bluegrass to lonestar

Because I have an inflated sense of self-importance here is by my “50 best films of the decade” list you’ve been dying to read.

1. Elephant (VanSant)
2. Mullholland Drive (Lynch)
3. Nobody Knows (Kore-eada)
4. Memories of Murder (Bong)
5. Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Dominik)
6. La Ciénaga (Martel)
7. The Royal Tenenbaums (Anderson)
8. L’Intrus (Denis)
9. Dogville (Von Trier)
10. Platform (Zhang)
11. Zodiac (Fincher)
12. 35 Rhums (Denis)
13. La mujer sin cabeza (Martel)
14. Hable con Ella (Almodovar)
15. The Man Who Wasn’t There (Coen)
16. There Will Be Blood (PTA)
17. Still Walking (Kore-eada)
18. Spider (Cronenberg)
19. My Mother’s Smile (Belocchio)
20. Eastern Promises (Cronenberg)
21. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai)
22. Oasis (Lee)
23. Spirited Away (Miyazaki)
24. No Country For Old Men (Coen)
25. Summer Hours (Assayas)
26. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (Duk)
27. Werckmeister harmóniák (Tarr)
28. This Charming Girl (Lee)
29. You, the Living (Andersson)
30. Punch Drunk Love (PTA)
31. Kings and Queen (Deschplain)
32. Mysterious Skin (Araki)
33. Under the Sand (Ozon)
34. INLAND EMPIRE (Lynch)
35. The Heart of the World (Maddin)
36. Y tu mamá también (Cuaron)
37. Ce-jour là (Ruiz)
38. President’s Last Bang (Im)
39. Wall-E (Stanton)
40. All The Real Girls (Green)
41. Syndromes and a Century (Weerasethakul)
42. Notre Musique (Godard)
43. American Psycho (Harron)
44. The Life Aquatic (Anderson)
45. Control (Corbijn)
46. Morvern Callar (Ramsey)
47. Private Property (LaFosse)
48. Five Obstructions (vonTrier)
49. Little Children (Field)
50. Grizzly Man (Herzog)

My favorite films of 2009:

35 Rhums (Denis), Antichrist (von Trier), Café Noir (Jung), The Hurt Locker (Bigelow), The Limits of Control (Jarmusch), Mother (Bong), La Mujer Sin Cabeza (Martel),  A Serious Man (Coen), Two Lovers (Gray), Up (Docter), Where the Wild Things Are (Jonze),  You, the Living (Andersson)

Good but lacking:

Public Enemies (Mann), The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Anderson)

We got a bunch of Texas Grapefruits, Oranges, and Tangerines in our CSA box this week. Lauren got me a canning book for christmas, so I decided to make some marmalade.

The rain finally stopped today, so we ventured south to the El Primo taco trailer. Sitting in a convenient store parking lot, the little red and white trailer is unassuming. The guy working the griddle greeted us and took our order. We both decided to try the Torta Al Pastor. After cooking up breakfast tacos and a huge cup of menudo for the people in front of us (everything made from scratch the super friendly owner/grill man informed us), he got to work on the tortas. Cheese was tossed on the griddle. Torta rolls followed to get a nice crust on the outside. Beans, avocada, onion, cilantro, mayo were applied along with a generous portion of al pastor. Topped off with the salsa of our choice, it was a gooey, amazing mess.

I took two weeks off for Christmas. I stopped in Nashville first. The plan was to get a bike. That didn’t happen. I did get to see Lauren’s family and eat good sandwiches. My stepdad came to take drive me back to Louisville. We met him at Fat Mo’s for burgers. I’ve been trying as many burgers as I can from the book, “Hamburger America”. So far, it’s mostly been a let down.

I can’t help but smile when I see the Louisville skyline. It was nice to be back. The new basketball arena is huge. I immediately met up with friends. I got to tour the new New Albanian brewery. The new place is really nice, their beers are back to being great and it’s a complete shock (albeit a pleasant one) that it’s doing well. After the tour I had some Saturnalia pints at Sportstime and ended up passed out on a futon. Just like old times.

Christmas with the family was typical. Always enjoyable and a bit annoying. Because I had to fly back to Austin, I received lots of gift cards. The day after Christmas was filled with friends, tacos, and beer. I managed to hit up La Rosita for both lunch and dinner. It’s still the best taco I’ve ever had. Another visit to the Bank Street Brewhouse and card games rounded out the evening.

I went to Cherokee park for a 7-mile run on Sunday followed by a trip to Freedom Hall for a Cards game. The new arena opens next year, so it was nice to be able to see one last game in the place I’ve frequented for so many years. Lauren came up after the game and we went to dinner at La Rosita (yes again) with our Friends from South Bend.

Monday I went to my sister’s workplace to have my hip x-rayed for free. It’s been giving me pain ever since my marathon and my Dad has arthritis in his so I was starting to worry. The doc told me that I had a stress fracture and that I needed to take 4-6 weeks off or it would be disastrous. Not the news I wanted but at least it’s something that can heal.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful, a trip to cool new bike shop on bardstown and dinner at Shiraz and Sportstime were the main highlights. We managed to fit in one final lunch at La Rosita before we parted for Chicago.