Monozygotic

Love his little toes.

2009-06-21T00:39:00.003-04:00

Zaza

2009-03-08T14:56:00.004-04:00

My coworker Lisa introduced me to Zaza Fournier and she's fantastic. The video reminds me of Regina Spektor's for Fidelity. Now I have to find her album!

Mr. Messner

2009-03-08T12:46:00.002-04:00

I'm really happy that when Ben Folds Five decided to do a reunion show, they chose this album to do it with. I think the reason that the entire album of "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" being played in order is so appealing is because that's the only one I have on vinyl (not CD, like the rest) and I always listen to it, in that order, in its entirety. With digital content, I often skip songs or shuffle them, but with records that's way too much work. It makes me feel like I ought to listen to more albums the way they were intended. And these songs are more interesting than some of their poppier ones.
Ben Folds Five - MySpace Front To Back concert

It's about time...

2009-02-23T00:09:00.001-05:00

Yes, guinea pigs do deserve the spotlight, but this looks pretty awful. Unfortunately, Will Arnett is in it, so I'll probably see it anyway.

Guinea Pigs Gone Wild

2008-11-10T22:19:00.002-05:00

Chicago, Nov. 1 - 3

2008-11-09T12:08:00.011-05:00

We had to get up at (eep!) 5am to catch our flight out of Laguardia to O'Hare. (We saw Mario Batali at the airport, orange Crocs and all.) We arrived at 9am central time and began our LONG trip from the airport to the hotel via public transportation. It took almost 2 hours, but only cost $2 each, so not bad. We stayed at the Affinia Chicago, on East Superior, just off of Michigan Ave. Swanky (for us) and conviently located.
Day One included Chicago-style hot dogs (with a pickle spear, tomato wedge, peppers, mustard and onion on a poppy seed bun) and the Art Institute. We got in for free with Ale's MoMA ID and wandered around - a lot of their Impressionist and Post-Impressionist stuff was on loan because of renovations - but the stuff left was great. Some nice Guardi views of Venice, Caravaggesque works, and Seurat, of course. Ale realized the one at the drawing show at MoMA was just a study and the real one is much bigger. ater that afternoon, we went to Millennium Park and marvelled at Kapoor's Cloud Gate. What a cool thing!
Day Two brought us to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which had a Jenny Holzer show (she went to RISD, nice). It was a beautiful, crisp fall day, perfect weather for walking around. We too the green line out to Oak Park, birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, home of Frank Lloyd Wright. We walked up Forest Ave. which has a number of FLW-designed houses, then took a left on Chicago Ave. where there are a few more, and ended our time there with our first Chicago-dish-stuffed-crazy-ass pizza. Tasty and filling. It hemmoraged cheese. We ended the day with overpriced drinks at the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the Hancock building. Best views are from the women's bathroom.
Day Three we split up for the morning. I checked out of the hotel and went to the aquarium while Ale ventured out to the suburbs to visit a famous hat shop. We then met up at the Field Museum to look at dead, stuffed things. Very similar to New York's natural history museum, except Chicago has Sue, the most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world. Creepy. After that, we ended our trip with a nice walk back uptown, partly by Lake Michigan, to get our stuff from the hotel and start the trek back to the airport. It was a short trip, but I definitely started to get the feel of Chicago (though our trip was the equivalent to visiting New York, going to the Empire State Building and Times Square and saying you "know" New York City). And boy, are the people friendly. Must visit the Midwest again.
(More pictures on my Picasa page.)

Look what I finished!

2008-10-05T16:33:00.001-04:00

With some help from Natalie (and a little from Ale) I finally finished my 1000 piece puzzle of Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." This puzzle is part of the reason why Ale and I are going to Chicago next month. Apparently the painting was in the Seurat drawing show at MoMA that I skipped, so Ale's already seen it, but I'm glad I still have it to look forward to. Chicago's been on my list of American cities I'd like to visit for a while. I'm looking forward to the Art Institute, the food, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Houses.

Italy 2008: Milan

2008-10-05T15:47:00.005-04:00

May 18
We arrived in Milan very early in the morning and headed to our hotel. After checking in, and they let us in the room early - so nice of them - we headed out to San Siro stadium to get tickets for the soccer (calcio in Italian) game. I then had (and I'm not exagerating in the least) the best hotdog of my life. It had peppers and onions and was pressed between a crusty sub roll. Amazing. We went into the stadium early to find our (nosebleed) seats. AC Milan played Udinese for what was the last game of the season. They won 4 - 1! Every time AC Milan scored the crowd went nuts. Not American nuts, but Italian-crazy-soccer-fan nuts. Like chanting-and-jumping-until-the-stadium-swayed nuts.
After the game, we took the tram to Santa Maria della Grazie for our appointment to see Leonardo's Last Supper. It was one of the best art experiences I've ever had. It's so fragile and quiet and beautiful. And I had Ale to explain the iconography that I didn't know. Dinner was made up of items from a supermarket near the hotel. I love foreign supermarkets. I could have spent hours and tons of Euros there.

