Triscribe

Category: Brooklyn

  • National Novel Writing Month… comes an end. Aww.

    nano_07_winner_small2.gif

    Yeah! I surpassed the 50,000 words (and hence a NaNoWriMo winner) and came to An Actual End!!! The novel is… well, nothing spectacular, but it’s dark, grim, some parts funny, some parts actually good, and way much dialogue (along the lines of “You’re stupid”/”No, you’re stupid!”). As a murder mystery, it’s not that good (uh, clues weren’t clearly clues – they were more like anvils for being obvious telling rather than showing, I’m still not clear on the motive, etc.). But, character development was kind of there. More importantly, the first draft is done! I win, just for being done!

    Man, I didn’t even have a title until 11/29/07; it’s entitled, “Bread and Circuses.” It’s a sort of NYC murder mystery, taking place in 1992; a look-at-the-life of a reporter who gets embroiled in a bunch of murders plus at least two or three subplots going on in his life; a sort-of spy thing, where this ex-spy kind of wishes he was back in the business; hints of mafia; small cameos of characters from my other stories; and the oh-whoa, I made it to an ending, not just surpassed 50,000 words! Yeah!

    Will I learn to love to do second drafts? At least I’m out of the creative rut that I was in for weeks previous to this month.

    Stuff:

    The NY Times: Seth Kugel on these lovely (yet pricey) chocolate places in the city. Mmm, chocolate. But, yeah, pricey.

    No new Mark Bittman video on NYTimes.com, but he writes on the concept of the hot pot, shabu shabu, and other aliases. Fascinating stuff.

    Slate: Dahlia Lithwick on the transparency (or not really) of the US S. Ct.

    Finished reading yet another Billy Collins poetry compilation, “The Art of Drowning.” Good stuff.

  • Thirty-seven or Thanksgiving, But Who’s Counting?

    Earliest Christmas carol: I heard the Christmas Song (Chestnuts roasting on an open fire…) on Veteran’s Day. That’s really lame, it’s almost like, let’s just get through Turkey Day to get to massive shopping the next. Kind of the same for my birthday – it was one of those, not a milestone, nothing to see, moving on type of days.

    Jade Asian Restaurant, Flushing: Dimsum in the old Gum Fong. New decor is one part Shanghai Tang, one part Blue Ribbon. Ha gow and ha chern both excellent, as well as their other dumplings and buns. Jook (congee) was average, obviously using a boat motor blender as a shortcut. Check it out. Average tab: $15-20.

    Downtown Atlantic: 10 minutes in this place, and you will be dying of hunger, as the scent of baking cupcakes will whet your appetite. Tried the Grandma’s Sunday Gravy (Spaghetti with tomato sauce with stewed meatballs and sausage, for those not having the privilege of having an Italian Sunday dinner). It was passable, but obviously they had to cut out significant trans-fat, which I had to supplement with dollops of butter. The other brunch options looked quite nice, topped off with your favorite baked good and a strong coffee.

    Beltway elite now shopping at Costco. It’s rediscovering the Protestant work ethic for Thanksgiving – still feed everyone well, but at least you can say that you were frugal. I suppose that FreshDirect performs a similar function in New York City, although Fairway and Costco are serious competition here.

    And the hunt is on for Christmas shopping – Black Friday loss leaders not worth it (and I’m not waking up at 5:30 to get them), but P and I bought snow boots at 20% off at EMS.  Anyone know where you can find a Wii? Happy Holidays!

  • Post-Thanksgiving

    In this Sunday’s NY Times:

    In the NY Times’ Sunday Magazine, former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins reads his poem, “The Fish,” with accompanying seafood recipes (although I’m not sure that the recipes are from him).

    The G subway line leaves so much to be desired, as this article on the upcoming subway lines report card notes.

    A lengthy profile on Ang Lee, director, who lives in Larchmont, NY – and seems to enjoy it very much.

    NY Times’ Motoko Rich on “A Good Mystery: Why We Read.”

    Slate managing editor Jill Hunter Pellettieri suggests we move on from turkey leftovers. Are turkey leftovers that bad? But, it’s the American way! Well, okay, maybe it’s unnecessary, but so is the current hype on Black Friday – totally insane!

