from Martha StewartJim, if you can believe it, is trying to add more fruits and vegetables into our diet – yes, even the green ones.
So, I thought this simple, comforting stir fry of Beef and Broccoli from Martha would both fit the plan and warm our bellies.
It’s a mild recipe but not lacking in flavor. Just make sure to use tender cuts of beef and serve over brown rice.
Japanese ActorRecent movie pick Yojimbo introduced me to the charming good looks of Tatsuya Nakadai. Actually I’d seen him in the epic Ran, but he’s well hidden under white hair and ghost like makeup.
Discovered by director Masaki Kobayashi, he quickly became one of Japan’s most universally recognized leading men. Last summer, Film Forum and the excellent Japan Society Nakadai film festival featuring both his best and lesser known films. I’m sad I missed it.
199 Grand StreetNyonya is kind of universally liked due to it’s massive Malaysian menu. Trick is to order the right thing – I think Stacy and I fared about 50/50.The shrimp puff proved to be, not surprisingly, too heavy to finish (ground shrimp surrounded by bacon, fried with mayonnaise!) but the roti canai appetizer is a classic and a must with it’s flaky warm crepe and flavorful curry sauce. Stacy’s Wonton Mee soup entree, though, lacked in flavor.
I did better with the Chow Kueh Teow, a rich noodle that, while not nearly as spicy as the little pepper on the menu warned, was a nice, easy to eat dish and a welcome change in flavor to the usual pad thais and lo meins.
The service is pushy to say the least. Within three seconds of sitting down we were asked for our order. Once you do order and get your food, you are promptly forgotten and will have better luck hailing a cab in the rain to Brooklyn than getting water or another Singha. But, it’s the unique flavors, not pampered service one comes for. And the brisk pace does mean you’ll rarely have to wait for a table even on a busy night.
While the environment’s not conducive to lingering, we had lots to catch up on a did so anyways over a yummy but sort of odd looking fried green tea ice cream.
Click here for the rest of Nyonya
directed by Jake Clennell (2006)The Great Happiness Space (which I came across on Netflix instant) uncovers the odd, excessive, depressing world of Host Boys in Osaka, Japan. Basically young call boys/escorts for young wealthy women, they lure passersby into exclusive clubs, offering much needed flirty attention while racking up huge champagne bills.
Most of the young men interviewed make more than $10,000 a month, with Issei, the charming but admittedly messed up 22 owner of Club Rakkyo taking in more than $50,000. Both the hosts and their clients refer to it as being “financially worshipped”.
The film unfolds different aspects of the business revealing more and more complexities as it goes on. After meeting the ultra groomed Host Boys, we meet the women who pay exorbitant amounts of money to experience faux relationships with them. Many claim to genuinely love Issei and hope for the day they can become his girlfriend out of the clubs.
It’s sad, but at the same time they seem happy with the arrangement and it makes you wonder: if a pair of shoes can cost a fortune, is it so wrong that the one thing that most people crave the most: companionship, affection, love shouldn’t also be something worth spending for if you so please?
But, then the film takes a turn again when we learn that most of the women who come to the clubs can only afford to do so because they themselves are call girls and prostitutes, making for a strange self perpetuating cycle of manufactured love. It’s especially sad to learn that some women are only struggling through the horrors of prostitution solely in order to come to the host clubs and experience fleeting, champagne filled moments of happiness. The underlying severe loneliness effects the boys too who reveal themselves to be just as in need of real human compassion but are stuck in the empty job of pretending to love women for money.
Filmmaker Jake Clennell paints a fascinating portrait of this world in a short time without ever injecting himself or his own judgement. Too often new documentarians are more interested in their own journeys than their subjects. A cinematographer mainly, Clennell has a gift for documentaries and should make more!
Daily Purchase Drawings, Etc.The idea of seeing one person’s daily purchases may sound a bit boring, but with the whimsical hand of Kate Bingaman Burt, it’s enchanting. Even corporate logos look interesting when hand drawn, plus it makes you think about your own consumption and will inspire you to draw more.
Her project was published as a book called Obsessive Consumption and her unique style has graced the advertising of companies like Target and Madewell. She’s at the forefront of the handmade mini revolution.
from Urban DecayThe idea of blue eye makeup no longer conjures up images of unhip but popular girls in the 80’s nor moo-moo house-dress wearing old women stuck in decades past.
