I feel paralized when a musical gets grander every minute. I forget everything, embraced by the show. I expect a trembling voice, a tone to break, a bump. But there will be none. I am sitting right in the middle of center orchestra row B, falling in love with the tiny Wendla (Alexandra Socha). She sounds absolutely and perfectly crystal clear. And she is just one of all the very young and talented cast of Spring Awakening - a sad story, a difficult script. A challenge and a complete success.

The Chelsea Art Museum has a running history of Russian-themed shows and parties. I went to the opening of "85 Year History Of Russian Aviation Shown In  Aeroflot Poster Advertisements", a short expo that ran till September 27th. This one was my favorite.

Полетели!

I am having way too many conversations with people about the upcoming elections. So many that the FoodCandy Newsletter had to have an intro dedicated to that. I should admit here that the intro was a collaborative effort: I supplied the context and the ideas and I had my personal assistant write it. It starts like this:

Living in New York and being completely Obamafied I thought I'd take a trip down to D.C. to reignite the political excitement inside me. Coming from such a democratic city, it was inspiring to enter a political climate where one can buy not only "impeachments" (peach flavored mints to support the end of the George era) and "Mints of change" to support Obama's campaign, but a variety of mugs with McCain's face on them to drink your morning coffee in the office.

I put a McCain mug on my desk in the office, partly to annoy the NY democrats that heavily populate midtown. I wouldn't vote for Obama, but please don't take that as a voice of support for McCain. I am just tired of all the hopeful excitement that reminds me of the Soviet Union where we hoped to get some food in the store one day.

I've been eating a lot of risotto lately. One in New York at Market Table (excellent) and another at Tabard Inn in Washington DC (most excellent). I liked Tabard Inn so much that it's now in my list of favorites. The hotel is super cute and the place looks casual, packed with senators dining with their interns. We didn't stay at the inn, but at the majestic Willard, which boasts a cute cafe downstairs, Cafe du Parc.

More DC places follow.

• Cafe Atlantico: i liked my Salmon very much, it had foam on it - odd
• Cafe l'Enfant: stopped by for an espresso, will be back for lunch; the cafe has a sign that says "friends welcome, relatives by appointment", heh
• The Diner: I so needed a bloody mary
• Bistro Francais: I think it was a good choice, but it wasn't spectacular

New York Ketchup:

• Hotel 41: have a drink
• Chez Josephine: added to the queue
• Pizza No. 28: added to the queue
• Zarza: had a drink, added to the queue
• Sura: added to the queue
• Five Napkin Burger: bleh
• Payathai: this is weird, video and grocery?
• Sri Pra Phai: this may be an excellent thai, but let's not fool ourselves to say that this is the best thai

Two more dislocated (paf.) places.

• Fiddleheads: it's in Jamesburg, on the way to D.C. and is a good spot

• Positano Grill: if you're ever dragged to Woodbury Common (may the Greek Gods be with you while you're considering suicide from overshopping), at least treat yourself to an outdoor lunch in the sun; food is good and there's lots of it

My team produced a video called "SQL and the City" for our Cinema Smackdown contest. I am, naturally, a huge star. I even have a couple of lines!

Went to the amazing U.S. Open finale at Flushing Meadows where Roger Federer swiftly erased Andy Murray in under two hours. It was very cool! Since Federer is so much better than everybody else, I'll get tickets for both women's and men's finals next year to get some more viewing hours :)

The summer ketchup begins in Nantucket, where I was trapped for three days. The island is the exact opposite of "Lost". It's neat and clean and creepy. I felt very antsy and nervous, but some good food did help me feel better.

• Even Keel: the standard hangout upon arrival on the island
• The Tavern: okay for a beer
• Nantucket Lobster Trap: on the todo list for next time
• Ropewalk: nice place close the water, I liked my food
• 21 Federal: only had drinks there, but I must try it next time, it looked like the best place on the island
• Island Coffee: get a bike and an espresso
• Centre Street Bistro: this feels like the most organic and delicious place, lunch was excellent
• The Bean: the standard coffee hangout, i bought a mug
• The Club Car: it's a really cute place that's half a train car, perfectly made chowder and sandwich

I went to Vermont and visited the Ben & Jerry's Factory. There's a good coffee place in New London: Jack's New London and an amazing farm store, Springledge Farm, where you can buy eggs to die for.

I ate too much Italian food in New York.

