Tom & Alissa

Recommended.
Film
• Babel - it was superbly acted and very heartfelt. I haven’t seen Amores Perros or 21 Grams, but this was a thought-provoking exposition of communication and misunderstanding and perhaps even a veiled call to just listen sometimes.
• Wonder Boys - my first time around. Pure fun.

Food
• The brunch at Miracle Grill, at 2nd Street and 7th Ave in Park Slope. Despite a missing corn chowder order, the food was great.
• We had carrot-apple-cream-cheese muffins from Blue Sky on the way to church on Sunday and they were the perfect combination of soft and textured and warm and yum.
• Crif Dogs, in the East Village, which we had on the way to Tara Leigh’s show last night.

Speaking of Tara Leigh, we did indeed go to the show last night, after which we nabbed a copy of her book and new CD (Here’s to Hindsight). We met up with her and her friend Jane afterwards for burgers at this place on 3rd Ave below St. Marks. I can never remember the name of the place, but the burgers are great and the hot chocolate is seventy-five cents. Good times.

I started reading the book on the train this morning, and I’m loving it. Having grown up in a somewhat similar environment (pretty darn conservative, but in love & grace), I’m identifying with it a lot. And of course, who wouldn’t love reading TLC’s life story? I can get all kinds of dirt on her this way. And I haven’t gotten that far yet, but apparently Tom (yes, our own dear Tom) gets a mention. We are so rockin’ famous.

Somehow, Fidel Castro manages to provide a good amount of blog fodder for me. I saw him on the big CNN TVs yesterday saying something to the effect of “my enemies have prematurely reported my death”. Sounds like someone’s been reading Mark Twain.

If you’re in the NYC area, you should head on over to Arlene’s Grocery at 7:00 pm for my friend Tara Leigh Cobble’s book/CD release party. Her book is Here’s to Hindsight: Letters to My Former Self (Relevant Books) and the CD has the same title.

We’ll be there!

From today’s Brewing Culture email:

Starbucks Culture
“There’s the faintest whiff of discriminating good taste around everything Starbucks sells, a range of products designed, on some level, to flatter the buyer’s self regard,” writes Susan Dominus in The New York Times (10/21/06). Indeed, as noted by Timothy Jones, who puts together those Starbucks compilations CDs that sell so well: “We do our best with a new artist when there’s sort of an NPR buzz going on around them.” Like the Decemberists or Madeleine Peyroux, for instance. It’s a pretty neat hipster trick; the more mainstream Starbucks becomes, the more robust its ability to project a certain countercultural cred that appeals to wealthy, hippy-dippy, baby boomers. Novelist Jonathan Lethem compares the illusion to Apple’s: “It’s the faint affect of a counterculture shackled to the most ordinary, slightly upscale product.” Jonathan calls this a “faux alternative” aesthetic.

I think this trend has gotten more pronounced in the last couple of years. Mass-marketed good taste? Better than mass marketed bad taste, I guess (read: MacDonald’s Culture).

Yesterday, on the 1 train in the Houston Street stop. I’m riding to work after IAM.

Train conductor: Blah blah, please stand clear of the closing doors.
Doors in our car close. Train just sits there.
Train conductor: Please stand clear of the closing doors.
Nothing happens.
Train conductor: Please stop holding the doors and allow the train to continue.
Nada.
Train conductor: Any MTA police on the train, please make your way to the second car.
Instantly, train starts moving. I exchange surreptitious smirks with several occupants.

Moral of the story: threats, even if they’re empty, work.

The new Firefox is out today. Go get ‘em.

Intriguingly, IE 7.0 came out, like, a week ago. Competition much?

Look at this beautiful holiday collection from Whimsy! (via design*sponge)

Placemats:

Notecards:

If you didn’t hear, Alissa and I are now starring in our own movie. Kudos to Cori Poley who did up the poster for us. I’m upset about the PG-13 rating though. I don’t understand why it would say, “some material may not be suitable for children.” The movie only covers the wedding, you know? So what’s that all about?

