dumplingboy

jen told me to blog, so i'm blogging

almost 3 months since my last post. pathetic, i know. still reading kafka on the shore (pathetic, i know). when i think  of one of the main characters in the book, the old man nakata, i imagine jimmy mirikitani (see picture in last post below). anyone else imagine nakata looks like that?

got a lovely mix cd from victoria yesterday with a bunch of songs that mean a lot to her. several songs by bach, with pieces by debussy, puccini, gershwin, beirut, and max richter thrown in. very odd. but worked somehow. wonderful to listen to and even more wonderful that she took the time to put it together for us. a nice housewarming gift for our new home in park slope.i especially loved the song by max richter "on the nature of daylight". reminded me of rachel's "water from the same source". beautiful, churning, and circular...like my butt.

speaking of butts, apparently my nephew kyle who is turning 3 in a couple weeks likes to pull down his diapers, smack his butt, and says, "that's my butt, that's my butt". apparently he also likes to fart and say, "did you hear that? *giggle*". larry says now he knows for sure that kyle is a wu.

oh yeah, so the new apartment. i just love it. location is hard to beat. north park slope. 2 blocks from the park. 2 blocks from the farmer's market. 3 blocks from the food coop. 2 blocks from the Q/B and 2/3. walking distance to BAM and the Brooklyn Library and Brooklyn Museum. Also really excited because my brother David will be moving to Boerum Hill next month and will be relatively close. not to mention people like adam & lori, matty & jori, arlene, jemilah, and alexis who will all be so close now. a BIG thank you to alexis in particular for helping to broker the deal.

the apartment is on the top floor of an old somewhat crunky brownstone on a beautiful tree-lined block. in the rear of the bldg facing south with really wonderful light. strange old fixtures and creaky old floor boards. but really starting to feel like home. still got some stuff in boxes and need new storage/shelves to manage it all, but otherwise i look forward to spending time there every day.

we will miss the convenience of the east village and our proximity to dear friends like ryan & natalie and jeremy & an. but, in reality we're not far, and already feel significantly less stressed with the increase in green & blue above our heads, so know it was the right move for us.

happy spring everyone.

Another bout of insomnia saves the day

I live in fear of Mondays. A typical Monday has me coming into work and finding nearly 100 new unread emails sitting in my inbox waiting to welcome me back from the weekend. Thanks to yet another bout of insomnia tonight, I was able to plow through all 75 or so new emails I received since Friday night, so when I arrive in the office in 3.5 hours, I'll be feeling a little less anxious. Of course, I'll be feeling a lot more like crap due to lack of sleep. But, I guess it's an okay tradeoff.

Saturday was a near perfect kind of day. We slept in. Cooked a delicious breakfast. It was sunny and near 60 degrees out, so we went to the farmer's market in Union Square and picked up some baked goods and cider on the way up to Central Park. Bumped into Charels & Laura who we found out are moving to Barcelona this August. Yet another reason why we must visit this year. Strolled around the park until the weather did an about face and turned freezing cold. Went down to the East Village and went to Cha-An (our new favorite spot in the city). Had some delicious food and tea, walked home, got a bag of peanuts for the Stuy Town squirrels. Fed a bunch of fat and overfed squirrels. Relaxed for a couple hours. Made a quick bite for dinner, and went to see The Cats of Mirikitani at Cinema Village. One of the best and most uplifting movies we've seen in a long time, and something we highly recommend to everyone! Thanks for a perfect day J.

Is it bad to have Nilla Wafers w/ Nutella at 4:00 in the morning? It made me more hungry and there's nothing to eat. OK, I guess I'll try to get a couple hours of sleep now. Wheeeeeee!

Happy Monday.

Allergies Suck

The past week I've been suffering from major allergy problems. Somebody end the misery, please.

In other news, I had a really idyllic weekend spent with J, Jeremy, An, Ryan, Natalie, David, & Hilary. Saw (most of) the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Palindromes, and the Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom) festival at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Spent the rest of the weekend staying in, reading & relaxing. Also got in some major dumpling action.

