In NyC: July 9, 2007

Things change. Things stay the same. Things that are the same: Mamoun's Falafel place and Cafe Reggio on Macdougal. But Dojos is gone from St. Marks. Life Cafe is still here. But across from Peter Jerema's Funeral parlor on 7th Street (above which I lived in 1988 and entered after hours via the coffin room in order to use the bathroom when our plumbing went kabut) there's a fancy restaurant with the best waiter (well my favorite so far). It's where the old mute Russian man used to sleep. The building was dilapidated then. And, King Tut's is no longer King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, but a swanky little bar with a nice back room where you can have a conversation.

While Arielle was here, we saw the Bodies Exhibition, the Mythological Creatures show at the AMNH and the frogs there--oh the not to be missed frogs--and then, those gems, those meteorites--two shebangs worth seeing. We also caught the debut of Moore's _Sicko_ which made me sicko about our insurance-tainted medical system. Our only Broadway musical was Spamalot which we spammed a lot. My take is: it's tons better than the movie although it gets a little gimmicky toward the end with spoofing Broadway; still, it works. Your favorite scenes from the Holy Grail are done ten times better by skilled actors: 10x funnier.

Celebrated Laura's birthday on 7/7/07 which is a pretty cool date to be turning 57. Here's a picture of us at Prem-On (Thai) on Houston before we took a hike to the east side and before we cabbed it back for dessert at Cafe Reggio:

Laura's chilean seabass trumped my roasted duck but Terry's dish was not to be missed (Pad thai, I think). I had to skip the wine b/c I was nursing a hang over from the night before.

Speaking of the night before: David and I had a lovely dinner at ___ (I'll edit when I remember) and hit Ludlow Street later for more drinks and dancing at Cave Canem. I think we forgot that we're 20 years older than when we used to hang at Nell's, Area, Madame Rosa's, Save the Robots, Milk Bar, Rolodex, and, sometimes, the Palladium. It was wonderful to see David--not the 20-yr-old anymore, entertaining, still funny and pure david: he's king of nyc in my book. We stopped by my old apartment on 11th Street and wondered which buzzer it was. I couldn't remember. Maybe it was too much wine. Now that I'm thinking about it: 2E seems right. Then, we stopped at Veselkas; David had pirogees and apple pie, and I had borsht soup. It had been so long since that soup.


So going backward, I had a wonderful 4th of July. Cliff and I caught the New Pornographers at the Battery Park stage, then walked to his friend Jess's apartment on Grand Street where he was surprised again and again by friends whom he didn't know knew Jess. Here's a picture of Cliff and Lana:

The weekend before, Cliff, Arielle and I went to Long Beach.

Here's Arielle:



Before that? Well, there were movies and shopping and seeing Tomo in the West Village. We ate at Caliente Cab, which is still the same. And passed a restaurant named Tomo's, which Tomo had never seen.

Here's Tomo and me:









And me, in Battery Park:


C'est tout pour maintenant.