Tom & Alissa

After a somewhat harrowing week, I had a lovely weekend at home with my mom, my brother, and his girlfriend. We did some shopping and went to the farmers’ market and ate lots of yummy food and went to Terra Nova.

But we also went to the movies, and so the most important thing I can impress on you is this:

GO SEE WALL-E.

That is all.

Tonight is the conclusion of my class on Moby-Dick. It’s been really interesting, and I’ve learned a lot about reading texts, understanding them in their historical context, considering them through various reference frames, and American in the 1860s, but I can’t say I’ll be sorry to shelve the book after tonight. We’re presenting our final papers - mine is on literary critics, Job, and the twenty-first century reading of Moby-Dick - and then we’re done.

My next class starts on Monday, but in between I am heading Albany-ward to see my family for the weekend and to write frantically on the way up. Thank God for electrical outlets on trains. Tom is going in the opposite direction and will be in the DC/Virginia area for about a week and a half to see his grandpa, other family, and a lot of friends. I’ll be joining him on Thursday.

Yesterday I went uptown on my lunch break and met Tom to see the Olafur Eliasson show at MoMA before it closed. It was fascinating. I especially liked a few pieces where he had film-style spotlights aimed at mirrors so that the spot reflected off the glass and landed in a place on the floor that seems very removed from where the spot would normally fall. Hard to describe, but really cool. I sadly won’t get to see the P.S.1 part of the exhibit, but I’m glad I saw what I did. You can see the online exhibition here.

Speaking of Eliasson, today is the first day of his Waterfalls installation in the East River! I won’t have any trouble seeing that, since I cross the East River at least twice a day to get into Manhattan.

Also, Wall-E comes out this weekend. Please go see it. Pixar is apparently making bold moves with this one, which bodes well for the future of animation. You might find this interview at Christianity Today with Andrew Stanton (Wall-E’s director) interesting.

Grumbling tummy. Must find food.

Hey kids.

Well, what a weekend. I was feeling rather under the weather on Friday, so I took a sick day. I pounded out most of a paper as I sat on the couch and drank copious amounts of water. We don’t really have any food at home - no time to shop lately - but thankfully, our neighborhood is full of wonderfully healthy and moderately-priced eateries, so we had brunch at Olea and dinner at Lil’ Pig. We spent the evening watching Hellboy - the first one - and it was, well, awful, though made a bit better because it does not take itself seriously at all. I’m all for movies with very vague plots, but not in that genre. But I try not to demand much from movies based on comic books; that way, I’m delighted with things like Batman Begins and Iron Man. (By the way, I am totally psyched for The Dark Knight. Moving on.)

I was feeling much better on Saturday, and because I got so much done on Friday I was able to tag along to the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, along with Tom and a few friends who we met up with there. It was everyone’s first time, and it was certainly . . . interesting. On the one hand, I enjoyed the whole borough pride aspect. Brooklyn is proud to be Brooklyn, diverse, nutty, and happy. People from neighborhoods where you can have a house and garage brought out their antique cars, which were really cool. And some of the costumes were fantastic and well thought out. On the other hand, lots of people like to use marching in the parade as an excuse to get tipsy and wear very little clothing, and that’s their (legal) prerogative, but it gets old after a while and isn’t something I feel the need to experience repeatedly. So it was a one-time must-see event, but probably not one that will get any better year to year, and I don’t think we’ll do it again.

After the parade we went back to our apartment and cooked hamburgers for everyone, which was good fun, and watched trailers for scary movies. An excellent end to a Saturday.

After church on Sunday, we went back out to our ‘hood and had brunch at Red Bamboo, a vegan Thai restaurant (you won’t believe it’s not meat, etc.) with friends and ended up at Brooklyn Flea for a bit, where we did not buy anything but admired lots of things, including some imported and salvaged furniture. We wandered over to Smooch, which I immediately adopted as my coffeeshop, because it has really, really good coffee, great decor, eclectic decor, and a relaxed vibe.