Tonight I'm going to see Look At Me at BAM. Tomorrow a free screening of Crash hosted by Don Cheadle as a result of the work I did on the Darfur benefit. Thursday Kathryn & Ernst arrive from Belgium and are staying for five days. I haven't seen them for 3-4 years. I can't wait.

I've been reading "So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star" by Jacob Slichter (the drummer of shite defunct band Semisonic). I'm a little over half-way through, and while I do find a lot of it pretty interesting & revealing, it's not exactly the most well-written book, and it's pretty damn hard to relate to. At least it's entertaining. Another decent & unfortunately necessary cautionary tale about playing ball with the majors.

BRC, IRS, BCCO, & LCD

Dear blog, sorry for neglecting you. I heart you so much it hurts. I want to have your babies. Please forgive me.

Last Thursday, I worked the opening night of the Mike Nichols retrospective at the BAM Rose Cinemas (or what we affectionately acronymize "the BRC"). We had a screening of The Graduate and a Q&A w/ Mike Nichols afterwards. The Graduate is one of the many classic films I'd never seen, and it's just about perfect. Mike Nichols was slightly eccentric, and shamelessly proud of his work and philosophies, which was oddly refreshing. We usually get so many perversely modest "indie" filmmakers and actors here, that it was a nice to see a big Hollywood heavyweight come in and shake his big stick. Did you know...

...when this movie was filmed, Dustin Hoffman was already 31 and Anne Bancroft was only 34?
...that the song "Mrs. Robinson" was orignally called "Mrs. Roosevelt"? It was a half-written song by Paul Simon about Eleanor Roosevelt that was sitting in his pocket going nowhere.
...that originally the character "Mrs. Robinson" was going to be played by Ava Gardner?
...that leprechauns are able to see right through fog and smoke?

Saturday J & I did our taxes. When you're single and have virtually no investments, taxes are quite easy. But when you calculate that you owe the federal government $300 on a non-profit salary, it becomes a draining exercise of denial, exasperation, depression, and self-pity. Luckily, after about an hour of huffing and puffing, I figured out the issue, and also found out that I was getting about $400 back from the State, so it all worked out in the end. You can always count on the IRS for throwing a little excitement into your life when you're least expecting it.

Saturday night, Jeremy & I went to the gorgeous Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope to see our friend Adam (yes, tall skinny white Adam) perform with the Brooklyn Conservatory Community Orchestra (BCCO). He plays a mean trombone. It was great to see him play, and to be part of something that he is so dedicated to. They had a guest pianist perform Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, who was really fantastic. It actually made me miss piano and miss being in an orchestra. Perhaps if I had some more time...

Afterwards, I immediately jetted to the city to catch LCD Soundsystem at Bowery Ballroom w/ Ben and Jen. Yes, believe it or not, THE Ben and Jen. And you know who else was there? Well, for starters, David Byrne was there. I know, ho hum. I swear he & David Bowie are just following my sexy ass around town. I should get a restraining order. Actually, he should get a restraining order on J, because he was standing right next to us in the Balcony and she kept poking him in the back going "Look, I'm touching David Byrne! Look I'm touching David Byrne!" It was awesome, and I think he liked it.

The real news however, is that the one and only Ajay Naidu was there. Okay, I didn't know what the hell his real name was either, I had to IMDB him. But you'd probably know him best from his brilliant portrayal of Samir (Nagheena..nuh...nuh...najar) in the movie, Office Space. Who knew he'd be down with DFA? I don't really feel like getting into a review of the concert, so I'll just let J's good friend Laura speak my mind.

Last night I finally got around to watching J's copy of Gaslight. Wow, what a great brain-fuck-of-a-movie. Charles Boyer plays such an amazingly creepy creepy bastard opposite Ingrid Bergman. I really wanted to murder his ass at the end. Another extremely disturbing thing about the movie was seeing Angela Lansbury in her big screen debut as the tart, sassy, & rather suggestive young housemaid. At 17, she looked EXACTLY the same as she did in Murder She Wrote! I used to watch that show with my dad every Sunday night. The mere idea of Angela Lansbury having sex is something I wish on no man. Well, besides Sheriff Tupper.

Seeing Melinda and Melinda tonight. Can Will Ferrell do wrong? If there's anyone who can end his hot streak, it's certainly Woody Allen.