The only time I went to the California Pizza Kitchen was in 1991 and I learned that they were going to be one of the first restaurants in Fort Lauderdale that would not allow smoking on their premises. Being a 3 pack a day smoker I knew I wouldn’t be coming back there. I gave up smoking July 21, 2008, having my last cigarette just before I was wheeled in to have aorta replacement surgery on my heart.
Last week I got an email from CPK that they wanted to show the public they weren’t only pizza and were offering their new West Coast Burger and would give a coupon to be used in the future. I wasn’t smoking now, I LOVE cheeseburgers and, heck, how bad could the pizzas be? Hey, I even eat frozen pizzas! I went to their web page and they said they have a reward system and just by joining you could get a small plate the next time you came into CPK so I joined.
When I got there I asked, since we both were having the new burger, would we get 2 free pizzas or should we get separate checks or even separate tables?! This was the first time she was dealing with the coupon and said she would find out. She said it was only one free pizza for each person who were on their reward system. Since Allen wasn’t we would only get 1 free pizza and 1 free small plate.Now to the cheeseburger! The best thing on the plate were the fries—I almost said French fries–which were different then any I have seen or tasted before as they looked like fried plantains though they definitely were made from potatoes. The cheeseburger had a bun that was too thick and overwhelmed everything having on it–to quote–” the new burger features an elevated beef blend of wagyu, chuck, and brisket topped with melted cheese, Nueske’s applewood smoked bacon, caramelized onions, tomato, pickles, lettuce, and house-madeburger sauce on a brioche bun.”
It is not one I would order again as with everything on it the burger was too messy and didn’t have a distinct flavor plus as it costs $22. 25 ($17.99 + $1.26 tax and $3 tip) it is not something I would order again.(PART 2 TO FOLLOW)
1) “10 Years”–STARZ–2011 Movie–1 hour & 40 minutes–Synopsis: a high school reunion–filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico but could have happened anywhere–an ensemble piece making it pretty hard to follow 10 people especially since only two could be called ‘interesting’ and one a ‘surprise’–I have never been to a reunion of any kind and after this I am glad! 2) “Dog”–Prime Amazon–2021 Movie–1 hour & 41 minutes–Channing Tatum starred in “10 Years” in 2011 and stars in this, coincidentally, 10 years later–Synopsis: 2 hard charging former rangers paired against their will race down the pacific coast in hopes of making it to a fellow soldier’s funeral on time funeral–one of the rangers is a dog (no, not Channing!)–though she doesn’t have to strip, that is the dog, Lulu is as attractive as Tatum is all the times he takes his shirt (and in one scene more) off–a dog and a man based on a true story? You know how it ends and the two make a good pair and both will touch your heart and give you a laugh or two. 3) “Father Stu”–Netflix–movie another based on a true story–2 hours & 4 minutes–Synopsis: after a failed boxing career and a near fatal accident a man decides to become a priest–with Mel Gibson and Jacki Weaver Mark Wahlberg has a hard time holding his own but he does–Malcolm McDowell is a standout in a minor role–the cast lifts this movie up above ‘just another man redeems himself’ movie–ironically Gibson plays an atheist. 4) “A Jazzman’s Blues”–Netflix–movie–2 hours & 8 minutes–Synopsis: In this sweeping coming of age drama a young couple navigates a forbidden romance in the 1940s deep south–a man on drugs–brothers fighting–a Jew from Germany in the south–KKK without sheets–all the cliches but holds your attention as Tyler Perry can and does–it’s Tyler Perry who produced, directed and wrote it which means it is full of melodrama and good acting. 5) “Luckiest Girl Alive”–Netflix–movie–1 hour & 55 minutes–Synopsis: a writer’s perfectly crafted life in NYC starts to unravel when a true crime documentary forces her to confront her harrowing high school history of being gang raped–Mila Kunis is excellent as the girl/woman while, for the first time, I didn’t completely buy Connie Britton as her mother–not easy to watch but certainly has happened too much and still does. 6) “Disobedience”–Prime Amazon–movie–1 hour & 54 minutes–Synopsis: old passions reignite when a New York photographer returns home to the orthodox Jewish community in London that shunned her years before–I don’t recall ever seeing a movie where 2 Jewish men were gay and exiled from their community though I can see it happening–I was certainly surprised to see a film about how 2 Jewish lesbians were treated–it didn’t end as I wanted it to and might–just might–have ended differently if made today though this was just made 5 years ago–it is quite a compelling drama–Rachel Weiz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola are standouts in this film. 7) “Elsa & Fred”–Prime Amazon–movie–1 hour & 35 minutes–Synopsis: a senior experiences life in new ways when he (Christopher Plummer) begins spending time with the free spirited woman (Shirley MacLaine) who lives across the hall–take 2 old pros in a romantic comedy, add James Brolin in what is basically a cameo and just sit back and enjoy–I never heard of this movie and it is far from professionally produced but having Shirley play 71 when she is 80 and Plummer playing 80 when he is 85 is funny in itself–and much “BRAVO” to MacLaine imitating Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Trevi fountain scene from “La Dolce Vita” which is far from being successful.