We headed uptown shortly afterwards for the “Jesus Hopped the A Train” benefit reading, which was simply remarkable. Original cast plus Stephen Adly Guirgis, who is fast becoming my favorite playwright because he’s so remarkably profound. His plays are messy and profane, but somehow grace and forgiveness always explicitly slip in.

Our seats were good - on the floor, but near the back - and we were serendipitously seated directly across the aisle from Philip Seymour Hoffman’s perch at the soundboard as director. He still laughs, despite having heard this play and these actors a mind-bogglingly enormous number of times, and it was fun to be that close. I could have reached out and tapped him. He’s the most refreshing kind of famous New Yorker - still strolls around outside the theater and smokes before performances (this was the third time I’d seen him doing it), frequents the same random coffeeshops that I do. When we saw “The Little Flower of East Orange” a couple months ago, he got in an elevator with a bunch of the audience as they were going up to the theater on the third floor. They looked a little thunderstruck.

But! Our brush with celebrity was not complete. Yesterday I woke up with one of those stark-raving-mad headaches, and as this is not a week in which I can afford to be sick, I called in sick again and slept in very late. I had a dull headache all day, even after lunch at Pequena down the block, but I worked a little more on my paper and then went to class.

After class I took a few painkillers and dashed across town to met up with Tom at Madison Square Garden for the Coldplay concert. Coldplay gave away all 30,000 tickets for this performance, which was kind of awesome, because it was the first time they’d played through that set, which included a bunch of songs from Viva La Vida as well as some older stuff. They came into the arena seating - three rows behind us!! - and sang “Yellow”. And they didn’t play an encore - vaguely disappointing, but I’m kind of glad. I find encores a little pretentious. Everyone pretends they’re special, but it happens every time. Let’s save the encores for truly spectacular concerts. This one was an experimental concert, they flubbed a bit, but they were good-natured about it and very funny, and everyone enjoyed themselves. The only black mark was the drunken people to our left and in front of us who decided to get into a fight, just short of throwing punches, during “Fix You”, which is probably my favorite song. Oh well.

I’m finally back at work today and swamped, but tonight I’m planning to meet up with our dear friends Sarah and Matt and bring them up to the NY Philharmonic’s free concert in Central Park, as long as it doesn’t get rained out. This is my last week of the Moby-Dick class, and next week starts “Modern British Novel”. I admit that I’m a bit dubious about how I’ll manage to read all eleven novels and write two papers in the six weeks, but they don’t call it a “master’s degree” for nothing, I suppose.

The dark spot on my weekend is that it looks like I won’t get to see Wall-E on its opening night. Alas.

I finished Home on Sunday night, and it was magnificent - probably my favorite of her three fiction books, though they’re all spectacular. I was reading some of the press materials that came with it, in which Marilynne Robinson said that Moby-Dick was one of her favorite novels (my professor appreciated that). Her books were also compared to Cormac McCarthy’s Border Trilogy, which I read last year, and that makes perfect sense, though I didn’t realize it until I was reading the article. They both deal with America in the 1950s, and they both write in a somewhat deadpan style (McCarthy far more so) which pleasantly belies the emotion and drama of the story. Robinson, at least, uses punctuation. In any case, do not miss this book when it comes out in September, and you might want to re-read Gilead beforehand - or read it, if you haven’t yet.

We watched Lars and the Real Girl on Sunday night as well, at long last. There were so many good movies in the theater when it came out that we missed it, and we haven’t had much time for movie-watching so far this year. It was great, as everyone said. Ironically, we’d been eating brunch at Tartine earlier that day when Ryan Gosling, very bearded, walked past with a friend. We continually find that life and art intersect in weird ways when you live here.

