How Mischa got her groove back

The three-day weekend of April 12-14 was a significant one for me. You could say that it was the weekend that Mischa got her groove back.

I took the Friday off to attend the New York Audio Show, an exhibit of new high-end audio equipment. This show is different from the Home Theater Show I attended in New York several years back, as the difference in name suggests. Only one of the 20-odd rooms was playing a movie as a demo (the opening scene of “Skyfall”); the rest were playing either analog records or digital music through a pair of stereo speakers.

Now, I’m not really in the market for a $20,000 pre-amplifier or an $80,000 pair of speakers. What I’ve already got is more than enough for my little apartment. But you don’t have to be a buyer to appreciate the beauty of such equipment, like admiring an exotic car in the showroom. And paying $18 to take the stuff for a spin, well, that’s a pretty compelling deal. Which reminds me, I need to book my Lamborghini test drive I purchased on Amazon Deals….

But my favorite part of the show was, after wandering from room to room and hearing snippets of this and that, I stumbled on a large room where a Classic Album Sundays session was about to start. This is an event scheduled in different places all over the world where people gather to do critical listening of an entire album without interruption. My old family used to do the same thing, but they called it Music Club.

Since this was an epicenter of audio, the setup was incredible: Wilson MAXX 3 speakers that are in the neighborhood of $60,000/pair, VTL tube amplifiers as large as full-size suitcases, Transparent speaker cables that could hold up the Brooklyn Bridge, judging from their thickness. The Spiral Groove turntable was set up by Michael Fremer, possibly the world’s foremost authority on the art and science of analog playback. It was a dream system for anyone short of Middle East royalty.

I got a seat in the front row, a couple chairs right of center, and waited for the program to begin. The host, Colleen, gave a short introduction to herself, her event, and the record we were about to hear, Remain in Light by the Talking Heads. I only know one Talking Heads song, “Once in a Lifetime,” from seeing clips of their live concert movie, "Stop Making Sense" – it’s the first track on Side B of Remain in Light. We turned the lights off and listened to the whole record, front to back, without interruptions.

This might not sound like everyone’s cup of tea, but it was an exciting experience for me. Not so much that I was blown away by the sound. One thing about high-end audio is that it’s usually not flashy, sound-wise, because that gets fatiguing after a while. It strives for accuracy, fidelity, perfection. It tries not to call attention to itself sonically (even though visually it can be overwhelming), in order to step out of the way of the music. And that’s what it was about for me, being in a room full of people willing to shut off their phones and appreciate the complete record album as an art form representing a single point in time, not as a vehicle to collect hit songs.

I ended the night in another room, listening to Anesthetize by Porcupine Tree on a much smaller set of Wilson speakers. It was interesting how much different it sounds from what I’m used to hearing through headphones and earbuds. There’s complexity in the percussive quality of Gavin’s drums that’s missing from casual listening devices. It sounds like a real drum with a head and shell, not just a beat from a machine. It's also set further back in the listening space, rather than dominating the sound as it does through my Altec Lansing earbuds.

Saturday, I listened to more music of a different kind – the live kind, as I took my friend Christine to see Muse at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. We had a nice time driving up and back, and it was good spending a big block of one-on-one time with someone I don’t know that well – very much like listening to an entire album for the first time. The concert itself was fantastic, only a little on the loud side. After Friday’s experience, I was more interested in protecting my hearing so I wore my earbuds on some songs. But the show was terrific and I’m glad I finally got to see them in a live show. Since then, I've been listening to their entire new album, The 2nd Law, over and over - it's phenomenal and highly recommended.

So the repercussions of that weekend led me to think about how I could achieve better sound in my listening space. I don't really want to delve back into analog because I don't have room for a turntable and a record collection, so I decided it was time to revisit SACD, a high-resolution format that is nearly dead except in audiophile circles. I have an old DVD player that plays SACD, but it requires a receiver to have an analog input, and my new Denon that I bought a month ago didn’t have one. So I started looking at new receivers to address this shortcoming, plus the fact that my original plan to use an HDMI splitter didn’t work out, so I was having to switch cables each time I switched viewing from the flatscreen to the projector.

