Monday, July 31, 2006
Funniest, Most Satisfying, Drop-Dead Entertaining Film of 2006 (So Far)
That would be 'Little Miss Sunshine,' which I had the joy of seeing with Christi yesterday afternoon. Haven't laughed so much in a movie theater since 2004's Napoleon Dynamite, also seen with Christi. I will dribble out some comments on this gem throughout the week... We also saw five very promissing movie previews, which will also be discussed this week. Finally, I saw four Oscar-winning foreign films, from 1990, 1986, 1970, and 1948, respectively, available on VHS only, all worthy of comment... Stay tuned, film fans....
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Sunday, July 30, 2006
Empananda Mama
Last night I dined with Fernando and Sunil at Empanada Mama over on 9th avenue near 51st street. Empanada Mama (not to be confused with Mama's Empanadas), is a colorful boutique restaurant that specializes in all types of empanadas including the normal beef, pork and chicken as well as some gourmet non-fried baked. I got a mix of empanada style - fried Caribbean, baked Argentine, chicken, beef. The empanadas are served in individual paper bags and stamped with the contents, served in a basket along with a green and red hot sauce. The empanadas were scrumptious- the crust was baked to a golden brown and the meat and vegetables inside were juicy and tender. The sauces made it even more delicious. We washed this exquisite feast down with a pitcher of white wine Sangria, and later hung out for an hour or two in the Colombus Circle park - in the middle of that famous traffic circle - to enjoy the (relatively) cool evening air.
Ninth Avenue is turning out to be a treasure trove of unusual eateries....
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Saturday, July 29, 2006
Oh Dear
The other day I tarred my hand on the rail of the long, long escaltor that elevates me from the bowels of the 5th Avenue E/V subway station...
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Friday, July 28, 2006
Quote of the Day:
"If you say something no one could disagree with, you are probably wasting carbon dioxide. " - this week's Economist
We were just talking about Wonder Woman last night - Mulher Maravilha to Brazilians - inspired by our dinner companion's unusual watch, which featured a face criss-crossed by silver bands in tic tac toe formation....
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"If you say something no one could disagree with, you are probably wasting carbon dioxide. " - this week's Economist
We were just talking about Wonder Woman last night - Mulher Maravilha to Brazilians - inspired by our dinner companion's unusual watch, which featured a face criss-crossed by silver bands in tic tac toe formation....
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Another great quote:
"Hey, Al Qaeda! Ann Coulter is a national treasure! We would be just devastated if anything happened to her!" - afterelton.com, blog on gay and bisexual men in entertainment & media
From a personal ad
"Does this condom make me look fat?"
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"Hey, Al Qaeda! Ann Coulter is a national treasure! We would be just devastated if anything happened to her!" - afterelton.com, blog on gay and bisexual men in entertainment & media
From a personal ad
"Does this condom make me look fat?"
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Thursday, July 27, 2006
Kebabistan and Pilauistan
I dined late last night with Emerson, who's in from Brazil, and his friends, at an Afghan restaurant, and I'm pleased to report Afghan food does differ from its neighbors. I had 'Aushe Burani,' noodles cover with yogurt, spices, and ground beef curry, preceded by spicy pumpkin turnover that were crispier and lighter than samosas, and, again, spicy.
I didn't go out after our 9pm dinner: some of us mortals have to get up for work in the morning...
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Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Quote of the Week:
"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - Harry Truman
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"I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell." - Harry Truman
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Thick As A Brick
Work heated up this week - I'm feeling 'earnings week exhaustion' - though I had a nice, if somewhat rainy weekend with my sister and nephew. We saw two plays, the aesthetically stunning 'Lion King' and the arch laugh-fest 'Drowsy Chaperone' - I'll write more on these later on... Here are some of my recent stabs at art photography:
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Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Crater Lake, Pt 2
as captured by clumsy old me and by the brilliant QT Luong, the Ansel Adams of our generation....
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Monday, July 24, 2006
Crater Lake
There are bigger lakes in the US, but none quite so perfect and pristine, blue azure reflecting off the curved walls of a crater, and lonely Wizard Island forever slightly off the southern edge...