Which, by the way, reminds me that next week will mark the end of my third year in New York City. I think that makes me an official New Yorker. I no longer need a subway map to get around pretty much anywhere in Manhattan and a lot of Brooklyn’s “brownstone belt”, I don’t need to hold the pole in the subway anymore, I am completely ignorant of gas prices except when they show up on the news, I know the best place to get falafel for $2.50, I no longer venture above 14th Street unless it’s absolutely necessary and kind of turn up my nose at living in Manhattan, I say things like “the city” and “the Times” and expect people to know what I’m talking about, and I walk around saying things like “that used to be that great French cafe” and grumbling at tourists who walk four-across on the sidewalk. In short, I am some combination of the worst stereotype and the actual reality. Oh well. We are all victims of our locations, and this isn’t a bad one. I am so blessed to live here.

Did anyone else out there who grew up in church watch a movie called “Hoomania”? It was about a kid who got sucked into a board game that taught him about the book of Proverbs. There were some gamepieces called “Sluggards”, and a wise owl, and some other crazy characters, and it was partially live-action and partially claymation. I suddenly remembered this movie the other night and wanted to watch it, but it’s out of “print” and I can’t find any clips on YouTube.

Hello bloglings.

My most notable accomplishment this weekend - besides reading a lot about Zoroastrianism for class - was learning to play Uno last night. It wasn’t that we didn’t play card games when I was a kid (we played a lot of Dutch Blitz), but when we did play games they were usually either educational or something like checkers. So this was fun. I also did well, which is a plus. I still want to take poker back up again.

We had brunch at Lil’ Pig near our apartment. I had a chilled cucumber and avocado soup and a tilapia sandwich with pickled onions on baguette; Tom had gazpacho and I think a cornmeal-encrusted catfish sandwich. Tee-riffic. Not only is the place close, but they serve about fifteen varieties of tea, there’s wine in the evenings, the menu changes daily and is all kinds of local and healthy and innovative, and it’s all pretty reasonably priced. Like Grey Dog, but a little cheaper and with a much more interesting menu.

Tonight, it looks like we’re going to the premiere of the film Tom worked on as first assistant director the summer before we got married. Cool.

I suppose I should mention that we saw Indy 4 last night. Honestly? I have very few expectations for any movie that has both Steven Spielberg and George Lucas attached to it - not that it will be a bad movie, per se, but I don’t expect it to be a work of art, and I generally expect an uneven script (thank God George Lucas didn’t write it). So it was exactly what I expected: the cinematic equivalent of an amusement park ride. I was not at all disappointed. It’s pure fun, and there are weird creatures and a pretty awesome “car” chase sequence, and a lot of inside jokes.

Also, Tom’s ringtone is the Indy theme, so I hear it a LOT, and it’s nice to hear some variations!

Short article about The Cult of Sincerity in the printed version of WORLD Magazine this week, which you can see most of online. Note the photo credit. :)

I skim a lot of blogs relating to arts and culture during the day, and things catch my eye, but I hate to repeatedly blog little links here. I’ve been experimenting with Tumblr and I think it’s the right way to do it, leaving this blog for stuff that’s actually about us (hence the name, right?).

Ergo, I give you Culture Log.

I’ll be blogging several links and quotes and things per day that I find interesting. It’s all completely subjective. Tumblr doesn’t provide commenting features, which I’ve fallen progressively more out of love with anyhow, and it makes it very easy to quickly blog all kinds of media. Culture Log has an RSS feed, so feel free to subscribe . . . or not. This is mostly for my own edification and for anyone else who wishes to look over my shoulder and see what I’m reading.

My constantly updated, somewhat curated list of mostly free events going on in Manhattan and Brooklyn this summer.

This will be my fourth summer living in New York - oh, my word - but you might be shocked and mildly appalled to know that in all that time, I’ve barely made use of the wonderful free things that go on here in the summertime - just a Philharmonic in the Park concert in 2006, and some of Midsummer Night’s Swing last year in Lincoln Center (which was not free).

