The Night Watch - Book 21

Sarah Waters is a young English writer who skillfully explores sex and gender in historical novels, but the device she uses in this book (beginning the story at the end, after WWII, and moving backward in time to the beginning of the war) came off a bit too gimmicky. Tipping the Velvet is her first and her best, a great book set in Victorian England. I've tried her others and found them to be good but not great. Sort of like Paul McCartney after The Beatles in Wings. Not bad, but no comparison to what came before. Check out Tipping the Velvet if you're interested in Waters at her very best.

Movies 18 & 19: Weekend of the Coens

It was a Coen Brothers weekend. On Friday we went to see No Country for Old Men. Great story, but the last 1/4 of it seemed somewhat disconnected from the first 3/4 of it. Tommy Lee Jones is fantastic. As many have noted, there is quite a lot of violence, but so much so that it almost begins to seem cartoon-like at a certain point. You really can't go wrong with the Coen Brothers. On Saturday we went to see Romance and Cigarettes starring James Galdofini, Susan Sarandon, and Kate Winslet, with the Coen Brothers serving as executive producers. Kind of a post-modern musicial about a middle aged couple and their discontents. It was a bit uneven, but there were a number of really funny moments spread throughout the movie. It was worth the price of admission alone to hear Susan Sarandon singing Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart." The singing and dancing New York cops that flounced across the screen throughout the film were also pretty good. To complete the Coen fest, we're planning a reviewing of The Big Lebowski and O Brother right after Christmas.

Books #19 and #20 - Sacred Games and Shantaram

If you think you might be in the mood for a 900+ page book on the seedy underside of life in Bombay, I've got two for you to consider - Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra and Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. If forced to choose between the two (and, really, who needs to read nearly 2,000 pages on this particular topic?), I'd recommend Sacred Games. The shifts in time and perspective can be confusing, especially at first when the reader is also forced to cope with several non-English words in every paragraph (fewer than half of which are defined in the less-than-helpful glossary.) However, as one catches on that most of these terms are variations on "buttfuck" or "(insert relative) fucker", a fascinating story emerges about the professional and spiritual trials of an underworld kingpin and the mid-level policeman tracking him down (sort of). The characters are complex and the plot is compelling enough to maintain interest throughout most of this impressive novel.

Shantaram starts strong, retelling the semi-autobiographical tale of its amazing author which begins with his escape from prison in Australia and flight to India to avoid serving time for a drug-induced murder (this book was actually written while the author was in jail completing this sentence, which may go some way to explaining its extraordinary length.) The main character is refreshingly humble and non-macho and the writing is terrific. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of the way through, he ends up involved in armed conflict in Afghanistan and, I don't know, the book just lost me after that. I finished it, but the emotional richness it began with seemed to generate into a bad Rambo knock-off by the end. Still, the first part is so good that it might still be worth a go.

Moretti's - Beer 26

Last night we went back to Rose Angelis, an excellent northern Italian restaurant that was discussed earlier on this blog. Kate had the same dish as last time -- spinach half moons filled with cheese and cooked in a brown butter sauce - yum! I had ravioli cooked in a sauce made of pulverized sun dried tomatoes. Mmmmm. After sharing these meals and just about finishing both of them we were so full that we couldn't even manage to think about dessert. Although we can't count the restaurant again for 10 x 40 purposes, I did have a new beer, a Moretti, which was a lighter colored beer with a medium strong taste to it.

Book 18: The Essential Triathlete

Of the several triathlon books I have read, this one is probably best suited for the first timer in terms of the perspective it provides. The author tries to persuade beginners of the wisdom of simply finishing the race, rather than setting time goals and so forth. Just breaking the tape takes enough physical and mental preparation in his view. He certainly persuaded me.

The heart of the book consists of several training charts that prepare the reader to reach this goal. The problem is he conflates the sprint and standard triathlon training chart into one chart, undermining the whole idea of keeping training and race goals as modest as possible. I think one could easily adapt the chart back down to sprint level, but it was frustrating not to find one dedicated to that level of racing in a book that is designed for the first timer.

Suzanne Westenhoeffer - Performance 12; My Pie - Restaurant 32; Park West - Place 27

Last Saturday we went out with a group of the girls to see famed lesbian comic Suzanne Westenhoeffer at the Park West, where she was doing a benefit for a local non-profit, the Lesbian Community Cancer Project (the LCCP). The evening started with some delicious pizza and drinks at My Pie, around Clark and Fullerton. This place features deep dish pizza and maybe the best pizza crust we have encountered while here in Chicago. After adequate food and drink were had we walked over the Park West, a few blocks south on Clark and Armitage. We had really good seats in this very comfortable venue where we proceeded to laugh pretty continuously for the next hour and a half. Westenhoeffer's show is a combination of set pieces interspersed with banter from the audience. And really, when all is said and done what's better than laughing at and with your own kind?

Amitabul and Selmarie- Restaurants 30 & 31; Fun Fact 28

Last Friday we joined a couple of friends after work and headed over to Amitabul, a restaurant featuring vegan Korean food. This is a great place that is very different from the vegan restaurant we visited a couple weeks ago. Whereas Karyn's cooked tried to replicate meat based comfort foods with vegan ingredients, Amitabul centralized a wide variety of really tastily prepared vegtables. We each ordered a dish and then shared, and they ran the gamut from mildly to wildly spicy, from salty to fruity sauces, with mushrooms, peppers, rice, noodles, etc etc. The servers were very friendly and the atmosphere very cozy and warm. To top it off, this restaurant is very low priced. We had a meal for 4 with an appetizer for under $60. The only possible drawback is that it's located on the NW corner of the city, near the Superdog on Milwaukee and Devon, so it's a little bit of a haul -- but well worth it!

After dinner we stopped in at the Cafe Selmarie for dessert. I had a truly amazing chocolate mousse cake. Kate had orange chocolate decadence which was good, but not as good as the aforementioned mousse. Our friends had cherry pie.

Fun fact: In the middle of our desserts two strange women came up to me and one asked if I knew who she was. Of course I didn't initially, not having a context in which to place her. But then I realized it was my old friend Margie, who I went to high school with here in Chicago roughly 30 years ago! She currently lives in Oregon and was just in town visiting her family for the weekend. What are the chances that the two of us would meet up and recognize each other in this huge city? Amazing!