Yesterday was my mother’s birthday and today is Mother’s Day - I wish I could have gone to Oman just for the weekend to be with my folks…but I guess we will have to celebrate in September when they come to NYC.
Thank you mum for everything.
Here is this great song that Dan from PlayRadioPlay recorded in my boyfriend’s studio last evening for his mother - 1989 - Enjoy!
I made it for my mom, but gohead, send it to yours.
About a year ago (over a year now actually…doh!) I went with a few friends out to Brighton Beach to buy some REALLY cheap but REALLY good caviar and vodka. We hit the Russian equivalent of Whole Foods while we were there and I recorded it and have been meaning to cut a piece together since. Now that I have this column, I figured it’s time to do it. But in the mean time, while I try to refresh my editing skills, here’s a little preview:
See what happens when you get a Ph.D. from Princeton sauced on fat back, blood sausage, and lots of good polish vodka, then try to smuggle said Spirits back into Manhattan on the B train with M.ary T.homas A.gnes sitting near by (click on image to view)…
Don’t look surprised kitteh, It’s officially our last night in Brooklyn. Tomorrow I return to the “island.” No more will I awake to the sound of birds singing (this happens starting at 5:30am, so I’m ok with this.) No longer will I be stuck in a 4 block radius on the weekend. And from now on, I will be known as “Mr. Downtown.” Ok, not really. But here are some more things I’ll miss- for all of you who fear leaving Manhattan this is your intro to Northern Brooklyn aka Greenpoint.
Good Bye Garden- your prices weren’t the most thrilling, but you always made me feel like I lived in a real neighborhood with your fancy produce and gross raw tea drinks that I loved so much.
Good Bye video store. I got rid of Netflix and agreed to paying your hefty late fees all because I liked you guys. No matter that I could have bought most the movies I rented from you given the fees I paid for each.
Good Bye Best Thai food in Northern Brooklyn. What’s that you say? “Thai Cafe rocks.” Hardly, young foolish person. Ott is the bomb. Naughty Nature should have written “You down with O-t-t?” and I would have yelled back “yeah…oh yeah, you know me.”
Good bye meat markets. I didn’t really go to you guys much, but when I did, you smelled like smoked meat and…smoked meat. You were certainly a sight to see.
Good Bye Rock-a-billy barber. You’re cool. I’ll miss our conversations about girls with “tig old bitties” and the “loser douchebags” who were moving into our area. Your poignant rant about guys with curly mustaches was right on the money and I hope if you ever move back to Arizona, you remember your time in New York as one that was filled with frustration and bluegrass music. PS. they also do car detailing by request.
My street in the spring. From the drunk polish retiree’s to the kids smoking blunts on their stoops, you rocked India St. Good Bye…
My building, uh, no you were gross and should be burned to the ground. I was somewhat into the fact that Mae West apparently lived here, but as a whole, you caused me sleepless nights and loss of furniture for reasons I choose not to elaborate on. Google it..
Well that does it. I’m outta here. Goodbye Brooklyn. Peace bitches!
A few days ago I went to a panel on Bollywood + Hollywood…perfect for my Masala Popcorn column.
The panel featured Anadil Hossain who I’ve worked with before - She line produced Darjeeling Limited, The Namesake, and various Bollywood films; Mridu Chandra who has produced various documentaries and indie films; Sabrina Dhawan who wrote Monsoon Wedding (when she was at Columbia film school!!); and Molly Thompson who heads A&E’s IndieFilms dept. and has produced Murderball and Jesus Camp (must see!)
One of the topics that came up was that of Indian film formats - Horrendously long, where every big star has ‘enough’ screen time, where the interval determines the pace of the film, and where dialogue writers are more important than the screenwriters, it was made clear that this format is now changing (About time!) to follow American films…Funny considering we rip off so many films (Man on Fire etc.) and manage to put them into our 4 hour long singing-dancing formula!
One of the other topics that came up was that of South Asians in the media…one of the panelists said that South Asians don’t really have a Shakira or JLo type figure to look up to. And perhaps that’s right…maybe Kal Penn is getting up there? But I’m not sure whether Kumar is the type of person parents would want their kids to become…
I just have to end on that thought - Who would the Indian “Shakira” be in the America?! (And Sanjaya is NOT an option!)
Gurjeet any ideas?
She’s Crafty is your step-by-step guide to arts and crafts projects you can do for under $20.
If Frankenstein’s monster had a teddy bear, this would be it.
You will need:
It’s easier than you’d think to mix and match your cuddly friends’ arms, legs, and heads. That plush, fuzzy fabric is really forgiving, even if you’re terrible at sewing like me.
I cut off both bears’ legs and sewed up the hole to make them into siamese twins. It would also be super cute to hijack one bear to add different colored patches and parts to another one.
Holy shit!!! Remember my ghost story? Well, there’s a chance that it’s Greta Garbo! She lived in my apartment! I am sooooo stoked!
Other notable famous Spuyten Duyvil dwellers:
Greta is totally trying to kill me. I’ve had a concussion/massive headache for the past two days from a giant painting that fell from its perch on the fire place onto my head as I quietly walked by the other day. AWWW, I wouldn’t want to be murdered in my sleep by any other…
How to tell your mother to cook for you more that you love her.
1) Anything from the Martha Stewart collection
“Hello Mother,
I just wanted to say that Martha Stewart cooks way more than you but you’re still pretty rad anyway. Thanks for doing those 53 hours of labor. Now get back in the kitchen and bake me something delicious!
xoxoxox
Daughter.
P.S. Make me something with chocolate in it”
(kidding ma, jeez.)
CHECK THIS OUT. For her grad school thesis, Meredith created one of the greatest things ever: an animated story book. It’s like a vitual pop-up book (which are, despite my age, still my favorite type of book). What’s more is that she’ll be doing a live presentation of it today at 3:20. You can watch and root her amazingness on here.
Hmmm, I wonder who Mitzy the dancing blue dog is created after…
