Movies, Books, electronics

Happily, my new netbook is set up thanks to Jim Freund (I tried it and it works. Yay!) and my printer four in one has been set up by Matt Kressel. And it works. Another yay--thanks guys.

Hoping a friend will take the HP printer off my hands soon.

Finished The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I loved. I think I'm glad I saw the movie first because the actress who plays Lisbeth is so perfect. Having seen the movie I don't feel I really needed to read the book, although there is far more about the relationship between Mikael Blomkvist and Erika Berger (the publisher) in the book. Having seen the movie helped keep the members of the Vanger family straight--I have a feeling that if I read the book first I might have been very confused.

I've just started The Girl Who Played With Fire and it immediately draws the reader in.

I had two wonderful meals this past week: Sushi, at my local Japanese restaurant with lots of Nigori unfiltered cold sake, plenty of sushi and various flavors of mochi (the ice cream wrapped in pounded sticky rice). Delicious. Then Wednesday I celebrated a friend's birthday at Café Soleil on the upper west side. Wine flowed, food was eaten, women talked (it was 13 women) and desserts were tasted. It was a fine night.

This evening I watched It's Complicated, the recent comedy with Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin, and Steve Martin. Streep and Baldwin have been divorced ten years and he's remarried to the younger woman with whom he cheated on Streep. Streep and Baldwin start having an affair just as she's becoming interested in Martin. Streep and Baldwin are great in it. Martin is stiff. Not as funny as I would have liked but pleasant enough.

The second movie of the evening is the amazing French movie Innocence, which has to be one of the creepiest movies I've ever seen. It opens with a coffin and a bunch of little girls opening it and goes on from there. About thirty girls from 6-11 years old are living within a "park" that houses a school. They are taught by two young women and catered to by a bunch of elderly servants. Marion Cottilard is one of the teachers. It's written and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic (her first full length film) and based on a novella by Frank Wedekind (author of the hit musical Spring Awakening. Interestingly, after listening to a long interview with Hadzihalilovic, the movie is not intended to be creepy. But see it for yourself.

A barbie kind of day

Today, two friends and I attended the 8th Annual BIG APPLE BARBECUE BLOCK PARTY at Madison Square Park. If we'd planned enough in advance, we could have bought a "fastpass" for $125, which entitles the bearer to $100 worth of food, beverage, and merchandise (sauces from several of the BBQ sellers) and best of all an express pass. (two of us could have shared it easily or even all three of us) But by the time we decided to go the passes were sold out. To eat as you go (as we did), it was $8 a Plate.

The park, as expected, was a zoo with mobs of people jostling for beer and to hear the music. It took us a bit of time to discover the actual FOOD was outside the east entrance of the park.
The lines weren't as awful as we expected. The looked much worse than they were.

In fact, between 1-2:30 or so we sampled four different types of bbq, two of us waiting on different lines, one staying on the lawn in the park with our picnic sheet.


Jim 'n Nick's--one delicious large homemade sausage from Birmingham, Alabama--a nice crunch to the outside and very tasty/spicy inside with pimento cheese on the side

Checkered Pig (my favorite)--St. Louis-Style Ribs from Martinsville, VA--fall off the bone-well done with a sweet/hot sauce--exactly the way I love it. Two orders (three ribs each order)

Baker's Ribs-- St. Louis-Style Ribs from Dallas, TX--the outside of these wasn't as crispy as the Checkered Pig but the actual meat was delicious and lean. One order, (three ribs). Third party dropped out of this one so Claire and I ate them all.

BlackJack Barbecue--Pulled Pork Shoulder from Charleston, SC--the meat was yummy and the sauce was a bourbon sauce and excellent. On a bun. Three of us shared.

We were all stuffed by then and walked down to the Union Square Greenmarket then split.

We were lucky that it didn't rain as originally predicted. The event also takes place tomorrow so if you're in the neighborhood, check it out (although rain's predicted for tomorrow).

Big Apple BBQ Block Party