midtown, late december 2010.
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[Note: Extra spaces between b&w shots for better viewing.]
In December, I loaded No-Name, my dear Nikon FE, with a roll of Kodak Tri-X black and white film, and decided to take my merry time finishing the roll. I only just got the developed negatives back yesterday, and was pleasantly surprised to see images that I’d completely forgotten that I’d taken.
Among the surprises: four photographs taken from a conference room down the hall from my office. If I recall correctly, these were taken the day after the big snowstorm at the end of December, the day when the entire city shut down and nobody (except yours truly and a co-worker) came to the office and midtown was eerily quiet.
The last three photographs feel very 1950s to me, a New York of a bygone era. The top photo feels more sci-fi, like a futuristic cityscape of ever-diminishing windows. It’s also vaguely reminiscent of the Michael Wolf photo that my friend Daniel is looking at in this shot (only, well, nowhere near as amazing and dizzying).
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very dark.
For all of my post-staycation talk about making better use of daylight hours, I’ve been taking a hell of a lot of photos when I really shouldn’t: long after the sun goes down and/or in what is basically candlelight. It took me a minute, after a bit of squinting and memory recall, to figure out what this is a photo of: the fruit stand at the corner of Canal and Essex streets, around 10:30pm earlier this week. On the left side, with the lights jutting away diagonally, is Division Street. The local lies just steps into the darkness.
I didn’t realize until after I’d taken the photo that the aperture setting was set at f/8, which would plunge an already underexposed nighttime photograph into much murkier territory. New York is never quite this ominous looking, I don’t think.
More daytime photos soon, I promise.
going dark.
First note to self: There is low light, and there is basically just candlelight. Stop trying to take photos when conditions veer closer to the latter. No matter how wonderful your burger and hot chicken sandwich at The Commodore were. (Oh hey! I just noticed in the top photo: Commodore 64! Purely coincidental and totally awesome.)
Second note to self: The lighting at Momofuku Ssam Bar is better than at The Commodore, but at the end of the day, you’re still not going to get a good shot of your food with the Leica. No matter how glorious the entire meal was. (Especially the spicy Chinese sausage with crispy rice cakes — sweet jesus yes.) And no matter how great the company was. (Hi Carson and Gregor!)
Third note to self: While taking photos of great meals in low light will inevitably result in so-so photographs, the converse (obverse? inverse? You’d think I know this) is also true, at least for my most recent roll of film: great photos taken in beautiful, natural sunny (de)light will surely also mean that the meal itself will be quite mediocre. Case in point: brunch at Flatblush Farm.
Not a terrible meal — just not a very memorable one, alas. The sausage gravy in the b&g was pretty bland, though the biscuits had a nice texture. And hey, note to restaurants: throw a poached egg on top of your biscuits and gravy! It’s brunch! The egg yolk will bind all flavors together in the most magical of ways. Trust me.
staycation: the takeaway.
What I learned on my week off:
1. I need an office with a window. Stat. My god, the light that I miss out on, from 4pm-on, just makes me weep a little bit.
2. There is so much of the city that I have yet to explore. So many good eats out there that I have no idea about, that I need to know about.
All of that said, this last week back at work has made me realize something incredibly important, as I wander back into the midtown fray at 5:30pm every afternoon: the days are starting to get longer again, finally. And the light that I so desperately miss out on from October through February — it’s sticking around for a little bit longer, every day just a wee bit more. More daylight hours to maybe just duck into a random subway car, get out at a random stop, and see what long-shadowed spring-to-summer light and hole-in-the-wall food awaits.
staycation: late week eats.
Between Wednesday night and Friday afternoon of my staycation, I had the following meals:
1. Frankie’s 457 with my pal Sonya (meal not pictured, alas). It was Sonya’s first time there; I nudged her towards the cavatelli with sausage and brown butter, definitely in my top 5 best comfort food dishes in NYC. Sonya was instantly converted.
