The Wurstburger is one of the outrageous dishes featured on Carnival Eats.
Photo courtesy of Cooking Channel
In South Texas, the calorie bombs served at community festivals and county fairs have become as much of an attraction as the hair-raising roller coasters. So it’s no wonder the Cooking Channel’s Carnival Eats would want to come along for the ride.
Now in its seventh season, the series takes its host — Bachelorette Canada presenter Noah Cappe — on a journey through “today's modern gastronomic freak show” at carnivals throughout the world. According to a Cooking Channel representative, two episodes airing in June will shine the spotlight on the San Antonio area.
First up is New Braunfel’s Wurstfest, a Texas tradition since 1961. The annual Oktoberfest celebration has grown to honor all aspects of German culture, but it started as a way for founder Ed Grist, then the city’s meat inspector, to pay homage to the humble sausage.
In the episode airing at 8 pm on June 23, Cappe sinks his teeth into a giant Wurstburger before risking a brain freeze with a rich Black Forest float.
At 8 pm on June 30, Carnival Eats returns to the area in an episode catchily titled “Gordita, Pray, Love.” Cappe heads to San Marcos for the town’s sparkling Sights and Sounds of Christmas.
Skipping holiday favorites like fruitcake and hot chocolate, Cobbe dives into a messy Porco Loco Gordita before sampling something called a Sugar Rush, which the Cooking Channel describes as a “fried masterpiece.” San Marcos dentists surely welcome the seasonal uptick in business.
While this is the first time either festival has been featured, Carnival Eats frequently travels to the Lone Star State. The sixth season featured two segments filmed at Rodeo Austin, plus a jaunt through the Texas Renaissance Festival.
Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment
Tommy Martinez, Emily Blunt, and Josh O'Connor in Disclosure Day.
With the release of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg has now directed 17 feature films over 26 years in the 21st century, the exact same number over the exact same period of time he did in the 20th century. The first half of his career was mostly defined by his blockbuster films, while the second half has seen him exploring a lot more serious material. Disclosure Day marries the two for an experience only he could deliver.
The film starts in medias res, as Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is being pursued by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) and a team of henchmen for stealing intellectual property from Wardex, a government contractor for which he works. As the audience gradually discovers, Daniel is a cyber-security programmer who has discovered evidence of alien life in the company’s servers. He and others within the company, including Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), are determined to release the information to the public.
Concurrently, television meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) starts experiencing weird things, including the ability to speak multiple languages and read people’s minds. Without either of them actively trying to seek each other out, Daniel and Margaret are set on a path to meet, with Scanlon (with the help of a mysterious alien device) trying to track their every move.
Directed by Spielberg and written by David Koepp, the film is an almost even mix between classic Spielberg wonder and a deep story about what it is to be human. By starting the film in the middle of the story, Spielberg immediately ramps up the excitement level. While the movie has relatively little action, that sequence and a few others deliver the type of propulsiveness for which Spielberg is revered, keeping the 145-minute film moving at a brisk pace.
Of the different types of alien movies Spielberg has made over the years, this one is closer to Close Encounters of the Third Kind than E.T. The story ponders the ethical, religious, political, and sociological effects that revealing the existence of aliens could have on the world. The debates had by various characters purposefully take the film out of being a sheer popcorn flick, forcing the audience to grapple with issues that they may have never considered before.
Unlike some other Spielberg films, he and Koepp don’t hold the audience’s collective hand throughout the story. There are a lot of times when viewers have to use context clues to understand exactly what is happening. That especially goes for an extremely important aspect of the world in which the story takes place that could pass you by if you’re only paying attention to the main characters’ dialogue. Spielberg’s using only subtle allusions for an element which would be the main focus of most other films is a fascinating choice.
O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man, Challengers) has that everyman quality that a story like this needs. It always feels like it's him against the world, and does a terrific job of exuding both confidence and fear. Blunt delivers a fantastic performance, switching between confusion and composure with ease. Firth makes for a solid villain, and the story is helped by great turns from Domingo and Eve Hewson.
The idea that the nearly 80-year-old Steven Spielberg is still making blockbuster-style movies over 50 years after he made Jaws is astonishing, and the fact that he still knows how to make them work is even more impressive. Disclosure Day may not be the type of alien movie many were expecting, but it’s another high water mark in a career that has been full of them.
