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INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana residents who've turned a cold shoulder to school districts' requests for more money in recent years warmed up in Tuesday's primary, approving a record rate of local tax increases to help fund school needs.
Nine out of 10 proposals to support schools by raising taxes won voter approval Tuesday. Only about half of such proposals have passed since 2008.
Education leaders say the high passage rate likely means schools are getting better at communicating their needs to voters.
School districts want to continue having high-quality teachers and programming, said J.T. Coopman, executive director of the Indiana Association of Public School Superintendents. That's something the community wants and demands, but the only way they're going to be able to do that is by asking the community to fund through referendums.
The additional money comes as schools scramble to make up for shortfalls since lawmakers capped property taxes and changed how school funding is handled in 2008.
The caps, which went into effect in 2009, limited property taxes to 1 percent on homes, 2 percent on farms and 3 percent on businesses. The state also took over the general fund spending and set new guidelines about how districts could spend property tax money.
Many districts have cut staff and programs, implemented fees for student athletes and considered ending school bus service.
Mount Vernon Community School Corp. Superintendent Bill Riggs said his Hancock County district had cut 17 percent of its staff, switched to a pay-to-play athletics program, reduced paper and supply use and slashed air conditioning and heating use in the summer and winter.
Referendums had failed twice before in the Mount Vernon district.
We're pretty much down to the bare minimum now, Riggs said. The alternative would have been additional staff cuts.
Riggs said the money voters approved Tuesday will be used to pay off a deficit and bring back elementary art and music teachers who were reduced to part-time work. Several schools have asked for more money to continue bus services for children.
Sen. Brandt Hershman, R-Buck Creek, said the passage of the Mount Vernon measure and others shows that the system is working.
School corporations are getting better or more effective at communicating with local taxpayers with their needs, he said.
But districts aren't breathing easier just yet. The Mount Vernon proposal passed by a mere nine votes. Three others Tuesday passed by less than 3 percent.
The sad fact is the money is not going to the direct education of our youth, said Dietrich Wodarz, a retired Cumberland resident who voted against increasing taxes for Mount Vernon. The money is being squandered on over-the-top brick and mortar and frills.
Larry Longman – co-founder of an organization aimed at passing the Mount Vernon's referendum – voted against the proposed tax increase when it first came before him in 2010 because he didn't believe there was a need.
Longman, who voted for the referendum this time around, said he's worried the district will need more money down the road, and he said lawmakers need to step up to help schools.

subset: commoncrawl


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A Family Affair: Bloomington Highlights Two-race Weekend for Kraig Kinser
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — September 24, 2014 — It's going to be an emotional night on Friday at Bloomington Speedway for the entire Kinser family, there is no doubt about it, as Steve Kinser makes his final start at his home track as a full-time member of the World of Outlaws STP Sprint Car Series. As he has for most of the last decade, Kraig Kinser will be there to compete against...
Via On Pit Road
28 days ago | Discuss
Schatz wins Knoxville Nationals again
KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) Donny Schatz won the Knoxville Nationals sprint car race in Iowa on Saturday night for the eighth time in nine years. Schatz collected $150,000 for the win, by far the richest purse in sprint car racing. Schatz nearly led from start to finish in yet another stellar run for the No. 15 car in the sport's marquee event. Brian Brown was second for the third...
Via AP on Fox
August 10, 2014 | Discuss
WoO: FVP Knoxville Nationals Preview
KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Over 500 World of Outlaws A-Main wins, 12 coming in the Knoxville Nationals and this weekend he makes his final appearance in sprint car racing's toughest challenge. The "King of the Outlaws" Steve Kinser from Bloomington, Indiana has accomplished a lot in his storied racing career, including starts in both the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500 and two wins...
Via Rubbings Racing
August 05, 2014 | Discuss
Donny Schatz wins Knoxville Nationals
Donny Schatz won the Knoxville Nationals for the sixth time in seven years, holding off local favorite Brian Brown by 0.117 seconds Saturday night in the Sprint Car event. Schatz, from Fargo, N.D., took the lead on the 13th of 50 laps with a pass on the bottom of the track and held on to take the $150,000 winner's check. Craig Dollansky was third, followed by Kraig Kinser and...
Via Fox Sports
August 12, 2012 | Discuss
World of Outlaws Sprint Cars Returning to Tucson, Perris in Spring Season launches in Florida at UNOH DIRTcar Nationals, heads west for March
CONCORD, N.C. — Nov. 17, 2011 — Over the past 34 years, eight different drivers have won a World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series championship, spanning from Steve Kinser's first of 20 titles in 1978 to Jason Meyers' two most recent crowns in 2010 and '11. At the UNOH DIRTcar Nationals in February at Volusia Speedway Park, 'The Greatest Show on Dirt' will launch its 35th...
Via Frontstretch
November 22, 2011 | Discuss
The World of Outlaws Sprint Cars World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte - Friday
You wanted the best, you've got 'em four abreast. Photo by Yvonne Leonard Friday night was the first of two nights of racing action for the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. Donny Schatz has had an up and down year which prevented him from claiming another series title but he is on an up swing as the season comes to an end. He started Friday night...
Via Frontstretch
November 07, 2011 | Discuss
The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Qualifying for the World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte Friday night for Saturday's Program
Due to inclement weather on Friday night the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars held their second round of qualifying for the World Finals on Friday after the hot laps were in the books. After all 55 cars had logged their times, Jason Meyers, the 2011 series champion, was the fast qualifier for the night. His lap was a 12.662 second effort that bested second quick Craig Dollansky by .055...
Via Frontstretch
November 06, 2011 | Discuss
World of Outlaws Sprint Car Qualifying for the World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte
The World of Outlaw Sprint Cars were only able to get in one round of qualifying on Thursday night which set the times for Friday's races. The qualifying for Saturday will take place Friday night after the hot laps during the World Finals at the Dirt Track at Charlotte. The fast time during Kellogg's Qualifying night was set by Sam Hafertepe Jr, who ripped off a 12.667 second...
Via Frontstretch
November 04, 2011 | Discuss
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Star G14-Y Galaxy 14 oz. Popcorn Popper
- Free Shipping!
Add this item to your cart. (You can remove it at any time.)
- Attractive etched-glass design
- Produces up to (280) 1 oz. servings per hour
- Easy maintenance and dispensing
- UL and NSF Listed; CSA Listed (240V only); 2416W
White Glove Delivery - Available -What is White Glove service?
