tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68923836052035997752011-11-27T19:00:24.781-05:00Music. Food.Sethnoreply@blogger.comBlogger181100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-61749181275964814912007-06-21T23:28:00.000-04:002007-06-22T00:50:19.619-04:00

In celebration of the first official day of summer, I recently became the ambivalent owner of a CD entitled "Simply Summer." As you can probably guess, "Simply Summer" is a classical compilation album.Loyal Spaghetti Andante readers (and there could be one or two!) will recall my long-standing disdain for compilation CD's. And yet, inexplicably, "Simply Summer" appealed to me. Maybe it was the

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-18323786797863182592007-06-18T20:32:00.001-04:002007-06-18T21:43:10.047-04:00

Or more precisely, mice.Though we recently marveled at the meteoric ascent of Pinkberry, now seems an appropriate time to add the corollary that the public can be fickle. In particular, a finicky Upper East Side public which is paying $6 for a cup of yogurt with cereal and fruits might not abide the revelation, originally reported by ABC news, that a murine population has been enjoying the same

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-58948968787343607272007-05-22T13:58:00.000-04:002007-05-22T16:37:53.609-04:00

Contemporary classical music is in a strange place. While the genre remains irrelevant to most of the American population, there is a small but passionately influential core of orchestras, ensembles, foundations and individuals who promote and perform these works with tireless zeal. In fact, within the rarefied circles of classical musicians, performing contemporary works has become

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-74657273122108338722007-05-19T21:04:00.000-04:002007-05-20T01:19:38.071-04:00

While we're thinking about fictional comestibles, here's an inspiring list from the beginning of Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon, 1973):[B]anana omelets, banana sandwiches, banana casseroles, mashed bananas molded in the shape of a British lion rampant, blended with eggs into batter for French toast, squeezed out a pastry nozzle across the quivering creamy reaches of a banana blancmange to

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-28942278119817449282007-05-18T14:40:00.000-04:002007-05-20T00:03:30.461-04:00

The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis's 1986 Booker Prize-winning novel, is not as depressing as it ought to be. The action takes place in Thatcher-era Wales, where everything is being modernized into unrecognizable uniformity, and the central characters are four aged couples who grumble, behave badly, have sex with each other, and consume impressive quantities of alcohol. You might think of it as The

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-36425452297399750992007-05-14T22:31:00.000-04:002007-05-15T12:14:51.357-04:00

Ok, so I'm late to the party. The Pinkberry chain of frozen yogurt shops (see wiki) started in 2005, and has been extraordinarily successful: there are more than a dozen in LA, and three in New York, and a number of doppelgangers are also angling for a slice of the market. If the Tasti D-Lite juggernaut (30 Manhattan stores, 17 more authorized sellers of the product, and about 20 locations

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-2051489097262556092007-05-10T04:30:00.001-04:002007-05-10T04:30:12.600-04:00

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-3301063320099638912007-05-09T23:15:00.000-04:002007-05-09T23:28:33.246-04:00

I was first introduced to Bollywood by an Indian friend. A few years ago, she returned from a summer trip to India bearing several DVDs of compiled musical numbers from Bollywood movies. After my first viewing, I was hooked.A few common characteristics of Bollywood movies: they often run three hours or more; most are grandly melodramatic in theme; and all are interspersed with musical numbers,

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-14839558977085490642007-04-22T16:55:00.000-04:002007-04-23T19:46:28.365-04:00

Very likely the greatest falafel sandwich in the United States can be found at Alfanoose, at 8 Maiden Lane, Manhattan, a few blocks' walk from the Fulton Street subway stop, between 11 am and 9 pm any day but Sunday.I'm not exaggerating. Whether you live in or around NYC, or are only an occasional visitor, remember this place. It's just that good. Mouhamad Shami, the owner and chef, opened

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-90646106255478098172007-04-20T21:08:00.001-04:002007-04-22T17:27:25.951-04:00

Açaí (pronounced [asa'i], that is, ah-sai-EE, with ultimate syllable stressed) has been appearing more and more in the States as an exotic ingredient in bottled drinks. The exoticism is understandable, I suppose, given its ratio of diacritics to letters.And a foreign plant wouldn't be exciting without grandiose health claims. Superantioxidant! Flavonoids! Presumably this will cure what ails you,

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-19696495573336194752007-04-15T21:12:00.000-04:002007-04-16T01:10:35.811-04:00

On Friday night, Seth and I went to see the Beaux Arts Trio perform at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The group played two nicknamed favorites of the repertoire, the Beethoven Piano Trio Op. 97 in G major ("Archduke") and the Dvorak Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor ("Dumky"). The Beaux Arts Trio, which in various lineups has been around for more than 50 years, has an embarrassment of musical riches

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-43208073078824498792007-04-07T23:53:00.000-04:002007-04-08T00:19:55.080-04:00

Although my musical heart belongs to the 17th century, I like a good running mix as much as the next girl. The first breezes of spring have inspired me to spend some time sampling the iTunes store and trolling music blogs, searching for the perfect spring workout soundtrack.Here are some highlights from this year:First on the list is the new Timbaland song featuring Nelly Furtado and Justin

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-20389096711056532802007-04-06T20:55:00.000-04:002007-04-23T00:05:05.074-04:00

A few chocolate stops.City Bakery, where I had a bowl of chocolate this morning, is very proud of itself. They have a small machine keeping the liquid chocolate circulating: the stuff is thick enough to ascend in quantity on a spinning vertical wheel through the basin; at the top, a flange knocks it down into a spout, through which it drips back into the basin. The chocolate, slightly aerated and

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-76100502639094221472007-04-05T12:43:00.000-04:002007-04-05T22:33:54.714-04:00

If you find yourself at Republic, order the glass noodles. I did last night and they were scrumptious.

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-16318587403249234402007-04-04T15:18:00.000-04:002007-04-04T19:08:35.569-04:00

It's a little strange to think that if we smell something, it must be a chemical compound, made of atoms, and it must be floating in the air we're breathing. Many of these scent-triggering molecules aren't predominantly gases at room temperature, but they do dissolve in very small concentrations in the air.Unlike the problem of artificial vision, for which the underlying sensory components are

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-25740559263034271962007-04-03T22:52:00.000-04:002007-04-04T10:25:34.719-04:00

Although I've studied music since I had my baby teeth, I sometimes suffer from piano-goggles at the expense of repertoire for other instruments. That might explain why I didn't hear Schubert's Winterreise until I was nineteen years old, spending my first summer at the Aspen Music Festival.During my first weekend in Aspen, I went with a few newfound friends to see a movie I knew nothing about: The

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-51381543527400254932007-04-01T20:17:00.001-04:002007-04-01T22:05:20.131-04:00

People avoid poaching eggs. Frying, scrambling, hard- and soft- boiling, and omeletizing are standard techniques of the home kitchen, but poaching is not; poaching has the air of the restaurant about it.That may be because the popularity of eggs Benedict (or Florentine, with spinach instead of canadian bacon) as a dish has eclipsed that of the poached egg at its center. Eggs Benedict do take a

Sethnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892383605203599775.post-77948768150002841062007-03-31T16:27:00.000-04:002007-04-01T19:53:23.792-04:00

The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book is a large collection of keyboard pieces from the late Renaissance and very early Baroque periods. These are some of the most beautiful and original works on the planet. They also have the rare distinction of being non-pop music that doesn't suffer terribly on iPod headphones.I discovered some of these pieces by chance at the beginning of high school about ten years

Phaedra Athanasiounoreply@blogger.com0