I finally found a Yamaha receiver that would do everything I wanted, and more – it was controllable through Wi-Fi using my Kindle Fire HD. That means no more reaching around the projection screen to lower the volume at the end of a movie. It also had additional digital inputs so I could hook up all four of my sources (PS3/Blu Ray, Cable, DVD-R and DVD/SACD) using digital connections and dual HDMI outputs to drive both my displays simultaneously. 

So this week it arrived and I’ve been setting it up and testing everything. Last night I think I finally got it locked in where stereo presentation is about the best I can get with my current setup. I still don’t have the theater setup optimized yet because it’s much more complicated dealing with five speakers instead of two, plus video. But once it’s ready, it’s going to be really nice, I’m sure.

I think what’s important about that weekend and the events that followed is that it means I’m finally getting back to where I was before the fire of 2007 in New Jersey. I have always been an audiophile, a connoisseur of sound if not musical taste (it took Tara’s influence to get me into good music again). Before the second fire, I was trying to rebuild what I had before the first fire in 2005. I actually had purchased a high-end Yamaha receiver before, along with my current speakers and a plasma TV back in 2007. I lost most of the electronics and one of my two subwoofers in the fire and ever since then, I’ve just limped along with the bare minimum (to me) of what’s required to get my system operational. Some of my current speakers still have damaged or missing grilles and drywall residue on them as a result of the fire.

That’s not to say I haven’t made progress since 2007. For about a year after the second fire, I severely curtailed buying any CDs, DVDs, or books. If it weren’t for my family getting me stuff for birthdays and Christmas, it would have been even less. I’m pretty over that part now. But high-end audio is a luxury in the truest sense of the word – it doesn’t serve a “useful” purpose, and it doesn’t increase in value (with very rare exceptions). It’s not something you need, like food, shelter or transportation. What it can do is inspire passion for music and that is important. As the sunshine colors the flowers, so do art and music color life – and a life without passion for music is one I’m done living.

Muse - six years later

So, it's been a couple weeks since the Sigur Ros concert, and I thought I'd get in an update before my next concert (!) on Saturday, when I'm going to see Muse with Christine at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT.

I am super-excited about Muse, partly because they are an incredible live band (see the bottom of this post, "Live music mix" - April 10, 2009") and because it gives me the chance to address one of the few regrets I have from my New Jersey family days, namely, that we chose to see the Police reunion tour instead of seeing Muse at Madison Square Garden back in 2007. Although I loved seeing The Police ("24 hours of Bourne" - Aug. 6, 2007") and they are one of my all-time favorite bands, I'm certain I would have enjoyed the Muse concert more because at that time they were a young band on the rise. So six years later, I finally get to rectify that oversight.

Life has been fairly quiet these past two weeks. I've screened several movies for TSMC, including two double features back to back on April 5-6 that were well-attended (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World / The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Hunger Games / Battle Royale). That Sunday I went to see Liz's current play, "Smoke" (tickets here) and then followed her and a group of friends a few blocks north to where they celebrated her birthday. I had to leave after a few minutes for yoga, but I gave her a Texas cookbook for her birthday present when she and Josh came over for Hunger Games.

Monday night I went with Angel and some of her friends to see Jekyll & Hyde, the revival of the gothic rock musical I saw way back in 1990 when it premiered at the Alley Theater in Houston. This version was less impressive, although the female singers were quite good. The sound system at the Marquis Theater is really pretty sub-par; maybe that's part of the reason why shows close so quickly there (e.g. Evita, Wonderland).

Last week Piper and I continued our Kubrick marathon with "A Clockwork Orange," preceded by dinner at City Lobster, a nearby place I've been meaning to try. When I was young, my family used to go to a seafood buffet in Houston called The Boston Sea Party where they served you a whole lobster along with all you can eat seafood that included raw Gulf oysters and caviar. But I can't even remember the last time I ate a whole, steamed lobster. Piper had the San Francisco Cioppino, which was also good.





