Tuesday night I went to the Teacher's College at Columbia University to see Neil Gaiman -- one of my favourite writers -- and to hear him read from his new novel, the Graveyard Book.
I got there at 6pm, and followed a long line for about 45 minutes to buy a copy of the new book (pre-signed in redish ink by the man himself); I also picked up a graphic novel of his as well (1602). After getting my books, I headed inside. I lucked out and grabbed a single seat in the middle of the auditorium, about four or five rows back.
I sat there and read my new copy of 1602 for a little while, and then Neil came on at about 7:10, did a hello and a bit of an intro, then stood behind a podium and read the first chapter of the new book (which is the benefit of it being the launch of the tour -- we got to hear the beginning). He was a great reader, very good at the narration, and doing voices (but not too broadly, just right) for most of the characters, including little gestures sometimes to match what they were doing. It was really good, and I can't wait to read the rest of it...
After a short break, they showed a five-or-so-minute-long trailer for the upcoming Coraline stop-motion movie, then Neil came back out to answer questions that people had written down for him.
There was some good stuff in there, such as talking about Doctor Who (with coy answers that he'd love to write an episode if the show-runner asked him, and then saying he'd had a recent conversation with said show-runner, but not what it was about -- "many things" he said).
Due to several similar questions, he said that he had lots of stories floating around about characters or settings that are fan-favourites, from the likes of American Gods, to Stardust, to Neverwhere. Whether they ever get written depends on what else he has going though, but the ideas are there...
He talked a little bit about his recent trip to China, where he had broken his finger, hence no personal signings or hand-shaking that night. He declined to explain how he broke his finger, but did tell an amusing story about a very bad haircut he got -- bad, but mercifully cheap.
He also let slip that there is a Coraline musical being worked one (not connected to the film) and that it should be opening in Brooklyn next year (May, I think?). And that the man behind it was also interested in doing a Gaveyard Book musical now as well.
A funny moment came when gave a girl a hug, after her friend wrote that securing said hug would be the best birthday present she could give, but he also mock-admonished the writer for being cheap and told her she would still have to buy a present.
A somber moment came when someone had written asking if he would collaborate with Terry Pratchett again, which lead to a short, wistful discussion of TP's Alzheimer's. He basically said that he'd love to, that they'd even talked about it, but that it rather depended on how much time there was, what with TP wanting to get as many stories of his own out while he still can ... so sad.
Anyway, wistfulness about one of my other favourite authors aside, it was great time, and very cool to see someone like Neil in the flesh. I'm really glad I went.
Max Brenner, the Met, Henry's End, Burn After Reading
After a couple of quiet weekends, thanks to horrible New York mutant colds, we finally ventured out of the apartment this weekend: Yay!
We went into Manhattan late Saturday morning, heading for the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Suzy needed to check out the Greek and Roman art exhibits for school. On the way there, we stopped for breakfast at Max Brenner, a chocolate-centric cafe/restaurant. The food was OK, but not great (it didn't help that I had to send my eggs back for being nearly raw in the center). The chocolaty items were a different story: we each had a hot chocolate, and the breakfasts came with chocolate spread for the toast, and that stuff was delicious. Based on that, we'll go back some time, but for dessert.
We ended up spending about two hours looking through the Greek and Roman sections of the Met, with Suzy taking some notes for her class. It was interesting, but I found it to be a bit too repetitive -- I can only find so many urns and pots interesting. The highlights for me were the arms and armor, the statues, and a chariot.
We headed back to Brooklyn and made a "brief" stop at the new Trader Joe's grocery store that opened not far from our place. We ended up filling our little cart more than halfway, stocking up the fridge, freezer, and cupboards with a variety of meal and snack items. They have a great selection of foods there, both fresh and packaged, with the majority of it being their own brand. If the quality ends up being good, I can see doing a lot of shopping there, as their prices are fairly low.
Later Saturday evening, we walked to DUMBO to go a restaurant called Henry's End. We were lucky and got seated almost right away. Our server was interesting: the restaurant comes across like a somewhat high-end pub, with a mix of professionals aged about 25-50, but our server (though she certainly was a good one) seemed like someone from a small-town diner. She was probably 55-60, and she called everyone "hun" or something similar, and she would say things like "How did you do?" as she came to clear plates. She was pretty funny, just because she seemed so out of context.
Anyway, the restaurant itself was pretty good, but I don't know if we'll rush back. There are so many places to try, and we've already found one or two, like Saul, that we would definitely go back to, that there isn't much room for return visits to places that just decent-to-good. I will say that my entree, elk chops, was quite good, and they were definitely noticeable for their interesting selections of game: Buffalo steak, elk chops, turtle soup, and more... Different! For the record, the elk seemed like it was somewhere between lamb and beef in flavour, not gamey tasting at all -- a very mild flavour in fact.
On Sunday, it was a quieter day, though we did go see and late afternoon show of Burn After Reading. I enjoyed it, though I found that I didn't laugh a lot, really. I wonder if I will warm to it after multiple viewings, like Fargo or The Big Lebowski? I certainly liked it better than Intolerable Cruelty, and far more than The Ladykillers (which is the only Coen brothers' movie I really dislike).
