A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a 2014 American horror romance film directed by Ana Lily Amirpour. Tagged as "The first Iranian vampire Western", it was chosen to show in the "Next" program at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
The film is described as being set in "the Iranian ghost town Bad City" and depicts the doings of "a lonesome vampire" but actually the film was shot in the town of Taft in Kern County, southern California. An early short film with the same title from Amirpour screened at festivals and won Best Short Film at the Noor Iranian Film Festival. The film is based on Ana Lily Amirpour's graphic novel with the same name, which was illustrated by Michael DeWeese and edited by Ben and Jon Conrad.
The film received positive reviews from critics. Variety said in his review that "Ana Lily Amirpour's auspicious debut feature is a sly, slinky vampire romance set in an imaginary Iranian underworld". The Hollywood Reporter, praised the film by saying that "this moody and gorgeous film is finally more about atmosphere and emotions than narrative – and none the worse for it". Indiewire graded the film A− and said that it gives "the impression that you're witnessing something iconic and important unfold before you".
Recorded live in December 1972 and released the following year, Space Ritual is an excellent document of Hawkwind's classic lineup, underscoring the group's status as space rock pioneers. As the quintessential "people's band," Hawkwind carried '60s countercultural idealism into the '70s, gigging constantly, playing wherever there was an audience, and even playing for free on five consecutive days outside the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. The band's multimedia performances were the perfect accompaniment for exploring inner space and imagining outer space. While not concerned with rock's material trappings, Hawkwind were, ironically, among the hardest-working groups in Britain, averaging one show every three days during the year preceding these recordings.
Given all that practice, it's not surprising that the performances collected here are incredibly tight (although, reportedly, a couple of tracks were edited). Incorporating most of Doremi Fasol Latido, the show for the Space Ritual tour was conceived as a space rock opera, its blend of sci-fi electronics, mesmerizing psy-fi grooves, and heavy, earthbound jamming punctuated with spoken word interludes from astral poet Bob Calvert. Although his intergalactic musings date the album, coming across now as camp futurism, they still provide fitting atmospheric preambles to Hawkwind's astounding, mind-warping sounds.
Calvert's manic recital of Michael Moorcock's "Sonic Attack," for instance, is an exercise in tension that subsequently explodes on the stomping "Time We Left This World Today"; with Nik Turner's otherworldly sax, Dave Brock's guitar distortion, and the earth-moving rhythm section of Simon King and Lemmy, this track offers a blueprint for the album's most potent material. Another standout is "Orgone Accumulator," ten minutes of hypnotic (Wilhelm) Reich & roll that could be the missing link between Booker T. and Stereolab. A 1973 advertisement described Space Ritual as "88 minutes of brain damage"; that characterization still holds true.
This lovely fragrant spicy curry is in Anjum Anand's recipe
book Indian Food Made Easy. I've been making this for years, with several
variations, and found it excellent all round. The aromatic herbs (cloves, cardamom,
cinnamon, ginger) all contribute to great digestion, so I make sure its got a
lovely layer of oil on top, similar to Chicken Karhi, and sometimes you can make a hybrid version of this curry by using which spices you have available, or experimenting.
Whole Spices:
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
7 Cloves
7 Cardamom pods
2 sticks Cinnamon
1. Heat the ghee in a large non-stick pan.
Add the whole spices & salt and fry for about 20
seconds until aromatic, and the cumin seeds start to pop.
2. Add the onion and cook for about 10 minutes until
golden brown, stirring often. Stir in the ginger and garlic and cook stirring
for 40 seconds before adding the ground spices, and stir for 15 seconds. This
forms a thick paste, but do not panic. Allow the oil to leach out of the
paste & keep it moving.
3. Pour in the tomatoes and cook over a medium heat for
about 10 minutes, until the liquid in the pan has dried off and the oil
leaves the sides of the dry masala around 10 minutes.
4. Add the chicken and brown over a medium-high heat for
3-4 minutes. Add the Coconut milk to
cover the chicken (not strictly North Indian; its `my preference), bring to
the boil and then cook over a low heat until the chicken is cooked through.
