Some are born to endless night...

...but all who attended Vegan Thanksgiving cine-dips were born to sweet delight.

There were black bean and yam sliders, baked squash and Brussel sprouts in a balsamic glaze, homemade chocolate mint soy ice cream, apples and walnuts in a cinnamon-y sauce, pumpkin pie, boozey silk nog, and wild turkey.

Roth and Fawkes.

Danielle and Fawkes.

Fawkes by herself after scratching everyone who tried to pet her.

The mens deep into a political discussion.

Roth and Jason.

Snoozy Danielle.

Stephanie and Steven.

Thanksgiving Cine-Dips

We will be watching Dead Man for November Cine-Dips. Dead Man is an "acid western" by Jim Jarmusch. The film stars Johnny Depp (as the cowboy, a.k.a. "stupid-fucking-white-man") and Gary Farmer (as the Indian, a.k.a. Nobody) with appearances from Crispin Glover, Robert Mitchum, and Iggy Pop.

It's a fantastic film. We hope you'll enjoy it as much as we do.



To further subvert this Thanksgiving themed cine-dips, I thought we'd try making the dips and drinks all vegan.

The Aftermath

Last night Ban and I hosted Cine-Dips. Our amazing friends started this group earlier this year and we've been unable to make a single get together until now because as Manna repeatedly stated, we are losers. After last night, hopefully our loser-status has been revoked.


Ban made Shrimp and Sesame Sticks with Apricot Dipping Sauce. Check out the recipe here. They were delicious! He also made Roasted Red Pepper, Almond, and Garlic Dip that he served with fresh cut veggies. This dip was excellent too. Here's the recipe for it if you want to try it out.
The rest of the gang rounded out the spread with asiago dip & pita chips, chocolate stout cheese, and fig spread with crostini, chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. Sadly, I forgot to photograph all this deliciousness. So, you'll have to take my word for it.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the movie, The Man Who Planted Trees, and a great conversation ensued.

Afterward, we took to the basement and played Rockband, Rockband 2, and Beatles Rockband. We'll get Manna up to speed on those Beatles songs if it kills me. Love you, Manna :)

The Man Who Planted Trees

Saturday night Cine-Dips will be infiltrated by two new members who'll be hosting the prestigious gathering this month. The most notable round up of this group held here previously was the night that Barack Obama was elected President. That night was characterized by hope and inspiration.

We'd like to continue that theme with our movie selection, The Man Who Planted Trees which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 1987. You can read up on the movie at IMDB here or Wikipedia here. You can bet that we'll be serving up food and drinks that are awe-inspiring (couldn't resist, sorry). Cine-Dips...Yes.We.Can

M

Tonight we will be watching the Fritz Lang film "M" at Jason and Yvonne's. J & Y have promised M-artinis and Bloody M-arys while S & S mentioned a M-artha Stewart dip containing some M-ingredients. M & A will be bringing mmmm...cookies and mmmmmm.....beer.

June Cine-Dips

Jason and Yvonne had some things come up this month, so the June Cine-Dips will be at Steven and Stephanie's house, Saturday, June 27 at 8PM. We'll be watching Dirty Dancing, a study of class and gender in the 1960s, wrapped up in a coming-of-age love story, and topped off with a very, very awesome soundtrack.

Sometimes there's things more important than pit beef

May Cine-dips had modern photography, pubic hair, and art show food, just as any good evening of movie-viewing does.



Manna, your hand-rolled sushi was impressive and delicious.


And Ficoco is one of my new favorite dips.


Here's Fawkes before I provoked her too much.


Overall, I would say that the evening was hypnotique.


We love watching movies with the projector.


Thanks for having us over Manna, Matt, Fawkes, and Kitty.

Call me, if you ever feel too old to drive

I never got around to posting my photos from the April Cine-dips...until now!

We watched "Me and You and Everyone We Know" at my house!


I was there, and so was Manna...


...and so was everyone we know (well, give or take a few).


Of course, there were dips.


And it was BYOP because I have limited seating.



Thanks for coming over to watch one of my top ten favorite movies.

"I love you lil' Chrissy. No matter what."

We had a great time watching Pecker last night. 

There was a perfect gallery-opening-like array of food.

I rolled some lovely vegetarian sushi.

Matt made a delicious wasabi dip.

Stephanie and Steven brought an array of fresh delectable fruit and a fig jam spread.

