Julia McDermott's Blog, page 14

Pizza and a Movie: Man from Uncle

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Anchovies
Mushrooms
Shallots

Movie:

Man from Uncle

Because the weather this week in Atlanta was unbelievably beautiful (for August), my husband and I had our pizza on the patio.

Maybe you don’t like anchovies. We do. It’s an acquired taste, and we don’t choose them on our pizza very often; trust me, they taste better than they look. And you don’t need to add any salt to the pizza.

Now for the film. I watched Man from Uncle on television in the 1960s and loved it. This movie was well done, funny, and entertaining. The car chases were great, and one scene, while the characters were clothes shopping, was particularly good. If you never saw the TV series, I still think you’ll like this movie.

Especially if you were alive when there was an Iron Curtain.

The casting was great, too. The Russian was played by the same actor who played the twins in The Social Network, and the woman was in one of my favorite films, A Royal Affair. Both nailed their roles in this film, as did the other male lead.

Just like with anchovies on a pizza: Try it, you’ll like it.

 

List Post, août 2015 (August)

Zut! August is almost over, and I haven’t done a list post for it yet!

Things have been cooking this month, so…

Voilà: 

Signing copies of UNDERWATER and ALL THE ABOVE at this year’s Decatur Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 5 from 4:00 to 5:00 at the Atlanta Writers Club booth!
Looking forward to serving on the Atlanta Writers Club Thriller Panel  the next day, Sunday, Sept. 6 from 12:00 to 12:45 at the CITY HALL STAGE, then signing books again.
Enfin, moderating the  AWC Urban Fantasy Panel  the same day from 2:30 to 3:15 at the MARRIOTT CONFERENCE CENTER AUDITORIUM.

Speaking about my books on a panel at the Atlanta Sisters in Crime meeting on Saturday Sept. 12 from 10:30 to 12:30 with sister authors Sharon Marchisello, Lane Stone, Mary Anne Edwards, and Fran Stewart.
Going to Bouchercon 2015 world mystery convention in Raleigh, North Carolina from Oct. 8 – 11 (more on this later)!

Looking forward to meeting readers and signing books at the Book & Art Fair in Griffin, Georgia from Oct. 16 – 18.
Appearing at FoxTale Book Shoppe on Oct. 21 in Woodstock, Georgia with bestselling author Hank Philllippi Ryan and some other Sisters in Crime authors!

Planning to attend this year’s Killer Nashville International Writers Conference in Nashville from Oct. 29 – Nov. 1!

Pizza and a Movie: Best of Enemies

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Arugula
Ham
Sliced Tomatoes

Movie:

Best of Enemies

This was kind of like a ham and tomato and arugula sandwich, on a pizza – except that it was light on the ham, which was fine. My husband chose all the toppings, and they suited me. He also chose the film, which didn’t completely suit me.

I didn’t dislike it – I found it enlightening, witty, and entertaining. Later, I asked him if he thought people ate arugula back in 1968 (the year the events in the film, a documentary, took place).

“I’m sure they had it, but it probably wasn’t on anyone’s table in America,” he said.

We were children during the 1960s, and as the oldest of nine kids*, when his mother served a “salad” at dinner, it was sliced iceberg lettuce (only), with homemade “French” dressing (ketchup mixed with mayonnaise).

Salads at my house were a close cousin: either torn iceberg lettuce, or green leaf lettuce I was assigned to pick from our garden. Our dressing was oil and vinegar – I remember thinking you had to eat at a restaurant to have other options.

We did have tomatoes in our salads, if we had some in the garden. My dad used to pick them early and put them on a window sill to ripen. Other garden ingredients I recall are green onions and radishes.**

As for ham, I like it well enough, but my husband isn’t too fond of it, so I was surprised he chose it as a pizza topping. But I know, over time, he wants to order every conceivable topping combination (see PIZZA AND A MOVIE tab above), so I assumed that had something to do with it.

Back to the movie. If you like politics, culture, and (especially), debates, you should see it. The footage from 1968 alone was great, and I found myself marveling that it happened just a few short years before Nixon was elected, resigned, and the Viet Nam war ended. Watching the two “enemies,” William F. Buckley, Jr. and Gore Vidal, go at each other was amazing; there were more than a few unexpected and unscripted moments.

And I bet each of them grew up in homes where arugula was served, occasionally.

* For more about my husband’s large family, read my latest book ALL THE ABOVE. Several people in the family (including his mother) appear in it.

** What ingredients were in your salads when you were growing up?

 

Pizza and a Movie: The Gift

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Italian Sausage
Pepperoni
Mushrooms
Bacon
Green Peppers
Onions
Garlic

Movie:

The Gift

Yes, that’s 7 toppings, not just 3; we went off the page (or, to the bottom of it) this time, and ordered a Specialty Pizza called “The Upper Crust.” It was very good – and colorful.

