Consilience

A book with a vision about the unity of science. Unfortunately, it's a yawner (I didn't finish it) and written with a very arrogant tone. But what can you expect from a Harvard professor?

The Wire

We've started watching The Wire on DVD. Amazing television: of course, it's been cancelled. Great writing and acting, and compelling subject matter. The commentary on the DVD talks about how the writers wanted to illustrate the effects of the corporation of all aspects of life: and they've certainly done a wonderful job at that!

Three Cups of Tea

Wow. The protagonist of this biography, Greg Mortenson, seems like an amazing guy. I think I'd hate to work for him, but he does get results in what does: which has been to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. His way is certainly better than President Bush's way!

If you donate money to anyone this year, I think his institute (the Central Asia Institute) is worth donating to.

Charity Navigator rates the Central Asia Institute as a 4-star charity. Given the return on investment on building a school, I think this is a no-brainer.

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10411

Persepolis

We watched this movie on DVD (which was based on a comic of the same name). I liked the comic better, but maybe that was because the movie was just an animated version of the comic with voices. Still, it is a compelling story (in both versions).

Salsa Y Salsa

We were hungry, and wandered into this Mexican place. The food wasn't that memorable (although I'm writing this several weeks after our meal there). But it wasn't as bad as some of the reviews on Yelp.

The Dark Knight

Wow. This film deserves to make a lot of money (which it has). A well-written plot with some great performances. I'm not sure that I agree that Heath Ledger was as great as the critics say, but he certainly did put on a fine performance as the Joker. The Harvey Dent/Two-Face plot was a little too truncated for my taste, but I can't really complain: I loved this movie.

The Quincunx

Wow, this incredibly dense work is a true masterpiece. Remarkably detailed and emotionally rich, it tells the story of a young man who discovers his mysterious family heritage through the labyrinthine intrigues that he accidentally stumbles into as he comes of age. If you like complex stories, this book's for you. I have to admit that I skimmed parts, because the complexity of the intrigues became too much for me to follow.

Gentlemen of the Road

A short, quick read by Michael Chabon. I read it on the first part of a cross-country plane trip. The funniest comment about it comes from Chabon himself: the working title was "Jews With Swords". If you have some time to do some entertaining reading, this book is worth the time.

The Jasons

I finished this dry but historically interesting work about a group of US-government science advisors. It was fascinating in part because I work with one of the Jasons (I guess that's sort of like voyeurism, but hey, I'm human). The Jasons did some really influential work a few decades ago; they've become less focused as a group since then (the book describes several reason as to the causes, such as a necessary broadening of expertise and a widening of the issues that the military is concerned about). Probably some of the more recent work is classified, as well, although the wikipedia page lists some of the unclassified reports available on the web.

Kum Gang San

We had pretty good Korean food at this restaurant in Koreatown. Good food, if not the cheapest Korean food in the area. I'd rank it below our favorite Korean restaurant, Natural Tofu.

Hellboy II

Another superhero film: 2008 sure has seen a lot of them, and Batman hasn't even come out yet!

Overall, an entertaining film. Who would have expected music by Barry Manilow in a Hellboy movie? It was more of a team-oriented film than the first one: Hellboy was not even close to being the central character of the film (although he is, of course, key to the story).

Il Laboratorio Del Gelato

Some of the best gelato in NYC. What else do you need to know?

Lovejoy Season 3

We started watching the third season of Lovejoy, which just came out on DVD recently. Apparently the BBC is slowly turning out DVDs of their old shows. Ian McShane is great to watch (we saw him on Broadway in The Homeconing this year, and loved him in the HBO show Deadwood).

This series is fine TV: I recommend it highly. The 3rd season had much more intricate plotting than the first 2 seasons; I'll let you decide which you prefer.

We Would Have Played For Nothing

I've slowly been reading this collection of interviews with old baseball stars from the mid-20th century. Entertaining reading, if you're into baseball.

In Bruges

An odd little film about some killers who wind up in Bruges. (For those of you who haven't been there, Bruges is a tourist town in Belgium that I found remarkably boring when I visited it in 1988.) A fantastic cast, though. I have mixed feelings about the movie: entertaining in a dark way, and an enjoyable-to-watch cast, but also really bizarre.

