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Today's newsletter is the shiznit
Oh hey, hi, here I am! It’s a bit crowded in your inbox today because "*capitalism*. May my little newsletter provide you some respite between the bombardment of Black Friday deals and your family insisting on commenting about everything. Today’s issue will have lots of fun tidbits that you can share over dinner instead of talking about politics or babies or the wedding that you never plan on having because who can afford that in this economy??
I’ll be staying home for Thanksgiving this year (and every year) because one time I had an unbearable experience on the LIRR during the holidays and I’ve refused to travel on holidays ever since. I also really enjoy cooking the food that I like and hosting in my apartment allows me to make whatever kind of deranged meal tickles my fancy. This year’s dinner will be an Ode to Popeye’s Chicken - Izakaya style. Why bother frying my own chicken when Popeye’s chicken is fuckin awesome?
1. Noshing 😋
November’s Beef Fancy Dinner™ was at Boqueria! Boqueria isn’t fancy fancy, but we’ve been going pretty hard with the last few fancy dinners and I needed to mix a more affordable one in there. This is my go to place for Spanish tapas in the city because it’s just fuckin good and reliable and sometimes that’s what you need. It’s a great option if you’re trying to accommodate a big group with different tastes or dietary needs and they have a bunch of locations, so wherever you are, there Boqueria is.
If you’re just looking for a chill time, I recommend choosing their Chef’s menu with the Iberico Ham and adding on a paella and some sangria. I’ve done exactly this with a bunch of work outings before and it makes the whole situation super easy if you’re the one in charge of organizing. The Chef’s menu is a pretty affordable $65pp and you get a well rounded selection of tapas + ham. Boqueria’s sangria options are delish and they make pretty solid paella, but unfortunately the location we were at only had seafood options available and freakin Lorenzo is allergic to shellfish, so no paella for us 🙄
The tapas we chose were the pan con tamate, shishito peppers, ham croquettes, lamb skewers, patatas bravas, eggplant dip, and beef + pork meatballs. Everyone in the group had a different favorite and that’s why this is the perfect restaurant for a group! I could personally have made a meal of the potatoes and shishito peppers - I’ll be making shishitos for my Popeyes’ Izakaya Thanksgiving menu because I fucking love those little pepps. Beef loves lamb, so the lamb skewers were his #1, with the ham croquettes a close second. We all really loved the quince jam that came with the croquettes even though none of us has ever seen a quince in the wild. As an Eden, I feel like it’s my duty to remind folks that the forbidden fruit in that story was probably a quince and not an apple.
The eggplant dip would be a skip for me next time around - it was fine but was served with the skinniest little crackers that were simply not substantial enough for sopping up all of the dip. Similarly, the iberico ham was served with not enough bread and too many olives. I cannot stress this enough - I simply need more bread. Give me the bread. Give it to me!
Dessert was churros which were delicious. They came with 3 dips - hot chocolate, nutella, and dulce de leche. We asked if they could skip the nutella and give us double dulce de leche because, and I hate to break it to you, nutella just isn’t that great. Nutella just had great marketing in the early 00’s and we all thought we were fancy and Italian for eating it.
I would say order more tapas then you think you need because the plates are quite small and you’ll still somehow end up spending less than you thought you would. Beef was satisfied with this meal and didn’t even need a post-dinner hamburger!
2. Watching🍿
I watched a lot of movies this past week somehow but I want to talk about one that I’ve had on my list for a while - Joe Versus The Volcano. It stars America’s sweethearts - Tom Hanks plays Joe and Meg Ryan plays three different women in the film, each completely unlike the other. The story is weird and my take on it might be equally strange, so bear with me here.
When we meet Joe he’s working in a shitty factory on Staten Island - literally the lowest of the low (sorry not sorry Staten Islanders). He’s a hypochondriac who simply feels bad every day (am I a hypochondriac or am I just over 30?) and as we watch Joe march up to his desk, his shoe falls apart and he mutters “I’m losing my sole” which is a brilliant use of a homophone! This was my first indication that this was a story to pay attention to and the idea of the “soul/sole” comes back into play later when an island chief holds up a totem exclaiming that it’s “his soul” and Joe replies “I hope you don’t lose it.”
One day, a doctor tells Joe that he has a “brain fog” and only a few months to live and this causes Joe to realize that it’s time to get busy living or get busy dying. Soon after, he’s approached by some rich dude who wants him to jump into a volcano to appease the god of the residents of a remote island in the Pacific, Waponi Woo, so that he can mine their natural resources (typical rich white guy stuff). Joe agrees, Rich Dude hands over his credit card so our Joey can treat himself, and our journey begins.
