Electric Ladyland

this is gonna hurt

is this a cruel halloween joke?  i was already getting frustrated staring at my empty tv screen with no baseball on it and now this happens -- theo leaves the red sox!  nooo!

i feel like the rug just got yanked out from under me.  it's already going to be a precarious off-season with so many free agents able to head elsewhere and we may see precious few remnants of our blessed 2004 world championship team by the time the hot stove has cooled, but this?  terrible.  gotta give big thanks to theo for making our dreams come true, though.  i'll never forget the magic of that season, the incredible baseball that kept me up until all the crack of dawn, strung-out and incoherent at work, and back for more the next night.  that team was something else.

3-boro food & fun

yesterday morning i helped a friend of mine move into the neighborhood.  there was hosting of sofas up narrow staircases, schlepping of dressers, the whole nine yards.  we had a whole team of people chipping in to make the effort as painless as possible and i think we all got it done rather well.  as a thank you, my buddy-now-neighbor took us all out to lunch and asked me to pick the place.  taverna zenon, of course!  made for family dining.  i had a cypriot pork and malanga stew that made me just want to curl up and hibernate.  considering how cold it was outside that really seemed like a good idea at the time.

after we were all done for the day i did waddle home to get some rest but in came a phone call from a friend of mine who i hadn't seen in a while asking if i was game to go out for dinner with him in brooklyn.  both of us were in the same rut not having done much socializing for the past several weekends,  so i got myself on a Q train to park slope to catch up and have some fun with him.

he chose tamari, a low-key japanese place that bills itself as a sake bar / japanese tapas establishment.  essentially that seems to mean izakaya food in an atmospheric, almost loungelike setting.  my first glass of sake, served chilled in a wine glass, was kurobin (黒瓶).  very nice,  but i liked the suishin (酔心) i had later on even better. 

you can just make out a few of the last remaining beads of goodness in this ikura oroshi, done up cocktail style in a martini glass with the expected grated daikon and cucumber slivers.  very delish, we both agreed.

their take on tuna tartare, which they said was korean, was also remarkably flavorful.  by this point we both felt tamari was a sure hit.  unfortunately i didn't think to snap a picture of it, but the clear winner of the night in my mind was the gyoza.  easily the best i've had in years, good lord.  crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside.  whoever crafted those, i love you.  the tempura assortment and sashimi were also outstanding.  i would schlep from astoria to park slope for this food again.  and i also want to send kudos to the staff for allowing us to enjoy all this luxurious nosh comfortably, with no hint whatsoever of being rushed out the door. 

when the time did come to leave we ambled over to the tea lounge where i scored this cute "little" (yeah, not so little as the guy behind the counter pointed out) cupcake with mini m&ms teeming all over it.  i had this with a rich cup of hot chocolate.  mrrrphhl.... so good...!

we happened to sit at a table that was itself an oversized chess board with oversized chess pieces.  not surprisingly chess ensued, but we didn't quite have the energy to follow through with it.  still, i was charmed by the chess table and thought it added to the overall atmosphere of the place.  after that i called it a night, knowing i'd be playing MTA roulette all the way back to astoria.  and boy was i right, but we won't go into that.  it was well worth making the trip to BK.  samantha from sex in the city once declared "i don't do boro." sweetie, you're missing out.

this morning i had stuff to do early in manhattan so it was back on the subway with me.  after finishing with that, however, i went to ess-a-bagel for the first time and got myself an everything bagel with cream cheese.  it was pure pleasure in just the same way as tamari's gyoza were -- crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.  and warm.  this was my main meal of the day and oh so satisfying.  there was a serious line snaking around and around inside the place and it called to mind episode 1 of anthony bourdain's no reservations show in which he hangs out with a parisian baker and observes that the residents of the local arrondissement are like drug addicts waiting with twitchy mannerisms for those baguettes and croissants to finally become available.  there was the same atmosphere in ess-a-bagel today.  people know a good thing when they find it.

before and after consuming said bagel i mainly wandered around the city with no particular destination.  it was comfortably warm enough to stay outdoors without a scarf and just admire the scenery and clear blue skies.  i noticed that the leaves on the trees are starting to acquire a slight yellow outside lining.  and today i saw a sign of autumn in manhattan i've been on the lookout for -- gingko leaves turning canary yellow. 

we got an extra hour of sleep last night and that made the day seem even more luxurious.  an extra hour is what i've been wishing for a while now.  so for the evening there is no program, only to relax and enjoy this little gift.

