Support Our Troops!

But only if they're straight.

More than 11,000 [gay soldiers] have been fired under the policy, including more than 800 mission-critical specialists and 300 linguists covering 161 different occupational specialties.

Good thing we dumped thousands of troops from the ranks before and during our Next Big War! They might have, i don't know, shot some bad guys, or something. But in a gay way.

Aliseo

Last night: dinner at Aliseo Osteria del Borgo with My Better Half, my mom, cousin Tris (my cousin Greg's wife), and her friend and colleague Charis. Tris and Charis were in town for a long-term project with New York City schools, helping them design programs to prepare inner-city school kids for college, or evaluate the effectiveness of such programs, or something. It was interesting, but we had a lot else to talk about as well. The difference between family and blood relations was discussed briefly (as far as i am concerned, the two have so little to do with each other i am sometimes surprised how many people conflate them). This was my first time ever meeting Tris, but it was quickly clear that she's family.

Aliseo is the perfect kind of place for get-togethers like this: quiet but not dull, lively but not hectic. The food is wonderful, tending toward the simple and comforting, and the wines are always well-chosen (we typically ask the waiter to pick out wine here) and very reasonably priced. The owner is a character, and often seems to be entertaining friends at one of the few tables. It's not far from our house, but i wish it was closer, just around the corner. In the Movie of my Life, it should serve as the set for several Important Dinner Conversations.

Quiet Weekend

This last was a relatively quiet weekend for us here in Awesome Brooklyn.

Friday night My Better Half and i got together with friends Keith & Beth and Brian & Lindsay at our go-to Enduro, the reliable Mexican place than opened late last year in our neighborhood (and vastly improved the variety of available food options). Good times as always with that crew. And at that place, for that matter.

Saturday night we stayed in and watched "Brazil", which is even better than i remembered. (I think MBH might have preferred "Time Bandits", though.) "Brazil's" treatment of the banality of evil (among other things) is superb without even being explicit, which alone makes it far and away better than contemporary movies of its type that tend to be shrill, preachy, or explanatory to the point of narrativicide. Michael Palin's Jack illustrates everything we have to look forward to if we continue to allow the party of torture to infect our government and our culture -- a bureaucratic apparatus of smiling functionaries whose only purpose is to perpetuate institutionalized cruelty, and whose only effect is to transform tax dollars into grief and citizens into mutilated corpses.

And yet on top of all that, it's a fantastically fun movie to watch! And, it's got a great musical theme and score -- MBH finally got to hear the music i'm constantly humming. And, what a cast! Jonathan Pryce, Robert DeNiro, Katherine Helmond, Ian Holm... Terry Gilliam is awesome, even if he does come off as an utter goofball in interviews and DVD commentaries.

Sunday morning found us at Fred's in Little Connecticut brunching with friend Heather, who we hadn't seen in a while. It was nice to catch up. Then we each spent a lazy Sunday avoiding doing our taxes and scraping caulk from a tub. We wrapped the weekend up with "Drugstore Cowboy", which still holds its weight. I had forgotten Heather Graham was in that; it was pretty easy to do.

Banditos

Last night My Better Half took in a pilates class after work, so it fell to me to cook dinner. Cooking is fun! Especially when you're cooking for someone else, instead of just for your own self. We enjoyed some marinated steak with roasted potatoes and carrots with garlic and onions and rosemary, and some roasted baby zucchini and peppers. Man, roasting vegetables is totally where it's at! So good and so easy.

After dinner i convinced her to watch "Time Bandits", which she'd never seen. That one's definitely in the running for Best Movie Evar. Or at least Best Terry Gilliam Movie Evar. (And no, "Twelve Monkeys" isn't in that list. No, it's not. Stop saying so, you're only making yourself look bad.) She hasn't seen "Brazil" yet, either. Soon, soon...

Taboon

My Better Half and i get together with friends Jess and Mike and Keren and Adam for dinner on the town about once a month. Last night: Taboon. The "married sardines" -- two sardines butterflied and baked together with garlic and cilantro -- was fantastic, and no one else at the table would try it, so i had them all to myself. My heraime was also quite good: halibut baked in a spiced tomato sauce with couscous. For dessert, MBH couldn't resist the ice cream, and i couldn't resist the shredded halva on top. Mmmmmmmmmm.

It's "All Right"

When did "alright" become acceptable English? It didn't! You don't have to be a Prescriptivist to hang your head when incompetence defines the linguistic norm.

Fun With Science

Yesterday was the first Sunday in March, which means it was time for Roald Hoffmann's Entertaining Science Cabaret! The presenter was Herb Meltzer, who talked about the role he and others have played in the development of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia. (The talk was fascinating, but a bit over the heads of most attendees, i think.) Act II was The Amygdaloids, a four-piece bluesy-country-rock band that plays "Brain Rock" (originals and covers), a kind of Electric Company/Weird Al/neuroscience blend.