Wow! Why have I never stumbled upon sidejobtrack.com before? This seems like it has the potential to be an invaluable resource to side job freelancers.

I was wound very tightly by the time I left work on Friday and pretty much took the entire weekend to relax. So while we weren’t terribly productive, we did have a good, fairly relaxing weekend.

Saw
- Little Children. Recommended as a picture of the depravity in every human heart, but only to mature viewers. Superb acting and storytelling.
- The Prestige. I think I enjoyed it more than Tom did, but it’s quite good, and worth seeing. The consensus I’ve heard/seen/read is that you may have to see it twice to really enjoy it.

Read
- Well, I finished Specimen Days. Mixed feelings on this one. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t hang together as well as The Hours and parts seemed to drag, particularly in the third section. Still, it’s a much better read than most of the fiction out there.

Ate
- Tom engineered Friday night’s dinner, which involved chicken wrapped in pancetta and sage, apple risotto, arugula salad with an orangey vinaigrette dressing, and his crowning glory, crepes suzette, wherein he (purposely) lit the pan on fire. All for our friends, the Haferbeckers, who were duly appreciative.
- He also made some very, very good scrambled eggs on Saturday morning with bacon and English muffins.
- We had the good fortune to partake of BAM’s popcorn on Saturday night during the movie, which is quite good. A little too buttery perhaps, but not as yellow and fake as normal movie popcorn.
- And a big hurrah for lunch at Heartland Brewery with Todd & Albert before The Prestige yesterday.

Plans for the upcoming week include a lot of work, mostly. And some more entertaining. We’re making the most of our four hundred square feet.

Several weeks overdue for a trip to the barber, but Alissa and our friends the Gosas all agree I should keep growing my hair out in its current messy, spiked fashion until it can no longer stand up. Only thing is, human hair is amazingly springy, mine most of all–I have the Tigger of all hair types. If I don’t put anything in, my hair would go straight up in all directions like a white man’s fro. Peter Sellar’s and all possibilities from the post-punk rock movement are perfect examples of why this is a bad idea and I’m going to get a haircut later this week…

Last night, I worked late on the IAM website. Tom was catering. I finally went to bed at about 1am, and I heard him come in not long afterward. We are tired this morning.

As a result, someone (::coughgrinwhowasit::) didn’t affix the pressure valve on the Mukka properly and it proceeded to pressurize, pop off, and cover the entire kitchen in a nice light brownish cappuccino. Yumm. Including the ceiling. And did I mention this happened in the middle of a discussion about the potential benefits/stupidities of minimum wage?

There are various and sundry movies being released this weekend that may or may not be worth seeing: Flags of Our Fathers (Clint Eastwood on Iwo Jima), Marie Antoinette (I know it was booed at Cannes, but really, can the French be expected to cheer a movie about that woman?), The Prestige (Hollywood - not so good with keeping magician movies released far enough apart to make them distinguishable from each other, and it’s not just magician movies - witness the recent release of Infamous), and Running With Scissors (which I was personally rooting for becasue the trailer rocked, but is getting horrifically bad reviews).

I have succumbed and started using del.icio.us. I know there are other social bookmarking apps out there, but frankly, I like the vaguely renegade Web 2.0-defiant look of del.icio.us. It’s like Wikipedia. No bubbles or 3D, just straight-up hypertext.

Good concerts upcoming - The Weepies on December 2 at the Canal Room, and Over the Rhine doing two back-to-back shows at Joe’s Pub on December 7.

I procured the new Craftivity book via Felicia and am madly in love. I have a serious aversion to “crafts”, stemming from some scarring experiences as a slightly dorky twelve-year-old with craft books from the 70s in the public library that smelled of old milk. But this is cool. Interesting projects with actual lovely results, from knitting to wood stuff to glass etching and some bizarre things like underpants made from T-shirts and crocheted skulls. And it’s all nicely designed and photographed.

