Archive for 'The Offical Record' Category
MOVIE REVIEW: GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002) * 1/2 (1 and a half stars out of 4).
12 February 2003I finally saw Gangs of New York, with Rob K. First of all, at 2 hours and 45 minutes, this movie is very self-indulgently over-long. Are you seriously telling me that they couldn’t have cut, say, five minutes out of this movie? In fact they could have cut out the whole last half hour and […]
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS SHOW?
12 February 2003The new show, “Clone High” on MTV is very amusing. The premise is that, in the 1980s, scientists dug up a bunch of famous people from history and cloned them, and now the clones are teenagers in high school, going through the every-day problems that teens go through. They all know that they are clones, […]
THEATER REVIEW: TINKLE * * * (3 stars out of 4).
10 February 2003This new comedy show, which plays at Pianos at 158 Ludlow Street on Sunday nights at 8, is alternately hosted by David Cross (of Mr. Show with Bob and David), Todd Barry, and Jon Benjamin (Dr. Katz’s good-for-nothing son on Dr. Katz). It’s great, as far as stand-up comedy shows go, and some of the […]
NYC RESTAURANT REVIEW: L’IMPERO * * * * (4 stars out of 4).
10 February 2003L’impero at 45 Tudor City Place, way on the east side between 42nd and 43rd, is phenomenal. The food is incredible, the wait-staff is attentive and friendly, and the $49 four-course prix fixe dinner tasting menu is actually an incredible bargain for the delicious feast that it gets you. As our appetizer, Andy M. and […]
BLOGGER BASH.
8 February 2003I just got back from the 14th Annual Big Apple Blogger Bash. There were a bunch of other bloggers there, and all of them had very interesting stories to tell. Here are the blog addresses I got from people: The Daily Dose, Curious Lee, blue red orange, The Beautiful Days, Rough Days, EricRosenfield.com, brokentype, Randomness […]
MOVIE REVIEW: HUMAN NATURE (2001) * * 1/2 (2 and a half stars out of 4).
7 February 2003I watched Human Nature because it was written by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, as well as Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. I was also attracted to the fact that it stars Tim Robbins, who I love, and who, it turns out, is great in the movie. This movie was relatively […]
BOOK REVIEW: THE ORCHID THIEF (2000) * * * (3 stars out of 4).
7 February 2003The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean is the book that the movie Adaptation is an adaptation of. I found that movie so intriguing and confusing that I had to read the book. It turns out that the book, more than anything else, is about the history of South Florida, which is where I grew up, […]
WATCH THIS SPACE.
6 February 2003I just opened a fortune cookie, and it said, “Your future has not yet been determined.”
ACTUALLY, SOME OF THEM ARE TRUE.
5 February 2003Snopes.com is an amazingly comprehensive collection of urban legends distributed over the Internet. It’s one of those sites you could easily spend hours at, following one lead after another. It’s been a while since I lost myself in a site like that.
EXACTLY WHAT’S WRONG WITH TELEVISION.
4 February 2003I just started watching the episode of “TV Out of the Box” that documents the show “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” on the Trio cable channel, and they said this throwaway line in the introduction: “TV Out of the Box tracks the last two months of production on Andy Richter, as the cast and crew […]
OH, ME BROTHERS.
4 February 2003A pretty neat bar in New York City’s East Village is the Korova Milk Bar at 13th and A. It’s (loosely) modeled after the bar of the same name in the movie “A Clockwork Orange.” They have “Moloku” drinks, which contain ice-cream (instead of milk with “cutters” in it). Much of the decor is modeled […]
HEY, WAIT A SECOND!
1 February 2003Why does this bag say “Gourmet Microwave Popcorn”? There’s no such thing as gourmet microwave popcorn! Gourmets don’t eat microwave popcorn. What’s going on here? I smell a mystery. I’m going to go look for clues.
DAILY SHOW SCHIZOPHRENIA.
