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18
Jul 08
After reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, I’ve been inspired to write a diet book called “The Road Diet.” I’m dabbling with the first draft. It’s a post-apocalyptic diet based largely on the protagonists’ subsistence foraging. No, there’s not going to be any cannibalism, at least until week 30. Everything should be easy to acquire for under $5 a week, which is easily affordable for Oprah book club members. Expect to lose weight!
Here’s a sample week:
Day One
- Breakfast: 4 fried corn meal patties, each made from 2 tablespoons of corn meal mixed with pork fat skimmed from a can of pork and beans.
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: 1 can of pork and beans heated in the can and 2 desiccated apples for dessert
Day Two
- Breakfast: 6 peanuts and 4 leftover corn meal patties
- Lunch: 1 package of grape juice mix crystals
- Dinner: 1 can of Libby’s green peas
Day Three
- Breakfast: water
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: 1 boiled leather watch strap
Day Four
- Breakfast: water
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: water
Day Five
- Breakfast: 1 handful of dusty barley seeds
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: water
Day Six
- Breakfast: water
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: 1/2 can of corned beef hash, 3 cans of Libby’s peas, 1 can of pears for dessert
Day Seven
- Breakfast: Navy bean soup (1 can of tomato paste, water, 33 navy beans)
- Lunch: water
- Dinner: 1/2 can of corned beef hash
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11
Jul 08
“How can you make a fool perceive that he is a fool? Such a personage can no more see his own folly than he can see his own ears.”
— William Makepeace Thackeray
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30
May 08
Photo © 2008.
Patrick, who works at Microsoft, wanted some portraits done for work related projects, so we got together last Sunday at his apartment in Brooklyn. I had to improvise lighting when my remote flash wouldn’t sync up properly. You don’t have to be a European oil painter to appreciate window light.
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14
May 08
“If you are one who hates, abhors, and loathes the turnip, this savory casserole should so fill you with rapture that you will cherish this lowley vegetable forevermore.”
— Julia Child, “Navets a la champenoise” (sic) recipe, 1963
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13
May 08
Mary-Kate’s imaginary conversation with The Godfather’s Academy Award nominated actor James Caan:
Mary-Kate: James Caan! You were in two of the best movies of all time!
James Caan: Thanks.
Mary-Kate: Misery and Elf!
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01
May 08
Ira Glass, host of This American Life, was interviewed in this week’s Time Out NYC magazine. Ira cites two prime examples of how New Yorkers can be ridiculously egocentric:
You moved This American Life to New York from Chicago two years ago. Which city has better pizza?
No good can come to me from answering this question. There’s just no way to get out of it without making someone mad. The people in Chicago feel like, “Yes, you’ve had some baseball teams that have won the World Series on a more regular basis—we can’t deny that. But in this area, we’re No. 1.” New Yorkers feel like they invented pizza. Like, actually, it didn’t come from Italy; it came from some Original Ray’s shop whose actual original location will never be known.
At the live event, you’re letting the audience ask unscreened questions. Aren’t you worried that some of them will be duds?
Yes. Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but New Yorkers are the worst audience for asking questions at live events. Unlike other cities, for some reason people here will just give little speeches about their take on something.
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30
Apr 08
Photo © 2008.
iPhone Snap from last night. Nick McCabe, guitarist for The Verve. Second night at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. A much better show than the first night and one of the best performances I’ve seen of The Verve. Also, another black Blade Strat guitar of Nick’s came out during the set. It wasn’t there last night and that’s not a brand you see very often in the States.
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29
Apr 08
iPhone Snap from last night: Nick McCabe of The Verve at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
Photo © 2008.
Because I noticed these things… He was playing a sunburst Levinson Blade Strat, an offset metallic black Fernandes electric guitar, an offset vintage red ‘65 Fender Electric XII 12 string (like Jimmy page used on “Stairway to Heaven”), and a Fiesta Red Strat. Very cool.
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28
Apr 08
I wish there was more to say about Charles Dickens driving an illustrator to an untimely end, but there’s not a lot written as a matter of public record in Charles Dickens’ biographies.
"Better Luck Next Time" by Robert Seymour.
The story goes like this. In 1836, there was an illustrator by the name of Robert Seymour who gave up a career as a draughtsman to do sport caricature illustrations in the style of the famous George Cruikshank. Apparently, Seymour thought so much of Cruikshank that he liked to refer to himself as “Short Shanks” as a pseudonym. I never really cared too much for Cruikshank style, because the faces are always so poorly done, but to each his own. It was the popular style back then.
The publishers Chapman and Hall really liked what Seymour was doing and wanted to offer him a chance to work with a new writer that was becoming ridiculously famous, the 23 year-old Charles Dickens. The contract was that Seymour would do some etchings around the idea “The Adventures of the Nimrod Club” and Dickens would be approached to write some short stories based on them, but the focus would be primarily on Seymour. The illustrator would be the top billing. However, it wasn’t meant to be.
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