Pirate trend taking off

46 year old Chinese woman just spotted crossing 23rd st on Park Avenue South wearing an eye patch over her left eye.

11 Madison Ave

My new offices are at 11 Madison Ave. This building has quite a history and is rather spectacular, especially inside the lobby.

(The following text has been lifted and edited from www.greatgridlock.net/NYC)

It all goes back to the building next door at 1 Madison Ave that was completed in 1909 as the headquarters for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
The 213.5 m clock tower facing Madison Square Park was added to the original building (108,700 m², built in 1893) to make it the tallest in the world.

In October 1929, Met Life announced plans for building to the opposite side of 24th Street, at 11-25 Madison Avenue. Replacing McKim, Mead & White's Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, completed only 13 years earlier, the new building was originally planned to incorporate around 100 storeys and restore Metropolitan Life the title of the world's tallest.
The Depression, however, prevented from realizing such grandiose plans. When work came to a halt in 1933, only 29 storeys of the original plan had been completed. That reflects in, for example, the 30 elevators available for as many floors. Although the massive size of the building was enabled by air-conditioning and lighting, the bow-tie shape was, nevertheless, devised to provide sorts of light-court to maximize the available natural light.
Two whole floors of the building were originally built with low ceilings and fitted with filing cabinets for Met Life's files. Later, the floor was torn from between these storeys and the space turned into a banking hall.
There are two lobbies, with the southern, at 11 Madison, going through the whole longer axis of the building. Decor of the three storey high space consists of a coffered ceiling as well as of pink granite floors and gold vein-veined marble walls.

arrr matey, will ye be helping me look for treasure?

Dressing like a pirate is the newest emerging look on the streets...well, almost... a very hip young 20-something (myself of course) is wandering around the city wearing an eye patch, puffy shirts, bandanas and of course skull and cross bones. This look is on the verge of being very big. It's catching on- during the week I spotted a girl wearing an eye patch (it looked like it
was there for medical reasons though).

This preoccupation with pirates is not just a 'look' it's also a lifestyle of drinking rum, speaking pirate talk, singing sea shanties and always looking for treasure. Freshly caught fish is the food of choice, when on land one always thinks of the high seas and it's quite normal to have sudden spells of nausea from being car or land sick (a pirate is only accustomed to the motions of the sea), eating too much and from drinking something that is not rum.

Traces of an Evening of Joy

Joy is in New York this week and luckily we had time to see each other yesterday. She bought a video tape over that had captured a night out we had had in 2003. It was a great evening....it's funny to see the video after so much time that's passed.

Panic! We saw this play early on that evening.
Went to Moustache for dinner - chickpea salad, babaganoush, pitza...
then walked from east village to soho
and danced at some soho club where Joy's friend Duane was dj-ing

The Pillowman

Yesterday I saw The Pillowman. It was exceptional. I can't believe how many good plays are on Broadway at the moment, usually the better shows are off Broadway.
Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum were in this production directed by John Crowley. The writer, Martin McDonagh also wrote The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
The set was extraordinary. The way the stories were 'played out' above the main stage were seamless, and fitted perfectly with the dream/nightmare dark themes of the play. I loved the stories within the play, they were witty and dark, the better ones: The story of the little girl who wanted to be Jesus, Little Green Pig, The Pillowman and the story of Katurian Katurian Katurian's childhood. There was even one there for me about chopped off digits, but this one was about chopped off toes, not thumbs - but I didn't really like that particular story.

www.pillowmanonbroadway.com

Granola & Pies

Finally I have found some decent granola in New York. It's not particularily sweet and tastes like crumbled oaty biscuits. You can only get it on Saturdays at the Union Square Markets. I stocked up today - and got lots of mega clumps (the best part). It's really yummy and has to serve as a subsitute for my dearly missed 'maple nut crunch' from Macro in Sydney.

At another stall I got these palm sized apple and blueberry pies for only $1 each.

Nude Party

After attending a BBQ on Roosevelt Island a few weeks ago, I joined Paul and Giselle late that night, to go out to Long Island to go to a Pirate themed party a friend was having.
It was a beautiful, warm evening and this house was out in suburbia somewhere. It was a huge property with a giant garden and swimming pool. Most people were not wearing anything at the party. Despite the confronting nudity (which was actually not confronting at all) it was a lovely, serene night........

Wooden Beads

I've always had a bit of an obsession with wooden jewelry.
Today I was walking down Broadway from Herald Square and found a store that sold individual round wooden beads in three different shades with holes through the middle. I bought a packet and some leather string and voilà....

Inside my stomach

My stomach is filled today with the following, in order of consumption:
*water has been excluded from this list, but was drunk at various times of the day

soy milk
yoghurt with granola
peach
strawberries
2 cups of green tea
almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans, pistachios
slice of pizza with vegetables on it
thai me up salad from 'angelicas kitchen'
chocolate soy milk
carried 2 bananas around to central park gave them to a homeless person on the way home. figured he looked hungrier than me..
2 beef tacos from 'the enchilada'
slice apple pie from 'pump energy food'(it has granola on the top which makes it extra tasty)
1 magnesium tablet for muscle cramps
2 fish oil capsules
almonds, cashews, walnuts, pecans

The Chrysler

The autobiographical fiction
Bret Easton Ellis reading and book launch at Barnes & Noble Union Square
Last night I went to see BEE read from his newest book Lunar Park. I also had him sign it and another old one just after the reading.
The only things I asked him about was the movie version of Glamorama and I also asked him to write something random inside one of my books. He looked up to the B&N man over seeing the event where strict rules were made very clear before the reading ("Bret will only be signing his name, there will be no personalisation") and intimidated by the B&N man, BEE shook his head and said "Sorry, I'm not allowed, if you come to the reading I'm doing at Coliseum Books, I can do it". Who would have thought a man who is renowed for his texts of violence and misogyny is actually scared of the B&N man.
BEE seemed like someone on anti-depressants. He had this totally fake persona, seemingly really enjoying the reading, responding to tedious questions and having hundreds of books to sign for his sadistic fans. He seemed 'troubled' almost to be there. I was very suspicious of his enjoyment of the evening. To me, he really just seemed like someone who had stepped right out of his books.
I did however start reading Lunar Park this afternoon and I love it. I've only read 25 pages so far, but it seems like a Charlie Kaufman (as in the whole Adaptation thing) meets classic BEE.

Who would have thought I could make a meal without a kitchen?

Mussels with tomato, garlic, zuchini and pasta

1 small container of mussels in tomato from wholefoods
1 tomato
1 zuchinni
some cooked pasta
1 small piece of garlic

directions:
chop up tomato and zuchinni into tiny pieces
boil some water put boiled wated and vegetables into purex bowl
leave in boiling water for 5-10 mintues combine
everything in a yellow bowl with some olive oil