The Cholent: Review Time! 5 reviews of events, movies, and books
Gone, Anyone But You, Tower Tag, Back to the Future in Concert, Bistro 56
Gone
This Jonathan Kellerman psychological mystery is to me hit or miss. Thanks to this blog, I have been trying out lots of different kinds of literature over the past (almost) year, and I am slowly learning that I do not like mysteries. The more I think about it, this may go all the way back to my childhood when I could never figure out the Nate the Great or Encyclopedia Brown or Hardy Boys mysteries when I was reading them.
I was also discussing this with a friend who enjoys reading books and I asked him if mysteries are supposed to be a game for the reader to try and solve before the solution is revealed, or is the reader always supposed to get the solution to the mystery at the same time as the characters. To him it wasn’t clear, so I guess I don’t feel so bad that I have never figured out a mystery till now.
In particular to this book though, I did find the overall pace of the book a little slow. This is not an action mystery, it is much more focused on the minds and the personalities of the characters involved. I think my favorite character in the book was Milo, the main detective, mostly because he was willing to put in the grunt work to get the mystery solved and has already seen so much that he wasn’t completely phased by the gruesome aspects of this case.
That being said, there were some good monologues among the characters that did help with their development. I was not disappointed with the final outcome as I was with Murder on the Orient Express. Another fun fact is that I was once friends with Kellerman’s daughter. That and lots of nickels will get me a ride on the subway!
Read Gone on your Kindle (affiliate link).
Anyone But You
I watched this movie with my wife for a Chanukah date night (Chanukah is the anniversary of our first date). It is a modern take on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and even if you didn’t know this, the movie blatantly steals one of Shakespeare’s favorite tools, the famous “overheard conversation”. The movie was highly rated by TV Guide as a good movie to watch on Netflix, and I agree, it was a very entertaining movie. I don’t watch a lot of movies so I can’t say much about the actors’ individual performances, but overall I would say they were convincing in their parts and the main male role was relatable as a modern macho guy yet not incredibly bright (until the end).
Anytime we are talking about modern remakes of Shakespearean plays, we need to bring in the best of the best which is obviously Ten Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew). After thinking about it, I actually think this is what the directors of this movie were trying to achieve and I don’t think they were too far off. It got a little obvious because there is one scene where the main male role (I think I can’t remember) literally reads a list like at the end of Ten Things, but since this was meant to be a fun movie I’ll let it slide.
Also, I was really excited because the movie started off in Boston (my hometown - I recognized the background in the coffee shop almost immediately and then my suspicions were confirmed as soon as there was a flyover scene during the opening credits) but then the rest of the movie took place in Australia (also super cool). Why couldn’t it be the opposite! Minus a couple of points for this poor directorial decision.
Tower Tag in Petach Tikva
A few weeks ago, my team went out for a Yom Kef (a cross between just chilling with your coworkers and a team-building exercise). The location was called “Tower Tag” and is located in the industrial area of Petach Tikva. It is a 5-minute walk from the Em Hamoshavot stop on the Tel Aviv subway.
Tower Tag is a pay-by-the-hour virtual reality playground. The main attraction is their namesake, a game called Tower Tag where each player dons a VR headset (HTC in this case) and is also given a “gun” which is used as the controller in the game (they make you check your actual gun if you have one to prevent any terrible accidents from happening).
The game itself is a riff on Capture the Flag. Each player starts on a base, and using the controller, hops from tower to tower. The other team is trying to accomplish the same thing and the goal is to capture as many towers and also get as many “kills” while capturing those towers.
It takes a minute or two to understand what is going on and how to play, but once it clicks it is a lot of fun. The graphics are decent and it is really cool how the headset incorporates the gun into the game. To me it seems like the aim was a little off, but that might just be part of the game play. I played a few rounds of this style of the game, and then two rounds that were much more focused on the “capture the flag” aspect of the game and which was much harder to play (it wasn’t easy to know who was who because we didn’t have the chance to assign our names to our players so we are all just numbers and there wasn’t time to communicate like that).
