The 4th, Public Enemies, and Ephemera...

(If I wait long enough, I accumulate enough to blog about.....)

Last Friday, braving the torrential downpours, J10X & I went to see Public Enemies. For those who don't know, it's a movie about John Dillinger's 14-month crime spree. I love gangster movies; I love gangster movies with stylish stars; this had both. And I'm pretty sure I can now predict the men's fall fashion line for 2009.
This movie was beautifully shot, some scenes evoking the feel of 1930's newspaper photos and it was a welcome respite from the usual direction of movies of late. The pacing was a little slower than I thought it would be, but it was a relief to see the action, not have it shoved in your face with nearly-undecipherable CGI magic.
It's really hard to describe the movie as a whole, and I'm hard put to explain any of the plot devices. There were no decent female roles, not even Dillinger's moll, played by Marie Cotillard, who had more of a 'character' than the other women. Johnny Depp was cool as Dillinger, Christian Bale [The Most Tensest Actor Since Clint Eastwood (tm)] was serviceable as Melvin Purvis, the very intense G-man who was chasing Dillinger, but again, the characters & story were very broad strokes. There was a good deal of sub-plot involving J. Edgar Hoover and the beginnings of the FBI, and Baby-Face Nelson's psychotic self was skin-crawlingly represented as well. Plenty of familiar faces in this movie, most of whom I couldn't name if I had to. This was a really enjoyable movie and beautiful to watch: I recommend it as an afternoon's diversion.
Rating: 3.5 crowns out of 5, 5 crowns for Johnny Depp 'cuz I'm sweet on him.

On the 4th, J10X and I were fortunate enough to party down with the Boojums and their Big L'il Bash for the Fourth. It was so glorious outside (finally), good food was to be had, good people to talk to, just a nice, relaxed vibe. Later that night, J10X & I went to Norwich to see the fireworks - it was insane. There wasn't a single place to park, the town was just packed full of people. We managed to get to a spot behind a bank, under some trees, through a culvert and on a grassy knoll and joined an older couple to watch the fabulous fireworks.

Sunday was another glorious day, so off we went to the beach! It was a bit chilly on the beach itself, but really nice walking around. Oh, yeah, we scored some more tiki goodness at the flea market as well, this time in the form of ephemera. One piece, which is marginally Polynesian Pop, is a brochure from 1931 on the SS Mauritania and its cruises to South America and islands. That has a big fold out section of the schematic of the ship, too. We also scored a travel booklet from Hawaii and several pamphlets from Silver Springs, ca. 1940s-1950s.

So, all-in-all, it was a rare relaxed holiday weekend- yay!

Uh, How Do Ya Call your Luva Boy....?

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!Rock 'n' Roll!Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Rock 'n' Roll!

Marko and I witnessed a fantastic, kick-ass, REAL rock and roll show last night at Pearl St. in Northampton - the NY Dolls came, rocked our world, and left us all in a sweaty, steamy, spent and satisfied pile on the ballroom floor. 

The Dolls only have two original members left, David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain, but the newer members of the band were, in every sense of the word, NY Dolls. This band was classy, stylish, rockin' and the perfect mix of great musicians who are tight, but can let it get loose and not sloppy. 

I wasn't overly familiar with the newer material, but it was GREAT live - and there was a nice mix of original Dolls' tunes and the newer songs. Sylvain and Johansen both looked really pleased that the audience really went nuts over the original tunes.  That said, most of the audience were obviously long-time fans of the band.  They also covered Johnny Thunders' 'Can't Put your Arms Around a Memory' and gave Thunders and Michael Jackson a shout-out, which was cool. Other songs included 'Stranded in the Jungle', 'Pills', 'Jet Boy', 'Trash', 'Mystery Girls', 'Personality Crisis' - they opened with 'Looking for a Kiss', which is arguably my favorite Dolls tune, and it just went uphill after that. And they played for almost 2 solid hours. Johansen's voice was amazingly unchanged, Sylvain's guitar-playing and audience interaction was great and I highly recommend you go NOW and see this band if you can.  

"Trash, wont pick it up
Take them lights away
Trash, wont pick it up
Dont take your life away
Trash, dont try to take my life away...."

Cape Cod- the World's Repository of Fudge, Taffy, Jams & Jellies!

For my Birthday Time this year, Jv10X and I decide we'd stay at the Cape for a week- do some biking, kayaking, Provincetown-ing, catch some rays at the beach.  We were so psyched because it was pre-tourist-season, so it would be peaceful.

Well, things didn't quite turn out as planned: we were disappointed by the place we stayed in (I felt their website was rather misleading), lots of places were not open because it was pre-season, and it was cold and rainy. So that definitely put the kibosh on whale-watching, kayaking and anything ocean-y at all.  If the rental places weren't closed, it was just too damn cold (think 55 degrees and windy and cold rain.)

