Welcome To The Block.

Hi. My name is Chris Huqueriza, and welcome to my blog. I observe my surroundings and I write what I’m passionate about: all things considered A&E, gay, and San Francisco. I hope you as the reader/viewer enjoy with what I have to offer.

Enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment.

STATS
-Currently reading: The Berlin Stories

-Comics Pull-list: Uncanny X-Men, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, Morning Glories, Uncanny X-Force

Elizabeth Taylor’s Cinematic Achievements.

Besides Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor is one of the most beautiful women of the 1950s and possibly all of cinema. Her raven, jet-black hair and her rare violet eyes are mesmerizing while her acting abilities rival that of a great Shakespearean thespian. Her humanitarian efforts for the fight against AIDS has undeniably marked her a living legend and an unending icon for the LGBT community (the first celebrity to speak against it). Many of her movies are iconic and need to be watched.

1. A Place in the Sun (1951)

She’s been an actor since she was a child with critical acclaim from her finest work in National Velvet, but A Place in the Sun became her breakout role as an adult actor. She played the beautiful debutante swooned by the swooning Montgomery Clift. While she plays a minor role considering Clift’s murderous act against his pregnant girlfriend, Taylor still shines. It’s fantastic to see her glamorous at 17 years old, a feat unheard of for many child actors.

2. Butterfield 8 (1960)

One of the best movies of her career. Taylor plays a chic call girl with problems as she relishes her lifestyle. She won an Academy Award, but the ending is truly tragic since apparently all bad girls die.

3. Suddenly, Last Summer (1959)

Taylor played side by side with Katherine Hepburn and Montgomery Clift, and it proved to be a winning situation as all three thespians feed off each other. Taylor plays the newly demented patient who witnesses a shocking secret about her cousin. Clift must uncover the truth while Hepburn must bury the terrible lie. It’s very suspenseful, and difficult not to see the fantastic bickering of the two female screen legends.

4. Cat on A Hot Tin Roof (1958)

There’s so much tension exuding from Taylor in a claustrophobic Southern mansion. With her crippled husband played by Paul Newman, Taylor is beautiful and smoldering as she faces verbal arguments from her husband’s family. Like all Tennessee Williams plays, there’s a secret that needs to be uncovered, and it’s shockingly queer. Newman and Taylor provide great thespian acting with their pitch perfect looks.

5. Cleopatra (1963)

With her role as the Egyptian queen, an icon is spoken. Besides the death-defying drama of romance, accidents, and box office failure, it’s an extravagant movie of luxurious settings as she is in cahoots with Marc Anthony and Julius Caesar.

Sadly I haven’t watched her impeccably awesome roles in Taming of the Shrew, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Boom!, and Reflection in a Golden Eye. I will someday, but I know they will be good.

1 Girl 5 Gays: Groundbreakingly Human

“1 Girl 5 Gays in 20 Questions about Love and Sex.”

That sentence, which begins every episode, sums up the premise of the entire series and has become one of my absolute favorite shows. I stumbled on the show by accident after watching and obsessing over the deliciously guilty A-List on the Logo Channel. Initially a Canadian MTV show, some critics say it perpetuates the gay stereotypes of shallow promiscuity in the LGBT community. But to be frank, I see the show as brutally honest risqué, funny, sad, and touching all rolled into one. Sure, the show may shock outsiders but it successfully illustrates all different perspectives of gay men of every race and religion, and class. I’m very conversational and have found these questions to be great icebreakers for old and new friends. The guys are candid, relatable, and intimate. The second season started in early February and I anticipate every new groundbreaking episode. Thank you, Aliya Jasmine.

Here are two examples of the two types of questions: funny and risqué versus the touching and human.

Burma Cafe: Burmilicious!