So, I’ve put a lot of the more amazing things I’ve found going on around town, from classical music to free film screenings to rock and folk and readings. Highlights include:
• Readings by Richard Price and Junot Diaz
• Several free NY Philharmonic concerts, in Prospect and Central Parks
• Chris “formerly of Nickel Creek” Thile’s amazing band, Punch Brothers
• Lots of great outdoor movies
• The Philip Glass ensemble, Ailey II, and Beth Orton in Prospect Park
• Wilco in McCarren Park (sadly not free)

I’ll be constantly updating, so feel free to bookmark!

In the continuing Moby-Dick saga, I got an email yesterday with an outline of the class and I think it shall be fascinating. It’s going to include an exploration of the uses of new media in teaching and scholarship, and though that sounds fabulously incongruous, it’s not, as I’m discovering as I actually read the book. Editors have been tweaking and changing Moby-Dick over the years, much as you might tweak, say, a wiki. Also, something about religion in American cultural studies. I can’t believe I almost didn’t take this class. It will be work, but hopefully good work, and I am all about all of the above.

It’s a grey day - so grey, in fact, that I had a cup of coffee when I went out for my break instead of tea. It’s almost the weekend. It wasn’t very good coffee, though. What is Starbucks’ issue with brewed coffee? I tried the Pike Place roast and it was not yummy. I should always stick to Kenyan coffee at Starbucks - granted, I always drink it black, but I maintain that you should not have to add milk to your coffee for it to be drinkable. Milk is for sops.

We watched Enchanted recently and enjoyed it, though I suspect our favorite part may have been seeing all kinds of familiar names in the credits (Tom’s current project is also Disney, and also includes many of the crew). I watched Spellbound last night - oh my word, I am so glad I am not an eighth-grader any more. Actually, come to think of it, I skipped eighth grade. Anyhow, all the braces just made me wince at the remembrance of being a tall, retainer-and-lip-bumper-laden, gawky teenager who talked too much and used big words and got quizzical/patronizing looks from adults. We have only two episodes left in BSG Season 3, which we’ll probably watch very soon. And I’ve been watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on Hulu whenever I can, and man, I am way too in love with that show.

We may get to see Altman’s Thieves Like Us tonight over at Film Forum (love Film Forum!), and tomorrow is brunch with the lovely Amanda, who is in town for a few days from Aberdeen, and the Zoae Series at night. And after church on Sunday, we’re off to an engagement party for two of our favorite people. And then, on Monday, I start the summer session. That was all too short of a break, but then again, I’m kind a junkie for school. Okay, so I’m still a nerd.

Lovers of good film and music: there’s a great article on Largo, the Los Angeles music/comedy club beloved of people like Sean & Sara Watkins, John Brion, Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann, and Paul Thomas Anderson, in this week’s New Yorker. The whole thing isn’t online yet, but keep an eye out.

Iron Man: the review, in far too few words. As Tom summarized over dinner last night and I briefly mention in the review, the genius of the film is that Stark has no real superpowers except privilege and wealth. Tom pointed out that he’s a prototype for what we all want, for those with power and privilege (that’s us, folks) to stop pointing fingers and take responsibility for righting wrongs.

I left work early on Friday to have lunch with the lovely Liz, who I’ve known through a couple different mutual friends for a while but hadn’t met. She was on her way from DC to visit her brother and had a stopover between bus and train in town, so we ate dutiful salads at a random Europa Cafe (oh, NYC lunch chains) and shared a kahlua brownie and talked for a couple hours. It was splendid.

I then went to see Made of Honor for a review which should be in WORLD (print!) soon. It was not very good, but it wasn’t painful. That’s about all I can say. Afterwards I headed downtown and jotted down the substance of my review before heading to a ukelele extravaganza at the Bowery Poetry Club, then the Half Pint with a horde. Definitely one of the better Fridays I’ve had lately.

On Saturday our dear Colleen came over; she was in town for a few days after moving home to Anchorage last year, and she’s headed Dublin-ward to Trinity this fall, and I am very excited for her. We had burgers at 67 Burger and then picked up some groceries. Alisa came by later on, and we ate copious waffles and drank rosé and discussed good books before everyone went home.

