09.24.05
Chicken Wings and Ice Flowers
Saturday morning was amusingly VERY New York. Phone calls and preparations for the Sunday premiere had Teresa running late to her pre-hair appointment with Mig (as in Miguel but more hip). Now notice the term, no this is not a hair appointment.. nope, this is a pre-appointment to determine what work will be done at the actual hair appointment on Sunday. This is the first time I had heard of such a thing and derived much amusement from the event. So, imagine the scene: We are getting out of a cab on a crowded New York street when Teresa’s cell phone rings with Nick Park on the other line. She fumbles for bags while I pay the cab, walks into the salon (nearly an hour late), meets the hairdresser and passes me the cell phone to jot down Nick’s cell number for a return call while she checks in. Poor Nick was about as confused as… well, as Teresa.
From the hair appointment we went directly to Washington Park and met up with Teresa’s friend and creator/director of the Wallace & Gromit feature and short movies, Nick Park. Nick has been on a whirlwind tour of the planet promoting the movie and has hardly had a chance to catch his breath or do anything outside the promotional schedule. He seemed to be honestly delighted to be able to just sit for a beer and some food in the East Village. I ordered a plate of chicken fingers and he buffalo wings, when the plates were served he looked down and commented ‘i’ts the whole cast of Chicken Run‘. Conversation went all over the place except for (I am guessing to Nick’s relief) the recent movies. At one point I found out Nick had made a trip to the Antartic and photographed ice flowers, which oddly enough I had worked on creating in an Antartic Sea Ice Lab during my time at the University of Washington school of Marine Geology and Geophysics. Go figure. After lunch we ambled along Blecker Street and gave Teresa and Nick a chance to catch up then made a run to 42nd and Broadway to see the Wallace and Gromit billboard. Teresa and I then had to run to get to a showing of the NY Film Festival.
We got to Lincoln Center just in time for the showing of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu at the New York Film Festival. The movie is a Romanian film that follows the titular character as he is herded along by an ambulance attendant from one hospital to another being rejected at every turn by self-righteous and uncaring doctors. It is filmed in a very French verity style and is quite worth watching, though I warn that if the movie hits you like it did me you may want to slap a doctor on your way out of the theater.
For dinner we went to Cottage Restaurant for some of the best Chinese food I have had in a good while. The line to get in was significant but we were lucky in that a large group failed to show in time which gave us a table in less than fifteen minutes. If you are in this part of town I encourage you to visit the restaurant and order the Sesame Beef. We then got home in time to watch the French / Belgic movie Hop (2002), also very good and worth watching.