Best Just Before Bed

I rang in my new year with some favorite reading, several selections, here's the end of one of them. Night is coming and the gossiping washwomen are turning into a tree and a stone:

Can't hear the waters of. The chittering waters of. Flittering bats, fieldmice bawk talk. Ho! Are you not gone ahome? What Thom Malone? Can't hear with bawk of bats, all thim liffeying waters of. Ho, talk save us! My foos won't moos. I feel as old as yonder elm. A tale told of Shaun or Shem? All Livia's daughtrsons. Dark hawks hear us. Night! Night! My ho head halls. I feel as heavy as yonder stone. Tell me of John or Shaun? Who were Shem and Shaun the living sons or daughters of? Night now! Tell me, tell me, tell me, elm! Night night! Telmetale of stem or stone. Beside the rivering waters of, hitherandthithering waters of. Night!

"Telmetale" is my favorite word and "Beside the rivering waters of, hitheranthithering waters of. Night!" are my favorite two sentences.

Best Sign You've Been Dead for a While

Best Certainly Took Long Enough

Remember when I used to bother you with my visit statistics and now I just bug you with what food I ate?

Best Facebook Sponsored Links are Getting Odd

Really, awesome blinds?

Best Where You Can Find Me in May

Absolutely magnificent.

"Godard's 60's at the Film Forum"

This is what I have to say:

Breathless, May 2-5:
Never seen it on the big screen, and while this weekend could not be more crammed with worthy activities, I will not miss this movie.

Two or Three Things I Know About Her, May 6 & 7:
I think I saw this at the Film Forum a year or two ago and actually I didn't like it.

Pierrot Le Fou, May 9-10:
Haven't seen, am curious.

A Woman is a Woman, May 11-13:
"Godard’s first film in color and Scope, and his nearest approximation of a musical, with cinematic in-jokes and anarchic humor galore." Ok, I'm in.

Alphaville, May 21:
Haven't seen, I know it's a big deal, so I'll go see it.

Band of Outsiders, May 22-24:
“All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun.” – Godard.

Masculine Feminine, May 25-27:
Absolutely. First saw this at the Film Forum in 2005, it has been very hard to settle on watching it on DVD for the last couple of years. I will be there.

Sympathy for the Devil, May 27:
"The camera endlessly prowls through the Rolling Stones’ recording session of the title song, shot in long, long takes."
Now I didn't even know about this one. Maybe.

This might be reason enough for me to look into a Forum membership, but I'd need to see 15 movies there before I start breaking even on the $5 tickets.

Best Rooftops and Riversides

Rooftops.




Riversides.

Best Let's Get Caught Up, pt. 4: Deleted Scene!

When I posted Let's Get Caught Up, pt. 4 I left out a very important pair of photos.

This is Matt figuring out how to get his trunk to open, it hadn't been working for weeks.


Voila!

Best Let's Get Down to Business III: the Final Battle

Friday I didn't really do anything with my parents during the day because of something weird, I was kind of working, or being trained, at least.

But I did see this:


Friday night we went to dinner at Dressler in Brooklyn because it's a great restaurant and Dad and Grandma and I liked it so much when we went there last year. We brought Collin. During the meal I was told this was my birthday party, Hooray!

We joked that my blog post about the meal could be called "No Restaurant for Old Men" because it was so dark inside Dressler and the print on the menu was so small. This is Mom trying to read the menu as best she can.


Appetizer time!

Mom had the wild mushroom and ricotta raviolini with parmesan broth, asparagus, wild mushrooms & micro radish.


Dad had the special duck confit appetizer that isn't on their online menu so I can't use their fancy words to describe it, but he really, really liked it.


Collin had the smoked trout with potato galette, herbed creme fraiche, friess, arugula, and horseradish.


And I, keeping with my current extreme pork obsession, had the braised berkshire belly with stoneground grits, grilled radicchio, and pickled watermelon(!). Magnificent!


Mom and Dad had spent the day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Mom showed off the commemorative Statue of Liberty coin Dad got her.


Entrees! Everyone got the Braised Short Rib & Grilled Hanger Steak with horseradish whipped potato, onion jam, spinach & bordelaise.

Except for me, I got the Crescent Farms Long Island Duck with truffled forestiere potato, duck confit crepinette, spinach & cipollini onion. I thought I was getting the same duck dish as I had had the last time I was there, I wasn't. It was good, though.


Dessert! Collin had what I believe was the poppy seed blintze with oven roasted suckel pear & lemon sorbet.


Dad had the brioche bread pudding with butterscotch, Hudson valley apples & creme fraiche. Everyone said this one was the winner.


And Mom and I both had the hazelnut semifreddo with praline crunch & chocolate sorbet.


So that's the dinner we had Friday.

