May 31, 2015

Queens International Night Market was quite interesting. Crowded. long lines but definitely worth it.



Hungarian/ Romanian treat: chimney cake or Kürtőskalács. Were worth the wait.



Real long lines for Grilled Squid. Also, Karl's Balls, featuring takoyaki.



Marcqiese Marc entertained the masses and was quite good.



The Long Goodbye was On Demand. Interesting take on Film Noir: "It's OK with me." Check out uncredited David Carradine and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

May 30, 2015

New York city's real Chinatown is Flushing. Went to a luncheon at Da Hua Shi Fu . Peking Duck was fabulous.



Rotating middle a table staple.



This was fish with eggplant and mushrooms.



Irises at the Greenmarket.



Wynton Marsalis in a Jazz for Young People piece riffed on Blues and spoke of "I wanna lay my head on a Railroad track and when the train come along I'll snatch it back."

A little research found Buddy Boy Hawkins and Snatch it Back Blues.

Listen here people, these are my blues, I brought them all the way from Birmingham.
You know when it feels good to me it's bound to feel good to you
I'm goin to see how'd you like that?

I'm gonna lay my head out on some lonesome railroad track
I say, I'm gonna lay my head, mama, ah out on some railroad track
Well when that train come along, I'm gonna snatch it back



Looks like Warren Zevon's Poor, Poor Pitiful Me had some inspiration:

Well I lay my head on the railroad tracks
Waitin for the double E
But railroad don't run no more
Poor poor pitiful me

Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
These young girls won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe, is me

May 29, 2015

10 screenwriting tips. Also, The Art of Screenwriting.



William Finnegan's Off Diamond Head in the latest New Yorker was a great read. Now I am reading his 1992 piece Playing Doc’s Games.

May 27, 2015

Happy 40th Anniversary Famous Amos Chocolate Chip cookies.

May 24, 2015

Brooklyn Bridge Park has some spectacular views of Manhattan.



It's a great walk and landscaped similarly to the High Line.



Beautiful day.



Memorial Day viewing. Will have to get the book, author of The Longest Day.



Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: I bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddamn common courtesy to give him a reach-around. I'll be watching you. 

 

Private Joker: [voice-over] My thoughts drift back to erect nipple wet dreams about Mary Jane Rottencrotch and the Great Homecoming Fuck Fantasy. I am so happy that I am alive, in one piece and short. I'm in a world of shit... yes. But I am alive. And I am not afraid.



Also watched Twelve O'Clock High. Dean Jagger was awesome.



R.I.P. John Forbes Nash Jr.

May 23, 2015

Summer is here, fresh Strawberries have arrived.



Butcher Bar Brisket at  LIC Flea and Food.



Finback Beer and Brisket.



Queens Lager and Buffalo Pig Wings.



Dante / 750

May 22. 2015

New Beer Garden featuring Queens breweries makes this a must visit. LIC Flea and Food at 5-25 46th Ave, Long Island City, New York, weekends only.

May 17, 2015

Mad Max Fury Road was interesting and frustrating. Visually a wonderment, what things mean a puzzlement. Why Silver paint on the War Boys ? Who is that little guy (mini-me)?

OK, seems there is a Fury Road Wiki: Joe "Immortan Joe" Moore - He has two sons: the intelligent but physically disabled Corpus Colossus, and the younger Rictus Erectus.

The corpus callosum (/ˈkɔrpəs kəˈloʊsəm/; Latin for "tough body"), also known as the callosal commissure, is a wide, flat bundle of neural fibers beneath the cortex in the eutherian brain at the longitudinal fissure. It connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres and facilitates interhemispheric communication.

Quora explains why the War Boys are bald and painted white and spray Silver Paint on themselves.



IHOP on 14th street visit, huge place, not crowded at midnight.



At Eric Clapton's suggestion, I downloaded B.B. King Live at the Regal. Only $7.99 on I-Tunes.

May 16, 2015

Chimes at Midnight, Welles' Falstaff movie. DVR'd it last night from TCM. Will watch it later.



Another Take Five win, $21.



SiriusXM has Channel 70 dedicated exclusively to B.B. King this weekend.



Rainy day at the Greenmarket.



P.E. and D.D. Seafood now has Lobsters again.



Nice rainstorm at the Preakness. American Pharoah is a Mudder. Isn't it supposed to be Pharaoh ?

May 15, 2015

R.I.P. B.B. I had the pleasure of seeing him live eight times.



"How Blue Can You Get?"

I've been down hearted baby
ever since the day we met
I said I've been down hearted baby
ever since the day we met
our love is nothing but the blues, woman
baby, how blue can you get?

You're evil when I'm with you, baby
and you're jealous when we're apart
I said You're evil when I'm with you, baby
and you're jealous when we're apart
how blue can you get baby
the answer is right here in my heart

I gave you a brand new Ford
But you said: I want a Cadillac
I bought you a ten dollar dinner
and you said: thanks for the snack
I let you live in my pent house
you said it just a shack
I gave seven children
and now you wanna give them back
I said I've been down hearted baby
ever since the day we met
our love is nothing but the blues
baby, how blue can you get?

May 14, 2015

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was told to create "the most beautiful work of marble in Rome, one that no living artist could better." He did, the only sculpture he signed.

May 12, 2015

Take-out Tuesday, my oldest wanted a sandwich called The Heart Attack.



Available at Christina's of Whitestone




Right across from another 24 hour Deli, Cherry Valley.

May 11, 2015

I knew Coffee was good for you.



Thanks to the NYT crossword, yesterday I read "The Girl with the Pimply Face."

May 10, 2015

Another perfect score, just barely.



Street art on the LES.



On the way to Madison Square Eats, beautiful flowers in front of William Seward. Hill Country Barbecue and Red Hook Lobster Pound were the choices washed down with Shiner Bock.



"In quitting this strange world he has once again preceded me by just a little. That doesn't mean anything. For us convinced physicists the distinction between the past, the present, and the future is only an illusion, albeit a persistent one." Albert Einstein--Condolence letter to the widow of his longtime friend, the physicist Michele Besso.

May 8, 2015

Going out a lot lately, views from Terrace on the Park at dusk.

May 3, 2015

Asparagus, another sign of Spring.



The High Line was packed.



Always a nice walk.



Midtown, every tourist took this shot, so I did too.



$16 win.