Me and the Hollywood stars

It's been sometime since my last post regarding movie premieres in Paris. There have been others since then, but not always in the presence of international movie stars (well, not for the general public like me! eheh).

These last couple of months, I was lucky to attend two movie premieres of such kind. The first one was for "The Wrestler", in the presence of the Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke. The second one was for "Last Chance for Harvey" , in the presence of the heavyweight movie stars Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.

Some people look different through the years, they age, some get plastic surgeries, but I believe Mickey Rourke was ran over by a truck! That's what happens when you start to drink too much, boxe too much and botox too much! eheheh

"The Wrestler" was a nice surprise (you might have all seen by now) but nothing over the top, there was too much hype. Once again marketing did a good job! eheh
This movie at least helped him to restart his career in the movie business.

Regarding "Last Chance for Harvey" it was the first time I got really really close to movie actors, which allowed me to get great pictures. Emma Thompson even talked to me when I called her name, still outside before entering the movie theather! eheh I was even more surprised when she saluted me in perfect french! eheh
Already inside, when they were talking to the audience, we were all astonished how perfect was Emma Thompson's french! Incroyable! eheheh

"Last Chance for Harvey" is a romantic drama for a mature audience, usually not my kind of movie. But the final result is a story well balanced with great performances from both actors.
An american (Hoffman) who travels to London meets a woman (Emma Thompson) at the airport who interviews arriving passengers about the reasons for visiting UK. What at start seems to be pointless questions, ends to be in long stay in London.

More movies to come... and the summer blockbuster movies are coming soon...

Happy Easter, part 2

What a Easter weekend! After an amusing Saturday with my japanese class, I had a very long Easter Sunday... in the kitchen! eheh

This year I've decided to prepare a typical Easter lunch and invite some friends! We were a small group of 6, each one of us from a different country. And this is what I enjoy the most: to host, cook and show all the best from my culture to my friends.

I could go easy when preparing lunch, but I don't like easy. So I've decided to prepare starters, a fish course, followed by a meat course and end with dessert. eheheh
The fish course was the typical codfish, with mashed potatoes, cheese and mayonnaise (just for the gratin). This recipe is called Zé do Pipo Codfish (Bacalhau à Zé do Pipo). For the meat course I prepared a festival of pork meat, blood and potatoes, called Rojões.
Dessert was easier, because it was more cakes and pastries.

Good food needs good wine, so there was also good portuguese wine. White wine (vinho verde) for the fish, red wine for the meat.... and Porto for dessert! eheheh

It started well... but a roller-coaster of unexpected cooking events (it's a nice way to say loosing control) led me to put everything on the table on the wrong sequence! eheheh

We've started the meal with the meat course, then the starters, then the fish and finally the dessert! As usual, I spent most of the time in the kitchen... so the lunch became more like a long brunch! eheh

The important is at the end everyone had fun and enjoyed the food (as I prefer to think!) eheh

The worst came the next day, with a super huge pile of stuff to wash and clean! eheheh

Time to rest now, until the next event... and I "smell" more football coming soon ;-)

Happy Easter, part 1

Well, it's almost Easter and this year I started I little bit earlier. Like Christmas, Easter as typical things... like food (yes, as always). There are cakes and pastries which are more popular during these festivities. So, this year I will be showing everyone around here the best I can.

Thankfully I can count on all portuguese supermarkets and grocery shops to help me in this herculean task! eheh

As you all know I continue with my japanese lessons. Today's idea was to show my sensei (teacher) and the rest of the class the cake pão-de-ló (sponge cake). Besides being one of the pastry symbols for Easter, the sponge cake has a curious background for Japan and japanese.
There's one typical japanese cake named castera which comes from the sponge cake, introduced by the portuguese when they established missions in Japan, around 16th century.
Besides castera, there's also tempura (vegetables fried in oil), which were also influenced by the portuguese gastronomy.

By the way, the word castera comes from castela in portuguese (to beat the egg white) and the word tempura comes from the portuguese word têmpero.

So, 5 centuries later, a portuguese once again introduces the original and authentic pão-de-ló to japanese. My sensei was really delightful to hear the story of the this cake.

To make it more special, I took a fine bottle of Porto wine, which is a good choice to accompany almost any kind of dessert. Unfortunatelly only two persons dared to drink a small glass of Porto... after all, who wants to drink alcool at 11am on a Saturday? eheheh
Our teacher gave the good example: green tea only! Ocha wo nomimashita! :-)

Well, this Easter Sunday my tour de force continues. This time I've invited some guests for the typical portuguese Easter lunch, with a meat and fish courses, wine and more dessert! eheheh

Stay tuned for more gastronomical adventures! ;-)

Oops, it wasn't true!

That's right ladies and gentlemen. My last post was my contribution for April Fool's day, or Poisson d'Avril in France. So, no I didn't receive any letter, because I never downloaded anything illegal! O:-)

But not everything was false. On April 2nd there was indeed an "anti-pirate" law approved with the polite title of "Creation and Internet".
The idea is to suspend the internet service to someone who has been detected illegal downloads. Of course, this person will be warned my email and postal mail (both I suppose) before having his connection suspended. After, he (or she) has 30 days to present recourse in court.
The internet service can be restored 3 months later.

Accordingly to planned, daily, we can have around 10.000 warning emails/letters and 1.000 internet connections closed. That's not much! eheheh

Also this week, in Sweden, internet traffic dropped between 30% and 40% after a similar law went into force.

A free internet.... ahhhhh, those were the days..... ;-)

You download, you pay!

Raise your hand if you never downloaded anything "illegal" on the internet! No, I'm not an internet policeman, but I was caught by one.

I remember when I started, a long long time ago, to download music and small video games. Then, when I needed some special software for a special task, I would downloaded it.
Then, it came the movies! Wow, what a wonderful thing being able to watch old classics or movies that didn't get international releases!

Since I've arrived here I've been using more this "backup" system. Yes, it's "backup" not "illegal copy", because if one day everyone looses the original movies, games or software, I have a "backup" for them! eheheh

But in France they published this new law last year, in order to protect copyrights. Its purpose is to control massive downloads over the internet, which I agree. Internet providers started to alert clients about possible fees and even law suits.
Everyone, me included, thought it was just to scare people away from "backup" activities. I could never be more wrong.

Yesterday I got this very polite "letter" accusing me of "illegal possession" of copyright material! For me "illegal possession" makes me think about that girl from "The Exorcist"!! eheheh
Seriously, this is a goose chase. I found out that they have been sending these "recommendations" almost to everyone.

Now I have a 3 figure fine to pay, because I "backup" from time to time. When I was in school all my IT teachers kept telling to backup, backup, backup... and now I'm a bad guy for that!!

I don't care for music or videogames anymore... but at least they could let me "play" (with) movies!

Be careful because..... they're hereeeeeeeee...