I had the Profiteroles Arabica, with coffee ice cream and a dense chocolate-espresso sauce for dessert.

Sigur Ros

Life is starting to slow down a bit, and not just because I’m taking a little breather from my Times Square Movie Club activity.

In the first three months of 2013, I’ve shown 23 feature movies, 14 episodes of Firefly, 6 episodes of Elementary and six episodes of Sherlock (and that doesn’t even include the Oscar party and other private showings with individual friends), so that pace was bound to slacken.

Of course it’s not terribly taxing to host these things and they motivate me to keep the place tidy and stocked with food. But at some point, I do want to turn my energies to other things as well.

One thing I talked with Kacey about last Wednesday was creating a play-writing competition through Open Love NY. We had dinner at Print. on 11th Avenue, a New American restaurant with a killer appetizer menu. I tried the octopus and chorizo salad to start, then the seared sea scallops, and we shared the panacotta dessert.

Kacey had the goat cheese gnocchi and the red snapper, which she said equaled the best versions she’s had in Costa Rica.

After dinner we went up to the Press Lounge, the rooftop bar, and took in the gorgeous, sweeping vistas of midtown Manhattan on one side and the Hudson River on the other: 

Afterwards, we came back and finished our Twilight run with a flourish, watching Breaking Dawn Pts. 1 and 2 back to back. I can't tell you how nice it is to share my Twi-fandom with someone who shares it without irony or derision - just one of many reasons that Kacey is one of my favorite people.

On Saturday night, T came over for the first time in a long while to deliver a print of another one of her works, "Bubble Love" and to see my framing of her drawing, "An Unknown Woman."



We had some tea and a nice chat before heading down to the MMMM and seeing our friends. K-Rand was there, plus Kiwi, Ilan, Emily, Stella and Josh. We met a young newcomer, Colby (like the cheese) who left with Katie, T and me around 2 a.m. for our respective homes.

Monday night, Morgan came into Princeton to accompany me to see Sigur Ros at Madison Square Garden. We took the train into New York and went to Cho Dang Gol to introduce him to Korean cuisine. Morgan had a Bibimbap with octopus, while I had the seafood Cham dubu (soft tofu) - it was the first time I'd had Korean soft tofu since I was in Los Angeles in 2005. Then we went home to drop off stuff, and back down to Madison Square Garden for the concert.

It's been a few years since I've been to a rock concert, and I'm going to two of them inside of a month (Muse with Christine in a few weeks). This was probably one of the top three concerts I've ever seen (Porcupine Tree at the Beacon Theater is my standard). The concert started, as pictured in Heima when they performed in Reykjavik, with the band backlit behind a scrim for a couple songs before it dramatically drops during a crescendo.

Even though I love Sigur Ros' music, the acoustics at MSG are pretty lousy (as I remember when I saw Rush there a few years ago). Even so, the sound was tuned well enough to be enjoyable. The light show was truly amazing, with a combination of warm fairy lights on stage (just like in my apartment), a high-def screen for visuals behind, lasers, smoke, and high-intensity flashers and spotlights. I especially loved when they played Hoppípolla, from their album Takk, and showered the stage with glittering sparkles that perfectly suited the soaring, cascading beauty of this song.







I also got a cozy hoodie and buttons as souvenirs. The hoodie is super-long, with sleeves long enough to cover my hands, which I love. It's already my favorite hoodie ever, and a lot less scary than my old Porcupine Tree hoodie, which has a spooky kid's face on the back.

Here is a fantastic blog about the concert, with gorgeous photos much better than my Blackberry photos - check it out! I think my second favorite part of the night was the two song encore, Glósóli and Popplagið, when the band really cut loose and closed the show with a bang. Wonderful concert, just magnificent!

The Modern

Piper and I had a superlative dining experience at The Modern on Monday night as a prelude to our detour on our Kubrick marathon - we watched the Peter Hyams-directed movie 2010, the sequel to Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Our dinner started with a blitzkrieg of complimentary amuse bouches: lemon verbena popcorn, spoons containing a cube of mackrel and a cream cheese stuffed rasberry, a sunchoke soup with red pepper served in a test-tube.