So, as they say, we were given lemons, so we made vodka tonics. The first night, we went to P-town to scope out the scene. As it was late evening, there were very few stores open, but it was really peaceful without too many people around, so we walked all over, making note of the places we wanted to visit over the next week.  Provincetown has nice shops, lots of cool galleries, theater....a lot of stuff in a fairly small space. We checked out the Marine Specialties shop, and that was quite the diversion!  Tons of army/navy surplus from around the world, and just....stuff. Clothes, toys, home goods, pith helmets- you name it! We also stopped at Wa, which has a Zen garden and some completely stunningly beautiful objets. 

The next day, we did manage to get in a fabulous bike ride at the dunes. It was pleasantly cool out and we had gone early enough to avoid the visitors that came later.  The landscape was really bizarre- all the scrub pines and sand looked like an alien landscape and you could smell the salt mist roses everywhere. The bike path was really nice, paved, and boy, there were some huge hills to navigate. After the ride, thighs aflame, we checked out the visitor's center and found out that a whale (dead) had been washed ashore several weeks earlier - they had pictures of a crane picking up the enormous tongue off of the beach!  It was the Gene Simmons of whales, I believe....

After dolling ourselves up to have a nice dinner in honor of my birthday, we went back to P-town earlier than the night before and stopped in at id. So many gorgeous things here, too!  I picked up a beautiful, simple vase there and I wish I could have afforded, oh, ALL the jewelry. Not everything they have is online, so keep checking that site as they add to it. We grilled the owner about things to do around town, why wasn't everything open, and where shall we eat? We had decide to go to The Mews, but we wanted some local input. A place called Victor's was recommended to us, they have tapas, so we thought we'd give that a shot and then go to The Mews afterwards to sample as many of their 256 vodkas as we could. Well, after walking the length of P-town twice, we couldn't find it:  the next day we realized we were about 10 damn feet from it. (We did the exact same thing the night before trying to locate The Mews- we stopped about 50 ft from it and turned around thinking we had missed it. ) 

So, we went to The Mews, and we're SO glad we did! The setting was great (nice, dark, relaxed, ocean view), the staff were fabulous, the food was divine as was the vodka.  Hands down, the Tuna Sushi Tempura was the winner out of everything we tried - I could eat that every day of my life. We also tried the crabcakes, which were delicious and the mushroom strudel, which was great, and Jv10X had the skirt steak and scallops, which he really liked. I really recommend this place if you're looking for an elegant, but relaxed, restaurant in P-town.  And, look who's also eaten here: Bob Mackie, Bozo the Clown and John Waters!

We were fortunate enough to be sitting next to a table of three women, and one of them was also celebrating her birthday- they were out on the town, and very fun. One of the women created all the stained glass pieces in the restaurant, and she took me to the lower level dining room to show me some really spectacular pieces. 

We tried four vodkas: the Snow Queen from Kazakhstan, which was best chilled, had a nice, mildly sweet taste and light on the tongue; Youri Dolgoruki from Russia, which was also best chilled, and that had a more astringent, citrusy flavor, also light on the tongue; the always incredible Zubrowka bison grass-flavored vodka (one of my top 3 favorites) and is nice not chilled; and my new favorite, a lovely Ukrainian by the name of Nemiroff Honey- Pepper: I had this 'neat', and I think that's how it should to be served. It smelled strongly of honey, but the honey taste was delicate, not cloying, and it had a little zip to it from the pepper. It was a beautiful gold color and very warming. 

I was hoping that we could have smaller 'tastes' of more vodkas, but they don't have that option. The servings were a good size, so after two, I was feeling no pain. 

We left and window-shopped all the galleries, which were closed by the time we left the restaurant. One of the exhibits that we kept missing was 'A Dozen Divas' by Robert de Michiell whose caricatures were quite reminiscent of Robert Risko. We could at least see these pieces really well through the windows, and they looked glorious. We did manage to see several galleries' shows, but I thought the Simie Maryles gallery had the most interesting works- I'm not  huge fan of paintings, but I loved Roxie Munro's pieces as well as the glass art of Ian Sylvia, which was far more stunning than in any other pictures in that link. There's a long history of art and artists in P-town, but we tended to skip the galleries of the paintings of boats, ocean, bad figurative drawings and the like. 

