Not happy in the bath...

Me and Isabella

free food, pilates, the nose, aunt duty

so lien came to visit. and she's blogging now! lunch at del posto, dinner at locanda verde. in said post she compares eating dinner with me to eating dinner with bob deniro. the comparison is flattering, honestly! except for that i'm just a nobody who likes to eat and he's a famous person who is part owner of locanda. but yes, we probably get a lot of food bought for us either way. i swear that lien and i and our other guests at these meals got even better treatment than i'd have gotten being by myself. so maybe all the extras are the folks at the restaurant saying, "oh! that girl actually DOES have friends! lets treat them really nice and hopefully she won't keep coming back alone." i have no real explanation. all desserts were gratis (and the ricotta) at locanda and del posto brought over their awesome bellinis AND a moscato d'asti AND a trio of amuses with black truffle. the moscato was all george's fault (the maitre'd) because he told everyone it was liens birthday so then dessert wine came out, as did her plate with "happy birthday" written in so beautifully with chocolate sauce. i mean, it was OUT OF CONTROL.  why aren't more people going to del posto for lunch?! i talk about it constantly. i need to start recruiting people there, hard-core, lest they decide that losing all the money for being open for lunch isn't worth the cost. now lien has left thinking that i'm someone to whom this happens all the time. and it doesn't, really. i mean, it happens occasionally at about 6 or so restaurants that i have on rotation. i stick to my favorites, all of which are truly GOOD places to eat. the end. no mayorship needed. but yeah, i came of looking pretty fancy for lien while she was here. i cannot wait for her to repay the favor next time im in in LA. she's a lot like me though; super chatty and inquisitive in a way that isn't annoying because we're cute, small asian girls. people remember us. she had a bartender at joseph leonard who knows me so now i'll have to tell the bartender i know the bone marrow obsessed girl. SEE! this is a small world.

healthcare. OH HEALTHCARE. watching that vote was a moment that you know you'll remember. it is watching the course of history stop and switch tracks going forward. pelosi is pretty fucking amazing. i know obama sat back and i know rahm was telling him to ignore the obviously easiest path but i'm glad enough people got to him, told rahm no, and that he threw himself into this with the time and energy that a president is expected to invest, regardless of how good his people on the ground are. he's supposed to be a leader. and he led. and see what happens?! shit gets done. and what is freaking out the republicans most is that they know this is better for people and they know people will like this bill (polls showed people being against "obamacare" but FOR every single item that obamacare represented. they were just throwing a hissy fit over his name with some palin lingering death panel nonsense and some stupak baby killing thrown in for good measure). GOPers are upset because they are the party of NO action right now. they are the temper tantrum throwers. the cross your arms and stop and call people names party. or, OH MY GOD, the attempted MURDERING PEOPLE AND DESTROYING PROPERTY PARTY. and that is a party of 5 year olds. and, no matter what anyone says, 5 year olds shouldn't be members of congress. so when republicans want to grow up, stop lying on the sunday talk shows, want to actually put forth ideas that work for everyone (not just corporate interests and other rich folks) and then actually vote yes on something....well i'm sure the dems would be welcome to have them. HCR was bipartisan reform. so many parts of that bill were parts that regan and nixon had championed, and that lots of republicans in the past had liked (oh, and now conveniently want to take responsibility for now that it's polling better, grassley, you asshole). but now, obama is so freaking threatening, they won't agree with him about anything just to try to frame him as ineffective. and obama is getting shit done anyhow! imagine that! i mean, it's like trying to work with bibi. stubborn and stuck in a mentality from 4 decades ago. totally lacking any connection to the world as we know it.