1) “Hansan Minhaj: The King’s Jester”–Netflix–1 hour & 5 minutes–Standup Comic–FINALLY a standup comic that even on serious subjects like the Patriot Act he gets his audience (and me) to laugh–this is a first for me–I laughed at a standup comedy routine–he is funny!
2) “Lou”–Netflix–Thriller Movie–1 hour & 47 minutes–Synopsis: a mysterious loner living a quiet life battles the elements and her own dark past–it seems Allison Janney candle handle any role as she has shown in comedies, dramas and now an action thriller–if I were James Bond or Sylvester Stallone or Tom Cruise let alone any other action star I would stay away from Lou and certainly wouldn’t challenge her to a fight–in more than one way Allison Janney is a killer (no pun intended) in this suspense thriller!
3) “Uncharted”–Netflix–Action Adventure Movie–1 hour & 56 minutes–Synopsis: street smart treasure hunter and his renegade mentor set out across the globe to find lost gold–one spectacular shot after another as are the stunts–and as far as violence goes when a character gets his cut throat all they show are 2-3 drops of blood–one of the funniest, dumbest, craziest movie I have seen in a long time.
4) “Labor Day”–Prime Amazon–A Romantic & Crime Movie–Synopsis: 2 strangers are drawn together under incredible circumstances–a former vibrant and sensual woman single mother beaten down by life and her son are taken prisoners by a strong, flawed fugitive, who bakes a mean peach pie, and all three, especially the son, are changed–not a spoiler but I am still unsure how Henry came into being unless I missed when it was explained so when you see it let me know what the answer is–Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are 2 movie stars who’s films I never miss and they are dynamite in this movie.
5) “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”–Netflix–Horror Movie–1 hour & 40 minutes–Synopsis: a boy and aging billionaire bound over books and phones–when the old man dies their connection continues–based on a Stephen King novella–aside from annoying voice over narration they really don’t explain how Mr. Harrigan made the phone calls–this is probably the first Stephen King story I enjoyed and it was good seeing Donald Sutherland acting again.
6) “Inheritance”–Netflix–A Mystery Movie–1 hour & 51 minutes–Synopsis: a creepy captive man and the daughter of a very wealthy man are brought together when her father dies–basically a duel between Lily Collins as the daughter and Simon Pegg as the prisoner–a really good weird mystery thriller not to forget a ‘camp’ aspect with two good actors ‘fighting’ each other.
1) Bette Davis, our weather forecaster, told us we would have a beautiful evening with low humidity but the King tides would be in the next day 2) and she was right. When I woke up in the morning the water from the canal was high enough to start flooding our back yard. 3 & 4) By the weekend the cooler weather started to come in with evening temps going down to the 70s, the dark clouds on Saturday and the rain all day Sunday and to continue.
5) About 6 years ago I grew an avocado plant in my apartment and then when it was about a foot tall I planted it outside only to have the new owners cut it down. Last week I bought some avocados on sale 6 for $5 and after eating them I decided to grow a couple to keep indoors and got them started.
6 & 7) My pepper plants are producing peppers like crazy–red and green peppers with no reasoning which would grow in which pot though they all come from the same pepper!
8) The Cuban plant bloomed though I have never been able to figure out its schedule!
9) In the back of my apartment is a tree that was almost destroyed by Hurricane Wilma in 2005 came back greater than ever and at the first sign of Autumn (yes, we have Autumn here–humidity and temperatures go low and the rains come!) the seed pods start showing themselves (that white/gray ball in the middle of the tree). By the way I call the tree Wilma! (Who said I wasn’t clever?)
10) What can I say? It’s not a new month if I don’t bump into something that cuts my skin and I start a never ending bleeding and changing bandages episode–this month my left arm!
11) What’s a better way to heal a wound than to have a carrot cake—that’s on sale! (The cake was delicious but too much icing and the icing wasn’t cream cheese so I had to ‘force’ myself to eat it!)