Then we went to see the film, a suspense that, at times, seemed to borrow from Hitchcock. I was on the edge of my seat (literally) during most of it, and was thankful I had someone’s arm to grab (my husband’s). It was so scary that once or twice I even had to remind myself, This is a movie! It’s not real!

Maybe I liked it because I write thrillers. Or maybe because it was super suspenseful, and was well done. Perhaps both. In any case, if you like that kind of thing, I think you’ll like this film. The bad guy was very bad, and in my opinion, he got what he deserved.

One thing that intrigued me was the title. There were several gifts in The Gift – I didn’t count them up, but like our pizza toppings that night, there were more than 3. Let me put it this way: every time someone opens up one of them, brace yourself.

And make sure you have somebody’s arm to grab.

 

 

 

 

Pizza and a Movie: Ricki and the Flash

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Feta Cheese
Green Peppers
Mushrooms

Movie:

Ricki and the Flash

No matter what the film, I’ve always loved Meryl Streep.

The first one I remember seeing her in was Kramer vs. Kramer, and I saw it in France (with French subtitles) when I spent a year there in college. In that and every other movie I’ve seen her in, I was awed by her performance. In Ricki and the Flash, she’s wonderful, as usual. I loved the music in this film, too, and hearing her sing.

I won’t say this is the best movie I’ve ever seen – or ever seen her in – but it was good. There was one scene at a round table in a restaurant (near the beginning) that was very funny, and there were many other great moments. Near the end, as people danced at a wedding reception, I found myself wishing that my own had been as memorable, and as much fun.

Which brings me to the pizza pictured above. No, my husband and I didn’t have pizza at our wedding, but we did share this one. And no, we didn’t eat all of it – we saved a few slices and took them home.

I picked all the toppings this time. He agreed, with the caveat that one had to be Green Peppers, because (since he’s been keeping track of our toppings) it was the only one we hadn’t chosen yet. We both like them, so we didn’t know why we hadn’t had them yet; for some reason, we had forgotten to.

If you’re a fan of Meryl Streep, don’t forget to go see her in Ricki – especially if you like stories about the choices we make in life.

 

Pizza and a Movie: Vacation

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Chicken
Poblano Peppers
Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Movie:

Vacation

UGH. Unless you’re a fan of crude, offensive, gross-out humor, RUN, don’t walk, away from this film!

After last week’s Trainwreck, I thought I could handle anything raunchy, but…Well, I hate to say anything bad or to criticize a movie that some people (might) like – I’m a “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all” kind of person, when it comes to reviews of movies and books. So, I’ll tell you what (little) I DID like about Vacation:

There were a few genuinely funny moments/gags, if you can get past the silliness. One was a redux of a highway scene in the original Vacation (when a much younger Chevy Chase was driving); another was during a dialogue between Audrey (Chevy’s grown up daughter) and her husband, Stone, at their patio table in Plano, Texas *
I like Ed Helms from The Office in anything, most of the time; as Rusty Griswold, he did fine
Hmm… can’t think of anything else

I’m not a huge fan of Vacation or Christmas Vacation (though we have the latter, to watch during the holidays, and I do think it’s funny). As I sat through this Vacation, I thought of another, much better movie about a cross country road trip that was also pretty crude but was far funnier, much better done, and had another The Office actor (Steve Carrell) in it: Little Miss Sunshine.

[Let me add that, in Little Miss Sunshine, the purpose of the trip and its destination seemed much more important. Not only that, but in Vacation, they took detours that didn’t make sense, even from a plot standpoint.]

Plot? What plot? Oh, yeah…

Now for the Pizza:

Occasionally, my husband makes individual pizzas from scratch for dinner (he’s the family chef). The toppings we chose this time reminded me of those, because he uses ingredients we have in the fridge, like (leftover) chicken, sun dried tomatoes, and poblano peppers, among others. This pizza was just as good, and very tasty.

Going to the movies as often as we (currently) do, we’ve seen some bad films, some mediocre ones, and some really good ones. But our pizzas are almost always fantastic.

* I got married there, and I don’t think it looks anything like the Plano, Texas in this film!

 

Pizza and a Movie: Trainwreck

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Banana Peppers
Jalapeños/Extra Cheese *
Pepperoni

Movie:

Trainwreck

* For this week’s pizza, I agreed to moitié jalapeños,  moitié extra cheese (that is, half and half), so my husband wouldn’t have to wait for years – or forever – to choose jalapeños.

I don’t really care for them, except in Mexican food – and even then, I’m not crazy about them. Why anyone would want them on a pizza, I don’t understand. But, to each his own.

As he was eating his second slice – and no, we don’t (necessarily) each eat half a pizza – I noticed his blue eyes getting watery. A minute later, well, it was like in that song by the Rolling Stones: [the jalapeños made] a grown man cry.

But he still claimed he likes them!

