Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Date: Monday, June 23rd @ 7:30 PM
Location: Solas Bar

Thanks to a post by Maud Newton, I was delighted to discover that Errol Morris will be discussing his new documentary at the New York Public Library this week. As the director of Mr. Death and The Fog of War, Morris is my favorite documentarian.

In addition, the author of We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families, Philip Gourevitch, will be there. I believe Steve of Big Adventures first recommended this book to me when Christian’s grandmother moved to Rwanda to open an orphanage.

I’m looking forward to hearing both of them speak on Tuesday.

Details & ticketing information: Errol Morris and Philip Gourevitch at the NYPL

I’ve been reluctant to sign up for reading challenges, as I’m trying to be a bit more spontaneous in my reading choices. However, with the 1% Well-Read Challenge, I have until the end of February 2009 to read ten books from the list of “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.” Here are my ten picks from the list with two back-ups.

1. Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides (currently reading)
2. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
3. How the Dead Live – Will Self
4. After the Quake, Sputnik Sweetheart, or The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
5. Amsterdam or The Comfort of Strangers – Ian McEwan
6. The Swimming-Pool Library – Alan Hollinghurst
7. Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
8. Invisible Cities – Italo Calvino
9. Portnoy’s Complaint – Philip Roth
10. Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There – Lewis Carroll

Back-ups
1. The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
2. Dead Souls – Nikolay Gogol

Today I took the plunge into NYC womanhood and had a pedicure. I met Queen Bee at a nail salon near Union Square and got down to business: selecting a polish (Essie Carousel Coral), climbing up into the massage chair, and dropping my feet into the warm bath water. QB laughed the entire time, as I’m told my face made joyous gestures with each change to the chair’s massage settings. My feet are prettier than they have ever been. Oh, happy day.

Thursday night, Christian and I went to the Union Square movie theater to watch This American Life live via Satellite.

Ira Glass was filming live in NYC, though at a different theater. The event included out takes from seasons 1 & 2 of the TV show, clips from the new season, and interesting tidbits from Ira about what type of TAL stories are great for radio, but fail as a TV segment. There was even a clip with Chris Ware animation.

There was an abundance of laughs and clapping in the theater, so I can’t imagine that any one left disappointed. I see that Dottie Love scored tickets as well. Hope you had a great time, too!

Season Two of the TV series premiers this Sunday, May 4 on Showtime.

Trends in Japan never lets me down. Today’s blog post - a beautiful Hello Kitty dress! Too casual for work? (Photo via Victoria Couture)

I was chatting away with Kelly and Wendy last Saturday about guilty pleasure TV shows. I’ve had my fair share - 90210, Gilmore Girls, and the first few seasons of ER. But I’ve missed out on quite a few of the standards. Here’s a list of shows I’ve never seen. In your opinion, are any of these worth watching on DVD or should I not waste my time?

Dawson’s Creek
Felicity*
Party of Five
Alias*

So what are today’s guilty pleasures on TV? I do watch a lot of Bravo shows like Top Chef and Project Runway. And I quite enjoy Gossip Girl. What am I missing out on?

* Just discovered that J.J. Abrams (Lost) was the co-creator of these two shows.

Purchased a pair of flip-flops today and have a date with Queen Bee to get a pedi next Saturday - I’ll become a NYC girl yet!

Is it time for me to break down and get a pedicure and a pair of flip-flops? Most midtown women seem to have gotten pedi’s last night…

Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Date: Monday, May 12th @ 7:30 PM
Location: Solas Bar

Tonight I had a little white chocolate taste test at my apartment. From left to right, I tried Godiva, Green & Black, Lindt, and Toblerone. Between bites, I sipped a 2005 De Tierra Pinot Noir. Here are the results:

Visual Appeal: Godiva
Scent: tie between Green & Black and Lindt
Flavor: tie between Green & Black and Toblerone

Although the least appealing visually, Green & Black is my overall winner. With a natural vanilla flavor, Green & Black is excellent with a smooth red wine. Bonus points for being the only organic chocolate in the bunch.

I just found out that the director of “In the Mood for Love”, “2046″, and “Fallen Angels” has a new movie playing at the Angelika called “My Blueberry Nights.” This is Wong Kar Wai’s first English film and stars Norah Jones, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman. I can’t wait to see it this weekend!

In my attempt to be more “girly”, I decided to read Beauty Confidential: The No Preaching, No Lies, Advice-You’ll-Actually-Use Guide to Looking Your Best by Nadine Haobsh (aka Jolie in NYC). It was a quick, fun read concerning all the things I don’t do: wearing makeup properly, getting mani- and pedi- cures, the perfect hair, and waxing.

