I’m Ba-ack! (to paraphrase the creepy kid from the “Poltergeist” movies). Life caught up on me (or at least the fact that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is coming in November; I’ve been outlining, character sketching, and other elements of novel planning – which is all still in progress). So, let me sweep some dust around here and on to some STUFF.
Recently had brunch at Miriam, at its Park Slope location.
Friday: dinner at Cafetasia, near NYU. Good Thai and other Asian food. Plus cookies at Insomnia Cookies near NYU (if only we had this when I was at Alma Mater; mmm, warm cookies!).
Saturday: hanging out with friends in NJ; dinner at Old Man Rafferty’s in Hillsborough, NJ; great variety of food.
Happy (belated) Birthday, Paddington Bear! As the NY Daily News reported, he turns 50; I read so much of the Paddington books when I was a kid.
“Number 6!” … The NY Times’ Thomas Vinciguerra on the release of the 40th Anniversary DVD package of “The Prisoner.” Ah, why, I remember watching “The Prisoner” episodes on PBS some years ago, and thinking it didn’t make that much sense to me, but watching it made a bunch of “Simpsons” episodes perfect sense in hindsight. Weird show, but… on DVD! Just in time for Xmas!
Entertainment Weekly had a cover story on the new Star Trek movie, pushed for next year (boo! hiss! Star Trek’s never been a summer franchise…). Fascinating article, but I don’t know whether to be scared or excited, or both. The photos look great, but that’s not quite enough! The sidebar article on the inspirations for the movie (with the plot still not totally revealed) – that was cool too (wow, the book “Best Destiny” (Amazon link to the Kindle version, which is out) as one of the plot sources? Cool!). Oh, well; wait and see…
NY Times talking to author Henry Chang, formerly of Mott Street. When I had read the book “Chinatown Beat,” I had a feeling it was going to be a series; turns out to be exactly the case. Author Chang really did a nice job with the flavor of tension of NYC and culture and generational clashes; looking forward to see what he does with his next book.
Some fascinating Election season stuff:
From the NY Times: What it means to be a “maverick” — for one thing, it means understanding that the Maverick family were a bunch of progressive liberals from Texas.
Too funny (and you don’t have to be a Baby Boomer to enjoy; you just have to be someone who watched massive amounts of tv – and certainly at least “Happy Days”!): Ron Howard as “Opie” and “Richie” joins forces with Andy Griffith and “Fonzie” (Henry Winkler) to tell us to vote and make the right decision. As Fonzie would say, “Ayyy!”