    Slate’s found Michael Kinsley discusses how life experience is relevant to becoming, say, president.

    Can I pull off my so-called novel before National Novel Writing Month ends? Will the writers’ strike continues? Stay tuned!

  • Happy Thanksgiving 2007!

    Happy Thanksgiving!

    Food, lots of food.

    In the NY Times: How to carve a turkey, butcher style. The accompanying video was also pretty enlightening.

    The NY Times’ Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman has a lovely idea on how to use leftover turkey – make turkey and mushroom barley risotto. He suggests lots of butter, at least in the video he did…

  • Pre-Thanksgiving Stuff

    A somewhat productive weekend – about halfway in the 50000 word National Novel Writing Month project.

    Otherwise a sadly lazy Sunday. Watched Kylie Kwong on Discovery Home channel. As noted in a past FC post, I can’t get over her Australian accent. This particular episode I watched had her cooking noodles with her mom and her brother, and serving a whole bunch of dishes in entertaining her fabulous Brazilian friends.

    A NY Times look at the law and economics analysis on the death penalty as deterrence issue. I still don’t know quite what to make of the question, since does a criminal really think, “Gosh, I could get the death penalty if I kill so-and-so”?

    In the middle of the continuing tv/film writers’ strike – Saturday Night Live… on stage, to help the unfortunate colleagues.

    NY Times’ Virginia Heffernan on the release of early Sesame Street episodes on DVD, and how they are so inappropriate for today’s kids (who are not to overeat like Cookie Monster used to be, or talk to strangers like Gordon or Susan or Luis, or notice the odd undercurrent between the roommates Bert and Ernie – hence a parental warning. A parental warning?).

    Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library is now having a green roof. Cool.

    And… well, I may go into further detail if anyone’s interested about Monday’s tv – a bit behind on “How I Met Your Mother” (a Special Thanksgiving episode) and … what an awesome “Heroes” episode! Mr. Bennet is The Man. Claire is… a dim-witted teenager with a serious power. Elle (played by the ex-Veronica Mars) is… a psycho whose Dad is probably no less foolish (and his identity was not a complete surprise to me; just love it when a theory gets proven true)… well, okay, so I won’t give everything away. Man, talk about timing by the writers’ strike…

  • A Mid-November Pre-Thanksgiving Friday/Saturday

    “The Death of E-Mail,” as this Slate article notes? No way! I still e-mail. I love e-mail. E-mail, don’t go away… (ok, yeah, I’m being facetious. Just a tad; darn teenagers think they rule the world with fads and dropping e-mail for Facebook and MySpace).

    Readings: just finished reading former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins’ book – “‘The Trouble with Poetry’ and Other Poems” – and now reading another Collins book: “The Art of Drowning.” I had never read his poems, beyond what I’ve viewed of these very clever animated versions of his work on YouTube – so finally getting around to reading his work has been great. Accessible (but not low-brow), witty and funny, and visually stimulating; as noted in a previous post, I think Collins’ poems are reminiscent of Emily Dickinson’s (the American style of poetry, perhaps? I’m so not up on poetry) – but thankfully not as dreary or disjointed or just plain strange (I certainly feel that way of some of Emily Dickinson’s poetry).

    Delayed response on-line on my part – tv critic David Bianculli left the Daily News on November 5, 2007, with his farewell column – just in time for the tv writers strike, and to have his own on-line magazine on the subject of tv, TV Worth Watching. Plug in Bianculli’s name in the search function of our blog here, and you can see how much I cite to him. I’ll miss him in the Daily News; I am now bookmarking his website, which looks pretty cool.

    Query – am I really watching less tv, or is it because I’m too busy trying to write my so-called novel?

    Late breaking news: could it be? The tv writers and the studios are going back to the negotiating table? Well, the tv writers’ strike continues, so far as anyone can tell…

    NY Times with an article on how to spend a weekend on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

    Procrastinating — it’s been going around by word of e-mail (umm, rather than by mouth, if you will), so try out Free Rice, a vocabulary game. For every word you get right, you get 10 grains of rice to help fight hunger. It doesn’t seem terribly much (those of us rice eaters can figure that 10 grains barely fill your spoon), but seems like a nice way to waste one’s time. Learn words (or at least improve your skills in the Process of Elimination or using those old SAT break-down-the-roots to get to a definition tactics) and get some rice for others.

