Not Pathetic at All

Should I have capitalized the "at"? Or not capitalized the "all"? Capitalization in titles always confuses me. Sorry.

Anyway, because I was primarily raised by television, to this day I feel comforted and normal when the tube is on. I do house chores, cook, clean, work on the computer, all while it's on. Because I like to be amused, I find myself DVR'ing random shows I enjoy ("Gilmore Girls," "Seinfeld," "Sex and the City") and having them on all the time, so at least when the TV is on, it's tuned to my selected mind-fluff, and not just whatever crap is on.

So, while I'm here on the computer I've had "How I Met Your Mother" on - I've begun taping old episodes that I've discovered are shown in Lifetime on Monday evenings. How great is this show? I really enjoy it - Doogie (Neil Patrick Harris), Jason Segal ("Freaks and Geeks" is in my Top 10 favorite shows) and Willow from Buffy?! Right on. Anyway, just watched the episode that ended with Barney (Doogie) writing his blog on his computer a la Doogie-endings. Right on. (Did I just say that twice? Oh well, I won't delete one - I won't!) Love it.

It smells like dog food in here. Schizophrenic much? Perhaps. Or just a smart, fast-paced, ever-thinking (?) mind. Or something.

Oh - just saw a commercial for "Post Grad" - Rory from "Gilmore Girls" is in it. And speaking of which, I saw a commercial (on Lifetime?) for "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" that said it "launched the career" of the actresses and showed Alexis Bledel at that moment. Um - no! I think "Gilmore Girls" did that!

Enough tv/movie stuff.

Movie Madness

I finally took a break from my three-month long "Battlestar Galactica" (such an awesome show) fest with Andy to actually move some movies to the top of my Netflix list and sit down and watch them. In the past five days I've seen three big supposedly must-see movies of the year: "Gran Torino," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Revolutionary Road."

Of course, "Slumdog" was awesome. I just love movies and books about East Asian culture. Fascinating. That culture is one of the reasons I had a concentration in Cross-cultural Literature when getting my BA. The first English class I took at Hunter College was East-Asian Women's Lit and it basically changed my life. Reading works by Shani Mootoo, Arundhati Roy and Jhumpa Lahiri (among so many other amazing writers) was just amazing, and turned me onto a whole new world. So, of course, this movie went right into that world and was just great. And sweet and lovely, which is always nice, too (I'm so easily pleased).

"Revolutionary Road," which we watched last night, was good and depressing and all that. I won't get too into it, for those who haven't seen it, but I admit I was nervous that when the movie was over I'd turn to Andy and insist we sell the house and get out immediately. This wasn't helped by the fact that just about every day I tell Andy how much I want to return (again) to Paris. Those who've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. Anyway, when it was over I was depressed by the story, but didn't feel I had to change my life... because we're special, we are the Spaceks, after all...right? hm.

And "Gran Torino." I though this was a reference to a "Grandfather" or "Grandpa," last name "Torino" because, you know, Clint is old, and what the hell do I know about cars?

Anyway, I liked the movie, and again, it's always nice to get a glimpse of other cultures... however I found that the girl who played Sue was such a terrible actor it was hard for me to concentrate. I felt this way about a lot of the dialogue between her and Clint - like I was watching a student film. A bad one. Sorry. I thought it might be because I had the English subtitles on (I do this when I can't hear/understand the tv/actors sometimes) - perhaps I was reading too much, and that made it seem so scripted? But then I turned them off and I still thought she was awful, so go figure.

Have you seen these movies? What did you think? Wanna argue with me about that bad actress? Do you like/dislike the authors I mentioned? Leave me a comment!

I Watch The Hills

I've started watching "The Hills." On MTV.com. All the episodes are there. All 5 seasons - right up to the most recent one.

I started watching "The Hills" last Thursday. Or Wednesday. It's all a blur.

I'm on Season 3, Episode 9. I'd be much further along, except we went to NYC, then DC, then New Paltz this weekend, and didn't get back till Monday evening.