so i went to see william kentridge's "the nose" and HOLY HELL was that shit awesome. rocked my world. i see sufjan stevens walking in late to a middle row seat just a few rows a head of mine. i immediately started planning my exit strategy: the one that would finally get me to meet the MAN. all options entailed jumping over swarths of decrepit old folks. i see seth colter walls tweet from the balcony: "Yeah, I'm standing in the balcony @metopera to see The Nose, again. Audience is ... different than usual. Go figure.#YoungsLikeModernism" looking around me, i had no idea what he was talking about. except for the sufjan appeance, of course. the score was gorgeous. the set was perfect. inventive/interesting without being dominating or show-offy (a tendency most opera has). lots of kentridge video reels ran across the back scrim. the subtitles were also displayed largely on the scrim and on the stage. it was nice to see what was going on without having to turn down to the prompter on your seat. so from a  pure comfort level, it worked. and it was funny. i laughed out loud close to a dozen times (if not more) which isn't really something i do at the opera. old people laugh at the corny funny parts during the marriage of figaro or whatnot. i do not. but i was so tickled...i feel like that's wholly inadequate a word to describe it, but i felt the strangest sort of joy while watching what was a funny opera about a serious story. i know kentridge's work, so i excpected some of the darkness but it was the light that caught me by surprise. two things distracted me: paulo szot reminded me so much of john hamm. like, several times i thought "john hamm is doing awesome in the opera!" and also, i felt some of the singing was weak. not off, but just not strong enough. but seth said he felt the same way from the orchestra but that the sound was better above. and it always is, so i shouldn't be surprised.  but in short: AMAZING. really really. strong acting from the singers was a welcome addition and valery conducting shoshtakovich...it was almost overwhealming. took you just to the point before orgasm. the denouement was silly too. then it ended and the typical rush of natty old people who think their abbreviated trip home is more important than showing your appreciation for the performance they just saw. i saw sufjan's row moving (how'd he get all the natty old folks?!) but the dead man next to me and the old couple on my other side were squatters. the "wait until everyone leaves and we'll carry on out at our own pace" kind of people. FOILED AGAIN. just reminds me to stick to the newer productions (not tosca) because i've seen everything else a hundred times. i've got tickets for renee doing that rossini opera that i can't think of the name of. but it's been years since i've seen her in anything i liked (probably since alcina which was, like, a decade ago).

marina abramovic: i'd just seen hers and tim burton's and kentridge's exhibits at MoMA. she sat at a table, completely motionless. and she does it all day. and passersby can come sit down and join her. i'd assume there are rules about not talking or whatnot but i'm upset now i didn't try. she's just totally fascinating. and also looks DAMN good for her age. i'd just want to beg her to know what she uses on her face at the very least. but the other stuff she's done, traumatizes me though i've never seen it in person. rhythym 0, 1974: sounds horrific and since i've read about it i've thought about it several times. gone over in my head, psychologically what i'd have done had i been there. knowing i'd have been one of those people protecting her, yelling at anyone who wanted to show their masochist tendencies. i want to look into the eyes of a woman who has suffered like this, for the sake of art. to see the kind of person who loses their body to art the way she does. 

i'm headed home this weekend to take care of a small baby. she's just hit 5 pounds so she's doing great and eating enough. she is still pretty fussy at night but kate and ant have been taking turns doing night feedings. i'm trying to decide what to pack for a trip that will be almost all cooking, cleaning, and getting spit up on. i mean, i guess i could take some gym clothes. but nothing cute. you can't let cute clothes near babies. 

i got my jacket back from the cuban who realizes now that i really was only reaching out to him so i could get back what he snagged from my closet. so there's been some separation anxiety in the form of many calls and texts from him but his english is, well, not awesome and i think phone conversations might get a bit tedious so i never answer. 

