Escape From New York

It's a big day. The rivalrous Spain and Portugal will be competing against each other by way of soccer, I am nearly finished with the third of a series of outlines I have been writing, and most importantly... I am homeward bound in about 5 hours.

Who wears the patch better- Kurt Russell or moi? I have had pretty bad luck with eye conditions for as long as I can remember. Chalazion surgery at 14, frequent subconjectival hemorrhaging, and all of this on top of an unfavorable R-7 and L-6 prescription. I have years of reading the Sweet Valley High and Babysitter's Club series under my blanket with a flashlight to thank for this. On the plus side, I have had the strangely amusing excuse to wear an eyepatch for a week and reuse the documentation for Photoshop practice purposes... Just a thought, purposi could be a fantastic word. After starting to feel a bit down again, I talked myself out of a sour mood. With all of these exciting happenings and this song on repeat, I cannot be moping!

Bembeya Collage

I think my favorite part is the cowbell! I ran out of brown for the guitar... and wasn't too happy about that. I would have preferred a metallic and black ensemble for the fellas, but I had a limited supply of magazine paper to work with.

The pictures are not the clearest. I will try to scan it tomorrow at the office... It's been a while. I miss doing these.

Weekend Update

Eight nice things about the weekend: Futbol. Iced coffees. Mango with chili. Collaging. Mousaka. Greek salad with calamari. Catch up on sleep. I get to see my parents sooner.

And The Countdown Begins...

Ten more posts until my 200th! 10.. 9... 8...

Toffee and Coffee

Bun's immensely charming, and ever lovable younger cousin only gets better with age! She made this incredible sticky toffee topped with salty caramel. I am craving it with this Cafe Brulot.

Family Wedding Key Players

The backdrop is a lovely NYC skyline on a breezy Friday night. There is a lit up palm tree and imported sand from the Jersey Shore. I feel like I am in the Dominican Republic, not Queens. The party starts winding down, hours into a lively midsummer night of samba and merengue. I soon realized it started to resemble the last hour of a family wedding, when a lot of guests are gone but the key players are still in attendance and at their finest. Quickly thereafter, such characters were explored...

Above we have the cool cousin best man. His role is self explanatory. His speech will be 80% jokes and his dancing will be 100% obnoxious. Nevertheless, he is an essential component of the family wedding.

Then we have the eager, active dancing sister/cousin/aunt/usually bridesmaid. Usually the first on the dance floor while the guests are still eating or roaming from table to table, keeping the party alive. This character comes in at :18 seconds in this video; her tardiness is most probably attributed to the aforementioned mingling. She is usually the most determined to receive the bouquet (I wager that in the clip above, the bride smacking her with the bouquet foreshadows just that happening). I am fairly certain that in the clip below, she is the one in green.

There's also everyone's favorite kids. There are several children present at most weddings, but the eyes are always on 2 or 3 specific ones, usually the cutest. The camera always goes back to them, and if it's your wedding make sure the parents of said cute kids are not manning the equipment or you will have slightly skewed footage. It's quite common, if not assumed, and these children tend be ring carriers or flower girls in the ceremony. My personal favorite is drunk uncle's wife, composed aunt. No matter what, she keeps her cool. She handles her partner's potentially embarrassing behavior with grace. Sassy aunt, however, is another story. Hopefully the mother of the bride does not have beef with her, because sassy aunt is always at the root of drama. Your mother might say she doesn't like to get involved in melodramatic family matters, but from the moment that sassy aunt is invited, your mother might make a bit of a face. I want to say that sassy aunts are usually attractive and hip dressers despite older age, but that might be another character altogether, the aunt that ages really really well that other women are slightly jealous of and just say she's conceited. Gracias, Asi, for that felicitous cool cousin best man footage.

World Cup Delirium

Check it out- Best seat in the house. Kudos to Walter Foods for converting their establishment into a decent, non-sleazy space to watch the soccer games this year. They've put up this giant screen and offer $7 brunch until 10 am featuring croque monsieur, bangers and mash, merguez and eggs and chilaquiles verdes in celebration of the World Cup. The only disappointment I experienced was Italy's lackluster performance vs. New Zealand.

Before heading over I snapped some photos of Bluebs' plants. My herbs are taking forever to grow since there isn't much sunlight in the only space there is for them outside, on the fire escape.

I should also mention that I tried out my ricotta, onion jam grilled cheese sandwich on Bluebs:

I am excited that the majority of the people I care about are partaking in the soccer spirit. While it's definitely not everyone's cup of tea, no pun intended, I've been following the games closely, rooting steadily for Mexico and (although it kills my father) Argentina. They remind me of summers in Allende and Moyahua, eating massive bags of Sabritas and Salsa Verde Doritos in order to collect soccer related "pogs", stickers, temporary tattoos and other prizes. Maybe this had more to do with how the no junk food rule was mysteriously lifted by my parents as soon as we went south of the border. I'm ditching the Brazil game to balance the weekend out with some writing and cleaning... I'm not quite sure how I ended up on an long-winded zouk YouTube search, but I will clean to this:

Cheesy TV Names

In keeping with the recent cheese mania on this blog, I sort of went haywire after that first Lucy and Ricky Ricotta moniker popped into my head.

Re-Ricotta Revenge

The small tub of ricotta in my fridge is vanishing not so slowly by the day. This looks something like strawberries with whipped cream and chocolate fudge, no? Alas, it's my favorite fluffy friend, ricotta, and a balsamic reduction. To the right are some caramelized onions I had with pita chips and the leftover cheese/balsamic.

Ricotta Revenge

I was left with an insatiable ricotta craving after witnessing those brats' sandwiches from yesterday. For lunch today, I am indulging in a slice of Mariella's white pizza. Their pies are always perfection.

Leave It To Lemurs

While I slave away at an outline that has been a half year in the making, not with consistent and laborious effort I will admit, my lemurs in LA will be catching Blow Up at Hollywood Forever. A picnic with loved ones, watching Antonioni projected on a masoleum- this sounds like heaven to me right now. They are going to feast on the sandwiches below, and I am going to munch on almond butter and blueberry jelly toast (although I topped it with some cinnamon-sugar candied almonds to put a smile on my face)... Some long-distance friends send each other finger formed I Heart You's or hold up "Wish You Were Here" signs... Mine snapshot and send their breakfast, lunch and dinner. And I'm not complaining.

Sigh. OK, back to business. Cue work music.

Well, well, well...

Hook is getting crafty now that she's run out of coffee. Below is her tempting tea which she made by boiling almond milk with cardamon pods, brown sugar and darjeeling tea. I want some so bad.

Love and Death and Meatballs

Watching Woody Allen's Love and Death (rumored to be his favorite according to Netflix personnel), dying of heat and eating meatballs with a red wine and black pepper sauce and feta.

1983 Wins

Chris Luis- In the Heart of the City

Kamp

Pictured below are some photos I took of the Kamp set at St. Anne's Warehouse in Dumbo. A brief review of the production by Patricia Cohen for the NY Times can be read here. The Hotel Modern theatre group made 3,000 three inch tall figurines and manipulated them on a 36' x 33' foot set of a recreated Auschwitz. They filmed and projected the live action, disturbing scenes of the daily activities in the camp.

After mixed emotions, I decided that, all in all, I found it difficult, powerful and technically impressive. It was followed up by much needed conversations on gratitude, happiness and spiritual fulfillment.