The other cool thing they had was VR skiing. You buckled yourself into this platform and donned the headset and then you were transported into a virtual ski slope. It was a little cartoonish, but I can see it being made a lot more realistic. Even with it being cartoonish, there was still enough to it to give it a sense of depth. A coworker almost fell over (hence the buckling in) as he was caroming down the hill.
For private customers not in a group, the cost is 100 shekel for 1 hour of VR time, with a minimum of 4 people (otherwise the games would be boring). More details at https://tower-tag-pt.co.il/.
Back to the Future in Concert
On December 21, 2024, I traveled on Saturday night (traditionally sweatpants night) to Tel Aviv for what is probably a once-in-a-lifetime experience of seeing my favorite movie accompanied by a symphony to play its soundtrack.
Overall it was an average experience. For most of the the movie, the symphony’s music was indistinguishable from what would have been the actual soundtrack. I guess that is a good thing, and for aficionados of the movie, if anything were off it would be disappointing and annoying. I must say though that anytime a xylophone was used it was much more noticeable and distinct. So that was pretty cool.
So even though the overall experience was “mid”, there were still several reasons why the experience was worthwhile and why I would have been disappointed had I not gone.
I am a big fan of the movie, so I owed it to myself to go and be a part of this, since it might not be back in Israel ever.
I had never viewed the movie with a live audience before. It was also fun because there were some obvious first-time watchers in the crowd so they laughed at the parts that I am already desensitized to.
Generally supporting the arts. I love symphonies.
Time with my son
The more disappointing thing was that it mentioned that there was 20 extra minutes of music, which really kind of got spread across the whole movie to parts where there wasn’t necessarily scoring in the original (it was most prominent at the opening of the movie). There was also a few minutes of extra music on each side of the intermission, including quite a fun rendition of the theme music to Part III which was probably lost on a lot of people, and might actually be the best thing about part 3. (Really, a Western?).
Bistro 56 in Herziliya
On December 18, 2024, I went with my wife to celebrate a friend’s birthday at Bistro 56 in Herziliya. Obviously, this was going to be a good time no matter how good the food was, but having the food be excellent made things even better.
Bistro 56 is a Kosher meat restaurant on the marina in Herziliya. Their specialties are meat by weight as well as a unique appetizer called “Crispy Roll” which is strips of Pargit (boneless chicken thigh) wrapped in a tortilla and then deep fried. Yum! Keep in mind that the dish is “appetizer” sized, so it is a small tortilla. Just enough to whet your appetite.
We moved on to the main course. I ordered a “Hamburger Mushchat” (see above) which kind of translates to crazy burger. Typically I’m not so into buying burgers at restaurants that aren’t burger places, but this burger included a slice of goose, as well as a jalapeno pepper, which I thought made it distinctive enough to order. I requested no red onion and my wishes were respected.
The burger was huge, prompting questions of “how are you going to fit all of that in your mouth?” To which I responded, “I’m old enough now that I can eat my hamburger with a fork and a knife”. And that is what I did. The portion was large enough that I skipped eating most of the bun and only made it through about half of the french fries that came with it. It was cooked perfectly and the jalapeno added just the right amount of kick. The goose was tasty, but was kind of lost overall when eaten together with the burger.
With the main course over, it was time for dessert, and I had no idea I was in store for one of the best desserts I have ever eaten. I ordered the “Rotundo” which the birthday boy described perfectly as “a Magnum ice cream bar without the ice cream”. It was a small piece of cake covered with a very generous amount of nougat, then covered with a hard chocolate shell with rice crunchies. It was then drizzled with a combination of chocolate syrup and caramel. I remember when dating one “trick” was to go into a restaurant and order only dessert. Its been too long that I don’t remember the point of this (I think it was possibly to save money, or not be in for a long time commitment if the date didn’t go well) but suffice it to say that any date would not be disappointed if this is the dessert that was ordered and it was the only thing they ate.
The overall atmosphere of the restaurant has a nice, fancy-ish restaurant vibe, and I’m sure during sunset it is a wonderful view over the marina. The room itself was a little warm for my taste. The background music was not overpowering. The wait staff was helpful, engaging and responsive.
How much longer till it is my friend’s birthday again???