After church on Sunday, we had a lovely relaxing brunch in the garden behind Palma, and dinner at the Stone Home Wine Bar around the corner from us, all with friends. I also finished Brideshead Revisited and started Saturday, which is amazing.

Today I had one triumph - I convinced the university that I am properly immunized and managed to register for the Moby-Dick class. I’ve already bought the books, so I’m glad there were no snags. I am very excited for this class to start. I’m playing at being a grad student in the English department this summer, what with Moby-Dick and the British novel class, and I have to say, I think it’s a good way to spend the summer.

A relatively open week for me, besides work. I don’t even have class. On Friday I’m going to An Evening with Michel Gondry at the Museum of the Moving Image, and perhaps a tiny féte afterwards, and Saturday brings an Albany-bound train for Mother’s Day. I haven’t been home or seen my mom since January, and I’m very much looking forward to it. She tells me the Tulip Festival is brightening the pretty part of downtown Albany, and maybe we’ll get to see it this year.

Lastly, my review of Harmony Korine’s newest, Mister Lonely, is in this issue of Paste, but it’s also online. I tried, but I wasn’t a huge fan.

One of the good things about writing journalistically (if what I do can be called that) is that I’m generally working on some kind of pitch-and-assign basis, rather than writing on spec. Fiction/poetry/other creative types, however, generally have to submit their work, finished, to a journal. So for them, Relief Journal has a blog entry on “Why Writers Need A Database”. And they’re even releasing some specially designed writer’s database software for the PC at Calvin this weekend, then making it available on their website.

By the way, have I mentioned lately how incredibly bummed out I am to not be going to the Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing? Yes, I know I’m swamped, but as it turns out, we moved early, and the magazine is likely to be out by Friday, so I could have actually squeezed it in. Alas.

We went to the cast & crew screening of Cult of Sincerity last night, which was good fun. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Speaking of Cult, AmieStreet is actually a rather fabulous website. I don’t really get too into exploring new music - I just find the array dizzying, and keeping up with movies keeps me pretty busy - but this makes it pretty easy and fun (and cheap!).

• The NYTimes Reading Room “blog” is discussing Housekeeping by Marilyn Robinson next. Seriously, whoever’s picking the books over there has impeccable taste. They’ve already done War and Peace and The Moviegoer this year, among others.
• Small Cool Apartments, one of the more inspirational ideas for those of us who live in places the size of most people’s living room (and love it), has been on for a while at ApartmentTherapy.
• If you’re in New York, or even if you’re not, you can still catch Patrick Stewart in Macbeth, because it’s moving to Broadway! We saw it at BAM and it was astounding.
• The New York Philharmonic is playing a free concert on Governor’s Island this summer, and by george, I’d be there, but I just checked the calendar and we’re supposed to be seeing Les Liaisons Dangereuse, starring Laura Linney, that night. Hmm. Also, how cool is it that everyone will have to take a ferry?
• Poets.org says to celebrate Poetry Month by bringing a piece of poetry to your place of worship.
• And lastly, join about 6,000 other people and go watch The Cult of Sincerity. You’ll be glad you did.

I wrote about two recent movies, La Misma Luna and The Visitor, and about making movies about illegal immigrants.

The Cult of Sincerity premieres today on YouTube! It’s already gotten a ton of traffic today. Go check out the comments, then watch the movie.

If you’re still not convinced, here’s the trailer:

In other news, we are definitely moving. Probably next week. Details still to be determined.

And of course, work never slows down - here’s my review of My Blueberry Nights.

We had many different invitations to do many different things Friday night, but after working very long days we decided to skip it all. Instead, we ate yummy food at the Hampton Chutney Co. and went to see My Blueberry Nights, which, though flawed, was enjoyable. Sometimes you just need a night off.