12) I’m in heaven!! I am back to reading books! After reading the books that were sent to me last year I stopped and I don’t know why! I love to read but I have been letting newspapers, magazines and, yes, the #%^&^*()_(&^%$# Internet divert me. I decided to buy myself a gift and ordered Michael Fierstein’s “I was Better Last Night”, Viola Davis’s “Finding Me”, Mary Rodger’s “Shy”, “Lord Knows, At Least I Was There: Working with Stephen Sondheim” by Paul Ford and then I was surprised by David who I met on the Internet recently with “Later My Life At The Edge of The World” by Paul Lisicky, “Seth’s Broadway Diary” by Seth Rudetsky and “Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time” by Ken Bloom & Frank Vlastnik (keep them coming David!) and I wanted to read them ALL at the same time BUT I am reading them one at a time, slowly and thoroughly enjoying a habit I had for many years. I do cheat a little–I read about 1 of the 101 musicals every morning with my coffee BUT I DIDN’T skip ahead to “A Chorus Line”!!!
I was attracted to the film “Amsterdam” mainly by its large cast of actors and actresses especially those I have not become familiar with except for their names, with a few I recognized but not a movie ‘name’ yet and the 4-5 recognized by me. As it is so many characters in this movie makes it hard going both length wise (2 hours & 14 minutes) keeping track of who is who and their importance to the movie and sabotaged by director/screenwriter who doesn’t tell the story in linear form.
On the positive side (and I’ll get in trouble for saying this!) though he is not one of my favorite actors or an actor that would make me want to see a film he is in but from the point Robert De Niro enters the scene the movie starts to make sense.
Synopsis: Set in the 1930s (pre and post) it follows three friends who witness a murder, become suspects themselves and as they try to solve the crime come across an outrageous plot in American history–could it happen back then or, as the film tries to say, is it happening today?
40 minutes shorter, drop 3-4 characters along with making it simpler and telling it in a linear fashion would have made it a good movie–my movie–but this is David O. Russell’s movie and I won’t recommend it!
Even though restaurant prices have really gone up and up I still like eating out and in my favor many of these same places are always running specials to get people in. They have, in a lot of cases, either added an ‘inflation charge’ or are charging the customer the rate they have to pay the credit card company when you use one instead of paying with cash.
One of my go to places is the Jalisco Restaurant right across from Winn-Dixie on Federal highway where I do my weekly grocery shopping. Though they have been there over 15 years I have only recently been going to them and, so far, not a bad meal. They have a list on the back of the menu of luncheon specials and I have, little by little, been working my way through them from Fajitas to Burritos. Each lunch is started with chips and salsa plus a cup of delicious homemade soup.Full service restaurants usually cost about $20 per person including tax and tip for lunch so with the ‘special’ prices the meal here costs about $15 including tax and tip and they are good and, a plus, filling!
Steak certainly isn’t cheap even in regular times but the Outback chain has been running a few specials such as the one we had last week which was consisting of a 11 ounce sirloin, 2 side dishes and a soft drink for $19.99 (plus tax and tip.) I always have to remember to tell the server to tell the chef to go easy on the spices as they boast they use 17 spices on their steaks and that’s too many–I want to taste the steak! I love their individual loaves of breads—okay, okay, so they serve one small loaf for 2 people but we never have a problem when we ask for another! In addition I had the broccoli and a fully ‘loaded’ baked potato. Being on their ‘reward’ program I got an additional $5 off so all in all a good steak dinner cost me $25
WARNING: 3 OUT OF 6 WILL TURN YOUR STOMACH–DON’T EAT WHILE WATCHING!!
1) “Blonde”–Netflix–film–2 hours and 46 minutes–based on the best selling novel by Joyce Carol Oates–a re-imagined fictional portrait of Marilyn Monroe–for those who lived during the MM years there really isn’t anything new to see and/or hear–there is a lot of make believe mixed with reality but where the line is drawn will continue to be explored as long as movies exist–Ana de Armas is getting a lot of raves as Marilyn, deservedly!
2) “The Fabulous Allen Carr”–Prime–documentary–1 hour & 30 minutes–the producer’s extravagant career from “Grease” glory to Oscar shame–fame, money, sex, gossip, houses, best friends, today’s success and tomorrow’s failures–his hits were huge while the flops, to quote, “He was all about life and he was life”–a perfect example of Hollywood building someone up so they can tear them down–an old but always intriguing story.
3) “Wrangler: Anatomy of an Icon”–Prime–documentary–1 hour & 24 minutes–in the 60s and 70s he was a gay icon and his life was stranger than fiction–Wrangler would marry singer Margaret Whiting who he was faithful to yet stress he was still gay–he was a role model to many and an astute businessman–Wrangler marched to a beat of his own drum and offers an informative, funny, certainly entertaining as was the man himself.
4) “Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story”–Netflix–Limited series–10 episodes–8 hours & 46 minutes–this is the story of the 17 victims this man killed and the police ignored him because he was a white man and the victims were gay men of color–it is 3 hours too long, overboard with gruesome scenes but the focus on being more concerned with the victims holds interest–it is not an easy series to watch.
