Just a little snapshot of the Hudson that I took on a walk yesterday. Yes, I’ll be swimming in it on Sunday. This weekend was primarily devoted to some serious tri training, since my race is less than a week away (ack!). I stayed in on Friday night and cooked myself a lovely dinner of soft-shell crab with a side of pumpkin ravioli with sage and then had a hot date with Viggo Mortensen (I watched Eastern Promises). Got up early Saturday to pound out 25 miles before a family luncheon, then headed home for a nap before Carrie’s bday festivities. Sunday I ran the Central Park loop (thanks Eric and Ammar for keeping my slow pace) before beginning the rest of the day. The cap off to the weekend was seeing the Alarm, the Fixx and the English Beat at Irving Plaza, where the air conditioning was non-functional. I stood on my weary legs for about four hours and got covered in sweat, but had a fantastic time. The Alarm absolutely rocked, and stuck to a 2 new songs/1 old pattern, which kept their set moving along. I had forgotten how many songs I actually new: Absolute Reality, 68 Guns, the Stand, Spirit of 76. Although the Fixx was my least favorite of the evening, they had the surprise “where was that stuck in my brain” song of the night — Secret Separation. The English Beat didn’t necessarily have the same energy they did back in the day, but they were a blast to dance to. I’m still absolutely shocked at how much of my brain space is filled with 80’s song lyrics. Thanks so much to Karen for keeping me company for my trip back to the 80’s!
Category: Music
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R.E.M. @ MSG
I was in the nosebleed seats, but the sound was great. Here's Brooklyn Vegan's take on the night, including the awesome setlist. One of my personal faves was the "acoustic" version of Let Me In.
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Setting the Mood
Back from the wilds of Maine (more on that later), but just wanted to note how something as simple as hearing a good song on your iPod on the way to work can put a positive spin on your day. Blondie got my toes tapping and helped to wake me up this morning — first with Dreaming, and then, by some fluke of the shuffling gods, with Heart of Glass. The first one put me in a general good mood and the second reminded me of John B. and his personal rendition.
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The Promise
I had the opportunity to eat at Peasant Saturday night — the wine bar downstairs. Not only did I have good company, interesting conversation, and my favorite dish there (the octopus — delicious), but I thoroughly enjoyed the music, despite it being a tad too loud for my taste. The Police, Hall & Oates, David Bowie, and my favorite song of the evening, which we heard on our way out — "The Promise," by When in Rome. That song is tucked into one of my many mix tapes that I made back in high school, and I’m really not even sure I’ve heard it since, but oddly enough, the lyrics flooded right back. I’m convinced that an inordinate portion of my memory is consumed by eighties song lyrics.
The rest of my weekend was fairly relaxing, and included a trip to Ikea, a welcome back BBQ for Bill, brunch with some of the girls and some quality time on the couch. Ahhh.
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Weekend Wrapup
I’m getting quite the collection of bridge pictures from my bike rides. Unfortunately, this bike ride was cut short due to rain on Saturday, but Lauren, Tara, Neil and I still managed to make the most of it. My bike is now taking a brief vacation across the river in Williamsburg until I can grab it next weekend (thanks, Lauren!). Saturday night I went to my first show at McCarren Pool — quite a cool music venue — to see the Chemical Brothers. Definitely more on the electronic side than I’m used to but I really enjoyed the show overall. I took some video of the crazy light/visual stuff that was going on — have to figure out how to post it. Still recovering from my brief bout with the plague — feeling much better but have a bit of a cough still. Due to sickness and general business, I am woefully behind on my Apartment Therapy, but still managed to have a few folks over for dinner on Sunday night (which is going to be a habit, hopefully), buy some flowers, clean out the kitchen "junk" drawer, get rid of a few books, and purge both the clothes on the rods in my closet and some of the shoes. I’ll pick a date for my "housewarming" as well — at this rate it will likely be an early holiday party of some sort. Have a busy week ahead . . .
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A Giggle to Get You Going
So this morning I’m lying in bed doing my usual repetitive snooze disorder thing while listening to WNYC. In my fog, I hear a story about rappers Kanye West and 50 Cent, who apparently had some sort of bet going about the sales numbers for their newest releases. During the course of the story, Steve Inskeep referred to "Mr. Cent," and Renée Montagne started cracking up. I think it’s the first time in all my years of NPR listening that I’ve ever heard them do that — but it made me giggle enough to heave myself out of bed with a smile on my face.
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Weekend Wrapup
I’m less than a week away from my triathlon, and I actually feel ready, for the most part. Was able to sneak in some good training this weekend, including a brick — a bike/run back to back — which wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.
Rob is back from London for a bit so I joined him and Sara for lobster rolls at Pearl on Friday night followed by a bottle of wine and cookies (yes, cookies) at the new 8th Street Wine Cellar, which is destined to become one of my new favorites. Was up bright and early for a trip to the farmer’s market on Saturday and went a little crazy there — brought a beautiful and delicious salad of corn, yellow and red tomatoes, snap peas, scallions, and purple basil to a picnic for Annie and Tara. After that, it was off to the Lovely Miss Katie’s birthday celebration, where I saw tons of folks, including Luke, Michelle, and Jim, (I promised them a shout out).
Up the next morning for the aforementioned brick (thanks, Frank!), then a few errands before dinner at Joe’s. I’ll let him tell you his thoughts on it before I tell you mine. He was kind enough to let me sous-chef a bit — as you might imagine, I’m generally not so good at just shutting up and taking orders, but I was good this time around.
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Weekend Wrapup
Started off the weekend with a farewell party for Teddi, who’s moving off to Seattle for 6 months. As much as we all want Teddi to be happy, we selfishly want her to hate Seattle so that she’ll come back to NYC. I’m going to put her in touch with Geek and his family, who are living out there and can keep her company and show her around. After that I went to see Neko Case with Doug. I hadn’t seen her before and neither of the people who had promised me a CD came through, but despite that, I enjoyed the show (and still would love a CD). Following the show, we went to Cafe Grey for a drink and a snack. We got extravagant and ordered a foie gras crostini, which literally took 45 minutes to come out after we had placed our order. The bartender comped it, which was generous, and really the best way to handle the ridiculous delay. After that, off to Otto for a nightcap with Roopa.
Saturday I spent some time purging papers and whatnot (the continuation of a process of purging paper, clothes, and other crap living in the back of my closets), had a great workout, and then headed to Rob’s for raclette (a.k.a. melted cheese-fest). After a major cheese overdose, I slept like a baby. Woke up Sunday to draft a post on Gothamist (only to be trashed by our lovely commenters, who seem to have nothing better to do), then read the paper, threw in a couple of loads of laundry and headed to the gym. Met up with Jenn D. to catch up a bit, then met up with Augie, Lauren, Rob, Sara, and the little one (wearing the hat I knit for him), for dinner at Morandi. Can’t say I loved it — the things I liked the most (fried artichokes, meatballs, gorgonzola crostini) I can get at Gusto (where Chef Jody Williams formerly worked), and it was more expensive than we expected for what we got. I took pictures with my fancy new camera, but haven’t loaded up the software on my computer yet, so haven’t managed to get them off the camera yet. Finished up the night watching the Oscars with Rob and Sara before heading off to bed.
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Sing, Sing a Song
One of the things I love about the city is the number of people you can pass in any given day who are singing out loud as they go about their day. Really — you should try counting one day. I think the number has gone up since the advent of the iPod, but I’m firmly convinced that there’s something about the streets of New York that make people feel anonymous enough that they feel comfortable singing. And yes, I’m one of those people, so you can count me in your tally.