I'd heard about these people - Lauren, Audrina, Heidi, Spencer - and the show, but never had the chance or really the desire to watch.

But now. Now, I've taken up with the watching, and I can't stop. It's addictive.I'm still not completely understanding whether it's reality or not, or why there are voiceovers at times. What's that about?

And that Spencer is awful. And disgusting. If I had to choose, I'd rather spend the rest of my life with the Tick (see previous post) than this guy.

OMFG!

Dude - Where Is GOSSIP GIRL?!

Living at mom's, I thought maybe we'd had a DVR war and her shows somehow won out against GG this week when I checked upon my return from Michigan.

Alas, I've just checked itunes, the CW website AND tv.com and have discovered that there was NO new episode this week, and in fact there won't be till March 9th.

Why? WHY????? The sadness is quickly enveloping me and I'm feeling like I'm in withdrawal. I need my Gossip Girl and my Chuck.

So sad.

Hey! There's a Spider on Your Back!

For those of you who know me, you know I'm a TV junkie. And being here in another
country without English-language TV has been a little tough, although I think I've handled it much better than I would have thought.

But I can't really say I haven't watched any television... Andy and I hang out with his parents and watched "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" in Czech, as well as another Czech show, "Pošta pro tebe" where people find long lost friends, family members, etc., and that person comes on the show and guesses who was looking for them.

And, with the help of iTunes we've watched "Mad Men" and "The Wire".

But, sometimes you just wake up and have nothing to do, and more than anything just want to veg in front of the TV.

I recently felt that way. Luckily, I brought with me some "Kids in the Hall" DVDs, so I popped one in and vegged. And laughed. I love that show.

One of the best sketches, which I watched on this day, was my inspiration for this blog post. It's a short and funny sketch.


On that note... here's how I spent this past Saturday.

Andy's brother Lukas is crazy and has a thing for spiders... as pets. And not little simple spiders, but big hairy nightmare spiders. He's also had praying mantis and scorpions as pets. Yuck.

He felt the need to get a new one, so on Saturday we went with him to an insect/creepy-crawly show where he got a new spider.

There were all kinds of creatures there - spiders, lizards, turtles (yay!), snakes, and grubs, crickets and baby mice for food. Besides the creepy-crawlies, seeing the people who go to these things was hilarious - a mix of geeks and goths with some regular looking folk mixed in. And it was packed! Quite an experience.

I just can't help it

Dude.

Hedgehogs are adorable.

Seriously, I think I want one.

I'm not savvy enough to know how to put this youtube video into this posting, so just click here. Sorry to make you work so hard.


**Something else I can't help is how much I love Gossip Girl and Monday's episode was wonderful,
if only for (KIND OF SPOILER ALERT? RANDOM DETAIL ALERT?) Chuck Bass wearing a kimono and smoking opium in Thailand. Awesome!

Bored

Do you ever have those nights (always Friday or Saturday, for me) where you are bored and it's late, and you are on the computer and just searching for ANYTHING to do??

That's me, tonight.

We didn't do ANYTHING today.

I finished Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which was amazing - haunting and depressing and wonderful. I loved it. A great book to read while I'm Europe.

I started reading another book, Savannah by Eugenia Price. Don't know if that's well known or not. I got it at the library. It's good so far, a big fat historical novel. The second book this year I'll read about Savannah (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil the first, of course).

I also joined blogher and thirty-something bloggers and was just browsing through the community of blogs when I was faced once again with the need to have a real name for this blog. I know, I know: Allyn, WTF is your problem? Pick a name and be done with it! Stop crying!

You're right. So ignore my earlier "I'm allyn and that's okay" post. I must have a serious identity crisis with all this crap.

I blame Andy.

He would only watch one episode of "The Wire" with me, and now I've got nothing to do.

I even dreamed about Omar (from "The Wire") last night. According to Andy I was talking in my sleep. "Don't kill Omar! Omar lives!"