Standard common carrier delivery options cover the cost of getting an item to your shipping address but our White Glove delivery service does that and more!
The White Glove agent will call to schedule a delivery appointment within a four hour window, which gives you the flexibility to work around your busy schedule and to prepare the space where your item will be placed. Upon delivery, trained professionals will unload your item from the truck, bring it into the room of choice, unpack the item and remove all packaging debris from the premises.
Please note that White Glove delivery will typically add 5 - 7 business days to your order's transit, and only includes 30 minutes of on-site time. If on-site time beyond 30 minutes is required, you may be responsible for additional fees. Additionally, this service does not include set-up of the items being delivered.
Companion Items
|28 1/8 Inches
|24 1/8 Inches
|35 1/2 Inches
|2,416 Watts
|1 oz. Servings / Hour
|280 Servings
|Kettle Material
|Stainless Steel
|Kettle Size
|14 Ounces
|Power Type
The Star G14-Y Galaxy 14 oz. popcorn popper represents a top-line blend of utility and style, featuring an attractive Euro-inspired design and etched glass sides with durable, heavy-duty aluminum posts and a plexiglass door for long-lasting strength. The Galaxy G14-Y comes with an easy-dispensing 14 oz. kettle design and a stainless steel "old maid" drawer to allow you to quickly remove unpopped kernels. With a popping capacity of 280 one ounce servings per hour, it also has the power to keep up with high-demand, fast-paced snack locations.
For easy operation, the popper's control panel includes two switches for separate operation of the kettle heat (top switch), as well as the heat lamp and corn deck (bottom switch). UL and NSF Listed. CSA Listed (240V only). Choose voltage. Please consult the Specification Sheet for additional details.
Overall Dimensions:
Width: 28 1/8"
Depth: 24 1/8"
Height: 35 1/2"
Manufacturer's Item Number(s): G14-Y
UPC Numbers: 663118104932
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Virgo May 2014 Horoscope prediction:
The Virgo horoscope 2014 for May forecasts that this is a splendid period with the sun's conjunction with Jupiter. Career and finance will improve. From mid May your focus will turn to your career and your social standing. You will be in a good shape. You will have good morale and your optimism will boost day by day, reaching the top in the last decanate of May 2014. Ultimately, at the beginning of the month you should have patience and faith in yourself and the ones around you, as you will receive favorable results towards its ending.
If you already have a relationship, this month you will need to pamper your partner. Do be cautious when speaking to your partner. You will damage your relationship if you are feisty. Bridle your impulsiveness and control your stress. You will find that you will be back on track after mid May.
Finances look good this month as well, because of Mercury's presence. There is a nice windfall from the 16th to the 27th. It can happen through your spouse, partner or family members. Do save for the rainy day and stabilize your financial future.
Jupiter in your house of career on May 2014. This transit will last until the 7th of July. Jupiter's influence on your career will open up opportunities and help you accomplish what you want professionally. Handle your team with caution and do avoid confrontation with other departments.
Overall health will be good. But don't overindulge your energies in unwanted activities. You should not overwork yourself and must give the body sufficient rest. Alcohol, drugs and anything else altering vigilance should be avoided.


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Deutsch, Ελληνικά, Español, Français, Indonesian, Italiano, Kiswahili, Kreyòl ayisyen, Melayu, Português, Русский, Soomaaliga, Tagalog, Tiếng Việt, Türkçe, தமிழ், नेपाली, 中文, اردو, 한국어, 日本語, العربية, فارسی, עִברִית, हिन्दी, ไทย, বাংলা, తెలుగు, ગુજરાતી, ລາວ
The Butterfly solar cooker originated in China, where it is made from cast iron. It folds to a flat shape for transport. This cooker is being used by Sun Fire Cooking in Somalia in the village of Bander Bayla, which makes extensive use of solar cooking.


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Nike Basketball Elite Hero Collection Release Details
Fictional heroes take on superhuman characteristics in comics, films, books and television. From speed, strength, vision and intellect these heroes rise to the challenge when the pressure's greatest. LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant are real-life heroes that electrify the basketball universe. The Nike Basketball Elite Series Hero Collection represents the best for the… Read More >>


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We knew Zara had come up trumps again when their £49 lace dress first came into the Grazia office. (In fact, it never went back because one of our fashion assistants bought it!) But even we couldn't have predicted quite how quickly it would fly off the shelves. Insiders at Zara told us they've been selling two dresses an hour and that the dress has sold out across London and the South East. Until today! Yep, this morning a new drop of the lace dresses hits stores. So what are you waiting for? Start thinking of an excuse to get you out of the office and to Zara, like, now...
The sell-out dress of the season is back in stores today!
04 September 2008
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Share (pictured above: Irie Rhythms owners Gorjean and Warren Moore.) It's where "Winston meets Kingston." That's the catchphrase for Warren and Gorjean Moore's new Silas Creek Crossing restaurant, Irie Rhythms. Irie is a JamaicanRead More »
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Movie Reviews - 2000s postsWednesday March 14, 2012
Movie Review: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
SCENE: Upper floors of the Baxter Building, New York City.
TIME: Hours after the Silver Surfer has destroyed Galactus, destroyer of worlds, and saved the Earth.
ENTER: Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffodd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis). They're weary and battered and three of the four slump into whatever furniture is available, while Reed Richards stands.
REED: Alright, I know we're all tired. But now that Galactus and the Silver Surfer are gone, and the Earth is safe again, what are some of the lessons we learned from this latest adventure? Anyone?
[Pause. Everyone looks around.]
SUE: Well, I learned that with great power comes great responsibility!
BEN: Uh... Isn't that Spider-Man's thing?
SUE: OK, so not in those words. But ... you know. Like before I was worried that Reed's and my fantabulous wedding would be too much of a media storm and would affect our lives, and our eventual kids, and we wouldn't have normal lives? And I wanted Reed to settle down and be a professor and me a housewife somewhere far, far away? After we saved the world, I realized we couldn't run away from all that!
JOHNNY: Actually, sis: First, you worried you wouldn't get married. Remember? Only when you were about to get married did you worry about getting married.
SUE: Oh, right.
JOHNNY: That was kind of a drag, to be honest.
BEN: Plus we didn't save the world, Susie. Surfer dude did.
SUE: I did my part! If it wasn't for my big blue eyes and full lips, and the love Reed demonstrated for me, Norrin Radd wouldn't have been reminded of his love for his own woman ... Shallow Bal?
