The Golden Orange

I've finished my third Joseph Wambaugh book in the last couple of months. The Golden Orange was published in 1990 and was the first publication at the time for Wambaugh in five years.

"When forty-year-old cop Winnie Farlowe lost his shield, he lost the only protection he had. Ever since, he's been fighting a bad back, fighting the bottle, fighting his conscience. But now he's in for a special fight. Never before has he come up against anyone like Tess Binder. She's a stunningly beautiful, sexually spirited three-time divorcee from Newport Beach-capital of California's Golden Orange, where wallets are fat, bikinis are skimpy, and cosmetic surgery is one sure way to a billionaire's bank account. Nearly a year ago Tess Binder's father washed up on the beach with a bullet in his ear. The coroner called it suicide, but to Tess it means the fear of her own fate. And Winnie Farlowe is a man willing to follow wherever she leads-straight into the juicy pulp of the Golden Orange, a world where money is everything, but nothing adds up . . . where death and chicanery flourish amidst ranches, mansions, and yachting parties. In his long-awaited new novel, best-selling author Joseph Wambaugh combines harrowing suspense, scathing humor, and a moving portrait of a man on the brink of self-destruction."

The novel was far better than "Fugitive Nights" but not nearly as good as "The Choirboys," the previous two books of Wambaugh's that I've read. The novel has all the great, dark humor I've come to expect from Wambaugh, as well as an intriguing story that had me scratching my head up to the final revelation near the end.

Recommended. As much as I've enjoyed the three books by Wambaugh, it's time to take a break from his writing. Any suggestions out there on good fiction or non-fiction books or any good book blogs I should be following?

Top Chef: Bocuse d'Or

"The Bocuse d’Or (the Concours mondial de la cuisine, World Cuisine Contest) is a biennial world chef championship. Named for the chef Paul Bocuse, the event takes place during two days near the end of January in Lyon, France at the SIRHA International Hotel, Catering and Food Trade Exhibition, and is one of the world's most prestigious cooking competitions."

Last night the chef contestants of Top Chef: Las Vegas participated in their own Bocuse d'Or. The quick fire challenge, create a dish with a protein inside of a protein inside of a protein. Awesome. Guest judge, Gavin Kaysen. Awesome. Jennifer combines calamari, scallops and salmon for a much needed win. As soon as Padme said, "welcome back," I knew Jennifer had bagged the last quick fire challenge in Las Vegas, her reward was 30 extra minutes time in the elimination challenge. Kudos also were in order for Eli who, for the second week in a row, made a dish that looked and sounded good, to me anyways. Too bad for him the competition isn't Top Chef: Brunch!

The elimination challenge, Top Chef's own version of the Bocuse d'Or. Each contestant made a platter with protein and two garnishes. The protein choices are lamb and salmon. The stakes? Nothing much, a place in the final four in Napa Valley, 30,000 dollars for the best taste, creativity, and execution, and oh yeah, a chance to compete for a spot on the 2011 American Bocuse d'Or team! Wow. Talk about cooking under pressure. Here's a breakdown of what was served by the contestants:

Kevin: He prepared poached lamb loin, sherry-glazed beet and asparagus in sunchoke cream. Kevin was dogged a little by the judges for being over simplistic but once again his flavors were good enough for him to win the elimination challenge. He really beat himself up over the ordeal but it was clear based on the comments by the judges about the other entries that he was going to win.

Bryan: He presents crusted lamb loin, lamb shank crepinette and orzo au gratin. He under cooks the lamb, the kiss of death this season.

Jennifer: Her dish is salmon and caviar, shrimp flan and truffle, celery root and shiitake. I believe the judges had problems with her vision and the salmon was not cut properly where one judge had an under cooked portion.

Michael: Mr. Arrogant prepares salmon with cauliflower chickpea tart and zucchini tzatziki. It was discussed that he was the only one of the chef contestants that had ever competed in a similar event. He was slammed pretty hard by the judges for a lack of vision and for a bone that was found in one of the judge's salmon! Michael also described his presentation as Mediterranean influenced. Bad call. I thought for sure Michael would be exiting the competition but somehow he survived.

Eli: He makes his final appearance in Top Chef by presenting sausage wrapped lamb loin, carrot puree and tomato-piquillo canape. Once again under cooked lamb is the straw that broke the camel's back. Adios d-bag.