After the musical set, Dr. Meltzer got back on stage for a short conversation with John Nash, which sounded exciting but didn't really go anywhere -- though once freed from the iron grip of PowerPoint, Dr. Meltzer became a much more engaging speaker.

Of course, in addition to being a hot Greenwich Village performance space, the Cornelia Street Cafe also has delicious food, so four of us (My Better Half, my mom, my brother's father Todd, and i) stayed for dinner. Mmmmm, boudin blanc!

Sundogs

My old home-town friend Justin is in town, doing a few days in New York and then Boston along with a couple of work friends, Mark and Kim. My Better Half and i met up with them last night at Le Zie, a comfortable little Venetian place in Chelsea. The food was good as usual, and it's always fun to see New York through newcomer's eyes again (even though we're far from old hands ourselves). Then a drink at a bar nearby, then back to their hotel, passing by the various over-crowded pubs on the way... Why does everyone have to go out on a Saturday night?

CharlElie

Last night was another opening at Galerie Mourlot, where My Better Half works. Apparently this fellow CharlElie has been a big-time music star in France since i was in short pants. Who knew? Anyhow, he now spends at least part of his time in New York and paints and sculpts and what-not.

Upon arrival the small Galerie was packed to the gills with French speakers. Not being fluent, i hung out with friends Gerard and Toni Ann and discussed whether CharlElie was the Elvis Costello, the Lou Reed, or the Jerry Garcia of France. None of us had heard his music, so we were shooting in the dark.

After the show MBH and i got to tag along to dinner with the artist and gallerist Eric Mourlot and his wife Charlotte, along with various other hangers-on. The venue was Le Bilboquet, not the kind of place we (MBH & i) typically pop into, but they do make a mean steak tartare. Here's Eric (left) and CharlElie (right):
And an awesome picture of MBH's hand:After dinner we two split a cab back to Brooklyn with Eric's architect friend Doug, visiting from Baltimore, and Doug's architect friend (and fellow Brooklynite) Edmund (Edwin?), and chatted about their kids and stuff. Once they were dropped off, the cabbie referred to our neighborhood as "the dark side of the park", which made us laugh. And, finally, bed time.

Oh My Darling, Oh My Darling

My Better Half put some clementines in our most recent grocery delivery, because she knows i am crazy for the little guys. This batch is particularly good -- little seedless bundles of sweet, juicy goodness that pop right out of their skin.

Grocery delivery services are pretty awesome, too.

Pizza Time

My Better Half loves loves loves loves loves her some pizza. She was working late last night, and didn't feel like coming home to her bumbler half's reheated vegetables, so we rendezvoused at Lil' Frankie's in the East Village. They make some fine Italian-style pizza, worlds away from the two sad-sack delivery joints near our home.

I think we eat at Frankie's almost as often now as when we lived a few blocks away.

Busy Weekend

Friday:
Met up for dinner with My Better Half and friends Abby and Josh in the East Village, where MBH and i used to live for a short time. (I love Brooklyn, but i still miss the East Village. Well, until i see someone who manages to look pretentious while riding a skateboard; that can be a buzzkill.) Plan A was Momofuku Ssam Bar, which turned out to be a silly plan -- people were crammed in there like sardines. In light of that, Plan B, Momofuku Noodle Bar, was extra silly. (Each had recently been favorably reviewed in the Times.) Plan C worked out spectacularly, though: Kasadela, Japanese small plates and sake. One highlight was "spicy winter vegetable miso soup", a kind of rich vegetable stew with just enough spiciness to be warming on a cold night. (Thanks to Josh for plans A-C.)

Saturday:
Friends Keith and Beth fired up their go-mobile and we four motored over the bridge to see the LA Art fair. It was mostly "enh", but the fairs tend to be fun, at least for the first hour. Nice dinner (homemade for the first time in what seems like ages) with K&B and their super-lovable dog Lucy.

Sunday:
We met up again with A&J along with friend Shira, this time to see PULSE. In general we liked the work at PULSE more than at LA Art, and we stopped and chatted at Richard Levy Gallery's booth, because they're really nice and represent our friend Teo González. MBH and i picked out a Lia Halloran ink-on-vellum piece that looks something like this one.

Then teamwork happened. MBH applied Josh's Friday Plan A to current conditions and produced Plan Awesome: Momofuku Ssam for lunch! That really made me wish i was back in the East Village.

After lunch, it was back to LA Art; MBH had decided to pull the trigger on a new Kahn & Selesnick photograph we had seen the day before. Like models of art-procurement efficiency we had it wrapped, out the door, and in a taxi before i could grumble about the price.

And then K&B&L were back, this time to watch a DVD: Gotham Fish Tales, which MBH had picked up in a jewelry store in the East Village. Highly recommended if you like fishing, New York City, or quirky little documentaries about interesting people.

Three trips to the little island in one weekend: that's a lot for me these days! (MBH is there all the time now since she got a job over there.)