Cave of Forgotten Dreams review

He ran away from the circus to become a scientist. One of the charming experts featured in The Cave of Forgotten Dreams was so moved by the experience of visiting the Chauvet Cave that it changed his life (he still LOOKED like a juggler though).
This film may not have outright changed my life but it did fill me with awe and inspire me to experiment with 3D cinematography - do the people have to look so flat? It also made me wonder about the ethics of inflicting confusing accents on audiences for extended periods of time. Not even so much accents as voices - the filmmaker, Warner Herzog has a distinctive slow, 'storyteller' style of narration. (Here I was thinking 'Plastic Bag' had had an affected voice for humour's sake).

For me, the experience of watching this film was like a fairytale education - relaxing in the darkness and getting absorbed in the magic of this underground world. For my boyfriend, it was a long drawn out struggle to stay awake - a real test of love! "But I enjoyed the first 45minutes" he assured me. Didn't he marvel at the last part where finally the narrator just left us to the cave to enjoy without his sleepy commentary? "Well, yeah but I was already tired by then - why couldn't they have had that quiet beautiful part at the beginning and THEN explained all about it?". The man at the theatre had wished us good luck because, personally, he hated it. "I was bagging it just now actually. The narration - how wanky!" Got to love his honesty. "But you know, you might love it if you're an anthropologist, or an archeologist or something - are you an archeologist?" I'm not but really, you don't have to be, it probably wouldn't be academically in depth enough for archeologists. I'm sure they, and most people watching this film, would love it though. If you're a movie 'buff' like our man at the cinema, you might not like it stylistically as a film, but you will be amazed by the beauty. Sparkling stalactites and stalagmites, formations I'd never seen hanging like curtains from the cave roof, the way the shapes and depth of the cave is rendered in 3D, and most of all, the grace and energy of the cave art and the powerful way the lighting was used to reveal it.

My boyfriend didn't feel he'd learnt that much but then he knew a bit about the caves already. I, on the other hand, was amazed even to discover there had once been rhinoceroses in Europe! I was also fascinated (and admittedly a bit disappointed) by the fact that there were so few signs of human life aside from the rock art. And was I the only one who couldn't see the depiction of the lower half of a woman? Perhaps none of the audience saw it - after all, my boyfriend was likely half asleep at that point and the only other people in the audience were two old and grey couples and perhaps the 3D glasses didn't sit well over their ordinary ones. Maybe I was the only one awake in the darkness, the tiny audience was as silent as the grave. I did like the end where I felt alone in the wonder of the cave, exploring by torchlight.

The part right at the end though, well! I think I'll leave you to make up your own mind what that wee director's add on was for? How shall we tie up this cave art documentary? How about dreaming doppelganger nuclear-albino crocodiles? Did the circus guy have a hand in this or is this just Herzog trying to mess with people who go stoned to 3D movies?

Soupe du jaune

It's officially Spring and the first Spring morning was all sunshine and promise- then the promise was delivered when the afternoon brought the gift of rain and the evening an impressive lot of stormy weather. So you can forgive yet another comforting meal-in-a-bowl type soup. Also, we had corn, pumpkin and cream cheese that needed eating, et voila! - a recipe is born! So I adapted a recipe from World Vegetarian Classics for corn chowder and made this rather wonderful roasted vegetable chowder - the roasting bringing out even more flavour and allows us to use heaps of garlic (entirely missing in the corn chowder recipe). The cream cheese with its richness and that touch of acidity complements and balances the sweetness of the vegetables. However, if dairy products are not for you, you can make the soup vegan by swapping the cream cheese and milk for soy milk.

