Showing posts with label QQF File. Show all posts
Showing posts with label QQF File. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

QQF: This Is Not Your Mother’s Iced Tea


Summer calls for special drinks that speak to all the desires, nostalgia, and sense of well being that the hot, sultry days of the season conjure in the soul.

My exploration for new summer tastes lead me to Tea Forte’s Tea Over Ice Brewing Pitcher. The Forte teas themselves are exquisite as hot beverages. The ones they create for their iced tea set are exotic: raspberry nectar, Ceylon gold, white ginger pear, and pomegranate blackberry. The brewing pitcher is a lovely design of form and function.

The teas are delicious iced straight, but summer looks for cool sparkle. And so I add dark rum to the raspberry and blackberry ones, with a splash of ginger ale, and Riesling to the white ginger pear.

Happiness in a glass.
              

Sunday, July 26, 2009

QQF: A Shakespearean Storm

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2

I was coming home from Long Island around 5:00 p.m. on the Long Island Rail Road today. When we reached Jamaica, we sat in the station for several minutes, waiting for a connecting train.

Out of nowhere it started raining, squalling, teaming, raging. The rain came fast and heavy, and the wind was so strong that it blew the sheets of water horizontal.

Then we all heard it and saw it: hailstones! Hailstones, the size of a nickel. Someone yelled out: "how can there be this ice IN JULY." The hail pelted the train; a young woman on the station bent down to pick up one of the ice crystals. It was a very cinematic moment. If we were in Batman movie, it would have been from a villain, showering Gotham with jewels in order to enslave it. If we were in Neil Gaiman story the ice would be tears from a princess trapped in the heavens.

The hail lasted only for a minute or so. Then we pulled out of the station, and there, over the rail yard, was an enormous rainbow, fully formed, fully arced. Heavens and saints begorrah.

When I got to the Upper, Upper West Side, the storm had followed me, and it was raining hard. For several hours now there has been sporadic thunder, with wild lightening bolts framed in the living room window. Days like this--with nature releasing so much powerful energy, and hailstones in July--it feels like anything is possible.
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Sunday, December 14, 2008

QQF: Mr. Monk and the Kick-Ass Promo


USA’s Monk came out early with its Christmas episode, the day after Thanksgiving. The episode was so-so, but the real holiday gift was the 30-second promo for the new season as Monk, p.i. It was a pitch-perfect mimic of the Magnum, p.i. opening.

Starting with the declarative downbeats of that familiar four-note opening, it completely captures the spirit of '80s cops shows—part T.J. Hooker, part Chips, with a little of Simon and Simon--and Magnum full out. The clip choice from the last six seasons is brilliant: Monk in the Ferrari when he briefly medicates for his depression; Stottlemeyer in organ grinder’s fez when the only person in the locked room with the dead body was the monkey; Natalie as Vanna White; Randy rolling in his desk chair with an esprit de Faceman from The A-Team. Whoever put it together is a first-class tv watcher.

Monk is going into its last season next year. I’m a fan of the series, through its different eras, though I prefer Sharona to Natalie. I wonder if they will solve the mystery of Trudy’s murder before they go.

The Sherlock Holmes angle in any guise is always interesting---we all want to solve the puzzles of ours lives, from the small details to the big questions. But what I really like about it is the premise of this painfully damaged man—who gave up for three years and didn’t leave his house—and then reconstructed his life as best he could. I think that kind of personal struggle resonates with many people.

The Christmas episode, "Mr. Monk and the Miracle," has to do with a fountain in a monastery that seems to be healing people. Of course its specific power is disproved, although Stottlemeyer insists that since drinking it he feels renewed.

SPOILER

Natalie keeps encouraging Monk to drink, since he is in pain all the time. Someone posted on a tvblog that Monk drinking from the fountain is one of the show’s most poignant moments.

But we don’t see that. Monk goes to the fountain and collects the water in a glass, and then just stands there as it goes to black, leaving it completely ambiguous whether he drinks it or not. Sometimes we need something from a story, and so we project it. That’s the interactive part of tv watching, no computer needed.

