5 Reasons Why I Love the Italian Job

So I recently re-watched the Italian Job, the 2003 remake of the 1969 British film about a pack of thieves and their big heist. The movie is called the Italian job based on the strategy they use to steal the gold. If you haven't seen either the remake or the original, I would recommend both. They are both really funny. So here goes my top 5 reasons.

1. Mos Def:  Now even though Mos Def has kind of gone crazy recently with the whole Guantanamo Bay stunt; You have to keep it in perspective of all the other crazy shit he's also done, including believing the man made moon landing was faked. I mean what grown man in this day an age really believes Apollo 11 was a government conspiracy? Well Mos Def does and he'll be proud to tell you. His quirky personality in real life makes for some great acting in his films. He may play the classic black man geek trope in the Italian Job but that doesn't mean he doesn't put his own hilarious twist on it. In the film his nick name is Left Ear because he blew up a toilet when he was little and lost his hearing in his right ear. Needless to say he is the explosives expert in the pack
2. Fast Cars: Okay so I know nothing about cars, but this does not mean I can not enjoy a good car chase. This film has one of the best car chases, three mini coopers being chased down by a helicopter. You just keep thinking the little suckers will give out. So if you are a fan of car chases this movie is for you. You won't be disappointed I promise.
3. Seth Green: So you may notice a pattern. Half my reasons for loving this movie is simply the great cast. In this movie Seth Green plays your dorky, pervy, techie. Every Seth Green line in this film is well delivered and hilarious. His adorable expressions alone make me want to put him in my pocket. One of his best and less demeaning roles.
4. Betrayal: I guess someone somewhere said that all heist movies have to have some form of betrayal in them. Personally I find this really obnoxious but I guess the media wants us to believe that all heists would probably work out if one of the members didn't betray the rest. I hate betrayal plots but this movie does it really well. Obviously revenge is a great unifying motif and the fact that they get it out of the way in the first 10 minutes of the movie is awesome. I don't have to spend the rest of the film wondering who is going to betray them because someone already did. First time I watched it I totally thought the girl was going to be a cop or something. Probably a different film.
5. Mark Wahlberg: Mark Wahlberg makes a great leading man and unifying character in this film. Even though he doesn't have a shirtless scene (sorry ladies) he still makes for great eye candy. Who doesn't like a tight black shirt on him. Okay time to get my mind out of the gutter. As any action film fan knows you need a leading character who can  fight, drive, and think on their feet. Mark delivers all of this in the Italian job making you want the Brazilian Job (aka The Italian Job 2) to come out soon.

So those are my top 5 reasons for loving the Italian Job. Check it out for yourself.

Star Trek Enterprise

So I've been rewatching Star Trek Enterprise episodes lately. I never did finish watching the series, can't remember why.

I find myself skipping episodes that don't have that much T'pol and Trip interaction. Guess every second viewing requires a new perspective. Like when I rewatch BSG I notice or follow one couple or pairing more than I did the first time I was watching.

If you haven't figured it out by now i'm a total trekkie. No I don't speak Klingon but I have seen almost every version of Star Trek minus the animated series. But lets focus on Enterprise. For those of you who are unfamiliar Enterprise is the latest in the Star Trek tv series conglomerate. Even though its the newest, timeline wise it falls at the beginning of all the previous shows. So this is pre red shirts, pre borg, the crew is still squimish about the transporter, the technology is so new.

Its a interesting new take on the Star Trek Universe. Personally one of the best parts of this show is just how primitive everything is in comparison to all the other shows. They truly are explorers and everything is so new that they mess up a lot.

TeaInACan called Trip the Why We Have The Prime Directive Guy. This show falls before the prime directive was created so lots of cultural boo boos are made. Roughly the prime directive says respect and don't mess with or alter other cultures. In the older Star Trek series this usually meant not sharing your technology with other species. Most of the time in Enterprise this makes for awkward and at times hilarious shenanigans, once in a while it gets really unfortunate.

I really appreciate some of the thought that was put in this show, like how Hoshi the communications officer is actually a linguist who seems to be to have special powers when it comes to languages. What I find cool about that is when the translator is down she tries her best to use her natural skills and talents. They all do this, since they can't rely on their technology all the time.

Some funny quirks about this show. As usual the Captain can some how always have sexual tension with every alien female they encounter. The best moments though are when Trip and Malcolm get into bachelor hijinks with female aliens. This happens way more often than it should. Its one lesson I appreciate that they haven't learned.

My favorite character in this show is clearly Trip, he is the chief science officer. He is arrogant and intelligent but he's also some what of a hill billy. He always makes the human mistake in a series all about humans trying to prove humans can do better. Personally I think he is very lovable and so of course I want him to get with the person who mist emphasizes all those traits in him, T'pol.

Funny thing is I think the first time I watched this series I was more focused on Hoshi and Travis. Hey, we all need a love story to root for. My fickle heart likes to change it up sometimes.

Not Starving to Death

I'm not a very experienced cook. Or housekeeper in general. I tend to eat most of my meals out for either convince or laziness. My refrigerator is both barren and rotting, like the Blight from the Wheel of Time. But tonight maybe because I had accomplished nothing else all day, maybe due to some kind of inspiration, but probably just because inclement weather kept me from driving to get food, I cooked.
So for anyone else who can barely sustain themselves as an adult human, here is a very simple and fairly tasty recipe.

Step one: fry onions. Honestly this is step one in pretty much anything I cook. This time it was special since I decided to fry the onions in curry flavored coconut oil. Generally I use butter, but 1) coconut oil is supposed to be good for you (unlike butter) and 2) the coconut oil did not seem to have gone off (unlike my butter). Generally I would recommend cooking the onions for like five minutes until they get a little soft. But I rushed it since I was nervous/excited for step two:

Step two: fry other stuff. In this case, zucchini and lentils. The zucchini were the brave survivors of my refrigerator (unlike the broccoli and kale). As for the lentils I had originally envisioned making pasta, but having to boil the noodles in a whole separate dish which I would then have to wash seemed like too much of a pain. So then I thought of frying/cooking the pasta in with the sauce. I wasn't quite sure this was an actual legitimate way to cook pasta, and as I reflected on this I remembered that it was a normal way to cook lentils. Plus those lentils have been living in my cupboard forever. God bless dried goods. Anyway, keep frying those for a while.

Step three: add other stuff. Basically this other stuff falls into two categories: flavorings and tomatoes. For some reason I love pretty much any tomato based sauce. Stir fry doesn't always feel like a meal to me, but by adding a can of tomatoes and putting on a grain, all of a sudden it's a meal. So for flavor I added salt, pepper, two chopped cloves of garlic, dried oregano and basil, and a cinnamon stick. The tomatoes were a simple can of diced tomatoes. I also added about a canful of water.

Step four: leave it be. Ok so first I stirred it and looked at it. Then I brought the whole thing to a boil (raise the temperature and wait) and then lowed the temperature and covered the wok with a lid. Then I went and watched videos on the internet for a while. At one point I added another spoonful of curry flavored coconut oil. But basically I just wasted time until the water had reduced and the lentils so longer felt like little rocks,

Step five: enjoy. I garnished (and by that I mean smothered) a bowlful with parmesan cheese. I would have liked to have had buttered toast, but sadly that was not possible. All in all it was tasty and not too stressful to make. Plus I hear lentils are good for you.

Podcast 1 (Sad Songs)

TeaInACan and SardonicQueen present to you our long awaited recorded conversation about sad songs. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: No conclusions were made. We like to laugh at our own jokes so don't worry if you don't think we are funny