Andy Gavin's Blog, page 152
August 16, 2013
Clone Wars – Orphan Black
Title: Orphan Black
Genre: SciFi Thriller
Watched: August 5-6, 2013
Summary: great first season
ANY CHARACTER HERE
Lately, there have been a lot of shows using the device of twins borrowing identities. Perhaps it’s a trend, perhaps it’s just a fan fave, as Shakespeare himself went for it in Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night. In any case, Orphan Black up the ante. Not twins or triplets, but human clones. And there are at least seven of them. Plus, it’s better than last years duplicate thrillers: R...
August 14, 2013
Dim Sum is Shanghai #1
Restaurant:Shanghai #1 Seafood Village[1, 2]
Location:250 W Valley Blvd.San Gabriel, CA 91776.(626) 282-1777
Date: August 10, 2013
Cuisine: Chinese Dim Sum
Rating: Very authentic Shanghai style
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The San Gabriel Valley is averitabletreasure trove of Asian dining, particularly regional Chinese.Shanghai #1 Seafood Village is the LA branch of a high end Shanghai chain. But today it’s time for dim sum!
The decor is Stark meets Chinatown. Interestingly, as cheesy as it is, it’s fairly authentic.
This time...
August 13, 2013
Rage of Thrones
This fan “tribute” to Game of Thrones is well: offensive, awesome, funny, and well… kinda true.
The books are (almost) always better. That saying, GOT is still an amazing show.
If you liked this post, follow me at:
My novels: The Darkening Dreamand Untimed
or all my Game of Thrones postsor
Season 1 reviews:[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Season 2 reviews:[11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20]
Season 3 reviews: [21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30]
August 12, 2013
No Drone in the Zone – Azeen’s Afghani
Restaurant: Azeen’s Afghani[1, 2]
Location: 110 East Union Street, Pasadena, Ca, 911103. 626-683-3310
Date: August 8, 2013
Cuisine:Afghan
Rating: Awesome again!
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Another week and another Hedonist dinner. We braved 2.25 hours in traffic to take on Azeen’s Afghani in Pasadena, dominating therestaurantas usual with a giant table. Pictures of the room are available at a previous meal here.
We aren’t the only ones who love Azeen’s.
The menu. This place is amazing AND will not break the bank.
From my cell...
August 9, 2013
The Americans
Title: The Americans
Genre: Spy Thriller
Watched: Late July, 2013
Summary: Homeland 1981
ANY CHARACTER HERE
At one level, The Americans is Homeland 1981. And given how fantastic Homeland is, this isn’t all bad. The Americans isn’t quite so good, but it is very good television. And the setting resonates deeply with me. I grew up in Washington D.C., in this exact era. I’m exactly the age of their kids. The Reagan era costumes, cars, and politics are all highly nostalgic. Although I do have to say th...
August 7, 2013
Crash Fan Fun
This is a very fun little fan animation starring Crash. It’s very much in the spirit of the little orange guy and his Looney Tunes roots.
August 5, 2013
Hedonists Hunan Style
Restaurant: Hunan Style Restaurant
Location: 529 E Valley Blvd. Ste 108A. San Gabriel, CA 91776.(626) 288-0758
Date: August 4, 2013
Cuisine: Hunan Chinese
Rating: Great Authentic Hunan
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The San Gabriel Valley is packed with hundreds of examples of regional Chinese restaurants. Would that I could try them all.
Hunan Style offers up the hearty spicy cuisine of the Chinese heartland in the typical unassuming format of this vast array of strip malls.
This is clearly a place that does NOT cater to the to...
August 2, 2013
Burgundy Vintage Chart
I’m going to wine geek-out here. As any regular reader of my food posts knows, I’m a huge Burgundy fan. France’s “Exotic East” is by far my favorite wine region and the source of some of the world’s best reds AND whites. Burgundy is also notoriously difficult to get a handle on as both a taster and a buyer. It’s complicated, with many many producers and vineyards. Some individual vineyards have over 100 producers, many bottling as little as a single barrel.
When trying to decide if a wine is w...
July 31, 2013
Lazy Hed-Ox-ism
Restaurant: Lazy Ox Canteen
Location:241 South San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, California 90012.213-626-5299
Date: July 30, 2013
Cuisine: American
Rating: Fab Fun
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Lazy Ox Canteen is a regular spot on the Hedonist rotation. This downtown eatery is very much in the LA Zeiltgeist, offering up drinks, hard surfaces, paper menus, and really tasty ingredient driven flavor forward food.
There is even outside dining, a downtown rarity.
But the interior is all gastro pub.
As usual with Hedonist events, we all...
July 29, 2013
Orange is the New Black
Title: Orange is the New Black
Genre: Prison Drama
Watched: July, 2013
Summary: first rate characterization
ANY CHARACTER HERE
Netflix has been very aggressive this year creating new content and I’ve taken the time to watch House of Cards, Hemlock Grove, and now Orange. The first was good. The second interesting (if flawed). And the third just plain excellent.
Orange is the New Black is the brainchild of Jenji Kohan, creator of the awesome (for 3-4 seasons at least) Weeds. While it retains the olde...
