Then Jarrett and Candice dropped in, and pulled some old Kent boys out of the woodwork for an evening, as well as the China Contingent. Several good dinners and parties (including KTV at “the best bar in NYC”) leading into the week of the main event.

Thanksgiving was a blast at Aunt Jo-Rose’s, as always! Tons of good food, and wine flowing with conversation. Gia was out in Kansas, and Will was in Florida, but I spent some quality time with Piers. It was great to see Shea (who talked to me and X more than ever, though still dour and serious) and Viv (who is so much bigger than last year). Poor little Vivian fell asleep on the floor while coloring a picture, marker still in hand, scrunched up against her face.

Nighty-Night!

We said some quick goodbyes to make the train on time, and didn’t end up partying overnight like last year! Back at Penn Station, we decided to walk across town, and wouldn’t you know it, with all the bargain shoppers hustling by, we ended up shopping in the first hour of Black Friday. Good and drunk is one way to make shopping tolerable, but one should always have the benefit of a woman’s good taste as a guide.

The Mrs and I took a walk to the Guggenheim this evening (pay anything Saturdays after 5:30pm) and saw a stunning display. Maurizio Cattelan’s “All” involves 130 different sculptures and oddities – artwork which he produced over his lifetime – all hanging in the main atrium by rope. There are bodies, horses, Hitler, the Pope, Picasso, police officers, businessmen in bed, children hung by their necks. It’s all pretty creepy and disturbing, to be honest. It’s a mish-mash. But we liked it. And when I read that the artist is “retiring” with this display, I understood it better.

Now she’s out having a drink this Saturday evening, and I’m sitting in eating leftovers from the brilliant chicken-and-mash dinner she made last night, watching Notre Dame get its butt whooped by Stanford, listening to the new album from Real Estate, my new favorite band, … from Ridgewood, NJ!

]]> http://rindyportfolio.com/2011/11/holiday-season/feed/ 0 http://rindyportfolio.com/2011/11/coffee-is-good-for-you/ http://rindyportfolio.com/2011/11/coffee-is-good-for-you/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:00:42 +0000 Rindy http://www.rindyportfolio.com/?p=925 keep reading]]> At least, it’s not bad for you. At all. Presenting, “Coffee: Greatest Addiction Ever”:

Pay attention, though, because he’ll be talking real fast. There’s a lot of good information in there. This guy really looked into it.

Later we wormed our way further into the square, but the cops had blocked off 7th Ave in an attempt to keep it open to traffic. After they got a few buses through, they started diverting that traffic above Times Square, effectively giving the space to the people. But they didn’t bring the barriers down. The cops kept the streets to themselves. Still, I thought there were at least 10,000 people, and maybe closer to 20,000. This vid shows just some of the crowd:

You can hear people chanting “Give the cops a raise” at one point. We are not anti-police. Still, it was a really terrible decision for them to bring in horses to try and intimidate the crowd and make them move back. Especially because, where they did this, there was no way for people to move back at all. If you watch this segment on DemocracyNow!, you can see some disturbing footage of horses getting spooked by the crowd, the noise, the lights. Just an awful idea. On the other hand, there was also a very wise police commander who created some space between cops and the crowd by asking the cops to move back. This not only resulted in cheers from the crowd (who were barricaded anyway), but immediately reduced the tension of the situation and, thereby, the chances of anything bad happening.

JohnJ and I took it all in for a while and then split. But I saw Chris Hedges giving an interview and I had his book “Empire of Illusion” with me, so I got him to sign it “For the People’s Library” – which is where I donated it the next day.

Occupy Everything

And here is a much better video, edited for artistic beauty and editorial bias:

Cheeky

Piers is 21 today! Check him out on Twitter…

UPDATE: I found a penny on the subway stairs today and the year was … 1990!

Donald Fagen

I went on a Monday night with Bill for Aja, the Dan’s 1977 album. The title track is amazing:

On Tuesday night I brought Mrs P, Anna and Tuck for The Royal Scam, from 1976. Best track, “The Caves of Altimira”:

Walter Becker

They played “My Old School”, “Hey 19″, “Peg”, “Reelin’ in the Years”, and all sorts of hits. Plenty of Dan Fans were singing along in the audience – there was a very close-knit feel in the crowd. The Beacon is a beautiful theatre and I highly recommend it to all.

For a better explanation of why The Royal Scam is so awesome, check out this guy’s blog, where I cribbed the photo of Fagen.

With Chinese Mom and Dad

Even though Mrs P had returned about once a year, I hadn’t been back to China since we left in August 2007. Upon my return, I immediately regretted not having gone back sooner.

After three months living alone in New York, I boarded the plane for Beijing around 5pm. I had just received, the day before, a Kindle e-reader from Mom as an early birthday present, and I was downloading books and magazines for the flight while putting back beers in the airport bar. What a great device for travel!

Let me tell you: no matter how attractive the price, I will avoid at all costs in the future flying Air China. I have become accustomed to having a personal TV screen in my seat for long-haul flights; not available here. They have a single screen for the whole cabin, the “entertainment” they choose is horrendous, and the screen flickers and distorts the colors to boot. The plane was so old it had ashtrays in the armrests!