The movie has some relationships to one of Harold Pinter's plays, which aptly describes the bizarreness in the story.

Sex and the City

I didn't think this movie would be that good, but it actually was! The beginning was like a long fashion shoot/wedding planner's dream, and had no useful plot or character development. But then things get interesting: definitely a movie that was worth watching.

Ratatouille

A fine Pixar film that we decided to watch after seeing Wall-E. There is one particularly moving scene where the critic Anton Ego is fed some ratatouille made by Remy. Ego flashes back to his mother's cooking, in an amazingly designed shot. Other than that, I thought that the movie was entertaining and worth watching, if a little predictable.

Dos Caminos

Fancy Mexican restaurant in NY. They make fresh guacamole near your table, which was tasty (although not the best guacamole I have ever had). Overall, a worthwhile experience, but I tend to prefer hole-in-the-wall taquerias to fancy Mexican restaurants.

Our Inner Ape

A fantastic book about how we are similar (and different) to our evolutionary cousins, chimpanzees and bonobos. Sexual behavior, gender differences, societal structures, you name it. This book is a must-read.

Black Book

Black Book is a fantastic movie about the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. The twists and turns in the plot are startling: quite a dense story. The main character was wonderful; her lover was the main character in The Lives of Others, which won an Academy Award in the same year that Black Book was released. The two actors have apparently been in a relationship since that movie; they definitely had some good chemistry.

I highly recommend watching this movie.

JMW Turner

JMW Turner

We went to a members-only lecture about the JMW Turner exhibit that opens on Tuesday at the Met. The galleries were only open to members this weekend, which is a nice way for the museum to encourage membership. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just walked through it quickly. Our first impressions: the Met used much larger rooms than the National Gallery, and placed the paintings closer together. The exhibit felt more intimate in DC, but the relationships between the paintings seemed clearer at the Met.

Wall-E

A beautiful movie. This film may very well be my favorite Pixar film. A little over-messaged, and the plot wasn't particularly interesting. However, Wall-E is gorgeous to see, and it had a great focus on character and atmosphere. Yes, even robots can have character, when done right!

Bobby Flay

Well, I haven't blogged much lately: there's a backlog of blog entries that I need to clean up and post. But I had to include this amusing tidbit: we walked by Bobby Flay this evening while we were on the way home. Not our first celebrity sighting, but the first one that I recognized before Ming.

Brazil Grill

We grabbed some food here because we were hungry, and this was the first restaurant we came across. We had pasta and salad. The portions were quite large, although there was too much meat on the pasta. OK, not highly recommended.

Top Girls

We saw the MTC's revival of Top Girls. It was kind of fascinating at times, and painfully long-winded in others. The actresses all spoke with incredibly strong British accents (most of them faked, although I don't have the ear to tell if they were accurately faked or not). I liked Marisa Tomei in her role, and Martha Plimpton was fun to watch.

The first act was a weird dinner involving mostly historical/semi-historical/fictional women characters: pretty hard-to-follow dialogue, unfortunately. The second act depicted a young woman visiting her aunt, who was the center of the dinner in the first act. The third act was the best, with the main character visiting her sister, who apparently had adopted the main character's daughter. The sister was played by Marisa Tomei; the daughter was played by Martha Plimpton.

The Incredible Hulk

The second Marvel superhero movie of the summer. I liked it, and it's unfortunate that the marketing of the film was weak compared to Iron Man. Apparently Edward Norton had a dispute with the studio. The graphics weren't perfect, but the storyline was decent; the initial scenes in Brazil were well done.

How do they keep the Abomination imprisoned, though?

Saravana Bhavan

Vegetarian Indian food in NY. Yum! I'm not an expert on the cuisine, but I like this restaurant. I've been to the one in Sunnyvale and the one here; maybe someday I'll get to try one in another country.