May 19
The next day there wasn't a ton for us to do, since most of the attractions and museums were closed on Mondays. Also, stores didn't open until 3pm. The morning was spent downtown. First we went to the Duomo, which is enormous. Lots of really stunning stained glass. We then went up on the roof for a view of the city, and a closer look at the statuary adorning the spires of the church. 3400 statues to be exact! After that, we walked around the nearby neighborhood, which seemed to be a business/financial district. We had a great lunch at a restaurant where we seemed to be the only non-Milaneses in the place. Which is great - hard to find yourselves not surrounded by tourists all the time. After lunch we walked over to the Castello Sforzesco, which was closed. We were able to walk around the outside though, and into the courtyard, so that was something. At that point, it started to rain, and as we were unprepared, we headed back to our hotel's neighborhood. The weather held out long enough for us to stop by the Borsalino store and then Ale and I split up, he going to another hat shop he'd seen earlier, and I went to the supermarket again for stuff for dinner and for gifts. The rest of the night was spent relaxing in our room since it was raining and we had to leave early the next morning.

It was the best honeymoon we could have asked for, and almost weekly Alejandro says to me, "We should go to Italy again." I agree.

Coney Island (overdue!)

2008-10-05T13:30:00.003-04:00

At the end of August, I went to Coney Island for the second time in my life. Coney Island as it was that day is to be no more. We rode the Cyclone (fun, mildly painful), ate a Nathan's hotdog, and Meghan and Sarah tried out their shooting skills. All in all, a lovely end to the summer.

Itay 2008: Venice

2008-07-20T13:05:00.017-04:00

May 16
We checked out of the hostel and left our stuff there so we could see one more church before we left Florence: Chiesa di San Marco. The church itself was fine - at this point we were becoming a little burnt out on churches - but the monastery was fantastic. Fra Angelico had lived there and each of the monks' cells had a fresco by him. Not to mention, as you came up the stairs to the living quarters, there was one of my favorite annunciation paintings. Also, Savonarola lived there and his rooms had a number of interesting artifacts from his life. Boy, was that guy a wet blanket.
After a mix-up with the train schedule, we finally arrived in Venice. I was most excited to see this city, as it was to be completely different from the other places we'd visited. It didn't disappoint. I know that it's very touristy, but I was completely charmed by the canals and the architecture. Our hotel was basic but cheap, as far as Venice prices go, and right near the train station, off of a main drag. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and went right out again to wander around. We bought some cookies at a bakery just over the Grand Canal from where we were staying, got lost, and had the worst dinner experience of the trip. The food was fine, but the service was awful, and they charged us for two bottles of water and bread, neither of which we ordered. And there was no arguing with our waiter. We did meet a nice couple from California though, who had similar problems in Venice. I guess they're used to ripping off foreigners in some restaurants.

May17
The next day we made our way over to St. Mark's square, as we felt obliged to see it. The crowds were unbelievable, and the pigeons were overabundant. I guess it's supposed to be fun to have a Venetian pigeon sit atop your head, but as a New Yorker, I didn't want anything of the sort happening to me. We wandered a bit more, had lunch (this time, very good, NOT a rip off, and the service was fine), and went over the Grand Canal again, this time to go to the Accademia. Their collection of Bellini's was lovely (some of my favorite Madonnas) and Ale asked about Leonardo's Vitruvian Man. It turns out that, because of its fragility, it's on display very rarely and it's been years since it was on view. Oh well. I was happy with Bellinis and Canalettos. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection was nearby, and we thought some modern art might be a nice change, but it was too expensive, and Ale's MoMA ID was worthless there. Instead, we went in the giftshop, looked at the postcards, and said "Eh, seen one Pollock, seen 'em all." We sat on the steps of Santa Maria della Salute for a while, then headed back to our hotel. We stopped in at a small glass shop (I think the man's name was Giorgio Nason) and bought a glass bird for Natalie and some earrings for myself. When we first entered, Giorgio was balancing on a chair, fiddling with a speaker maybe? He was gregarious and very funny. He and Ale started talking about music and he sang along to the cd he'd just put on and asked us if we liked his singing voice. He told us about when he was growing up on the island of Murano (his family has a long history of working in glass) that he always sang and his family told him to give it up. Instead, he got into glass like the rest of them. He was easily the most personable Italian we met on the trip, though the owner of the Orvieto restaurant was a close second.

Italy 2008: Florence

2008-07-19T11:52:00.021-04:00

May 12
We arrived in Florence around 3pm and checked into our hostel which was only a five minute walk to the Duomo, though most things are because the old part of Florence is so small. We took a long walk around, got some gelato, went food shopping at the local supermarket, and then headed out for dinner. Saw this house I had to take a picture of: so Art Nouveau!

