Movie Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

Over the past year, I've become a fan of Spider-Man and that's mostly due to one of the Web-head's co-creators, Steve Ditko. In fact, in the past year it's fair to say that I've become a bigger fan of Steve Ditko than I have of Spider-Man. 

Growing up, Spider-Man had his own cartoon series that I would occasionally watch but never got into. When I was in my teens I thought the first Toby Maguire movie was just...OK. It was a decent origin story but for the love of God, some of the dialogue was crap I roll my eyes at even when I was in grade four. 

The second one was pretty good but at the same time, I felt it was a bit overrated and was even shocked that Roger Ebert put it at #4 on his Best of 2004 list. And the third film...well, the problems of that movie will be coming up later on, don't worry.

I watched the first 'Amazing Spider-Man' a few months ago and...it was slightly OK. I didn't like how Peter Parker went from science nerd/photographer to hipster/skateboarder with just a dash of photography thrown in. But, it had potential and I plan to review that movie one day but let's focus on the movie I saw just a few hours ago: The Amazing Spider-Man 2. 

Housing and Gastronomy and Transportation-OH MY!!!

I've been in my new room for almost a week and I must say that I really love the privacy that I have. The whole floor is basically mine though my landlords usually use the basement for exercise and all that. I must say that even though I'm getting a nice supper almost every evening (though not tonight nor tomorrow), I really wish I had my own kitchen.

Chef Andrew? Hell no

Lately I've found myself doing a lot more cooking than I used to. Last week I fixed my own spaghetti sauce and today did the same thing but using all fresh tomatoes from my mother's garden. The desire to cook has been coming from two sources of inspiration: 

 1) Gordon Ramsay-Host of Hell's Kitchen, The F Word, Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares etc etc. Despite his insistance that he's not a celebrity chef, it's hard not to attach that label to him. But his F Word recipies (mostly desserts) have intrigued me to try and make souffles and hot chocolate fondants as well as experiment with fresh scallops and other ingredients that I hadn't considered in the past. Plus his method for telling how well a steak is cooked has really helped me. That and I find it hard to ignore a guy who swears every other word. 

 2) Marco Pierre White-Not as popular outside the culinary world as Ramsay is but in Britain, this is the man regarded as the greatest of all the chefs. Despite the fact that he's been retired for over 10 years, his influence his still enourmous. Not so much of a TV celebrity like Ramsay, but his program Marco's Great British Feast exposed me to all new ideas for food. I've already made one of his puddings (that's what they call dessert; wonder what they call actual pudding?), altough I did overwhip the cream which screwed me over, and it was alright. 

 With all this cooking I've been doing, my parents have been asking me if I want to go back to school and work towards becoming a chef. I might if I was just turning 18 but I've already decided what I want to do with my life. The cooking is a hobby...but one I like to take seriously. Tomorrow (depending on when I get home from my temp job doing landscaping) I'm going to try and make crème brûlée. While I don't have a small blowtorch to caramelize the sugar topping, I'm hoping the broiler will do just fine.