The next morning, we woke up to a torrential downpour and when it stopped, we decided to take a walk along the main rails-to-trails bike trail that ran behind our motel. It was paved, really clean and after we had walked for half an hour, the heavens opened back up and drenched us is cold, fat drops of rain. With thunder.  So, after getting back to our room and peeling off our soaked garb, we checked the forecast and realized it wasn't the best day for a hours-long bike ride. So, we headed back to P-town, this time during the day, so we could just go to all the place we wanted to visit that were closed the two days before. This was definitely turning into a shopping & eating trip. We checked out Utilities, The Shell Shop, Womencrafts, Stax of Wax (I snagged some comics here and the adorable owner was selling his punk record collection- so much punk!  So much vinyl!), Yesterday's Treasures (where Jv10X liberated a funky-ass Coco Joe's ashtray/lighter combo set), got a hair cut by the fabulous Carl Thomas at Salon 54, ate at Wabi Dumpling (delicious! and we tried Sake2Me's Green Tea Sake that was lightly carbonated- amazingly delicious!), purchased dessert from The Purple Feather (sold to us by one of the many, gorgeous, flirty, flirty, flirty Bulgarian boys and girls who were working on the Cape for the summer), ate some awesome pizza at George's (with large drinky-poos, nice bartender, and the hilarious realization of how porn-y the closed captioning is for Andrew Zimmern's show)....um, then we tried to get into the Whydah Pirate Museum, but it wasn't open, of course - arrrrrgh. So went back to our room.

Surprise!  The next morning it was pouring rain! We figured it wasn't going to be a good day as we noticed the household across the street was loading its camper up with two of each animal...we had completely 'done' P-town, so we decided to cut our losses and head home. We will definitely go back to Cape Cod, and we understand from the locals that September is the best time to go. We met a lot of really nice people and had a great time wherever we went. 

And we did not succumb to the pressures of purchasing fudge, taffy, jams, jellies or $2 

t-shirts....but we have plenty of random pictures here.....

Movie Reviews: Star Trek & the Matrix Sequels

A current theme in my movie theater-going these days is the switcheroo: I show up to watch a movie only to find it's gone and I have to substitute another.
Miss Wendy and I went to see 'Wolverine' (yes, that would be the 4th time in a month for me...), but it had gone away and we decided to see Star Trek, which was cool as we both wanted to see it.
This movie covers the very beginnings of the careers of Kirk, Spock, Bones, Checkov, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty.....and the Enterprise. Lots of fun effects, but the plot was......disappointing. As in 'We'll fix all the holes in the plot by using time travel to change the future!'-ok, I see this on Dr. Who and it works- came across as lame in this setting. I did like that the characters physically were a nod to the originals and there was some slap-stick type humor that was silly enough to be fun. (Oh, and if 'Bones' looks really familiar, it's because he was in LOTR and Xena....and, believe it or not, Winona Ryder is Spock's mom......)
Oddly, the one really distracting element was the bad skin on everyone except Uhura- I mean, c'mon, it's Stardate 2388- don't they have nuclear-strength Clearasil by now and razor blades that give a clean, close shave??
For the record, you'll only really like this if you've watched the original TV show fairly regularly. There were plenty of inside jokes and I was able to demonstrate my carefully hidden full-on geekiness to Wendy during the movie. I don't see that it would create many new fans, but it was a treat for old ones.

Rating: 3 crowns out of 5, because I only saw it once - I doubt it'll hold up to repeated viewings.
Matrix: Reloaded & Matrix: Revolutions- wow, the incredible suckiness of these two movies is almost beyond words. I know I will be lying on my deathbed at some point regretting the 4 hours I wasted watching these movies.
Where do I start? First of all, it was basically one big movie that could have been edited down to 2 hours instead of 4. The plot was flogged like a dead horse. And the story went from good vs. evil to a ridiculously heavily christianized version of the same. Both movies were boring, so much so that the fight scenes barely revived one's interest, and it seemed that each scene was shot several times and two takes were kept and inserted...wherever....so you see the same thing over and over and over.....zzzzzzzz.........and any decent acting accomplished by Fishburne and Weaving was completely overran by the ponderous plot and editing.
Rating: 0.5 crowns out of 5, the half a point awarded to Trinity's awesome costumes.

Restaurant Review: The Black Sheep

Jv10X & I popped into the new Black Sheep Irish Pub in Niantic after an extensive tour of the Book Barn: sold some books, bought some books, had the Jim Miller Experience at Book Barn Downtown. (Note: Jim always plays better music than the main Book Barn does.)

The Black Sheep is very....pub-y....with nice white walls, brick wall, molded ceiling, burgundy and gold textiles and dark wood with an adult atmosphere. It's roomy and cozy at the same time.

I was please to see that they carry some nice beers (and Newcastle, hands down my fave) but I was a little distressed that the menu was largely meat and bivalves - but after all, it is a pub, so what the hell was I thinking? And the staff seemed to be very....nervous...so that was a little strange. But they were nice.

I ended up ordering the field greens salad with grilled shrimp, and Jv10X gave a stab at the burger. The salad was huge and really tasty, and Bernie declared his burger to be really good. (I kind of wonder if my salad was so big because they probably don't get a lot of salad-eatin' folk in there, but I'm not complaining!) I definitely would like to stop there again to try an actual dish on their menu- the wild mushroom ravioli look fab as do the crabcakes.