May 13
The next morning we began our quest to buy tickets to the soccer game in Milan that we hoped to attend. We tried the first of many branches of Banca Intesa that we would try over the course of the next few days. No luck. They had just updated their computer system and no one could figure out how to print the tickets. We stopped by the Uffizi and got tickets for the next day. The lines were Disney-World-on-winter-break long. Then we popped into the church of San Lorenzo, which was the Medici's church, and checked out the artwork. After lunch (awesome panini) we tried another Banca Intesa - still no luck. After a siesta, we walked over to Santa Croce to see the tombs of Michelangelo, Dante, Galileo and others. To think that all these geniuses rest in the same place! The museum had a beautiful crucifix by Cimabue. After there, we got the most amazing gelato from a chocolatier called Vestri (Borgo degli Albizi, 11/R). Amazing. I bought some chocolate covered orange rind for my parents (they love that stuff). Then the best part of our stay in Florence: we climbed the dome of the Duomo. The first time my family went to Florence, we didn't do it, and I had thought, Eh, what's the big deal. Well, I was a 19 year old idiot. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. Way better than the view from the Empire State building. You could see the whole layout of the city, the other churches we'd visited and the surrounding farmland.

May 14
Started the day at the bank again - still no tickets. Then on the way to the train station to go to Pisa, we stopped in at Santa Maria Novella. I've always loved the exterior of this church and didn't have a chance to see the inside of it last time. Inside, they had a crucifix by Giotto that was reminiscent of the Cimabue one we'd seen earlier, and lots of great frescoes.
Then on to Pisa! We walked from the train station, over the Arno, and to the complex with the Duomo, baptistery and (leaning) campagnile. Ticket prices for the leaning tower were super expensive, so we went inside the cathedral and the baptistery instead. The dome of the baptistery has amazing acoustics, as we found out when an employee came in and did a demonstration: he sang and the notes reverberated around and around. Super cool! After some gelato, we took the train back to Florence, walked around and had dinner. (I must mention, while in Tuscany, have as many dishes of white beans and garlic as you can, because it's better than you could imagine.)

May15
Started the day, again, at the bank. Still no soccer tickets! Seriously?! We had reservations for the Uffizi at 11:45, so we went there next. Not even sure what to say about this museum, other than as far as museum-going goes, it was sublime. I was so excited to be able to see the Caravaggios this time around because in 1999 the Caravaggio room was closed for renovations. Oh, the Giottos, Duccios, Botticellis, Leonardos and Lippis! Titian's Venus of Urbino was absent, but other than that, I had my fill of Renaissance and Baroque paintings. Also sublime was my lunch of gnocchi with sage butter. Oh my god, seriously, what a good idea.
Later in the day, we went to the Accademia to visit David. There isn't much else there, but it doesn't really matter because the David is so exquisite. It's pretty cool - you come around a corner and walk down towards this towering figure at the end of the room. Ale stole a picture with his iPhone, even though you're not supposed to.
We ended the day with laundry at the laundromat around the corner from the hostel (super big rip-off, by the way) and then had dinner at this sort of place, Il Pirata, on Via de' Ginori. They do a buffet for cheap and it was like going to an Italian potluck. You could have as much as you want of all these different dishes, and they were all really good. I overheard from some Americans there that it's supposed to be one of the best places in the city for vegetarians. Also, went back to Vestri again - I tried two different flavors this time, but Alejandro stuck to the mango he had the first time. It was the most tastes-exactly-like-the-fruit gelato or ice cream or sorbet I've ever tasted.
Next, Venice...

Italy 2008: Orvieto

2008-06-19T08:31:00.009-04:00

May 11
We arrived in Orvieto around 1:30, took the funicular up the hill and waited for the bus to take us to the Piazza Ranieri. Our B&B was down a tiny street just off of there, and had the most amazing views from the window. First (super interesting!) we did laundry. Yup, they had a tiny washing machine in the room and we hung the stuff out the window to dry. Then we went out for a walk, checked out the Duomo, and tried to find the restaurant Osteria dell'Orso, where I went with my parents twice in 1999, and the food was so good. Well, they were closed. So sad. It was Mother's Day, at least in America, and seemed to be some sort of holiday over there too, with street fairs and a big celebration at the cathedral. We ended up at a restaurant on the Piazza Ranieri, run by a woman and her daughter. Because we were only one of three tables there the whole night, we got amazing service (the mom explained the entire menu to us and suggested things, we got complimentary crostini and wine). We finished with the mom's own flourless chocolate cake. Stuffed, we went back to the B&B, which we had to ourselves! and slept off the much-enjoyed wine. The next morning we headed back over to the Duomo to catch the bus to the funicular to the train to Florence.

Italy 2008: Rome

2008-06-05T00:14:00.015-04:00

In May Alejandro and I spent about two weeks in Italy, traveling north from Rome to Milan. Here's a little breakdown of what we saw, ate, took pictures of, etc.

May 8th
We arrived in Rome around 11:30 am and took the train into the city and then the Metro from the station to the apartment we were staying in. Our first destination, after dumping our stuff, was the Piazza della Repubblica where we checked out the fountain and surrounding buildings, churches, et al. After that, pizza-refueling session, then off to find some more churches (I heard there are 900 in Rome alone!) and art and stuff.
We saw The Ecstasy of St. Teresa - very dim lighting in there, so the picture is pretty bad. After wandering around for a bit more, we came upon a church I remembered from a Baroque class I took. "Undulating facade" was all I could remember about it. There were four fountains there, by Bernini I think? He's all over Rome! We then accidentally came upon the Barberini Palace and it was still open (I think it was around 6 pm at this point). I got to see my first Caravaggios of the trip there: 1.) Judith Beheading Holofernes (saw her in Amsterdam), 2.) Narcissus, 3.) St. Francis Meditating. After that, we wandered (and got lost on the way) to the Trevi fountain. Damn, were there a lot of people there.
Since we were near the Spanish steps, we figured we ought to see them. But you couldn't because they were slathered with tourists. At least there was gelato nearby - not the best, but still so much better than your average ice cream cone.