the weekend was a whirlwind. several birthday party festivities and a wedding shower (where they had momofuku ma peche catered banh mi and tofu sandwiches and also COMPOST COOKIES) tuned into a total debaucherous mess. wigs and kermit capes were worn. walk-offs were had. there is photographic evidence of me crawling around on colins bed like a tiger. and my spanks are showing underneath my dress and all, but i guess that's worse than a series of ass and va-jay-jay shots, no? and then a brunch the next day and more drinking at the beer garden at the standard. and i had to get up early the next morning for pilates. i've committed myself to 5 months of classes with the reformer and wouldn't you know that i just LOVE that machine-a-ma-jig? the reformer makes your body do all the right things without stressing out other parts of your body in the process. it's a bit odd to sometimes feel like you're working against gravity, these bands around your ankles pulling you up on to your shoulder blades, all nutty-looking but i'm really enjoying it. i'll go twice a week until all my coupons run out. i'm feeling taller and straighter already.

my schedule is still batty. random stuff every damn night. justy and i made it to the pent house of the new jean nouvel building which has 360 degree views of manhattan. i think it's on the market for a cool 16 million or somewhere around that. i cannot even begin to comprehend what kind of life that king of money gets you. crazy ass huge pent houses on the water in a celebrity architect designed building i guess? but DAMN. just completely nuts. cute bites courtesy of tipsy parson, who also hosted us as a group at the restaurant later. we were drunk on champagne so mac and cheese and hush puppies were EXACTLY what we needed. 

the few friends who read this (one of whom, coughcolincough, fed me an elaborate lie just to get the url, something he could have gotten by googling me) i think find it easier to come here to see what i'm up to than to just communicate with me. it's weird. then they buy the things i've said i've bought or gone and done the things i'd said i'd done.  i'd rather get text messages asking what i'm up to or invites out to find out what i'm doing; they know that i would be happy to chat about all of it IRL. instead they visit here several times a day even though i only update once a week at best and then i'll hear that it's been the subject of conversations when i'm not present. for ages i'd send links to college friends who'd be like, "oh, that's nice" without even clicking through. this has always been just a way for me to remember things that i've done. i think my life is pretty nifty and this serves to remind me of all the reasons why. then random readers from across the country started using it as a NYC guide of sorts. i just never figured my friends would use it for the same thing. ODD. 

from a waitress at one of my "regular" places when it started to get busy with people other than myself, "everything cool gets ruined." it's true. 

many many excellent concerts coming up with all the indie kids who cross-pollinate so i'm sure there will be loads of surprise guest appearances that aren't ever really a surprise. crossing my fingers for sufjan who i just missed at the bell house. FOILED!

Liveblogging lunch: Pulino's affogato

Liveblogging lunch: Pulino's Porchetta pizza

Liveblogging lunch: Pulino's cabbage and sunchoke

Liveblogging lunch: Pulino's!

andy, peel, 4square, the nose, locanda

oh my god, YOU GUYS, andy is blogging over at the huffington post! you know, the andy that got me into blogging way back when he was a comedy central intern? to whom i professed my love even though i'd never met him, in his comments section? i think asking his mom for his hand in marriage, actually. but then we hung out and he wrote all my birthday party invites, and then started this five jokes thing that i still enjoy and is still in my reader. so anyway, say you knew him way back when, before he was writing for the daily show or whatever he does next. (seriously, daily show people, hire this shit up.)

got a skin peel at the dermatologist. i have a famously high tolerance for pain. i passed a kidney stone once and just thought it was cramps. i get bikini waxes, regularly. masseurs often tell me that they work harder on me than most men because they know i can handle it. but this face peel? this using a cottonball to swab acid on my face to melt the top layer off (something they affectionately refer to as "frost") hurt like a BITCH. never again. 

