A friend of mine, Zach Braiker, started a fun and cool semi-regular dinner club called the Rubber Chicken Social Club. At a recent meet up, I met three gals who Twitter like crazy and write for a cool blog called Our American Shelf Life. Amanda, bless her heart, pulled out one of those Flip Video Cameras and they insisted on interviewing me about the Apple iPhone and mobile user experience. How cool is that!
Hey! I listed InfoTart on the Blog Catalog, if you follow that site:
Went to a friend’s house in Medway today for a little barbecue/get together. Had a great time out in the countryside, and their place is beautiful.
After our late lunch, Sue made espresso using their stovetop espresso maker –just like the Italians do, apparently. And I have to say that the espresso really was amazing! (Of course, putting light cream in mine I’m sure just made it that much better… yum!)
So now I’m thinking that I need to get a stovetop espresso maker, as well. After all, they start at around $30. Cheaper and better tasting than those new espresso makers!
And of course, I went onto Amazon.com and found this gorgeous, sleek Bialetti one for $45 instead. And with Christmas not for another 7 months or so, I’m thinking that I need to do a little early shopping…
Neil Gaiman spoke at MIT last night, the first in a new Julius Schwartz lecture series from the MIT Comparative Media Studies program. My friend, JP, is an avid reader of quite a number of different genres, including comics and fantasy, and was lucky enough to score tickets. The lecture sold out way in advance and had somewhere around 1300 attendees!
Mr. Gaiman was a brilliant speaker. It was my first time seeing him speak, and one is never sure whether good authors are also going to be good speakers, but Mr. Gaiman was fantastic. He was funny, charming, witty, and incredibly comfortable in front of such a large audience. He spoke a little about a few of his books, but the main part of his lecture was on the connection between hardcore pornography and musicals, which was then extended to define genre fiction in general, including westerns and fantasy.
Read more about Mr. Gaiman’s MIT visit in his own words at his blog: http://journal.neilgaiman.com
My friend, Chris, is going to a “No Pants Part” tonight, so we stopped at the Garment District in Kendall Square to see what kinds of fun costumes they might have. And as anyone who’s ever been to the Garment District know, there’s more fun to be had wandering around the giant store seeing what kinds of crazy old (and some new) clothing they randomly have in stock than anything else.
Along the way, we happened upon a stash of these great hats and Chris tried one out. Awesome! He can totally pull off that look. 
In the end, Chris settled on a gladiator costume for a pretty reasonable price. Let’s hope the party turns out well. And if he’s lucky, a pretty girl may ask him the kilt question.
Ryan Landry is up to his theatrical mania again. This time, the crazy Landry ride is called “Whizzin’” and is based on The Wizard of Oz. Needless to say, this is an 18 and over crowd only.
There’s a good review of it over at The Edge Boston, so I’ll spare y’all my feeble attempts. Suffice it to say that the show was a lot of fun. I went in there not knowing what to expect, except that I would laugh my ass off and gasp multiple times at the outrageous humor. Happily, Landry and the Gold Dust Orphans didn’t disappoint.
After the show, a few of the cast hung out with a giant Vagina Dentata, letting audience members get their picture taken in it with Glenda for a donation of $10. I took a snapshot on my Nokia E65 camera phone of some random guy posing for his picture. Hilarious! (And honestly, I have no idea who this guy is…)
So if you haven’t seen it yet and you have an appreciation for Landry’s peculiar brand of gender-twisting, culture lampooning, outrageous humor, get your tickets today! And don’t forget that extra $10…
Went to see Speed Racer last night — and loved it!
I know it’s gotten mediocre reviews in the press, but I thought it was fantastic. The visuals were stunning. The whole movie was like a Japanese manga (comic book) come to life. The Wachowski brothers did a fantastic job of directing the film and giving it a true manga/anime visual style, with a bit of fun camp. And Speed’s kid brother, Spritle, stole every scene.
Anyone looking for an Oscar-winning dramatic performance along the lines of No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood will be disappointed. But c’mon. Let’s be honest here. Is that what you’d expect of Speed Racer? No! You’ll come for the adrenalin-soaked, eye-popping visuals, great racing, and a fun story line.
Last night, some friends & I went to see Iron Man. Thankfully, it wasn’t just good, it was brilliant! Well acted, good writing, nice balance of serious and fun.
In my humble opinion, it was the best of any of the movies based on Marvel superheroes. Better even than Spider-Man.
So definitely go check it out. And don’t forget to stay until after the final credits have rolled for a bonus scene…
