Channeling Julia Roberts as Anna Scott

I suspect they intentionally made Anne Hathaway look like Julia Roberts in this poster for Becoming Jane.

Old?

I remember a time when there was no real cynicism in me. There was affected cynicism, but I didn't really feel it. I believed completely in possibility, of love, of adventure, of success, of doing things my way. Every action seemed to be a step toward something bigger. Before heartbrake, before cubicles, before rush hour subways, before the concept of 30 was comprehensible.

That time was not so long ago. But I often now find myself wondering if it is recaptureable. Could I love without caution? Could I drop everything on a whim a jump on a plane and just simply take off? Could I be at all spontaneous?

Plea to Olea

Olea still serves an almond tapa but it's not the same almond tapa, the one with paprika, that all on its own kept me coming back to the restaurant.

Stop Egging Eggers on!

The link below takes you to a special website containing a special ad for a special musical/bookish fundraiser to be thrown on August 26th by McSweeney's -- or okay, whatever, their NYC826 program, same thing. Tickets range from $35-$50. Interpret that as you will. I choose to see it as rampant arrogance. Even though: they've got some good musicians; and it's for a decent cause.

http://www.bookeaters.org/

Face Made for TV on the Radio?

Was the TV on the Radio show rained out yesterday or not, anyone know? I know I wussed out...

I have two sisters. Both are older, both are wiser, both are boring-er. Sorry, gals, you know it’s true. My un-boringness is the only thing I’ve got on them at this point, so I feel entitled to cling to it.

So, exciting, not-boring me has two siblings. Being the youngest, I’ve always had two siblings. I’ve never been, known, nor understood the Only Child. Growing up, my friends all had siblings. The Only’s kept to themselves. They played differently, with more reserve, more wariness of other children’s intentions.

One would expect to overcome such differences by adulthood, but alas, Only Children continue to antagonize me as 30 comes onto the horizon. They continue to think they deserve to have the things that maybe, just maybe, I want. They continue to not share.

As an editor, you'd think that I would be hyper-aware of which writers write what, But the truth is, I frequently forget to check bylines, even when I come across something I really like.

Fortunately, I did not make that mistake when I read this article by Katie Roiphe. I found her writing so perceptive and lovely that I made sure to remember her name (her love for Edith Wharton didn't hurt her, either).

So I was sad to see her new book about unconventional marriages get slammed in the Times Book Review this past weekend. I'd love to hear from someone who has read the book. Someone got something wrong, and it was either Roiphe or the reviewer, Michelle Green. I find it hard to believe that Roiphe would write something as awful as the review implies, so I am skepitcal of Green.

Dumbo for Dummies

Love these "Then and Now" photos of Jay Street in Dumbo. Thanks to dumbonyc.com for finding/taking them.

Dance-Rock Craze

I just came across two New York Times articles from the days of yore, each covering the nightlife of a previous decade.

First up in chronological order, we've got this article from 1980 in which those of us who were not old enough to party yet can learn about the "dance-rock craze" that was apparently sweeping the city at the time. Few of the clubs mentioned here are still around today, of course, with the exception of Irving Plaza, CBGB's, and The Bottom Line (is this one actually still with us?). A couple of things strike me as particularly interesting -- in 1980, nightlife did not exist so thoroughly downtown as it does today. The other is that like Warsaw in Greenpoint, Irving Plaza was a Polish hall that became a nightclub. Do the Poles have a thing for large gathering halls, then?

Moving on to the 1990s, this article discusses ten of 1995's "quintessential New York night spots." The fascinating tidbits are bursting from this one:

• The Bottom Line was a rock club and the Knitting Factory was a jazz club
• Even in 1995, uptown still clung to a bit of coolness
• The original Knitting Factory was described as located on the edge of Little Italy. (Today's 20-something response: What's Little Italy?)
• At Latin Quarter, an uptown club at Broadway and 96th, "a couple or a group share a seriously marked-up bottle of liquor (at $70 to $90)." That's like four drinks with tip today.
• There was a Sin-e back then, too, but it was on St. Mark's. At first I thought the recently shuttered one on the LES must have been named after the old one, but a quick Internet search told me that the old one is the same as the new one. Is this right?

Dazed. Also Confused.

Dazed and Confused in McCarren Pool last night was smashtastic. I'll never love an ageing creep as much as I love Matthew McConaughey in his role as the guy who can't grow up and move past pursuits of statutory rape...

And also, McCarren Pool is my new all time favorite venue.

Glass Atrocity in Grand Army Plaza?

Atrocity may be too strong a word, but.

I pretty regularly read New York real estate blogs, in particular Curbed and Brownstoner. They've covered the new Richard Meier building in Grand Army Plaza extensively, and now that the thing is getting close to finished, I was expecting to see at least one someone express the opinion that this thing is ugly, that it clashes in a bad way with its surroundings.