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Friday, December 5, 2008

QQF: The Holiday Windows of Bergdorf Goodman



Midtown is decked out in its holiday finery. The TREE has been duly lit, and Cartier has wrapped itself in its annual bow, which is now a shocking LED red, instead of its classy velvet ribbon of old.

Depending on how your holiday equilibrium calibrates, the decorations can lift you up, or bring you down. The store windows in particular are astonishing flights of imagination and technology, or soulless expressions of capitalism at its most crass.

I try to embrace the best of the intentions, the beauty of the lights, the merriment of elves and Santa’s workshop as I walk up Fifth against the tide of tourists descending to the Apple Store.

One scene that I find myself returning to are the windows at Bergdorf's, the 57th street side. They are a vision of chic, Victorian attitude in smashing red, black, and white plaster.

Charles Dickens’s head surveys the “Ways to Say 'Season’s Greetings'” tableau, as he should. Edward Gorey-like sketches of buildings, bridges, ships and stairs set the backdrop for the hands with quill pens, old typewriters, and vintage phones of this stylized world, all symbols of communicating the tidings of the season.

One model is wearing a fabulous black princess-style coat with cloche hat, another has a stunning shag dress, with elbow-length black velvet gloves. In a flash of whimsy, another model has a sash that says Messenger, a translation from the Greek for angel.

Such a grown-up vision of the Season. I’m so glad that someone sees it this way. That makes me feel merry and bright, as I walk along the park, and into the night.





(photos by Dan Cross)
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Saturday, January 5, 2008

Q.Q.F. File: Alan Sepinwall's Strike Survival TV Club

I find the writers strike very inspiring. It gets to the very core of our entertainment industry: they who have the words set the world in motion. When they are silent, it all stops.

Although it’s true that the creative endeavors of film, television, and theater are maddeningly symbiotic. The writers could write til the cows come home, but if their words aren’t picked up by the Hollywood/Broadway machine, they will just lie there on the page. (Hence the attraction of the noncollaborative art of blogging . . . .)
Pop over to the Writers Guild of American, West to see the latest on the situation.

Now, what’s a tv critic with a fabulous blog on the side to do during this time of silence?

Alan Sepinwall has a very creative solution to the yawning abyss. He is running a Strike Survival TV Club: he is picking old tv series of particular note that can be completely viewed on You Tube, and then posting about them to start a conversation.

“Welcome to the first installment of the Strike Survival TV Club, where we reject the junky replacement shows the networks are offering, both scripted (Cashmere Mafia) and not (American Gladiators) in favor of looking back at good shows from years past.”

First up is Rob Thomas’s 1998 series Cupid, starring Jeremy Piven and Paula Marshall. It ran for just 15 episodes before it was canceled “before its time.” I had never heard of it. It’s a twee series, predating Pushing Daisies and the Piven of Entourage. Piven plays Trevor Hale, who either is Eros, banished from Mt. Olympus until he unites 100 couples on Earth in true love without the use of the power of his bow and arrow, or he is a psychotic man who thinks he is the god of Love. Paula Marhsall plays the relationship expert/psychologist to whom the state releases Trevor.

I hope you’ll join us at the SSTVC. I think it’s an imaginative, engaging intersection of traditional “television” and new media.

And there is a little irony afoot here. As we know, the copyrighted material on YouTube is not monetized. I fervently hope that remains the case. But if in the future, TPTB change that situation, then the writers must get a share of booty, without a doubt.
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

QQF: Fresh Mint

A nosegay of fresh mint in the fridge is a magical mood lightener. I cannot smell its deeply aromatic leaves without smiling, no matter what has befallen me throughout the day enroute to the evening’s escapade in the kitchen. I find the scent of mint wildly heady—-it is a burst of freshness and hope and LIVING, all within a simple waft of its greenness.

Mint is so beautifully flexible and unfussy to work with. A pair of scissors is all it takes to snip, snip, snip it into salads—-float it in ginger ale for a superb beverage experience—-use it in tacos instead of lettuce, as it positively sings to the accompanying margarita--add it to store-bought tabbouleh for extra snap—-make an elegant omelette with it--all in addition to the de rigueur Mojitos and herbal tea.

What remarkable leaves they are.
              

Friday, August 10, 2007

QQF: The New Yorker Cartoon Contest



Update 8/12: Here's what I submitted:

"One small breakthrough in the lab, and he insisted he gets to go to Disneyland."

