Blog

I can take the heat; but not the humidity. The insane rainstorm isn’t any better. At least the high temperature wasn’t there today, but next week will be a scorcher…

More summer reading: C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters – wherein Screwtape, a certain high level official of the Underworld, writes letters to his nephew, Wormwood, a rookie member of the Underworld’s bureaucracy. Uncle Screwtape, you see, is giving Wormwood advice on how to keep a “patient” from going to Heaven. Really interesting writing. You could either take it as literature (as satire, there’s lots of great wit, and one wonders: boy, is Uncle Screwtape screwed up or what? And is Wormwood really making stupid rookie mistakes, or is he just not cut out to be a devil?), or as theology/religious thinking: what does it really mean to be a Christian?

Some mild entertainment: the current run of Chrysler (more accurately, Chrysler Daimler) commercials, wherein you ask Dr. Z (a.k.a. Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board) how Chrysler’s merger with the German company Daimler has been great. He even takes you in for a test drive in a Chrysler car, all but ramming you into the test wall. “Any more questions?” says Dr. Z; “Are you an actual doctor?” Well, in the commercial, Dr. Z doesn’t answer the question, getting out of the car with an amiable “Auf Weidersehn!” Since I kept wondering if Dr. Z was real and I thought his bushy mustache made him look like a nice, friendly kind of new company mascot (kind of like how Lee Iacocca was Chrysler’s longtime corporate leader and mascot for the commercials’ schtick), I checked the web (always quite the handy resource) on Dr. Z. Sure enough, he is a doctor, with a doctorate in engineering (auto engineering, I guess). I have to say, though, as AskDrZ.com noted, “awesome mustache”!

Went to the Teabag NYC Film Show yesterday with P to support one of my friends. He was showing the intro to a movie that they want to produce, “Pretty to Think So”, and promoting the DVD to their documentary on the Korean/Chinese party scene in New York, “Party“. Good stuff.

Afterwards, went to Jaya, a Malaysian restaurant. We had Roti Chanai, Ipoh Hor Fun, Yee Noodle in casserole with Black Mushroom, and a Chendor bing ice. Ok, not anywhere as good as Ipoh, but pretty good for New York, and we didn’t even break $20, so you can’t complain.

I think that the whole point of the New York Times is to give a New York view of the world, and a world view of New York. Otherwise, it might as well be USA Today with the Life magazine insert.

In this week’s New York Times Magazine, there is an article celebrating Gazpacho, when the late NYT food critic Craig Clairborne first popularized the Spanish cold soup in 1968. Gazpacho has to be one of my favorite delights, especially for a light late summer meal.

They then proceed to update it for the 21st century by providing a deconstructed version. Who do they go to for the task? Michael Tusk, who has an Italian fusion restaurant in San Francisco. I’m sure the guy is a fine chef, but you mean to tell me they couldn’t find anyone in New York that could do a deconstructed gazpacho? It wasn’t even like Tusk wanted to do it:

Earlier this summer, I gave the Málaga gazpacho recipe to Michael Tusk, the chef and an owner of Quince Restaurant in San Francisco, to see what it would inspire in him. Deceit, at first: Tusk said he had to sneak around the San Francisco farmer’s market in a hooded sweatshirt with a bag of local hot-house tomatoes, hoping that none of his watchdog chef friends would catch him with the contraband.

An Italian chef having a bag of tomatoes is going to pique the curiosity of other chefs? Come on. And they don’t read the NYT food columns, either. Right.

So, earlier this week, we had the heat wave that a NYC summer is never complete w/o; one day of near perfect summer day (ok heat, not too humid – excellent!); and then end the week with a few days of on-off rain; torrential rain and thunderstorms (severe pouring, as if you turned your faucet to the end) with sucky humidity. Argh.

And, in other news, Con Edison gets public ridicule because Queens hasn’t been getting the electricity sorely needed, due to outages (well, now it’s “blackout”), and even after the heat wave has been over (and meanwhile, the not-in-my-backyard people aren’t thrilled over letting Con Ed build transformers or power plants and such). The power problems got so bad that the MTA actually slowed the trains down to preserve power (so, MTA can’t handle heat, power outages, and floods. This week can’t possibly be a very good week for the guys who run the subways). And, City Hall approved of changing the way we get rid of garbage, but how is still debatable (as in, where would you like to put a recycling station that serves the five boros? “Not in my backyard…” some people cry. NIMBY is sooo popular.)

Bottomline: NYC needs to change its sanitation practices (like, let’s recycle more, you know?) and improve the electricity generation (umm, alternative forms of power; uh, say fix the 100-year old infrastructure – stuff like that). Oh, and my favorite rant target: the MTA (could you be a bit more efficient?). We may be a big city that never sleeps and have cool buildngs constructed and renovated every day, but we can’t hide the fact that we’re a 300+ year old city and we’re not cutting edge in some areas.