I can't imagine that in ten years time will have been kind to this building...

Thinking Blogger: An Oxymoron/moron?

As any thinking blogger must do, I am currently grappling with the establishment of a code of conduct regarding how much of my personal life I want to reveal online. There's a part of me that wants to keep it entirely anonymous, to talk about other things, to approach it journalistically. There's the other part of me that wants to explain myself to the world, to see if I can reach anyone out there who maybe has similiar thoughts and experiences.

I've decided for now to err on the side of talking about me, to tentatively dip my toe in the water of self-revelation, if it can be called that. Because. I've been thinking a lot lately about the past couple years of my life. I think it's a late-twenties thing. From what I can tell, everyone in their late twenties starts to think a lot about their lives. I think it has something to do with emerging from childhood, and with facing the reality of life, rather than the dreams you had for it, head on. When I was twenty, I probably thought that I would have become something much bigger by now than I have. So there's a certain resignation that has to take hold, that THIS IS MY LIFE. This is it. So all of us in our late twenties have to stop waiting for life to take off and to realize that it already has, and this is what it is.

Also, I've been disappointed in the past year. I found something that I wanted very badly, and I couldn't get it, and I probably dealt with it in a way that could not by any stretch be labeled mature. I'll admit that I've gotten my way with my fair share of things in life, so when this particular thing failed to go my way, I didn't have as much precedent as I maybe should have to fall back on. I didn't know the proper way to react, I just reacted. I pissed some people off, and now I'm regretful.

I may explain myself in more detail at some point soon. Depends on how I feel about this post in a few days.

More Than a House

Why do presidents have compounds as second homes, when the rest of us just have second homes? Or not? Anyone?

Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

Morrisey was cancelled last night, and my childhood dream was thwarted once again...

Built to Cat Spill the Power

Oh. My. God!!!!

Bush's Thingy is Popping Up From its Hole

Just when it seemed like W. Bush's reign of terror had been reigned in -- he found a way to continue influencing America for the worse. It's like those games at the video arcade, where you have to hit the thingy that pops up with a hammer, and as soon as you do, another one pops up from another hole, and you hit that one, and up comes another from yet another hole.

In this case, the thingy popping up from the hole is the disgust-inducing Supreme Court and its string of 5-4 decisions this week. They have in a very short time managed to make inroads toward abolishing the following:

• Free speech
• Integration
• Separation of church and state
• Campaign finance reform
• Rights of the individual over those of the corporation (see Free Speech and Campaign finance reform links)
• Antitrust

There's more, no doubt. I've compiled this list as a mere casual reader of the newspaper.

This feels unprecedented. It feels like a watershed moment for the right. It could mean that the Supreme Court is even worse than George W. Bush, because the Court won't be forced out after eight years. In fact, it doesn't really have to answer to anyone from here on out. It cannot be punished by the People.

I want to punch John Roberts in the face every time I see his picture.

Damn that Karina

I saw Godard's Pierrot le fou at BAM last night. Love it. Loved the treat of watching a Godard film on the big screen, of watching Anna Karina perfect figure waltz across the screen and wishing I were her, of witnessing the perfect combination of irreverence, intrigue, intelligence, and adventure.

Movies are funnier when seen in the theater. Laughter is contagious, and sometimes a lazy mind doesn't bother to find the humor in something unless reminded to by the laughter of others. I doubt I would have laughed so much had I watched Pierrot le fou at home. There would have been less laughter and more jealousy at the sight of Karina's long long legs.

Jaime Recommends - An Introduction.

One of the things I want to do with this blog is to let readers know about the awesome things that my awesome friends and acquaintances are up to. I have talented, ambitious, funny, smart friends, and they do a lot of great things. Also, I have really good taste in music and literature and fun, so when I say I know someone who's doing something really cool, you can rest assured that it's true.

I take great pleasure in sharing the things that I love with everyone else (romantic interests aside), because they are things that deserve to be found and loved. And you thought this was going to be just another blog all about its author! No way -- I didn't move to New York for nothing. I moved here to discover greatness, in myself and in others!

So anytime the title of a post starts with "Jaime Recommends," you have just found yourself on the brink of discovering something mighty...read on, new friends!!

Welcome Me, Love Me

I suppose I’m late to the game, waiting to start a blog until the summer of 2006. But I didn’t want a blog to be the first thing I accomplished. I wanted people to come to my blog because they already knew about me and would like to know more.

I wanted to have the blog of a successful person, not someone blogging in search of success.

About that success – a qualifier: Success is relative. To me, success always has been and still remains the following: education, independence, love, originality, self-sufficiency, and general inspired-ness.

And by this definition, I’ve done pretty well. I hope to do even better.

So please, blogosphere, welcome me with open arms and many links.

xo,
Jaime