May 9th
We had to get up early (which for us meant it felt like getting up at 1:30 in the morning) because there was a transit strike and we had to catch the Metro before it stopped running. We decided to risk it and go to the Vatican museums; it wasn't so bad - we only had to wait 45 minutes to get in? Maybe an hour. Once we were in, we blew by the rooms leading to the Sistene Chapel. We got past a lot of the crowds that way. I don't have to say that the ceiling was impressive. Though, frankly, hard to see. So far away! We didn't visit the Pinocoteca (missed Caravaggio #4) because we had reservations for the Galleria Borghese that we couldn't be late for. Beautiful grounds there, not to mention the Palazzo itself. Here we saw Caravaggios 5 - 10, my favorite being St. Jerome (the patron saint of booksellers, by the way). There were a bunch of Berninis that were pretty spectacular. Also, this adorable little Raphael of a girl holding a --get this-- baby unicorn. Oh yeah. After we left, we walked through the gardens (stopping so Ale could smoke a cigar - gross!) and then down to the Piazza del Popolo so Ale could buy a hat at the Borsalino store. Santa Maria del Popolo, at the end of the piazza, held Caravaggios 11 and 12. (Seriously, in Rome you can't throw a stick without hitting one.) Later, after making dinner in the apartment, we watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom dubbed into Italian. Indy's voice wasn't deep enough. It bothered me.

May 10th
We started the day at St. Peter's, since we didn't have time to go inside on the previous day. It is HUGE. It felt like the biggest building I'd ever been in. I have no idea if that's right, but damn, it just keeps going. I'm sure that I would have loved Michelangelo's Pieta had I been able to really see it. It's super far away and there was a huge crush of tourists. Apparently it's behind glass since some guy went at it with a hammer; jerk. We had more Caravaggios to see after that, but since San Luigi dei Francesi was closed for a couple of hours, we had a very leisurely lunch while we waited for it to open. Then we saw #s 13, 14, and 15 (the St. Matthew paintings). We popped by the Pantheon next. How did they do that in the 2nd century AD? We then went over to the Doria Pamphilj gallery, which we had a REALLY hard time finding. But it was worth the effort to see my favorite Caravaggio (maybe my fave painting of all time?): Rest from the Flight into Egypt. Of course it was across from two open windows, so it was impossible to view from directly in front of it. It was a lot flatter than his other work, I guess because the lighting is so much more even in this one. Still, that angel... dang. And what a cute baby Jesus! It's nice to see C's softer side. How could a guy who painted this murder someone? The other two Caravaggios from the collection were on loan (to Greece?) - Mary Magdalen I saw in Amsterdam, the other (St. John the Baptist with a ram) I'll have to catch next time. We topped off the day with... um, that giant building. You know...

Next, Orvieto...

Thank you, Lizard.

2008-04-28T22:22:00.004-04:00

Got this from Elizard's blog - pretty entertaining.

"What we have here is the top 106 books most often marked as 'unread' by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. "

- bold the ones you've read,
- underline the ones you read for classes (at least once),
- italicize the ones you started but didn't finish,
- *star it* if it's actually on your bookcase and you haven't read it.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
*Emma*
*The Blind Assassin*
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
*American Gods*
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
*The Poisonwood Bible : a novel*
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
*Mansfield Park*
*One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest*
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
*Persuasion*
*Northanger Abbey*
The Catcher in the Rye
*On the Road*
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
*Watership Down*
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

The verdict: read 24, have 10 on the shelf I haven't gotten to yet. I received the Jane Austens from Natalie for our birthday and am now making my way through them. I guess I should check back on this list in a year or so.

On a different note, we're off to Italy in a little over a week. To help get geared up, I watched two documentaries yesterday: the first was an A&E program (hosted and narrated by Leonard Nimoy!) on the history of Venice and its canals; the second was the first of a four part PBS program on the Medicis. Hopefully I've got time to squeeze in the rest of them before we go. If anyone has any recommendations on where to eat, what to see, etc. in Rome, Florence, Orvieto, Venice or Milan, speak now! (or just leave a comment.) Thank you.

Days 7 & 8: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-28T18:54:00.002-04:00

Almost done!!

Day 6: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-26T22:37:00.003-04:00

They finished the floor today, put in part of the new cabinet, moved the light fixture up and put in a much-needed outlet. And tomorrow morning, I will attempt to shower in my tub lined with plastic. Oh boy!

Day 5: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-26T00:50:00.005-04:00

Came home to most of a new floor today! And they finished tiling the walls. Also, this morning the guys showed us our new cabinet, but I won't give it away yet.

Day 4: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-24T21:44:00.003-04:00

Came home today to see that the bathroom walls are almost completely tiled and the sink and medicine cabinet had been removed. Of course, that giant hole makes me cringe with images of huge cockroaches crawling out of it. I'm stuffing a towel under the door tonight.