Some final thoughts on the last Las Vegas episode:

Gavin Kaysen is incredibly cute! Too bad he looks like a hobbit when standing next to Padme.

I actually felt bad for Eli for a moment when he was eliminated. Very emotional, not just for him but for Jennifer and Kevin. Then I remembered what a turd he's been. You do have to give him credit, though, for making it as far as he did in the competition.

With Eli gone, my new villain is Michael. He really dumps on Kevin about his simple approach to foods and pops off saying something like, "he makes food that I prepare on my weekends off." His whining about not winning challenges in previous episodes has also soured me. "It's hard to be humble when you're perfect in ever way!"

Kevin rebounds after a poor performance in the quick fire challenge. I'll take simple, prepared well, and good tasting food over more technically challenging, under cooked food any day.

Jennifer also rebounded in a big way. She won the quick fire challenge even though she said she's never cooked a ballotine (or is it a ballotine technique?). I also believe she probably finished in the top three of the elimination challenge.

I think the final four is fantastic! I truly believe that all four contestants we are left with are the best of the whole competition. I hope Michael is the next to go but who can say. I'm still sticking by Kevin to win it all. On to Napa.

I want to give a big thank you to Dealing in Subterfuges for the fantastic recap on her blog. Without referencing this site there is no way I could remember specifically what everyone prepared!

Three Years Ago...

Three years ago today (November 19th, 2006) I camped out at Best Buy overnight in line to be one of the first to purchase a Nintendo Wii. I've blogged about the night before and it was a really great experience even though I froze my ass off!

Timmy's red blanket was hideous but it sure was warm!

In honor of The Wii's birthday, here are my picks for the top five games released on Nintendo's motion control system:

#5 - Punch Out!!: Little Mac returns after a hiatus since the SNES days. I bought this game last summer and spent an insane amount of time boxing my way up the rankings to become the champion. The game offers 14 opponents, most of them throw backs to the NES and SNES games. Once you work your way to champion the game opens up challenges for each opponent to keep you playing. The game can be played arcade style by flipping the Wii Remote on its side or you can plug in the Nunchuck attachment and hop on the Wii Balance Board for a more immerse experience. Go old school and just use the Wii Remote. Lots of depth and the Nintendo nostalgia factor is through the roof. Good stuff.

#4 - Super Mario Galaxy: Mario returns in another 3-D adventure in a much better installment than Super Mario Sunshine on the Nintendo GameCube. Explore different planets for a truly 3-D experience, pushing the envelope of physics. The best platformer on any system since Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64.

#3 - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: A release game I bought along with the Wii at launch. The game was originally a GameCube game that incorporated some motion control features of the Wii. Another great Zelda game with a long and satisfying quest with plenty of upgrades and secrets to find. I've played through the game completely three times, something I rarely do with any game.

#2 - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: One of my favorite series was given a prequel sequel (does that make sense?) during the summer of the Wii's first year. Corruption took all the best of the Metroid Prime series, a ton of upgrades and a hybrid shooter/ action game, and brought to the table pointer functionality via the Wii Remote. If you like first person shooter games, this is a great example of how the Wii expands and brings a whole new level of game play to the genre. Earlier this year Retro Studios and Nintendo release the entire Metroid Prime trilogy in one package incorporating Metroid Prime 1 and 2 with the same great control system in Metroid Prime 3.

#1 - Animal Crossing: City Folk: I love this series. I'm sure that I've logged in hundreds of hours collectively between Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing DS, and the Wii version. Basically the game is a life simulation game Nintendo style. Create a town, build a house, work to pay off your debt, upgrade your look and the possibilities go on and on. Probably the best thing about the latest version is playing online with others. I've had great fun playing along with my nieces and my sister-in-law, though we're all in different cities. Yeah, so, it's kind of a chick game...

Honorable Mention - The New Super Mario Bros. Wii: Having just purchased the game Sunday I didn't want to include it to my top five list but the game is awesome. Take a Mario old school side scrolling game and upgrade the graphics and power ups. Classic.

So that's it! Happy birthday Nintendo Wii.