And to leave you on a cheery note: The 7 Worst Fonts Ever. I think I picked this up from kottke. I’m grateful that they included Bradley Hand and Papyrus in the mix. Bleh.

I’m downstairs at Union Market a half hour ago, buying hummus and crostini and jambalaya because I am starving and noodle soup is not enough.

I swipe my AmEx through the credit card processor and wait for my receipt, when the girl at the checkout (who I see regularly, since I shop there regularly) says, “What do you do for a job?”

I kind of looked at her blankly and said, “Technology.”

“Really! I just asked because I thought you were a writer. You look like a writer.”

Well, that’s a good thing, I guess.

Because Tom is a freewheeling artist with a variety of freelance pursuits, whereas I am more or less a corporate grunt, I generally am up and at ‘em a while before he is to accomodate that Commute To Midtown we all adore.

So this morning, as is my wont, I woke him up to say Good Morning and Goodbye and Have a Great Day. He grinned sleepily and mumbled, “Enjoy the scone.”

I just kind of stared at him until his eyes opened in realization and he started laughing. His fortune cookie message of the day. “Confucius say, ‘Enjoy scone!’”

(Scone materialized, in ziploc bag on desk, with a small yellow post-it reading “Eat me!”. Yay, breakfast!)

Our weekend, in a nutshell.

Watched
• Punch-Drunk Love on Friday, to finish our P.T. Anderson kick. (Included in that series was Boogie Nights and Magnolia. This was very different.)
• Since Otar Left, Tom’s favorite film of all time, with eight others we managed to cram into our apartment. I’ve been hearing about it for a year, so it was good to watch (and it was just plain good, as well). The director was Kieslowski’s assistant director on Bleu, which is one of my favorite films of all time.
• Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave, also on Saturday night with the large crowd. Does that make it a triple feature?
• La Promesse, by the Dardenne brothers. We saw L’Enfant earlier this year, and since the last several films they’ve made have won the Palm d’Or at Cannes, we figured we should watch them. Good stuff.

Cooked and Ate
• Thai food at the inexpensive-and-trendy Song in Park Slope. I had chicken satay and pad thai.
• I made Belgian waffles for ten people (about thirteen waffles), and whipped cream. Everyone was duly impressed that they were made from scratch. I smiled, remembering that I was about eleven before I realized that you could not only buy waffle mix, but buy a waffle frozen, in the supermarket. I wouldn’t consider doing it any other way but from scratch. So cheap! So easy!
• Ridiculously awesome muffins (mine was raspberry kiwi bran, Tom’s was something with coconut) from Blue Sky Bakery, which we grabbed on our way to the train on Sunday morning.
• Satisfied my cravings at Le Pain Quotidien yesterday with a tarragon chicken sandwich. Love that place.
• After coffee-and-a-book yesterday afternoon, came home to finish the waffles and drink apple cider. And mint tea. A lovely end to the day.

Read
• Not much to say here, except that I started Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham (author of The Hours) and am enjoying it greatly.

We spent a lot of time trying to relax. It has been very hectic lately. Very thankful for Sundays.

I think this is pretty:

We have a lot going on this weekend, including trying to cram people into our 400-square-foot apartment tomorrow night for a foreign movie doubleheader (that will be so, so interesting). And waffles.

I’m absolutely in love with this chandelier from Plug:

Came across a great new painter today, Shawn Dulaney. Each painting has such a sense of place, dreamvisions of alien vistas. It’s nice how he incorporates little dribbles of paint into his compositions; those random little runs are like the landscape bleeding.

The cold snap happened last night. Tom and I were sitting on our couch eating biscuits and beef and mashed potatoes and watching an episode of Gilmore Girls, and the window was open, and suddenly I could smell winter.

And I felt it when I left the apartment this morning in a corduroy coat and scarf. It smells very clean and very crisp, and suddenly I realized that Christmas is coming soon, and I now have the urge to bake bread and cookies. Nummy.

