out there on the ice.
last weekend, i skated to work on a particularly nasty sunday. the sidewalks were amateur ice rinks, and my lack of grips and grace proved unfortunate. slip slip, crash! i wiped out on wooster. which sounds rather poetic, but really, was just awkward.
this weekend, it's not icy but it's triple size cold. minus a trillion, according to my internal thermometer. that might be a slightly inaccurate read, but it's really damn chilly out there in the arctic, i mean, city. last night i made the mistake of first walking home two miles in the evening in just stockings (well, not JUST stockings, i was also wearing clothes, but stockings are essentially bare legs) and then going out into the freeze to meet up with friends. we had a warming meal at joe's shanghai - these fascinating little dumplings that have soup in them, so you have to puncture them with your teeth and suck out the goodness. it was one of those bustling divey joints where they seat you at huge round tables with a bunch of strangers. we were only 3, so were joined by about 7 teenagers out on the town, and a couple trying to have a romantic dinner. how i love being constantly thrown together with randoms. i mean, even the people i was eating with, i met randomly, and have only known for a few months.
after, we (stupidly? bravely?) decided to walk over to bleecker & 6th from the heart of chinatown - normally not a bad stroll, but in the dead of winter, kind of dumb. chinatown at night is pretty amazing - the narrow streets full of exotic lights and signs are right out of a movie set. we were on our way to a show, and had to kill an hour before doors, so hit a little pub called peculier near the venue. as so often happens to me lately, i walked in and realized i'd been before, but at a time i didn't know the city, so had no context to place the place. we took a seat at the back, and sat and gawked at a group of khaki-clad bankers guffawing at their khaki-clad jokes. they all had this uniform, even beyond their clothes - flowing manes and jowls. and when i say jowls i mean JOWLS. these guys were probably 23 years old, and yet they had the easy-living jowls of 55 year olds. we could not stop staring. and giggling.
the show itself was a bit disappointing - the band - school of seven bells are hipster-critic darlings of the moment - so it was interesting to check out. but they walk a fine line between good and total crap - the good sounds like a more modern cocteau twins, the bad sounds like celtic music for the kind of people who commune with fairies. so, hit and miss. a dj set by the juan maclean before was a bit uninteresting too - but it was amusing to watch people rave out like it was 1994.
today i tried to do errands, but quickly retreated into the cocoon of my apartment. i did make a quick stop at abraco, my favorite coffee shop. i think i might have a crush on that place. i get giddy when i go in. it's just so small and cute and the people who work there are so friendly it hurts.
anyhow, this little recap of my life seems to have no point, except to say it's cold and life continues on its happy random way.
mid january already...09, how you promise to fly already.
last weekend, i skated to work on a particularly nasty sunday. the sidewalks were amateur ice rinks, and my lack of grips and grace proved unfortunate. slip slip, crash! i wiped out on wooster. which sounds rather poetic, but really, was just awkward.
this weekend, it's not icy but it's triple size cold. minus a trillion, according to my internal thermometer. that might be a slightly inaccurate read, but it's really damn chilly out there in the arctic, i mean, city. last night i made the mistake of first walking home two miles in the evening in just stockings (well, not JUST stockings, i was also wearing clothes, but stockings are essentially bare legs) and then going out into the freeze to meet up with friends. we had a warming meal at joe's shanghai - these fascinating little dumplings that have soup in them, so you have to puncture them with your teeth and suck out the goodness. it was one of those bustling divey joints where they seat you at huge round tables with a bunch of strangers. we were only 3, so were joined by about 7 teenagers out on the town, and a couple trying to have a romantic dinner. how i love being constantly thrown together with randoms. i mean, even the people i was eating with, i met randomly, and have only known for a few months.
after, we (stupidly? bravely?) decided to walk over to bleecker & 6th from the heart of chinatown - normally not a bad stroll, but in the dead of winter, kind of dumb. chinatown at night is pretty amazing - the narrow streets full of exotic lights and signs are right out of a movie set. we were on our way to a show, and had to kill an hour before doors, so hit a little pub called peculier near the venue. as so often happens to me lately, i walked in and realized i'd been before, but at a time i didn't know the city, so had no context to place the place. we took a seat at the back, and sat and gawked at a group of khaki-clad bankers guffawing at their khaki-clad jokes. they all had this uniform, even beyond their clothes - flowing manes and jowls. and when i say jowls i mean JOWLS. these guys were probably 23 years old, and yet they had the easy-living jowls of 55 year olds. we could not stop staring. and giggling.
the show itself was a bit disappointing - the band - school of seven bells are hipster-critic darlings of the moment - so it was interesting to check out. but they walk a fine line between good and total crap - the good sounds like a more modern cocteau twins, the bad sounds like celtic music for the kind of people who commune with fairies. so, hit and miss. a dj set by the juan maclean before was a bit uninteresting too - but it was amusing to watch people rave out like it was 1994.
today i tried to do errands, but quickly retreated into the cocoon of my apartment. i did make a quick stop at abraco, my favorite coffee shop. i think i might have a crush on that place. i get giddy when i go in. it's just so small and cute and the people who work there are so friendly it hurts.
anyhow, this little recap of my life seems to have no point, except to say it's cold and life continues on its happy random way.
mid january already...09, how you promise to fly already.
posted by mad at 3:41 PM
2 Comments:
The Peculier used to be a Bowlie hangout! Did someone like Rick ever take you there?
Interesting to hear about the School of Seven Bells show. Your description sounds about right. A friend had pointed them out to me and I listened to their songs on MySpace. One was spectacular but the others were just as you describe in fairy land.
no, went this past summer on a sorta-kinda date.
funny stuff that it was bowlie-ish. maybe that's why it felt immediately comfortable.
as for school of seven bells, yeah. 'half asleep' and 'connjur' are gorgeous. otherwise, blah blah blah. very pretty girls though.
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