Saturday was busy; I gathered up some old clothes that either don’t fit or aren’t my style and brought them to a clothing swap, wherein many other girls had brought their clothes. We all went home with a bag (or more) and donated the rest to a local clothing drive and the Salvation Army. I scored a few short-sleeved tops that I needed desperately for summer work attire and a short-sleeved black dress, an essential. I love free clothes, but happily exercised restraint. After all, I don’t want to move anything more than I have to if the move pans out.

We had Renee and Adam (of Cult of Sincerity fame) for dinner and examination of their wedding pictures, finally, and after they left we unfortunately watched Into the Wild, which had its high points (chiefly Hal Holbrook) but seemed kind of a waste of a few hours. We had intended to watch The Squid and the Whale, but the Netflix disc was neatly broken in half, which kind of made the disappointment of Into the Wild all the more disappointing.

But on Sunday we had quite a lovely brunch at one of the many French places whose name I can never remember with a number of people we know but who didn’t know each other, and then went to Milk and Cookies (YUM) and hashed out the death of traditional journalism, since over half the crowd work directly in the field. Cheery.

And last night we watched Bug purely for Michael Shannon, who was really amazingly crazy reprising the role he played when “Bug” was onstage, and the movie doesn’t exactly work but it comes close, especially if you think about it as a play instead of a movie.

Oh, Monday.

Off to see My Blueberry Nights tonight! I have no idea what to expect, partially because it’s Wong Kar Wai’s first English-language film, partially because it stars Jude Law, partially because it also stars Norah Jones (yes, that Norah Jones), and partially because the release date was pushed so many times that it’s hard to know whether it’s really great or bad or just confusing. One thing is for sure: it will be visually stunning.

I’m sipping Bolero and plotting out my next few weeks of work. I worked three hours at the coop this morning, stocking produce starting at 6:00 am, then came home and threw on the blooper reel for season 3 of The Office while I ate my breakfast and ironed my clothes. How I do love that show.

Speaking of, I also love Battlestar Galactica, but unfortunately I haven’t seen season 3 yet and so I’m not watching the premiere tonight. But! I have caught inadvertent wind of some of the plot developments in 3 and WHOA. Dude. I am dying to get our hands on the DVDs. Not having cable is generally great, but occasionally it’s bad, and this is one of those occasions.

Anyhow, I made my very first venture into the actual book areas of NYU’s Bobst Library at lunchtime in search of some volumes for my term paper, which is (I think) about the specialized arms of big movie studios aimed at evangelical audiences, and more generally, the American evangelical box-office power recognition phenomenon since The Passion of the Christ came out in 2004. Also something in there about aesthetics and critics. Can you tell I haven’t really ever had to write a bona fide research paper in the humanities? I found some interesting-looking scholarly volumes and reveled in the fact that when you check out academic books, you get five months till you have to return them, which can also be a curse when the one book you really want is checked out until the end of June (yep). Yes, interlibrary loan, blah blah blah, but unfortunately I’m late to the game and the paper’s due in a month and I don’t have a NY Public Library card and I applied for one but it could be a month before it gets here. Anyone have a copy of Shaking the World for Jesus by Heather Hendershot that they want to mail me? I’ll pay postage.

This weekend entails a swap at Carey’s (yay for getting rid of old clothes and maybe picking up some new ones), possibly Leatherheads (George Clooney! Renee Zellweger! John Krasinski!!!), lots of reading, maybe some games, hopefully some relaxing.

Ah, I sent the original article to Tom on Sunday but forgot to blog about it. Everyone’s favorite Office sales guy on adapting David Foster Wallace.

How did you obtain the film rights to the book?
Basically, I was waiting tables, and trying to get the rights to do it as a theater piece, and repeat the performance that I had done. That didn’t go over great, as far as getting the rights. It’s a much more difficult process than a 22-year-old waiter would fantasize about. So I started to get a few more roles, and then all of a sudden I got “The Office,” and right after we shot the pilot, I took pretty much all the money that I had made on that, and went and bought the rights for a film. They said the theater rights were gone, but the film rights were still available. I’ve had the rights ever since, which is about five years.