There was also a bite of hamachi tuna in a citrus gelee with roe:



My first actual course of the meal was the "Pralines" of Foie Gras Terrine - three spheres of goose liver the consistency of butter and coated with crunchy breadcrumbs, spread over bread. Check out the menu for full descriptions of each dish.



Piper chose the Rabbit Terrine, which was coated in a green herbal goo that reminded me of the taffy Wreck-it Ralph falls into when he visits Sugar Rush:



My second course was the Slow-Poached Farm Egg over Squid Ink Spaetzle, while Piper had the John Dory Gratinee, beautifully presented in a triangle of pimento glaze:





For the main course, I chose the Thomas Farm Rack of Lamb, probably the finest lamb chop I've ever tasted (and I'm a big fan of lamb), while Piper selected the signature Squab and Foie Gras Croustillant, a piece of foie gras sandwiched between two pieces of squab and encrusted in a light pastry shell. Both dishes were finished with their sauces tableside on gleaming copper heaters with candles.





For dessert, I got the aptly named Modern Black Forest Fantaisie, which featured a tall and slender chocolate shell cone partially melted by the tableside application of a hot chocolate sauce. Piper enjoyed the Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut Dacquioise.





However, the meal did not just end there. A server came around with a trolley full of handcrafted chocolates and assembled a selection that included a carrot marshmallow, tied into a tiny knot, that Piper gushed about. We were also presented with mini-cones of a citrus-herbal sorbet.



Once the check was presented, the final in a long line of complimentary surprises arrived - a take-home gift of three small cakes, similar to petit-fours, in an elegant box.



Piper wrote this on the comment card, summing up our evening of extraordinary gustation:

Wicked Faire 2013

So I'm finally coming back up for air after a relaxing weekend where the only socializing I did was going out to dim sum with Ilan and Jet on Sunday, then visiting Ilan's love Stan where she works at Evolution, which is possibly one of the coolest stores in New York. Saturday I shopped for groceries and bought my copy of the Twilight Saga on Blu Ray at Best Buy, plus some shoes at Nordstrom Rack.

Last weekend was all the movies and Oscar party, but I didn't get a chance to talk about our third time at Wicked Faire the weekend before that. I met up with Morgan at the event on Friday night and Puck came in later by train. Ego Likeness was playing Friday night, so we watched a few songs from their set before heading back to the Goblin Market, where Morgan bought a new hoop. We found a spice dealer in the marketplace called Auntie Arwen's and I bought a bunch of things, including Black Truffle Sea Salt, an incredibly aromatic salt that was once used to ship black truffles and is resold as a unique condiment that is perfect on eggs. I also got another salt mixed with ghost pepper chiles, one of the world's hottest peppers, and Turkish Marash chile pepper flakes.

I also got several teas from the Tea & Absinthe that we discovered at Steampunk World's Fair last year, including Irish Whiskey, English Caramel, Rose Marzipan (black tea with roasted almonds, rose petals, cardamom, rosebuds, vanilla bits) and Starry Night (black tea with coconut rasps and almond flakes). So my pantry is pretty well stocked at the moment. After the shopping we hung out in the Burn Ward for a bit, a chill place to dance, hoop and lounge in cuddle spaces in the style of an Arabian tent.

Saturday we explored the Faire, which this year included a stonecutter plying his trade:



We watched a very interesting presentation about molecular gastronomy, a modern trend in cuisine. The presenter made bacon-flavored "dirt" out of bacon grease and tapioca starch, mozzarella balloons filled with rosemary-scented air and demonstrated how to set up a DIY immersion circulator using a slow cooker.



