“Do not eat the Potato Child, for it is not Potato.” – prolly someone great.

If a potato’s been kept around for too long, you will notice some sprouts popping out one day. It just so happened that I had some potatoes that were left to themselves for over a month. I returned to see my potatoes and saw that they were getting quite comfortable in the dark under the kitchen counter. A little too comfortable. While I was away, they had decided to start families and started sprouting all over the place. They had been growing for some time, and some of the sprouts were around 7-8 inches long.

The sprouts did not look too yummy. I snapped them off so I could prepare some potatoes for dinner, but an idea struck me. I figured that the sprout, having come straight from the potato, might taste like a potato as well. I grabbed the longest sprout I saw, gave it a light rinse, and popped the thing in my mouth. My initial reaction was, they were crunchy.

My second reaction? AAHHHGGGHHH!~!!! They tasted angry. The sprout did not taste anything remotely close to a potato. It was bitter, the kind of bitterness you’d get by eating instant coffee with some iron rust flakes. If I had to mention another flavor, I’d say earthy. Luckily, a swig of water washed the taste out, but there was a good long moment where I was chewing away at it, wondering whether I should cry, scream, or both.

If a potato is the adult, then the sprout is definitely the angsty teen. I tasted its rage. So while I doubt most of you would even contemplate such a notion, I warn the curious to not eat potato sprouts.

Watched ‘There Will Be Blood‘ over this past weekend at Boardman’s, the local art theatre.

Simply astounding. It was a great movie. It is a longer film than most, being over two and a half hours long, but the pacing is solid and the movie flows by quickly. The music is powerful, and maintains a perfect tension throughout the scenes. The camera work captures the scenes well and allows us to focus on important points while being able to portray the conditions and the time of the movie. All of these factors were great and all, but…

Daniel Day-Lewis. My goodness. What an amazing awe-inspiring performance. I don’t remember seeing him in too many movies besides ‘Gangs Of New York’ and ‘The Crucible’ (Bill the Butcher and John Proctor), but my goodness, he plays his role like no other. In this movie, he is an absolute master. You can feel his delight, his greed, and his rage as if you were standing right next to him in the scene. You will not like his character, but at the same time, you can not keep your eyes off of him. Godmode. That’s all I can say.

Watch it and believe. There will be blood.

In other news: while I was watching the movie, I sat next to Roger Ebert’s cousin Tim. Talked with him for a while before the movie started. Seemed like a nice guy but he was a bit show-offy with the fact that he was Ebert’s cousin. He was wearing an Ebert hat, and a Siskel and Ebert jacket. I enjoyed talking with him for the most part, except for the occasional blasts of halitosis.

For those of you who don’t know, Roger Ebert holds the “Overlooked Film Festival” here in Champaign, IL every year. This April, Ebert will host be the 10th one.