Wine #10 - Casa Santa Vitória 2008 @Tasca da Esquina

The other day we went to Tasca da Esquina, a kind of recent place that was taken by one the most famous Portuguese Chefs (Vitor Sobral). His idea was to make a comfortable, nice and affordable place to eat informal food. We had the 4-course dinner and it was amazing at a very reasonable price. It's in Campo de Ourique and I strongly recommend to anyone living in or visiting Lisbon, But I'm mentioning this restaurant mostly because during this dinner, I had the chance to taste a wonderful wine, again at a very reasonable price. The wine is Casa Santa Vitória 2008. At the wine shops, this wine is sold at less than 5 Eur. It's from Alentejo, with an incredible smell and a very dark colour. You can consult some tasting notes (in portuguese) here.

Movie #21 - The tree of life

It is a bit hard to talk about this movie. First, I need to mention that in the session I was in, there was some kind of problem with the copy that was being projected in terms of editing. It seemed to be a mix of two different films: one was a documentary for National Geographic and the other one was Terence Malick's movie and these two got mixed during editing and that editing was made in a Mac, that's why I kept seeing Mac's screensaver at some points in a movie.
Obviously this is just a (bad) joke that I am using to talk about a film that carries some of the most beatiful images I've ever seen on film. When you read about The tree of life there will always be someone mentioning the dinoussaurs and the big sun and the screensavers (sic). But that's not the movie. It's part of it, not pivotal but complementary to the movie. How about the rest of the movie? How was it? It was wonderful. It's not simply the photography that is wonderful and the beatiful photography wasn't just present in those "documentary-kind" portions of the movie. It was always present along with some of the most beatiful pieces of music ever created. It is easy to compare this movie to Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odissey but some of the most fantastic parts in the movie are nothing close to Kubric's style and story types.
Let me illustrate this by explaining how one of my favourite aspects of the movie is simply about the way he films and presents the family. So, the movie follows the life of a young couple as they are about to become parents and follows from birth, the childhood of Jack and his two little brothers. At this point, everyone mentions how these kids are raised by a mother that follows the way of grace and by a father that represents a tougher view of life, closer to Nature's competitive system. But that's one very restrict metaphysical opposition that I felt like a limitation of the movie. What I found incredible in this part of the movie is how it felt like. What it really felt like was that Terence Malick spent a decade with this family and taped most of their moments in everyday life. At the end of this decade, he started editing a film of about an hour about this decade. It's a brilliant work of editing that was only possible by having thousands of hours of filming made before hand.
I could say more about this movie as I think this movie will be part of movie history and as most movies that reach this status, it will be greeted with love and hate to the same extent. But for now, the only thing I feel like being left to say is: You can say whatever you want about the movie but I consider that it is impossible to say that this is not a fantastic piece of work and that's why this movie made the list.

Is there anything funnier than bunnies killing themselves?

Andy Riley came up with the idea that the white rabbits of this world are tired of being fluffy and sweet and just want to end their own lives... in a funny way.

Artist # 4 -Tom Caruana

Thanks to a friend, the most refreshing piece of work in years came to my attention by a music producer called Tom Caruana. Hi skill is mostly known through his mash-ups of Rap music with other genres and artists. He has done one with Wu Tang and The Beatles. Check out an example of that mash-up below



And check out what's next with Jimmi Hendrix. Delightful!!

Wine # 9 - Paulo Laureano Premium 08

In April, I went back to the Netherlands. But before going back to Nijmegen, I spent a couple of days in Utrecht with a Portuguese friend. While there, we had a Portuguese Lunch to get together with other Portuguese working or studying in the Netherlands. For the occasion, I took this wine from Alentejo. This is a wine made by Paulo Laureano (hence the name), the same guy responsible for another wine on the list of wines in this blog: Dolium. What I loved most was the smell. But maybe it was the occasion. Here are some tasting notes in Portuguese.

Wine # 8 - Douro Conceito 09

A couple of weeks before going back to Nijmegen, I went to a place in Lisbon that procrastination had kept me from trying for a long time. The place is called Goliardos near Avenida da Liberdade, closer to Praça da Alegria. It's a wine bar with some great wines, good ambiance but no so good service (at least not very attemptive). I tried Douro Conceito 09 which is a very soft, very pleasant wine from the Douro region as the name insists on announcing. Luckily this is a wine with tasting notes in English:

Taut and intense nose with fresh citrus and grapefruit pith notes, as well as some white peach and intense toastiness. The palate is broad but well defined with nuts, toast, citrus, spice and good acidity. Really fine and burgundian with potential for development.

As I'm no expert it's hard for me to complement on these tasting notes but I can certainly vouch for the fresh citurs notes and the good acidity. It was a good first wine to a not so great first time in this place but that left me with the will to come back and give the place, and especially the service, another chance.

Movie #20 - On the waterfront

In March, we went with a couple friend of ours to spend a weekend in the country. We went to a region near Arganil. One of the nights we watched On the waterfront. It's a movie that I wanted to see for a long time and that is considered to be a masterpiece by Elia Kazan. The movie portrays an ex-prize fighter turned lonshoreman who struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses and some say that it was an act of atonement on the part of Elia Kazan for naming names to HUAC during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950's. Regardless of what the purpose might have been, the movie is mandatory for all movie lovers and I can name one reason alone: Marlon Brando. It is an incredible performance but so different from a character like Don Corleone in the Godfather. In this movie, Brando is a potent but innocent and kind young man. I love the conversation with his brother in the taxi when he says to his brother that he is the one to blame for him not being a champion. I love the way he says: "I could have been a contender!".