a great swordsmen, and therefore must have been in amazing shape.

    I have always enjoyed Joseph Fiennes as an actor and I think he has that good voice and look as someone who is ready to get into a sword fight. 

    Moghedien
    The Foresaken who makes the mistake of going up against Nynaeve and Elayne.  She pretty much causes them a bunch of trouble, but then she is captured by them in the dream world.  What a schmuck.

    Her name means some kind of spider and that is how all the other Foresaken describe her.  She apparently likes to hide in the shadows and wait to strike.  There is one actress who constantly came to mind while reading the books.  Helena Bonham Carter.  She has done so many roles where she is pale and dressed in black.  Hell people tend to forget that she is actually kinda hot.

    Graendal
    Completely hedonistic.  Walks around all the time practically naked, likes to force her servants to pleasure her.  Apparently her skill is manipulating the mind.

    She is described as almost as beautiful as Lanfear, with very nice boobs.  I am not going to lie, I could see plenty of girls with giant boobs, but none strike me as much as porn star Riley Steele.  She would have no problem strutting around mostly naked.

    Sammael
    He and Lews were great friends, they did everything together. He was always the number two to Lews, which after awhile must have grated on his nerves.

    After his good pal becomes the leader of the light or something, he has Graendal take him to the Dark One and he swears allegiance.

    The thing that I always remember from his description is that he has a square jaw, beard, and striking blue eyes.  He also has a scar that Lews gave him.  I also think they mention that he is a little shorter than Lews, and Rand as well.  This sort of thing just pisses him off. 

    I kept seeing people mentioning that Lews should be played by Daniel Craig, but in all honesty, I think he is perfect for Sammael.  Just look at those cold, blue eyes.

    Demandred
    Sammael may have jumped ship because he was sick of Lews always being number one, but that drove Demandred towards the dark one a year earlier.  He absolutely hates Lews Therin Telamon.  He is always number two, even down to being born a day later.

    Honestly, there is not much known so far about him.  I just get the idea that he is always going to be second fiddle.  He called a meeting together and told the other Foresaken that the Dark One commands them to bring about chaos...

    I figured since I had James Bond in it, I might as well as use an actor that I really like, yet who once was thought to be the next Bond and even lost the role to Pierce Brosnan.  James Purefoy has that look of someone who would just be insanely jealous.

    Ishamael
    We learn at some point that the one known as Ba'alzamon ended up being Ishamel.  Rand defeated him thinking him to be the Dark One.  Later he realized this was not the case and it was only Ishamael.

    Apparently he is the most powerful of the Foresaken and he was actually the first to go over to the Dark One.  Since Rand did not use balefire, I am guessing he will pop back up at some point. 

    I figure since the majority of the time when we see him it is as Ba'alzamon and his eyes are fire and he has that ominous voice, who better to play him than Hugo Weaving.  That guy has such an awesome voice, and be honest, who cannot see him in another movie and not picture him saying "Mr. Anderson!" 

    The next two have been mentioned a few times, but neither has played a prominent part in the books.  So I am just going by the descriptions of them I have found at a few sites.  I will not have anything to say about either of them though.  So deal with it.

    Mesaana

    Semirhage

    After the jump you can see the pictures from seamassketches.