Day 3: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-20T21:12:00.001-04:00

Day 2: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-19T20:26:00.002-04:00

Day 1: Bathroom makeover

2008-03-18T23:25:00.006-04:00

We're having our bathroom renovated. Here's a before picture and the after.

Design plagiarism

2007-09-19T10:57:00.001-04:00

The book cover design on the left is by Chip Kidd, and I'm not sure about the one on the right, but it really bothers me that someone would not only do such a similar design, but also choose a yellow sweater! C'mon! If you were going to design a cover for a book about spending a year not buying anything that was made in China, wouldn't you try some other options, such as the playing off of the stickers or stamps on the bottom of children's toys or stereo equipment, or the raised lettering they do on items made out of plastic?

Birthday surprises!

2006-12-05T23:23:00.000-05:00

Natalie had an early birthday surprise for me tonight. All I knew was that we were to meet on the V train and take it downtown at 6pm. Turns out she was taking me to the Gotham Comedy Club to see Dr. Katz! Jonathan Katz was joined by his "son" Jon Benjamin and his patients Janeane Garofalo and Dave Attell. Goddamn Dave Attell! I love him. It was really strange and funny and felt pretty unrehearsed (as in there were technical problems prompting Dr. Katz to say "...and there are some sounds that make you want to die.") I can't wait to get the second season of the show on dvd. One of the only reasons I enjoyed getting up in the morning of the summer of '02 was to watch reruns on Comedy Central at 8:30am.
And then I returned home to receive a giant box containing a new cd changer from my parents! Yeay! It replaces the one my dad's friend gave me that's probably 15 years old or so. Oh beautiful stereo components. And thus begins the ten-day celebration of our birthday.

Oh! for the love of furniture!

2006-10-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

My new Room and Board couch was delivered yesterday and I'm in love. It is... well, comfortable isn't a strong enough word to describe it. It's plush and long enough for me to lie down and makes the room look better (and also smaller, but that's ok). The knitting you see there is going to be a pillow cover. The yarn is Malabrigo merino in citrus and it's just lovely and soft. Their yarn is made and hand dyed in Uruguay and I recommend it highly.

Basil update...

2006-09-27T15:52:00.000-04:00

I bought some tomatoes and bread at the green market in Union Square, got some mozzarella at Bruno Ravioli on 2nd Ave. and added my basil and lunch was made. Aren't they like little Italian flags?

Mmm, basil.

2006-09-07T13:10:00.000-04:00

Look at the little guys! They started as an Eggling (purchase here) and after re-potting, they've grown to (almost) immense proportions! Pesto here I come!

Who wants to buy a painting?

2006-08-19T01:09:00.000-04:00

I'd like to introduce you to Alejandro - he's a painter. Want to own one? Go here.

Dinner and good news

2006-06-27T21:49:00.000-04:00

I made dinner for Natalie and myself tonight because my mom told me what they were having and I wanted it: chicken with mushrooms, rice and green beans. I've seen my mom make this stuff a million times but had never done it by myself. It came out really well and Nat took a picture of it to prove my success.
Sean and I have made real progress on our animated film. We finished the storyboard and recorded some rough dialogue so I can put an animatic together. I'll be enlisting friends for critiques and maybe to add in some jokes, so be prepared to be funny and helpful.

Furniture

2006-04-09T23:35:00.000-04:00

I designed a piece of furniture for my bedroom and my dad built it for me. My parents will bring it down to me in a couple of weeks. I can't wait!

Amsterdam

2006-04-04T10:36:00.000-04:00

Day 1:
Michelle and I arrived in Amsterdam around 11:30 on Thursday and took a cab to our hotel in the museum area of town. We slept for a little while (since I'd only gotten a few hours on the plane) and then went out to explore.
Our first destination was Anne Frank's house. I finished reading her diary shortly before we left for our trip, so her story was still fresh in my mind. Needless to say, it was quite moving to see the little room she shared with Mr. Dussel with pictures of movie stars pasted to the wall, and to walk behind the bookcase which concealed the door to the secret annex. It was all pretty heartbreaking.
We walked around for a while after that and then headed back to our hotel's neighborhood for dinner. We walked through part of Vondelpark on the way back. It was quiet and pretty, lots of flowers blooming. We had our first Dutch dining experience, meaning we couldn't figure out how the get the waiter to come back and bring us the check. That happened at every restaurant we went to. I'm totally spoiled as an American in that respect. We went to bed pretty early, completely exhausted.