We had chosen to see Trainwreck because we heard it was funny, and good. I agree with that assessment, but my favorite scenes were the ones with LeBron James. He played himself, and he was fantastic. Super funny…awesome (and funny) in a scene playing basketball…and necessary in the plot. The only complaint I have about this film is that it’s just a little too long. But some of the dialogue and scenes in the movie had my husband and me still laughing, long after it was over.

I guess that’s just us. While we don’t agree on everything – or have everything in common – we do agree on many things (like Banana Peppers). We get each other’s sense of humor, and we laugh at the same things.

Which is pretty handy – and important – when a grown man cries. **

** Or woman

What’s left out of ALL THE ABOVE

My notes, outlines, and original drafts of ALL THE ABOVE included the following:

All the lyrics to the songs Jack and I listened to on the way to and from Emory (I was even going to use some of the lines at the beginning of chapters).
The time when, at an eye checkup at Omni Eye Services, another doctor (not Dr. Day or Dr. Sturdy) examined Jack’s eyes, put him in front of an apparatus, and he asked, “Is something going to touch my eyeball?”  To which the doctor replied, “Oh, just a little touch.” I don’t know if it was the “air blow” thing they do, but afterward, Jack and I laughed at how the doctor responded (as if a little touch is nothing…)
The time when, at Egleston Children’s Hospital, while he was waiting to check in for yet another MRI, Jack made friends with a little boy with cancer who was bald. When they called Jack up to the counter, the worker said she didn’t realize he was a patient, and thought he was that little boy’s father.
The fact that Jack’s brother Brian was driving our van, and Jack was driving our Honda CRV that summer. We only had one other car, so I took Dennis to MARTA every morning to go to work, and picked him up each evening.
The time when two of my friends (from my Bible study group) met me at La Madeleine for a glass of wine a few days before we left for North Carolina, and I told them what was going on.
The fact that many of our close relatives didn’t ask how Jack was doing, even after he went public; I think other family members told them.
The fact that Jack was his sister Annette’s Confimation sponsor that November.
The fact that Dennis and I spent a weekend in Las Vegas that fall.
And, that in mid November, a friend from my Bible study, who had invited me to go to spend a long weekend at her beach house with her and another friend (in Seaside, Florida), graciously allowed me to bring my mom along, too.
Many other quotes from books and songs that I wanted to include, but couldn’t, such as:

Some of the above got edited out, and some of it wasn’t part of the story. But it was all there in my mind (or on my desk) when I set out to write the book back in April 2013 while I spent a week at the beach.

 

Pizza and a Movie: Mr. Holmes

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Corn
Greem Olives
Ground Beef

Movie:

Mr. Holmes

The Pizza: I know…corn?

It’s the second time we’ve had it on a pizza this year, and maybe because my husband grew up eating Jersey corn in the summer (always after the meal, not during), he selected it. I picked the ground beef because I didn’t want to go vegetarian, and we chose the green olives together.

Kind of like a summer meal with a martini.

Someone I met at a reception for my books (and book signing) asked me earlier this week if the pizzas at Corner Pizza are as good as those at Fellini’s. I haven’t been to Fellini’s in a few years (though I met the founder, Clay Harper, through a family member who knows him). So…I don’t know the answer. But I’m sure that Fellini’s pizzas are quite good.

So was ours, this weekend.

The Movie:

Lots of people loved this film, and my husband wanted to see it, so we did. I found it a little long, sad, but a moving story nonetheless. Ian McKellan was great, and if you’re a Sherlock Holmes fan, you’d enjoy this movie. (My husband is one, but I’m not.)

Maybe, like corn on a pizza, you just have to have a taste for it.

 

Pizza and a Movie: Amy

This weekend’s Pizza Toppings at Corner Pizza:

Bacon
Black Olives
Shallots

Movie:

Amy

This weekend’s toppings were (eerily) similar to the “BBC” pizza we had a few weeks ago when we saw the film Inside Out, and there was a little negotiating involved:

My husband initally suggested something other than Bacon (I don’t remember what, exactly, but I think it was vegetarian). I vetoed it, though, saying we needed something with a little crunch, so we chose Bacon.
I pushed back on the Black Olives (proposing Green ones), but he didn’t agree.
And – the Shallots were his idea.

Like every pizza we’ve ever shared at Corner Pizza, it was delicious. However, we decided that we’ve had enough Black Olives * for a while.

Now, for Amy:

I like documentaries, and this one was very good. I didn’t know much about Amy Winehouse before I saw it, but I learned a lot. The music was fabulous and haunting at the same time. And there’s something about true stories…

I knew how the story would end, and watching such a talented singer spiral down so fast and so hard was difficult. But – maybe because of that, and because she was so talented – I still enjoyed it, tragic though the story was.

Life can be very complicated, even – or, especially – when it’s short.

* And after last week’s film and then this one, I’ve had enough of sad movies for a while, too.