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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 08/04/00 -- Vol. 19, No. 5
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The Denver Area Science Fiction
Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of every month at
Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
===================================================================
1. In the mid-1950s Walt Disney's TV show did three imaginative
documentaries on space travel. They were very popular and helped
to inspire the space achievments of the next decade. Then they
dropped from sight. They have never shown up anywhere and people
have been lobbying Disney Enterprises to make them available again.
They will be running on the Disney Channel August 8, 9, and 10
(late Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday; VCR settings would be for
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) respectively at 1 AM EDT. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. Okay, we are continuing our discussion of restaurants.
Mexican food is a prime example of a cuisine that has to be
rendered inoffensive before it can be successful as restaurant
food. It has sort of crossed over and become the mainstream food
in many places in this country, particularly the South and the
West, but it still has some people a little leery. I have been
told that Mexican is the fastest growing ethnic cuisine in the US,
but it is not clear to me it should be considered a single cuisine.
Near where I live in New Jersey there are four different concepts
of Mexican food vying for public patronage.
First there is the mass-produced fast food of Taco Bell. This is
the most successful. Kids who would never think of eating spinach
or quiche will hang out at a Taco Bell. It will never be as
successful as Burger King, but for a successful chain the food is
surprisingly exotic, featuring things like whipped beans inspired
by someone who may have eaten real Mexican food once. I have
actually seen in stores where everything sells for a dollar, Taco
Bell brand taco sauce. I guess they thought somebody would want to
be able to recreate the Taco Bell experience at home.
For the second type there are the serious gringo Mexican
restaurants. These are not chains. Some of the dishes were
inspired by real Mexican dishes. However, the food is distinctly
different in style and flavor from what you might expect in Mexico.
Perhaps they have this sort of food in the gringo resorts, but it
is not what Mexicans eat at home. If you go into a little
restaurant in Oaxaca, don't expect this sort of food.
Somewhere between these two types is the third type, the Mexican
chain. In my area the popular chains are Chi-Chi's and On the
Border. These are not fast food like Taco Bell, but they are still
very plastic. Generally they have identical menus from one
restaurant in the chain to the next. Do not expect to find tamales
on the menu unless some MBA has statistics to show there is a
nationwide demand for them based on test market figures. And let
me assure you, there are no such statistics. In spite of the real
Mexican-looking wall decorations and the giant margaritas at the
bar, this is a lot like eating inside a computer.
Then we have the fourth kind of Mexican restaurant. One of the
secrets of restaurant going is to find ethnic neighborhoods,
particularly where the people don't earn very good salaries.
Unbeknownst to even most of the acceptors in the area there is a
small Mexican community very near Rutgers. And in this community
there are restaurants. And you can go there if you are not
threatened by the very real possibility that you might be the only
person in restaurant speaking in English and that the jukebox is
playing songs you never heard before sung in Spanish. Some of
these restaurants do not even bother translating the menu into
English. This is pretty authentic Mexican. This is to my
admittedly uneducated eye the closest food to what we had in
Mexico. Do I like the food? I have to say I put it roughly on a
par with what we get in the second type of restaurants above. I
know I should like it a whole lot more, but what can I say? I know
myself pretty well and what I am is a gringo.
By the way, as a bonus it is priced for people who have not been
able to get very good jobs. For about $8 you get a plate of food
that will not quit. You can do that at Chi-Chi's but there will be
less food and lower quality. Now if only they had food that good
in the chains.
Next week I hope to have some things to say about what makes a
decent ethnic food chain. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. I have gotten so much response on my X-MEN review all of it so
similar, that I am going to write a single response for the notice.
I frequently review films that I have a special interest in. For
example when I was growing up I was growing up I was a fan of
Zorro. I have seen just about every English language Zorro movie.
And I said that in my review of THE MASK OF ZORRO. The reason why
is not just to brag that I am a completist, it is to tell my
readers that they may have a very different reaction, not having
such a special interest. I basically told people that they might
not want to trust my opinion because all judgement is subjective
and clearly I am biased toward Zorro films. Is THE MASK OF ZORRO
really a good film and most of the public cannot appreciate it?
Probably not. In any case I write my reviews for the general
viewer. If the general viewer cannot trust my opinion on a film, I
try to be very frank about it as I was with THE MASK OF ZORRO. I
always give my true opinion of a film and if necessary I tell
people where I am coming from. I always admit I am not objective.
Nobody is.
The situation is reversed for the X-MEN film. This time I am the
general viewer and I am still reviewing for the general viewer.
That is good. I do not need to make any disclaimers. But there
are a lot of people around me who have been big fans of the X-MEN
comic book. The response I hear from these people is that this was
really a terrific representation of the great comic book. I do not
doubt it. It may even make it a great feat to have made such a
film. But that does not make it a film I can recommend to your
maiden aunt in Pittsburgh. You may see something special in X-MEN
the way I did with THE MASK OF ZORRO, but it is not great cinema.
The film may lose points if it is not really faithful to the source
material, but the critic should be reviewing a film, not a film
based on a comic book. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
If you are gong to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive you but the
bureaucracy won't.
-- Hyman Rickover
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