5) “Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump”–1 hour & 23 minutes & 6) “Trump: The Art of the Insult”–1 hour & 36 minutes Both are documentaries and are being shown on Prime–‘Unfit’ presents mental health experts with their diagnosis of Trump while ‘Insult’ are his words–how anyone watching and listening to these 2 films can still approve of Trump is beyond my comprehension–unfortunately those who should watch and listen won’t.
We have passed Henry’s for years when it was on the other side of the railroad tracks and I went to The Pantry and would always said that someday we would have lunch there but parking was a big problem. I had heard they opened north of the railroad tracks and were now in the large Sistrunk Marketplace with many different restaurants and plenty of parking.
I don’t know about your city but here in Fort Lauderdale if you have a handicap parking permit you are allowed to park free at city parking meters. Well, the Marketplace has plenty of parking and parking meters but handicap people have to pay because the property is not owned by the city. I should mention that most restaurants here have plenty of free parking.
Our introduction to Henry’s was parking for $3.21 an hour!
We walked into the Marketplace and there were no directions and/or signs as to where Henry’s was–in fact we walked right by it as that sign is not as visible as it is in the picture as the set up isn’t exactly great for finding a place you want!
The layout for eating at Henry’s is not the best because you order at Henry’s but you eat in the big open hall of the Marketplace with a, you can’t miss it, huge bar. Need want napkins? Maybe a fork to eat the ‘meat’ that falls out of the sandwich? Well you can go on a hunt around the hall unless the people behind the counter tell you where they are. I will say the ladies behind the Henry’s counter were great about helping us out and even delivering our sandwiches to us.
The orange soda that Allen ordered and the bottle of lemonade I had were each $4+–okay, okay, inflation, which I suppose also counts for parking meter fee!
Allen had the BLT and I had the ‘classic Philly cheese steak sandwich’ each costing $15. Allen’s sandwich was mainly bread while I hate to think what kind of ‘steak’ was used in my sandwich! There was nothing, no fries, not even a pickle slice, with the sandwiches.
Our check–and I am not including the meter fee–came to $42+ and this is for lunch. Inflation? Maybe but the sandwiches certainly weren’t worth the price and though I now can say I had a Henry’s sandwich and have been to the Marketplace I can also say I won’t be going back.
I think the 2 signs in the bathroom define the ‘class’ of the whole place!
Let me start off by saying see it! Luckily I am–it seems–incapable of walking out of a movie no matter how bad it is! Billy Eichner and Luke Macfarlane have been everywhere advertising “Bros.” as a picture that will change the world but that’s not the case! I don’t know how long it took to get to the location of the film moved to Provincetown–seemed like hours–but I wanted to leave until that point and then the movie seemed to make a complete turnaround and took me over.
We are all used to Hollywood films where boy meets girl–boy and girl fall in love–boy and girl have a fight–eventually boy and girl get back together and live happily ever after. This movie follows the formula only it is boy meets boy and you know how it is going to end, here it is with a slight twist.The screenwriters Billy Eichner and Nicholas Stoller get a little preachy now and then and the comedy in this romance comedy isn’t that funny but it is a sweet love story along the lines of “You’ve Got Mail” or “Pretty Woman” or any other Hollywood romance movie except here it is a gay love story and gay people will shout ‘stereotypes’ (not true) and be disappointed in the sex scenes while gay friendly non-gay people will sit back, enjoy and, just might, learn something about their friends, family members and next door neighbors.Bobby (Billy Eichner) is a fully out guy who has a thing for gay history and will be curator of a new LBGTQ+ history museum while Aaron( Luke Macfarlane) is a lawyer who organizes wills and estates and out to a certain extent but not at his job or with his family. With misunderstandings they flirt with each other but both are not into relationships for different reasons.
Okay, you can take it from there except a few diversions you may not be ready for or expect.
It probably won’t surprise you that the soundtrack has been arranged by Marc Shaiman who was responsible for the music in “Sleepless in Seattle”, “When Harry Met Sally”, “Beaches” and other award winners.
There are many surprise cameos by famous people of all shades of the rainbow and those who are their friends while a couple have major roles.
I will admit I had many tears flowing in the last quarter of the movie but I am a crier in the movies. I identified with three characters in the film so that may be the tears but then again I cried in the aforementioned films!
While Eichner seems to want this to be a landmark in Hollywood—and I do hope it does great at the box office–it just misses the mark though I hope it will bring more true to life gay romantic comedies.
An aside: I am currently reading Harvey Fierstein’s memoir “I Was Better Last Night” and he talks about how he set his award winning “Torch Song Trilogy” pre-AIDS and he was attacked by many gays for that and though “Bros.” makes a passing reference to AIDS at the museum, with all the different people represented I don’t recall any living on PREP seen, talked about or mentioned, even in passing.
greatmartin 