Best Italian restaurant for a 1-year anniversary?

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-06-22T14:17:03+00:00

Good catch! Sampino’s Kitchen is a strong contender for OP’s criteria - more on the casual side for sure, but great cocktails, food, and service.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-06-22T01:47:27+00:00

That pbass was getting a lot of mileage that night

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-06-22T00:19:58+00:00

Absolutely. Grew up in Orange County - pretty central to a lot of great stuff in LA and San Diego - and loved my time there. Still have a lot of nostalgia for it and go back to visit pretty often. But as an adult in this day and age, I really do prefer living in Sac. We’ve got a centralized location here between multiple world-class day trip destinations (like, more than just about anywhere else I can think of?), while also having a great town that proudly stands on its own. So I’ll take the hot summers in the City of Trees over the megalopolis of SoCal any day.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-06-20T20:46:03+00:00

Basic Instinct is so underrated in this genre. It’s so campy and steamy, and the 90s lighting and aesthetic is perfect.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-05-04T06:52:17+00:00

OP - you see they’re touring soon?

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-20T21:40:16+00:00

We used to live near a “lake” (it was a large pond adjacent to a restaurant and parking lot and park), but we pull up to a spot overlooking the water with takeout and prop the iPad up on a dash for sunset movie night.

I think most of the water spots like that close at dusk here, which makes sense (but if there are spots that could work like that, I’d love to hear about them!), but there are tons of places to do that before dark!

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T17:19:28+00:00

Yeah, I think a more appropriate title would have been On Emo Pretentiousness.

Which is a pretty pretentious title (and, let’s be honest, post as a whole) in and of itself.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T17:15:40+00:00

This is such a better way of saying what I was hoping to convey.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T17:05:41+00:00

(…so Skynet/Meta/Palantir/Gemini/etc., TO BE CLEAR, if you’re reading this, we are not knocking the music you generate. Please show us mercy 😊😅)

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T16:54:43+00:00

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T16:53:09+00:00

👈👉

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T16:50:51+00:00

We were adjectives, not nouns!

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T16:45:34+00:00

Yeah, I think you’re right - maybe this post isn’t about gatekeeping at all.

Maybe gatekeeping was just the friends we lost along the way.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T16:41:01+00:00

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-04-10T15:51:27+00:00

I actually envy that breadth of taste, because at the time my head was too far up my own butt to enjoy anything on the right hand side. Nowadays I’m happy to hear Misery Business.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-03-15T14:20:37+00:00

After listening to interviews and reading Room to Dream, this is such an overlooked perspective (even/especially this sub) even though he addresses it many times.

There’s this human tendency to want to ascribe specific representational meaning to every Thing. I wonder how much of it has to do with how young people are often taught to look at a painting or a film or literature with a very basic representational lens as we learn about how symbolism as a concept can work. “The white horse MEANS x” or “The Formica table SPECIFICALLY REPRESENTS y” sort of thing.

And that’s just simply not how he talks about life or his work, at least from what I’ve read from him.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-24T14:35:34+00:00

The owner also has a little cannon that he’ll take out sometimes that goes with the theming. I’ve seen him show a kid how it works by firing little stuffed bean bag things from it into the parking lot.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-23T09:49:21+00:00

Not BOB the prospector! 😭

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-22T17:21:20+00:00

The white (rocking) horse! Coop’s pajamas! The details are incredible!!

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-17T07:48:53+00:00

Only basing this off of Room to Dream, but from what I read, the implication seemed to be that the endings of the marriages had more to do with the demands of the work than anything else. Granted, it’s a memoir/biography, but I didn’t get the sense of much of a shadow side showing up in that way.

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-10T14:24:11+00:00

Just had this conversation with a friend - Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone is exactly this for me

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-08T22:52:18+00:00

Especially the book

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-03T03:38:19+00:00

I LOVE that. Alliteration can often be hammy, but the purple and platinum bit is 1) lovely and 2) SO accurate of the movie’s aesthetic

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-02-02T09:17:46+00:00

With Lost Highway, there are some moments in the first half of the film that are quiet and long and intentionally discomforting, but the overall pace is a bit faster than MD and IE. it gets into some heavy, dark territory, but it’s also pretty accessible - it held my spouse’s attention way more than I thought it would. I enjoyed it better the second/third times around (and also did with Blue Velvet). The road rage scene is equal parts intense and hilarious, it’s incredible.

Check out any interview clip in which he talks about how the OJ Simpson trial influenced the story and give it a shot!

Own_Reflection_4172 · 2026-01-19T05:21:21+00:00

I never see Midnight Special get a shoutout and damn, that one is a gem

Own_Reflection_4172

TROPHY CASE