REED: Shalla-Bal. But I don't think he mentioned her name in this—
SUE: The point is ... Because of me, he was reminded of her, and so he decided to save us. Without me and her, that saving-us part wouldn't have happened.
JOHNNY: Can I just say: Surfer? Surfboard? Hello! It's not 1965, people.
BEN: People still surf.
JOHNNY: But it's so dumb. Just because Jack Kirby read an article about surfer dudes back in 1965 and created this guy doesn't mean we gotta keep going with it. I mean: surfing outer space? What the hell?
BEN: Me? I just didn't like how he totally stole our thunder. We didn't even need our super-powers to save the world. Just Susie's big eyes.
JOHNNY: Which look totally fake, by the way.
SUE: They do not!
BEN: King Kirby and Stan the Man, back in issues 48 through 50, they let us stop Galactus. Here we're like walk-ons in our own freakin' movie.
REED: Plus, if the Silver Surfer could actually defeat Galactus, why didn't he do it before? How many worlds has he helped destroy along the way?
BEN: I never understood what people see in that guy.
JOHNNY: I never understood why we kept switching powers.
BEN: That was weird, wasn't it? And of course in the end—poof! Gone.
REED: I think the rationale behind the power-switching was three-fold: One, it allowed for comic relief and hijinks in the middle of the adventure...
BEN: Comic relief when the world is ending?
REED: ...Two, it gave Chiklis face time, which he needs.
BEN: True that.
REED: ...And three, it gave all the fanboys in the crowd a chance to see Sue naked.
SUE: Reed!
REED: Sorry.
JOHNNY: He's right, sis.
BEN (laughing): Remember what you said, Susie?
JOHNNY (in high-pitched voice): "Why does this always happen to me?"
BEN (laughing): Why does this always happen to me? That's a good one!
SUE: Guys!
REED: Sorry, Sue. Fanboys want wish fulfillment, and that's where Johnny and Ben come in—and me, to a certain extent—but...
BEN: But they also want to get their rocks off.
JOHNNY: And that's where you come in.
SUE: [Sighs.]
JOHNNY: Yeah, like that. But deeper. More chesty.
REED: OK. Any other lessons learned?
JOHNNY: Well, I learned that, sure, being a shallow, hotshot celebrity with hot chicks and a cool superpower is all well and good. But at the end of the day, or the end of the world, whichever comes first, you really want that special someone to cuddle with.
REED: With whom to cuddle.
JOHNNY: Whatever. So anyway that's why I'm going for the hot military chick.
REED: What's her name again?
JOHNNY: You know... hot military chick. Captain Something.
BEN: True love.
REED: What do like about her?
JOHNNY: I don't know.
REED: What do you have in common?
JOHNNY: I don't know. She's... She was there at a time when I realized that boffing girls isn't, you know, fulfilling.
BEN: Poor you.
REED: Didn't you also learn something about being part of a team, too?
JOHNNY: Yeah. That was weird. Kind of tacked on. And wasn't that Sue's lesson?
BEN: What about you, Big Brain? You learn anything?
REED: Well, I learned that some of the officers in the U.S. Armed Forces aren't very nice.
JOHNNY: Totally! That dude was a major asshole.
BEN: General Asshole.
JOHNNY: He asks for our help and then insults us the whole time?
BEN: He got you so mad you had to brag about yourself. (Laughs.)
JOHNNY: Oh man, that was dumb. I was so embarrassed for you.
SUE: Right, right. The whole "I'm the quarterback and you're the nerd." "Well, I'm the nerd with the hot chick and you want my help."
REED: I know, I know.
JOHNNY: Wait, what was that other line? The lamest line of them all?
SUE: "It's 15 years later and now I'm one of the greatest minds of the 21st century!"
JOHNNY: That's the one!
[Everyone but Reed laughs.]
REED: I know, I know. But I couldn't stop myself. It was as if someone really, really stupid was inside my head making me say those words.
SUE: I know the feeling.
JOHNNY: Me, too.
REED: It's odd. The whole thing. [He looks around.] It's as if someone really stupid made us these narrow caricatures, then had us realize we shouldn't be narrow caricatures. You know. Johnny's shallow and flip so he has to get serious. I'm too serious, so I have to dance with models and brag about my brain. Sue wants to end the Fantastic Four because of what snarky girls say about her on TV, so...
JOHNNY: God, that was dumb.
REED: I mean, those are our lessons? While we save the world?
BEN: While we watch Surfer dude save the world.
JOHNNY: You're right, Reed. And the sad thing is, at the beginning, it felt like it was supposed to be our greatest, most epic adventure. Yet it turned into our lamest adventure.
BEN: Probably our last one, too.
SUE: No, Ben. I learned my lesson. That we're all in this together. Remember?
REED: I think he means something else, Sue.
JOHNNY: We're getting the boot.
BEN: The re-boot.
REED: Eventually. When the taste of this one has finally left people's mouths.
JOHNNY: Which should be in about ... 10 years.
BEN: What a revoltin'... shame.
SUE [mockingly]: "I'm one of the greatest minds of the 21st century."
REED: I know, I know.
Tags: Movie Reviews, Fantastic Four, Superhero Movies, Jessica Alba, Tim Story, Chris Evans, Marvel Comics
2 Comments | Permalink
Movie Review: Fantastic Four (2005)
As you age, you begin to question the legend.
Legend has it that in the early 1960s, beginning with the utterly original Fantastic Four, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby rescued the superhero genre from the cheesy, soporific clutches of DC Comics and made it anew. They gave it continuity: what happened last issue mattered this issue. The characters became human and relatable: they fought; they moped; eventually they separated and divorced. Superheroes had always been wish fulfillment but it was Stan Lee's particular genius to wed the fantasy (this guy is superstrong and can climb walls...) with identification (...even though he's a mopey teenager like me!).
That's the legend and it's more or less true. What you begin to question is the utter originality of the Fantastic Four. As conceptions go, its wasn't so immaculate.
Plastic Man, Invisible Man, Human Torch and ROMMBU!
