WFC Slovakia: Obrazy starého sveta

Utterly entrancing.

I’m not sure how much of it is real, though. It seems to present itself as a documentary of sorts, and some of the people (or characters) we see seem rather, uhm, unlikely.

If it’s all real, the film-makers are kinda cruel with their subjects.

I couldn’t believe it when I saw the end titles. This was made in 1972! The director was so ahead if his time.

Pictures of the Old World. Dusan Hanák. 1972. Slovakia.

Hriatô

  • bacon
  • honey
  • calvadot

Crisp up the bacon in a pan. Add the honey and let it bubble a bit. Take off the heat and add calvados. Heat up again, but don’t let it boil. Serve hot in a glass.

I thought this was going to be horrible, but it’s about the best hot alcohol drink I’ve tasted. It’s not very nice after it’s cooled off, though.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Bosnia and Herzegovina: Go West

This DVD edition was pretty unsatisfactory. It’s windowboxed and interlaced, so it’s pretty low resolution, which makes everything… ugly.

This film is exactly like Some Like It Hot, but with atrocities and ethnic cleansing. It veers wildly between sincere horror and absurd comedy. And sometimes tender comedy.

I appreciate what they were trying to do (and there are some good scenes), but it in the end, it’s all rather over-cooked. Or perhaps the bad film to DVD transfer is just making me extra cranky.

Go West. Ahmed Imamovic. 2005. Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Tito’s Garden

  • 12cl vodka
  • 4cl honey
  • 10 leaves rosemary
  • 6 leaves of basil
  • Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Shake vigorously with ice and double-strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary and add a sprinkle of pepper.

It’s an interesting flavour, but I think I should have used less rosemary.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

FF1991: Loose Teeth

Loose Teeth #1-3 by Scott Musgrove and Brian Sendelbach.

Both Musgrove and Sendelbach had appeared in various anthologies before doing Loose Teeth together. This series has solo pieces from both of them, but they also collaborate on a number of stories.

The first issue opens with a competition of sorts: Readers are invited to send in scripts for one-page stories and Musgrove or and Sendelbach will illustrate them.

Loose Teeth is a humour anthology, of course. A quite violent one. These recurring characters, The Fruitheads, are maimed and killed over and over again.

The art styles vary quite a bit from piece to piece. You have these quite amusing stories allegedly written by a seven-year-old in this scrappy, scratchy style.

But you also have this more carefully worked-at early-Baggesque style for several stories. (Not that Peter Bagge would ever use such dadaesque humour.)

Apparently nobody entered the competition…

Now that’s humour.

And then it all comes to an end. Fantagraphics comics are usually cancelled without any notice, so that’s nice.

I am wholly unfamiliar with either artist, but googling a bit now, it looks like Musgrove took one of the characters from Loose Teeth, Fat Dog Mendoza, over to Dark Horse after the cancellation of this magazine. (He’s one of about half a dozen that’s taken the exact same route.) Musgrove seems to be doing art these days.

Brian Sendelbach has worked more extensively in comics after this.

This post is part of the Fantagraphics Floppies series.

WFC Colombia: El abrazo de la serpiente

How delightfully perverse to do a black-and-white film set in the Amazon. And there should be an expression for “road movie” that takes place on a river.

But all throughout this film (which is mostly pretty amazing), I was thinking “they’re going to do the ‘insane in the jungle’ cliche complete with atrocities”, and they did. So I deduct two Michelin stars for that alone.

And it started off so well…

Embrace of the Serpent. Ciro Guerra. 2015. Colombia.

Coco Loco

  • 1 part rum
  • 1 part vodka
  • 1 part tequila
  • 2 parts coconut cream
  • 1 part coconot water
  • 1 part lime juice
  • sugar to taste

Run everything through a blender with ice cubes. Garnish with a lime slice.

I’m so bad at planning that I wasn’t able to find fresh drinking coconuts for this, so I substituted coconut water from a can.

And perhaps that should be cream of coconut instead of coconut cream? The texture just didn’t seem… right…

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Chad: Daratt

This is a fascinating and original film.

The confusing thing is that we don’t see them selling any bread whatsoever. Is it all charity?

Dry Season. Mahamat-Saleh Haroun. 2006. Chad.

Karkanji

  • half a liter of water
  • a small handful of dried hibiscus flowers
  • some slices of ginger root
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 3 cloves
  • sugar to taste
  • rum

Put all the ingredients (except the sugar and rum) into a pot and let simmer for ten minutes. Add the sugar and simmer for five more minutes. Let the pot cool off and strain. Pour into ice-filled tumbler with the rum.

This drink is traditionally made without any alcohol.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.