The Savages

Wow, what a fantastic movie. Great cast and writing, and quite intense. The relatively happy ending was a little too Hollywood, but other than that it was one of the best movies I have seen in a while.

zoma

Ethiopian food in NY. Pretty good: we went there on a hot summer day, and it was empty for lunch. Excellent food, and lots of injera!

The House of Elliot

An interesting BBC production: we've enjoyed watching it. It depicts the difficulty that women had in early 20th-century England in having productive lives, especially without husbands.

Children of Men

An interesting movie from a "hot" director. It was quite dark, but enjoyable to watch. I didn't pay that much attention to the movie, though; Ming was watching it while I was doing other things.

Tales of the Alhambra

I started reading this book after we visited the Alhambra itself. I generally don't favor this type of writing, which is why it took me so long to finish. But it was enjoyable storytelling! The edition I read had a lot of engravings of scenes from the Alhambra, and it was nice to recognize many of them from our vacation.

The Package

A pretty complicated and unbelievable story about an attempted assassination, but it's still fun watching Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones when they were younger.

Sunday in the Park with George

We saw the revival of Sunday in the Park with George, and it was wonderful! A truly moving musical/performance: I'm not sure that I can distinguish between the quality of the music/book and the performers, which were both very high. The lead actor and actress were stunningly virtuosic, and the staging was impressive. The only minor negative was that the pit "orchestra" (just a few musicians) were too loudly miked.

Chronicles of Narnia

Prince Caspian is an entertaining movie, although it isn't really that good. The story doesn't really move at times (they have a lot of long scenery shots that are just boring). When the story does happen, a lot of it is set during long battles during which no blood flows, either. Despite these weaknesses, I did enjoy this very long movie (approaching 2.5 hours!).

Met lecture on fashion/superheroes

Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy

This lecture was nice and concise. The exhibit is fun to see, with one of the Iron Man suits from the movie that came out recently. They also had the Catwoman suit that Michelle Pfeiffer wore. I had never realized that "high fashion" had such weird outfits!

The Odessa File

Gene Hackman and Tommy Lee Jones during the cold war. Fun thriller with a plot full of holes. Entertaining enough, but not highly recommended.

El Quinto Pino

Yum, we found this great tapas bar: and it literally is a bar. No table seating, all bar seating. Fantastic food, especially the eggplant with honey! That dish is a must-have.

Get Carter

We watched the original "Get Carter" on DVD. Michael Caine is so much fun to watch; and this very dark movie was interesting. We haven't seen the remake (and probably won't get around to it), but I tend to prefer older movies anyway: and I cannot imagine that Sylvester Stallone could do as good a job as Michael Caine.

The commentary is interesting (we watched a little of it). In an early scene in the movie, one minor character sits with Michael Caine in a train compartment; I won't spoil the movie by saying who that character is.

Rickshaw Dumpling Bar

I've always loved dumplings, and we finally got around to trying this restaurant (which is almost around the corner from us). This little restaurant isn't cheap, but the dumplings are excellent. Interesting concept!

El Quijote

We ate lunch at this Spanish restaurant. Since I was really hungry, it was hard to be that objective about the food quality. The stuffed scallop was really good, though! The chorizo tasted good, but wasn't the best I've had; the shrimp was excellent, as were the olives and manchego. Worth a visit, although not cheap.

Iron Man

We've entered the age of the comic-book hero. The second-tier heroes are getting their own movies! Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark was inspired casting: the movie is a lot of fun, if slow-paced for an "action" movie. Jeff Bridges was excellent as well.

All around, a good way to kick off the summer movie season!

Murakami in Brooklyn

We went to see this rather over-the-top exhibit of Murakami's art. He combines a Japanese manga-like sensibility with business and "high art": they even had a small Louis Vuitton store inside the exhibit that was selling Murakami bags!

My reaction was that the exhibit was entertaining, but completely overrated. Murakami will not be remembered in 100 years, other than as providing some entertaining art.

A few of his pieces (both sculpture and video) are very explicitly sexual, which was odd. Many visitors had brought young children to the exhibit, and when they got to the room with those sculptures, you could see their faces suddenly change. Other than that, there wasn't anything particularly shocking about the exhibit.