I'm not talking about how DC's Jack Liebowitz supposedly bragged about the sales of its Justice League of America comic books to Marvel publisher Martin Goodman, who then demanded, of his editor-in-chief Stan Lee, a team of superheroes. I'm talking about the superpowers. Each is derivative of an earlier character. Mr. Fantastic can stretch like Plastic Man (created 1941), the Invisible Girl can turn invisible like the Invisible Man (created 1897), and the Thing is a rock creature like so many of the odd-named rock creations that kept Marvel afloat in their near superhero-less 1950s (Moomba and Krogarr and Rommbu and the like). The Human Torch, meanwhile, borrows both name and powers from the WWII-era creation of Carl Burgos. None of it is very original.
The Fantastic Four's origin story, meanwhile, is inevitably trapped within the absurdities of its time. In Fantastic Four #1, published in November 1961, Ben Grimm is a test pilot (with a temper) and Reed Richards is a scientist (with a pipe), and they have to travel into outer space fast or else, in the words of Sue Storm, "the commies ... beat us to it!" Why does she tag along? Because she's Reed's fiancée, of course. Why does her younger brother, Johnny, tag along into outer space with the three of them? Because he's the younger brother of the fiancée of the guy who, like, designed the whole rocket ship. Duh! And so all four sneak into the rocket ship at night and launch it, we're told, "before the guard can stop them." That's guard, singular.
Despite the legend, in other words, some of it is pretty hokey stuff. So it's not wholly the fault of director Tim Story ("Barbershop"; "Taxi"), and screenwriters Mark Frost ("Twin Peaks") and Michael France ("Hulk"), that their 2005 movie, "Fantastic Four," sucks.
R-E-S-P-E-C ... Aw, screw it
Story and company make attempts, feints, at updating and modernizing the story in a positive way. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) is now a brainiac scientist (without a pipe) who has gone broke, and who, with his pal Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), proposes to business tycoon and egomaniac Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), late of Latveria, that a cosmic storm may have been responsible for the evolutionary jump in humankind; and another cosmic storm, like the first one, is fast approaching and needs to be studied in space. Doom agrees, but demands a 75-25 split on any profits resulting from their scientific studies, then demands that his current girlfriend, and Richards' old one, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), along with her hotshot younger brother, Johnny (Chris Evans), who used to be Ben Grimm's underling, come along for the ride. And that's how they all wind up in space together—with Doom this time—to encounter those cosmic rays.
Except ... aren't the filmmakers cadging the evolutionary bit from the "X-Men" movies? And does it even make sense considering the results? The next step in evolution is... becoming super stretchy? Or invisible? Or a rock man?
There's an attempt to explain this, too—to wed the power to the personality—but it's pretty weak connective tissue. Johnny's a hotshot, so... Sue feels invisible to Reed, so... Dr. Doom tells Reed at the beginning that he's "always stretching, always reaching for the stars," so...
But the casting's not bad, right? In theory? Gruffudd is properly dull and brainy and Chiklis is properly gruff and working class and Evans is cocky and flip and gives us some good line readings. And Jessica Alba... She takes off her clothes a lot. Right?
Alright, screw it, the thing's just dumb, monumentally dumb. The filmmakers give us a feint at "X-Men"-like respectability but then double-down on dumb. The movie felt lost to me forever when Doom introduced Richards and Grimm to "My director of genetic research...," and we get a shot of the 23-year-old Jessica Alba sauntering sexily toward the camera. No wonder his company goes under.
Doubling down on dumb
Here. Another example. Let's say you're a sexy nurse (Maria Menounos). Let's say you're such a sexy nurse that you're only known as "Sexy Nurse" in the closing credits. And let's say you have a patient, Johnny Storm, recently returned from outer space, and you're involved in the fairly simple task of taking his temperature. He flirts a bit, then declares he's going snowboarding even as you're read his temperature: 208 degrees! WTF? So what do you do?
- Alert the doctor.
- Take his temperature again.
- Shrug and go snowboarding with him. Totally.
Then on the downhill run, right before your eyes, he bursts into flame, begins to fly a bit, then crashes into a snowbank where the heat from his body creates its own little snowbunny hot tub, which is where he stands, half naked, and invites you in. What do you do?
- Alert the doctor.
- Alert the fire department.
- Shrug, and begin to take off your clothes to join him.
The whole movie is like this. The big early set piece, the introduction of the FF to New York and the world, occurs on the Brooklyn Bridge. Ben Grimm is brooding there because his fiancée, Debbie (Laurie Holden), whom we've never met before, races outside in a short nightie to greet him, but runs, stumbles away when she sees the orange, rock man he's become. Poor Ben! So he's feeling sorry for himself when a jumper shows up and contemplates the East River. Ben turns to him and growls, "You think you got problems, pal?" (Good line.) The jumper stumbles back in panic, but into traffic, and Ben has to save him, which causes a massive, dozen-car pile-up in the middle of the bridge, which causes a firetruck to crash through the bridge's barrier and teeter (like the schoolbus in "Superman: The Movie") over the edge. It takes all of the powers of the Fantastic Four to save the firemen. The reaction to this is two-fold. The NYPD draw guns on the four, particularly on the giant orange rock man; but the NYFD, now saved, burst into applause, and they're joined by the populace on the walkways, who aren't freaked by the orange rock-man, or the super-stretchy guy, or the hot invisible girl. Why would they be? They know heroes when they see them. Even if the Thing did create the disaster in the first place.
Then it gets worse.
At this moment, with the four basking in the applause, Debbie suddenly shows up in the middle of the bridge. Was she drawn by the network coverage? Did she just happen to be there anyway? Is she going to ask for forgiveness? Of course not. She's not supposed to be with him. He's supposed to be with Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington), who's blind, see, and so doesn't mind that he's an orange rock man. She goes beyond sight, and touch, and senses the good man within the hideous monster. Debbie, that bitch, doesn't (hence the short nightie on the city streets). So on the bridge, as her fiancé is being applauded by all of New York, she removes her engagement ring and drops it on the pavement and walks away. Poor Ben! He then tries to pick it up but can't with his giant rock fingers. Poor Ben! He's trapped in a world he never made!
We have no emotional investment in Debbie and Ben at this point. We barely have emotional investment in Ben. And why is he always shocked when everyone stumbles away from him in panic? Has he forgotten what he looks like? Does he think people are better than they are?
Schtupping Sue Storm
I could go on. The high, reedy voice Doom has even when he dons his mask. The fact that they make Reed Richards quiet and dull rather than talkative and dull. The idiotic dialogue:
Johnny: Sue stop, you're not mum. Don't talk to me like I'm a little boy, okay?
Sue: Maybe I would if you stopped acting like one. Do you even hear yourself? Who do you think you are?