  • Post Veteran’s Day Stuff

    On a serious note: on Tuesday, I had attended the tail end of the NYS/NYC Bar Associations’ rally at 60 Centre Street in support of the Pakistani bar’s situation, the event of which I had noted in a previous blog post. I’m not exactly sure of the media’s coverage of City Bar’s approach (Sewell Chan of the NY Times did blog it and there’s this article by Winter Miller of the NY Times – she actually took down comments from me, but I didn’t think it’d have amounted to much and it didn’t wind up in the article, understandably); NY Law Journal’s has quite the article (well, its job is to cover the local bar). Newsday, but not Daily News or Post? Guess I have to check the real newspapers to be sure. I did check Google – 34 articles on-line? Not bad! Well, it was just great to see NYC lawyers taking time to rally in support of rule of law and for colleagues who are trying to keep it alive in their country.

    Not as serious stuff:

    My National Novel Writing Month novel is slogging along. Some 20,000 odd words, and I’m not really sure how to go from Plot Point A to Plot Point B. My descriptions and settings are sucky. Dialog’s kind of funny at least, but this isn’t a screenplay or script. Arrgh. This is going to be quite the first draft.

    Matt Damon’s People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for this year, making his quote to the powers of People Magazine Time’s quote of the day: “You gave an aging suburban dad the ego boost of a lifetime.” Congratulations, Mr. Damon!

    Monday TV:

    “How I Met Your Mother” was quite timely – being November, it was time for Marshall to go on-line and check his NYS bar results (good lord, who on the writing people behind HIMYM is the former lawyer to know these true-to-life lovely details? I hope they’re on strike to get the credit they richly deserve – the accuracy of Marshall going crazy over not knowing whether he passed was too real). Only, Marshall can’t find his password to log in and he doesn’t want to wait for the mailed results (or check NY Law Journal? Come on, Marshall!). And, Ted goes crazy once he finds out why his friends don’t like his new girlfriend (they point out The Flaw), which leads Ted to point out Lily’s Flaw… which ultimately leads to Marshall remembering his password and finding that he indeed passed the bar. Let’s give a warm welcome to the newest member of the (fictitious) bar!

    Hmm. I wonder if they’ll do an episode where Marshall has to deal with the Character and Fitness committee. Come on – they got to show that! There’s a sitcom plot to mine from that scenario; you can have Barney (played by the scene-stealing Neil Patrick Harris, ex-Doogie Howser), or Lily to mess up Marshall.

    Saw some of NBC’s “Chuck” – wherein Chuck and his fellow CIA colleagues have to capture and cure themselves of toxic truth serum. Toxic truth serum maker was played by Kevin Weissman, who previously played dear Marshall Flinkman, the tech guy of “Alias.” Aww, Marshall – you’re a bad guy? At least on “Alias,” Marshall didn’t realize that he was on the Side of Evil (’cause he was working for SD6 thinking it was part of the CIA, only it wasn’t, and then he joined the real CIA, but he was still scared of Sloane, ’cause Sloane was Evil)… Oh, well. Pretty interesting episode; not sure if I’d be a “Chuck” watcher, but it’s a decent show.

    “Heroes” – major episode explaining what happened “four months ago” – that is, the events that occurred right after the last season finale and explaining this season’s premiere. Skip this if you don’t want spoilers….

    — Considering the slow pace of this season, this gave good explanations. I’m still bored with the Latin American twins, but at least they showed how Maya has something of a nasty streak in her personality (which intrigues me, because I haven’t bought her “I’m the Poor Victim” personality at all and her befriending Sylar is creepy…). Her brother’s still a boring irritation. Peter has his memory back, but really… who is “Adam” supposed to be? Good/evil? Just amoral? The actor David Anders was “Sark” on “Alias,” so you never know… Plus, Kristen Bell, former Veronica Mars, played up her character’s psychotic mutant very well (this character is soo NOT tough-but-moral Veronica). I still don’t care for Nikki, but sad that her husband went the way he did.

