(singing)
On top of old smokey,
All covered with cheese,
I lost my poor meatball,
When somebody sneezed.
It rolled off the table,
And onto the floor,
And then my poor meatball,
It rolled out the door.
While I’ve never really got the deeper meaning of this childhood song, I did think of it on Saturday night as we made the world’s bestest, softest, gooiest meatballs with homemade spaghetti (which because I can’t read, ended up being linguini actually) and Pomodoro sauce. G, who spent time living in Rome, is part-Italian I’m sure and makes the best homemade spaghetti sauce! The secret for the meatballs is to use white bread that you’ve soaked in milk.
2) soften garlic and cilantro and onions; 3) mix half pound of beef, pork and veal
4 & 5) add in an egg and plenty of parmesan
6) what makes these THE best is white bread which you soak in milk and then; 7) drain
8) add bread and onion mixture to meat and cheese; and, 9) mix
10 & 11) hand roll into 2″ meatballs
12 & 13) pan fry in olive oil to brown them
14) ready the pasta for boiling; 15) bake the meatballs in the oven with the sauce and plenty of mozzarella
16) perfection!
After dinner I hi-hoed down to College Street to meet up with Blee for desert at I Feel Like Crepe before a couple shows for HotDocs International Film Festival at the Royal Theatre. The Crepes place, while directly across from the Royal, was nothing special and I doubt I’d return. I found the crepes doughy and worse, they used Realemon on my sugar and lemon crepes. How obscene is that!
Anyway, on to the documentaries:
Murphy’s Law
Chris Murphy, a York University film student, turned his camera on his own family in this short documentary about fathers and sons. Chris acts a voyeur filming his drug addicted/school dropout brother in conversations about life and responsibility with his father, who does a great job upholding the image of Canada Post workers as slightly, well, eccentric. The result is a good first film though, frankly, I don’t believe it is a documentary. While I do subscribe to the Rimbaud philosophy that the only unbelievable thing is that nothing is unbelievable, this family dynamic is just too darn strange not to have had parts scripted. My rating 6 out of 10.
Carny
Based on the photographs of Virginia lee Hunter in her book, Carny: Americana on the Midway, director Alison Murray shows us the odd yet lyrical stories of carnies she captured after her year and a half on the road with them. The result immediately confirmed my long held view on these strange/scary people (take your pick) but did temper it with an understanding of their lives and choices. Carnies are, in a fashion, America’s gypsies. Struggling day-to-day on next to nothing, and often fleeing something in their pasts, these unique people find acceptance in the company of similar souls. Carnies, while odd, are no different than the rest of us in seeking love and acceptance as they strive to live their version of the American dream. My rating 7 out of 10.
All Together Now
Adrian Wills directs what is essentially a 90 minute commercial for both the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil’s newest show, LOVE. But even knowing that going in is fine as I’m a fan of Cirque, and their marriage of the Beatles music with their performance art makes for a joyous, sentimental ride. Along the way we get to see Yoko (who I suspect must be very challenging to work alongside), Paul, Ringo and George Harrison’s widow collaborating on the project and the 5th Beatle, George Martin, continuing to work his magic. Sir George says it best: that each generation discovers the Beatles in their own way. Certainly LOVE will continue this tradition. All Together Now is beautiful and well worth seeing if you’re a fan of either the Beatles or Cirque. I suspect it will bring a tear to your eye. My rating 10 out of 10.
AppsScraps 
You can’t beat a blog entry with food photos!
those look great! i have a good teriyaki meatball recipe and a good homemade spagetti sauce recipe, but i don’t have a good spagetti with meatball recipe hahahaha.
Ah yes the famous milk bath for the bread – does it every time!!
Mmm… that meatball looks very good.
Meatballs… look great, may have to wait until Tawn is out of town to make them. Or maybe… tofuballs? Nah, that’s just strange.
The docs look really interesting, especially “Murphy’s Law”.