so almost a year ago, everyone was talking about foursquare. at least, i felt they were. so much so that i'd claimed it had jumped the shark already. i was SO not joining this annoying sounding thing that everyone was obsessed with. i'm too cool for that. well, i'm sometimes WAY ahead of the curve as far as these internetty things go and now is when all the rest of the lay people are finally catching on and a year later it's actually blowing up. the thing is, i AM a regular. at a lot of places. could i be mayor? clearly. but what's the point? the people at these places (that i'm not naming because then it would make it far too easy to stalk me) all know my name, i get free shit and they treat me better than everyone else already! checking in or not, my presence is known. and i'd much rather that than be some person who never says a word to anyone but checks in all the time. sure, they're mayor but who gives a fuck? and what? they'll get a free beer if the owner is even savvy enough to know what 4sq is to start with? i don't know. maybe it's different for people who aren't outgoing. all i know is that i'll go to a place as little as two times and on my third visit they're greeting me by name. who the F needs foursquare when you're actually pretty socially graceful? my friend david, who goes out a lot, said, "i'm the mayor of two places and one of them is my house." so, again, what's the point? unless it's really a contest about how much one goes out? and how/why is that something i'd need to compete with someone for? i go out all the freaking time! note the bags under my eyes. i'd prefer to lose the game if it meant i'd get more fucking sleep.

speaking of internetty things: i passed by ricky van veen on the street today. why is he so cute? 

speaking of celebrity sightings: i saw william kentridge leaving MoMA the other day. i'm seeing the nose next week and seth coulter walls has suggested it's even better than he thought it was going to be. i like shostakovich and i like new opera stagings (i mean, how many times can one really see boheme and care about the visuals anymore? i suppose there was that one disastrous staging of bondy's tosca which everyone hated but at least it was INTERESTING) and kentridge is a genius so i'm sure it'll all be grand.  

my friend lien is in from LA so on the list of "must do" places was locanda verde (also on the list: balthazar at breakfast, del posto lunch, a dinner at joseph leonard, sunday brunch at cookshop). ted and his boyfriend came too. for as much as i like eating alone, having 4 people means you get to try so much more. and even though i've had everything on the menu, there are certain things (i.e. the roast chicken) that i've only had once. so we got a little bit of everything: the ricotta, the steak tartare, the meatball sliders, gigantone pasta with the sunday meat sauce, scallps with cauliflower and citrus and the chicken. the table next to us were having some sort of family dispute and yelled at each other the whole time, and didn't even eat anything. something about trust funds and we think one of them was a mediator. who knows. i feel bad for the server who was stuck with the dead table for two hours. everyone loved the food and the space and my host came to chat and then sent four desserts over  and said they were courtesy of the chef even though AC himself wasn't in the house (he deserves his weekends off). but anyhow, we got the lemon tart (i don't even lemon desserts but karen's tart is awesome) and the semifreddo and a walnut cake? and some budino type thing? we were so stuffed at this point i was having trouble focusing. so, YAY. for a no-fuss, no-attitude plain old GOOD meal.

mcqueen, del posto,

i've tried her baked goods. i don't recommend it. 

GOD are these soooooo soooooo beautiful. royal and wearable with gorgeous lines. i want all the jackets. i mean, it's sad. that this was it. his last. 

lunch at del posto again and they gave us even more amuse bouches this time! and i'm not sure other tables got them, we were watching. at least, i'm going to say they didn't so i can feel special. they also maybe knew my name when i walked in the front door but i SWEAR i haven't been there that often. i'm just THAT delightful. also, usually alone and kind of distinctive looking and really just nice which is probably the reason why anyone remembers me at all. oh, and because i go there and spend money. mark ladner was there, large and in charge. (he's so tall!) at lunch david and i discussed the finer points of being ladies of leisure and started planning a bright future wherein he inherits some family money and i marry rich and we run off together regularly on exotic vacations. then i took a look at his newest masterpiece, a lip dub to a lady gaga song by a gaggle of men. i started with the bastianich sauv blanc, the lobster, the duck (i have to stop ordering it but it is so good) and finished with the sfera. 

i'll link to this alex pareene bit on rush, but i'm not even going to click through myself because that's how much i hate truncated feeds. gawker doesn't deserve my click. fuck truncated feeds! seriously. nevermind! i'll link ezra instead. 