Ingredients

1/2 Japanese pumpkin
3 carrots
3 parsnips
4 fresh corn cobs
1 L / 4 cups water (I may well have used more, so add more to get consistency that suits you)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 bay leaves
1 large or 2 small onions
1 bulb garlic (yes, a whole bulb, but don't worry, the roasting softens its flavour)
1/2 t dried sage
1 t fresh thyme leaves / 1/2 t dried thyme
3/4 c 200g cream cheese
1/2 c / 125ml milk
(or swap cream cheese and milk for 325ml unsweetened soy milk)

Recipe serves 6-8 (or more if served in mug-sized portions)

Directions

Preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius (my oven is quite hot but do keep temp lowish so veggies develop good flavour)

Spray a big baking tray with olive oil. Chop pumpkin into large slices (leave skin on - it will peel off easily once cooked) and place on the tray. Slice carrots in half lengthways. Dice a few pieces of carrot for chunky textures bits and set aside. Trim skinny parsnips ends off and set aside with carrot chunks. (seen here on plate with corn in a steamer. I also aded some chopped soft roasted bits, too, because I can't follow even my own recipes as I'm making them up).


Cut the bulbous tops in half and arrange these and the carrots around the pumpkin (or on another tray if they won't fit without overlapping). Place in oven and cook till vegetables are soft and roasted (with that nice caramelly chew on the pumpkin) but don't let them dry out or go hard and crunchy - we're making soup here!


While veggies are roasting, strip kernels from corn cob - like this: stand corncob upright (hold the top) and cut downwards with a sharp knife. It's a good idea to do this in a large bowl as they kind of ping off everywhere. Leave kernels in the bowl for now. To make the stock, place the stripped corn cobs and the bay leaves in a big pot. Sprinkle on a pinch of salt and cover with the water. Bring stock to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. At the same time, cook veggie chunks: In a steamer, place the corn corn kernels and twiggy parsnip and carrot ends and steam these as soup is boiling. Remove steamer once kernels and vegetables are tender.Discard the corn cobs and bay leaves.


Roughly chop roasted veggies, whizz in a blender/ food processor and add to the stock along with the remaining herbs. Add the cream cheese and milk to the soup mixture and stir / whizz with handheld blender till smooth and creamy. Return steamed veggie chunks to the soup. Reheat soup and add salt and pepper if desired.

Regina Spektor

One of the newest albums I own and it doesn't even sound too modern. But it does sound good:

Silver Dagger

The other night when I was closing the shop there was at least some consolation entertainment for the late-night browsers - I got to usher them out to listen to a bunch of guys serenading someone acapella style at the next-door cafe. Ok, it could have been a proper choir or maybe a flash mob, but I like to think it was suberbly organised romancing going on!
An acapella aside: I went to a birthday party once where the birthday girl's boyfriend suddenly and his posse of mates suddenly cut the music, stepped forward and started a full-on seranade, replete with well-practiced harmonies. At first I was shocked but then burst out laughing when he got down on one knee to express the depth of his emotion. This guy was funny. ...no-one else was laughing though, in fact, they looked moved. So this was the passionate Latin American sterotype I'd been waiting for - it surpassed even my expectations.

At home, I searched online to see if any of the many phone-videographers had posted the song but my search instead turned up another acapella perfomance in the neighbourhood. I'll put it down to dodgy sound-recording equipment, but what it sounded like was a group of women enthusiastically murdering a song I love. So instead of posting the cafe pop-acapella performance, or the lynch squad, or even the Equadorian quartet, here's the a good version of the folk song I love - Silver Dagger.



and here's a version by 'White Antelope' (Robin Pecknold from Fleet Foxes) - beardy I know but you can close your eyes to contentrate on the music - he is!:

Angus & Julia Stone - You're the one that I want - Rolling Session#12

Yes, I love Grease, ok? This song especially is such a fun one - who doesn't love to dance to it? This version though is not as much fun and won't get you out of your seat - in fact it might make you relax back into your chair even more. But what it lacks in tight leather pants and instant gratification, it makes up for with a very promising voice - one that leaves the accompanying musicians sound like they're twiddling their thumbs in the background, knowing it's not worth competing with.

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black

Sad to hear there will be no more from this great voice.

Romain Duris And Joana Preiss In Dans Paris

After watching this all that I came up with was: "too slow, too much jazz, almost switched it off. it was very french."
But that's what lots of people like, so decide for yourself. I liked the song anyway.