I have been repeatedly unloved by the New Yorker cartoon judges, but I will not give up.

Join in yourself. You can enter your caption here. I'm still thinking about mine. We have until Sunday night at midnight.
              

Friday, August 3, 2007

QQF: Create a Simpson Avatar


This seems to be the week for confessions: I don't know Bergman's films, and I don't follow The Simpsons. Something about the animation just keeps me out. Lance started quite an anti-Simpsons zone at his place when he confessed that he HATES the Springfield family. It seems a lot of people have been carrying around this pop culture guilt, and they feel better now having expressed it. Mannion, that's quite a service you have provided.

I did see one whole episode, two years ago, the season finale, when Homer decides to convert to Catholicism. Marge has a dream that she dies and goes to the Protestant heaven, where everyone is playing tennis and sipping cocktails, but Homer and Bart are in the Catholic heaven, with the Mexicans and Irish and Poles all frolicking in ethnicity. Marge asks where Jesus is, and her Preppy guide says, "Oh, He's over there too"--which is a pretty deep gesture to the schism in Christianity.

I know, I know, that's what the series does well: actual ideas wrapped in pop cultural inanity. It still doesn't pull me in.

But, becoming a Simpson avatar is another matter. The Simpson's movie site is great. Go click thru and and you can make your own Simpson likeness. I'm takin' my avatar out for a spin. Have a great weekend everyone.
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Friday, June 15, 2007

QQF File: Norma Jean's Spoonbread

Sometimes you need to take a fresh look at your own neighborhood to see some of the amazing stories and people who are your neighbors. For me, I have recently learned about the talents of Norma Jean Darden, an ex Wilhemina model who owns Spoonbread Too, a restaurant of Southern cooking on the Upper Upper West Side. The story goes that a Vogue editor suggested she write a cookbook of recipes from her childhood. It was first published in 1979 and reissued in a 25th anniversary edition:

"This 25th Anniversary Edition of SPOONBREAD AND STRAWBERRY WINE, is much more than another cook-book of Southern cuisine. It is a tribute to a one-of-a-kind family, told through soul-satisfying memories and recipes; a classic collection of home cooking, remedies and reminiscences. The inspiration for this book evolved from a family history project by sisters Norma Jean and Carole in the late 1970s. After extensive travel they had uncovered rare photographs and forgotten rituals of their family's rich African American heritage, which they used to embellish the recipes. With warmth and animation the sisters introduce the pioneers who inspired this book and their lives."

From the RAWSistaz review.

Norma then opened Aunt Mamie's on 110th Street, and later Aunt Maude's on Lexington. She helped me with a recent party, and her food was quite, quite fantastic. I'm going to get the cookbook now, which has seriously rave user reviews on Amazon, and see if I can bring some of her dishes to life myself.
              

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Q.Q.F. File: Lillet

One of the neighborhood wine and spirit stores is featuring Lillet in the window. The bottle and display are visually attractive, and so I decided to sample this book because of the cover. And what a lovely find it is.

Lillet is an aperitif wine from Bordeaux, created in 1887 by the Brothers Lillet. It was part of a whole fruit-and-herbed flavored quinine-based cocktail wines movement. The original, Kina Lillet, was apparently very bitter, but the quinine content was only reduced as recently as 1985.

Kina Lillet was the basis of Bond's tribute to Vesper Lynd, when he finally names his libation for her.

"A dry martini," [Bond] said. "One. In a deep champagne goblet."

"Oui, monsieur."

"Just a moment. Three measures of Gordon's, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it's ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?"

"Certainly, monsieur." The barman seemed pleased with the idea.

"Gosh, that's certainly a drink," said Leiter.

Bond laughed. "When I'm...er...concentrating," he explained, "I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made. I hate small portions of anything, particularly when they taste bad. This drink's my own invention. I'm going to patent it when I can think of a good name."

-Ian Fleming, Casino Royale

The modern Lillet (no longer Kina) is bitter enough for my taste. It is tangy and thicker than dinner wines, and to be served well chilled.