The slower it cooks the better it tastes. This takes about 15 minutes for
small joints and up to 25-30 minutes for larger ones. Check with a fork; once
it is tender it is done. I usually cook on a low heat for > 1 hour.
5. Add the garam masala and coriander leaves and serve
with rice or Indian flatbreads and raita or any vegetable dish.
Having
recently found out I am intolerant to gluten, it is with a certain sense of
trauma I must announce my retirement from the swirling, bubbling world of beer.
I can forego crumpets thick with sizzling cheese, stoneground pizza burnt
slightly at the edges, and artisan breads slowly steaming after being brought
out of the oven. But the real challenge has been to amputate that part of my
soul which is beer. Starting with my first childhood experience of 70’s Burton
Ale, now extinct, at Pontins Prestatyn, to those many beers that didn’t make it
into the list below, regional, craft, microbrewed, and beckoning with headspun
bravado. Ho hum, I shall have to re- educate this working class palate to the
finer things in life; the grape beckons, but it is not quite the same. Below is
my all time top 10, but they are not in any ranked order. After sifting through
so many beer memories, and after many hours of reflection, it is quite enough
to have arrived at this list. Farewell, beer. I will miss you.
Beer
Logo
Comments
Bluebird Bitter
Coniston Brewery, 3.6%
“Mine’s a pint of Bluebird”.
Saying this, you know you are in for a quality beer which
is unflinchingly reliable. To the pure waters of the Coniston hills - add the
finest Challenger hops and wonderfully roasted Maris Otter pale and crystal
malts to create this finest of fully matured cask conditioned ales. “It is exceedingly pale (21-22 units
colour), with just a hint of colour in its cheeks from the dash of crystal
malt. It has a massive orange fruit aroma from the challengers, balanced by
biscuity malt.”
Snowdonia Ale, 3.6%
Purple Moose Brewery
My
Llangefni days working in the wretched chicken factory would have been
utterly unbearable without this gently peach infused pale session beauty. It
probably was the best of the lot.
Hawkshead
Brewery
Bitter,
3.7%
Delicious, refreshing, and moreish, leaving no trace of a
hangover; this Lakeland Ale benefits from the fresh Lakes water. I actually
prefer this to the premium version, Lakeland Gold. Hawkshead say “A pale, hoppy and bitter ale: a slight
elderflower aroma from Slovenian "Celeia" hops, followed by long
bitterness. The hikers' favourite - the perfect thirst quencher after a day
on the Fells.”
Old Golden
Hen
Morland
Brewery, 4.1%
Golden
Hen was better in its earlier days, in bottles before it went over on to
tinnies. I think they changed the formula to scale up production, and lost
something in doing that. They also increased the price. Having said that, it
remained drinkable, nay, swiggable, even in its neutered form & deserves
its place in my top 10.
Landlord
Pale Ale,
Timothy
Taylor & Co, 4.3%
This was
my ‘go to’ beer for bloody ages. In the pub, in the supermarket; wherever TT
was, there was I, tongue hanging out. Its younger brother, Boltmaker seemed
to show promise, but for gravitas Landlord was always in a different league.
Lass
O’Gowrie’s epic microbrewery fizzbomb, now sadly defunct. I was
privileged enough to be a regular of the Lass in its BBC heyday. There was a
character (and he was a character; Guss: a bald, tattooed, bearded Viking of
a man), who used to sit at the bar, chugging away on Lass Ale. Whenever he
used to finish a barrel, he’d bawl loudly (nerrr ner ne nerr neh), and put
his pint pot upside down on his head. If the night was getting on a bit, and
you were unfortunate enough to be ordering a late Lass Ale when the barrel
was coming to its end, Guss would jealously challenge you to a duel.
In the
Llyn Peninsula, going along the B4417 roughly as you get near Nefyn, there is
a diamond pub which sells this beauty of an ale on draught (Tafarn Y Fic, I looked it up
for you). On a sunny day, sitting outside, breathing the pure mountain air,
any Englishman feels ashamed of himself and full of yearning for living his
life differently.