Saturday was Mom and Dad's last day in New York. In the morning we went to the temple and we were going to go to Momofuku for lunch but we were passing Jean Georges (you know, the restaurant that has won every single restaurant honor and accolade in the Trump International Tower by Central Park) on the way to the subway and I said, "Hey, why don't we try this place out?" So we had lunch in their very agreeable less-formal barroom. My enjoyment of the meal was hampered by the beginnings of a cold that persists to the time of the composition of this blog, but it was an fine way to end our short time together. [Mom: didn't you get a picture of Dad and I in front of the building? I think that would be nice for the blog if you could send it to me.]

UPDATE Okay, this picture looks a little different than I had imagined.


Their online menu is not helping me at all, but we partook of their budget-friendly prix fixe lunch. But for our first course we all had a cauliflower soup, they served it ingredients first and then poured on the broth.



We augmented our lunch with an additional appetizer, the salt and pepper fried calamari. It was great.


For the main Mom and Dad had the shrimp & pea risotto


I had the nice chicken with pea pods.


I can't really remember what the desserts were, Mom and I got the one that involved chocolate.


Dad got the one that didn't.


Lunch took a long time and when it ended I had to run off to my stake conference meetings (sure there were four hours of them and sure this meant I couldn't spend the rest of the afternoon with my folks before they left, but Bishop Cropper told me to sprint to the end so I'm sprinting to the end) and Mom and Dad went off to a museum and to find dinner without my guiding hand. It was great to have them here and I hope they come back soon because I'm getting hungry. And because I like them. Come on, you guys, it isn't always about my stomach.

Best Ok, Seriously New Yorkers

Who is getting Mario Kart for the Wii? It comes out next Tuesday and we need to be playing this game as soon as we can.

Best Let's Get Down to Business II

The Thursday when my parents were here was a huge and relentless day. We got up early and tried to get Letterman tickets (fail) and then I went to Macy's to look for white shirts (the entire men's department and I was able to find one 16 1/2 36. Come on!) while my folks went to the library. I met up with them in Tribeca where there hotel is and we made a very good and important decision. The decision to have lunch at Nobu. I think Dad liked it better than Babbo.

First of all, here's Mom and Dad on the street, I didn't want to jump into the food without a little human connection.


Okay, Nobu. Kind of ate the same stuff I ate when I went there the first time, but with sunshine and less people around.

Shishito Peppers with Miso Sauce and Eggplant Chips.


Yellowtail & Jalepeño Sashimi (which I didn't have last time)


The Rock Shrimp Tempura. Here my Dad's life started to change.


The King Crab Tempura. This is when Dad started saying that this place might be better than Babbo.


The Black Miso Cod. My Dad called this anti-climatic after the King Crab. Point taken, but 1) it's not exactly table scraps and 2) it's pretty hard for anything to compete with such a decadent meat prepared so decadently.


Fortunately dessert perked up the line graph of deliciousness at the end for everyone. Coconut and Yogurt Sorbet Bomb and Chocolate Cake Bento Box...probably the closest I've ever seen my parents come to fighting was over their final bites of the Bento Box.


After lunch we went up to the Upper West and walked to Grant's Tomb. If you weren't counting, this was my third visit to Grant's Tomb in 2008 and my second that week.



It was a tiny bit different inside this time. Turns out they found out he was dead.


Across the street the sakuras of Sakura Park were on a rampage.




Then we walked through Columbia where all those Ivy League students were being lazy on the stairs.



Then we went to the St. John Divine Cathedral which I've never really taken a close look at before.





While I was there I made a new friend named Cranky Albino Peacock.



Then we walked and walked some more, we walked so much and walked so much and walked through the park and over to the Jackie Onassis Reservoir.



You know what no one ever photographs? Flowers' behinds.





After all that walking we had a nice dinner at Nook on the West Side. I started off with the tuna and avocado tartar, it was a heck of a lot of chopped up raw tuna for one guy to eat (don't worry, I succeeded)



Dad had mushroom soup, mom had salad with blue cheese and pears.


For dinner I had the Nook Cheddar Burger cuz I hadn't had a burger for a couple of days. It was a heck of a lot of chopped and cooked beef for one guy to eat (don't worry, I succeeded)


Dad had Nook's great Thai marinated lamb chops, which I love, and Mom had Nook's great stuffed chicken, which I love.


Whenever you see your mother it's important that she gets a chance to check to see how much you've grown since the last time she saw you.


That night we saw South Pacific at Lincoln Center. Glen Beck and people that don't know to shut up during the overture unless I tell them to were there. It was a good musical, I'd never seen South Pacific before. You know I don't really understand musicals too well, but I gave this one a shot and had as much fun as I could. Also, Adolfo from the Drowsy Chaperone played the funny sailor. So that was good.