But now, I may just have to watch "Pride and Prejudice" again.

Mr. Darcy will make me happy.

Glitz Rocks!

It's cold out and we are staying in. Therefore, I have lots of nice time to play around with free things to make my blog fancy, and you can't get more fancy than glittery strands of glitz. I love my new background. It's the little things that make us happy.

And speaking of things that rock - I hear my least-favorite person on Gossip Girl - Aaron Rose, Serena's stupid artist boyfriend - won't be returning. Hooray! My prayers have been answered!

Celeb News

The exciting celeb news for this week that caught my eye was that Christina Hendricks from one of the greatest TV shows ever - "Mad Men" - has gotten engaged to her boyfriend, Geoffrey Arend.

This is exciting on many levels -
I love "Mad Men", I love her character, Joan (see my 101 Facts About Me, #97), and
I went to high school with Geoffrey Arend and have hung out with him on several occasions, though I'm sure he doesn't remember me (see #26). Whatever. It's still happy news.

The Gift of Entertainment

Often my blogs are inspired by class reflection work or emails, and this is no different. This email was sent today from me to a select few. But why limit it? 'Tis the season for giving, after all...

I very rarely push my TV show preferences onto others, but I truly feel that I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't tell you about this new reality show on CW (Channel 11 for you New Yorkers) called "Crowned: The Mother of all Pageants."

This show features mother/daughter teams competing to win a lot of money, looking for the modern beauty which is not just a pretty face, yada yada yada.

Whatever. It's 10 teams of mostly pageant-y plastic mothers and daughters (some are not evil and conniving, though plenty are) living together and competing. After watching the first episode I can only say that it will be the entertainment high point of MY new year, and I'm sure yours, as well, if you watch. It's catty, it's bitchy, it's sweet, it's pageants, people! (AND great for mothers and daughters to watch together!)

(The show premiered this past Wednesday, but they are repeating the premiere this coming Tuesday (I think) and then the regular episodes are on Wednesdays at 8pm.)

Happy Holidays (and happy cat-fighting),
A.

Island Restaurant, Astoria

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Andy, my fabulous husband, and I finished up Season 1 of "Top Chef" repeats (We of course have already seen both seasons and are anxiously awaiting Season 3 - June 13th!!) and were definitely in the mood for some good food. Luckily, we'd made plans to FINALLY try Island with some friends.

Island opened about 6 weeks ago and the kitchen is headed up by ex-Top Chef wannabe Josie Smith-Malave. After first reading about the restaurant in TONY Andy and I walked over (it's only 2 blocks away from our apartment) on a Friday afternoon and walked in, wowed by the grand, spacious and open design - poured concrete floors, hanging white fabric and white islandy chairs. Fancy. Islandy. Anyway, they told us they weren't open. Dern. We'd have to wait for another time.

So we waited and waited and finally made plans to dine here. We hoped that any growing pains the new restaurant might have experienced had been ironed out by this time. I searched everywhere trying to find some kind of online menu for the place, or even a real review, and could not. It would be up to us.

We met our friends and walked in. The maitre d' asked where we'd like to sit and we told him it was our first time there, so we were in his hands. (You know, so we could be wooed and wowed so we'd be return customers.) Hmph. We were seated in the back of the restaurant, between the bar and the kitchen/bathroom area. We didn't see that guy again. Thanks a lot, guy.

The menu was confusing. Now, I'm no Einstein of gourmet eateries, but I'm no dummy either. The entrees are listed on the left side of the one page menu, while the "small plates" are listed on the right. And one category of small plates are "nibbles," so we all came to the conclusion that those must be the "smaller" or "smallest" plates. It was all kind of backwards from there. Not to mention, the dishes are just all over the place!