Wolverine. Indian Food. Paul Brockett Roadshow Band.

....that's what my very deserving mom was treated to for Mother's Day.

Oh, is it exams week already?

(Me, addressing the students):

“Sorry to interrupt, but did anyone park outside the Library? Campus Safety just popped in to ask everyone to move-“

(Student interrupts, screaming):

“Just gimme a sec! I’m gonna move it! They already told me four times! God, they need to CHILL!”

(Me, not saying any of the 4 gazillion sarcastic rejoinders that have leapt to mind):

“Well, alright then….just so you know, when they actually come in to tell us, it means you’re about to be ticketed or towed….”

(Student, still screaming):

“Fine! Whatever!”

Wolverine- The Movie

My sister and I had a rare date to see a movie - we were going to see Crank 2, but when we arrived at the theater, pretty much only Wolverine (or "X-Men 4") was playing- so of course we just had to go see it. I think it was really well done, fairly faithful to the comics, but they added some other hoohah that included origins of other mutants as well- even, so, it worked. 

Liev Schreiber was amazingly evil and creepy, and Hugh Jackman was terrific and....gosh, yummy and nekkid. This is a pretty violent movie- definitely not for the kids and we were kind of amazed it didn't get an R rating. (I bet a full-frontal of Mr. Jackman would have done that, though, because we all know sex is bad, but violence is ok...)  

The actions scenes were fantastic and intense! The theater we were in was super loud, and really enhanced those scenes! The photography was a bit odd, but not distractingly so- the beginning sequence with the credits was gorgeous, but there were some odd shots that made everyone look a little too bronze and shiny and then some shots that looked like they were made-for-TV-movie planned. But it was still great. There was a lot of potential-spin-off/sequel-to-come bits that happened at the end of the movie, which makes it not really stand on its own.

Warning- potential spoiler alert! 

I do have a few beefs though: Logan's wife is Emma Frost's sister? That was a little desperate, but I like that Logan's wife did get a juicier role than in the comics.   

Admittedly, Gambit is one of my least favorite characters, but the kid who played him (Taylor Kitsch) sucked in that bland, Vanilla-Pudding/Ben Affleck kind of suckiness. There was nothing interesting or compelling about him, he was outclassed (even by Will. I. Am.) and didn't Gambit have a French accent? Well, not this one, apparently.  

I also felt the immense amount of info we're given as part of the origins of other mutants was too much too near to the end of the movie. All in all, I will most likely go see it again (actually, I kind of have to as I promised to see it with two other people) and I think I may have a different take on it the second time around- I did have to explain things to my sister, plus I thought this would flow with the previous three X-Men movies, but it didn't.

3.5 crowns out of 5, with Mr. Jackman's buns earning 5 crowns out of 5.

Happy 40th, Bernie! Viva Von 10X, indeed - hot damn!

Well, what can I say? We had a fab cocktail party at the Aloha Alcohula (TM)* in honor of Bernie's 40th birthday!
Our wonderful guests - hot rodders, artists, musicians, the Usual Suspects and newbies - donned their swanky attire and joined us for martinis, much too much food, and mayhem. I cannot thank everyone enough for being fabulous guests and making this a very memorable event for Bernie, who so deserved it! Happy Birthday, Pootie-pie!


(a Johnny von 10x tribute by the joey Zone - With NO apologies to Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman!)

A shot o’ HOT DAMN gonna set my throat
Gonna set my throat on fire
Got a whole lot of shots down in front o’me--
Who set those stakes up higher?!?
There’s a thousand pretty women in THE tiki bar
But I wanna sit and talk about a CAR
For a gearhead like me that’s just about par
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X

How I wish that there were more
Than the twenty-four hours in the day
cause even if there were forty more
I wouldn’t sleep a minute away
Oh, there’s chrome and lacquer and a kustom wheel
A swapmeet somewhere with sech-a-deal
Ya jes’ needs a strong liver and some balls o’ steel
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X

ALOHA ALCOHULA with its barlight flashin
And some drink glass smashin
All that good hooch down the drain
Another shot o’ HOT DAMN turnin day into nighttime
Turnin night into daytime
If you’ve been to THE bar
Youll never be the same again

I’m gonna keep on the run
I’m gonna have me some fun
If it costs me my very last dime
If I wind up broke up well
I’ll always remember that I had a swingin time
I’m gonna give it ev’rything I’ve got
So bartender please let those shots stay hot
And let me shout “HOT DAMN!” with ev’ry shot
Viva VON 10X, viva VON 10X,
Viva, viva VON 10X!!! :D










* Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Dreamings, 5-Course Love and the Perception of Women

I haven't blogged in a while, so this one's all over the map.

I was absolutely blessed to see two theatrical productions within one month- I didn't realize how much I missed going to theater since I had left the Bushnell.