i thought i was good old unemployed this week but got picked up for something starting next tuesday. ughhhhh. so that leaves me only 3 days to take that damn CLE to keep the little thing known as NYS Bar admittance so i can keep putting the esq. after my name. (i'm kidding. i don't use the esq. EVER.) and see the dermatologist to tell me i don't have skin cancer and then maybe a celebratory tan (kidding!) (not really.) amongst a bevy of other crappy errands. 

baby isabella, crawfish postmortem, sunglasses

HOLY SHIT you guys! i forgot to tell you kate had the baby!! only 11
minutes of pushing, 3 hours of contractions and with an epidural, she
said the thing was actually not unpleasant. her parents almost missed
it because it happened so fast. little bella is breathing on her own
but she isn't old enough to know how to suck yet and isn't strong
enough, even if she knew how to suck, to be able to suck enough to
feed herself for a whole day. so she's in the NICU for a few weeks and
i'll go home and meet her when kate and ant bring her home from the
hospital. they'll need the extra hands and it'll be better to have
comfy time with her in a big plush couch with the dogs than seeing her
only in the hospital. so everyone is good and well! *huge sigh of
relief*

and just when i was going to take a week out from being social to
master cleanse, i get the news that my friend lien is coming in from
LA. she's BIG into food. so now, of course, i've got 2-3 meals a day
scheduled to make sure she gets all the good stuff done. terrible.
MUST CLEANSE. but not till sometime after the 20th i guess? argh.

if you're ever out and don't want to get drunk, do not make friends
with the sommelier. must have tried 20 wines and am paying the price
for it now...

the crawfish boil: i came, i saw, i conquered. some people showed up
and just ate. i didn't feel that was fair. also, my curiosity is
insatiable so i HAD to see how it was done. the longer i watched the
process, the less scary the buggers became. and by the last batch i
was easily plucking up the live ones by their tails (their pincers
hurt!) and tossing them in a colander for a final rinse. a lot of them
showed up dead and with puncture wounds which makes me think they
weren't packed properly. i did suck the heads of a couple (people are
pretty much in two camps with regards to that...either you do or you
don't) but there wasn't much in there. I think the sucking part is
just to gross out the people who choose not to. it's kind of a lot of
work for so little meat but it was an event and i'm kind of proud of
myself for making it through the whole thing, mud and all.

ran into david at brunch. my regular spot is in his neighborhood. we
also ran into jeffrey tascarella! his fiancee knew me as the random
girl who tweeted him at faustina which probably means they both think
i'm crazy. i'm just a girl who loves the internet and food. i
recommended the bloody mary and then let david convince me to spend an
ungodly amount of money on new sunglasses made my porsche? a gorgeous
pair of aviators with the perfect color (not too gold/yellowy) which
david assures me look expensive (david is the KING of sunglasses, it's
his hobby, buying them). that something looks nice is important when
you're spending a lot of money on it. that it not look like you bought
it at h&m. conversely, it's also important to only buy things at h&m
that look like they came from somwhere nicer. there is a method to
this, i swear. anyway, i bought them just in time

Am officially between projects which means I can sleep and do my taxes
and take some stuff to the cleaners and have shoes fixed at the
cobbler and drop by my Ortho and take a CLE and get a haircut and ALL
the other shit i haven't had time for. Phew!

Crawfish!

Crawfish

Crawfish!

a grammar, dfw, vancouver, crawfish

VOTE. please. it's important. PLEASE. it doesn't take long. VOTE. just an e-mail, a pw and onck on a link they e-mail you to confirm the vote. these kids deserve a beautiful wedding and they've had a hard few months....