Day 2:
Museum day! We headed up the street to the Van Gogh museum (where we thankfully didn't have to wait too long because I bought advance tickets). First was the Rembrandt/Caravaggio show, which was my reason for going to Amsterdam in the first place. I can't even express how amazing it was to see so many Caravaggios in one place. It was crowded, but I still managed to stand in front of most of them for a few minutes. There were a few I'd seen before (in London and the Palazzo Pitti, Florence) and some I didn't know were going to be in the show. My favorites were Judith Beheading Holofernes and The Taking of Christ. I was reading The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr while on the trip, so seeing the painting behind the story was very satisfying. The show was pretty overwhelming, so many masterpieces in one place. There were (obviously) some stunning Rembrandts as well, but I was so starstruck by Caravaggio that I couldn't give most of them the attention they deserved. We headed upstairs to the Van Gogh's permanent collection after that. It's fine if you like Van Gogh - I'm not a huge fan - though there were some nice ones. There were also lots of works by Dutch artists I wasn't too familiar with, and some French impressionists. I did quite like their new acquisition of a Pissarro.
Then on to the Rijksmuseum, just across the Museumplein. Most of the museum is closed for renovations but their most famous works are still on display. There were four Vermeers (including The Little Street and The Kitchen Maid - which Michelle took a picture of) and lots of Jan Steen, Frans Hals and Pieter de Hooch. And Rembrandt, of course. It is his 400th birthday, after all. The Night Watch gets its own room, and The Sampling Officials is at the end of another room. They were both amazing in person, huge and lively. Then we went for Italian food nearby, shopped a bit (went to a bookstore, looked at Dutch children's picture books, bought the British edition of the new Zadie Smith book) and went back to the hotel for a nap. Later that evening we went to find the Torture Museum - turns out we got the address wrong and couldn't find it, so we ended up walking to Rembrandt's house and then over to Rembrandtplein (where there is a 3D sculpture of The Night Watch you can walk around in) and took the tram back to the hotel.

Day 3:
We went to Rembrandt's house in the afternoon. They had it set up like it was when he lived there in the mid-1600s, including his painting studio and a room with books, shells, bones, weaponry and plaster casts. There were also lots of paintings hung in the house, some by Rembrandt but most by other Dutch artists of the time. They also have a modern building next to the house that has changing exhibitions; the one hanging was mostly Rembrandt paintings, many lent from other countries, and paintings by his students and followers. After that we had lunch and while wandering around came across a movie theater showing a John Turturro film that I think hasn't been released here yet: Romance and Cigarettes. It starred James Gandolfini, Susan Sarandon and Kate Winslet. It turned out to be a musical (wasn't expecting that!) and was very funny and quite strange. The Dutch people didn't laugh at the same stuff that Michelle and I laughed at. I guess maybe the subtitles weren't exactly the same as the English lines? Christopher Walken's character was my favorite. More Italian food for dinner, then we took the tram back to the hotel.

Day 4:
We took the tram to Centraal Station to catch the train to Den Haag. It only took 45 minutes to get there and the ride was nice - lots of sheep (and lambs!) and some beautiful windmills. We took the tram to the Mauritshuis which is the home of Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring and A View of Delft and Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp. There was also a special exhibition of Dutch (and some French and English) artists working in Italy. Pearl Earring was absolutely stunning in person, luminescent and arresting. After we left there, we walked through a nearby courtyard surrounded by parliament buildings and a church. After lunch and some wandering around, we caught the train back to Amsterdam. We went to the floating flower market, did some shopping and went back to the hotel for dinner (which consisted of stuff we bought at the supermarket - I loved some of their packaging enough that I bought stuff just because of it). We went back out late to take a stroll through the Red Light district where we checked out people checking out prostitutes and walked around the Oude Kerk, a church built in the 14th century. We headed over to Rembrandtplein to a coffeeshop where I had a beer and Michelle smoked a joint. After that was just the long walk to the hotel (as the trams stop running around 12:30) to pack for the next morning. It was a great vacation overall, and one of the best I've had concerning art.

Munch and munching

2006-02-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

Yesterday my dad was in town for a meeting so we had lunch together and saw the Edvard Munch show at MoMA. Both were great. I brought Dad and Natalie to the administrative office area of the museum so they could see the staff art show, and then we went to check out Munch. It's a huge show, and it was nice to see that his work went far beyond 'The Scream.' I'm not very familiar with him, and I was surprised to see how diverse he was through his career, from lithographs to landscapes to giant portraits. The show opens to the public this weekend, and I think it shouldn't be missed. As for lunch, we went to Il Gattopardo behind the museum on 54th Street. It was some of the best Italian food we've had in NYC. Nat had pasta with a duck ragu, Dad had lasagne and I had risotto with mushrooms (don't remember what kind) and mascarpone. It was amazing - had just the right bite and the mushrooms melted in my mouth. Exquisite. It makes me want to try much harder when I make risotto at home. I guess I'll have to try some of the recipes in the Silver Spoon cookbook my parents got me for my birthday.

Birthday week

2005-12-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Nat and I celebrated our 26th yesterday with King Kong and sushi. King Kong was great, though a little long. (I could show Peter Jackson where he could've cut out a few minutes here and there.) It was funny and touching and full of surprises. The cgi stuff was pretty amazing too, especially the gorilla and some of the dinosaur stuff.
Wednesday night we hung out with our friend Zach (who has the same birthday) and went to a Pixar screening at MoMA. John Lasseter was there to introduce three shorts and Toy Story. We then coerced Zach into attending his surprise party in the East Village.
And to top off the pleasant birthday surprises, I sold a $5000 membership at work and earned myself a $250 commission. That will pay off all of the Christmas gifts I bought this year. Fabulous!

Big Update!

