Richard Rules: Serra at MOMA

Horrifed at my recent lack of cultural activity (I don't count reading*) I zoomed up to MOMA on Saturday to take in the Richard Serra show. Big. Big, big, HUGE pieces of metal, curved, rusting in the Sculpture Garden. You can walk between the four curves and get a lovely claustrophic feeling that I would liken to being trapped in a cargo ship's inner hull. I can't quite figure out how he made them; it must have been very difficult. What's easy is taking bad photos of them. They are NOT photogenic. Inside (where photography isn't allowed, dammit) there are even more wondrous... large curved things. The exhibit continues in the same theme, gigantic curved objects, some conconcave and some convex, so many that you feel lost among them. Neat!


Now, I must confess a love of going to museums alone. I have a very short attention span and usually die before the other person is finished perusing. Yesterday's outing, for example, took a grand total of 17 minutes (not including transportation). This way, every moment is... precious. Or something. Anyway, better photos and Serra himself here.

Of course, before posting this I had to google "que Serra, Serra" on the off-chance that I might be the first briliant humorist to use the phrase for a blog posting. Alas, no. But I did get a hoot out of this short mediabistro.com post.

Recent reading: Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns (phenomenal); Augusten Burroughs' Possible Side Effects (quite funny); Mark Kurlansky's Salt: A World History (salty!).

My Kind of Signage

Now THAT'S a good use of advertising space. Who'd a thunk that a business as pedestrian as Manhattan Mini Storage (which as far as I can tell pretty much has a lock on the storage biz in Manhattan) would have the chutzpah. Love it. I do remember another location that had posted, simply, "Save Darfur." I just... wish I had something to store at the moment. View larger

CommuniCATing

O. Henry is definitely stating that the catfood box is empty -- so empty he can crawl in it and get stuck.
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Well, Shoot

Dang! A small piece of my past has evaporated. The Assocation of Independent Video and Filmmakers is now defunct (and has been for about a year). A truly independently-spirited organization, it gave me another peek into the world of filmmaking (after NYU film school) and gave me the momentary desire to be a documentarist (which career is on hold for a while).

I remember working there as a student, filing things, answering the phones, waiting for the sweet sound of NPR's All Things Considered (which meant I only had an hour left to go). The offices, on lower Broadway, were cramped and cluttered and oh so homey. I remember a girl named Rain or Raiine or Rainne who had cool hair, and Ethan who was very serious but whom I liked a lot... at least one Elizabeth (so sweet and smart and cool) and Larry the head of it all. Sigh.

I remember one project was calling a bunch of documentary makers for some (legitimate) reason and I remember being so thrilled to speak with Barbara Kopple that I nearly couldn't speak. I myself wound up with a sound-recording gig with a woman I barely remember (Carol something) who dragged my sorry ass to Albany for a shoot and never paid me. Oh well. AIVF published a cool quarterly (I believe) that was the perfect print corollary to the hard-bitten world of independent filmmaking. It was called The Independent.

So... Save The Independent. I know I'll try to help.

A Culinary Profile

I'd like to think I'm normal: interested in food as a means of sustenance and mild pleasure, enjoying a wide range of cuisines in moderation, with a healthy contemplation about a food item's origins, its grower's plight, its manufacturing's environmental impact and my relationship to it and them.

Unfortunately, I have to admit to being somewhat obsessed with all things culinary -- not to any degree approaching a true "foodie" or to imagine myself as a chef, but geez. The evidence is in:

Read in the last six months and now sitting on my desk:

Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and The Nasty Bits

Ruth Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires
Lynda Bladholm's The Asian Grocery Store Demystified

Bill Buford's Heat

The Gardner Museum Cafe Cookbook

The Joy of Cooking (old and new editions)
Here in America's Test Kitchen

Watching on TV

Top Chef

Hell's Kitchen

America's Next Top Food Network Host

Iron Chef

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

I also frequently read blogs like Michael Ruhlman's. C's and my current favorite restaurant is Landmarc on West Broadway. I was somewhat surprised and saddened (only a little) at its terrible reviews for the Time Warner building location. Our favorite dishes at Landmarc include the sinful pain perdu, the ubiquitous (for me) salmon tartare, any salad, and of course steak frites. We know we need to get out of the neighborhood more and I'm saving my pennies (dollars) for Masa someday in the future. Blame it on Bourdain, but, as he says in his Nasty Bits:

"Go to Masa. Go now. Book late and show up on time. Sit down, shup up -- and relax. He'll [Masa Takayama]take if from there. Give yourself over the the experience. And enjoy. Eating well... is about submission. It's about giving up all vestiges of control, about entrusting your fate entirely to someone else. It's about turning off the mean, manipulative, calculating, and shrewd person inside you, and slipping heedlessly into a new experience as if it were a warm bath. It's about shutting down the radar and letting good things happen. When that happens to a professional chef, it's a rare and beautiful thing. Let it happen to you."