par avion

as i do every few months or so, tonight i sat down at a local cafe and wrote a few letters the old-fashioned way -- by hand -- on stationery.  among them, one usually goes to my aunt and another goes to my former student in japan.  before writing to kou-chan tonight, though, i re-read her last two letters to me and realized that we've been corresponding for over three years now.  she's become a skilled letter writer and i'm beginning to really enjoy reading her thoughts, admiring the way she communicates and presents them.  even when she was my student it was obvious she was a gifted writer and i tried to nurture that in her, so i'm glad that this is still a part of her life.  about my learning japanese, she said "i think it's difficult to have a good command of even one's national language ... i think it's great that you're trying not only your national language but also foreign languages."  does she realize how true this is of herself as well? 

october chill

woollen socks.  flannel pajamas.  the hiss of a radiator.  what may well be the last baseball game of the season on the tv.  a glass of magic hat.  it's october all right.

those astros and chisox kept me up late last night.  longest game in world series history.  the only other 14-inning game was a complete game pitched by babe "i can throw a piano into a lake - can you?" ruth.  roger clemens, eat your heart out.

nature's heartbeat

spent a few hours strolling through central park in the rain this afternoon.  this was a dry run to see how many photos i could cram onto my camera's built-in 8MB card at low resolution so i could project how many photos i might expect my 2GB card to handle for the japan trip.  i got a lot of shots on this card so it went well.

my feet are thoroughly soaked again and there's a little mud on my shoes from having stomped through some muddy pathways on my way to something interesting.  all worth it, though.  i'm not sure i remember the last time i heard nothing but the wind for a few hours.  it was a welcome change from the usual.

it wasn't raining much when i left the house early this afternoon but it did pick up later on and the temperature dropped a bit too.  i had to do a little balancing act with my umbrella and my camera in order to get shots taken without allowing any rain to actually splash onto my camera.  didn't run into too many people along the way, only a handful of tourists and joggers.  i guess everyone was either working or bundling up inside. 

there were actually still several flowers blooming around the park.  i saw some daisies, honeysuckle and azaleas scattered in various corners.  there were fallen leaves strewn across the walkways and, along with them, some nuts that had been cast from the trees.  i encountered a few ducks and hordes of romping squirrels.  they were out foraging for food and didn't have time to bother noticing me.  as for more autumnal scenery, i did see a few red berries and strands of wheatgrass here and there. 

small pleasures

i've been wanting to take this picture for a long time.  it's a sign on the wall outside my local ... duane reade, is it?  i forget.  anyway, i first noticed this several months back and had a good chuckle over it.  thought i'd share now that i have this sexy sexy camera with which to take better pictures than my cell phone could snap.

today was all about the small pleasures.  went to the met museum and saw some asian art.  i had specifically been intending to go to the japanese exhibit but stopped in the korean area on my way there.  what's up with no one being in the korean exhibit?  they were mobbing china and japan but korea got no love despite the fact that there were some gorgeous works of art there.  people are missing out, i tell you.

case in point:  this koryo dynasty oil bottle.  a thing of pure beauty.  there were certainly flashier and more elaborate items in the gallery including some lacquerware, scrolls and tablets with calligraphy on them.  however, my eyes kept returning to this unassuming bottle with understated colors. 

moving on into the japanese exhibit (masterpieces from the permanent collection), i found this screen with snow-laden bamboo.  seasonally appropriate as were so many of the objects there.  images of snow and autumn colors abounded.  there was one very lovely kimono decorated with wheatgrass and small red berries.

there were plenty of ukiyo-e pieces to be found as well, including this one which was part of a series.  on the top right-hand corner it says "十月" (october), and you can see women making rice cakes amidst a scarlet maple tree.  there are gold flecks on the paper and if i had been able to get close enough to capture it, you would see incredible gold detail on each of the women's kimonos in various shining patterns.

as is always the case with a trip to the met, there was so much to see it was like drinking from a fire hose.  i saw two small calligraphy pieces by shokado shojo (one of the three brushes of the kan'ei era along with konoe nobutada, whose flowing liquid script i remember from the barnet & burto exhibitions on sacred calligraphy i saw in d.c. and boston not long ago).  there was also an impressive crashing wave by ogata korin which you can see at the museum's exhibition page.  other than that i took special interest in the ukiyo-e pieces depicting meiji-era foreigners romping in yokohama's pleasure quarters or curiously watching a samurai procession down the street, objects of curiosity themselves as well.  i was also struck by a couple of haniwa clay statues, not knowing what they were until i got back home and looked them up on wikipedia. 