I’ll admit it: I’ve never eaten Burmese food. I’m mundane whenever I go out to eat because I stick to Japanese, Italian, or even American hamburgers. But when I stumbled upon Burma Café, I could only describe it as a classy and petite restaurant with delicious dishes. My stomach can’t take too much spiciness, but it wasn’t a problem for any of my multiple visits. I’ve had the main pillars of Burmese food: Samusa soup, tea-leaf salad, garlic noodles, and catfish soup. The location is in Daly City and is described as a hidden treasure that practically screams 5-star ambiance. The closest and most authentic restaurant is in San Francisco so Burma Café is the perfect for the outskirts of San Francisco. With an art gallery for scenery and a great spot for large parties, Burma Café is shaping up rather nicely if you’re looking for a delightful Burmese meal.

Addicted to Coffee is Healthy.

I came across this article on Yahoo’s Shine written by Kerri-Ann Jennings, Associate Nutrition Editor at EatingWell Magazine. As a former barista and a caffeine addict, I couldn’t resist posting this so here’s 5 healthy reasons why you should stick to coffee:

I really like coffee. The morning ritual of brewing a cup, the smell that perks me up before I take a sip and, of course, the flavor all make it my favorite beverage aside from water (water’s delicious!). As a registered dietitian and a nutrition editor for EatingWell Magazine, I know that coffee is fine in moderation. It has lots of antioxidants and is low in calories if you don’t load it up with cream and sugar. Nonetheless, I always feel slightly guilty about drinking it—you know, in a “it’s so good, it must be bad” kind of way.

Which is why I’m always delighted to hear of new reasons that coffee is good for your health…and there are plenty! Over 18,000 studies on coffee have been published in the past few decades, revealing these benefits, many of which Joyce Hendley wrote about in the March/April issue of EatingWell Magazine:

1. It protects your heart: Moderate coffee drinkers (1 to 3 cups/day) have lower rates of stroke than noncoffee drinkers, an effect linked to coffee’s antioxidants. Coffee has more antioxidants per serving than blueberries, making it the biggest source of antioxidants in American diets. All those antioxidants may help suppress the damaging effect of inflammation on arteries. Immediately after drinking it, coffee raises your blood pressure and heart rate, but over the long term, it actually may lower blood pressure as coffee’s antioxidants activate nitric oxide, widening blood vessels.

2. It diverts diabetes: Those antioxidants (chlorogenic acid and quinides, specifically) play another role: boosting your cells’ sensitivity to insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. In fact, people who drink 4 or more cups of coffee each day may have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, according to some studies. Other studies have shown that caffeine can blunt the insulin-sensitivity boost, so if you do drink several cups a day, try mixing in decaf occasionally.

3. Your liver loves it: OK, so the research here is limited, but it looks like the more coffee people drink, the lower their incidence of cirrhosis and other liver diseases. One analysis of nine studies found that every 2-cup increase in daily coffee intake reduced liver cancer risk by 43 percent. Again, it’s those antioxidants—chlorogenic and caffeic acids—and caffeine that might prevent liver inflammation and inhibit cancer cells.

4. It boosts your brain power: Drinking between 1 and 5 cups a day (admittedly a big range) may help reduce risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as Parkinson’s disease, studies suggest. Those antioxidants may ward off brain cell damage and help the neurotransmitters involved in cognitive function to work better.

5. It helps your headaches: And not just the withdrawal headaches caused by skipping your daily dose of caffeine! Studies show that 200 milligrams of caffeine—about the amount in 16 ounces of brewed coffee—provides relief from headaches, including migraines. Exactly how caffeine relieves headaches isn’t clear. But scientists do know that caffeine boosts the activity of brain cells, causing surrounding blood vessels to constrict. One theory is that this constriction helps to relieve the pressure that causes the pain, says Robert Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of neurology and director of the Headache Clinic at the University of Vermont Medical School.

Now, that’s not to say that coffee doesn’t have any pitfalls—it does. Some people are super-sensitive to caffeine and get jittery or anxious after drinking coffee; habitual coffee drinkers usually develop a tolerance to caffeine that eliminates this problem (but they then need the caffeine to be alert and ward off withdrawal headaches). Coffee can also disturb sleep, especially as people age. Cutting some of the caffeine and drinking it earlier in the day can curb this effect. Lastly, unfiltered coffee (like that made with a French press) can raise LDL cholesterol, so use a filter for heart health.

But if you like coffee and you can tolerate it well, enjoy it…without the guilt.