Elena & I saw 'Dreamings', performed by both the Judy Dworin Performance Ensemble and members of the York Correctional Institute for Women in the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford. The cultural center is housed in CT's oldest synagogue building - there were glorious architectural gems to spotted in the building: stained glass windows, gorgeous chandeliers that would make great earrings, beautiful woodwork. (I brilliantly deduced we were in a synagogue by observing the Hebraic script right smack in front of me on a beautiful window....)

The performance included projections (brilliantly...projected...by a reacquainted Old Friend) on sail-shaped screens that enhanced the portions of the performance in which the dancers created a ship on the sea, traveling back and forth through the stories. (That particular portion of the performance strongly reminded me of the scene in 'Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead' that shows the Shakespearean actors silently recreating the well-known scenes from various plays. ) There was beautiful a cappella singing by a trio of women; modern dance sequences that were entertaining and thoughtful; and some spoken word pieces that, frankly, were.....not great. I do think the entire production was enjoyable, considering it could have been really heavy-handed.

Afterwards, I said hello to my Old Friend (now elevated to Friend category) and Elena and I hied off to a bar (shocking, I know) for a nightcap. Elena is one fun date.

Next: 5 Course Love-
Marko and I went the fabulous Spirit of Broadway theater in Norwich to see this musical comedy after dining at Paul's Pasta (Home of the Suitcase Full of Pasta) in Groton. The SoB is a tiny theater that maybe seats 100 people, so there's never a bad seat in the house and the productions are wonderfully minimal. Another added attraction was the ability to bring a bottle of one's own wine that they would uncork for a small fee.

Three actors played the three parts in the 5 vignettes of this performance. They were all fantastic, funny, talented, sometimes interacting with the audience, and the costumes and set were very stripped down, which only enhanced the script.

The book, music & lyrics were written by Gregg Coffin and it was fun, clever (in a good way) and the music did not sound like Rogers & Hammerstein, for which I am eternally grateful.

There was a little RHPS action during the German S&M/sexpot vignette: whenever the character's name of Heimlich was spoken, everyone was to turn their head & cough - very funny.

After the show, we trudged uphill to Billy Wilson's (Pub? Tavern? Ageing Still?) to have a nightcap and see every single person we know in Norwich. The bar actually had some decent wine! Marko is one fun date.

Ok, The Perception of Women. I'm prompted to write this because it just seems lately that world-wide culture is just dumping on women more than ever. I was listening to a story on the radio today about an American Idol-type contestant (who I'm sure is now world-famous by this point) who is modest, not botoxed, bleached and boob-jobbed out of proportion, and even more shockingly, is TALENTED: Susan Boyle. I watched the clips of her beautiful performance and was horrified at the smirks and disrespect directed towards her by the audience and 'judges.' Are you people really that shallow and unappreciative of others? The follow-up interviews of this 'miraculous' performance are even more idiotic as Ms. Boyle's looks and manners are still the major topic and not her beautiful singing- whoever the git was on NPR going on about how she's 'too far along' to be famous at this point in her life should be shot. If this was a man, his looks would never come into play to this insane level. One of the many reasons I loved watching 5-Course Love is that NONE of the actors were conventionally beautiful- what a nice change of pace.
And do I even need to spit about the new Afghan marriage law that essentially legalizes marital rape? Or some idiotic movie that has a 'well, it's not humor for everyone, so you women should just get over it' date rape scene? And I won't even go into the 'Powderpuff Girl's Football' email I received from the Athletics Department at work....we have Women's Basketball here, not sure why it can't be called Women's Football....

Thanks for tolerating my anger- come on over to the Aloha Alcohula* and I'll serve you a drink in my new Bearded Clam mug....


*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT (TM)

Sharing the Wealth

The April 1st issue of Library Journal has two interesting articles:

one on the Redroom.com site (oh, authors, you need to see this....!)

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6645881.html

AND

The 'Music for the Masses' column highlights hardcore music: 'Hardcore: Wild in the Streets' by Matthew Moyer, pg. 57....

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6646653.html

(Was I just a total geek and blogged about Library stuff? Ssssshhh...don't tell anyone!)

St. Urho's Fire - Better than Bison Power?

Yes, folks, Raven & Wombat Tea Party has another product! It's in honor of the Most Revered St. Urho. 

You can see and buy it here!

Books, Booze & Broads...

This past Wednesday I played hooky from work to see the fabulous 'Book of Secrets' exhibit at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library with pals Elena & Kate. 

Did I say fabulous? How about Amazing! Beautiful! Exquisite! I've always had a fascination with alchemy: the hard science and the integrated philosophy and religious aspects are both very simplistic yet also incredibly complex. The books were just a joy- many with the scholars' annotations including some amusing small, pointing hands in margins and some wonderful illustrations. One particular illustration has now become a new party game for the next meeting of the minds at the Aloha Alcohula*: 'Raising the Green Dragon with Bellows while Wearing a Loincloth."  A conversation starter for sure!