1 February 2003On Wednesday night, on Comedy Central‘s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the censors repeatedly bleeped out the word “bush”, as used by Rosie Perez to refer to her own genitalia– even though that’s the name of the President of the United States, and even though Comedy Central has a program on that network called, […]
REVIEW OF REVIEW OF REVIEWS.
1 February 2003Here’s the breakdown of how many items have been awarded each possible number of stars by me. * * * * (4 stars) has been awarded 6 times: 3 restaurants, 2 theater shows, 1 movie, and 0 books. * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars) has been awarded 16 times: 10 restaurants, 1 […]
REVIEW OF REVIEWS.
31 January 2003Here’s a list of all my reviews to date. Click on the name of the thing reviewed to link to the review itself. NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS: HUDSON HOTEL * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4). REPUBLIC * * * (3 stars out of 4). SUSHISAMBA * * * 1/2 […]
NYC RESTAURANT REVIEW: AUREOLE * * * 1/2 (3 1/2 stars out of 4).
31 January 2003I went to Aureole today with Bryan C. for Restaurant Week. The food there was truly extraordinary, and good enough to warrant four stars. And the setting and service was elegant and flawless. And, actually, that’s my only complaint about the place, is that I constantly felt like I was being judged by all these […]
NYC RESTAURANT REVIEW: CRAFT * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4).
31 January 2003Bryan C. and I had lunch at Craft as part of Restaurant Week, when some of the city’s top restaurants have prix-fixe three-course lunches for $20.03 (for the year 2003). If you missed it, there’s another one in June. Craft was really great, with delicious, creative American dishes, served in an elegant but modern setting. […]
I’M SPOILED ROTTEN.
31 January 2003My TV is being repaired, and so is unusable for the next two weeks. It was a rear-projection wide screen Panasonic. So, I’ve had to hook up my old TV that I used to have before this one, and which I kept in my game room. My old TV is a perfectly nice 27 inch […]
PICTURE THIS.
30 January 2003Here’s a recent picture of me and Jill Z, my girlfriend. She lives in Florida, and I live in New York. We’ve been going out since the middle of December, though much of that time has been spent apart. [PHOTO NO LONGER AVAILABLE] As you can see, she’s about a foot and a half taller […]
MOVIE REVIEW: 25TH HOUR (2002) * * * (3 stars out of 4).
29 January 200325th Hour is the touching story of a man (Edward Norton) who has been sentence to prison for seven years, and has one last day to spend with his friends. It’s touching and real and engaging and sometimes funny.
MOVIE REVIEW: CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND (2002) * * * (3 stars out of 4).
29 January 2003This movie was fun, funny, and strange. It’s written by Charlie Kaufman, who also wrote Adaptation and Being John Malkovich. This movie, about Chuck Barris, host of the Gong Show, who claimed to be an undercover agent for the CIA, is a lot more straightforward, but still has a little of the same strange, surreal […]
I’M BACK!
29 January 2003I’m back in New York!
I’M IN FLORIDA.
24 January 2003I flew to Florida on Tuesday to visit my girlfriend, Jill Z. She turned 30 yesterday (Thursday). On her birthday, I took her to see Tick, Tick, Boom, a musical by Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent. By chance, the major theme of the play is the main character’s struggle to accomplish something worthwhile in […]
THE THIRD WEEKEND IN JANUARY.
21 January 2003I just had a busy, busy weekend. Thursday afternoon, Bryan C. came over and fixed my computer, and then we went to see Believe Chicken, a stand-up comedy show hosted by my friend Jessica D.. Then we had dinner at Pipa. Friday, I actually did some work during the day, and then I hung out […]
NYC RESTAURANT REVIEW: PIPA * * * 1/2 (3 and a half stars out of 4).
21 January 2003This Union Square tapas place is very pricey, but it’s actually worth the $9 to $15 per item, even though you’ll need to order two or three per person to share. The endives with bacon-wrapped dates were incredible, and shrimp and cheese filled peppers were scrumptious.