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August 30, 2008
The Cleansing of 46th Street
After reading about the Cleansing of 46th Street, I decided to go today's festivities instead of the main Brazilian Day event tomorrow. I've always wanted to go to Bahia and actually was really hoping we could have gone to Brazil this year but thought that a little glimpse into Bahian culture would be as good as any. After I walked out of the subway station, I noticed several women dressed in white dresses and headpieces walking down 46th Street and followed them--fortunately, my instincts (and timing) was perfect as they eventually stopped amidst a group of similarly dressed women and a number of drummers. Not long after, they began singing and dancing down 46th Street and I started snapping away. It was probably my favorite NYC festival to date--I love Brazilian culture and can't wait for the day we step foot in Brazil.
Posted by Jennifer at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)
August 27, 2008
Minnewaska State Park
Took a day off from work yesterday to go hiking with my mom and siblings up in New Paltz. Unfortunately, by the time everone arrived and we had lunch (a really nice picnic spread), we didn't have much time left to hike. We ended up going to Minnewaska State Park, which I think was a good choice--we saw a beautiful lake and cute waterfall all within a mile. A few photos below:
Posted by Jennifer at 01:10 PM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2008
Staycation continued
This was a week of boat rides, the best weather (temperature wise) we've had all summer combined with unexpected downpours, wineries, the Olympics, and admiration for Woody Allen. On Tuesday, we took a boat ride along the Hudson River, catching the waterfall sites along the way. The weather was perfect, save for the torrential rain that struck just as I left the subway station to walk over to the ferry pier.
Thursday, I tried catching this pool performance art piece with my sister--it was pouring that evening and we made our way all the way down to Battery Park only to discover that you had to RSVP to ensure entry or show up early to take the place of no-shows--we got there just as the show was scheduled to start so, needless to say, we didn't get in.
Yesterday, we went to Tanger outlet and a few North Fork wineries with Adam's sister--we used to do this annually before she had our nephew so it was nice to do this again after several years. We had dinner at our friend Kaiser's and watched the men's American swim team win the gold medal. Today, we decided to have a more laid back day and watched Vicky Cristina Barcelona which I really enjoyed--it's interesting to see Woody Allen expanding his geographical boundaries (even if the socioeconomic circles remain the same). Some photos from the week below:
Posted by Jennifer at 03:46 PM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2008
Summerstage and P.S. 1
Adam and I loved the Kinky concert we went to late last year so we were happy to see that they were returning to NY again to play at yesterday's Summerstage. The weather this weekend was perfect and we invited a bunch of friends and had a picnic while the opening bands performed. The show was fun--for once, I got to watch the band near the stage without having to worry about mosh pits or a crush of people. A few photos from the concert below:
Today, I went to P.S. 1--I liked the Public Farm One installation and some of the pieces by Olafur Eliasson but my favorite was the Complaint Choir video installation--a series of songs sung by choirs whose lyrics were pieced together from complaint sessions conducted in various cities around the world--I liked it so much, I stayed for all the videos but my favorite ones were the ones from Chicago and Singapore. It was interesting to observe the universality of certain complaints and to hear complaints specific to certain locales and many of the songs were executed in both an entertaining and thoughtful way (I cannot wait to see the one from New York and am disappointed I missed the opportunity to participate!). I think I can now say having been to and enjoyed P.S. 1 nearly every time I've gone that it's probably my favorite local museum.
Posted by Jennifer at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
August 03, 2008
Tonight's dinner
Manestra with keftedes and kofta makaronia, basically Greek for meatballs with macaroni is a great comfort dish, an excellent substitute for the macaroni and cheese I recently decided to give up on eating (which I used to eat regularly) when I decided I would try to eat less white rice and white flour pasta. Before I first made this dish a few weeks ago, I searched high and low for banana peppers, even checking out the produce stalls in the Little Italy section of Philly when we were there about a month ago. I eventually gave in and decided to use a yellow pepper instead and the dish came out fine. I made this dish again tonight and it came out well--then again, who can resist saucy meatballs and macaroni? By the way, I only use whole wheat and gluten-free pastas now--in this case, an excellent elbow macaroni made with rice and soy.
Posted by Jennifer at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)