Boca Java, Stash Tea, Saturday Movies, and Sunday Night TV

I budgeted this month to get a rare reward, some Boja Java coffee. I LOVE this coffee! Boca Java offered their employee discount, 25% off + free shipping, last weekend(ish) which meant I could get four for the price of three. I ordered Surfing Safari and Double Dark. Surfing Safari is my favorite mellow light roast flavored coffee at the moment. It's like dessert in a cup and satisfies my sweet tooth with minimal added organic sugar. Double Dark is perfect when I want something bolder and with more body. It's a dark roast  of beans from Brazil and Colombia flavored with dark chocolate and it's a great way to start your day if you're feeling bleary, which I often do with my nutso sinuses. I found Boca Java last year and of all the coffees I've tried recently, it's my favorite. It's not the least expensive around, but it's not the most expensive either. They roast the beans less than 24 hours before shipping your order out, so the coffee is always very fresh which makes it oh so much better. I've never had an issue with shipping time or packaging, and if you follow @bocajava on Twitter, you'll have some giggles because their roaster guy is a hoot. One day I shall try all their coffees, but while my budget's so tight, I'll stick to my tried and true favorites. I will keep getting it when I can, though. Coffee is my only real vice, but I can live with that.

Don't get me wrong, now. I love tea too. All kinds of teas and tisanes. At the moment I figure I have about ten different teas in the cupboard. Plain Lipton. A couple of different green teas. A couple of herbals and several imported English teas I got for a real bargain. My most recent acquisition was the result of a sale at my local grocery store which has an amazing array of teas considering it's an inner city store. I found Stash Tea's Raspberry & White Decaf Tea on sale for $1.49 a box and I grabbed the last two. I really enjoy iced white tea flavored with raspberry too, so finding it was a real boon. The fact that it's decaf is a good thing because I can drink it after noon and not be over-caffeinated which is not a good thing at all. I discovered Stash Teas ages ago, but only have tried them in the last couple of years when my main grocery store began stocking them.

Last night I grew weary of watching Chevalier movies on TCM and started poking around the other movie channels. I ended up watching Pan's Labyrinth and The Notorious Bettie Page. Talk about two movies that are vastly different from one another. Wow! But I really liked them both.

I now fully understand all the buzz about Pan's Labyrinth, which I found to be a hard movie to watch at times because of the chauvinistic brutality and warrish bits, but the story is pretty good and the melding of things mythical with realism works fairly well. The lead character is portrayed by Ivana Baquero who showed impressive depth. I have no way of knowing if she had any sort of internal monologue going or what, but I found her performance quite compelling. I was disappointed by the end of the film to a degree, I admit, because I'd figured it out by the end of the first conversation with the faun. I do that. It's very irksome at times. I highly recommend this movie if you haven't seen it. Honestly, I stopped reading the captions and just watched the story unfold, so if you're peeved by subtitles, try it anyhow. Incidentally, the make-up, art direction, and cinematography Oscars were well-deserved. Let me put it this way, one day I aim to own a copy of this film.

The Notorious Bettie Page is another film I want to own. I was very skeptical about the choice of Gretchen Mol for Page, but she did a fairly competent job. I caught her "acting" a few times and that made me want to toss something at the TV, but she was okay. If you're a delicate flower, and I know a few of you may well be, you may need to give this film a pass. While not explicity shown, there are instances of child molestation by a parent and the preamble to gang rape. Both those events occurred before Page became a photographic model, and eventually a kinky one, but that which is left to the imagination of the viewer is pretty brutal. Regardless, the film is pretty light and that surprised me. As the female photographer who shoots Bettie nude says, and I'm paraphrasing, "When Bettie was nude, it was as though she had clothes on." What's meant, of course, is that Bettie was natural in her own skin, perhaps moreso than when wearing the clothes or masks others require of her. The great surprise of this movie was the appearance of Jared Harris as John Willie, the photographer who put Bettie into bondage gear. After seeing him as Lane Pryce on Mad Men, it was quite bizarre. And then when I looked him up on IMDB, I felt an eejit for not having realized he'd been on The Riches (which was canceled much too soon) as yet another creepy character that was altogether different than John Willie. Far more brutal too.

Typing of Mad Men, it's Sunday night and there's another new episode airing on AMC. After the previous two, I have low expectations, for I cannot imagine Weiner being able to produce another episode of similar caliber for a third consecutive week. I've loved this show from its onset, but damn, it's been phenomenal these last weeks. If you're not watching this show and have access to it, you're truly missing out.

Rubicon's on too. Now there's a freaky-deaky show. It's about intelligence analysts and it's very slow-going. The actors, though, are decent and I find I'm hooked on the storylines. I admit, I have to watch each episode at least twice with captions because I miss stuff if I don't.

PBS is showing another episode of Inspector Lewis on Masterpiece Mystery! I really, really miss John Thaw's Inspector Morse, but I'm fond of the Lewis character. It is true, though, that I was taken aback last week when I ran across the Masterpiece version of A Room With a View and found Lewis' sidekick as the shortlived fiance to the ingenue of the tale. I like him as a police detective, but dang that guy played the icky fiance character really well.

HGTV is featuring All American Handyman again tonight. It's a reality competition and because actual skills are required, I enjoy it. The personalities are a tad blah, but for the host/judges, but I'm learning stuff so I'm happy to watch.

Sundays on Food Network means Iron Chef America and I'm always ready to watch that insane competition so long as they're not butchering suckling pigs or throwing live critters into boiling water or somesuch. There's a point where I simply have to stop watching, you know? Oh yeah, I won't watch the coconut one either. Just thinking about it makes my tummy ache and gets me itchy.

BBC America is showing Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves tonight. Yes, it's ludicrous in many aspects, but the cinematography is good, the locations are gorgeous, Morgan Freeman is a Moor, and the wonderful, glorious, amazing Alan Rickman is the evil Sheriff of Nottingham. When I was doing environmental theatre in Newport, RI, a fellow castmember and I saw this movie in the theatre six times. No. Really. It's true! It's because of Rickman. I loved him in Truly, Madly, Deeply and have been a fan ever since.



Eep! Look at the time! Must make fast dinner. Ta!