To see the range of alchemical writings over a timeline was also very interesting- it has had a long shelf life! There were also several foreign-language versions of Rowling's "Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone." (I have a confession to make: I was very excited to see the movie when it first appeared, but it sort of soured my taste for All Things Potter- it wasn't nearly as, well, alchemical as I had hoped - Nicholas Flamel, Sorceror's Stone....I felt cheated.)

Just past this portion of the exhibit, there was another treasure- a Gutenberg Bible. I had, to my knowledge, never laid eyes on one before, and it was really exquisite. At first glance, I was still a little overloaded with the Book of Secrets exhibit, so I had to clear my head to really take in the significance of this item. Just glorious! The contrast between the hard edges of the black-letter type and the organic hand-painted illustrations was really striking.

Also present (near the gong I was so tempted to hit...) were the two Yale-owned copies of John James Audubon's "Birds of America" - in the handy-dandy double elephant folio size.  This case was not well-lit, though, which was bit disappointing, but the illustrations were beautiful!

After filling our eyes &  brains, it was time to fill our bodies with lunch- we stopped into the Thalitoo vegetarian Indian restaurant across from the Yale bookstore.  The food was really wonderful, especially on such a damp, grey day: we had chapatis, hot masala fries, malai kofta, 

paneer sabji jalfraize, and two other dishes I cannot recall. The food was tasty and the service was fast, plus the soundtrack of Bollywood music was fun. (I see that I haven't mentioned booze yet: we had beer.)

We then popped into the bookstore, I scarfed up a sale copy of Risko caricatures, which was a pleasant surprise. I find it incredibly amusing that you have to waltz past the Clinique counter to get to the sales books...

Back to Elena's for chat, vodka, and more food. The vodka was another zubrowka, but I don't remember the brand - we agreed that it was sweeter out of the bottle than the Bison Grass brand, but I think only Elena liked this other brand better. I felt it lacked the subtle changes in flavor as it warms that Bison Grass has. However, it did compliment the cheeses just fine.

Then, it was magically off to eat some more after Rod came home - not that I was hungry by any stretch of the imagination at this point, but pleasantly buzzed enough to not care so much...we ended up at the Mediterranean fusion restaurant, Mavi, in West Hartford. It was really nice inside, and we had appetizers that were really good - especially the lobster-stuffed avocado. There were lamb kebobs that were very good, vegetable pancakes that were disappointingly cold, but delicious, and seafood beignets that were ok - a bit doughy for my taste. Rod had duck that he and Kate pronounced to be very delicious.

Then it was off to....get more coffee. Good thing, or I may have succumbed then & there to the Steier Guest Food & Alcohol Coma. Not that it's a bad thing, mind you!  Then, back to Elena's, where she magically produced cheesecake. WTF? Where did that come from? So, yes I ate a couple bits, had some more zubrowka....woof.  The invitation to sleep over was getting to be very, very tempting, but after some more chat, I hauled myself up and out.

How much better could it be? Food for the head, food for the eyes, food for the heart, food for the body & liver. Thanks for a great day, Kate & Elena! 

*Best DAMN tiki bar in CT

Snow Day and Suet-eatin' Crows

I'm starting to really, really look forward to snowstorms this year- I love the snow anyway, and I've been blessed with time off from work because of the snow.

But I was a bit shocked when I went out to shovel this morning as I didn't really think we were going to get that much snow! So, I (figuratively) rolled up my sleeves and started in. About 15 minutes into this chore, a large crow sat in the tree above me and asked for some food. We've only fed this family twice this year, so I was kind of surprised - and I did notice a couple of others having a go a the suet cages hanging on the fence but they're too big to sit on them and eat.
So, I ran in and sacrificed one of Bernie's Krispy Kremes and a couple of pieces of sad dry bread to the crows. I was rewarded by some fantastic vocalizations: crk-crk-crk-crk-crk! And the "Food!food!food!HeyguysFOOD!" caws. But this crow wanted some backup before even attempting to fly down and grab some nosh. After about 20-30 minutes of yelling for backup/informing the entire neighborhood there was food, a few seagulls decided to check this out...did I say a few? How about at least 12-15 very large, aggressive scary seagulls, circling the yard, a few crows showing up ready to defend 'their' food....I was getting a little freaked and thought to myself 'Well, that's great- just trying to feed some birds, now I created some sort of aviary armageddon...'
So, I let the gulls take what was there and ran back inside for a few more pieces of bread and a new block of suet, which I hid from the gulls, but a couple of the crows saw me stash these tidbits. They hung out, telling me to hurry the hell up with the shoveling because they were hungry and I told them they were the stupidest corvids I'd ever seen - big, black dumb, chickens.
Finally I finished and laid the bread out on the ground along with the block of suet- I think they all said either 'Qwrawk, thanks!' or 'We'll let you live this time, human' and I told them to be quiet and just eat, fer cryin' out loud....in any case, about 8-10 crows were making very happy, contented noises and settled down to eat. And I still have my eyes.

