richard price interview on lenny lopate from the other day. i love listening to him speak. he was also at union square b&n, did anyone go? i went to see him read from, must have been clockers, years ago down near battery park or somewhere on the water downtown and he called martin amis a midget.
Given the roots of this program, one would have to call this lapse ... um ... what's the word? ... ironic?
MLK
mike wallace interviews from the fifties archived online including gloria swanson, frank lloyd wright and eleanor roosevelt among others .
grindhouse fridays on ifc. tonight though is blaxploitation @ 9 with coffy, foxy brown and black caesar.
director jules dassin died this week.
http://binisystems.com
http://decanter.free.fr/7.xhtml
captain creepy

Greenspan's economics Ph.D possibly BS?
florent, the beloved Meatpacking District hangout set to close this summer after almost twenty three years in business, will at least be going out in style, according to Frank Bruni, who spoke with owner Florent Morellet yesterday. The bistro's long goodbye will last five weeks, with each week dedicated to one of the Kubler-Ross stages of grief. Week One, starting Monday, May 26, will be Denial, with the remaining four weeks themed as Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.
Each theme week will have special dishes, decor and performances by familiar faces like burlesque star Dirty Martini, all leading up to a big sad send-off on June 29th, Gay Pride Day. The Post also mentions a writing contest in which entrants would share their favorite Florent memory, with the winner getting a free dinner on the last night. Morellet tells Bruni:
So many of our customers are either at the stage of Anger or Denial. Some are just in a state of shock. We’re going to gather together to go through those stages and celebrate those stages, and end with a bang, and with irony, which we’ve always done.
The quirky French bistro – housed in an old diner that was a speakeasy in the ‘20s and a favorite greasy spoon for longshoremen and meatpackers in the ‘50s – has become even more cherished in recent years as a corrective to the fratastic Bridge and Tunnel scene dominating the neighborhood. The closure is caused by the increasingly repetitive groove in New York’s broken record: obscene real estate prices. Once Morellet vacates, the lease will jump from $6,000 to $50,000 per month; odds are the new tenant won’t be operating an idiosyncratic bistro.
Signed up for ZipCar on Monday night and rented a car (a Mini) for a couple hours yesterday. Very slick operation. Almost no friction. Seriously couldn't be easier. I really wonder about what percentage of cars / customers / transactions give them problems? Seems like a potential nightmare for them, but I hope it's not and I hope they make it. Highly recommended. I pay $50 a year, plus a $25 one time sign up fee. Then I can reserve cars at a specific location, for a specific number of hours, and it starts around $8/hour. I think the mini was $11. Gas, parking, and tolls included.
Martin Scorsese's Myspace page.
I might have posted this before, but in case not: rotating hypercube animated gif.
Newshoggers have a new address. Even though Dave had them in the sidebar already I just recently found them (note to self: check out Dave's links more thoroughly.) Can we update that one? They seem to have some really good Iraq insight.
fallen off my movie notes. thought The Ballad of Jack and Rose was worth a mention. not a great film but some quality acting as always from daniel day lewis, whose wife wrote and directed the film, and up and comer, camilla belle. and what indie film would be worth its salt without katherine keener?
Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenth interviewed about their new cookbooks:
As chefs of two of the world’s most influential, risk-taking restaurants, Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal are often compared to one another. Now, it turns out, Achatz’s Alinea Book and Blumenthal’s Big Fat Duck Cookbook are scheduled for release within a week of each other this fall—and they have taken very similar approaches to translating their cuisines into print. Gourmet’s Christy Harrison spoke with the chefs about the writing process, the audiences they hope to reach with their books, and their feelings about the term “molecular gastronomy.”
lesser known classic of the french new wave cleo from 5 to 7 on ifc twice today.
PG&E to announce biggest solar-power deals in its history

Mojave desert, motorized mirrors, steam turbine.
Hydrogen highway stuck in slow lane
Despite governor's backing, program for fueling stations makes little progress
Can I nominate Cheney?
Still kicking, Still Mad
eat drink man woman on indipplex now
Wow. Wait for it to load and then move your mouse around. Cool and freaky all in one. I think this might be climbing up the far side of the uncanny valley. CGI porn is going to be huge I think (link has nothing to do with porn of course.)