• Esca: probably my third time there and I really like the place. We did see a mouse running across the floor. Not an unusual thing in New York. It was cute.
• I Vini dei Sodi: great spot to eat at the bar in West Village
• Ago: just okay
• L'Asso: we ordered a pizza while sitting at Sweet & Vicious, pizza worth waiting for
• Scarpetta: the food was pretty good, but two people got really sick that day - coincidence?
• Manganero's: this joint has a long history of family issues (the place next door is not affiliated) - it was really cool fifty years ago I am sure, but now it's just a joint. On the other hand, the food is still very good, made daily, and lots of locals stop by for a quick lunch during the week

... and more

• Todai: as usual with all-you-can-eat places like this, find one thing you really like and eat lots of it
• Elizabeth: cool new bar
• Hundred Acres: major disapointment
• Junior's: play tourist after a theatre show
• El Greco Diner: pretty good diner in Sheepheads Bay
• Istanbul: next to the diner, my whole fish was yummy
• Boat Basin Cafe: crowded drinks on the UWS
• Divine Bar: good drinks, quiet when we went
• Yashino: I think this is a gentlemen's club for Japanese wealthy, but they do have a sushi bar - I walked in with a Russian friend to check it out before it opened
• Grayz: added to the todo list
• Les Sans Culottes: looked very cute, added to the todo list
• La Colombe: I wish I worked in the neighborhood, this is a very nice coffee shop
• Ghenet: it was okay, I guess I am not a huge fan of Ethiopean food after-all
• Sheep Station: the bartender told us that we're too many and that we can't have any more drinks (!) - that he needs to serve other customers - I was ordering for 10 people. Unreal. On the other hand Mark, the New Zealander from Top Chef was there.
• A Casa Fox: I really liked the empanadas, I don't know what those bad reviews are talking about
• Nougatine: my 65$ steak was made very well, but it wasn't something to really be excited about
• Momofuko Ko: peeked through the window, I don't have the patience to get a reservation
• Dok Suni: i love that East Village place, it's tasty and casual 
• Siam Orchid: a Thai in Brooklyn, it's okay, doesn't stand to the Thai places on 9th avenue
• Delicatessen: the place is cool, but the food was a major bleh

I've been drinking espresso for at least ten years now, easily averaging one a day. My first serious espresso machine was an orange 220V Baby Gaggia, I gave it away to a friend when moving from Seattle, so it might still be in service today. Since then, I had another no-name Italian machine that I bought in Chinatown in NYC a few years ago, which made decent espresso, but the pressure was a huge disapointment and milk was not an option.

Having an espresso in the morning is my ritual. It was time to get something real that pulls the best espresso shot possible and maybe learn to make lattes. I finally decided on a Vibiemme Domobar Super [review] and a Mazzer Mini Grinder, bought from EspressoParts.com. Everything arrived promptly. The box was huge. The Italian manual resembled most those Chinese manuals with half-comprehensible instructions that included pictures that made no sense at all, other bloggers had a similar experience. It's not hard to make an espresso machine with an on/off switch work (fill water, turn on I, wait till it stops making a noise, turn on II, wait till it heats up).

The results? Amazing. But my goal is to make better espresso than Casa Cupcake and Macaron, both in my office's neighborhood. It's quite a high bar. Once I succeed, I'll be able to finally cut down on my coffee consumption outside of home.

I try to maintain a healthy mix of work and not-work. Hence I rarely write about technology stuff on this blog. At the same time I really want to, so today marks the birthday of my new Code Blog.

...
mov ah, 09h;
int 10h;

printf("Hello World");

std::wcout << L"Hello World" << std::endl;

Console.WriteLine("Hello World");

My company,  Application Security Inc. is running a movie-making contest and you can win $2100 and get featured at the 2008 Boston Film Night, click here for details.

Create an original one to three minute short video that mentions the importance of database security.  We are not asking you to create a film about database security (although you are more than welcome to.)  The only requirement is that the importance of database security is mentioned within your film. 

Your video can be a musical comedy, a love story, a noir mystery, a science fiction epic, a spaghetti western, or whatever else floats your boat. The database security message need not be central to the theme of the film, but it must be included in some manner. It’s not a very high bar, so we suspect you can find a way to fit in the requirement. The target audience for your film is the general public.

For once you can be making something funny! The rest of the time others are laughing at your credit card info being stolen.

I am a big fan of art from art. A lot of my drawings are inspired by photographs. This is Alice and the painting is by Andy Heymann off one of my random photos of her from a night out.

We were having a nice birthday dinner for harryh at Nougatine. I was trying to take a picture of my soup, when suddenly a large shadow eclipsed the light from behind me. I turn around and who do I see? Shaquille O'Neil himself, standing almost in his pj-s, peeking through the restaurant glass door. He was enourmous, I mean impressively enourmous. He must be something like sixteen feet tall.

I just found this on LJ. Thanks Google. Yes, this was me in 1989 and it was my dad's typewriter...

помню брату в школе одноклассник переписал году в 89-м "Седьмого сына". на другой стороне - как щас помню - был альбом Scorpions 88-года "Savage Amusement". чувак был большим энтузиастом - в кассету он вложил распечтаный на матричном принтере (видимо, Дубровкин был мажором - в те годы, да принтер!) а может и на печатной машинке вкладыш - названия песен альбомов. причем, все он перевел на русский язык. так что изначально первые услышанные песни Мэйден я знал как "Седьмой сын седьмого сына", "Зло, которое делает человек", "Лунный ребенок", "Предсказание" и т.д... -) Со скорпионсом та же фигня - "Любовь на бегу", "Не останавливайся на вершине", "Прогулки по острию ножа".....

Да - учились то мы в английской спецшколе, так что такой энтузиазм был понятен :)