Restaurant Review: Sakura Garden Japanese Steak House

This past weekend, Bernie and I found ourselves at the Sakura Garden Japanese Steak House at Evergreen Walk in Manchester/South Windsor, faint with hunger.
We approached our prey, wrenched the tall doors open and....wow, the decor was really nice. Like fancy nightclub nice, but as it was lunchtime, I felt appropriate in jeans. Nice modern dark wood, a curved wall of white plaster with inset blue glass pieces, very clean lines, interesting lighting fixtures.
A pleasant hostess who seated us near a window 'close' to the bar - about ten feet. Perfect! Refreshingly, the tables, sushi bar and regular bar were spaced out nicely, so I imagine it would fairly decent in there even on a busy night, and the place is very large. There was a sake menu, with quite a few choices, but I settled for a Newcastle and Bernie had a Mai-Tai. A quite mediocre Mai-Tai. (I fail to understand WHY he orders Mai-Tais at bars that always disappoint when he makes the best ones....)
We were presented with a fairly extensive lunch menu that so many mouth-watering choices. I settled on the shrimp tempura Sakura lunch box & my pootie-pie had the Ivory Tower roll, spicy tuna and Philadelphia maki rolls. We had miso soup, which was actually delicious, and then our food quickly appeared - I could not believe how large the lunchbox was! It had some lovely sticky rice, the shrimp tempura with some veggie tempura thrown in, shrimp shumai and 4 pieces of California roll. I'm not sure why I order things tempura'd (or fried) as I don't really like fried foods....but it was really tasty. The shumai were really exquisite- firm and flavorful as were the pieces of California roll. I was amazed how good the basic California roll was! Bernie's maki rolls were really nice, and the Ivory Tower roll was exquisite- very light and you could taste all the components - the ginger, the sesame, the tuna (very fresh) - and it was all plated very beautifully, too.
We left sated and happy and vowing to return several more times in the future to try some other dishes. There are 3 of these restaurants in CT, so I'm not sure if this is a chain, and if it is, I'm amazed at the high quality of the food. The staff were also very pleasant and very competent. Give this place a shot!

Need a New Marko's Punk Rock Jukebox T-shirt for the Spring?

The new Marko's Punk Rock Jukebox and WCNI t-shirts are available through the WCNI radiothon that is going on now through March 8.
A mere $35 donation will get you a t-shirt, and WCNI long-sleeved t-shirts are to be had for a $40 donation...860-439-2850/2851.
Support college radio AND look spiffy!

Restaurant review: Dev's on Bank Street

This past weekend consisted of two separate trips to the Hygienic Show in New London - the first trip, I was able to introduce someone to the fabulous North Indian restaurant on State Street and, second trip, I was introduced to the amazing Dev's.

I had heard how great this place is, and boy, is everyone right! It has a nice atmosphere and great specials. During happy hour, a glass of wine is $2, well drinks are $3. And not shabby, either! The tapas menu is wonderful, reasonably priced and has lots of options. The meataterians in our group were as happy with the selections as I was. We ordered a few plates each, and not only were the dishes beautiful, they were incredibly delicious. Every dish tasted completely different from the others, and if you don't think it's enough food, it is. The portions aren't huge, but this is not a place where you just shovel the food in- you have to really take your time and appreciate it.

We tried the following: Cumin-Lime Chicken, Crab Cakes, Shrimp Espanola, Mongolian Pork Bar-B-Que Ribs, Crispy Pork Meatballs, Painted Grapes, American Mac and Cheese, Si Si Pollo, Papa San's Spring Rolls, Roma Mushrooms and for dessert, bananas foster & churillos with hot chocolate sauce.

To even try to describe how divine this all was is impossible. When one of the co-owners came to our table and asked how we liked it, I blurted out "Well, we're talking about porn, so the food must be exquisite! Only really great food is that sexy!"

So, this may be my new favorite place to eat. But be warned: during a normal happy hour, I hear it's really busy in there. But I'm sure with the presence of Bunny and the fabulous staff, it's quite bearable. If this place was located, say, in Stonington Borough, it would be snooty as hell - but the staff & owners are down-to-earth & nice, so it's a very comfortable place to have a leisurely meal.

So, who's taking me out to dinner?

Eight!

That is the number of years that J10X and I have been together....Happy Anniversary, pootie-pie!

(I'm pretty sure one of these guys is J10X.....)

Hygienic XXX - Opening Night

....and my day and night did end up getting better!