After posting this morning, I came across another piece of commentary by Brett McCracken, this time on filmmaker Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World) and why he makes the kinds of films he does. It’s absolutely brilliant! Basically Malick taught philosphy at MIT for a while and became quite the Heidegger expert, which comes out so clearly in his films if you know anything about Heidegger. McCracken writes:

Heidegger and Malick share the idea that the world reveals itself to us through our moods and emotion, not cognition and rationalism. Thus, it is easier to understand Malick’s de-emphasis of plot in favor of flowing imagery and “natural encounter” cinema—films not as interested in how the world is, but that it is. For many viewers, such an unconventional method is off-putting, but for those who are open to more experiential cinema, Malick’s organic, spur-of-the-moment style is a beautiful trademark. The New World producer Sarah Green echoes this: “Terry is not big on convention; he’s big on what has an impact on him in the moment.”

For Malick, like Heidegger, truth and beauty exist most fully in the unexplained and momentary experience of encounter—evidenced in Malick’s visceral brand of filmmaking. Indeed, a Malick signature is the primacy and invasive “thereness” of nature, whether in close-ups of dying animals (Badlands), glistening vistas of blowing wheat fields (Days of Heaven), or shimmering sunlit rivers in a dark, unexplored land (The New World). But beyond the visual, Malick echoes Heidegger’s claims in his refusal to morally judge or even attempt to explain the actions of his characters. There are no heroes or villains in Malick; just humans from all walks of life, on all sides of the central struggle of existence.

I read this short clip in Brew Cultures weekly email, which came from a Relevant Magazine article by often film critic Brett McCracken. It’s certainly where the battle’s being lost:

Our world today, however “flat” or “global” it may be, does not seem to encourage big-picture thinking. The ocean of information that surrounds us is easier than ever to navigate, but harder and harder to grasp on a holistic level. We are always three clicks away from any fact or figure or answer we may want; we are the most informed, mediated, equipped, positively-reinforced generation ever, and so why are we retreating into our iPod-capsulated, ethnocentric, blissfully-ignorant zones of comfort? Is it just too daunting to make the most of our information overload, quiet and focus our minds and try to answer the big questions?…What we lack today is a mind for making connections. We have all the tools for hyperconnectivity and every resource for every fact and truth as yet discovered by humankind. But in this overwhelming vastness of puzzle pieces and pixels, we are too fatigued and apathetic — or perhaps too skeptical — to try to pull back and see the immense picture that emerges when things start clicking together.

Pumpkin Ravioli
For those who asked, we have the great fortune of living above a lovely little gourmet supermarket, which is where we got the pumpkin ravioli. It was très fantastique tossed with a bit of sage butter. We’ve actually had it in a garlic butter sauce, too, which gives it some kick and tang - sweet and savory together, which is very sophisticated and very delicious.

Movies, in rapid-fire
We did, indeed, enjoy Tsotsi. If you are in the dark, it’s a South African film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Also, if your city is playing it, you should see A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints. And run, don’t walk, to see Volver when it’s released in your city (November 3 in NYC and LA). It’s great.

Cute things
Ok, how adorable are these business card holders? And I LOVE the milk pots on this page. (via Alex)

Book
I just finished reading Who Will Run the Frog Hospital, which oh, was SO good. Weirdly, the main character works at a place called “Storyland” in upstate NY, which if I don’t miss my guess, evolved into what is now the Great Escape amusement park in Lake George. I think I remember my mom talking about it. And the Storyland park still exists within the larger park. It made me smile.

Weepies
After hearing the song Gotta Have You by The Weepies on a Paste podcast, we’ve been playing it nonstop around the apartment. Finally broke down and got the album Say I Am You, and I listened to most of it on my way to work this morning. Totally awesome. They’re a married pair of singer/songwriters and their songs are gentle folk/altpop with witty lyrics and totally hooky melodies. and they’re playing in New York in December. Score.

