Category: Manhattan

Xmas Shopping

Friday night: poked around Borders on Wall St.

While there, I skimmed a bit of the book “The Man Who Saved Britain” – a non-fiction work by Simon Winder, about how James Bond fit in the context of British history, but that the movies more or less dumbed down Bond’s value. A sociological view of Bond, if you will. The NY Times Book review of the book, by Isaac Chotiner makes the point:

When Winder turns his attention to the books and films themselves, his analysis is less deft. He is flat-out wrong to say Bond doesn’t change as the novels progress. Fleming’s hero becomes increasingly more depressed and exhausted by his job, and there is a melancholy air to some of the later adventures. Winder’s harsh judgment of the cinematic 007 is sometimes accurate (he rightfully flags a noticeable decline in quality in the early ’70s) but often misguided (the smooth appeal of “The Spy Who Loved Me” somehow eludes him). Bond fans can (and do) debate these particulars endlessly, but it would have been useful to get more insight into what now seems the most relevant question regarding Bond: why do millions of people, many of whose homelands were once British colonies, still love to watch a British spy save the world?

Saturday: Xmas shopping in NJ ain’t what it used to be – at least, not when I prefer the Day-After Xmas sales or just buying store gift cards these days.

On the ride home from NJ was seeing the weird lights along Route 1, in view of the Pulaski skyway: “It Is Green Thinks Nature Even” – in big red lights. Now, my siblings and I were like “Huh?” Weird. I was convinced that the sign was actually the other way around “Even Nature Thinks Green is it.” Which would kind of makes sense. The magic of Google provides an explanation: it’s the work of a conceptual artist. Sponsored by some environmental group, the full text is “It is Green Thinks Nature Even in the Dark.” “in the Dark” was apparently on the side of a building located on the perpendicular, which you can’t see unless you’ve an aerial view or on the Pulaski Skyway. The group’s website has photos and an explanation for the text, the brainchild of artist Mary Ellen Carroll. Curiously interesting. Although just saying “Even Nature Thinks Green is it” still seems fine to me.

Summation

Last Thursday night – the bunch of us went to Max Brenner, between 13th and 14th Street on B’way in Manhattan – best known for chocolate. Mmm, chocolate. The food was pretty good – I had the three cheese sandwich as an entre – delicious and portions were good – leaving enough room in that special section of the stomach for dessert. Had the cheesecake – which came with Max Brenner’s little beaker of chocolate syrup – mmm. Prices were okay too. Thumbs up! Would love to go again.

Saturday – went to Brooklyn Museum for First Saturday freebie day/day to attract all the young to dance at the Museum and eat food while listening to concerts and lectures. Well, personally, got to enjoy more of the museum. The “Looking Back from Ground Zero” exhibit was moving – capturing what it was like before World Trade Center and after World Trade Center. Strangely, though, I miss the items of what it was like when there was the WTC. Especially found the Brooklyn Museum’s Luce Center and the Visible Storage exhibit really interesting – walking through the area to glimpse at how the museum keeps the stuff it has rarely shown – eerie and exciting and just seeing more amazing stuff.

Sunday – saw the movie “The Prestige” – Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as rival magicians in the late 19th Century/early 20th century. Kind of had the hint of Batman vs. Wolverine (or at least their dramatic alter egos anyway) having a go at each other. Interesting themes, and entertaining, but kind of disturbing too. (well, it is Christian Bale – I haven’t seen all his movies, but I get the feeling that he’s a guy who likes his work to have something disturbing).  What does it mean to be obsessed; what is love; what is the power of hate; and do you really know who you really are?  Plus Michael Caine (who’s always a nice watch) and David Bowie (yeah, that was a bit of a surprise there). A grade of B.  A good watch, odd plot, but not bad altogether.

Plus: The Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors 2006 – well, odd. Funny? Eh, it was okay. The last skit, wherein the town of Springfield went a little batty over Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds but couldn’t defeat aliens Kang and Kodos’ invasion… let’s just say Kang and Kodos have their comeuppance when they realize their attempt at liberating Earth and failing to be welcomed with open arms are just a little too reminiscent of, say, real life issues. Is is significant that this comes just before Election Day? Hmm…

6 Steaks, 5 Takes, 0 Sense

We watched Bobby Flay’s Takedown last week on the Food Network, in which each week he has his own private Iron Chef-like dual with people with a particular expertise in a certain dish. He got his butt kicked by Tony Luke’s, who operates cheese steak restaurants in Philly and in New York. He won with his speciality cheese steak, “Steak Italian”, which is made with provolone cheese and sauteed broccoli rabe (aka “Chinese” broccoli). The broccoli rabe makes the sandwich much lighter than the traditional “wiz with”.

We had to try it out ourselves, so we went with P-‘s friends there on Friday through the rain. The service was slow (our steaks took a good 40 minutes to come out of the kitchen) but when they came out, it was as perfect as could be expected outside of Philly. Fresh, chewy Italian bread, paper-sliced tender steak, stir-fried broccoli rabe, all bound together with the cheese. P- got the chicken version, which was made with stir-fried chicken breast slices, which were succulent and perfectly cooked.

Just finished watching 5 Takes USA on the Travel Channel, which is basically a non-competitve version of Amazing Race. A group of 5 people from Asia are given $50 a day and a video camera, and they have to tour several American cities and give their reactions as non-Americans. Getting on the 5 takes team is the prize – there’s no million dollar pot at the end of this trip. Zack, the guy from outside Manilla, looks a heck of a lot like our friend AS. The footage is edited and shown the following week. They survived Los Vegas and the Grand Canyon, and are now in Alaska. They will be in New York Thanksgiving week, so that should really be a lot of fun for them. Recommended.

Slashdot reports NY Courts proposed rules considering attorney websites and blogs – or just about anything put into media or on the Internet – as regulated attorney advertising. The pertainent proposed rules, pushed by the NYS Bar Association, requires filing an entire copy of a website each time a change occurs on the site (i.e. each blog posting), and that the filing is public record. The City Bar and a gazillion other people put out strong objections to the proposed rule changes on First Amendment and stupidity grounds. While we’re not advertising anything (we’re not even using our real names), Triscribe could conceivably be covered by the proposed rules if we link to any law or lawyer sites. I don’t know.