We went into Manhattan late Saturday morning, heading for the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Suzy needed to check out the Greek and Roman art exhibits for school. On the way there, we stopped for breakfast at Max Brenner, a chocolate-centric cafe/restaurant. The food was OK, but not great (it didn't help that I had to send my eggs back for being nearly raw in the center). The chocolaty items were a different story: we each had a hot chocolate, and the breakfasts came with chocolate spread for the toast, and that stuff was delicious. Based on that, we'll go back some time, but for dessert.
We ended up spending about two hours looking through the Greek and Roman sections of the Met, with Suzy taking some notes for her class. It was interesting, but I found it to be a bit too repetitive -- I can only find so many urns and pots interesting. The highlights for me were the arms and armor, the statues, and a chariot.
We headed back to Brooklyn and made a "brief" stop at the new Trader Joe's grocery store that opened not far from our place. We ended up filling our little cart more than halfway, stocking up the fridge, freezer, and cupboards with a variety of meal and snack items. They have a great selection of foods there, both fresh and packaged, with the majority of it being their own brand. If the quality ends up being good, I can see doing a lot of shopping there, as their prices are fairly low.
Later Saturday evening, we walked to DUMBO to go a restaurant called Henry's End. We were lucky and got seated almost right away. Our server was interesting: the restaurant comes across like a somewhat high-end pub, with a mix of professionals aged about 25-50, but our server (though she certainly was a good one) seemed like someone from a small-town diner. She was probably 55-60, and she called everyone "hun" or something similar, and she would say things like "How did you do?" as she came to clear plates. She was pretty funny, just because she seemed so out of context.
Anyway, the restaurant itself was pretty good, but I don't know if we'll rush back. There are so many places to try, and we've already found one or two, like Saul, that we would definitely go back to, that there isn't much room for return visits to places that just decent-to-good. I will say that my entree, elk chops, was quite good, and they were definitely noticeable for their interesting selections of game: Buffalo steak, elk chops, turtle soup, and more... Different! For the record, the elk seemed like it was somewhere between lamb and beef in flavour, not gamey tasting at all -- a very mild flavour in fact.
On Sunday, it was a quieter day, though we did go see and late afternoon show of Burn After Reading. I enjoyed it, though I found that I didn't laugh a lot, really. I wonder if I will warm to it after multiple viewings, like Fargo or The Big Lebowski? I certainly liked it better than Intolerable Cruelty, and far more than The Ladykillers (which is the only Coen brothers' movie I really dislike).
Nantori and a quiet weekend
Not much to report from this past weekend. Suzy was down and out with a cold, so we mostly hung around the apartment, with lots of reading, computer-use, and watching of The Wire, with a side of laundry for me.
We did try one new restaurant, ordering in from Nantori, a Japanese restaurant, on Friday night. Suzy had a dish with chicken and vegetables on skewers, with rice, and I ordered a sushi plate, and some pork springrolls. My sushi was OK -- it was all very fresh, but it was also sort of bland, which is really odd since it was a Spicy Combo, in theory. Suzy said her dish was quite good, and we both liked the pork springrolls. That said, I'd order from Lichee Nut in a heartbeat before trying Nantori again.
Hopefully, we're both healthy come this weekend and can get over to Manhattan for some adventures.
We did try one new restaurant, ordering in from Nantori, a Japanese restaurant, on Friday night. Suzy had a dish with chicken and vegetables on skewers, with rice, and I ordered a sushi plate, and some pork springrolls. My sushi was OK -- it was all very fresh, but it was also sort of bland, which is really odd since it was a Spicy Combo, in theory. Suzy said her dish was quite good, and we both liked the pork springrolls. That said, I'd order from Lichee Nut in a heartbeat before trying Nantori again.
Hopefully, we're both healthy come this weekend and can get over to Manhattan for some adventures.
Almondine, D&D, Fascati, Manhattan
This weekend was a quieter one. For Friday, I'll just mention that we had some take-out from Lichee Nut again for dinner; that place is so fantastic. The food was really good, and with (free) delivery and tax, it was 22 bucks for two dishes, rice, and a side of dumplings, which gave us a huge meal and lunch fr Suzy on Saturday. Awesome restaurant.
Late Saturday morning we walked up to D.U.M.B.O. and went to the Almondine bakery, which was finally open after their summer vacation. I had a tuna sandwich on a little loaf of cheese bread, and Suzy had a croissant, and also got a few pastries to try later. Suzy said her croissant was quite good, and my sandwich was also great -- the bread itself was fantastic, soft and fresh inside and really crusty and crisp on the outside without being chewy.
Around noon, I took the train over to Midtown to go to a meet of an NYC D&D group I found online back in July. There were about 50 people there, playing about 8 different campaigns. I managed to get into a pick-up game of 4th Edition D&D with a guy who was running a game for the first time. There were seven of us playing, and it was ... pretty good. It was definitely kind of weird to just sit down and play with a bunch of strangers though, and I didn't really click with anyone. I think if I go to another meet, I'll try to play with some different people, and see how I do. I do know that compared to playing back in SJ with my friends, this was nowhere near as fun, but I also know that the friends were the source of most of the fun anyway, not the game. I think in order to really enjoy playing, I need to find people I like hanging out with first, and then add in D&D, another pastime altogether, second.