I realized lately that life really isn’t ever “easy”. Every time I think I’ve settled all the miscellany so I can finally live, something else hits - a cold, or a headache, or maybe a last-minute thing that just has to get done. But you know what makes it better?

There’s a an adorable boy at home right now . . . waiting for me to get there. With guacamole.

Yesterday we worked a little and spent the rest of the afternoon trying a variety of coffeeshops and reading in Propsect Park, because the weather was so darn beautiful, and finished the day by watching Tsotsi over pumpkin ravioli. An excellent way to spend an October holiday.

I think I’ve broken the habit.

See, I get hungry at work. It’s chilly here, and everything is various shades of white and red and a weird greenish-brown shade, and there’s fluorescent lights, and they make me sleepy. And I can only drink so many cups of coffee before I am about to explode (not from jitteriness - oh no, I graduated to coffeesnobbery in the big-time during college - but from the sheer amount of liquid). Plus, there’s the fact that I rarely eat breakfast before I get here - that would mean getting up earlier, and sleep is very precious.

So I end up eating, and usually, a salad or a soup or something similar is sufficient (how’s that for alliteration?). But lately, I have been ravenous - like, so hungry that it’s all I can think about. And I did the unthinkable.

I formed a Snickers habit.

Snickers - the perfect candy bar, containing all the yum (peanuts, caramel, nougat, and chocolate) and none of the yuck (spinach, beet greens, etc). Snickers, that fills my tummy and makes me smile and likely is rotting my teeth but ohhh, so good. Snickers, the candy bar I recently recalled (with a start) giving to my Dad for his birthday when I was about five, because Dad loved Snickers bars. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times - I am my father’s child.

But anyhow, I started sneaking off to the vending machine and spending $1 on a Snickers and inhaling it each afternoon. I thought, “Aw, how bad could it be for me, really? 250 calories, or so?”

The flaw, my friends, is that this was no ordinary Snickers bar. This is a KING-SIZED Snickers bar, the SNICKERS BAR OF CHAMPIONS. The SNICKERS BAR OF EARLY DEATH DUE TO OBESITY, as I realized when I saw there’s a whopping 541 calories in every delectable bar.

Um, wow. I’ve always been reasonably thin, but lately I noticed that some of my clothes were fitting tighter in the leg/tummy area (and no, because someone will mention it, I’m emphatically not pregnant). Not cool, not cool at all.

Time to kick the Snickers habit. First, as all good addicts should do, I admitted that I had a problem to Tom. I did sneak off and eat a Snickers bar directly after that - but that was my last one. The next day, when I got hungry, I went downstairs and bought green beans. And ate them. That helped.

But the stroke of genius was buying a case of Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif Bars from drugstore.com (which I love to pieces - best e-commerce site EVER) and having them shipped to my office. These babies are fantastic, and fantastically good for you, loaded with protein, fiber, a bunch of vitamins - great stuff, and a great taste, and 250 calories a pop.

So, thank you, Clif Bars. You have saved me from the Dastardly Snickers Habit.

Yesterday found me sick and working from home again, which meant lots of sitting in front of the computer and writing SQL queries. Yes, fun! But to celebrate our one-month anniversary, we went out to eat Mexican food. Mmmm.

Tonight after work, we are heading Edling-ward for sci-fi and food and Friday nightness. And tomorrow we get to hang out with Melody and her Spence, who are visiting our city from North Carolina. And Sunday . . . is Sunday.

So, yay for weekends!

I am not feeling particularly bloggy lately, perhaps because of the weather, or the state of cinema today, or the dearth of good coffee I’ve had lately.

However, I am sucking up design thoughts, theories, examples, and opinions like crack lately, and so I present you a few fun links on which you may or may not have already stumbled.
Design Sponge just opened a shop!
HOW design magazine has a blog.
Stylegala - great links, every day.
Current trends in web design.

Back to coding.