The Brooklyn Museum itself is a wonderful building in a beautiful location.

No Country For Old Men

I watched this movie on DVD while flying back from Europe. A fantastic movie, although the ending of the "main" story was both jarring and fitting at the same time. Great atmosphere (and boy, I would not want to live out in the middle of nowhere!) and extremely well done, although it still felt odd that no one seemed to respond to lots of shooting in the middle of the night.

The Art of Woo

I read this book after taking a seminar at work with one of the authors, G. Richard Shell. He is a very compelling and down-to-earth speaker, and the book is pretty valuable as a business-psychology tutorial on how to sell ideas. Definitely worth reading, if you have to work in any kind of organization (which means everyone...).

Alhambra

 

Well, we visited the Alhambra while in Granada. Of course, how could one go there and not see it? A web album has some more pictures of the Alhambra.

Alhambra

La Sagrada Familia

La Sagrada Familia is an amazing cathedral: well worth visiting to see the genius/insanity of Antoni Gaudi. Unbelievable! Some other pictures of Gaudi buildings in Barcelona can be seen in a web album of other photos:

Gaudi and Barcelona

Patisserie des Ambassades

This restaurant was decent. Not fantastic, but we had a reasonably priced meal here.

Persepolis

This comic, which is about the author's experiences growing up in Iran, is moving, sad, funny, etc. All of the typical reasons why you should read a great novel (or in this case, a great comic). If you read one comic this year, this should be it: it paints of a picture of a country that has been through some major upheavals in the last 50 years.

Puccini for Beginners

A delightful little comedy: a woman gets involved in an amusing love triangle with a man and a woman! Definitely worth watching if you want a light romantic comedy.

Whitney Biennial

We stopped by to see the Whitney Biennial, which is an exhibition of modern artists that occurs every 2 years. Overall, it was relatively uninteresting, but maybe it was because I was tired and hungry after a day at work. There were a few compelling pieces, but a lot of constructed art that was pretty boring.

The Stuff of Thought

Steven Pinker's book on language and thought is fabulous. Some of the chapters were kind of boring (such as the one on swearing), but some were fascinating beyond belief. The somewhat obvious (in retrospect) idea that language is not how we think is remarkable, and Pinker's description of how linguists have deconstructed the building blocks of thought is wonderful. Read this book, if you read only one non-fiction book this year.

Lust, Caution

This movie was very beautifully done. The ambience and tension created by Ang Lee were impressive, although some of the computer graphics were a bit fake-looking. Very slow plot, though; I'm not sure everyone would enjoy it.

Casaville

An excellent restaurant (if a poor web site) that serves tapas (mostly). They had an avocado hummus that was quite good, and a foie-gras mousse that was excellent. Worth going to, although it's not really that close to any subway lines.

Come Back, Little Sheba

This production of this 1950's play was really well done. At the beginning, it felt a little stilted, but either I got used to it or the performers loosened up. S. Epatha Merkerson was the star: she's the police captain on Law and Order. The play felt somewhat dated, given the 1950's gender roles, but the emotional impact was still there.

US Virgin Islands

We took a vacation to the US Virgin Islands, and spent most of our time on St. John. What a lovely place! Instead of blogging the whole trip, we'll put notes on a map that we created using Google Maps.

The Logic of Life

Another book written by an economist about incentives and social psychology. Entertaining and illuminating! I did think that the metaphor that people pay high rents move to cities to learn from the "University of Life" a little silly, though. It seems clear to me that people are not paying for knowledge per se: they are paying for the actual connections (relationships with other people) that they build while in those cities.

The Merchants' War

Charles Stross is a highly entertaining author: this series is a good romp that demonstrates his knowledge of the technology industry, the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and historical fiction. I tend to blow through these books, mostly because the characters are not deep. They tend to not have character flaws, but tend to be the one-dimensional characters seen in lots of simple fiction: they are put in situations where they do the most rational thing.

Otto Restaurant Enoteca Pizza

The prices appear pretty reasonable, until you see that they plate very little food for you. Pretty good quality, but extremely crowded and loud. I don't think we'll go back.

