Nothing remarkable to report, although Alex and I did watch the Prestige. I had seen it before, but I really enjoy the movie. The casting was superb. There is a nice layering to the narrative. I recommend it.
June 30, 2007
June 29, 2007
Bookhunter
Bookhunter is hillarious since it’s so well done. It’s a comic done in 70s “Streets of San Francisco” style noir, but it chronicles a hardboiled Library Marshal. The forensic stuff is better than CSI Anywhere.
“You think she went for the least circulating items? Poly-sci? 400’s maybe?”
June 28, 2007
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Fourteen
Today, I went to the Brooklyn Museum. I hadn’t been before and it’s one of the last places in New York that I’ve been meaning to visit, but haven’t gotten around to.
The high point of the permanent exhibit is the Egyptian collection. Here’s an Ibis mummy coffin:
this is a heart scarab. It’s put over the heart of a corpse and instruct the heart not to betray its owner when it has to testify in the afterlife.
Their contemporary art collection is also very good. They have a really interesting show on feminist art after 1990, Global Feminisms that ends this weekend. The catalog is worth a look if the topic interests you. I couldn’t take photos because you can only take pictures of the permanent collection.
This work is from a series on the Tuskegee Airmen by Michael Richards who was killed on 9/11 in One World Trade Center where he was living and working as an artist in residence.
After the museum, I took the four back to Manhattan and had lunch at the Oyster Bar. I tried a pan roasts since they’re recommended, although shrimp may have been a rookie mistake. I also tried a few oysters. The oysters were superb. They pan roast was more like tomato bisque with shrimp and white bread. But it looks, well, heart-stoppingly good:
I think that pretty much covers what I wanted to do on vacation. Tomorrow, it will be back to taxes, learning Python and trying to see if Open Solaris will work well under Parallels.
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Thirteen
I had lunch with Anike at Boqueria. Anike was the fearless leader of my college’s student government, had gone on to a career in TV and then gave it all up to be a chef. I think that 66% of my friends from college went that route.
The lunch was cut a little short by a call from daycare that power was out in the neighborhood and that I needed to come up. I grabbed one of the overflowing busses, but things were ok before I got up there. This is one area where I’m really unhappy with Bloomberg. OK, the August 2003 blackout had nothing to do with him, although it certainly is resonant of New York’s problems: an aging infrastructure where public oversight is surrendered in the face of business interests or just an inability of government to tackle areas where serious public problems might demand careful regulation. Last year’s eight day blackout in Queens, during which Con Edision totally dropped the ball resulted in Bloomberg offering the city’s thanks to Con Edison’s CEO and a compliment on the job Con Edision did. By any account except Bloomberg and Con Edison’s, their response had been rediculous. It’s easy to be Mayor when things are going well. But it’s not acceptable to be out of touch when a company with a serious public mission fails the city and leaves the city at risk. The city certainly remains at risk.
I also attended the innagural meeting of the NYC Open Solaris User Group with Chad. It looks potentially interesting, specifically for people interesting in running the bleeding edge of Solaris. The inital presentation was on Crossbow, Solaris’ network virtualization project. The efforts are really great news for Solaris admins who want to do careful network resource control, accounting, monitoring or have more control over how the network is handled in zones. If you’re having any problem with simply sending all network resources on a box through one network and the global zone, it’s the project to keep an eye on.
June 27, 2007
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Twelve
There were about two things left on the vacation to-do list: Coney Island and Brooklyn Museum. With the museum closed, today was Coney Island.
I had a hot dog at Nathan’s since it seems mandatory.
It was the Cyclone’s 80th anniversary. I’ve always imagined it as huge. It’s not huge. It’s actually pretty small. At a Six Flags, it would be one of the smaller coasters. But, hey, no NJ Turnpike.
I also went to the NY Aquarium. It’s not big either, but there are fish, seals, screaming kids, etc., and it’s right on the boardwalk next to the fried clam shacks. It did put me in the mood for shrimp.
Scariest thing? The walrus. I have this fuzzy childhood memory of the walrus as a slightly big seal with tusks. They get to be 12 feet long. They’re freakishly large and blubbery and bang on the window at you. They’re like a Buick made out of lost fat camp weight. Mark my words, there will be a walrus-related tragedy in our city within our lifetimes. It’s inevitable.
I closed out the visit with a walk through Brighton Beach. Yep, it’s a Russian neighborhood. I want to go back at night to hit one of the nightclubs at some point, but I need a native guide.
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Eleven
The lost day of the days of freedom. Follow-up doctor vists and figuring out how to get cables, cable modems and wireless gear into a vented Rubbermaid container to keep hands off the power cords. It’s probably why home internet is now dead.
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Ten
Sar was out of town, so cousin Lala came into the city to make sure things were under control. We had lunch at Fetch and I can’t say enough good things about them. There are a couple of dog-themed places around town and it’s never been my sort of thing, but the food is good and they love dogs and babies. It’s not just lip-service, they go out of their way to welcome people with kids, but it’s also just a normal neighborhood bar and grill. It’s great to have local restaurants that are really a part of the community they serve.
After lunch, we walked around the park and kept running into people we knew, Jennifer and Kermit and kids and Roupen. Small world.
June 26, 2007
June 23, 2007
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Nine
I went to my Kali class today and did a lot of basic stickfighting practice. We did some Cinco Teros, which in our style is part of a floor exercise. It’s five basic strikes. What’s really cool about it is it’s basically an entire weapons-based marital arts style with about five strikes that mostly double as blocks. You could probably teach the basics in 5 minutes and the rest is practice… and it will work.
After that, more swings in the park, dinner, and then Sar left for a business trip in Europe.
The baby went to bed at 6:30 PM. If he wakes up for the night at 2 AM, I am just doomed.
Seventeen Days of Freedom, Day Eight
Fantastic day. I slept in. I went with Sar to Bar Americain for lunch. They have the Aviation Cocktail on the menu, heavier on the lemon juice and I think with a pinch of sugar. A great cocktail. I went for a walk in Central Park and smoked an Avo Domaine 20, a small cigar shaped like a CO2 cartridge. I read, and took the baby to the park for the swings.
It just doesn’t get much better.
Aviation Cocktail
1.5-2 oz. gin
.5-.75 oz fresh lemon juice
.5-.75 oz maraschino liqueur
shake over ice, pour into cocktail glass. garnish with lemon peel or something similar.
actual proportions seems to just be a matter of taste.