Saturday night This Way to the Egress played their usual warm-up show for Voltaire - they are releasing their sophomore album in May. They were joined by a hoop artist and a burlesque dancer for a couple of their songs:





Around midnight, we met up with Puck, who was doing a lot of volunteer work this year, and we watched the Wandering Cellist, here playing the theme to the video game Skyrim:



Sunday morning Morgan and I left early to get on the road - he to get home to Harrisburg, and me to park Yoshi back in Princeton and take the train to the airport to fly to Houston for work. Sunday night I checked into the Four Seasons in downtown Houston and drove out to visit my old friends Norm and Meador, who I last saw at the rodeo at random on my last trip ("Lady Antebellum" - March 3, 2012). Norm has been dabbling in watercolors in his retirement years and he gave me one of his pieces that I liked. It wouldn't fit in my carry-on case, so I brought it to the office on Monday and had them ship it to my desk in Princeton. Monday morning I also had a lovely hotel breakfast of smoked salmon Eggs Benedict and turkey sausages:



The work week was pretty brutal in Houston, with non-stop meetings around my usual work, plus team lunches and dinners, so not a lot of downtime that keeps me sane. Luckily it wasn't for the full week, since I left around midday on Wednesday. I also had a very nice meal at the Le Grande Comptoir in the Houston airport: French onion soup, beef carpaccio (thinly sliced center cut beef filet flavored with olive oil, fresh pepper, pickled red onions, capers and accompanied by handmade toasted crostini) and a Pancetta and carmelized onion flatbread pizza (Pancetta and slow cooked caramelized onions atop a blend of mozzarella, parmesan, romano, provolone, and cheddar, served on a traditional, oven baked, thin and crispy flatbread crust).



And that pretty much led into Liz's Mardi Gras party on Friday and the Oscar marathon weekend.

There - all caught up.

Oscar roundup 2013

This was the third year in a row I attended AMC Theater's Best Picture Showcase marathon, and I think this year's movies were probably, top to bottom, the best slate of nominees since the Academy expanded the pool beyond five movies. And like last year ("Oscar roundup 2012" - Feb. 26, 2012) I'm putting my thoughts down for all the nominees. I got there about 30 minutes early and got a high center seat in the Dolby Atmos-equipped theater for 24 hours of movies. Here's how the schedule looked:

10:00AM - Amour
12:20PM - Lincoln
3:20 PM - Argo
5:35 PM - Django Unchained
9:30 PM - Les Miserables
12:30 AM - Zero Dark Thirty
3:20 AM - Life of Pi
5:40 AM - Silver Linings Playbook
7:55 AM - Beasts of the Southern Wild

Amour - Smart of the organizers to put this movie early because otherwise people would probably just sleep through it. Beautifully acted and actually tightly edited so that the story moves along, considering it takes place entirely in one apartment and about 85% of screen time is taken by the two lead characters, a husband and wife dealing with old age and declining health. As many people around me commented, it was kind of brutal way to start things off at 10 in the morning. Nobody likes to think about getting old and dependent on others for daily care. But the movie reminds us that love is not just for the young. Everything we do that's important in life, we do for love.

Lincoln - I'd seen most of Lincoln when it first came out but missed the end because I wanted to see Perks of Being a Wallflower. I think this movie was the marathon's most inspiring tales, even with the liberties the screenplay took with history. Daniel Day-Lewis is a deserving three-time Oscar-winning actor and gives the performance of a lifetime - hard to know what he can do for an encore. Spielberg redeems himself somewhat from the meandering Oscar-nominated War Horse last year, which I felt lacked his special touch.

Django Unchained - I skipped Argo (since I saw it with Morgan) to pick up some things for my Oscar party and came back in time to see this one, which was pure Tarantino, a revenge tale about a slave turned bounty hunter in the Civil War era. I describe this movie as a buddy-bounty hunter movie, with Christoph Waltz turning in an Oscar-winning performance opposite Jamie Foxx. Waltz builds and condenses his previously-honored performance in Inglorious Basterds, and Tarantino's winning script keeps the story on track through all the Pulp Fiction-style shootouts. I kind of wish Kill Bill had been this tightly scripted, but I'm still hoping he will remix it someday.