Please note Stephanie's admirable packing job.

Jason and Yvonne brought a big peckeroni, I mean, pepperoni and some amazing artisan crackers of which I evidently failed to take a picture of. Jason must have been busy bludgeoning the pepperoni to death with my dull as crap knives while I was going around taking pictures.

...and Jason wins the prize for being the only person I took a picture of all night. I call this one, Hypnotique.

Thanks for coming everyone, we had a great time. Can't wait for next month's cine-dips!

Pecker!

We've finally decided on this month's film. We will be watching John Water's Pecker.

Cine-Dips will be at Manna and Matt's and will start at 7-ish with dips and drinks. The movie will start around 8pm.

Manna will be rolling veggie california rolls (shaped like peckers!) and Matt will be making a wasabi dip. Feel free to bring your own pecker-inspired dips and drinks.

See you Saturday.

  

May Cine-Dips

This month cine-dips will be Saturday May 30th at Manna and Matt's. Matt is still deciding on a film. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out this amazing old toaster from the 1920s:

))<>(( Back and Forth. Forever.

For Cine-Dips #3 we watched Me, You and Everyone We Know at Steven and Stephanie's house

Steven and Stephanie's house is the super coolest. There's rad art . . . 

and kitties galore.

Stephanie and Steven made a delicious ? layer bean dip. I think the final count was 4 layers. Matt made a cucumber curry dip. For drinks we had Sofia Coppola champagne in cans with bendy straws and whiskey and ginger cocktails.

Everything was delicious and everyone had a great time.

The best picture of the night award goes to Stephanie for "Close Your Legs You Whore!"

Classy.

Thanks Steven, Stephanie, Gracie, Stella, Oswald and Logan!

Matt & Amanda's 100 Great Films

Are these the greatest films ever made. Maybe not all of them, but they are films we love. If you're feeling uninspired at Video Vern's, give one of these a try.

(in no particular order)

Lost in Translation
High Fidelity
Say Anything
Reality Bites
Some Like It Hot
Big Night
Wings of Desire
Far Away So Close
8 1/2
Good Will Hunting
Malcom X
Psycho
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Heavenly Creatures
Kramer vs. Kramer
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Annie Hall
Rivers & Tides
This is Spinal Tap
Gates of Heaven
Sulivan's Travels
A Diary for Timothy
I am Curious Yellow
Julien Donkey Boy
Persona
L'aventura
Pecker
The Princess Bride
The Big Lebowski
The Royal Tannenbaums
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Roman Holiday
The Breakfast Club
I Heart Huckabees
Harold & Maude
Raising Arizona
Blue Velvet
Ghost Dog
Pleasantville
A Man for All Seasons
Casablanca
Night of the Hunter
Boogie Nights
The Best Years of Our Lives
Tokyo Ga
Sans Soleil
The Five Obstructions
Dead Man
Burden of Dreams
Edward Sissorhands
Tommy Boy
Rueben & Ed
Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolfe
Moulin Rouge!
Romeo + Juliet
Citizen Kane
The Professional
The Insider
Heat
The Fifth Element
Blade Runner
Joe vs. The Volcano
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Motorcycle Diaries
Buena Vista Social Club
African Queen
The Thin Red Line
The Hudsucker Proxy
Band of Outsiders
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Existenz
Kundun
The Fog of War
Butch Cassidy and the Sundace Kid
All the President's Men
The Graduate
The Battle for Algiers
Brazil
The Conversation
One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest
The Ice Storm
The Times of Harvey Milk
Amadeus
Hair
Cabaret
Cool Hand Luke
Dr. Strangelove
M
The Maltese Falcon
Metropolis
Stardust Memories
On The Waterfront
Un Chien Andalou
Chronicle of a Summer
Don't Look Back
Man With a Movie Camera
Rain
Sherman's March
The War Room

Cine-dips #3!

The third installment of Cine-dips will be held this Saturday, April 25th, at Steven and Stephanie's house. A firm commitment to a movie has not been made yet, but that will be posted later this week. If you don't know the address, please email Stephanie at concrete kitty at hotmail dot com.

EDIT:Okay, we decided that we are going to watch "Me and You and Everyone We Know" from writer and director Miranda July. Like most of our favorite movies, it's a post-modern look at isolation, love and sexual dysfunction, and it is very lovely and funny.

Dips and drinks will begin at 8 PM!