Friday, June 27, 2008

martin scorsese: fat people ruined las vegas

so, dustin and i were watching casino the other night, and they include this shot at the end to illustrate the demise of the glamor of casinos:

yyyyeah...

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

something to blog about

on monday evening, dustin and i went to a place from which we try to stay far, far away, that place being st. mark's. i remember when i first journeyed down to st. marks as a first-year. i expected it to be cheap and dirty and sleazy, but of course it was none of those things. anyway, we were in the neighborhood because ben's final dinner on the town was being held at kenka, which is this really intense japanese place that doesn't serve sushi. it was, as ben later remarked, a rather masochistic dining experience.

we walked in and the first thing i thought was, it smells like fish in here. we were seated, and the chairs were very rigid and very close to the ground. the din of other, less sober patrons made it difficult to hear. accordingly, we ordered a pitcher of kirin ichiban. the menu was large, unweildy, and splashed with unappetizing, unflattering photos of the often-intimidating dishes that kenka had to offer. one of the menus depicted a woman gagged and bound and looking none too pleased. we couldn't make sense of who she was or what she was doing on this menu, but we guessed that perhaps it had something to do with the dish advertised on the same page, the one called "rape blossoms," whatever those are. also on the menu was a pretty self-explanatory dish called bull penis.

nobody ordered anything too adventurous, with the exception of a small dish of raw squid mixed into a tapioca-like substance that was the same brownish color as refried beans. i can't remember who ordered it, but dustin was the only one who got it down. it remained untouched for the rest of the meal.

after we had downed a few pitchers of beer, we all began to embrace the oddities of the place: the japanese nationalist music, the rape-themed menus, the unclearly marked bathrooms (mens and ladies were designated by japanese characters), the racket, the weird bowl of squid tentacles on our table, backache-inducing chairs, and the persistently unsettling odor of fish. in the end, the food was decent and a good time was had by all, but it's the sort of place at which you have to exert yourself, similarly to mars bar, another delightfully unsavory venue. dives: what can i say, they are strangely exhausting.


speaking of seediness (or lack thereof), i was intrigued by an article in the new issue of new york mag about those annoying punk kids who hang out on st. mark's place and just won't give up the dream. the article is called "punk like them," and even though it's the same old familiar story about misguided youths traipsing downtown only to discover that the scene no longer exists, it still makes me sad for them anyway. on the way over to dinner, dustin and i saw the main "punk" in the article (the fellow with the leopard pants pictured below) swinging into a starbucks:


punk indeed, i told dustin.

he's probably just using the bathroom, he said.

still, points down. whatever happened to peeing on the street? and this is coming from somebody who has peed outside, at st. mark's place, without getting caught. did i mention that i am a female and therefore incapable of the doing the fast, easy, considerably more subtle act that is male public urination? peeing in the wild for a woman is a risky business, but if you get out alive it's like you get this weird, manic rush, much like the rush one experiences after finishing dinner at kenka. with your check, the waitress gives you a little cup of blue powder which you can pour into a cotton candy machine located out front. and so you just stand there outside with your cotton candy and your sugar rush, laughing with your friends and it feels like you've fought in a war, and when you get home you can all laugh at how surprised you were with yourselves, how you have simply no idea what came over you.

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

mermaid parade 2008

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

instant recap

after the jump: my week, illustrated.

on wednesday, our friend meg came to visit.



the four of us (me, dustin, meg, ben) got into mischief.



on thursday, we went to brighton beach and coney island. it was sunny and we ate borscht and drank from gigantic cups of beer from nathan's. it was a very happy day.



on friday the thirteenth, dustin found seventy-five dollars on the ground. we also watched a movie called the mist that was simply traumatizing.



on saturday, i went to see the new david byrne installation with ben and meg. it was really cool. we had to sign a waiver that said we couldn't sue the city if any pieces of the abandoned building fell on our heads.



we met zach at welcome to the johnsons, and we were later joined by bailey, matt, and two girls who were both named hannah. we had some drinks, and then we drove back to prospect heights to have a very successful taco party.



sunday was mostly uneventful. dustin and i met up with joe, ben, and meg for sushi and then we went home and watched cloverfield, which was also traumatizing. on monday, meg went home and dustin and i went to williamsburg to trade in clothes at buffalo exchange. we made thirty-six bucks, and i bought a beautiful new dress with daisies all over it. we ate at a mexican place and split a plate of enchiladas. it felt nice to split a dish together. we initially decided to go dutch on our food because we are rather impecunious at the moment, but it worked out even better because it was a lot of food, too much for one person. it makes me depressed when i think of all the food that americans waste, just because everybody is too dumb to control their portions.

and that, my friends, is the story of my week.

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

somebody's cat


today, dustin recieved two picture messages from an unknown caller, both of them depicting this orange kitty.

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the absolute hunk


on sunday, dustin and i were hurrying through union square to meet his family for dinner. we were late, as usual. as we were speed-walking past that coffee bar with the enormous neon sign, i caught sight of a familiar face. as soon as i saw him, i knew that it could be nobody but jason lewis, aka the absolute hunk from sex and the city. he was sitting in the outside eating area of the coffee bar, which surprised me because that place seems kind of busted. our eyes locked and i could tell that he knew i recognized him. sadly, he was not as handsome as he was on satc. but whatever, it was my first celebrity sighting since i started my new life in new york.

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