Les Miserables - Anne Hathaway. That's all that needs to be said about this adaptation of the Broadway musical. What she did in 15 minutes singing "I Dreamed a Dream" was shattering. I have never seen an actor appear so convincingly naked on screen, conveying emotions with such intensity and authenticity. Like Daniel Day-Lewis, it will be a hard act to follow, for her and everyone else. In fact, I felt the whole rest of the movie, as good as it was, just couldn't compete with her towering performance at the beginning. I'm tearing up even now just thinking about it.

Zero Dark Thirty - I enjoyed this movie, but this was where I started fading a bit. I shouldn't have stayed so long at Liz's Mardi Gras party Friday night. I found this movie hard to follow, and during a slow section right before the raid commenced, I nodded for a bit before the helicopter crash woke me up. I actually felt that SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden on the National Geographic channel was a better-paced film about the same subject. And it's hard for me to watch Jessica Chastain and not see her in her nominated role in last year's The Help.

Life of Pi (in 3D) - Cast Away with a tiger instead of a volleyball. Did anyone else have that reaction to this movie?  While reserving full judgment because I dozed off about 30 minutes until the end, I didn't enjoy this movie as much as I though I would. I found the 3D distracting and fatiguing and the sound overly amped up. But from what I understand, the finale is what ties it all together to make a spiritual revelation so I will have to try it again on my 2D screen at home someday.

Silver Linings Playbook - I drifted off during the exposition part of this movie between when the main character comes home from the mental hospital and making his deal with J-Law's character, but I got enough from context to understand what was going on. I feel badly for Bradley Cooper, who in any other year would have been a serious Best Actor contender but got steamrolled by Daniel Day-Lewis' singular performance. All of the acting performances were really good (it was the only film to have nominees in all four acting categories) and director David O. Russell is becoming an Oscar favorite.

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Starting a movie at 7:55 am after being up all night is not an ideal situation. So with this movie, I drifted off during the fantasy elements (which someone compared to Where the Wild Things Are) and came back during the scenes between the father and daughter. Certainly Quvenzhane Wallis' performance was astounding and deserved her nomination. This is a small budget movie so it's hard to compare to movies like Lincoln and Les Miz. In a way, it tackles the same themes of love and death as Amour, but from the viewpoint of a child instead of an elderly person.


I got home about 10 am on Sunday and Puck was in the shower just waking up. They snuggled with me as I crawled into bed until 4 pm, when I woke to prep for the Oscar party. Piper came over at 6:30 with her portion of the menu, which was:

- ARGO Tea
- ZERO DARK dIRTY martinis
- LINCOLN logs - Chinese sausages with scallions, dipped in hoisin sauce
- LES Mushrooms (arugula and goat cheese stuffed mushrooms)
- LIFE OF PIneapple and mANGO UNCHAINED fish tacos
- SILVER LININGS cupcakes - mini cupcakes in foil wrappers
- S'AMOURs - chocolate fondue with marshmallows and graham crackers

Here's the recipe for my fish tacos (I doubled amounts to make two pounds of fish), which I served with flour tortillas, Newman's Own pineapple and mango salsas, fresh chopped cilantro, onions, and avocado, sliced jalapenos, sour cream, and the ground habanero chile powder Meador gave me from Houston.

1 lime, juiced 
1 TBSP olive oil 
1 TBSP honey 
1 tsp. chili powder 
1 tsp. ground cumin 
1/2 tsp. garlic powder 
1/2 tsp. salt. 
1/4 tsp. ground coriander 
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper 
1 lb. fresh tilapia 

Combine the first nine ingredients in a large zip-top bag. Add the fish, seal, and marinate in the fridge for 1 - 2 hours. 

Heat a grill, or large non-stick skillet, over medium-high. Brush pan or grill with oil. Remove the fish from its marinade and place directly on the hot grill or pan. Sear 1-3 minutes, or until lightly charred on one side. Gently flip each fillet, and cook for another minute, or until flaky and opaque all the way through.

Beth tied me for most correct picks with 13 apiece, so she won my grand prize of a $50 AMC Theaters gift card. K-Rand won the first prize of the night, a leather bound journal, for picking Best Film Editing. Piper and Liz won prizes for picking the surprize winner of Best Supporting Actor. Josh took home my extra AMC marathon poster as a consolation prize.

