Big Trouble In Little China Tea

John Carpenter Films A Suitable Source Of Puns, eh?
That one was at least 20 years ahead of it's time.  It's worth getting the Special Edition to hear the commentary from JC and Kurt Russell, which I seem to remember is interspersed with clinks of whisky glasses and the rasp of cigars being smoked.  The part where they escape via a sewer was quite horrid to shoot, apparently, the water being disgustingly warm and soupy.

"The one that got away -"

     Which is a very tenuous connection to my Thursday evening, when we went to Sweet Mandarin to celebrate Degsy's birthday.  Chinese restaurant, you see.  Wonder Wifey likes it because of the gluten-free menu.  I had already made my mind up as to what I was going to have - Fragrant Spicy Pot.  art

Read it and seep

     Those little red things are chillis, and there were plenty of them, believe me.  So much to that, when all the other content had been devoured, what was left was nothing less than chilli sauce.  A whole lot of spicy, more so than I expected; which meant that nobody else wanted any, so a bit of a win-win dining situation.
     Darling Daughter was also present, with her beau, Tom the Quiet One.  Art?

     I was waiting for them on a street corner, and recognised young Tom by virtue of the doormat nailed to his chin.  Between times he uses garden shears to keep it in trim.
     You don't get a photo of DD, but she was wearing a new metal silhouette on her chain.  Art?

Miaouwe*.

     A cat.  Slighly more sellable than the rat version, one feels.  Also available in Bunny.  I did enquire about a Weasel version - as you already know, Conrad ploughs a lonely furrow trying to redeem the global reputation of the weasel - but it would be hard to design one that is readily identifiable as Weasel.  Possibly ehance the silhouette?

I'd buy that for a dollar!

     Further to the above, DD and Quiet Tom were late to our rendezvous as they got lost.  This is howlingly ironic since DD works at the Kula art shop & gallery, which is at the other end of the street from Sweet Mandarin.  And it's a short street.  Art?

The gallery, with human for scale

     Rat, Cat and Bunny available from here soon.  Weasel-on-a-Woodpecker - maybe later.
     Further about that meal, DD chose food that fought back.  "Angry Beef" I termed it.  Art?

     I think the official name is "Sizzling Beef".  When it was decanted onto that metal platter, it made so much noise I thought the waiter was being attacked; he certainly vanished behind a tower of steam.
     Oh, to make it official, DD has finally gotten her Degree.  Art?

     With official hologram sticker to prove it's genuine.
     Okay, one last shot from the meal, my side order of noodles.  Art?

     Dammit, Art!  Don't post photos of me without my human camouflage on.  The noodles?

     Sweet Mandarin don't stint on portions, your humble scribe was stuffed by the time I'd gotten through my selection.  Plus, they provided a nice handwritten birthday card for Degsy, which is pretty good service.  We shall be going back.

Is This Good Or Bad?
As you should surely know by now, your modest artisan likes watching bad films.  Nobody intentionally sets out to make a cinematic aberration, it's just how things end up, due to all sorts of stars lining up in a very bad constellation.  With "Manos the Hands of Fate" it was because the director had never made a film before and did it for a dare.  With "Fantastic 4" it was because the director was a newbie with only a single film of a much smaller budget under his belt; plus a whole lot of other things.
     So, how could I resist when I saw this on the Beeb's website?

     I did score 7 out of 8.  So - is that good?  Or bad?  Only you can judge!

Further Of The World's Most Boring Hobby
I have been banging on about "Kelly's Heroes" and the Goofs listed on the IMDB for it, but those sharp-eyed scallywags at the Internet Movie Firearms Database picked up on a couple of points that nobody over on IMDB spotted.
     Apparently the Browning Automatic Rifles used are a Polish version, not the proper South Canadian issue.  Art?

Polish version

The evidence!

     

*  I know it's not spelled that way, I just wanted an excuse to use all the vowels in a single word.