Turkish Kitchen

Yum, Turkish food! This restaurant was very reasonably priced, and the food was delicious. Definitely a winner.

Bello Sguardo

We had dinner at this nice restaurant on the Upper West Side. We just happened to walk by it, and the food was quite good! If we lived closer we would certainly go back.

Macbeth

Patrick Stewart at BAM in a production imported from England. He was awesome. Great production, if a little loud in the soundtrack. The set was quite stunning and versatile, and the setting in a fascistic WWI-type setting was quite impressive. I feel quite lucky to have gotten a chance to see this performance.

BAM's Harvey Theater is an interesting performance space; they kept most of the original walls, which had a really bombed-out look.

There were some subtleties that were interesting in this performance. "Damned be he who first cries, 'Hold, enough!'" The meaning of that line was altered greatly through the delivery by Mr. Stewart---they executed the fight between the last two words, and although Macbeth had the upper hand, he gives up and mutters "Enough." in a despairing sigh. Also, the porter's name "Seyton" is pronounced "Satan", which was in retrospect obvious, but disturbing in its connotations.

ilili

We decided to eat out for Valentine's Day on the night before, since it is a lot easier to get reservations that day. OK, so we're lazy...

The food was quite good, albeit reasonably pricey. The building doesn't look like it would house such a fancy-looking restaurant. But it's pretty close to where we live, and so is a nice option on bad-weather days.

Lovejoy

We watched a few episodes of this BBC antique-dealer-slash-con-man, mostly because Ian McShane was the star. He was the central figure in HBO's Deadwood, and we just saw him on Broadway in The Homecoming. Very fun series, if a bit dated-looking now.

In Defense of Food

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

That's the essence (and subtitle) of the book. What else is there to say? Well, you should read the book. Michael Pollan is a wonderful writer; I wish I could have the chance to meet him.

Lost

Another season of Lost, and it's a good one so far! Some great scenes and stunning revelations to close each episode.

The comic writer Brian K. Vaughn (he just finished Y the Last Man, which is worth reading) has been involved in writing and producing some episodes of Lost. Interesting tie-in!

Jane Austen Book Club

Although very predictable in many ways, this movie was surprisingly endearing. (Certainly not profound, though.) I would recommend it as pretty good light romantic comedy.

Lewis Black

Red, White, and Screwed was pretty hilarious. What else is there to say? Lewis Black is one of the funniest comedians around; hopefully we'll get a chance to see him in person some day.

Candide

We watched this semi-staged performance on DVD; the music, as always, is stunning. Kristin Chenoweth was outstanding!

Music of the Heart

Music of the Heart was a heart-warming film about how music can change kids' lives. A bunch of famous musicians participated, but the most surprising thing was that the director was Wes Craven! Meryl Streep was enjoyable to watch, as always.

Notes on a Scandal

Dame Judi Dench and Kate Blanchett are great, but I felt let down by the writing. The plot seemed way too predictable, and the Judi Dench character seemed too psychotic to be believable. Plus, none of the presumed marital tension between Bill Nighy and Kate Blanchett was really visible, except in the voiceover from Judi Dench. Maybe worth watching, but not highly recommended.

The Homecoming

Wow. This revival of Harold Pinter's play was stunning. I didn't like the play (in the sense that it was highly disturbing and dark), but I was impressed by the visceral intensity generated by the play and cast. Ian McShane was great (we got to know him by watching Deadwood), as was Raul Esparza (we saw him in Company last season). If you're into theatre, it's certainly worth watching; see it soon, though, because the theater was not close to full on a Friday night---this revival might not last that long.

Bon Chon

We had Korean fried chicken at this interesting restaurant. From the outside of the building, we thought it would be a hole in the wall, but it turned out to be a fancy club-like atmosphere. The chicken was really good (for fried chicken), and the sushi rolls were very well done. The loud music was a bit much, though, and the service was OK at best. Mildly recommended.

3:10 to Yuma

This remake was entertaining, and well done. A little focused on machismo and honor as a motivation, but that's the nature of Westerns. Similarly, there weren't any interesting female roles in the film. Christian Bale was convincing, and Russell Crowe was a perfect fit for his part. If you like Westerns, it's worth a few hours.

