August 2004 Archives

OK, I'm sorry, I have to go on a rant about this movie. Not that I didn't enjoy it, on the contrary I thought it was a great film. It's more that I'm ranting about the audience that I saw it with. It was at some theater in New Jersey, so let's say there was a pretty broad cross-section of "America" represented here. I'd say about 80% of the audience didn't get the movie. When I mean "didn't get the movie", I mean that there were people complaining about the fact that there were subtitles and they wouldn't have gone to see it if they had known, and saying that it was a "complete waste of time" as they were walking out of the theatre.

If you want to see blood and guts, go see Terminator. If you're looking for a lyrical movie with a deeply moving theme (and subtitles), that might actually provoke some thought processes in your head, then go see Hero.

one more thing i forgot ...

my mom's doing the avon walk for breast cancer in october. She needs people to help her out! So please donate any money that you can so that she can participate. It's for a great cause - it's for research into preventing and treating breast cancer. She's had too many friends who have had this disease. She's been training for the past couple of months, doing walks every day, and is really psyched that she'll be helping so many people out. I am so proud of her!

Here's her personal page to read more and to donate.

So I've been neglecting the food part lately, and I should write something down before I forget what the food was like at a couple of restaurants I've been to recently. I think that New York has amplified my semi-obsession with food, with basically anything you could possibly ever want to eat at your fingertips.

Yakitori Canteen - Park Slope, Brooklyn on 6th ave. - This place must be new. Super cutsey (in that kind of bubbly plastic-y Japanese way) decor. All kinds of yummy things on skewers. The desserts are must-try. We got free beer too!

Manhattan Diner - somewhere on the Upper West Side. Pretty standard diner food but they have the best coleslaw ever! It's crunchy and has dill and raisins.

Balthazar - NO I did not go there for dinner, are you kidding? I popped in for breakfast with my sister. We both had Belgian waffles that were pretty amazing. Don't know what was in the batter but it was tasty - very fluffy and light, crunchy on the outside. The fruit that came with it wasn't anything to write home about, however. And (surprisingly, maybe to me) the service was really good and not snobby. I have to say that I'm a sucker for the French bistro atmosphere.

Rice to Riches - on Spring Street - this place is ridiculous. In a number of ways. Their whole schtick is rice pudding. In twenty or so flavors. At astronomical prices. As in $6 for a single portion (which really feeds two people). The decor is super hi-tech sleek, with video monitors and shiny plastic all over the place. And yes I got suckered in, and I do have to say, their rice pudding is pretty damned good. Not that I would necessarily go back there (really, $6 for rice pudding? I think i might go for ice cream instead next time). But it's something that you probably have to do at least once just say that you did it.

I think that yesterday was one of the "top ten" weather days of the year. (i have this thing where I try to rate the weather...the less humid the better.) There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was nice and dry (yay humidity is gone! finally!). Hot in the sun, cool in the shade. Somehow we managed to visit Flushing for lunch and then took a bike ride from Brooklyn halfway up the West Side.

Flushing was so lively, so many shops and people and dogs and babies. It seemed like you could buy just about everything and anything. Well mostly everything had to do with food, salons and cellphones actually. The fruits and vegetables were amazingly fresh and CHEAP! My grandmother told me that the population is something like 80% Chinese. In fact there were very few signs that had any english on them. I guess you just have to point and nod and gesture and/or hope that the shopkeeper speaks the same dialect as you (and forgives the mangled american accent). It definitely feels like it's a city unto itself - even with its own transportation system (there are cheap shuttle buses that run between Chinatown in Manhattan and Flushing on a very regular basis - i think that's how Fung Wah got its start!).

Then, since it was ridiculously beautiful out, we took our bikes out for a spin over the Brooklyn Bridge and up the Greenway that runs next to the Hudson River. It was probably just as lively as Flushing, but with a very different crowd. Tons of stuff going on, from a trapeze school to a skatepark to ping pong to cheerleading to sunbathing to dog runs. It was crazy. I think that everyone was so relieved that you could finally go outside without suffocating. and is it me, or are there more small yippy dogs in this city than children?

ha! I've moved up in the Google ranks. Apparently my site comes up as the second link when "tracie lee" is googled. (as opposed to last year.)

The lady from the Southern Cross Line Dancers is still numero uno.

You better watch out, lady-from-Australia-with-the-same-name-as-me!

Even though I've only been in New York for a little over a month, being back in Boston gave me a sense of nostalgia. OK, well, rather for Cambridge and Somerville. (Downtown Boston I always avoided anyway.) I spent a lot of time in Inman Square this past week, which I used to live down the street from for about a year.

And oh the food! I miss Christina's terribly, they really do have the best banana ice cream on the planet. You can't beat Punjabi Dhaba for fast, cheap and awesome Indian food. Plus how could you possibly not like the Bollywood videos playing at high volume on the TV in the corner? There's also the 1369 Cafe for coffee, chai and internet service. Bukowski's for beers and burgers (the music tends to be a little on the loud side though). The Druid for beers and burgers too but with a more "barlike" ambience.

And then there's the East Coast Grill, Argana, Ryle's (a jazz club that apparently has barbecue now), the City Girl Caffe, the New China Cafe, and a spice store that's a spinoff of Christina's. And of course just a couple of blocks down on Hampshire St. is Oleana, the (pricey but) great Mediterranean restaurant. Definitely a place to impress your date.

Lastly, I guess I have to mention the S&S deli too - only recommended for large groups, (it's hard to find restaurants in Inman that have a large amount of seating for groups of 10) as the service leaves something to be desired and the food is rather overpriced. Well, it's more thinking about the ridiculous brunch lines on the weekends at S&S that brought on the nostalgia more than anything.

So yes I miss those places being a stone's throw away from my house. But now I've got New York!

The show at the Zeitgeist is over! But if you still want to check it out, I've posted photos and clips of the space and Mandy's performance on line at the mini site. Anyone know of galleries in New York that I could submit some slides to?

ok, has anyone noticed the dearth of compact-sized toothbrushes in pharmacies lately? or am I just paranoid? I do not have a giganto-pithicus mouth, contrary to popular belief, and full sized toothbrushes just simply don't work. So I've always bought compact sized toothbrushes. But now, every time I go to the pharmacy, I find myself digging through the racks of toothbrushes for about an hour until I find the one lone compact toothbrush.

What is the thinking behind this conspiracy anyway?? That people with small mouths just simply don't exist anymore?

And don't get me started on the price of toothbrushes either.