I’m trying to decide if it’s better to be a low-grade kind of sick for weeks on end, or to feel like death for four days or so and then be back on your feet. I’ve been on some kind of sine curve of ickiness for about three weeks - well enough, most of the time, to go to work (though staying home would probably be better for me, but, well, that’s adulthood for you), and well enough not to actually skip out on activities most of the time, but not well enough to actually enjoy them. Plus, a rotating palette of symptoms from headache to sore throat to stuffiness to runny nose to blurry sight (normal for the sick version of me) has been interesting. It’s a lot like that last month before mono finally, mercifully lifts, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have mono.

The Image blog is a must-read; the recent post on why reading Arthur C. Clarke is like going to church made me smile. I have not in fact read anything by Clarke, but I have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey (watched on a whim, which I’m not sure I’d ever recommend to those without my apparently bizzare-o taste in film - this movie merits preparation) and I’m glad I did, if for nothing else than to recognize all the cultural references/indebtedness in things ranging from Battlestar Galactica to Sunshine and The Simpsons.

Have I mentioned how awesome the NPR Book Tour podcast is? Well, it is. The most recent episode is a fascinating look into the impulsive and often oddly dishonest things we do.

I don’t think I mentioned that we saw Jake and Kevin and co. on Tuesday night at the Bitter End, which I’d never yet visited, despite it being a legend in Greenwich Village history. Pretty much everyone we know was there, too. I had come from class but Tom had come from seeing Wong Kar Wai at the Apple Store (even though I really love school, I think he probably had more fun), and Angela was in town for meetings and was there too. Good times and folk music on a warm, damp Tuesday night in the Village. Who could ask for more?

I wrote a review of Shotgun Stories, which was released in New York last weekend. This was one of those wonderful films that greatly exceeded my expectations.

Plus, after laboring over it last week, we went to see “The Little Flower of East Orange” at the Public, and Michael Shannon was the lead - and he was great. And I was in the front row, about six feet away from the front of the stage. He could have spit on me (and nearly did). It was a little unreal. (Also, his mother was played by Ellen Burstyn.)

It appears that my Run, Fat Boy, Run review made it online. It wasn’t a great movie, but it’s not like you go see a Simon Pegg comedy for a cinematic revelation. It was fun.

We are seeing “The Little Flower of East Orange”, directed by Philip Seymour Hoffman at the Public Theater tonight (which I’m realizing I must clarify is an actual theater, not a movie theater, and this is not a film, because while PSH is amazing on-screen, he’s kind of a little god in the theater world as far as I’m concerned). I’ve been looking forward to this all week. Also to dinner at Applewood, our own little heaven on earth in Park Slope, tomorrow night.

Now if Bank of America would only SERIOUSLY get their act together and mail us that account confirmation letter (I mean, come on, I know it doesn’t take two weeks for something to get from Charlotte to New York), then we could put our application in for the apartment and start the nail-biting, and everything would be perfect.

I love weekends!

Big news, folks:

Brooklyn, NY—In what many are calling a “tipping point” in independent movie distribution, three redemptive filmmakers, in partnership with YouTube, will release their feature-length film free of charge on the world’s most popular video sharing website. The world-premiere of The Cult of Sincerity is slated for April 8, 2008.

“Five years ago, even two years ago, releasing a full-length feature online would not have been possible,” said filmmakers Adam Browne, Brendan Choisnet, and Daniel Nayeri of Cult Classics, LLC. “Independent filmmakers are democratizing Hollywood. The online generation is looking for good content, and we believe The Cult of Sincerity will be embraced by the college and career audience.”

An intellectual and off-beat comedy set in New York, the film’s main character, Joseph, starts a “cult of sincerity” to confront the perceived unhappiness, cynicism, and boredom of his generation. He wants to find something to believe in, something simple enough to put on a T-shirt. Reminiscent of Don Quixote, Joseph sets off to find the most genuine thing you could ever say to someone. The Cult of Sincerity is a witty exploration of changing friendships, permanent regrets, and hope in the age of irony.