    … end of spoilers…

  • Veterans’ Day Observed

    Take a moment to think about the veterans (hoped you did it yesterday, on actual Veterans’ Day, too).

    This week: Downtown for Dinner 2007 – $25 to $35 prixe fixe at participating downtown restaurants.

    Reading: Time Magazine, with an interesting article on green roofs. I had read about it in an ABA publication too – this sounds like a great trend – environmental and it sure could make some cities look nice.

    Recently read a book of selected Emily Dickinson poems, with an intro from former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins whose own poetry, from what I can tell, is sort of reminiscent of Dickinson’s).

    On TV tonight: “How I Met Your Mother” and what may be a key “Heroes” episode. Got to enjoy before we run out of new episodes due to the writers’ strike (and it is November sweeps anyway).

  • Novembery November

    It’s starting to feel a lot like November…

    Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman of the NY Times demonstrates the making of a pan-fried pizza. Pan-fried pizza! It looks sooo good…

    Seems quite interesting that the New York City Bar is putting out its statement in support of the Pakistani bar. Plus a rally to support the legal system. Rule of law, not rule of man indeed; something the world is going to have to learn and adapt.

    The tv writers’ strike continues. I’m trying to keep up with the coverage. I’m hoping for a not long strike, but things aren’t exactly looking optimistic. Then again, my tv viewing has been pretty limited since I found myself increasingly uninterested in stuff. “House” is actually more interesting once Dr. Foreman has been back; Drs. Chase and Cameron have this weird vibe with each other, since in real life, they broke up (or at least ended their engagement). Still waiting for actor Kal Penn to do something on the show other than act silly. I mean, come on – actor John Cho got to do some grizzly stuff when he did his episode of “House” (admittedly, that was Season 1, and if I recall at all, he was a patient and patients don’t do much more than get really sick).

    I really do like the show “Life” on NBC. Yeah, actor Damian Lewis is acting all weird; but he’s quite watchable. I don’t care for this seemingly unsolveable conspiracy that his character’s trying to unravel. Otherwise, it’d be nice if more viewers can give it a chance. The writers’ strike might make things a little difficult though.

    “Heroes” finally got really interesting – the characters are joining forces, which is way more exciting. And, of course, actor David Anders – once they brought him on “Heroes,” I’m all “hmm; this guy was Sark on ‘Alias’ – amoral and irritating in his charisma. Is he really going to be a good guy on ‘Heroes’?” Plus, for a guy who’s really American, the tv people like having him play British, which means he can’t quite be a good guy, huh? (well, we’ll see, in the middle of this possible strike-shortened tv season).

    And, what’s with McDonalds? I thought the Angus burger ad was a little funny – chubby Asian guy debating on whether to get two ketchup packs; resisting because well, you just can’t go there; don’t go wild and crazy, as the narrator said. Seemed funny enough – and chalk it up to having an Asian on tv. Then, Thursday night, on Channel 11, before the sports on the news, there’s a McDonalds ad for breakfast food – and I swear it’s James Kyson Lee (“Ando” of “Heroes”)! He played this office worker who is suckered to do favors for another co-worker because she bribes people with McD’s food. Playing an apparent APA (not just an Asian)!

    (although, do you really want to encourage more Asians to eat at McDonalds, when there’s enough incidence of diabetes and heart disease? Oh well; take your pros and cons; and I’m a bit of a hypocrite, since it’s not like I’ve quit eating McD’s – just trying to lay off on the fatty stuff).

    And, last but not least, these Christmas ads on tv are already irritating me, and we’ve still more than 10 days before… Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a long Christmas ad season.

  • Election Day

    Celebrate the idea of representative democracy; go vote.

    The situation in Pakistan hasn’t been too great. Mainstream people aren’t doing so hot; the lawyers are protesting and getting punished for it. There’s something to be said about seeing people in suits trying to get about doing the business of making law happen – making the business of government keep running. Lawyer Power is important stuff – at the least, rule of law is something worth fighting for. Slate’s Explainer explains why Pakistan’s lawyers are trying to make things move forward.

    Slate has a fascinating slide show essay on Georges Seurat’s drawings.

    The spy world opens up – kind of: the head of Britain’s MI-5 makes a speech, Time Magazine reports.