Johnny: Why is everyone on my ass? If you guys are jealous, that's fine; I didn't expect it to come from you, though.
Sue: You really think those people out there care about you? You're just a fad to them, Johnny!
But the dumbest part of the movie has to be the love triangle between Reed, Sue and Victor.
Reed and Sue were a couple in college but apparently he didn't pay enough attention to her—he thought too much and didn't act enough—so she left him. And now she's Director of Genetic Research for Doom, Inc., or whatever it's called, while dating its CEO, Dr. Doom. All of this is treated semi-comically. It's used to get Reed Richards' goat. Hah! Dude, you totally lost the sexy girl cause you think too much! You shoulda nailed that shit. Like daily. Like hourly. Totally.
- She's dating the CEO? Is that how she got the job?
- She's dating the CEO even though she doesn't care for him? Does she always do this? Use her looks to advance her position with powerful men? Should this have been a Sam Peckinpah movie?
- She's schtupping the CEO? She must be, right, because he proposes. So why didn't we get that scene? Sue Storm and Victor Von Doom doing the nasty. The whole thing wouldn't seem so semi-comic then. She wouldn't seem so sympathetic then.
Seriously, comic-book geeks have to stop with this love-triangle shit between hero, villain and girl if they want the girl to remain sympathetic at all. The only reason Sue Storm remains sympathetic here is because in her moments alone with Doom she obviously doesn't care for Doom. So why is she with him? Is she playing him? Does she know her own heart? If Reed Richards hadn't come along with his cosmic-ray proposal, would she have married Doom, this rich man, and become vice president of the company?
Between Debbie, Sue Storm, and Sexy Nurse, women don't come off well in "Fantastic Four," do they?
Straw Man vs. Superman
Even if you don't know the FF, even if you don't know Ben Grimm from Rommbu, it's obvious Sue and Reed will get together in this movie. It's obvious Doom is creepy and vain and fixated on Reed Richards in an unhealthy way. So the love triangle, such as it is, is basically a straw-man subplot: created for the illusion of drama; created only to be torn down. We know where everything is going and it winds up there without anything interesting happening along the way. I suppose that's where acting comes in. I suppose that's where good dialogue and plotting and pacing comes in. "FF" gives us none of these.
Let's look at something that works. Let's look at, say, "Superman: The Movie." We know that Superman will save Lois Lane so the question is how he saves Lois Lane. Wait, he doesn't? She dies? She's buried alive in her car? Oh, then he reverses the earth's rotation to bring her back to life? That's kind of lame.
So why does it work?
Pacing. Acting. Feeling.
Margot Kidder and director Richard Donner actually give us a sense of what it's like to be buried alive, and choke, and die. It's pretty horrific. Christopher Reeve gives us a sense of what it's like to lose someone you love. His later sense of relief, as she bitches about her car, is palpable. It's touching and funny at the same time.
What does it feel like to burst into flame? To stretch? To turn invisible? We get none of that in "Fantastic Four." What's it like to be in love? To lose your love? Sorry, can't stop now. We're in too much of a hurry to get to the next uninteresting moment on our fixed path to the inevitable end.
What a revoltin' development.
Tags: Movie Reviews, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Marvel Comics, Fantastic Four, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Superhero Movies
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Movie Review: Ghost Rider (2007)
At what point did the makers of "Ghost Rider" decide, "Ah, fuck it"? When they hired Nicholas Cage instead of Eric Bana? When Cage began playing Elvis playing Johnny Blaze and no one said shit? When they hired writer-director Mark Steven Johnson, who was hot off his abysmal 2003 version of "Daredevil"?
Or was it when they read the source material?
"Ghost Rider" was part of that awful wave of horror-hero hybrids from Marvel Comics in the 1970s, a wave that began when the Comics Code Authority, which was rapidly losing its authority, allowed traditional horror characters back into comics. As a result, Marvel, which 10 years earlier had reinvented the superhero genre with Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four, was suddenly offering its version of creature-feature night: "Tomb of Dracula," "Swamp Thing," "Werewolf by Night," "Son of Satan," and, yes, "Ghost Rider," in which a motorcycle stuntman named Johnny Blaze turns into a superpowerful, hell-spawned demon with a flaming skull, and rides around town doing … whatever it is he does. Does he fight crime or fight the Devil? Or both? I'm not sure because I never read the damned thing.
A friend of mine did. What I thought was schlock—flaming skulls, chains and leather, chopper motorcycles—he thought was cool. This has been the basic disagreement between fans and non-fans ever since. What's cool? What's schlock? The makers of "Ghost Rider," knowing they would never appeal to people like me, decided to double-down on schlock. They give us carneys and cowboys and yee-ha rubes and bounty hunters for the Devil and Eva Mendes doing newscasts in a tight, cleavage-baring shirt and Nicholas Cage doing Elvis doing Johnny Blaze. They give us ripostes that make Schwarzenegger's seem scripted by Shakespeare:
Criminal: Have mercy!
Ghost Rider (low growl): Sorry! All out of mercy!
The movie is more plothole than story. Young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) is about to ditch his father and their carney motorcycle act for true love, his sweetheart Roxanne (Raquel Alessi), for whom he carves initials into the only tree visible for miles. Except the cough Dad has? Cancer, dude. Totally. But in walks the Devil (Peter Fonda) with a proposition: Dad's health for Johnny's soul. While Johnny is thinking about it, oops, a drop of his blood spills on the contract. Apparently this makes it a done deal. Hardly seems fair to me, let alone legal. Isn't there a lawyer Johnny could've hired? Blaze v. Mephistopheles. Who wouldn't take that case? The arguments over jurisdiction alone would make a career.
The Devil being the Devil, which is to say devilish, cures Barton Blaze's cancer but causes him to die in a motorcycle crash the same day. Doesn't Johnny die, too, at the crossroads where the Devil lives? The contract has now been rushed into effect and the Devil issues a warning: "Forget about friends, forget about family, forget about love. You're mine now, Johnny Blaze."
At which point he disappears for 20 years.
During that time, Johnny (now Nick Cage) forgets about family, forgets about love, but gains fame as the Evel Knievel of his generation. He jumps everything—cars, trucks, helicopters—because he doesn't fear death. Why should he? He doesn't even know if he's alive. But in his dressing room, with his friend, Mack (Donal Logue), he broods about second chances. Then he cranks the Carpenters. A nice bit, actually. My favorite bit in the movie.