Cult Classics is creating a new revenue model for independent filmmakers. By partnering with the independent music website, AmieStreet.com, the film will be available to audiences free of charge, while still generating revenue for the filmmakers and providing financial support for an African charity.

The goal is to get viewers to watch The Cult of Sincerity on YouTube, as well as sign-up with AmieStreet.com where the registrant will receive two free songs and the filmmakers $2. Cult Classics also is offering a mobile download (iPod, portable device) for the discounted price of $3, with 2/3 of the money going to Fount of Mercy, a respected faith-based charity that helps children in Africa.

“This is the triple-bottom-line approach to entertainment,” said Erik Lokkesmoe of Different Drummer, a global grassroots marketing company that is promoting the film. “Three things happen when people watch this film. They support the independent filmmaker. They receive free songs and an entire online experience. And they help a charity. This is the future of film.”

For more information on “The Cult of Sincerity,” contact Ben Laurro at Pure Publicity or visit www.cultofsincerity.com. Advanced online screenings for reviews are available upon request.

Tom was the first assistant director on this film, and if you squint, you’ll see me in the background as well. Expect to hear much more from me about this.

And join the Facebook group!

Happy Easter.

My very first submission (which I think I submitted in June of 2006) showed up on Overheard in New York today!

Paste subscribers: check out page 35 of the April issue.

The Kitchn loves the Co-op too.

Interesting article from the NYTimes about art institutions who are renovating to include event space in their floorplan. (The picture of the Morgan Library made me stop and stare a while. I want to live in a library.)

For New Yorkers and art lovers: three exhibitions not to miss, including the Olafur Eliasson at the MoMA & P.S. 1, about which I am probably unduly excited.

Shameless self-promotion: my website has gotten a wee facelift, courtesy of a new Wordpress theme and my mad hacking skillz (not really, but I know more about CSS than I wish I did).

Hulu has been released to the public, which is very good news for you, and you should go check it out now. They’ve been loading dozens of movies onto the site as well - good movies.

Also, I have been pondering the role of the critic lately, and I’d love it if you (intelligently) weighed in. Really.

We have been tres busy this week, what with two screenings, concert tonight, Tom’s upcoming chili and my upcoming dark chocolate pudding experiment, Tom scouting with the Disney bigwigs and eating great food, and my foray into the book I have to read for class next week. Also, it’s spring, which means we’re planning for all the theatre we need to catch this spring and summer. Oh, and I have a magazine coming out at work soon, I hope, and a related podcast to get off the ground. Did I mention we’re busy? But not too busy to watch a little bit of The Simpsons.

Dare I say it? I think spring is on the way.

They’re rating the movie critics (book critics, too) at MoreIntelligentLife.com, and like me, Anthony Lane is their favorite (though we all acknowledge he’s more of a humorist than a critic).

But this quote on David Edelstein caught my eye:

Back when I was an intern, I sent him a piece of fan-mail, sandbagged with reviews of my own. He responded immediately. I sent him a piece of fan-mail, sand-bagged with reviews of my own. He responded immediately and reassured me that he, too, began his career spending “48 hours writing a 400-word review”. “My advice is simple”, he wrote: “Write.” ~ EMILY BOBROW

Good to know.

Tonight we saw Shotgun Stories, and it more than exceeded both our expectations. Well-written, well-acted, well-shot, grizzled, heavy, and real, taking a few notes from a few writers (I’m thinking O’Connor, Shakespeare, and McCarthy), and all from a first-time feature writer/director. I’m not sure when it goes into limited release, but it’s worth seeing.

We also finally watched Into Great Silence over the weekend - three hours of following Carthusian monks around in the quietness. So beautiful it takes your breath away. Philip Groning is a cinematographer after my own little photographic heart.

And we also finally saw The Namesake, which we liked until it fell apart two-thirds of the way through (though it was moving up to that point).

Also, Green & Black’s ginger dark chocolate bar is fantastically spicy, sweet, a little crystallized, very good.