Midnight's Children (2012)

This Deepa Mehta movie is a somewhat boggy work covering over 60 years in the turbulent history of India and Pakistan from just before the second world war up to Indira Gandhi's repressive "Emergency" of the late 1970s, as they affect five generations of a well-off Muslim clan and their associates in Kashmir, Agra, Mumbai, and Karachi. It brings together Dickens, Kipling and Shakespeare, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, comedy, tragedy and farce, and has as its moral and dramatic fulcrum the year 1947 when the misjudged partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan was insisted upon by the Muslims and acquiesced in by the departing British.  The further break up of what is now just called Pakistan from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, in 1974 is largely depicted as a body pile up ending in the split, but was precipitated by the western parts trying to impose Urdu on the Bengalis, who were not about to give up their culture and language. 

Salman Rushdie wrote the script from his 1981 novel , and his Rushdie's brilliant insight was to bring together the private and public lives of those involved by inventing a mystical bond between the children born around the midnight hour of 17 August 1947, which is the birthday of modern India.  Why the movie was so long in coming is hard to say, but it brings all sorts of walks of life together under one film umbrella, and it is fascinating to watch. 

Gertrude's Gardens

Google tells me that today is the 174th birthday of Gertrude Jekyll, a woman who designed country gardens across England and in America as well.  While I am not much of a gardener myself, the ability to make a yard look both beautiful and a bit wild is something I love, and I do on occasion find myself going to English manors to marvel at the yards. 
Jekyll, born in 1843, was influenced by prominent English painters of her time, with the artist JMW Turner cited as a particularly strong influence, and often worked in collaboration with the architect Edwin Luytens to create stunning combinations of homes and gardens. Her work has come to be seen as embodying the “Arts and Crafts” style, with arrangements of flowers that mimic the brush-strokes used by painters.  I was at one such styled garden this past summer, Hidcote in the Cotswolds.  Lawrence Johnston created the house and gardens in the style of Jekyll.
It wasn’t just a matter of abstract designs that drove Jekyll: she also dove into horticulture, cultivating, selecting and breeding many plants. That legacy has also helped inspire the names of flowers that nod at Ms Jekyll’s contributions to the field of horticulture, among them the Munstead Wood rose. Another flower known as the Gertrude Jekyll rose is well-regarded by gardening enthusiasts.  Finally, in a bit of trivia, her brother was friends with Robert Louis Stevenson and may have been an influence for the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Bathers, Cézanne, 1985

Cézanne painted bathers from the 1870s onwards, including numerous paintings with compositions of male and female bathers, singly or in groups. Late in life, he painted three large-scale female bather groups. In addition to the National Gallery's painting in London, they are now in the Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I recently visited with this one in London, but am more familiar with the others.  Cézanne seems to have been at work on all three simultaneously at the time of his death.

In such works, Cézanne was reinterpreting a long tradition of paintings with nude figures in the landscape by artists such as Titian. While the subjects of their works were taken from Gree myths, Cézanne did not use direct literary sources. Instead, his central theme was the harmony of the figures with the landscape expressed through solid forms, strict architectonic structure, and the earth tones of the bodies. When exhibited in 1907, this painting became an inspiration for the nascent Cubist movement; he influenced both Picasso and Matisse.

Jodhaa Akbar (2008)

In preparation for all things Indian, we watched this classic Bollywood style movie, which is set in Agra during the Mughal empire rule, but before the Taj Majal was built.  The fort that the Mughal emperors lived in is a central feature and the whole movie, while a bit too long, was fascinating.
The story revolves around a possibly true marriage of alliance between the mid-sixteenth century Mughal emperor, Jalal-ud-dim Mohammed Akbar and Jodhaa Bai, a Rajput princess.  The part that is left out, with the exception of a passing mention of the harem and the eunuch attendant, is the other 199 wives.  Details that are best passed over in a love story.  Jodhaa was originally betrothed to another Rajput king and her dowry was her father's crown, which will pass to that Rajput king, after his death. Through this arrangement, the son of the elder brother of the king, Sujjamal gets deprived of his rightful throne and he leaves the kingdom angrily to join rebels. But when Mughal empire plans to attack Amer, king Bharmal, resentfully offers his daughter's hand to the emperor himself to avoid war. Akbar agrees to the marriage as it would bring forward a true strong alliance and long lasting peace between the empire and Rajputs.   there are the age old issues of differences in religion that are a very real part of India's 20th century story, and the costumes, music and dance in this epic film are something to behold.