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Sunday, July 23, 2006
Meet the Afrobats, whose high-energy live street show Danny and I caught yesterday in front of the Metropolitan Museum. Deft gymnastics were complimented by witty repartee that made us laugh at our racial consciousness. We were generous when they passed around the hat....
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Saturday, July 22, 2006
Climb Every Mountain, Pt 1
This is Argentina's Aconcagua, the highest point in the Western Hemipshere, 22,834 feet high, over 2,500 feet higher than Mt McKinley in Alaska... I've never been there, but I have hiked the Andes, I did the 25 mile, 14,000 foot high Inca Trail in November of 2002 with Erik.
This is Mount Fuji aka Fujiyama, sacred to the Japanese, the heighest mountain in their country at 12,290 feet (Colorado has dozens of peaks higher than 14,000 feet)
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Friday, July 21, 2006
Happy Friday, Everyone
Commercial subway art.... Beginning with a defaced Owen Wilson movie ad...
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Thursday, July 20, 2006
Happy Friendship Day!
This goes out to my dear friends overseas, my ex Andres and my friend Celia in Argentina and my 'copain' Denis in France. Happy Friendship Day - Día del Amigo - I think this custom is from Argentina and has something to do with the man's first step on the moon, which occured on July 20, 1969, when I was a lad.
Fun fact: Though the 230-year-old French-American friendship was strained over Iraq, the mutual love runs deep. What country has won more Best Foreign-Language Film Oscars than any other? Why, France of course, 13 out of 58, making them the Yankees of foreign film Oscars (Italy's a close second with 12 films). And which country, by far, has walked away with the most grand prizes at Cannes? Why, the US of A, stars & stripes forever, with 16 wins out of 64, also very Yankees-esque, leading Italy with 11 films, the UK with 8, and France itself with 7...
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006
The Big Heat
The US Coast-to-Coast swelter is finally simmering down, with temperatures here reaching as low as 86F after last night's summer storm...
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From The Onion, my favorite feature, “What Do YOU Think?
Question: “Despite mounting evidence to support it, the FDA has reaffirmed its stance against the use of medical marijuana. What do you think?”
Answer 1: " Instead of wasting time on political moves like this, the FDA should get back to doing what it does best; approving new boner pills ."
Answer 2: " This is the slippery slope, man! First they outlaw medical marijuana, and the next thing you know, it's only a matter of time before they make ALL pot illegal."
Answer 3: " It's not like the FDA left cancer patients out to dry. They can still smoke cigarettes. "
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Question: “Despite mounting evidence to support it, the FDA has reaffirmed its stance against the use of medical marijuana. What do you think?”
Answer 1: " Instead of wasting time on political moves like this, the FDA should get back to doing what it does best; approving new boner pills ." Answer 2: " This is the slippery slope, man! First they outlaw medical marijuana, and the next thing you know, it's only a matter of time before they make ALL pot illegal." Answer 3: " It's not like the FDA left cancer patients out to dry. They can still smoke cigarettes. "this entry's permalink
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Nihilsm, Cynicism, Sarcasm, Orgasm!
So shouts one of many outraged women in 'Deconstructing Harry' at Woody Allen's character. "In France, I could run on that slogan and win," he replies.... Mickey Spillane, who died yesterday, at 88, became the 1950s top writer of detective stories with a similar attitude. Below are some delicious quotes from an interview with Spillane. Btw, the movie version of 'Kiss Me Deadly" is awesome, and opens with Cloris Leachman's first movie appearance, running down a road wearing only a trenchcoat and a crazed facial expression...
While acknowledging that his books were the "chewing gum of American literature," Spillane basked in his success."I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorky and Jules Verne — and they're all dead," he'd say.
Spillane took delight in recalling the time, during the early years of paperbacks, when "some New York literary guy" approached him at a dinner party and said, "I think it's disgraceful that of the 10 best-selling books of all time, seven were written by you."
To which, the Washington Post later reported, Spillane replied: "You're lucky I've only written seven books."
A two-fingered typist who pounded out his books on a manual Smith Corona, Spillane always said he was a "writer," not an "author."
"What's the distinction? A writer makes money," he said.
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