Discover Your Inner Economist

Casablanca Cafe

Flagler Museum

We visited Whitehall, the building that is now the Flagler Museum. It was built during the Gilded Age by Henry Flagler, one of the founders of Standard Oil. Apparently Flagler was single-handedly responsible for much of modern Florida: he built the railroads in Florida, and did much to encourage agricultural development in the state. Definitely worth seeing!

Ocean's Ten

Crepes

We had a big seafod crepe at a restaurant in downtown Fort Lauderdale during our brief vacation. Pretty decent food, and we managed to hit the end of the dinner rush. If we're ever back there, I'd go back.

Le Tub

We had lunch at this "hole-in-the-wall" local joint in Hollywood, Florida. Apparently GQ called the burgers the best in the country. I don't know about that, but certainly the burger we had was pretty good. We also had an excellent seafood salad. We went after the lunch rush, which was fortunate; the people at the table next to ours had been waiting for their food for 45 minutes! Apparently they have only one grill to serve a place that seats around 100. If it weren't for the long wait, I'd recommend this restaurant highly.

Bombay Talkie

Fancy Indian food. A bit pricey, and you're paying for atmosphere rather than food. But the food was still pretty good; I'd go back.

The Lives of Others

Wow. A wonderful film. Clearly a deserving winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar last year. In fact, I would argue that it was a better film than The Departed, which won Best Picture. But we can't do much about the US-centric Oscars; after all, each country has its own awards ceremony. We watched the various special features on the DVD, and the interview with the director was fascinating. I just wish we had watched it sooner!

Alex Ross

I went to hear Alex Ross, the classical-music critic for the New Yorker, give an interview at the Strand. The interview was sponsored by WQXR. The occasion was the publication of his first book, The Rest Is Noise
, a history of classical music in the 20th century. The book got rave reviews everywhere, so I've reserved it at the library. The interview was interesting, but I would have preferred a lecture by Alex Ross. The interviewer was Jeff Spurgeon, who is the morning announcer on WQXR. There's always something going on in New York!

Stoner

A friend lent me this book, and it is a must-read. Beautiful, compelling prose, and a moving story about a small-town college professor around the turn of the 20th century. I loved the book, and found hilarious the mildly barbed comment about academia that one of the jaded graduate students makes early on in the novel. You must read this gem!

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

A silly, although entertaining movie. We usually watch blockbuster action movies in the theatre, just for the better sound and huge picture. This movie wasn't a great action movie in that sense; we could just as easily watched it at home. The plot itself was absurd, and made me laugh out loud several times. It is worth a rental when you want a bit of light entertainment; the only reason that it dominated the box office for several weeks is that there was nothing better to watch.

Thank You For Smoking

I'd seen this before, but it was definitely worth watching a second time. Wonderful cast, hilarious writing (Rob Lowe's character was a hoot)---what else could one want? If you haven't seen this, you should.

Once

Once is a delightful movie about and around music. The star is apparently an Irish rock star (acting in his first rock movie). The plot revolves around a non-simple love story, which makes it interesting; it shows how love can manifest in unexpected ways, and how it can enrich one's life. Definitely worth watching (and listening to for the great soundtrack)!

Menchanko-Tei

We ate at this "hole-in-the-wall" Japanese restaurant, which has great Japanese noodles. Highly recommended, and at pretty reasonable prices too. Yum!

Sicko

We watched Michael Moore's movie about the brokenness of the health-care system. It points out many flaws in our system, but unfortunately doesn't try to grapple any of the real complexity underlying the issues. He makes simplistic comparisons with the UK and Cuba, and makes the argument that "we could just be like them". Of course we could be, but it's not that simple to just change everything.

Also, he encourages the perception that everyone should be able to get all of the health care that they need. Of course that's not true: someone has to pay for it!

The Namesake

An interesting movie about the difficulty of adapting as an immigrant to America. It was moving at times, albeit somewhat predictable. The actors who played the mother and father were really quite good.

