selene wines

another thing that's been keeping my spirit going these very cold weeks: a few bottles of Selene Sauvignon Blanc in my fridge!

i fell in love with the wine at the french laundry in napa late last year. if i could relive a few minutes of my trip, i might choose those moments between my first sip of the Selene and my last bite of the famous oyster+pearls.

when i got back to new york, i picked up a bottle at sherry-lehmann just to make sure i hadn't just been fooled by the food and atmosphere. thankfully, it still tasted fabulous, even in my rinky dink apartment in astoria. so i had a few bottles shipped from the winery.

they use sauvignon blanc musque, which is highly aromatic and much more intense than the grassy or herbaceous kind. the wine reminds me a bit of a lovely quincy i had along with some oysters in paris many, many years ago with my good friend hidemi. it reminds me of why i love wine.

fast-forward

will it ever get warmer? i can't wait for winter to be gone, taking all the coldness and my tiredness along with it. can we please fast-forward to spring? ok, here are a few things that keep me hopeful in the meantime:

-a vintage turquoise woven-leather bag by bottega veneta from the brooklyn flea market.

-a youtube video of a few girls galloping on the beach of sidi kaouki in morocco... i'm obsessed with this video and have watched it about 30 times. could that be me in a few months? stay tuned!

pheromones and beautiful, violent things

i loved E.O. Wilson's fiction piece in the most recent issue of The New Yorker.

it reminded me of my childhood fascination with ants and ant colonies. i could sit for hours observing their primordial movement and organization, so beautiful... in fact, i could still do that today.

a live but weak bee overwhelmed by a group of ants at pedlar cafe, brooklyn. with the aroma of stumptown coffee disguising the sense of violence in progress

2010 wish list

peace + love + good health

(and canon 5D mark ii)

louisiana

aside from the sheer decadence of new orleans, what i'll remember most from the trip is the country landscape

new orleans

some memorable food moments from new orleans: fried oyster po-boy from felix's, and seafood and okra gumbo from the gumbo shop...



we also had splendid meals at the restaurant august, cochon and galatoire's. i'm so glad my hotel had a gym!

san francisco and napa valley

napa

i'd always dreamt of visiting the french laundry

kandinsky at the guggenheim

may turn out to be the best art show in new york this year.


it was the first time in many years that i felt the form of the spiral gallery and the flow of the exhibit fit perfectly. it was such a pleasure walking upwards, observing the gradual changes in his style.

vinyl

digital downloading is perfect for me because i'm always looking for ways to get rid of clutter --i want to simplify my life and my apartment isn't getting any bigger.

and yet... since this summer i've spent weekends flicking through bins of used records, looking for classical, jazz and brazilian music to listen to on weekends. it all started when i picked up a fantastic rachmaninoff recording for 2 dollars at a junk sale in fort greene, brooklyn. there were a few scratches, some crackling sounds, but it was an unexpectedly amazing sound. maybe i am just being romantic?

summer of love, with clogs

one summer, when i was about 15, my dad took me shoe shopping in london's soho and i picked out two pairs --black leather clogs and shiny blue doc martens. i loved both shoes so much they were all i wore for about 2 years. then one day, i slipped on a pair of keds and was amazed at how light they felt. suddenly i hated my old shoes, especially my wooden clogs. everything about them was wrong: the way they weighed down my feet, the way they sounded, hollering clog! clog! clog! with every step, and the way they made it hard for me to skip, run, or break into dance... that i was more likely to be sitting in the school library reading sylvia plath than doing any of those things was beside the point.

so i'd been observing the comeback of the clog with mixed feelings.
then last weekend, i tried on some peeptoe clogs at the store No. 6. with slightly elevated heels and a range of beautiful muted colors, they were nothing like my old pair but just as comfortable. and far more elegant than the swedish hasbeens i'd been eyeing all summer with equal parts curiosity and apprehension. so just as abruptly as i had fallen out of love with wooden soles more than a decade ago, i fell back in love with them.


best of all, they've got straps, so i can skip and dance in them too. ohhh can someone play me some music!!