2. Lunch at Peels with Donny. (That’s him above, with his Hasselblad. Between the Leica and the Hassie, it was quite the powerhouse film camera lunch.) I got the cheeseburger and a biscuit with a wee smear of red eye gravy; Donny got That ‘Lil Piggy, a sandwich filled with roasted pork, pate, a fried egg, and coleslaw. It was a most pleasing lunch.
3. Lazed the early afternoon away at Virage with a couple of glasses of white wine. Read some Ranciere.
4. Went to Brucie for a solo dinner, only to run into my friend Mark and his brother and sister visiting from the west coast. Ended up joining them for a gut-stuffing meal of pastas and some wine afterwards at Black Mountain Wine House.
5. Friday lunch at Jean Georges with the lovely Lady K. The day started out grey, but about twenty minutes into lunch, the sun finally came out, filling the JG dining room with wonderful light. We split a great bottle of Gruner, and feasted on crab, steak, salmon, trout, and a caramel dessert that was to die for. Afterwards: well, this.
It was a pretty spectacular way to staycate, I have to say. Though, to be sure, such affairs are a rarity, and probably ought to be, if I’m going to save up the necessary funds for a Leica of my own. On a technical note: these were taken with the borrowed Leica, using my now-standard Kodak Ektar 100, but pushed one stop. Though the darker shots have a bit of grain, I think that by and large the tones remain fairly consistent with the Ektar 100, with the blue tones peeking through ever so slightly (especially in the shadows). I might try to experiment a bit more with the Ektar, see if it can replace the Portra 400 if pushed and metered properly.
I’d like to say that this week back has been an austerity week for both the stomach and wallet, but alas, I clearly have some problems. More on that in a post or two to come.
Above: Donny’s opening night reception for his Foodaissance photo show at Minibar in Carroll Gardens.
Note: Lest anyone think that all I do is burn through my paycheck eating at nice restaurants, my shelf in the fridge tells a different story. A really cringe-inducing one.
Chef Boyardee, my friends. The sad part was, I really wanted the spaghetti and meatballs, but had to settle for pasta shells. And yes, that’s totally a tub of Crisco in the back.
a & june.
My last post about the awesome Lady Pim reminded of these photos I took of her parents a couple of years ago, when they were living in Berlin. I’ve posted some of these before, but they’re so lovely — the photos and the subjects! — that I thought I’d repost them again. Perhaps my finest moment with my Yashica Mat 124.
Also, the artwork in the photos is all June’s. You should check out her website; she is an incredibly talented artist.
staycation: lazy days and lady pim.
Last week was quite the bender, gastonomically and otherwise. This past weekend I needed to slow down, so I spent much of Saturday watching movies at home and getting delivery from Ghang Thai Kitchen. On Sunday, I made a great red lentil soup with vadouvan, a lovely French-inflected curry blend I picked up from one of the South Asian markets off 6th Street in the East Village. I threw in some Marash chile pepper powder for good measure; it’s cold around here, you know. (The book I’m reading in the top photo: the excellent Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, by Owen Hatherley.)
Also, on Sunday night, Mark and I went to Dean Street, a gastropub opened up by Nate Smith, former executive chef at the Spotted Pig. It underwhelmed, sadly. The appetizers — chicken liver pate crostini, deviled eggs, and a toast topped with what I want to describe as something along the lines of fancy artichoke dip — were tasty enough, but didn’t wow us. We both ordered the burger — the burger patty was awesome; the bun, stale. I just read that after this weekend, Smith and the resto’s owners parted ways. Too bad, really, on so many levels — Dean Street has the potential to be a great neighborhood spot, several notches above the random sports bar and grill type places you’d normally find in the area.
But the best part of the holiday weekend, and by far the best way to end my staycation on the best of notes: an unexpected visit from my friends A and June and their lovely and gorgeous new daughter, Pim.