I haven't read the book on which this movie is based; from what I hear, the movie is quite different than the book. The movie was more about the family, and in particular, the mother; the book is probably more about the son (the "namesake"). I skimmed parts of the book in a bookstore, and I disliked how the director and screenwriter changed around the story. From the DVD special feature on the making of the movie, it was clear that the director had a very different vision of the story than the novel. She certainly did a good job of imposing her view on the story.

Enjoyable, but I would not recommend it highly.

Ottimo

We ate at a nice Italian restaurant called Ottimo for New Year's Eve. It was reasonably pricey, but pretty good food. I had Penne Arrabiatta, and boy was it spicy! The appetizer we ordered (an antipasto plate) was really good. High-quality food, but not cheap.

The Receptionist

The Receptionist was playing at the Manhattan Theatre Club, which is an organization that is devoted to helping young playwrights. The Receptionist is a very creepy play that is set in a strangely ambiguous, Kafka-esque world. The entire play revolves around one simple line, which I can't quite recall, and which would also give away the whole premise if I put it here; so I won't. The play occurs in two short acts: the total running time is about an hour. See it if you can!

My Architect

Louis Kahn was a fascinatingly weird character who produced some marvelous (as well as some remarkably ugly) architecture. This documentary was made by his illegitimate son, and is interesting, if you're into learning about people who are absolutely devoted to their art.

Sweeney Todd

Ah, what a violent concept. And, boy, can Johnny Depp do anything that he puts his mind to? The movie was disturbingly bloody: throats slashed left and right. It was way over the top, but also extremely well done. If you want to see a musical horror movie, this is the one to see!

Age of Rembrandt

We saw the exhibit of the Met's collection Dutch art. It wasn't that exciting: too much of the commentary had to do with the history of the acquisition, as opposed to the history of the art. Plus, I was coming down with some illness, so it was really hard to concentrate on art. But it's always fun to visit the Met!

The Devil in the White City

We had listened to this book on CD a while back, and I finally got around to actually reading the book (I miss a lot of details on CD). This beautifully written book is the tale of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair: it centers around the architects who got it built (led by Daniel Burnham, who also built the Flatiron Building in NYC), and the first known urban serial killer, who preyed upon women in Chicago during that time.

Did you know that Cracker Jack, Aunt Jemima's, the zipper, the Ferris wheel, and the electric dishwasher were all first introduced at that fair? The fair was also the first major demonstration of widespread use of AC electricity. I recommend this book highly.

China Road

Rob Gifford's wonderful book about China describes a trip he took across China. It's a wonderful read, and its clear that Gifford loves China and its people. The most fascinating thing that I learned was that China is more diverse than the government lets on. Gifford says that China today is analogous to the Roman Empire: a motley collection of peoples held together by force. (He also makes the humorous statement that "going out for Chinese food" is analogous to "going out for European food".) All in all, a definite must-read if you're interested in China!

Carnegie Hall Young Artists' Concerts

I went with some friends to hear a master class given by Emanuel Ax, Richard Stolzmann, and David Zinman on various Brahms sonatas. It was entertaining: the F-minor clarinet sonata performed by José Franch-Ballester (clarinet) and
Andrius Zlabys (piano) was great. The other performers were good, but not as well-prepared.

Gimme Kudos

This Chinese movie has English subtitles, which is one of the reasons we took it out of the library. It was an interesting, dark little movie; I was glad that we watched it (although it had enough scratches that we couldn't watch the very end). The movie deals with the conflict between societal pressures in the "old" Communist China, and the new modern China. It is pretty funny at times (my Chinese is good enough to appreciate that), but it isn't really a comedy. I give it a solid "thumbs-up".

Waitress

Waitress is a charming film (which gains some resonance because this was the last film made by actor/writer/director Adrienne Shelly). Somewhat predictable, but filled with charming writing, beautiful pies, and a great cast. Keri Russell did a great job as the lead character. Nathan Fillion seems to pop up in a lot of movies these days (he was on Firefly); he's always fun to watch. Jeremy Sisto was great as the psycho, narcissistic husband; and Andy Griffith was charming as the grumpy old man.