I was really impressed with her section on morning routines (if you only have two minutes…if you have ten minutes…), though I know it would take me at least twice as long as she claims. I was also thrilled to see my two favorite perfumes listed in her section on “Modern Perfumes that are Already Classics”: Angel by Thierry Mugler and Stella by Stella McCartney. Stella is perfect on me for everyday use.

I plan to try at least two of the products she recommends: Clinique’s Black Honey lipstick and Essie’s Mademoiselle nail polish, which she swears will look great on anyone. (Yes, I’m finally going to start painting my nails.)

For women who already primp themselves to the nines, the beginning of Beauty Confidential is a fun, humorous read regarding the fabulous life of a beauty editor. And if you are just looking for a little motivation to pamper yourself, this book will definitely sell you on getting that pedicure.

The IFC Center offered a viewing of the out-of-print film My Dinner with Andre a few weeks ago and I couldn’t resist going. My friend Shannon is a huge fan of both the film and Andre Gregory, so I knew it was a must-see movie.

The film is simply a conversation between two old friends in a restaurant over dinner. In reality, it was filmed on a sound stage over a two week period. But knowing that Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory worked off a script does not make this film any less impressive. I thought of it more as a play in movie format.

Surprisingly, the film really got to me. Discussions over bizarre theater workshops, living in the moment, getting buried alive, and electric blankets may not sound that impressive until you’ve listened to Wally and Andre chat about them.

Now as someone who has a science-based thought process, some of what Andre discusses was a bit outlandish to me - visions of monsters with violets, growing an abundance of food in sand, talking with fauns. But the conversation felt magical and so I let my skepticism go and just listened. This grew a desire in me to explore creativity, though I haven’t fully thought about the hows and whys.

Later the conversation turned to topics I can relate to more easily - habits of daily life, reality vs. perception of reality, comfort vs. seeing the world, and predictability. These ideas struck a chord in me. How do I lead my life? What is my perception of reality? Here are some excerpts from Andre during this piece in the film:

I don’t think we’re even aware of ourselves or our reaction to things…what we need is to analyze our situation in the world with great clarity, so we can act and respond appropriately…[we] just live each moment by habit…and if you’re just operating by habit, then you’re not really living…we’re starving, because we’re so cut off from contact with reality that we’re not getting any real sustenance. Because we don’t see the world. We don’t see ourselves. We don’t see how our actions affect other people…We don’t think about what we’re saying or doing.

And from Wally:

The more areas of your own existence there are that you therefore don’t want to think about, or that you can’t face, or that you have to lie about, the more distorted your perception of reality will be in general. In other words, we all have every reason to hide from reality, and it’s a terrible problem.

I left the theater energized - wanting to experience life in a different way, removed from habit. I walked around the city pondering what I had just seen on the screen and considering all I missed in the first take. Though the energy I first received from seeing the film has slowly faded, I am still thinking about creativity, my perception of reality, and how to break free from habit. Maybe these are topics that take a lifetime to consider.

I’m sure Shannon was hoping I would speak more to the first half of the film on creativity, theater, and the strange experiences Andre went through on his “journey”. And I was very interested in the coincidences he experience such as finding an old magazine with handprints from other famous artists name Andre. (And I was very happy to hear him call them coincidences and not fate, though Wally calls him out on this later in the film - “but to you it was significant, as if that book had been written forty years ago so that you would see it, as if it was planned for you in some way”.)

But the second half of the film had such a strong impact on me that maybe I’ve lost the significance of the first. And maybe on a second viewing I will get something completely different out of the film. What I do know is this. I will be exploring this film and its themes for quite awhile.

Update: while searching through iTunes, I came across 30-minute podcast on Findhorn in Scotland (link via iTunes), which Andre discusses in the movie. More information about the Findhorn Foundation may be found via Wikipedia.

There’s a great series of videos from notdavidlynch on YouTube called “David Lynch: Problem Solver”. My favorite so far is #2, which focuses on the curious woman at the airport from Fire Walk with Me.

From the Earth Hour 2008 Website:

“Earth Hour will bring millions of people around the world and across the United States together on Saturday, March 29, 2008 to make a bold statement about climate change. Together they will turn out their lights for one hour—Earth Hour—from 8 to 9 p.m. local time.”

The site also features Ten Things to Do in the Dark. Sadly, neither New York City nor Seattle are participating this year. But each citizen can! What will you do during your hour in the dark?

Someecards.com - when you care enough to hit send

I will be offline for a few days while Christian uses my computer. I’ll check email via my iPhone, but not as often as I do on my laptop.

Then I have lots to chat about including books, the death of Arthur C. Clarke, and a few movies I’ve seen this past week.

Enjoy,
Restless Reader

Minnie Driver is pregnant!!! (thanks for sharing, Seno)

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
Date: Monday, April 14th @ 7:30 PM
Location: Solas Bar