At this point, Roxanne (now Eva Mendes) re-enters his world as a pushy TV reporter with a push-up bra and a bit of attitude for the way Johnny ditched her. But persistence wins her over again and they make a date. Unfortunately, and from the Dept. of Insane Coincidences, this is the very moment that the Devil's son, Blackheart (poor Wes Bentley, who once seemed so promising), in defiance of his father, enters the world to take it over. The Devil can't stop him (for some reason) but Johnny can (for some reason), which is why, instead of the date with the girl he ditched 20 years earlier because he'd become the Devil's rider, he finally becomes, for the first time, the Devil's rider. His body starts smoking, Cage starts overacting, and eventually his face bursts into a flaming skull. This initial transformation is long and traumatic but subsequent changes become smoother as the plot necessitates.
As for what brings Blackheart here? For that, backstory.
You see, there was another ghost rider before Johnny, a cowboy in the 19th century who was instructed to bring the Devil a contract claiming a thousand souls in the town of San Venganza. But he knew this contract would make the Devil too powerful so he reneged on the deal and galloped away and hid the contract. And that's what Blackheart is after: the contract containing the lost souls of San Venganza.
- How can anyone escape the Devil?
- How does anyone hide something from the Devil?
- Is Blackheart related to Daimon Hellstrom? How about Little Nicky?
In his quest, Blackheart gathers minions of his own, ghouls with long dark coats and long scraggly hair who can hide in the elements—there a sand guy, a water guy and a wind guy—and they leave a trail of dead bodies in their search for the contract. When Johnny shows up, Blackheart sics all three minions on him at once. Kidding. That would be too logical. They attack him one at a time so he can defeat them one at a time and lengthen out the movie.
But let's fast-forward to one of the dumbest scenes in movie history. After his first transformation, Johnny wakes in a church graveyard, where a good-natured Texan named Caretaker (Sam Elliott), whose voiceover explained the San Venganza backstory to us at the beginning of the movie, relays this selfsame backstory to Johnny. You'd never guess it, if you were a moron, but Caretaker turns out to be the original Ghost Rider. And when Blackheart takes Roxanne prisoner in the town of San Venganza, Caretaker whistles for his horse, Johnny whistles for his motorcycle, and both, in defiance of the movie's internal logic, and without seeming pain, burst into flame-skulled ghost riders and ride across the Texas plains together as "(Ghost) Rider of the Sky" plays on the soundtrack.
Wait, it gets better. At the outskirts of San Venganza, Caretaker suddenly pulls up. He says adios. He says, "I could only change one more time and I saved it for this." For ... the ride? Why didn't you save it for the fight? Wouldn't that have made more sense? Seriously, dude, pull your head out of your ass.
I admit I'm no fan of this character. Ghost Rider gets his powers from the ultimate source of evil yet somehow isn't controlled by that evil. There should be this ongoing tension between Johnny and the Devil, this "Devil and Daniel Webster" brand of one-upmanship, but we never get that. We don't get close to that. Instead, we get exchanges like this:
Johnny: I sure wish things could've turned out different.
Roxanne: No. This is what you were meant to be.
Cool, schlock, whatever. Did they have to make it so blisteringly stupid?
Tags: Ghost Rider, Superhero Movies, Movie Reviews, Nicolas Cage
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Movie Review: Katyn (2007)
At the start of "Katyn," a Polish drama about the massacre of 20,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940, a group of refugees fleeing the German invasion in September 1939 wait for a train to pass and then set off across a bridge to what they think is safety. Halfway across, they meet another group of Polish refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion. Each warns the other group that they're going the wrong way. A succinct dramatization of the Polish dilemma.
Unfortunately, melodrama has become the lingua franca of foreign movies dealing with unspeakable, World War II-era horrors. So it was with the rape of Nanjing in both the Chinese film "City of Life and Death" and the German film "John Rabe." So it was with the Vel' d'Hiv round-up of Jews in Nazi-occupied France in "La rafle" and in "Oorlogswinter," that bildungsroman of Nazi-occupied Holland. And so here.
"Katyn," directed by Andrzej Wajda, was nominated best foreign language film at the 2007 Academy Awards, (it lost to "The Counterfeiters") so I guess I expected a lot. Or more.
From the refugees on the bridge, two faces emerge: Anna (Maja Ostaszewska) and her daughter Nika (Wiktoria Gasiewska). They're rushing toward the Soviet side to find Anna's husband, Andrzej (Artur Zmijewski), a Polish military officer; but the closer they get, the worse the news. The Uhlan, the Polish cavalry, is no more. The invasion is over. Poland is taken. Soldiers captured by the Soviets are let go but officers remain POWs. She arrives at a camp, looking no worse for wear, only to see doctors operating on the wounded, an INRI crucifix missing its Christ, and rows of dead. It's Nika who spots daddy's coat with the blue ribbon on it. It's draped over a body, where a priest is administering last rites. With a trembling hand, Ann removes it and finds the missing statue of Christ. This prefigures future mix-ups involving corpses and clothes but one still wonders why the priest was administering last rites to a statue. A ruse? Was he hiding the Christ figure from the Soviets? I assumed they knocked the figure off its cross but maybe he did to save it.
At the POW camp, we finally meet Andrzej and his more cynical companion Jerzy (Andrzej Chyra). Andrzej is planning on writing down all that happens, recording it for posterity, while Jerzy feels things are more ominous than that:
Jerzy: The future is bleak.
Andrzej: Meaning?
Jerzy: The Soviets haven't signed the Geneva Convention.
We get a few good, short conversations between the two. When Andrzej mentions that tanks can be rebuilt but trained officers are irreplaceable, Jerzy responds, "I hope the Soviets don't realize that." His best, truest line comes shortly thereafter: "Buttons. That's what will be left of us." But these conversations don't build toward anything. Andrzej is honorable and attentive; Jerzy foresees doom. For good friends, they have little to talk about.
In the camp, which is not yet fenced in, Anna sees him, goes to him, cries. She begs him to flee with her in the confusion, but he refuses and winds up shipped to a Soviet camp. She and Nika, meanwhile, are trapped on the Soviet side. One wonders what she was doing in the first place. Who drags a six-year-old across half of Poland, in the middle of a war, to find a military officer?