2005-11-09T18:09:00.000-05:00

Let's start back in October, specifically Halloween. I went with Michelle, Kaitlin and Nicole from work down to the West Village for the parade. We got out of the F train into a crushing crowd on 6th and 14th and made our way downtown. We never saw much of the parade itself because of all the spectators, but just seeing the other people walking around was fun in itself. We ended up at a couple of bars on Bleecker, met some strangers, took some pictures. Here we are: we got Michelle out of Bellevue for the night, Kaitlin is from the year 2050 and still trying to save the struggling CBGBs, and Nicole is a "parrothead," or to those of you who don't follow this sort of stuff, a Jimmy Buffet fan. I couldn't find a costume but fortunately was still dressed from the pageant I lost earlier in the day. After I left the ladies went to another bar and some of them got some nice boy's phone numbers. Good job girls!
On to last week: I went down to DC last Tuesday to stay with my friend Liz and accompany her to the Nine Inch Nails show at the MCI Center. They were great - I haven't really been a fan since the mid-90s, but I knew at least half of the songs and enjoyed the new ones almost as much. It was the best big stadium show I've been to - cool light show, good sound. Queens of the Stone Age opened and I'm sorry to say they were pretty boring. The day after the show we redyed Liz's hair a blinding pink and mine a not-so-blinding shade of rose. It was fun and reminded me of when I used to help her do her hair when she was still at RISD and I was... floundering in Seekonk.
The news this week is that I was chosen for Grand Jury. It's 10 - 1pm, Monday to Friday until Dec. 5th. Yeah. The first day was today and it was interesting, but do I really have to do it for four weeks?? And on top of that the holiday season is gearing up at work. At least I have Thanksgiving Day off.
My mom was in town for the last two days. Monday night we made dinner and played Trivial Pursuit: the 90s edition. I won. I never win games I play against my mom. Nat and she got the same number of little pie pieces. The next day we met Natalie for lunch in Central Park and met Michelle at the Met to see the Fra Angelico show. Pretty amazing, beautiful stuff. Oh, how I love those Marys. Then we went down to 53rd so they could go to the Folk Art museum and I could talk to my bosses about scheduling around my jury duty. After that was Chinese food and the Gilmore Girls. Ah... My mom went to MoMA this morning with Nat while I was doing my civic duty, and then I crashed on my couch for the afternoon.

Weezer!

2005-10-15T09:23:00.000-04:00

I went to see Weezer and the Foo Fighters last night in Jersey. I haven't seen Weezer since '96 and I've regretted giving my ticket to someone else the last time I was going to see them. And I thought "Big arena show? Might be cool." It was! They played a bunch of songs from the Blue album and Pinkerton, which were definitely the highlights. The new songs are ok, though they did play the two I really like from Make Believe. They mixed it up a little too... Rivers played drums and Pat came out to sing and play guitar on "Photograph" and Brian and Scott sang lead on one song each. The Foo Fighters were fine - I saw them in '97 or '98 and liked them then, but now I'm kind of apathetic. They do have a lot of energy though, and surprisingly I knew almost every song even though I don't own any of their albums. Anyway, my friend Michelle loved them and fun was had by all. My ears are still ringing...

Perfect Day

2005-08-24T20:56:00.000-04:00

Today Nat and I met for lunch in Union Square, which was interesting, if not a little disgusting. We sat on the grass which was littered with cigarette butts, and a guy near us decided to feed the pigeons, so they flocked and fought over scraps of bread. Some nutty, shirtless man was singing poorly to himself, and behind Nat was a guy asleep with such abandon we worried he might be dead. He had a half-smoked cigarette hanging from his slack mouth. We quickly finished our salads and left.
We headed uptown to the Cloisters - it was my first time and Nat's second. The weather was gorgeous as we walked through the park and looked out over the Hudson. The museum was very cool - I love all that religious stuff, and Gothic and Romanesque architecture. By far the most impressive was the Campin annuciation altarpiece.
After the museum, we went and sat on a hill overlooking the river. Nat read, I worked on a scarf I'm knitting, and then I fell asleep for a little while. It was lovely.
We ended the evening by taking the bus down to 116th St. and walking from Columbia's campus to 79th St. to a diner for dinner outside.
Perfect.

liberry

2005-06-28T15:47:00.000-04:00

I finally got myself a library card today. Yay!! I took out two books by Jose Saramago (not Blindness, they didn't have it) and Sputnik Sweetheart by Murakami. My local branch is in serious need of money. It's really run down looking, but the selection wasn't terrible. I'll have to check out the 53rd street branch. It's close to work and has the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals. Can't believe I haven't seen them already - what kind of New Yorker am I?

Silly public

2005-06-26T09:15:00.000-04:00

I work in retail, which means I deal with crazy people all day. Yesterday I had to help a woman whose hair was bigger than a decent sized shrub, makeup would have looked better if she was on a stage under hot lights, and wearing enough accessories to decorate a Christmas tree. And to top it off, she wasn't even nice. I mean, c'mon, if you're going to walk around looking like a parody of yourself, at least be pleasant. If I was a waitress, I would've spit in her soup.
Let's hope today's crop is nicer and dressed more plainly.