But what I like most about it is a sentiment on the label:

"It can be enjoyed anywhere, on any occasion; however it is perfect for those special times when day turns to evening and evening turns to night!" [bold emphasis theirs]

A specific wine for a specific day part. I love the idea of marking the transition from the day--with its toils and cares--to evening, and evening to night--with all the possibilities that await there, as the French soul knows very well.
              

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Q.Q.F. File: Baileys for the Bones

The women in my family have a history of some osteoporosis. My doctor insists I get more calcium to get ahead of it, and I quite agree.

I comply by drinking a full glass of low fat milk almost every night, poured over a base of Baileys Irish Cream. I was never a fan of Baileys straight up, but in a tall, cool glass of milk, the whisky/cocoa/cream emulsion makes for a heavenly, festive libation. The ratio of Baileys to milk changes depending on the type of day it's been.

There are some amazing (and some scary) drink recipes on their site.

Slainte!
              

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Q.Q.F. File: The Strange Case of the Missing Corpse

No, it’s not a newly discovered Sherlock Holmes or Nancy Drew. It’s from the Merry Quips Department from the people who brought us The Avengers.

Filmed on the set of the episode Honey for the Prince, the last of the black & white Emma Peel episodes, it was a three-minute promotion for the American market announcing that the next season would be in color.

It was only seen as still photographs in books, until recently.

Steed in evening dress is particularly handsome, Mrs. Peel’s second entrance is stunning (this one’s for you, Tim), and banter abounds. Please note the music: you'll hear several of the series theme motifs, besides the classic opening. It's very well done. Good times all around.

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Saturday, February 3, 2007

Q.Q.F. File: American Crossword Tournament, Online!

Steed asked me for help with 9 down in the Times crossword:

"It moves in the dark, it leaves no mark, it's as hard as steel"

That's an easy one . . .

Q.Q.F. is discovering that the American Crossword Tournament, in its thirtieth year this March, has an online playing component. Imagine—-you can be in the comfort of your home and compete with the whacky/geeky crew we met in Patrick Creadon’s documentary Wordplay: the astonishing 20-year-old two time champ Tyler Hinman; Al Sanders, nobly still at it after his crushing 2005 defeat; Ellen Ripstein, the Susan Lucci of the tournament—they will all be there.

The Tournament, run by the NY Times’s puzzle editor Will Shortz, takes place at the Marriott in Stamford, Ct, March 23 to 25. Registering online allows you to play along with the rounds of puzzles (but not compete for a prize.)

I am a longtime, inveterate, daily puzzle solver. Speed is not something I associate with doing puzzles. But this is just great. Register now!
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Q.Q.F. File: Paging Thomas Crown

Q.Q.F. is that US Helicopter now offers service from the Downtown Heliport (near Wall Street) to Newark Liberty International Airport. It isn’t just for moguls, really.

And the benefit isn’t just that you beat the airport traffic by flying over it (total time to Newark: 7 minutes). It’s that you check in and go through security at the heliport.

When the copter touches down, you are whisked by shuttle bus to terminal C71—-and enter through a back door. If you have to travel on a crazy, high-volume day, being able to by-pass the long check-in line, and the even longer security line, at the airport might be worth the copter cost ($159).

They also have service to JFK, and I hear that their service from the 34th street heliport (which is much cheaper than the other services from there) is beginning in midJanuary.
              

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Q.Q.F. File: New Orleans King Cake

This week Q.Q.F. is ordering a King Cake from the famous Haydel's Bakery in New Orleans. It is a sumptuous, festive, traditional King Cake, with purple, green, and yellow fondant icing, Mardi Gras beads and doubloons, “the baby in the cake,” and a porcelain trinket. It will brighten any holiday dessert table, and it is a way to help the recovering NO economy. They ship overnight almost anywhere.
              

Saturday, December 2, 2006

Q.Q.F. File

That would be “Quite, Quite, Fantastic,” of course. This week's entry is the live blogging party for Studio 60 over at Lance Mannion. The regular commenters (scroll way to down to see) took some issue with the guest blogger’s lack of knowledge about the show. But the layered bon mots—-minute by minute, if you refresh your browser often enough—-add a layer of actual witticism that is missing from Sorkin’s dramedy. Comedrama? Therapy session?
              
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