It was a super-fun TSMC event, and I loved the energy of people in the room - so much laughter and good humor. It was the first time visiting for Liz and Josh, so now they know the lay of the land. Next up for TSMC is the finale of our Firefly marathon on Wednesday, when I expect I'll see Chelsea, Natalie and one or both of the Katies.

The plays the thing

I've been slowing down gradually from a very busy two weeks, but about to ramp back up again starting this weekend. So you could say this week is a trough in my social life.

After Myth, I had an astonishing 16 days straight of things to do outside the apartment other than work, 17 if you include my Daniel Craig 007 double-feature that I watched by myself last Thursday. Since I'm so far behind in blogging, I listed the events below (using K-Rand for Puck's former Facebook wife Katie and K-Rau for my PWG friend Katie):

1/22 - Open Love NY meeting with Puck
1/23 - Firefly marathon with Chelsea, K-Rand and Puck
1/24 - The Mystery of Edwin Drood with Puck
1/25 - Summer party at K-Rau & Dave's apartment in Astoria
1/26 - Puck and I had pizza with Peter & Floor, who were visiting from the Netherlands, followed by Village Stories with Kacey & Becker, Chelsea, Lourdes, Christina and others, a solo Italian musical storytelling performance in a medieval castle-like Gramcery Park apartment. Puck left early and Chelsea and I had tea at Boise Tea Parlor before she had to go to work.
1/27 - Helping Puck pack for their move back to SBU, then yoga, followed by dinner with Chelsea at a Thai restaurant on Amsterdam
1/28 - 2001: A Space Odyssey with Piper, continuing our Stanley Kubrick marathon
1/29 - Jury duty postponement in the city, followed by winning the Newsies lottery with Agnieszka and dinner at Schnipper's
1/30 - TSMC showing of The Unbearable Lightness of Being with Kacey, Becker, Chelsea and Marton
1/31 - Poly Women's Group (PWG) meeting
2/1 - Firefly marathon redux with Natalie & Matt, Lauren, K-Rau, Dave, Kiwi and Puck, then MMMM
2/2 - Haircut and color at Salon SCK, followed by an X-Men movie marathon with K-Rand while Puck went to the Cakehole party
2/3 - Yoga and Hampton Chutney Co. with Puck
2/4 - Shotz! with Kacey, Becker and Chelsea, followed by Klong Bangkok Street Food
2/5 - Play reading of Final Analysis with Kacey, Becker and Richard
2/6 - Play reading of Lysistrata Rape Play in the Cold Reads competition
2/7 - TSMC viewing of Casino Royale / Quantum of Solace

WHEW! So much fun stuff going on. I actually worked from home on 2/7 and 2/8, when Storm Nemo rolled in. So I stayed home pretty much all day and all night for three straight days until going to see The Man Under, a play my friend Liz is stage-managing, and then yoga on Sunday. So that was a good catch-up on quiet time for me.

Monday night was Poly Cocktails, the sixth anniversary party. Puck had come back for a doctor's appointment since classes had been cancelled due to Nemo, so we had dinner at Klong with Alex before they went off for tea and I went to Poly Cocktails. Puck texted me later to tell me that they ran into Chelsea because they chose to go to the Boise Tea House, which happens to be a favorite of Piper and Ilan as well.

Poly Cocktails was really fun. I was happy to see Jen for the first time in months since she's been in Australia. She's coming back in June for her birthday and we'll try to schedule something. Tall, blonde Jennifer was also there, glamorous in her candy apple red dress, looking like she stepped out of a Hitchcock movie, and she caught me up with her life. For some reason it seemed to be a night for deep conversations; with Lisa (talking about artistic paths) and Buck (about his housing situation).

I also connected with Jani again after Myth, and met a new friend, Robin, both of whom are going to Wicked Faire this weekend. We all exchanged numbers so we can find each other there and coordinate transportation. I'm really excited about spending time with them, Puck and Morgan this weekend, and looking forward to a great time!