Dead Man's Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean #2 (Dead Man's Chest) was entertaining, if a horribly written film. Why does the Elizabeth character seem to be attracted to Jack Sparrow? Why do they all miss him when he is dead? Weird story, but if you don't pay attention to details the movie is a fun ride. I'm glad I didn't watch this in the theater, though!

War

War! What is it good for? Well, not quite "absolutely nothing". It was decent entertainment, but certainly not fine film. Very violent with a twist at the end that was apparently predictable; I didn't see it coming, but one of my friends did from the very beginning.

Comfort Diner

We grabbed dinner at the Comfort Diner, which is a pretty good place right near where we live. Pretty good quality food for the price, and I always love diner food anyway.

Flight

A friend lent me Sherman Alexie's new book Flight, which is a good read. Structurally, the book felt weird: it reminded me vaguely of If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino, although of course the subjects and tone of this book are completely different. This book is about rage, impotence, and revenge, and the pain of being an Indian in modern America. Worth reading, and it's pretty short too.

Cuba Cafe

We had dinner at the Cuba Cafe in Chelsea. The web site is funny: it uses the term "Chelsea boys", which is a term that some of our friends explained to us last weekend.

In any case, the food was good, although a tad pricey for the number of calories. But I would go back; in fact, I think I was in this restaurant in 2005, so it seems to have survived pretty well.

Scott McCloud

I got to see a talk by Scott McCloud during his Making Comics Tour. He is an entertaining and intelligent writer of and about comics, and his presentation was extremely fun to watch. I was lucky to see him!

Resto

It's a good week for Belgian food, I guess. We went to another Belgian restaurant in NY called Resto. This time we had mussels, which were really quite tender. The food came really slowly, though; we had to complain to get our entrees. Pretty expensive place, but the real problem was that the place was too loud. Crowded, lots of people there for drinks, and a tin ceiling that reflected sound back down into the room. I doubt we'll go back, given our inability to have a conversation.

Markt

We had Belgian food at a restaurant in Chelsea called Markt. We didn't have mussels, though. Pretty good food, nice ambience (with big windows opening out onto 6th Avenue), and decent service. Reasonably priced, although not cheap.

Chelsea Art Museum

We wandered around Chelsea this afternoon in the hope of seeing some galleries. Unfortunately, it turns out that the galleries are not open on the weekends...

We were able to go into the Chelsea Art Museum, which was wonderful. Only $6, and they had some pretty interesting stuff. One artist, Federico Uribe, makes animals/jungle scenes out of Puma sneaker parts. Check out the museum's web site: it's pretty astonishing.

The other interesting exhibit was of Miwa Yanagi's photography. She has a pretty interesting way of viewing the world; some of it quite disturbing.

Zodiac

We watched Zodiac on DVD, spread over a couple of days. It's a brilliantly crafted movie by David Fincher, with lots of interesting/recognizable actors and a good script. Despite all that, it just wasn't that compelling. There were a few spooky scenes, since it is never clear which weirdo is the Zodiac killer. But all in all, it's a hard movie to really get into, because there is no resolution, and the main character (the author Robert Graysmith), isn't that interesting or likable: it is never clear why he gets so obsessed with the Zodiac killings.

Kofoo

We had dinner at a place called Kofoo (short for "Korean food"). Pretty inexpensive, and it's probably a good lunch place (it is right across the street from the Fashion Institute of Technology). However, as a dinner place it was kind of unsatisfying, even though the price was good.

Bella Napoli

We had dinner at a good neighborhood Italian restaurant called Bella Napoli. Excellent food, especially given the price: we had dinner for around 30 dollars. I'm sure we'll be going back there.

Bourne Ultimatum

I saw The Bourne Ultimatum on a weekday. I had tried to see it opening weekend, but it was sold out everywhere. Even on a Wednesday night, the theater was 90% full! The movie was a fun ride, and is wonderful entertainment. It certainly is going to continue raking in the money.

300

I quickly watched 300 on DVD. The comic (as I remember it) was kind of entertaining to read, but the feature film was just kind of boring. It was a much worse movie than Sin City, which at least didn't have any pretense of being anything other than fun. As a movie, the story took itself way too seriously.