there were artistic works from nearly all eras of japanese history on display.  only a few strongly appealed to me but it was still nice to go out and indulge my interest in learning more about art.  after that point, though, i was pretty much done for the day.  i stopped at hot & crusty to get a toasted everything bagel with lox spread (one of my favorite things in life), did the grocery shopping and am now getting ready to curl up and watch game 2 of the world series.  this is my idea of a sunday.

touched

today i served as a guest panelist at a career forum for recently returned JETs.  it's so funny, i thought, to be the one sitting there giving advice on how to make it in new york.  the path i've taken during the past four years truly astonishes me sometimes.  the path i'm going on from here has the promise of being equally astonishing if not more.

this year i aimed to leave early after the panel discussion was over since i'm no longer the vice president of our alumni organization and ostensibly no longer so obligated to stay for the reception afterward, but i ended up doing so anyway.  it amazed me how many parts of my identity were accessed and touched by many different people there who wanted to relate to me on various levels:  JET alum, former shizuoka resident, french-american woman, calligraphy student, japanese language student, nonprofit professional... it really ran the gamut.  there were so many people there i hadn't seen in such a long time.  plenty of hugs and kisses to go around.  one friend who i've known since returning in 2001 said that he had missed me, that i was his sage and always had good advice for him.  i guess you can be a lot of things to a lot of people.  tonight i really felt connected.

trip to d.c.

good morning sunshine!  after several days with very little sleep it is so nice to wake up with sunshine streaming through your room knowing you have the whole day to just play or do whatever your heart fancies.  aaah! 

i just got back from a business trip to d.c. last night.  it was fun.  i like that city and the conference i went to was very interesting, talking about IT in the field during emergency relief situations.  among other things, i heard a lot about the methods used to set up telecommunications systems in new orleans after katrina, iraq after the invasion, and indonesia after the tsunami.  the presenters shared several war stories kind of as if they had been soldiers although they were working for NGOs.  there were a few tense moments when the issue of the military role in such situations came up.  i stayed awake the whole day and then some despite how tired i was -- must have been the subject matter.

and now the pictures!

i scored a bagel with lox and a mocha to take with me on the train to d.c.  twas delish.  a cute little girl with pigtails sitting in the seat in front of me decided to play several rounds of peekaboo.  we had some fun as i was still waking up.

upon arriving in d.c. i went straight to dupont circle to meet a friend of mine who just moved to the area over the summer.  all the subway entrances have these tall escalators reaching straight up from the ground.  it was a beautiful day.

we went to bistrot du coin for a late lunch and i ordered a bucket o mussels.

i had been coveting his sandwich with sweetbreads but it's hard to have a gripe with the sauce in the bottom of a pot of mussels when you have plenty of bread to sop it up.

afterwards, a cappuccino and more good conversation.  it was really nice.  one thing i like about bistrot du coin is that it's so unpretentious, informal and comfortable.  you can just walk in, sit down and schmooze the day away with a good friend.  that's why i keep going back there.

afterwards we went walking around the city and ended up on the washington mall with a beautiful view of the capitol under a full moon.  the clouds were pink.  we sat on a bench to admire the clear night while listening to some music being played by a nearby crew disassembling the solar-powered house they'd built for a competition.  after all the rain we'd been having it was so pleasant to watch a clear sky.

and speaking of clear skies, we've got them back today.  time to go check out what that's all about.  no staying cooped up if i'm finally well rested and have the day off!

this is how we roll

like a lot of people here, i was in a rut because of the weather and some important deadlines right around the corner.  however, judging it was all a matter of attitude and perspective, i made my environment comfortable.  there is indeed nothing that a little sushi and glam metal can't help me accomplish.  on top of that, i got some unexpected but very good news -- one of my close friends may be moving just a few blocks away from me in just a couple of weeks!  party time!  excellent! 

watch out japan, here i come

ever have one of those days at work when you left just wishing you could get away from it all?  the cosmos answered my prayer with a brand-new shiny passport in my mailbox early this evening.  nice.  i promise i won't bang it up and get it soaked while hiking mount fuji like i did the last one.  in fact, i promise i won't hike mount fuji ever again.  for proof i could dig up a photo of myself waiting for the bullet train home after the ordeal, not too happy that my photo was about to be taken, looking like i could kill the photographer with my bare hands.  but that's another story...

i am so jazzed.  naturally this called for a celebratory trip to my local japanese conbini (aka convenience store) down the street.  we've got boss coffee, a little sushi action, instant soba and daifuku.  hoo-ah.  and game 1 of the ALCS is about to start!  mm-hmm.