Saturday night, thanks to the driving rain of Hannah, we opted to not go the the store to get stuff for supper and instead had pizza delivered from Fascati's. It took a while to show up, but it was still hot when it did. It was definitely good, but I think my favourite is still Monty Q's.
Sunday we rocked out at the laundromat for most of the morning (booyah!) and then later in the afternoon we took the subway over to Manhattan. We stopped near Wall Street so Suzy could pick up a book for school at a Borders, then walked over to Century 21 and found me a new Pair of shoes for work. We hopped back on the subway to go up to Union Square. From there we walked to City Bakery for a pretzel croissant (yum!) and then headed to Bed Bath & Beyond for a coupel of things for the apartment.
We walked back to Union Square, stopped at Whole Foods for some stuff for supper, and then back on the subway to go home. Like I said, a quieter weekend.
Late Saturday morning we walked up to D.U.M.B.O. and went to the Almondine bakery, which was finally open after their summer vacation. I had a tuna sandwich on a little loaf of cheese bread, and Suzy had a croissant, and also got a few pastries to try later. Suzy said her croissant was quite good, and my sandwich was also great -- the bread itself was fantastic, soft and fresh inside and really crusty and crisp on the outside without being chewy.
Around noon, I took the train over to Midtown to go to a meet of an NYC D&D group I found online back in July. There were about 50 people there, playing about 8 different campaigns. I managed to get into a pick-up game of 4th Edition D&D with a guy who was running a game for the first time. There were seven of us playing, and it was ... pretty good. It was definitely kind of weird to just sit down and play with a bunch of strangers though, and I didn't really click with anyone. I think if I go to another meet, I'll try to play with some different people, and see how I do. I do know that compared to playing back in SJ with my friends, this was nowhere near as fun, but I also know that the friends were the source of most of the fun anyway, not the game. I think in order to really enjoy playing, I need to find people I like hanging out with first, and then add in D&D, another pastime altogether, second.
Saturday night, thanks to the driving rain of Hannah, we opted to not go the the store to get stuff for supper and instead had pizza delivered from Fascati's. It took a while to show up, but it was still hot when it did. It was definitely good, but I think my favourite is still Monty Q's.
Sunday we rocked out at the laundromat for most of the morning (booyah!) and then later in the afternoon we took the subway over to Manhattan. We stopped near Wall Street so Suzy could pick up a book for school at a Borders, then walked over to Century 21 and found me a new Pair of shoes for work. We hopped back on the subway to go up to Union Square. From there we walked to City Bakery for a pretzel croissant (yum!) and then headed to Bed Bath & Beyond for a coupel of things for the apartment.
We walked back to Union Square, stopped at Whole Foods for some stuff for supper, and then back on the subway to go home. Like I said, a quieter weekend.
Smith Street, Lobo, The Chocolate Room
We spent the afternoon of our last day of the long weekend walking down Smith Street in Brooklyn, the northern end of which isn't too far from our place. It's been dubbed "Brooklyn's Restaurant Row" in recent years and there are certainly a large number of little restaurants and bars to sustain that title. We walked down the street, then back, over the course of about two and a half hours, then headed over to Court Street to see what was playing at Cobble Hill Cinema.
Not much. There were a couple of shows we were interested in, but the early shows had all started by this time (6pm), so we wandered back up Court and eventually stopped at a resturant called Lobo to have some Tex-Mex for dinner.
We sat on their back patio in the shade and enjoyed some cold drinks (a Corona for me and a marg for Suzy, which she said was very good). The chips and salsa they brought out were good, though rather heavy on the cilantro for Suzy. Suzy ended up having some chicken soft tacos, while I had The Alamo, which consisted of a beef burrito, a chicken enchilada, and a taco with cheese and vegetables. Both dishes had rice and beans on the side, and everything was good. Their prices are also quite good.
I really want to find a place that's known for very good Mexican or Tex-Mex though, since although Lobo was good, it was basically the same as Mexicali Rosa's and any other "south of the border" restuarant I've eaten at.
Not much. There were a couple of shows we were interested in, but the early shows had all started by this time (6pm), so we wandered back up Court and eventually stopped at a resturant called Lobo to have some Tex-Mex for dinner.
We sat on their back patio in the shade and enjoyed some cold drinks (a Corona for me and a marg for Suzy, which she said was very good). The chips and salsa they brought out were good, though rather heavy on the cilantro for Suzy. Suzy ended up having some chicken soft tacos, while I had The Alamo, which consisted of a beef burrito, a chicken enchilada, and a taco with cheese and vegetables. Both dishes had rice and beans on the side, and everything was good. Their prices are also quite good.
I really want to find a place that's known for very good Mexican or Tex-Mex though, since although Lobo was good, it was basically the same as Mexicali Rosa's and any other "south of the border" restuarant I've eaten at.
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