The German side isn't any better, of course. In November 1939, in Krakow, Andrzej's mother (Maja Komorowska ) urges her husband, Jan (Wladyslaw Kowalski), a distinguished-looking university professor, mulling over clippings of his handsome son, to refrain from a university meeting with the S.S. But, as with the son, he does the honorable thing and stands by the chancellor during what he imagines will be a conversation with the Germans. But there is no conversation. The Poles are chastised for opening the university without permission and sent to the Sachsenhausen camp, where Prof. Jan dies of cardiac arrest.
So it goes. Characters are perfunctorily introduced only to die or disappear. Anna escapes from the Soviets with the help of a Russian captain (who has something of Tommy Lee Jones' sad gaze about him), but then he's off to the Finnish front. Dasvidania. Anna and Nika make it back to Krakow no worse for wear. There, the General's wife, Roza (Danuta Stenka), gazes out windows, her stylish hat cocked at an angle.
Then suddenly it's 1943 and Roza is ordered by the Germans, now at war with the USSR, to denounce the Soviet massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest; but, even after seeing horrific footage, she refuses to be used for Nazi propaganda purposes.
Then suddenly it's 1945, Poland belongs to the Soviet Union now, which claims that the Katyn massacre was a German operation in the spring of '41, not a Soviet operation in the spring of '40, and to say otherwise means death. Even so, Roza says it in the town square ("It's a lie"), where names of the Katyn dead are read through a tinny loudspeaker. Jerzy, who has survived, pulls her away but she shows no gratitude and accuses him of being just like the Soviets. Off she goes into the fog. And in he goes to a bar, where he gets drunk and speaks the truth, then walks out into the night and shoots himself in the head. Do widzenia.
Other characters emerge. Tadeusz (Antoni Pawlicki) is an enthusiastic student whose father died at Katyn and he gets in trouble for tearing down a Soviet propaganda poster. Pursued through the streets of Krakow, he's aided by Ewa, whom we saw earlier (on the bridge?), but who is now all grown up ((Agnieszka Kawiorska). The two talk movies, plan on meeting the next night at the local theater, share a kiss, but upon departing Tadeusz runs into the pursuing Soviet officers, who chase him into oncoming traffic. Do widzenia.
Meanwhile, Agnieszka (Magdalena Cielecka), of the long blonde hair and the hard, world-weary look, has her hair cut to pay for a tombstone for her brother, another Katyn victim, but includes the year, 1940, making it a Soviet massacre, and for that .... Do widzenia.
Finally, Ann receives Andrzej's diary, and we get the massacre, which is horrific, in flashback.
These last scenes are powerful but by this point we've given up on the movie. I like some aspect of it in theory—characters introduced just to die, approximating the value of life in war and under totalitarianism—but the glue holding it together is still the stuff of soap opera: Anna crying across half of Poland, the cute kids kissing, Roza in her rakish hat gazing. The crime is a double crime: the massacre itself and then lying about it for decades; and the film is a reminder that, unlike western Europe, unlike the French or British or even the Germans, the Poles were not freed in 1945 but continued to live under an occupying force, an oppressive tyranny, for decades.
Even so, it's a plain movie. Our unspeakable horrors—the Holocaust, the Rape of Nanjing, the Katyn massacre—deserve better.
Tags: Movie Reviews, War Movies, World War II Movies, Polish Movies, Melodrama in WWII Movies
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Movie Review: Hulk (2003)
The Hulk is the ultimate fantasy figure of the weak and average. One moment he's a normal dude, Bruce Banner, a scientist; the next moment, he's a huge, muscle-bound, inarticulate rage machine that can destroy anything in front of him. He is rage personified. He is how we like to envision our own rage. We like to move through the world thinking, "Don't make me angry; you wouldn't like me when I'm angry," when, let's face it, almost no one is scared if we become angry. Our rage is generally impotent. We destroy nothing in front of us.
So if you're going to create a movie that taps into the Hulk fantasy, under what circumstances would you have Bruce Banner hulk out? When provoked by bullies? Criminals? Authority figures?
Here's what causes Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) to morph into the Hulk in Ang Lee's "Hulk":
- He thinks about stuff in his lab, then upends a janitor's pail in the hallway.
- He gets into a fight with his nemesis, Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas).
- He has a nightmare in a sleep-deprivation chamber.
- His father (Nick Nolte) turns into a giant electro-creature in front of him.
Only 2) comes close to what we want.
That's not even the worst part. Here's the worst part. Between incidents 2) and 3), Talbot, as battered as Evel Knievel after a bad jump, returns to provoke Banner again in the hope of finding out more about the Hulk gene. He tasers him—once, twice, five times. Then he decks him. Nothing. "Consciously you may control it," Talbot tells Banner's supine figure. "But subconsciously? I bet that's another story."
Consciously you may control it? The whole point of the Hulk is that you can't control it. If Bruce Banner could control it, you wouldn't even have a story.
I'm sorry to harp on this, but of all the stupid ways a modern superhero movie has deviated from the source material, this is one of the stupidest. I'd call it the second stupidest—right after the way filmmakers exonerated the Burglar for the murder of Uncle Ben in "Spider-Man 3" and thus ruined Spider-Man's whole raison d'etre. Don't get me started on that one.
I watched Ang Lee's "Hulk" again recently with the thought that maybe we were all being harsh when we dismissed it back in 2003. It was the movie Lee made between "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Brokeback Mountain." How bad could it be?
Awful, it turns out. Horrible. Lee takes a fairly simple story and complicates it with angry, unforgiving fathers, a nothing romance, a non-entity for a protagonist, and zippy split-screens and quadruple screens, popular in 1960s art-house cinema, but here representative of comic panels. Except they just get in the way.
We begin in the mid-1960s with military scientist David Banner (Paul Kersey), against orders from Gen. "Thunderbolt" Ross (Todd Tesen), intent on manipulating the human immune system. After he experiments on himself, his wife tells him she's pregnant. Oops. And yes, he passes the genetic modification on to his son.
The sins of the father grow worse. He treats little Bruce like a science experiment. He takes away his binky and watches his skin turn vaguely green when he bawls. WHAT HAS BEEN PASSED ON? he writes. He gives him monsters to play with then studies his blood. CONFIRMS MY WORST FEARS, he writes. Before he can cure him, though, Ross fires Banner for ignoring protocol, and in response Banner ... launches a gamma bomb? Is that right? How does a scientist get the authority to do that? And what does that green mushroom cloud have to do with anything? Is it to distract everyone so Banner can return home and kill his son? Instead he knifes the mother right in front of the son. "It was as if she, and the knife, merged," the older, more bat-shit Banner (Nolte) says, later, in one of the film's good lines. "You can't imagine the unbearable finality of it."