And that was AFTER describing, in exquisite detail, his last meal at the place. So, next time I have a few hundred (make that about $800) to spare (and I mean really to spare) that's where I'm heading.

What I Love... What I Hate. An Ongoing Survey

This will be an evolving litany of things. I hate touching shower curtains. Everyone now and then a certain confluence of humidity, water temperature, wind and angry spirits will draw a shower curtain toward me as I stand, batting away, dripping shampoo into my eyes. Horrible.

I love slivered almonds, avocados, fresh cilantro, red wine, fresh-water pearls, pedicures. I loathe finishing a good book (and will leave it around, still bookmarked or splayed on a surface or set somewhere like my desk as if it weren't all over and already fading into my literary memory). I currently love the two books I'm reading: Michael Ondaatje's (wow, I spelled that right on the first try!) Divisadero and Wendy Werris' An Alphabetical Life.

I love that C. praises me when I announce (on the phone) that I'm considering (or just took) a nap in the middle of a sunny Saturday. More to follow.

Hometown Oysters

Imagine my delight at finding, in the lovely script on the specials menu at Blue Ribbon Sushi (Sullivan St., Manhattan): Oysters from Edgecomb, Maine. That's my hometown. It's where I grew up and where my parents still live. It's quite rural, an hour north of Portland, just a by-way kind of town between Wiscasset (the "prettiest village in Maine," which, by the way, it actually isn't but is still quite comely) and Damariscotta (home of the famous Reny's).

These oysters, from Glidden Point, to be exact, may well have been the best I've ever had. Sweet, exceptionally fresh and tender and served nicely with a jot of lemon and a barely perceptible twist-tie of spring onion. These wonderful morsels more than made up for the obnoxious septet of (had to be) sales guys on someone's expense account, all gigantic and fat and super-loud. The staff tried to seat them in the "special" boxed in area but no luck. Yuck.

Skywriting Dreams

Okay, here's one for the dream analysts. After waking up at 8 am (!) on Sunday (!!) to deal with the hyperactive cats, I went back to bed and dreamed... That I was somewhere in an unfamiliar but rather beautiful hilly suburb. I looked up to see a skywriting plane languidly lettering across the blue and I suddenly realized that it was not just advertising or a "Marry me, Kit!" (wonder where THAT came from) but a conversation. A chat. Like a Google Talk or Yahoo IM. But in the sky! I was mesmerized. Metachat. How 'bout that. Oh -- and then Petey my cat changed into Doris from Everybody Loves Raymond (which I've seen maybe once) and I couldn't get him back and then someone was strangling me but then I woke up and O. Henry the kitten had draped himself across my neck like a small cat-scarf.

Baseball and Bridges

I like baseball. Quite a bit. Okay, not enough to actually blog about it but I'm a consistent quasi-fan who once went to a Yankees parade (1996. And those are not for the faint of heart) And J. who once dated a cop from upstate, actually went to that World Series (I think it was) and entered the stadium on a horse! (I think that's how it happened. I remember he wore a pinky ring and they broke up soon after, though I'm not sure any of this is related except tangentially and for ... color commentary for whatever it's worth.)

All this to say, I had nice afterwork rendezvous with C. at Ideya, the fun Jamaican joint on W. Broadway.

The experience was made even more delightful by a late-meal sighting of Ken Burns at the table near us. His life's work to date is simply incredible, both in volume and quality, and all the more amazing in its breadth and depth -- and subjects: how cool! Jazz! Architecture Baseball! Radio! And more than a dozen other impeccably forged pieces. He's a hero of mine, truth be told.

Years ago, I was a documentary filmmaker for about twenty minutes, post-TSOA -- with a still-yet-to-be unearthed gem of a video called "Working Dreams," presumptive analogue to Studs Terkel's wonderful Working, created with old friend Janine and great DP Doug Shannon... It languishes in 3/4" obscurity. We interviewed subject ranging from a chimney sweeper to Pam, a Bloomingdale's perfume sprayer. But I digress.

Ken's Brooklyn Bridge is closest to my heart; I'll tell you why some other time.

Anyway. Happy to see the guy; happy to know he had some good grub tonight. Happy there are people like him in the world, here and now, actively preserving the past in a way that makes one almost certain there is hope for the future.

Daylight Détente

This situation has vastly improved between new cat and old. No more male posturing, a little less Jets v. Sharks kind of choreographed circling. Rather, after a good night's sleep (on everyone's part but mine, as O. Henry has a thing for my hair and spent the night under it on my neck or nestled on the very top of my head) it seems we have a détente. They're indulging in (separate) afternoon naps, all's right with the world; I'm going to go get my nails done.