Latest Reads

Having been so impressed by Joseph Wambaugh's novel The Choirboys, I borrowed a couple of newer novels by Wambaugh from my mother. By newer I mean written in the '90's. "Fugitive Nights" tells the story of a retired police office, Breda Burrows, who sets up shop in Palm Springs as a private investigator. She enlists the help of a boozer Palm Springs cop waiting for his disability retirement, Lynn Cutter, on what should be a simple domestic case of surveillance and reporting. From here all hell breaks loose in the desert in and around the glamorous California town.

I like Wambaugh's style tremendously, particularly in this book he has a great talent for three things: writing cop talk, burnout alcoholic heroes, and profanity. Indeed the humorous parts of the book are on par, mostly, with The Choirboys but overall the story falls decidedly flat and shallow. The book is much more light hearted than I thought it would be, given what I've read of his so far. I don't know that I would recommend the novel; however, there is definitely some good stuff to be found here but the story is just too uneven.

A book that I can wholeheartedly recommend is "Two for the Dough" by Janet Evanovich. It is the second book in the Stephanie Plum novels. I made a blog posting about the first novel, "One For the Money", last month. Here's what I had to say about the first book in the series:

The book is a super easy read, told from heroine Stephanie Plum's perspective. It chronicles her bumbling rise and eventual success as a bounty hunter. "One For The Money" is the first in an ongoing series of 15 books to date. I highly enjoyed the humor and fast paced storytelling that was provided and if I come across the next installment I'll definitely give it a read.

The second book picks up a few months after the first. The same funny characters are present (Stephanie's grandmother is hilarious) with the same situations that literally made me laugh aloud while reading. Bounty hunter Plum definitely has a knack for getting herself and others into a lot of trouble with funny results. Again, the book is pure fluff but there's nothing wrong with that, especially when it's provided by a story that only took me a little over a day to read, even with all the interruptions at work. If you want something fast, easy and funny, check out the best selling series.

Time to Pretend

I'm totally obsessed with the band MGMT right now.


Time To Pretend - MGMT

Star Trek (2009)

Star Trek is boldly going to DVD and Blu-ray today. If you haven't seen J.J. Abrams' reboot of the classic sci-fi television show, I would highly recommend that you rent or purchase the movie today.

I've been a Trek fan as far back as I can remember. I used to watch the original series in syndication after school back in the '70's. Later, I enjoyed most of the original cast movies and really dug The Next Generation in high school and college. I believe the pinnacle of the franchise was Deep Space Nine; however, it was all downhill from there, the franchise slowly lost steam with two more mediocre series (at best) and a couple of forgettable movies.

I was little dubious when I heard the news years ago about a reboot of the Star Trek franchise. Why go back and recreate the original series? It turned out to be a wise decision. The new movie captures the essence of the original series and takes it a step further with a younger and energetic cast with great special effects and a decent story. The casting is especially top notch, particularly Zachary Quinto playing Spoke and Karl Urban playing Bones. The only downside, if there is one, is the story. It is a bit weak but as a first effort and certainly as an origin story it succeeds. The direction of the story also takes care of events and the canon of the previous series and movies which I actually appreciated. The new series of movies can truly venture forth without being beholden to previous storytelling.

Review from DVDFile.

Review from Trekweb.

Again, highly recommended, not only as a Trek flick but as one of the better movies of last summer.

The One I Love

Nothing going on today, enjoy some R.E.M.


The One I Love (2003 Digital Remaster) - R.E.M.

Heartstopper in Stillwater

Wicked hit, ouch! There's no status on Zac Robinson yet. The bad news, the Cowboys have a short week and play again on Thursday night. The good news, they play Colorado at home.

The Pokes have quietly accumulated eight wins so far and are on track to their best win season ever, provided they can beat the Swooners in Norman in a couple of weeks. A trip to the Cotton Bowl looks likely and a BCS berth is not out of the realm of possibility with a little help from other teams. I never thought the Cowboys would be in this position after a disasterous loss to Houston at home early in the season and after the loss of all world receiver Dez Bryant and Big 12 leading rusher Kendell Hunter. The future looks bright... and orange! Ride 'em Cowboys!!

How sweet would a Cotton Bowl match up with LSU be? I'd love the Pokes to kick Les Miles in the nuts.

Saturday the 14th!

"It gets bad on Friday the 13th but it gets worse on Saturday the 14th!"



Funny. I actually remember this movie when it was released. I think my favorite part is the voice over, it reminds me of other voice over gems:

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!
Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat!
Live from New York, it's Saturday Night Live...