Best Book Ever!

OK, so I make that claim regularly.. but this time, reader, you'd better believe me. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a Pulitzer Prize winning epic by American writer Michael Chabon (who might be best known in Britain for Wonder Boys). In my quest to only read American novels during my year in New York, I was excited to be able to pick this hefty tome up for just $1. In fact, only the previous week, a gaggle of shop assistants fell upon a customer who'd come in clutching the novel. I'd never seen that before. Now, I can see why they did it, as this is a Gotham adventure which has truly stayed with me.

It's the story of two cousins who meet one night in Brooklyn. Both harbour dreams of becoming artists, and through the nascent comic-book business, they become the creators of a character to rival Batman and Superman in their prime: The Escapist.

That's the back drop, but the real power of the story is far deeper than that. The two have complex emotional lives - which almost destroy them. The sweep of the novel is epic - across several decades and continents. It's ambitious, beautifully written, and not a word is wasted.

Arias under the stars

Reasons why New York is an amazing place to live #100,000 .. free outdoor music.

This city is full of the stuff - this week, I could have been to free shows every evening if I'd had the energy. Monday's treat was the Metropolitan Opera's concert at Central Park Summerstage. We spread a picnic out on a blanket, and along with thousands of other people - were treated to spine-tingling singing. I am no opera buff, so the programme of excerpts from different operas was a perfect taster. Susanna Phillips singing 'Can't Help Lovin' that man' from Showboat brought tears to my eyes, and her partnership with Nathan Gunn on 'La ci darem la mano' from Don Giovanni was magical. I loved it so much I am off to see the Met again at Brooklyn Bridge Park on Tuesday!

A home video of gay men playing with giant Barbie dolls

I've just seen Sex and the City 2, and what a waste of $12.50.

I might have known it would be awful, but I couldn't help myself. After all, I am living in New York and whilst a lot younger than Carrie et al, they've been in my life for 12 years and I was curious to find out what happened next, and if she stayed with the decrepit and dull Big.

But this film is truly, truly terrible. It's had some horrendously misogynistic reviews, and it's no worse than the crap Judd Apatow churns out (and his stuff gets lauded - so work that one out), but the missed opportunity to celebrate female friendships and develop the rarely seen on screen lives of middle-aged women really let me down.

Aside from the casual racism, OTT gay stereotyping and vulgar materialism, my personal least favourite scene (and there was a pretty long list) shows Charlotte and Miranda self-pityingly blabbing into some cocktails about how hard motherhood is. Oh yeah - how hard motherhood is when you have no job and a live-in nanny. "How does anyone do it without help?" they burble. At this point I gave up caring. Please, please don't let there be another one. If you want to read more on this topic, check out Bidisha's excellent essay in the Guardian, and this review by Linda West in The Stranger. (p.s the latter was the source of this title post. Neat, eh?)

London Kills Me!

The British press is obsessed with London. Weekend after weekend, I hurl my weighty broadsheet across the room in fury as yet another restaurant/play/shop in the nation's capital gets reviewed, whilst most of my 'locals' never get a mention.

Now, BBC Radio 4 has joined this metropolitan love-fest with their London Season. Don't they realize most people in Britain DON'T live in London, and that the huddled masses outside the M25 couldn't care less about the city?

I wonder why they have embarked upon this season, featuring a debate entitled 'The Greatest City on Earth' and programmes about the history of London, and how it got to be so.. um.. great. YAWN. I would rather a series about Birmingham, Fife or Swansea. Hell, even Gloucester. There are so many rich seams to mine with the stories of Britain's other great conurbations ... whose legends might not be as stitched into the fabric of our national curriculum as London's.

Most irritating of all is a programme, not yet broadcast, called There's More to Life than London, in which apparently "Stuart Cosgrove explains why not everyone wants to live inside the M25". What? really? so the 50 million people who don't live in London have the same reasons for not doing so do they? Blimey, they must be a crazy lot. Perhaps they like the countryside, want a safer environment to bring up their children, don't want to basically burn 20 quid every time they step out of the house, want that house to cost less than two hundred grand, want to buy a pint for less than a fiver, want to know their neighbours and be smiled at in shops. That kind of thing. Yes, there's museums and restaurants and all the smug glee of knowing you're in London, but we know all about that stuff Radio 4 - how about telling us something we don't?

The most appalling part of this programme is the blurb on the website which accompanies it.

"this will be a timely look at how and why, despite political and institutional devolution, we still allow London to dominate British life, and what price we pay for the largely unexamined assumption that everything happens in London".

No BBC, we don't assume that everything happens in London, only those that live there do, and that's the problem!

Can't you keep your mouth shut?

Almost every time I go to the cinema or theatre, I have to ask a fellow member of the audience to shut up. What is it about these people that makes them unable to keep their mouths closed for any period of time? The worst incident happened at a screening of 'Good Night and Good Luck' in Liverpool a few years ago, when my neighbour repeated every single word of dialogue to his non-English speaking girlfriend. When I nudged him and whispered 'shhhh' - he actually responded 'She can't understand the film'.. begging the question - why come to the cinema? Get the Dvd and watch it at home - then you can talk all you want - and I won't hear you.

I think most people who talk at the theatre possibly don't go very often. They are so used to sitting on the sofa, conducting a one-way conversation with Simon Cowell or Jeremy Kyle or whoever's on the box, they don't understand that the big screen / stage isn't just an enlarged version of their Tv, and that there are other people present who don't need or want their moronic commentary. I know people who no longer go to the cinema because of this bad behaviour - what do you think?

Pure grace and beauty

Dance rarely moves me to tears, but the pas de deux Fix Me Jesus by the Alvin Ailey dance company at BAM last week made me cry. Its sheer, simple beauty combined with the spiritual music was unlike anything I had ever seen. Plus, being brought up on European Classical ballet with its tradition of being singularly unimpressed by the dancers until the curtain falls, I loved the audience in Brooklyn whooping and cheering individual steps - these dancers have incredible strength and control and deserve props like break dancers and musicians!

Whilst she wasn't dancing this particular piece, I have to single out Briana Reed (pictured above during Wade in the Water) - one of the best dancers I've ever seen - so strong, joyful and expressive. Wow. Made me want to start dancing again and push my body to extremes.

You can see Fix Me Jesus on youtube, but I am almost reluctant to post the link - as I think seeing it online loses so much of the impact of being immersed in the soaring music and the intimacy of two people dancing barefoot.

Best Food EVER!

My favorite place in all of New York is Pates et Traditions in Williamsburg, a french creperie where the sun is always shining and the conversation is always tres jolie. I always stick with the same dish when I eat here - Le Popeye. Can you guess what its main ingredients are? The service is amazing, the other diners are almost exclusively French and the Prosseco is delicious and not too pricey - hurrah! Sit outside under cherry red umbrellas and feel the best of French cuisine and laid back Brooklyn come together in glorious gluttony.

Plus, last time I ate here a fellow diner turned out to be James Murphy of LCD Sound System!