NJ is telling lawyers they can’t advertise themselves as “Super” or the “Best Lawyer” (even if the leading lawyer publication assess that these lawyers really are the “best” and/or are “super”).  Super Lawyer.  🙂  Sorry.  Sounds like a funny kind of comic book hero.  Although, so far as I know, the only superhero lawyer I know of is Marvel’s “Daredevil,” who’s a lawyer and a person with a disability.
For restaurant week this week, the gang and I went to City Hall – the Restaurant. I had the prix fixe special: roasted veggie salad (mmm, vinagrette); the poached salmon with couscous entry; and the red velvet cake dessert. Mmm. Yummy. Loved dessert. And, the bread – I could arguably live on bread and butter and water, if the bread is good bread. And, the ambiance – gorgeous. High ceilings, earthy woodiness, and pictures of the by-gone era (but we’re in a smoke-free environment, so old Boss Tweed and Tammany hall folks of the 19th century City Hall wouldn’t feel that comfortable, I’m sure). Oh, and the restrooms – honestly, fantastic. Clean and beautiful. Thumbs up on that alone.

Oh, and with the weather today, hard to see if the NY Mets will play – but they’re doing so great. Sports Illustrated did a cover article on them two weeks ago that I just loved, regarding the clubhouse’s chemistry and confidence. Like a nicer version of a frat, but more baseballier. Let’s just hope that the so-called Sports Illustrated cover curse won’t apply here (there was this odd trend where people on the cover find lack of victory thereafter; so very much don’t want that for the Mets). Go Mets!

Hot. Hot. Hot. The news today had power outages on the 7th Avenue subway lines, power lines blowing up in Astoria, and parts of LaGuardia without power. Stayed cool by slurping a crazy sized Jamba Juice and watching Colma: The Musical again (sans technical difficulties) from a free ticket courtesy of P’s friend YKC. I think the second time around I appreciated the movie much better (seeing the first 15 minutes that actually explained Colma were probably a good idea).

Boy, is it hot, and it isn’t even the worst of it yet.  Heat wave in NYC…

Last Saturday, saw “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”  If you’re a Johnny Depp fan, you’ll be delighted.  Personally, I thought that Stellan Saarsgaard, Bill Nighy and Jonathan Price, as talented actors (of non-action/special effects movies), would’ve deserved some more scenes (or, in Nighy’s case, scenes where the CGI tentacles wouldn’t have to mar his face).   The movie had action, more action, and lots of action.  Can be annoying.  And quite long.  (2:30).  And, it’ll be a year before we get the resolution (the sequel will presumably answer all questions).  Ah, well.

Summer reading:

The Final Solution, by Michael Chabon.   A novella wherein the retired Sherlock Holmes is confronted by the second World War and the Holocaust.  The mysterious numbers, a sad boy, and the England that will never be the same again.  I liked the writing and the richness.

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni.  An early Italian historical novel.  The betrothed 16th century Italian couple.  An Italy in conflict.  Plague.  Famine.  War.  Many meandering pages (if you read early English novels – Moll Flanders, or others of the 18th Century), you’ll have felt like you’ve seen it before, but this is a book that apparently influenced Italian literature since.   It’s okay reading.

Back to feeling broiled…

Today’s Asian American Films included the Music Video Contest, which was a collection of videos made by APA’s this past year. My favorite was the Chemical Brothers (video at YouTube), which cleverly integrates a Sunday afternoon Shaolin chop-socky movie.

In between was a food interlude at Souen, a macrobiotic place down the street. It’s been there 30 years, and it still provides skillful food. We had our benchmark Chirachi-zuchi dish, which consisted of eel, salmon, and chopped tuna on a bed of brown rice and an assortment of veggies. The best part was the Japanese pickles that were used to keep up the salmon teepee in the center of the plate – so crisp and refreshing!

Afterwards, it was Colma – the Musical. The Musical Motion Picture genre makes a comeback – it’s something like a cross between Rent and Grease, set in the town of Colma, which is to San Francisco as Elizabeth is to New York – across a bay, sparsely inhabited, and full of cemetaries. The lead trio spend their post-high school lives figuring out whether they want to stay home to make their lives or to go on elsewhere. The music is catchy and infectious. There were a few technical problems by the theater when we saw it, so catch it when it comes out generally this September.

The night was capped off at the afterparty at Parkside Lounge with the Riding Motors Records Magic Mic Experience. The concept: original flavor karaoke — instead of bouncing balls and random bit actors strolling along beaches, you have a complete 10 – member superband backing you up. Need a horn section – they got it. Bongos – check. I played backup singer on Weezer’s Say It Aint So, and it’s really a completely different experience – so much of a thrill! The song list is only about 50 songs, but that is more than enough for an evening of wild entertainment. If you ever have the chance, grab the mic.

Yesterday: dinner at
Vermicelli . Good Vietnamese food, although it has a lot of Malay and Thai influences. Not bad.

Saw the New York premiere of Train Man yesterday at the Asian Film Festival. Based on a true story, it is like Six Degrees of Attraction, not separation. Japanese geek saves an office lady from being accosted by a drunk on the train, and then the rest of the movie traces the ensuing romance and the horde of Internet supporters who support him. The main character has a passing resemblance to my bro. Recommended for all otokus.