Hydroelectric Power

Developing countries around the world are expanding hydropower to meet growing energy demand.  The move away from fossil fuels is one to applaud, and cost effective alternatives are hard to come by.  The resulting impact on the environment locally may be compromised in an effort to protect the atmosphere of the planet, but the truth is that we jsut don't know.  What we do know is that there are a number of cities in the devloped and developing world that are significantly hampered by air pollution (Beijing and Dehli, to name two), and that needs to improve.
In the Brazilian Amazon, >200 dams are planned over the next 30 years, and questions about the impacts of current and future hydropower in this globally important watershed remain unanswered. In this context, a sutdy recently published in Science applied a hydrologic indicator method to quantify how existing Amazon dams have altered the natural flow regime and to identify predictors of alteration. The type and magnitude of hydrologic alteration varied widely by dam, but the largest changes were to critical characteristics of the flood pulse. Impacts were largest for low-elevation, large-reservoir dams; however, small dams had enormous impacts relative to electricity production. Finally, the “cumulative” effect of multiple dams was significant but only for some aspects of the flow regime. This analysis is a first step toward the development of environmental flows plans and policies relevant to the Amazon and other megadiverse river basins.

Paneer Makhnai

This is a great sauce--you can put chicken in it (already cooked) if you want to substitute out the cheese.

8 fl oz	tomato puree
8 fl oz	heavy cream
2 tsp	peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
1 tsp	garam masala
2 tsp	lemon juice
½ tsp	sugar
1	fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped
1¼ tsp	salt
¼ tsp	nice red chilli powder
1 tsp	ground roasted cumin seeds
1 tbsp	dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi), crumbled (optional)
14 oz	fresh Indian cheese (paneer), cut into 2 cm/ ¾ inch squares
	freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp	unsalted butter plus
1 tbsp	olive or peanut oil
¼ tsp	whole cumin seeds
2–3 tbsp	chopped fresh coriander

 

 Combine the tomato puree, cream, ginger, garam masala, lemon juice, sugar, green chilli, 1 teaspoon of the salt, chilli powder, ground roasted cumin and dried fenugreek leaves
(if using) in a bowl. Stir thoroughly and set aside.
Put the cubed cheese into another bowl. Add ¼ teaspoon of salt and some black pepper. Toss well to mix.
Put the butter, oil and cumin seeds in a medium, non-stick pan and set over a medium heat. Put all the cheese cubes in the pan in a single layer and brown them very lightly on at least two sides. Pour the tomato sauce over the top and stir to mix. Bring to a simmer, then heat very gently for 4–5 minutes,
stirring with a light hand as you do so. Sprinkle the fresh coriander over the top before serving.

Baby Boss (2017)

Who is the parent indeed?  This is a movie that my youngest son wanted to see, and as with most things animated, I wanted to see it with him rather than separately, because part of the joy of animated films for me is the return to my own childhood favorites that are animated, and then the experience of watching them with my children.  I think my parents have enjoyed watching them with their grandchildren for similar reasons.
I may have been influenced by not feeling well, but I very much enjoyed this movie.  It has a very silly premise, and even sillier plot trajectory, and in my mind is only saved by the Baby Boss himself, voiced by Alec Baldwin, who is having the time of his life right now.  He is just everywhere doing amusing things with this sardonic look on his face that makes him very enjoyable to watch.
This is a good sibling movie, where it starts with real animosity and ends with friendship, but covers a lot of the sibling rivalry bases in the mean time.

