My Weekend: Art & Chocolate

Movie Poster

Hi all!  These past couple of weekends have been gorgeous in SW Virginia.  Sunny and warm; making me think spring will truly come after all.  No more polar vortex!  Yesterday was very pretty too but quite windy and today is cold and rainy.  Snow is forecasted for tomorrow.  Blah.  I'm hoping the nice weather returns quickly.  Yellow daffodils are popping up all over and I'm starting to see hints of pink and green on the edges of tree branches all over town.  Buds!

My weekend consisted of art and chocolate ~

My husband wanted to see the new Wes Anderson film The Grand Budapest Hotel last night but it turns out it isn't being released in our region for another two weeks.  So, we decided to go to the Grandin Theatre and watch a documentary that my husband thought looked interesting in a newspaper review.  Tim's Vermeer is about a very successful American entrepreneur who is inspired by a book his daughter gives him to read about Vermeer and then sets out to see if he can recreate a famous Vermeer painting on his own to prove that Vermeer used some simple technology to help him paint back in the day.  In other words, Vermeer wasn't some savant who could paint super realistic paintings with amazing use of light in his oil paintings.  Tim is trying to show that Vermeer used tools to help him create fabulous works of art and that perhaps he was as much an inventor as he was a painter.  I know what I just typed probably makes no sense and/or sounds dull.  The documentary is really interesting, enjoyable, and intellectually stimulating.  I said "Wow" out loud several times which didn't bother anyone in the theatre since it was just the two of us watching the movie.  Hey, my husband's least favorite subject in college was art history and he loved the movie.  I really think it will appeal to people who love engineering, art, and/or Penn & Teller.  Go see it or rent it when it comes out on Netflix in a few months!

Today was the day for the second annual Roanoke Chocolate Festival at the Hotel Roanoke.  My husband and I went last year and ended up having a cameo on the local news station stuffing our faces.  This year, we thought the event was just as delicious and even better organized than last year (which was very good then too!).  Ironically, the local newspaper took our picture so I'm wondering if we will end up being the faces of the gluttonous people that go each year to this festival!  LOL  I'm still in a bit of a sugar coma and plan to do some vacuuming in the next few minutes to burn off a fraction of the calories I ingested (so much for my diet).  Here is a partial list of what we sampled this afternoon: chocolate enchilada, chocolate stout beer, cookies, candies, cakes, s'mores, gelato, brownie bites, Aztec chocolate (it was crunchy), etc....  Chefs were pairing chocolate with salt, chili pepper, cinnamon, and the other usual flavors you have witnessed over the past few years.  I saw a tricycle made out of chocolate.  It was all a bit overwhelming, I must say.  In a good way!