The Ineffable Henry

Let me introduce you to O. Henry Skittles Thompson, the newest addition to my household. He's a new friend for Petey (who, at posting, is somewhat disturbed). Henry is from the Bronx by way of the Union Square Petco and the great cat rescuers of Kitty Kind.

So far, Henry won't sit still for pictures. He is six weeks old and already a Yankees fan (he's watching the Mets v. Yankees game as we speak.)

I'm a little nervous because of Petey's initial reaction (trepidation, a little bit of hissing, which he's never done). Pics here of him, as well as MeMe (rest in peace) and Ann from next door who is a great friend to cats and a tireless cat rescuer and babysitter.

The Yankees Win!

This Totally Socks

Atlantic Monthly's "Word Fugitive" section may be my most favorite monthly series. I love stuff like this:

In March, we asked for a word to describe the moment of undignified vulnerability that people in airport security lines experience when they have to take off their shoes. The response most frequently submitted was insockurity. Tracy Gill, of New York City, was one of the readers who suggested it, adding, “PS: This entry might be a shoe-in.” Sorry, but no. Other popular responses included sole-baring, shoemiliation, dis‑ shoeveled, and unshoddenfreude.

James Arnott, of Grand Junction, Colo., wrote, “I am often pedrified when the strong-armed TSA agent implores me to remove those comfortable coverings of my feet. I find myself removed from the familiar world of ‘No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service’ and transported to a foreign land.” Derek Eisel, of Seattle, who explained that he “happened to read the question while on a plane” and so “had inspiration and time” on his hands, submitted a sizable list of possibilities, including Manolo-panicked, Birkenstalked, JimmyChoogrined, and Arched.

Procrastihedging: It's Personal... the Political

A very smart acquaintance (ok, it was my brother, a professor in Maine who's wicked smart) recently implied that one (me) could be more political on one's blog. Which is a very good point. Not only are many blogs (I'd just love to know what %) political in nature -- so the expectation is there -- but he knows me to be a strongly opinionated creature when it comes to politics. Can you tell I'm procrastihedging? Yes, well.

You know I'm a card-carrying member of the ACLU (not, of course, that I agree with everything they propose) but hey, I'm pretty much over yonder to the left in a vehement but practical kind of way. So anyway, to be completely honest, I get overwhelmed. Not only by thinking about the overwhelmingly ghastly current state of affairs vis a vis the Bush administration, but also by the massive amount of really, really good political discourse going on in the blogosphere (and, of course, in print and to a seriously lesser degree, other media like tv and radio). In a nutshell: I can't compete. I can't keep up with the news, let alone process it and synthesize and report out to the world here. Others do it better. Others write better and think better. Others aggregate other writers' sites better. And yes, I AM lazy but that's... not it.

And now for something cool and fun.

I love Harper's Magazine -- especially their "Findings" page, which never fails to produce at least one belly laugh and the occasional tear, general bemusement and head-scratching, and a few rare "well, duhs." See if you can peg the following, from a small sampling in the most recent issue:

The Good News
Researchers successfully grew sperm from human bone marrow, which could theoretically lead to a future in which pairs of lesbian mothers can produce their own daughters without the intervention of a male. And a study found that many people who are diagnosed with depression are really just sad.

The Bad News
A British study concluded that job stress can lead to overeating. And experts said that the human papilloma virus could cause mouth cancer in people who perform oral sex but stressed that people need not change their behavior.

News That I Don't Know What to Do With
Physicists observed electrons tunneling out of their atoms.

Spring Maine Trip

Finally getting around to the little trip to Maine from last last week. This spring trip to Edgecomb (I tend to hit every season at least once) began at JFK Airport where C. and I had a very pleasant and fattening breakfast in the JetBlue food court. But of course the trip can only REALLY begin at Red's Eats on Route One. We pick up fried scallops, lobster rolls, one hamburger and fries to bring home to my mom and dad as our houseguest offering; it's always very well received.

It rained every single day and was freezing so this was a stay-by-the fireplace kind of vacation. Fine by me. Reny's in Damariscotta again provided us with cheap t-shirts and, this time, some plastic lips that to everyone's hilarity worked very well with freshly cooked asparagus on a plate. You'll recall last time's focal point of fun: the giant container of cheese-balls.

Hey, you do what it takes to amuse yourself Down East, let me tell you. My newest wishlist item is a real ship's clock. They have a very cool, low and echoey "booong" sound, and you have to figure out the time (aurally) based on an 8-bells, every-half hour system: midnight (or noon) is 8 bells; 12:30 is 1 bell; 1 is 2 bells, 1:30 is 3 bells, etc. Half a lifetime growing up with these crazy clocks and I can still only identify noon, midnight, 8 pm and sometimes 10.