saraghina

i've tried both the margherita and capocollo pizzas here --both easily the best pizzas i've ever had in new york.

saraghina is the name of the prostitute who dances the crazy rumba in exchange for some coins in that most unforgettable scene in fellini's 8-1/2.

there's nothing vulgar about the saraghina in bed-stuy; quite the opposite, it's a beautiful place. but it does share that tantalizing quality. i've been there 2 times in the past week and still find myself daydreaming about their pizza, the bubbling pieces of mozzarella di bufala, the slightly charred edges, the breezy backyard patio... and i wish i could just run over after work with my little coin and ask for "saraghina, la rumba! more!"

wilco + yo la tengo

+ a guest appearance by feist
+ sea breeze
+ holding hands
+ jetlag
= dreamy...

kyoto ancienne et nouvelle

eating well is not that hard to do in japan, especially kyoto. i love that the city takes pride in local vegetables and that even the modern french and italian restaurants there try to incorporate traditional kyoto specialties.




from top: franco-japonais dinner at l'abbesses in gion. traditional "nishin" soba, buckwheat noodles with herring on top. sea urchin pasta at trattoria minoura in kodaiji.

staying in a temple

there is so much to recommend in kyoto, but for the more adventurous, i think one of the most fantastic experiences is staying at one of the "shukubo" --inns operated by buddhist temples. originally aimed at hosting visiting pilgrims, it's an interesting (and cheaper) alternative to hotels and upscale ryokans.

the downsides first: they have strict "lights out" policies and the temple gates often close at around 8, so you can't stay out late. also, the baths and toilets are shared, and are often traditional-style if you know what i mean. but they aren't really huge problems if you're only staying one night, and are easily outweighed by the positives: gorgeous gardens that you won't see anywhere else, and a unique and very authentic experience of the country's buddhist tradition.

this time, we stayed at "myorenge-in" in ohara. it's a bit hard to get to, but the location is one of its key assets: right behind the famous "sanzenin" temple known for its mossy gardens.


but i would say the best part of staying here was the food.
below: breakfast and dinner, both vegetarian meals, at myorenge-in

o-hara

every time i go to kyoto i stop by hosen-in's "picture frame" garden in o-hara, northern kyoto. it's the most perfect place in the world.





i feel like i could just sit there for hours. and i would probably do exactly that if there weren't so many places to see... and eat...

kyoto in the summer

i love kyoto during the cherry blossom season, and during the autumn when the foliage transforms the surrounding mountains into a fiery red. to be honest, though, i prefer visiting in the early summer, when everything is green... every tree a different shade of green.

weekends in brooklyn part 2

prospect park

peering over my beloved's tummy

watching Departures

or losing the battle against sentimentalism

i've been thinking a lot about the movie Departures since i watched it at a screening in chelsea last weekend.
i enjoyed it... such a thoughtful portrayal of the formalities and processes that help us accept death, and a film that, despite its solemn subject matter, manages to strike a balance between serious drama and comedy.

but i had some other thoughts too.
i was prepared for some sentimental moments, but it was a bit much. i felt like the director piled on three or four too many cheesy scenes, some a bit too predictable. there wasn't much subtlety to the metaphors it angled for, and the cello scene made me cringe... it's the kind of sentimentalism that is way too prevalent in japanese film and popular culture in general.

but i wouldn't say it wasn't effective. because yes, like everyone else, i was in tears through half the movie! gah!!!!
and to be honest, part of me kind of misses that part of japan -- that certain softness, that earnest way.

oh, and most importantly! the actor masahiro motoki appeared in person at the screening, and took some questions from the audience. i was impressed at how articulate and thoughtful (not to mention how absolutely handsome) he was. his acting was pretty good. i wasn't sure what to expect since i hadn't seen much apart from his funny commercials. in the end, though, what really pulled the movie together was the great acting by tsutomu yamazaki, who was in some great juzo itami films like Tampopo... speaking of which, i love this scene:

some mornings...

are more special than others


such as the first warm and sunshiny saturday of the year beginning with a breakfast sandwich that looks like this...