Now I mentioned that Meg Ryan plays three different women in this film - DeDe (a coworker from the factory), Angelica (Rich dude’s first daughter), and Patricia (Rich dude’s other daughter). Each of these women has a hand in shaping Joe’s journey to the volcano, much in the way that the ghosts of Christmas shape Scrooge’s journey. That’s right I’m going there - it’s a Christmas Carol!
DeDe is his ghost of his past. The first thing he does when diagnosed with brain fog is quit his job and ask DeDe on a date. Even though she represents Joe taking a risk that he wouldn’t have taken otherwise, she’s a safe bet and something familiar from his old life. Things don’t work out and if they did, then Joe wouldn’t have branched out and embarked on his adventure, so it wasn’t meant to be. She taught him to let go of the familiar and widen his horizons.
Next he meets with Angelica - she embodies your stereotypical rich LA girl and represents his ghost of the future. She shows him what a life with no consequences could be, spending money like it’s nothing and always chasing that next material high. She pressures him into going on a date and tries to sleep with him, which he declines. As a dying man, Joe could have easily fallen into this sort of vapid “live fast til you die” lifestyle, but that wasn’t the journey he was on. Angelica represented a possible future, but not the one that was right for Joe.
Finally, Joe meets Patricia, who is the ghost of his present. She accompanies him to the top of the volcano and insists they get married so she can jump in with him. Patricia teaches Joe to live in the moment and appreciate what he has right now. Don’t hold onto the past simply because it’s comfortable and don’t live an empty and always wanting future because you’ll never be satisfied. Instead, cherish the present even if the present means you’re adrift in the ocean on a raft made of trunks because what a wonderful adventure that could be.
Writer-director John Patrick Shanley doesn’t say what the significance of Meg Ryan playing these three parts is, but this is how I interpreted things and I wasn’t even high on a weed gummy at the time!
Story aside, the film is really striking visually. The actual meaning of the film (according to Shanley) is that sometimes you have to take an unlikely and winding path to end up where you’re meant to be and there are lots of literal crooked paths on the screen - leading to the factory & leading up to the volcano. The film also has a very German Expressionistic look to it which I fuckin loved and does a great job of adding to the slightly absurd nature of the story. The opening scene had me feeling like I was watching Metropolis and there were lots of beautiful matte paintings throughout (why don’t movies use matte paintings anymore??).
If you’re interested in watching a really weird offbeat sorta rom com that deals with death and the meaning of living one’s life to the fullest, this movie is fuckin it.
3. Exploring 🛼
I had an amazing time at a Wowza Hangout last week at Happy Medium! Happy Medium is an art cafe that has a menu of “art experiences” - collage, pottery, painting, charcoal drawing, etc. I was there a while back for Larissa’s birthday and went with their collage offering because it felt the most accessible and who doesn’t love cutting the heads off of people in magazines? Last week though, I attended one of their figure drawing classes and y’all, it was a top tier experience.
When you arrive, you’ll choose the type of paper you’d like to draw on - I went with medium softness because I simply don’t know anything about paper. Then you take your charcoals and your little cloth for smudging to your seat and wait for the nude model to arrive. The environment feels incredibly safe and welcoming, you’re not drawing in some weird guy named Sven’s basement. There’s lots of time before drawing starts to chat with folks and this whole experience felt incredibly balanced time-wise. I should also note that I am not very artistic at all. I’m pretty ok at tracing stuff, but I’ve never attended a figure drawing session before and I didn’t even know that paper had different softnesses!
I cannot stress this enough - you do not need to know anything to be able to enjoy this. The session starts with some short 1-5 minute poses and they eventually get up to 15-20 minutes. The first few quick poses give you time to play with the charcoal and get a feel for the medium and what works for you. The smudgy cloth can erase errant lines and you can also blend stuff with your fingers to add some shading. At the end, everyone is encouraged to share their favorite drawing with the group by leaving it out on the table in the middle of the room (you still get to take it home when you’re done).
I loved seeing how different folks approached drawing! Some of them used such bold and beautiful lines, totally contrasting my softer approach. One person in my group focused in on some details and drew a lovely closeup, whereas I generally tried to fit the whole body into my drawings. And while I started my drawings with outlines, one person said they actually started with the shading and added the outlines later. There’s no right or wrong way to do it and this was probably the first time in my life I actually experienced being in a “flow state.”