 

Aaaahhhhh. (h/t to Balk)

 

and while i was rooting around in a grammar's tumblr, i found this which i found to be an extremely sensible post on DFW. i'm in the "DFW obsessed" camp. nobody in my circle knows his work so i don't need to defend him much, nor do i get to gush much either. what i know is that in reading his works i can almost see my progress, the growth of my depth, as a person and a reader by virtue of having experienced his writing. he's funny and smart and heart-breaking and sensitive and tough and insecure and honest, GOD, so honest. he lets you into his head and into his experience and gifts them to you, makes you richer. my initial frustration with IJ wasn't that it didn't have an ending. it was that i wanted the book to go on forever. also, that the ending was all broken up into 4 word increments and scattered willy nilly across the massive volume i'd just finished, lugged around with me everywhere for months, and if i wanted to know how the story ended, i'd have to go back and read it all over again. 4 more times, at least. i was mad at myself for not having the time to actually do that.

 

and though all the cool kids have been tweeting about the baffler but i've been lagging behind because of the unopened mcsweeney's pile, i may have to go pick that shit up. sigh.

 

anyhow, he/she/whoever it is behind that tumblr is in my feed.

 

THIS IS AMAZING. i walk by this guy's place almost every day since it's near my office. i thought it was a speakeasy at first as he has a single red light near his door. then you see this display window by the gate that says "this is not a restaurant. do not buzz" which means i'm not the first person to think it might be a secret bar. also in that glass display: pictures of his dog and advertisements for his lasek services. it's hilarious. i didn't even think it was all real until i went home and googled it. this guy is legit. legitimately insane.

 

awesome.

 

this makes me tear up EVERY time. whoever did the P&G olympic ads better win some awards for that shit. that is some hardcore professional heartstring tugging. those manipulative assholes.

 

vancouver, OH vancouver! i don't have time to give the full rundown but i had the best, BEST time. the city is so gorgeous, surrounded by clear waters and many sailboats, snow-capped mountains formed a backdrop in almost every direction. the food was awesome and thanks to the many bloggers that helped me to the best places (thanks to: jeannette, Ben, Kim, steph for all the advice, truly). i got to spend some time at the proctor and gamble sponsored US family home which was the coziest place with free food and alcohol all over the place. a crest room where they'd photoshop your head onto a speedskater/snowboarder/skiier's body, a pringles room, lots of couches and beanbags and pillows and HUGE screens for watching events or napping. AND, i got to meet a ton of olympians because it was basically the only place for them to hang with their families (family/friends aren't allowed in the olympic village). it was so random to be sitting with a beer and have speedy peterson walk in, wearing his medal, carrying his medal ceremony boquet and everyone whoops and claps and he walks over to me and asks what the hockey score was before he goes off to find his parents. NUTS. also, AWESOME. i did miss johnny weir, twice which is TRAGIC. the people in vancouver there are the nicest. every time i stopped someone for directions i was given a phone number so i could call them if i got lost. who does that?! who gives their number to strangers?! THESE PEOPLE. and for the record, they were all girls with boyfriends so nobody was hitting on me. there was so much energy and thank GOD canada won that game because being an american in that city might have been tragic knowing that at 8am that day the lines for the bars were blocks long so it's not that canadians are violent people but, you know, i don't trust that much alcohol in the system of ragey people. and the ROARS when that goal was scored in OT was deafening from every corner of the city. INSANE. i kept saying, "i'd live here." and i meant it. i liked it better than san francisco even (it's just eminently more walkable and their transit is so easy, no separate cards for separate trains). so, brilliant time, really.

 

crawfish boil this weekend and i'm pretty psyched. also, kind of terrified. they're being overnighted to avivas today and so tomorrow we're throwing them in the bathtub so they can spit out all the mud? and then we give them a bath? has anyone ever done this? it sounds crazy! and they're all alive and crawly and crazy and then we cook them with some spicy goodness. the sommelier at dinner last night said i should bring a big dry riesling. anyhow, i've never done this before but it's all kind of nuts. i'll take photos of the buggers in the bathtub to post. i'm told they taste like lobster which will hopefully make this mud spitting business worth it.

 

also this weekend: dim sum, alice in wonderland and 3 birthday parties before an oscar shindig at al's. i'm exhausted just thinking about it...