We started off the evening's festivities by having some delicious sushi at the Asian Bistro - J10X, being the brave one, sampled scallop and sea urchin for the first time: scallop was the winner in this taste test!

Then we flew off to New London. It didn't look as though we were going to get a parking spot anywhere near downtown and it was bloody freezing out. So, we drove along a couple of streets and magically found a spot right in front of the Dutch Tavern- booyah! So, we wetted our whistles with a pint before heading out into the cold. I was pleased to see my fave barkeep, Chris, wearing a t-shirt with my merstrippers on it....

We stopped in the Golden Street Gallery and the exhibit was a ton of photos and other ephemera from the 1988 Hygienic Arts weekend- it was really interesting and also kind of amusing to see pics of people that had participated in years past...

After a grueling block and a half walk to the Carriage House (formerly the Contemporary Design Gallery), where the Rock Fixxx was happenin', we were treated to an excellent set by Superbald. The sound was great in there, it was spacious, and some of the larger art pieces were in there too. There were singles by local bands to be purchased produced by Cosmodemonic Telegraph, as well as a drag show for some benefit we coudn't quite figure out....in any case, to my benefit, I love drag shows, of the queenly variety.

After Superbald, we popped over to the Hygienic Gallery...and had to stand in line....brrrr! I did see some old friends, which was great, and huddled right next to them while catching up. The show was better than the last few years, but it did have the numbing overuse of penises and male-friendly porn overtones, but at least it wasn't due to crappy collages. Once again, I have to go back again to see everything. I was delighted to see my poster design was a poster after all! (I will shut up about this soon, I promise.) So, I purchased a few, but I do want to go back as I liked one other poster and there was another t-shirt with just a ginormous lobster claw on it, so I hope there's a few left!

(I understand there was a large lobster pinata in the Hygienic Park that was filled with adult toys....we missed it! Actually, we would have done more, but it was ridiculously and uncomfortably cold out.)

Then we went back to the Carriage House to see Paul Brockett Roadshow Band's set- I'm digging the new songs! After that, it's a bit of a blur as I must have had a brief conversation with almost everyone in there...I knew so many people it was crazy! A gentleman who went to school with me at UConn actually recognized me - he's very nice and it was nice to reconnect. The odd thing is he works with my friend Trevor.......who is in Superbald with Ben....who is my supervisor's brother-in-law.....the six degrees thing was in full force! We watched a few songs by Fatal Film, and then we decided it was time to go- but not before having a nightcap at the Dutch. It was still nicely uncrowded (except for the jackass coughing on my beer so I would give up my seat- ok, pal, and here's your snide remark! Enjoy!), so it actually was a relaxing last pint before heading home.

So, the evening was a hit as a whole- lots of socializing, nice spaces, eye candy and good bands. The festivities go on through Feb. 14, so check 'em out!

"I Never Drink Anything Stronger than Gin for Breakfast"*

(I know, hardly the words you'd expect to find on this blog....)

The day didn't start out too fabulously as J10X & I got up at the crack of dawn so we could trek down to New London and hang a print in the Hygienic 'Salon des Independants' art show. So, I girded my loins, slapped my face on and bundled up for the inevitable 10th circle of hell that is the line outside the Hygienic Art Gallery

Well, instead of the ridiculously long line we expected to see at 7:30 in the morning (like last time), we didn't see anyone. So, I thought perhaps we were too early (and me without my morning cuppa!), but we got there at exactly the right time- there were about 10 artists and various Hygienic (hygienic?) personnel about. So we skipped in, hung my print (Cranky, I think it's exactly where your piece had been hung the year you submitted that gorgeous car photo) and I looked at the posters being offered.....hmmm, my piece didn't make it as a poster...oh, well, that's a bit of a bummer. Oh, look at the t-shirts- holy crap, my poster is the t-shirt for this year! Well, that's cool!

So, J10X scarfed up a couple of t-shirts and we headed off to the State Street Diner, but on the way stopped to chat with Peter Crowley who has a gorgeous 'political porn' piece in the show. The diner was blissfuly near-empty, and we had standard diner fare for eats.

Well, so far, so good! Fed & happy, we decided to jet down to the Book Barn for their annual Big Sale - 30% of of everything! As it was just 9am when we arrived at the Book Barn Downtown, (home to books, guinea pigs, turtles and an enormous cat named Frank), we missed the crowds again. I scored a bunch of good stuff, as did J10X - those of you who are into retro cars need to ask J10X what he scored! One of the treasures I found was a lovely little book of *WC Fields' quotes....and Jim Miller, who is the real gem of the Book Barn. You just have to appreciate a person whose remark on J10X's lunatic cellphone ring was 'That sounds like the sped-up version of Torgo's theme song from "Manos, Hands of Fate"....

What a perfect morning! And it'll only get better....