This might be like kicking a hornet's nest.

Came home last night, eager to watch The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  But Renee was watching something else, and was so absorbed/taken with it (and, besides, Girl is 150 minutes long) that we watched her selection, Mona Lisa Smile, instead.  Hoo-boy.

(By the way, Ms Diskowski pulled off yet another stunning dinner last night:  Grilled pork chops, pan-fried kale, and cannellini beans with crispy prosciutto on top.  For whatever reason, Ms Diskowski did not take a photo.  But it was real.  No joke.  We drank 2006 -- the winery sent me an older vintage by mistake -- Hendry Chardonnay, which was absolutely sublime.  It is showing magnificently right now.)

Anyroad, back to Mona Lisa Smile.  Despite a fantastic cast:  Julia Roberts (one of the Wife and I's faves); McNutty from The Wire; Kirsten Dunst (does not make a good brunette, should always be blonde); Ginnifer Goodwin (Renee and I like her, too); Maggie Gyllenhaal (already way too old for her part in the film); Julia Stiles (criminally under-rated); Marcia Gay Harden; John Slattery; Juliet Stevenson (one of my all-time faves); Topher Grace; and even Aleksa Palladino for, like, two seconds of screen time! And despite the film's obvious good intentions and feminist message, Mona Lisa Smile is an awful motion picture.

Where do I begin? The musical score for one thing is so heavy handed and annoying.  In fact, heavy-handed should be the essential expression, describing Mona Lisa Smile.  Director, Mike Newell, goes for every big emotional moment as if playing whack-a-mole.  The "villain" of the picture, Ms Dunst's student character's transformation at the end is wholly unbelievable and unsupportable.  Julia Stiles' "I choose to be a housewife" speech seems like a PC cop-out, which probably is the result of Newell's poor direction and Ms Roberts' sleepwalking performance in this extremely crucial scene.  Sadly, despite this being a possible big Hollywood show-offy role for Ms Roberts, she is not up to it.  I suspect Ms Roberts had doubts about the material.  The absolute worst is the song chosen for the end credits, which is grossly inappropriate, Sir Elton John's, The Heart of Every Girl.  So terrible.

Yeah, I will take Lone Scherfig's An Education over Newell's Mona Lisa Smile every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Aleksa Palladino in Todd Solondz' creepy, difficult masterpiece, Storytelling.

After Mona Lisa Smile we watched My Man Godfrey and fell asleep.  It had been a long week, after all.

Ciao!

Ma(i)sonry was awful, the only bad thing

This is Molly when we got home.

On our trip.  I do not want to get in to details about it.  You will have to take my word for it, I suppose.  Anyhoo, Renee and I are going to Yelp! their ass, hard.

Renee's salad at Bouchon

I love my Wife.  We'll prob  lay this down for at least four or five more years.

But my Wife loves me and she bought me a bottle of 2008 Lail Georgia.  (That was the whole reason to go to that lame, snooty, chi-chi place in the first ... )  Renee bought the wine at Dean and Deluca.  They gave her an industry discount for me; not the normal thirty per cent, but something.

Whatever.

Short Rib Rillette at Bouchon.  So amazingly good.

Yeah, that is right.  I had steak frites at Bouchon.  So frickin' sue me.

We went to Hendry Ranch on Sunday.  My Rep for Hendry set us up.  We said, No, to the tour. Renee and I have seen plenty of tanks and barrels, thank you very much.  Hendry said the tasting would take an hour and a half.  Whoa, I am starting to become wary.  We arrived and were told that George Hendry himself, the most spry and delightful man I have met in ages, would taste us on all their current releases.  Eek, when we sit down in a private room I see that that is about a Baker's Dozen wines.

Mr Hendry tells us a little bit about the Ranch he grew up and where all the wine grapes are grown. One hundred per cent Estate fruit.  We can see the vineyards right outside the window.  Estate fruit is what makes Mr Hendry's prices very reasonable for Napa Valley. Mr Hendry talks about wine a little differently than most wine makers.  He never mentions specific fruit tastes (notes) once.  Renee and I appreciate this.  Mr Hendry loves talking about food pairings.  He does not drink during the day but he has wine with every single evening meal (unless the wine he is drinking is too hot -- high in alcohol, or tasting of alcohol -- and then he quits the wine and finishes the meal.)  Mr Hendry does not like sweet wine.  He is unapologetic and proud to love dry wine. Refreshing.  Mr Hendry, upon finding out we work for the Food Hole raves about the Napa store and gets a few good plugs in for us.  Nice.  Mr Hendry shares some recipes with us.  Mr Hendry loves to talk about the palate.  The front palate, the back palate, if the wine flavor mouthfeel travels over both sides of your tongue, etc, ... Mr Hendry answers every single question we ask no matter how silly.  Mr Hendry has two awesome mannerisms that he uses for punctuation.  One is a clicking noise he makes with his mouth.  The other is a rap on the table with his finger.  Mr Hendry is a very savvy, frugal, and smart businessman.  Mr Hendry said the word, "bullshit" to us.  (He was talking about the clove flavors you get from his oak barrels for his Barrel Fermented Chardonnay -- $24 at Whole Foods Walnut Creek! Other folks actually add 'bullshit' clove flavors in to their wines and skimp on the barrels.)  Mr Hendry talks about the old house still on the property that he grew up in.  He says that was the style of house building then, Italianate architecture.  Then everyone started building Victorians.  They are renovating the old house.  It will be their new tasting rooms.  Mr Hendry gave us the proper thirty per cent discount.  Renee bought us four bottles of wine:  2008 Pinot Noir, 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon,  2009 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay, and 2010 Albariño.  (Love you, Renee!) We headed home feeling wonderful about life.

Thank you, Mr Hendry.







Mwah, ... 

Woo-hoo! It is back to St Helena

Hmmmm, Georgia SB.  I cannot wait.

For the Wife and I this weekend.  Back to our favorite restaurants, Bouchon and Market, tasting Lail Vineyards and others at Ma(i)sonry, checking out Hendry Ranch, and Renee can hit all her foodie stores, repeatedly.

(Hey, Annie S, if you are reading this:  We're staying at Hotel St Helena.  What do you know about this place? They did not send us an email confirmation, they sent us confirmation by letter! How old-fashioned.)

Kisses,
xxxoooxxx,

Ardent