Hungover Transformers

Aah! Lutherans!

As I write this post, I am drowning in a sea of Lutherans, the OGs of Protestantism. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is holding their 2009 Youth Gathering in New Orleans. It is being billed as the largest service ministry ever attempted. I have seen reports that 37,000 people are coming to town as part of the ministry. Several groups of them were in and out of Basin Street Station today, and I saw more groups walking around town on the way home. As I was leaving Walmart, a bus from Hudson, WI was unloading healthy-looking teenagers who looked like they'd been cooped up just a little too long.

The ELCA has a twitter feed set up to chronicle people's reactions. Best one so far (and a frequent re-tweet): Quote from the street, "The town is filled with Lutherans, we are safe."

Another tweet: Please remember EVERYONE (adult leaders + youth) - NO DRINKING - you did sign a covenant

Good luck with that one.

I think the Archdiocese of New Orleans has put the Knights of Columbus on guard duty outside St. Louis Cathedral, just to make sure that nothing "accidentally" gets nailed to the doors.

On to the movies.

Transformers

I went to see Transformers at the Prytania Theater, which has the best sound system I've ever heard. I could go into detail about what was good and what wasn't but there's no point. The Washington Post had an article about the disconnect between the film critics who excoriated the movie and the moviegoers who bought hundreds of millions of dollars worth of tickets. I tend to think of it like this:

Film critics review films.
Moviegoers pay to watch movies.

What I will say about Revenge of the Fallen (or ROTF in the Seibertron.com universe. What IMDB is to movies, Seibertron is to all things Transformers) is that I enjoyed it a lot more than the first. I think it's funnier, more exciting, and the actors seem more comfortable in their roles. Is it going to end up on an AFI top 100 list? No. Could it do without about 15 minutes of nonsensical sex-related stuff? Yes. I just think it's fun to watch, and a better Transformers experience this time around.

One big difference between this movie and the first--and it's a huge difference from the cartoon--is that the humans are actually worth something in a fight. In the old cartoon, bullets would just bounce off anything they shot at. Now they've got higher-tech weaponry and are capable of taking down some guys all on their own. That never would have happened before.

Note: the credits at the end of the movie said it was based on characters created by Hasbro. It did not say that it was based on the cartoon. This is practically admitting that the show was just a vehicle for selling toys. As much as I liked watching it, that's pretty much what it was. There was a writer at the end who was told he had to fit in many new characters in the final season. Then the season was cut down to five episodes. Then three episodes. The new character to minutes per show ratio was off the charts.

The Hangover

A couple of weekends ago I went out to the AMC Clearview Palace in Metairie to see The Hangover. Both my sister and a coworker said it was hilarious, so I gave it a shot. It's not the kind of movie I usually go see by myself, but it's really funny. A lot of crazy stuff happens and a lot of cursing ensues. Then more craziness. The last twenty minutes sort of clunked out for me, but endings are hard. I don't think it's quite as funny as the reputation it's getting, but it's enjoyable.

Running of the Bulls, NOLA Style

I was very happy to participate in the Running of the Bulls in the French Quarter one Saturday morning at 8am. We started at Burgundy and Conti, hung a left at Bourbon, then a right on Ursulines down to Decatur. Whole thing took about ten minutes. The "bulls" chasing us were rollergirls with whiffle or foam bats. They'd come up from behind and whack us on the butt. I got whacked three times or so. You'd hear people screaming about 50 feet behind you, and that was the signal that the bulls were getting closer and it was time to start running faster.

2009 Great American Seafood Cook-off

This past Saturday I was at the 2009 Great American Seafood Cook-off at the Morial Convention Center. Fifteen chefs from around the country competed, and Tory McPhail, the chef from Commander's Palace in New Orleans, came away the winner. He had a bunch of types of corn, creole tomatoes, shrimp, sheepshead fish (never heard of it), and more shrimp. I stood in the front row and had a good view, so I can state with confidence that the secret ingredient may be love, but the main ingredient is butter. These guys use tons of butter. Oh, and he also used fresh bacon fat. He poured it over the fish during and after the grilling. I kid you not. Let me say that one more time: FRESH BACON FAT.

Note: I was reminded of when my mom gave me an old recipe for making gumbo, and one of the ingredients was blacked out and replaced with 2 cups of cooking oil. The following conversation (paraphrased) ensued.

"What did this say before you blacked it out?" I asked.
"Fresh lard," she said.
"Does it taste better with lard?"
"Oh yeah."
"So why is it blacked out?"
"Because I don't want to die."

One of the judges was Michel Richard, who runs Citronelle in DC. Tom Sietsema mentions him all the time in his chats. I was impressed that they got him to come be a judge.

Afterwards I heard some of the judges saying really good things about the chef from Alabama, a young guy who works in Orange Beach, AL. I'll have to check out Geno's Fresh Catch Grill next time I hit the Redneck Riviera.

In conclusion, I leave you with a video of LSU football coach Les Miles performing Randy Newman's song "Short People", put together by the mad farking genius known as LSUFreek, whose work is a source of pride to all LSU fans. He single-handedly took on a rabid Tennessee board before the 2007 SEC Championship game and had the natives shaking their heads in admiration.

Enjoy: