Archive for June, 2009

Jun 25

Oh Canada

I’ve been thinking and talking alot about Canada lately, since we’ll be there a week from tomorrow:


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Today a friend at work mentioned how much he loves Krispy Kreme donuts (he’s just back from NYC, where we usually get donuts at Penn Station before getting on the Amtrak).  I concurred:  Krispy Kreme make great donuts.  But I mentioned my favorite donut from Tim Hortons – the walnut crunch:

This is how I described a walnut crunch to an American who’s never experienced their splendor (Canadian readers: if you can think of a better description, I’d love to hear it) -  I said it’s a glazed brick about yay-big of cakey, chocolately donut with walnuts.  A brown, glazed, chocolate brick with walnuts.   Mmm?

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Posted in dumb, Local, random, Universal, work

Jun 25

rabbit blog is getting updated semi-regularly! yay!

I love Heather so.  This is one of the more incoherent things I’ve read from her, but I understand why.  And she’s funny, real funny.  Puts my mid-thirties, toddler-bum-wiping life into perspective:

rabbit blog

Thank you again, Polly.

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Posted in Bitchfest, health, random, Universal

Jun 24

Welcome To HotWheels.Com

Welcome To HotWheels.Com.

Elliot is going nuts talking about this toy.  I don’t know how he found out about it (probably from one of his cousins).  He calls it “Hose Hot Wheels”.

I don’t know if I can wait until his birthday before breaking down and getting this.  The nagging is constant.  But it looks cool, too.

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Posted in Elliot, random, Universal

Jun 22

Twelfth Night at Delacorte Theater, Central Park NYC

Tomorrow evening, it will be one week since I saw this show.  It will also be one week since I became an asshole to my friends that are producing the same show in North Adams:

Theater – The Three Sisters of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Delacorte Theater – NYTimes.com.

It was a brilliant show.  The above puff piece is the only bit of press online I could find that has photos and more than a couple of paragraphs.   But it features Audra McDonald, who, due to her part in this production, I will submit myself to all reruns of Private Practice this summer.  I loved her Olivia – she was so (unexpectedly) passionate and great.  I also deeply appreciated Raúl Esparza (who I enjoyed in last spring’s The Homecoming) and his take on Orsino, who’s infatuation for Olivia was based on some sort of idealism and gentleman’s code rather than a swooning, sighing, love-of-being-in-love.  It was inspired – and made Viola’s love for Orsino palatable.  Anne Hathaway was a great Viola too.

Somehow, nearly every role was a standout. It was a truly magical evening.

This bit from the article is funny.  On the perils of outdoor theater,  Anne Hathaway asks her director:

‘If a bug flies into our face, are we allowed to react or just be stoic?’ He just said, ‘Use your discretion.’




If the director said the latter was the correct choice – I get this visual: a bug is buzzing around Anne’s face during a show. He is grinning, malevolently. As he dive-bombs her, he says, tauntingly, “He told you to remain stoic! This is your theatrical premiere! You are now a real artist!”

In addition to this great production, I’ve heard you should also check out Shakespeare In The Parking Lot.

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Posted in Local, Shakespeare, theater, Universal

Jun 22

Confessions of a Bailout CEO Wife

I wonder – is this for real?  The whole premise seems like a writing prompt:

Confessions of a Bailout CEO Wife – Portfolio.com.

The tone is arrogant and annoying (playing into the portfolio.com demographic, sure), and the writing too “entertaining” (See: “I’m learning to fly so far below the radar that I have perpetually skinned knees.” )  Interesting circumstance to ponder, though.

Via kottke

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Posted in Bitchfest, dumb, random, Universal

Jun 09

On the Radar | Punchdrunk

Photo by Martin Bloom.

Lots of cool stuff in the Times today:  Punchdrunk is a British experimental theater group.  Here’s an interesting article focusing on a recent show of theirs, “Tunnel 288″:

On the Radar | Punchdrunk – The Moment Blog – NYTimes.com.

The article notes Punchdrunk will make their American debut with a show called Sleep No More at ART in Boston starting October 13.

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Posted in Local, Shakespeare, theater, Universal

Jun 09

After Years of Advocacy, Newly Renovated High Line Opens – NYTimes.com

Can’t wait to check this out (next week!) – it looks beautiful.

After Years of Advocacy, Newly Renovated High Line Opens – NYTimes.com.

Initially, via kottke.

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Posted in health, random, space, Universal

Jun 08

When A Secret Blogger Cracks Out Of His Shell

Read this article this morning:

When the Thrill of Blogging Is Gone … – NYTimes.com.

… and it made me think about why I actually keep updating Chicky Chow Now.  I see in Google Analytics this space does get a few visitors a day most days, and you actually spend a little time here, but I don’t know who you are:  witness the taunting “No Comments” link beside all posts here.

This fact didn’t bother me until I read this stupid article.  Granted, I don’t do much to drive traffic here.  I don’t even really share this blog with my friends or family. 

I guess I should make up and present a little “statement of purpose”:

I’ve found since I’ve started posting regularly, the benefit for me was to talk out loud.  The exercise of displaying (or sharing, since I think there’s somebody out there) what I like in my own forum and writing a few words about anything, really,  is therapeutic for me.  It keeps me grounded, which feels pretty good.  It’s entertaining for me as well – to write and rewrite and refine (somewhat) my ideas.  It’s stimulating.  I don’t do this on Facebook because it just throws it up in front of everybody’s face (book), which is scary for me and potentially annoying for others.  I know I’m annoyed by some FB egomania.

I like doing it here because this site is a destination for this kind of stuff, my stuff.  And I can revise it if I want. Plus, it’s kind of hidden. If I don’t want you to come here, I don’t have to tell you about Chicky Chow Now (although I’m getting better about sharing the link – I like watching the reaction to the name).

Which makes me feel grateful for the few people who happen upon this site and read something.  So, thank you.  I’m glad you’re here.  But if this ends up just being a digital book for me to record my thoughts (as opposed to discussing anything with anyone) so be it.  But some discussion would be nice too.

Don’t make me beg.

Until then, I’m glad to be in the exclusive group of blogs that has been updated in the past 120 days.  Thanks for that little ego boost, NYTimes article. And damn you for making me care about how many comments I have. Asshole.

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Posted in Bitchfest, dumb, random, Universal

Jun 05

Super Geeky Post Part ²



Ying Yang, originally uploaded by Daquella manera.

So, my friend Charlie at a recent outing happened to have a copy of this super geeky book under his arm – and after I asked what he was reading, he gave me enough of a description to get me interested.

It’s called Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter. I guess it was published about 20 years ago.

Anyway – Lone Gunman, who I read almost daily, posts about this book just a few days after I was chatting about it with Charlie. Mr. Gunman describes the book as “on cognition” and it “defies categorisation”, which is kinda intriguing (as is Mr. Gunman’s British spelling of “categorisation”, not that I follow all the rules I learned in “Eats, Shoots and Leaves”). Hmm.

Specifically, he posts about a video lecture series MIT has made available here. The videos are pretty interesting – what I’ve seen so far, and what I can follow. The first lecture looks to be run by Daniel Faraday from Lost, which is entertaining.

Might be worth tracking down this book. A few other books I’ve enjoyed relating to the study of (I guess) cognition: An Argument for Mind, The Joyous Cosmology, Beat Zen, Squared Zen and Zen (I think that’s actually just an essay), and, wow, I guess just about any Zen or Buddhist text – may as well include Words of My Perfect Teacher and especially The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. These are less math-y, though.

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Posted in random, Universal

Jun 05

Geeky Post

This post is primarily intended to hide the picture of that terrifying clown on the previous post from the front page of this blog.  I hope I write enough lines to actually push that post far enough down so it doesn’t show up when the home page loads.  Are we there yet?

How about now?

Now?

This
should
surely
be
enough.

At any rate – I read this fairly nerdy article about that new “Google Wave” thing and found it interesting, so I’ll share that here.

I like the author’s capacity to be so aroused by technology news that he feels like he could take up arms and a banner and join in some nerd revolution.  That’s love.

Google’s Wave of the future is genius, but will it work? :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Business.

Also note: imagine you’re stranded on a desert island without internet, but you have the definitive print reference to everything in the universe: the Encyclopedia Britannica. You happen to wonder what a computer journalist might look like. You look it up in the “C” volume. Under the entry for “computer journalist” in the Encyclopedia Britannica, you will see the byline picture that appears in this “Google Wave” article.

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Posted in random, Universal

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