Wilfrid
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Posts posted by Wilfrid
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Reminds me of dinner some years ago at Petit Crenn, sitting at the counter right opposite the chefs. Young guy cooking was constantly tasting whatever was in the pan (he must have got through a thousand spoons); every time he did, he reached for the salt and added more to the dish. He was clearly beyond the point at which he could really taste anything.
The dinner was, of course, inedibly salty.
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Oh, that's huge. What a star. Brighton Beach kid, right?
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Just received email from bookseller:
Keep your reading streak going
Er, okay...
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Formaggio or Foster Sundry, both good. I think Zabar's too.
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Followed the Faun with Huysmans' Là-Bas (Down There), a nice 1924 American first edition which would be worth some money if I had a dustjacket.
If I was going to re-read one book by Huysmans, it would be À Rebours, but that means I have indeed re-read it, and more than once. Là-Bas is the first novel in the tetralogy that takes him from Satanism to complete immersion in the Catholic faith. It is entertaining to think that Satanism was actually taken seriously in fin-de-siècle Paris, with occult attacks being reported in the newspapers. Huysmans got mixed up in it, so this is his usual mix of opinion and autofiction. I correctly remembered that the affair with Mme Cantelouve is a bore; I had forgotten how gross the passages about Gilles de Rais are.
Next steps: As I already skipped forward to Hemingway and Hesse, I have three doorstoppers in a row coming up. Again, I'll step out of AZ order to mix in some shorter works.
27. James, Portrait of a Lady
28. Jones, Mosquito
29. Joyce, Ulysses
I should say, the Jones is hugely entertaining, but like the other two there, it's 600+ pages.
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Wednesday will be two weeks of bad chest cold, but only the first week was really incapacitating.
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Bring back Sloppy Louie's.
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I used to buy boudins blancs and noirs and the occasional small bird from the butcher. When I was in the neighborhood, so hardly ploughing money into the place. There was also a good jambon beurre.
Not as much fun as immersive balloons of course.
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At 75. He was always just, like, there.
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Is Nadia really understanding what he's being told?
Quote"[Co-owner of new cocktail bar Crybaby] says he’s a longtime Chartreuse collector and amassed rare bottles from France and the states. He also had the global director and head distiller for Chartreuse from France at the bar. “They were deeply excited about what we’re doing and wanted to make sure we’re stocked and have consistent stock,” he says."
There's no such thing as a bottle of Chartreuse "from the states," rare or otherwise. The guy might have meant he was finding rare bottles in the states, maybe at auctions?
Anyway, good to know the Chartreuse people want to make sure US bars have plenty of the stuff.
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I remember it as Cafe des Artistes and it was grand in its day.
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Not much editing going on there.
QuoteThe former pop-up from Tahiz Gonzalez and Connor Kaminski has found a permanent home on the Lower East Side after its pop-up...
QuoteThe logo features the booty of a pig in a purple outline — in honor of the 7 train, since they lived in Queens for a bit.
Help.
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Emerging from a week of misery with bronchitis I can do amazing things like putting the sausages in an omelette. I am so tired. Never mind.
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I need a new phone case, but I guarantee it will be the brightest, most inappropriate color I can find, making it hard for the phone to go camouflage and undercover and hide around the apartment.
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Still struggling with bronchitis but at least eating more than soup.
Sausages.
Not with potatoes or sauerkraut, just sausages. Dunked in ketchup.
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20 hours ago, small h said:
Squid moilee and raita.
Nice presentation.
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Don't Google the derivation if you're eating.
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Aged 84.
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About to watch Burbs episode 2. I know they dumped the whole series, but why would I binge-watch it? And if I see spoilers, oh no. Who cares?
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I don't know why I have that feeling, being a daughter-father but I definitely do. And I am sure it has been me.
Recovered books (joy):
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Is that a boy thing? I feel I have seen that more with boys.
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I don't remember Tender Mercies which won him an Oscar; apparently not a big hit.
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On a roll finding lost books. Simple trick once you know it.
Last month, re-reading A Farewell to Arms, I looked over my Hemingway collection and was stunned to be missing The Essential Hemingway, a hardback with a battered dj which included the full text of his first novel. It was probably the first Hemingway I bought as a kid. I looked pretty hard for it; nope.
Easy to replace online? Turns out it was never published the States. Can order a used copy from the UK for $40 plus shipping.
A few weeks later, I am looking at fiction a little further along in author AZ order. What's that? There it is. It got pushed behind other books but also it was no longer behind Hemingway, avoiding me more effectively.
Next, I am looking for my copy of The Nine Men of Soho, Julian McClaren-Ross's first volume of short stories. Slim volume, I could visualize it vividly. I eventually decided I hadn't owned it but had loved a library copy.
Yesterday, I thought, double-check. Sure, it had been squeezed behind his larger volumes.
Today, I was getting ready to re-read some Huysmans. Let's take a look at Huneker's old essay about him. Not remembering which collection it was in, I pulled them off the shelf one by one and scanned the contents. No sign.
Retreated to Google and confirmed it appeared in Egoists (or Supermen). Damn, I must have that. Wait.
Purposeful stride to bookcase. There it is, hiding out behind the volumes I didn't want.
Guys, I am onto you now. Maybe I should look again for Frankenstein...
(Since this post obviously lacks detail, I should say this is happening because I line my books up at the front edge of the shelf, mostly eliminating the tchochke temptation Lippy alerted me to years ago and allowing dust -- and missing volumes -- to accumulate in the space behind.)
What are you listening to
in Music
Posted
This stuff is bottomless. I have been listening to Gladys Bentley because beyond the interest in her being a committed cross-dresser in 1920s/30s New York she's an amazing singer and pianist; and Spotify recommended Merline Johnson.
From my superficial research she just seemed to vanish, but after leaving a mound of blues recordings. She's great and so is the condition of the re-mastered stuff.
She was known as the Yas Yas girl, yes as in get your yas yas out. An expression that predated the Stones, of course.