The bold eye trend is seen everywhere and personally, I’ve continued to do it regardless for years (no indication of my hipness, mere stubbornness).
Yes, you can be as loud and vibrant as you want and the best way I’ve found to do it is with Urban Decay’s super matte, super saturated 24/7 Eyeliners.
They hold their position, seriously don’t wear off and are offered in the best bright shades of cobalt, purple and turquoise.
Plus, if you have about a hundred dollars just burning a hole in your pocket, an excessive 15 eyeliner box set is now available at Sephora… I kind of really want it.
272 Driggs Avenue in Greenpoint, BrooklynWhen we first took Van home, neighbors Adriane and Greg were awesome. They brought up home cooked lasagna, took our trash out, and offered helpful encouragement on our new adventure. As Van’s gotten older, Adriane has become my first and best source for all things baby.
She took a master course in baby wearing and can weigh the pros and cons of all carriers (saving my back from Baby Bjorn pains) and is up on the most organic and baby safe products on the market. Who better then to open a baby store in our neighborhood than she?
I am so excited for her new Greenpoint boutique and activity spot, Caribou Baby. The space is beautiful and evokes the feel of a lived in ski lodge – featuring vintage plaid wallpaper, rustic wooden floors, antler chandeliers (that Van took a shine to) and the best looking bathroom changing table you coudl find.
From a vast option of carriers, adorable toys (including those oh so cute rabbits pictured), bottles, vintage clothes, and health and beauty products, anything you could need for mom, dad, and baby is found inside. One of my favorites that I couldn’t leave the opening without purchasing? Baby friendly nail polish – which will put my worries of chemicals to rest.
Aside from the store, there are two activity spaces that will hold classes and events. Some that are upcoming are Birth Education, Infant CPR, and Breastfeeding. The clubhouse back room was home to a dance party opening night where some good tunes were spinning, including some sweet disco era Cookie Monster.
Whether you’re a parent or a friend of a parent to be, this is an amazing resource that’s come to Greenpoint. Congrats Adriane and Greg!
Piano DuoWhat a couple of awesome guys Ferrante and Teicher were! Just those tuxedo jackets below are alone enough to warrant style icon status. They were not merely snappy dressers though. While their names may not be as recognizable as they once were, a new generation is discovering the duo.
They performed memorable film scores like Midnight Cowboy and The Apartment and experimented with the piano by “adding paper, sticks, rubber, wood blocks, metal bars, chains, glass, mallets, and other found objects to piano string beds. In this way they were able to produce a variety of bizarre sounds that sometimes resembled percussion instruments, and at other times resulted in special effects that sounded as if they were electronically synthesized”.
Their albums always had fantastic groovy covers. A few are included after the jump.
Click here for the rest of Ferrante & Teicher
at The New Museum through May 8My friend Jessica directed me to the George Condo exhibit at the New Museum. I felt like a bad art student for not recognizing the name, but am glad to learn about the prolific artist now. The exhibit begins on the 4th floor where an onslaught of his work greets you. It’s actually an appropriate way to confront his manic work that ranges from dark Bacon-esque portraits (including one of my favorites, Man with Three Arms) to bright, almost slap dash paintings that look, and I mean this in a good way, like artwork from an insane asylum.
The next floor offers a series of paintings that merit more individual examination titled “Melancholia”. These disturbing, funny and sad portraits of archetypes with bloated faces and confused disembodied smiles were the most captivating of the show. Next were more provocative excessively sexual works entitled “Manic Society” and even if it makes me sound like a prude, I found their crassness uninteresting. “Abstraction” is the final room in this retrospective and featured huge layered canvases. Some of my favorites revealed small intriguing overlapping sad faces once you took a closer look.
Also on display in the other galleries is the work of sculptress Lynda Benglis. Some of her stuff is pretty cool. I liked the glowing neon blobs suspended out of the wall, but frankly it was harder to have enthusiasm for a big stick with glitter on it or pink paper mache with gift wrap sticking out of it. Too many memories of Freshman year art projects I guess.
Thanks to Jim for doing Van duty which allowed me a night out. The museum is open til 9 on Thursdays and to my happy surprise, it was free too. An even happier surprise? Birdbath has opened a cafe in the lobby!