The experience is an incredibly affordable $35, but spots do tend to book up so check their calendar and plan ahead! I’m already planning to go back for figure drawing pt 2.
4. Learning 🧠
The time has finally come to talk about everyone’s favorite November holiday: Evacuation Day. Plot twist! From 1783 to 1916, November 25 was celebrated as Evacuation day in NYC because it marked the date on which the last British soldiers left Manhattan after the Revolutionary War in 1783. Back in the day it was celebrated even harder than July 4th in NYC, which is saying something because have you ever watched the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest? Savage.
Anyways, history says that a victorious General George Washington marched south from Bull’s Head Tavern in the Bowery to Cape’s Tavern on Broadway and Wall Street to take down the British flag and raise the American one at Fort George (an old fort in FiDi, not the current neighborhood near Inwood). Cape’s Tavern no longer exists and the current Alexander Hamilton Custom House in FiDi actually stands at the old Fort George site. Legend has it that the British greased the flagpole and removed the ropes before retreating to stick it to us one last time, but we yelled “‘Murica!” and got that flag up there. Wooden cleats were pounded into the pole and Sergeant John Van Arsdale climbed the up there to raise the American flag.
The first Evacuation Day celebrations raged on for days because people were fuckin stoked to say goodbye to the British and the weird way that they say aluminum (it’s not aluminium ya nerds). Governor George Clinton hosted a dinner at Fraunces Tavern (Manhattan’s oldest bar and current home to George Washington’s teeth 🦷). Toasts were made and drinking ensued until Dec 4 when George Washington had to leave to actually do some work and meet at the Continental Congress.
Evacuation Day became an official NY school holiday and was celebrated with parades and fireworks until the mid-1800's. Near the later end of the 1800's observance started to wane because this was a very local holiday and there weren’t many folks left who had actually witnessed the first Evacuation Day celebration so younger generations weren’t carrying on the tradition. But NY wasn’t about to let a holiday just fade into obscurity, so for the centennial celebration in 1883 they went all out with banquets and fireworks and even unveiled a fresh AF statue of George Washington at Federal Hall.
The last official observance of Evacuation Day was in 1916, but some folks in NY still celebrate! In 2017, a portion of Bowling Green was renamed Evacuation Day Plaza and Fraunces Tavern still holds celebrations each year. In fact, you can enter their museum for $1 this year on November 25!
So while everyone is oohing and aahing over the latest floats and product placements in The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, you can tell them that you’ll actually be celebrating Evacuation Day this year, a true American holiday!
(we stan the Snoopy float though - 55 years and still floating strong)
5. What’s Good 😎
Ok don’t be mad but I’m going to start with something that’s bad: mid-year budget cuts have drastically reduced a bunch of services around the city including: NYPL cuts, NYC Parks cuts, and Community Composting cuts. This absolutely sucks ballz, so please follow those links, sign petitions, and let’s stick it to Mayor Adams.
Here’s a very good thing - NYC’s first 100% affordable housing development (with a new public library) opened in Sunset Park. The prices of these apartments are actually affordable, unlike a bunch of the stuff that I see on Housing Connect (they seem to think that I can afford to pay upwards of $3,500/mo LOL).
An absolutely gorgeous photo of Pepe the bodega cat has been making the rounds on the internet and you can buy a print of it that will donate to North Brooklyn Mutual Aid.
Holiday markets have begun popping up all over the city and Kettl Tea is hosting a Craft Market Saturdays and Sundays through 12/23 at their Greenpoint location. Their tea is absolutely top notch and I’m really excited to check out their market offerings!
I’ve never been, but the NYBG Holiday Train Show opened this week! I always thought this was a boring room full of trains, but the landscape is actually made completely out of natural materials and contains over 200 NYC landmarks. Tickets are $35 and include admission to the rest of the garden, too!
In regular size train news - the Holiday Nostalgia Trains are back this weekend! The Transit Museum loans out some of it’s old-timey trains so folks can ride in style on the F line. Peep the link for the schedule and let me know if you catch one of the old R1/9 train.
Finally, if you are watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade this weekend, here’s some info! I tried to attend the parade once - I got there 3 hours early, got a great seat, and then got so cold that I gave up and went all the way home. Maybe some other time 🤷
1) You sold me on Joe vs. the Volcano! 2) Can unexpected Christmas Carols be your next view-a-thon theme?!