Thanksgiving Modern Style

Having taken American Indian Art last spring alongside my youngest son gave me a much better appreciation for what was going on with the Americans in the area.  America's native inhabitants in the Northeast were a thriving interconnected group of tribes that had forged peace, trade, and alliances amongst themselves before my ancestors arrived with their ideas of religious freedom and societal ideals.  This holiday, a celebration of our successful toe hold on the new continent, is widely celebrated throughout the United States (the exception being native people, who see this as the beginning of the end of their cultural and religious freedom), and is a time to reflect on one's blessings and give thanks.
So here goes, since my root stalk is the Puritans.  It has been a rough year for folks with values that include priorities like environmental protection, combating climate change, health care as a basic right, and just over all decency.  I am still unable to be anything but furious at the people who facilitated this regime.  I have definitely cut off ties because of it, and while it is hard, I am working on being at peace with it.  They may be good people but we don't share values.  Happy (mostly; still some very real anger) about working on that.
I am grateful for the time, to have been able to travel with family and friends and really enjoy things that I love.  I have gotten to do some things that are on my lifetime "To Do" list and that has been really nice.  The biggest change this year is that my spouse and I became grandparents, which has been a joyful thing that caught us both completely by surprise.  So here I stop, because it is hard to top that one.

Vegetable Biryani

This is great because you can easily make it vegan by using vegetable oil instead of butter, and it is delicious for non-vegetarians to eat as well, but can serve as a primary source of protein for those who need it.  Don't be overwhelmed by the ingredient list length--alot of the spices you will need to have out if you are cooking an Indian meal.

• 3/4 cups basmati rice
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
• 3 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in half
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the vegetables:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 small yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon peeled, minced fresh ginger
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons golden raisins
• 2 tablespoons blanched, sliced almonds
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 5 whole cardamom pods
• 1 cup small cauliflower florets
• 3 ounces green beans, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 3 small new potatoes (about 6 ounces), peeled and quartered
• 1 medium carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons toasted shredded coconut
• 2 tablespoons toasted blanched, sliced almonds

Make the rice: Place the rice in a sieve and rinse under cold running water until the water runs clear. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the golden raisins, almonds, turmeric, cumin seed, coriander seed, cardamom pods, and cinnamon stick and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, until toasted, about 1 minute more. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, (wrap the lid tightly with a kitchen towel), cover, and steam until the rice is tender, 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and set aside.
Meanwhile, make the vegetables. Melt the butter in a medium straight-sided skillet with a tight-fitting lid, over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the golden raisins, almonds, coriander seed, cumin seed, and cardamom and cook, stirring, until toasted and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in the cauliflower, green beans, potatoes, carrots, and salt. Raise the heat to high, pour in the water, and cook, covered, for 4 minutes. Uncover and cook, stirring, until the vegetables are tender and most of the water has evaporated, about 1 1/2 minutes more.
Add the rice to the vegetable mixture and, using a rubber spatula, stir to combine. Season with salt to taste. Divide the vegetable-rice mixture among plates and top with some of the toasted coconut and almonds. Serve immediately.

The Last Word (2017)

This was a remarkably enjoyable movie, that I would definitely recommend.  The critics would roundly disagree with me, but I live in an America that elected Trump and so movies that display a certain amount of that thinking right out there are par for the course.  We now have to figure out how to combat that because not only do ordinary folks feel like it is flat out okay to flaunt their white privileged as superiority rather than an uneven playing field, they are getting elected to office and doing damage.
So here we have Harriet, who is clearly on the spectrum when it comes to her inability to read the social landscape and saying pretty much anything that comes to find without one iota of filtering.  She commissions a newspaper to write her obituary before she dies and then trying to bully the obituary writer into coming up with something that doesn't make her seem just downright awful.  Challenged by having a mirror held up for her to scrutinize herself, Harriet goes about changing some unflattering aspects.  She can't change the past, but she decides to do something improbably (which is deejaying at a local indie radio station) and adopting an underprivileged kid.  MacLaine does a fine job of being the character she is dealt and it is fun to watch.