I can't even keep a blog properly

2005-06-25T00:38:00.000-04:00

Sorry to the two people who read this, I've been meaning to update it for a long time.
Earlier this month I went to Wash. DC to visit my old roommate Liz. We went to the Toulouse-Lautrec show at the National Gallery. There I learned that I don't really like TL's work. Interesting. I did quite enjoy a Manet, some Degas and a few Picassos, though, just in case you were thinking I didn't like anything. And there were a couple of nice drawings from the RISD museum, which made me feel sorta special.
The Cezanne and Pissarro show opened the other night at MoMA and staff was invited to a preview. Pretty nice - a little bland, maybe - but I liked it overall. Was quite crowded, so I may try to go back on a Tues. when the place is empty. I'm not really all that familiar with Pissarro's work, but there are some beautiful landscapes in the show. It's mostly landscape stuff, actually, with a portrait here and there, and a few other things.
There is a possible promotion in my future, though I'm not getting my hopes up yet. One of my coworkers is being made a manager at one of the other stores, and someone will have to replace her. It would mean a few thousand dollars more a year, which I could use. More responsibility too, and it will look better on the resume.
Finished reading Murakami's Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - was very weird, but I really enjoyed it. Was kinda sad to finish it. A friend at work suggested, demanded in fact, that I read Saramago's Blindness. Chances are it will be over my head, but that's part of the challenge.

Funny and deceased

2005-04-06T23:25:00.000-04:00

I read that the comedian Mitch Hedberg died a few days ago. I remember him from the days when I had Comedy Central. Funny guy - here's one I laughed at: "Rice is great when you're hungry and want 2,000 of something."

Drugs and booze

2005-03-30T00:43:00.000-05:00

In the new Rolling Stone magazine is a chart of the top ten states with the highest rates of binge drinking and cocaine use in 18-25 year olds. Disturbingly, Rhode Island came in 1st in both categories. In the drinking one, 55% of people surveyed said they'd had five or more drinks on one occasion in the last 30 days. 55%!! And about the coke, 12% of those surveyed said they'd done it at least once in the past year. That's not so bad. But there is a whole lot of alcohol being consumed in little ol' RI. I mean, I know there isn't much to do there, but come on!

Mmmm...

2005-03-23T00:12:00.000-05:00

Got home from work today and was thinking about Indian food. Ordered some, had it delivered, ate it, and really appreciated New York City. How can I ever live someplace that doesn't offer all varieties of food at all hours delivered right to your door?

Back to the grind

2005-03-21T22:02:00.000-05:00

I went home to visit my parents for five days - I needed to get away from NYC and work. Work being the Museum of Modern Art, which has been really busy with lots of people on vacation.
We went to the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA which has this house they brought over from China. It's very cool. It's about 200 years old and has a courtyard in the middle - I want to build a house just like it. Beautiful wooden lattices over the windows, those beds that are like little rooms (which you can get at ABC Carpet and Home).
I didn't do much else - got a proper haircut at a place featured on Ambush Makeover (everyone knows that's a sign of quality), went to the mall, hung out with Matt, Chris and Heather. Did suburban stuff. Oh, went to Target. What a vacation. I really know how to live it up.
Bummed to have to work for a living. Doing what I do anyway. Want spring to come so bad. They're putting up scaffolding around my building which will be up for a year. I'm going to miss my uninterrupted view and my sunshine.

Philly yo.

2005-03-12T22:00:00.000-05:00

Last Wed. I went to Philadelphia with Michelle and Kaitlin from work and Kaitlin's friend Victor. It was fun if not a little frustrating. We drove straight from NYC to Geno's for cheese steaks to find out they don't have a bathroom. "Well dang," we said. "Where can we pee?" Try the park across the street was our answer. So after trying the park, the pizza place, the thrift store, the other pizza place, we ended up at the fish market/restaurant/bar. Here are Kaitlin and Victor enjoying their obligatory drinks.

After the welcome release we went back to Geno's for the aforementioned cheese steaks. They were ok. Not worth the drive, frankly. So we head off to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the Dali show. Oops, probably should have bought advance tickets. Hmm, sold out? Well, that sucks! But they let us in for free with our MoMA IDs anyway, so that was cool. The museum has a great collection so we didn't miss the Dali too much. Here's Kaitlin wrapped by Jeanne-Claude and Christo. We're still on a Christo kick since The Gates.

We're going to go back to see the Dali show sometime in the spring. We'll be better prepared the second time.
Next was an adventure to find dinner. First we drove through the ghetto. Not where we meant to go. We decided we wanted to find the historic neighborhood. After driving past Betsey Ross' house a few times in search for a parking space, we found one that seemed kinda legal. "Good enough!" we cheered and tried to find a reasonably priced restaurant. Here's where we ended up:

It was built in 1623, or 1663? Long time ago. The interior decor was more like 1970s ugly dive bar. Salty food, but at least pretty durn cheap. On our way out of Philly, got a little lost in South Jersey. Sheesh. The second time around we'll be pros. At least we had fun.

I knit.

2005-03-12T21:40:00.000-05:00

Nat finally took a picture of the iCozy I knitted for her iPod. Nice iPicture Natalie! I'm planning on knitting, photographing and posting. We'll see how that goes. (She posted it on her blog too.) Anyway, here it is: