- Back in NYC for fifteen minutes before spotting a mob surrounding Al Pacino while he shoots a commercial in a West Village Coffee Shop (looks like death warmed over in person).
- Yonah Shimmel's. World beating Potato Knish (I'm a fun guy).
- Seeing the NYC premiere of Gyorgy Ligeti's only opera: Le Grand Macabre, with Il Giovine, for FREE! Great singing all around, very good composition (from a composer who often did much greater), good orchestral playing, mediocre English translation, terrible staging.
- Haircut in Toms River NJ from 90-year-old Italian barber. Not sure if he could see my hair but turned out OK.
- Seeing one B. McKaskell work as a chef on Friday night, who makes the best grouper I've ever had. Not to mention the weird realization that nearly half of Il Giovine's Toms River friends seem to either work in the same restaurant or eat there once a week.
- McKaskell coming to Il Giovine's house later with half a handle of vodka poured into a Tupperware container.
- Hanging out with Il Giovine's sister for the first time. Who assured me, quite unsolicited I swear, that life's problems disappear when we turn 30. The whole family seems to have one personality.
- Bonfire in Il Giovine's back yard for which we had to use two VOW cards for ignition (sorry Emily).
- Katz's Deli right before NYC-Boston bus trip. How I've missed thee.
A. Makes the greatest corned beef sandwich I've ever had (nothing comes even close).
B. Random guy offering me a bite of his salami sandwich (that probably sounds more like something that would happen at Stonewall)
C. Realizing that they pour kitty litter on the floors of their bathrooms.
- Eating with The Koosh, HaWinograd, El Aguirre, La Pothier and sundry other acquaintances in Boston's North End at a restaurant where Bostonian waiters scream at one another at the top of their lungs, slam the food on the table, and tell the customers "Just pick an item, you're not more special than anybody else in here."
- Realizing that The Koosh lives no more than 2 blocks from Harvard Square. And getting a call from my parents telling me that they were driving past Hyde on their way to Hartford just as I was walking through it....
- Drinking at John Harvard's in Cambridge with HaWinograd and some right-wing Jewish friends of his, during which I was asked on which Zionist leader's grave I would most like to do it. (The answer, in case you wonder, was Menachem Begin, since he looked for fifty years as though he badly needed some.)
- Sauced Wii Mario at The Koosh's.
- Meeting HaWinograd's family for the very first time at a barbecue outside their lovely home in Medfield. During which I was told that HaWinograd is in fact related to Joseph Silverstein (Boston Symphony concertmaster for twenty years, Utah Symphony director for another twenty). Then told by Wino's uncle: "if you ever meet him, tell him he still owes me a wedding present that cheap sonofabitch!"
- Watching Into The Woods at The Koosh's house with La Pothier for the first time in ten years. Still mindblowingly awesome and still difficult to watch for the memories of a certain place it conjures...
- Walking with La Pothier and the Koosh through downtown Cambridge. Myself and The Koosh well-shoed. La Pothier, barefoot.
- Eating a Boston Creme IN BOSTON!
- Wonderful hospitality from Il Giovine, The Koosh, La Pothier and HaWinograd.
No comments:
Post a Comment