I was connecting directly to Chengdu and should have landed at 10pm; delays for “weather” meant I didn’t arrive until nearly 3am, with most of that time spent in the Beijing airport. But I arrived!

Making lunch!

For the next week, I did little else besides sleep, eat and read. A typical day involved waking up around 7 or 8 (ok, I slept in the first couple of days) and making coffee, then sitting down to read for 3-4 hours. Mom might make me a boiled egg or a bowl of tang yuan, then go to the market. Dad would get out his game board for “Five in a Row” and study a book of strategy, playing practice games against himself. Mrs P might be reading as well, or working on her thesis. When Mom returned home, Dad would start chopping and slicing everything she’d purchased, and she’d cook a big lunch which we’d all sit down to around noon.

These lunches were the highlight of the day. Typically they’d involve six or seven dishes – ribs, duck, fish, and several bowls of greens. Dad and I would drink beer or liquor, and sometimes a family member or friend would show up to share with us. Xiao Niang (Mom’s sister) was a frequent guest. After the meal, we might take a nap, or go for a walk. In the evenings we’d either read or watch TV, or else meet up with a friend of ours (there are a few still around Chengdu). It was most relaxing.

Homemade Sweet and Sour Ribs

Labor Day weekend we flew out to Shanghai to see the old crew. Party weekend! First, to Brad’s restaurant, where he is no longer working for anyone else but has his own place, and naturally it’s awesome. There is no greater feeling in a restaurant than sitting down and being attentively taken care of without ever looking at a menu. Course after course flowed from that fine kitchen until we had to beg the man to stop; we literally couldn’t eat any more. He came out to see us and said, “You guys are waving the white flag, eh?” We sat there and drank wine the rest of the night, and once the other guests had left, Mallon brought out the guitars.

That was a lead-in for Saturday night, when we officially got the band back together for a rocking gig at YuYinTang. Nearly everyone who ever played with Georgia Sam turned out for a spectacular evening – Eli, Adam, Yam, Fabian – and we had some new dudes who brought it to a whole new level. All due to Nate’s very meticulous organization and motivation skills, we were able to pull off a crazy show that had people going mad. For a small taste, check out this cover of Zep’s No Quarter:

Good times with family, good food, good music, good friends. What more is there in life?

Back in Chengdu, a crew of Mrs P’s friends helped me celebrate my 31st birthday in style, bringing me a cake in the middle of a music club and singing for me. We had such a great time. It was all over too fast. When can we return? As soon as possible, as far as I’m concerned.

Shanghai Crew

On a Mission from God

Postscript: I did manage one more city on my way out. Since, in my infinite wisdom and prudence, I had booked myself an overnight layover in Beijing on the way home, I was able to hook up with both Sam and Jeff for one last night, drinking beers in a hu tong until the wee hours and stumbling onto the plane at noon, “a little bleary, worse for wear and tear…”

Ah, China…

Luckily I have a lot of good friends, ones that I can hang with in New York, and ones I can reach by phone around the world – and my family makes for pretty good company, too. So it hasn’t been terrible. But without my girl, things aren’t complete. We’re supposed to be together – we’ve got a plan!

Relax, I tell myself. The plan is still in place. It just feels like a giant interruption.

Meanwhile, I have been having quite a lot of fun.

There was the giant Phish festival – SuperBall IX – in Watkins Glen, NY, which is practically a home town for me, with Seneca Lake and Geneva – the birthplace of my grandfather – right there. I’ve been going to Seneca Lake since I was three months old, but I never went to a three-day rock festival at the race track and camped out on the grounds – over Fourth of July weekend. That was awesome.

The stage at SuperBall IX

Installation art at the festival

View of the SuperBall grounds from atop the Ferris Wheel

I even managed to get up to the old lake house and have a swim!

On the dock! (Fingerprinted...)

My campgrounds for the weekend were comfortable and pleasant:

Roughing it (not)

I went to Nantucket with the GRP – my old reggae band from college. What a fantastic weekend!

My friends took a great shot of me walking on a beautiful beach:

I like long walks on the beach ... lol

Isn't my friend's house the cutest?

At the Beach

The aftermath - two weeks of burn and peeling :-/

Yeah, I did get pretty burned, which was dumb. Gia has had some trouble lately with that, and thank God it’s all worked out OK. But we should all be careful, eh? Yes, indeed.

But she is having a great time with the family, speaking Sichuan-hua and eating Mom’s food again, and that makes me very happy

Also, something amazing happened. Listen to what she wrote:

There is something miracle happened to my home. 11 years ago, my mom bought a plant is called Widened Microsorium, it had bloomed once at the time, and then never since. After 10 years, just a few days ago, that plant has blooming again, and the unique color combination and elegant shape caught my parents attention immediately, and they believe is because I’m coming, therefore luck forces rare flowers to bloom.

Isn’t that awesome?

Miracle flower

Some of her pictures from the park:

Dancing in the park

Dancing II

George has an ice cream!

Dad (left foreground) playing chess with the guys