Pim’s at the point where she’s grabbing at everything within reach — her fingers, other people’s fingers, menus, coffee cups — and attempting to put it in her mouth. It’s hilarious to watch, though probably an augur of the handfulness to come. I mean, she’s not even ambulatory yet, and already it took four people over brunch to rotate watching her so that we could all finish our meals.
The occasion for the visit: my acquaintance, and their dear friend, Jonas, had a book launch party and reading in Dumbo for the US release of his novel Montecore, on Sunday afternoon. On Monday was the US premiere of his play Invasion!, over at Walkerspace in Tribeca. I managed to catch both, and oh my word, it is good stuff. Afterwards we went to the afterparty at South’s, where I thankfully did not take a photograph of the plate of nachos that A and I demolished.
I woke up Tuesday morning with my head in a happy fog. It was a pretty great week, full of food and friends and naps and repeat. Gonna have to do this again in a few months, or find a way to rig the MegaMillions lottery.
staycation: friday shenanigans.
So this past Friday, Kathryn and I went to Jean Georges for lunch, which was pretty spectacular. Hopefully I’ll have photos from that lunch, as well as from my gastronomic sojourns the previous two or three days, posted in the next few days. After lunch, we headed south to Soho and the Lower East Side, where we first got caffeinated at Gimme Coffee and then lazed the afternoon away at ‘inoteca and Marshall Stack. I made good use of the Leica and late afternoon light — such great blue tones in the shadows! — and Kathryn gamely agreed to be the main subject in my photographic endeavours.
Later, I met up with the Clandestino ladies for a working dinner in Chelsea, which, well, yes, devolved into, well, a non-working dinner complete with non-work-related messages (see below). And then, following a failed attempt to get into the Christian Marclay show at Paula Cooper (there are lines, and there are 50-person lines that move at about a foot and a half every 15 minutes), EC and I ended up at the Post Office, a very new bar in south Williamsburg, where we noshed on excellent pulled pork and grilled cheese sandwiches (separate sandwiches! not all in one sandwich) and sipped on mostly excellent whiskey. A pretty great Friday from beginning to end.
A word of advice, though: when in doubt, don’t order the young whiskey from Oregon. Just …. don’t.
recent odds and ends.
Pre-staycation photos: an excellent fried chicken sandwich at Van Horn Sandwich Shop in Cobble Hill; drinks at Lady Jay’s in Williamsburg; barbecue carnage at Fette Sau (don’t miss out on the baked beans with burnt ends!); Greenpoint in the morning light. And to bookend all of it: black and white photos of the lovely Lady K, with whom I will be a lady who lunches, this afternoon, at the inimitable Jean Georges. A girl’s gotta staycate in style, you know what I mean?
staycation, day four.
Tuesday: The last time I tried to go to M. Wells, it was on a Sunday around noon, and the line was about 20 people deep; we ended up going elsewhere, alas. I vowed that I’d make it to the diner on my week off, when the weekend crowds would be at work. Success! Seafood cobbler heaven, along with a biscuit and apple butter, and a donut for good measure. Stuffed, I headed back to Brooklyn on the G train, down to Park Slope, to drop off a few rolls of film for processing. I spent the afternoon at Red Horse Cafe, on 12th and 6th avenue, working on a couple of essays that have been languishing on my computer for months now. Read a little bit from Ranciere’s The Politics of Aesthetics. Drank a couple of decaf americanos. Later I came upon a tree whose shadow seemed to have a mind of its own. It was a gloriously mellow afternoon.
Met up with Andrew in the evening for some pie at Pizza Roma, but sadly, none of the photos came out very well. All for the best, I suppose, since the pizzas themselves were a bit underwhelming (and severely undercheesed — this, coming from someone who doesn’t really like a lot of cheese on my pies). Also, at some point during the day, I worked on my wee decorating/curating project: filling my long wall with odds and ends of recent bits of inspiration and thought provocation.
Man, I seriously can’t believe it’s taken me this long to take real time off. I really ought to do this more often.
hong-an tran 