But Bruce, already a bottled-up child, represses the memory (we don't see the knifing until the third act), gets adopted, and becomes a scientist like the crazy dad he doesn't remember. We're nearly 12 minutes in our seats, our popcorn nearly gone, before we see the adult Bruce shaving in his mirror, biking to work, and remaining emotionally unavailable to the best-looking scientist who ever walked the planet, his ex, and lab partner, Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly at her most smoking). Yes, "Thunderbolt" Ross' daughter. Small world.
Smaller world: They're trying to improve the human immune system, too! Just like David Banner! He killed a monkey in the process, they explode a frog or two. Then Banner's assistant stumbles, sets off the gamma radiation, and Bruce purposefully takes the brunt of it. Cue muffled g-bomb explosion inside him. Nice effect, actually.
In the hospital, Bruce has two visitors: Betty, who cries, and complains, and doesn't acknowledge his bravery (which would totally suck); and the new janitor with his crazy hair and mean dogs, who turns out to be Bruce's biological and bat-shit dad (ditto).
For some reason—repressed memory of the killing of the mother?—Bruce gets really pissed off by the presence of bat-shit dad. In fact, back in the lab, it pisses him off so much he turns into a giant green monster. This occurs without any provocation from anyone and 42 minutes into the film. Talk about a downer.
It gets worse. The crazy father who wanted to save his son from genetic mutation has become the crazier father who wants to save the genetic mutation from his son. In this endeavor he sees Betty as an obstacle (he's right: she can tame the Hulk) and so sics giant dogs, including a giant French poodle, on her. But Bruce hulks outs and battles them. Then in a quiet moment in her battered car, Bruce, not the Hulk, but Bruce almost chokes her. Nice. Is this why she betrays him to her father (now Sam Elliot), who locks him up? But Talbot's dickish ways unleash the Hulk again, who escapes and goes bouncing around the American southwest pursued by army helicopters. He winds up in San Francisco, where the battle between a giant green creature and the U.S. military draws many onlookers, zero news cameras and one hot female scientist. When Hulk sees Betty, he goes from a huge, engorged creature to something small, limp, and vulnerable. It's the anti-Freudian stance. Hulk is angry but innocent. The monster inside us is actually sweeter than we are.
This sets up the final, crazy showdown between the Banners, and the epilogue in Central America. "No me hagas enfadar; no te va a gustar cuando este enfadado." These 30 seconds are the best part of the movie.
"Hulk" isn't all bad. I like Bruce's early admission to Betty, "You know what scares me the most? When it comes over me, and I totally lose control... I like it." Connelly is good, too. Her flirtations with Bruce are fun, but they run into the blank wall of his character and dissipate.
Other than that, "Hulk" is an overlong, poorly edited, poorly directed, pointless mess. It wants to say something deep and winds up saying nothing.
Even the writing team of James Schamus ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"), Michael France ("Goldeneye") and John Turman (uh... "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer") disappoint. Early on, before anyone Hulks out, Talbot wants to buy (take over) Bruce and his research team. Bruce refuses. They lock eyes. Then they have the following exchange:
Talbot: You know, someday I'm going to write a book. And I'm going to call it 'When Stupid Ideals Happen to Smart Penniless Scientists.'
Bruce: Wow, that's a shitty title.
Talbot: No, the point is—
Bruce: Why not "Smart Scientists, Stupid Ideals"? Isn't that simpler?
Talbot: Listen, I'm—
Bruce: You call yourself a businessman? You don't even know how to sell anything.
Kidding. That's my rewrite. Here's how the scene really played out:
Talbot: You know, someday I'm going to write a book. And I'm going to call it 'When Stupid Ideals Happen to Smart Penniless Scientists.'
Bruce, fuming, stares at Talbot, who leaves.
Erik smash.
Tags: Hulk, Ang Lee, Superhero Movies, Movie Reviews, Eric Bana, Nick Nolte
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Tropical Fish Fillets
A hint of lime, cilantro, coriander, cumin seasons these fish fillets. Writes Adrene Schmidt of Waldersee, Manitoba, "My husband and I have four children and we all like fish. Sometimes you have to do a little something exotic with it to add some spice to life. This recipe does just that."
4 Servings
Prep/Total Time: 20 min.
4 orange roughy
red snapper fillets (6 ounces
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon grated lime peel
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Coat fish fillet with flour. In a large nonstick skillet, melt
butter. Add fillets; cook over medium-high heat for 3 minutes on
each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove and keep
warm. In the same skillet, add the remaining ingredients; cook for
2-3 minutes or until heated through, stirring constantly. Serve over
fillets. Yield: 4 servings.
Nutritional Facts:
1 fillet with 2 tablespoons sauce equals 170 calories, 4 g fat (2 g saturated fat), 42 mg cholesterol, 215 mg sodium, 6 g carbohydrate, trace fiber, 26 g protein.
Diabetic Exchanges:
lean meat, 1/2 starch.
Light-Bodied White Wine: Enjoy this recipe with a
© Taste of Home 2014
2 of 2
Tropical Fish Fillets
Wine (continued)
light-bodied white wine such as
Sauvignon Blanc
Pinot Grigio
© Taste of Home 2014


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By Troy Farah
By New Times
A former pro surfer before a collision with a reef led him to reconsider his options, Jack Johnson got a great jump-start penning "Rodeo Clowns" with G. Love on a beach one weekend in 1999. Like Love, Johnson favors simmering acoustic-folk with a jazzy R&B undercurrent. The Hawaii native's honeyed vocals are preternaturally sweet, as if Van Morrison were reborn into the body of Dave Matthews, like Warren Beatty in Heaven Can Wait. Unlike his more jam-driven bluesy brethren, Johnson is more drawn to the pop element and the singer-songwriter vein. It's suited to his über-charismatic, ultra-laid-back style. Call it his surfer's legacy, but don't underestimate Johnson's ability to put all the elements together in insidiously catchy, kindhearted music. With that astoundingly clear and warm voice, it's actually a bit surprising he's not already topping the charts. This year's In Between Dreams is his best yet (though the changes have been incremental, and largely confined to improved songwriting), and recalls the rustic blues-pop of onetime tourmate Mason Jennings.