The restaurant is supposed to be Mediterranean yet listed small plates like steak tartare, fries and "Miami" pulled pork sliders. Both of these were ordered, as were salmon tartare and tuna sashimi. The steak tartare was garlicky and good, but Andy and I couldn't taste the truffle oil that supposedly (per the menu) came on the dish. The salmon tartare was fresh and refreshing, with a citrus creme fraiche type of topping. The tuna sashimi was also good, tasting of soy and a range of textures as it was served as chopped tuna atop thinly sliced tuna. Tarshimi anyone? So, all the raw items were yummy, but our friends weren't impressed by the sliders.

The entrees menu was way more limited than the small plates, and felt more restrictive, too. Pizzas, steak or lobster and pasta among choices. Nothing too appealing, to be honest.
Andy and I shared the Lobster Orzutto (something like that) which was lobster and orzo risotto... and $30. A bit pricey for us, but since we shared it it was okay. The dish itself was a lobster tail on top of orzo risotto... basic. Not great, but it was fine. Our friends had the chorizo and carmelized onion pizza. Again, nothing too impressive.

When I was trying to find a review or menu listing for Island, online and in print, all I was able to find was TONY touting that Island "is home to the only four-head Cimbali espresso machine in the U.S." So, we're getting ready to order dessert and I ask the waiter, "so I hear you have the only four-head Cimbali espresso machine in the country. What does that mean?" The waiter first didn't understand me (slurred wine-language? dunno) and so I repeated myself, to which he replied, "uh, I don't know about that... let me go see..." Finally he returned, took our dessert order and informed me that the espresso making person wasn't there, but if I just wanted a cappuccino he could make it.

The dessert was okay, A & I had a panna cotta (and found the truffle oil that was supposed to be on our steak tartare! Quite good, actually.) and Friend C & Friend J shared the chocolate cake with grilled banana and felt the banana was the high point of the dish.

After trying to figure out how to handle the check (at least three items were listed on the check at a different price, though not much different, from the menu listing), we split it down the middle. Our waiter seemed confused when we asked him to do this, stood still and looked at the cards for a minute, went away and finally returned, telling us he made a mistake and put $10 more on one card than the other. Now, J was a waiter, and Andy was certainly a waiter in everything from NYC diners to fancy celeb-attracting restaurants, and we ALL know how easy it is to get the manager to reverse the charge and fix that shit. But no. It was trashy, and gross. And embarrassing.

The service was nothing special. There was no hovering (thank goodness) but there was also something lax about the whole thing. Andy feels it's the whole European-cool thing (don't worry, folks, he's European, he can say that) that makes the waitstaff work extra hard to not impress. Seriously, though, my girlfriend and I were both still eating our food, had food on our plates and were clearly not done when another guy tried to take our food away. What it comes down to is this (a tidbit of info from the postcard served with the check): There's a DJ there on the weekends. it's a damn club! It all made sense now - that's how it's going to survive Astoria, not because of good food or service, but because it's going to fill up with stupid club people who will pay $10-$12 a drink (hey, if you can afford it, god bless ya, but come on!). When faced with the CLUB realization, our appreciation of the place dropped from 0 to -10. Whatever. I just don't like clubs or that culture. Unfortunately I live in Astoria and I'm outnumbered.

Andy summed it up as he and I walked home, "I feel ripped off!" We both agreed that we would not return to Island. The food was not worth the price, nor was the service. Just the week before we'd eaten at Gotham Bar & Grill (a real restaurant! Gotham B&G could totally kick Island's ass any day of the week!) and that meal, like a real good meal, made us forget about spending the money, not to mention, relive the food, decor and service later.
I focus a lot of money, mainly because I don't have much, but I will spend money for good food and good service, and won't think twice about it. And you can have good cheap meals, too, also with exceptional service.

Island offered none of this and was a complete flop. Island, PACK YOUR KNIVES AND GO!!!

VERONICA MARS CANCELLED??

That's right, that's what this 1st ever blog is about.

I'm not saying much more. Just, I'M SO SAD!! What will I watch now? I loved "Veronica Mars." There's something about that show that is great, it's got a deep, dark, seductive, sexy noir feel that I really haven't felt with other shows, and I know other shows.



Crap.