SNL & THE ARCADE FIRE

I'm still reeling from one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. In short, S. and I the were part of the live studio audience at Saturday Night Live this past Saturday as the lucky guests of Fred Armisen, a cast member of SNL. We were able to meet him in his dressing room backstage on the SNL set, and briefly hang out with him, Will Forte, Andy Samberg ("Google Maps, Double True!"), Seth Meyers (cuter in person), Amy Poehler (thinner in person), and several members of THE ARCADE MUTHERFUCKIN' FIRE. Yes, it's true. This, on top of being able to see the very funny show live, which was an experience in itself, and the special concert that The Arcade Fire put on after the show was over, in which they played Rebellion, Wake Up (a cappella), and Antichrist Televesion Blues from Neon Bible for the studio audience, who was allowed to leave their seats and crowd around the stage and yell and scream and jump around. It was un-fucking-believable. I honestly feel like I'm still half-dreaming and that it never really happened. It was absolutely thrilling. I will never be able to listen their music without the image of seeing all of the cast members of SNL jumping and screaming and singing along with them. After meeting them (that's a long story, but it involved from George Costanza-esque pretending like we totally belonged there), we shared an elevator down with the guitarist, the drummer, and one of the violinists from Arcade Fire as well as several of the cast members. The funniest part was leaving out of the special exit with the cast to the limos and people waiting outside to see if they could get a picture with someone famous. It was fucking hilarious, us standing there with the security guards and the cast members and the band members. Jesus fucking christ. I still can't believe it happened.

I'm trying to focus on the positive and not on how we should have tried harder to weasel our way into the after-party (all they could have said was "no"). The situation was delicate since we kind of had to lie about who we were to Fred, but I still wish we had weaseled our way in. The after-party was epic, I'm sure, on top of I would just really, really have loved to talk to one of the guys in the Arcade Fire. Fuck, I would have loved to talk to one of the stagehands! Fred seemed like a truly cool person and I thought we did a pretty good job of looking normal and not incredibly fucking dazzled, even though we were. We have his cellphone number, so maybe we'll try again. As an addendum, he told our contact that we were cool and he was glad he got to talk to us (?!). God, I am such a GEEK. I had to refrain from gushing about how cool his iTunes playlist is and how funny the judge segment was. I'm glad I did.

On another note, Neon Bible is a fucking incredible album. I'm really enjoying it, though that may have something to do with my weekend brush with fame. So far, I love Intervention, Antichrist Television Blues, and Keep the Car Running. This may have something to do with the fact that AF played all three on Saturday, but these are strong tracks. I'm not sure why it's already available on Rhapsody, but I'll just ignore that.

Other than SNL, we did a lot, A LOT of drinking and laughing and just generally acting like assholes. We didn't sleep, that's for sure. I'll never forget it. Before S. came, I did run in Central Park, see the El Greco to Picasso exhibit at the Guggenheim (muy cultural, no?) and ate at Bouchon Bakery, which was amazing, if not a bit expensive. Still, the roast beef sandwich and lemon tart were heaven. Carmelized onions can fuck up a sandwich if they are too sweet, but this was perfect and was cut nicely with the arugula and pesto. I also had Momofuku ramen Sunday afternoon to allay my hangover before heading out for the last flight from LaGuardia to make it to snowy Chicago on time.

NYC, I'll BE BACK!

Can You Dig It, Fool?

I have no idea why, but "Whoop There It Is" is stuck in my head.

This morning on the el, I was giggling uncontrollably thinking about this and the e-mail exchange between some work colleagues and me about "jizz and puke." I guess you had to be there, but there's nothing like reading the phrase "jizz and puke" on your BlackBerry that makes you laugh uncontrollably. Especially more so if you are a mature professional like me.

I am so unbelievably bored and unmotivated right now. I have fairly massive amounts of work to do, and no desire to do it. It may have something to do with staying up until a million o'clock yesterday and not sleeping well. My brain is in that weird stage where I almost feel like I'm floating and dreaming. This is another reason why, in addition to the lack of desire to, I am not a good candidate to have children. It seems from what I hear that parents get no sleep on a fairly regular basis.

So, let's see. I think of myself as a moral person, and I try to adhere to those morals even though they are antithetical to my desires. But this article, from The Washington Post, got me thinking that I tell a lot of fucking lies on pretty much a daily basis. From the very mundane ("I'm great!") to not so mundane ("I'm almost done with this assignment") to downright lies ("I'm looking forward to it!" or "I can't, I'm busy that night") to lies by omission ("I'm going out to dinner [with my love interest]"). Of course, as the article points out, are harmless lies that are meant to allow us to move through society and social situations as seamlessly as possible, that bad a thing? Certainly, they're not immoral. In trying to be as honest as possible, I have gotten myself into trouble in the past. But being as honest as possible is very much a purposeful characteristic on my part. I feel that, within reason, to be less than honest to a person who wants to know your opinion, is disrespectful to that person. I'd be really fucking insulted and pissed off if I asked for or otherwise indicated that I desired another's opinion and discovered that they were not honest with me to spare my feelings or some such garbage. (1) You clearly do not respect me or think I am rational and mature enough to know how to evaluate the truth and (2) You're a fucking liar! By extension, if I find myself holding back or not being 100% truthful to a person about the important things, I must conclude that I really do not respect that person or his or her ability to be rational and mature and decipher the truth. In lying to spare their feelings or avoid a confrontation, you are assuming that the person, if I may quote Jack Nicholson's Colonel Jessup, can't handle the truth. But you know, sometimes, they can't.

I really, really hate liars. I've mentioned that before, I realize.

Anyway. Enough musing for now. I'm going to New York this weekend and am very excited. This will probably be my last trip for a while (I mean, twice in one month is a little ridiculous). I may venture to Brooklyn this time, and S. managed to finagle tickets to Saturday Night Live (The Arcade Fire!!!), so I am very, very excited about that, even though My Boyfriend Justin Timberlake isn't the host. Look for the Asian girl with the big, goofy grin on her face!

Hibernation

I am officially ensconced in hibernation mode. Meaning, given the freezing weather here in Chicago over the last couple of weeks, I've had little desire to do anything other than stay in and watch David Lynch movies, cook, eat, and read.

I did just return from my first trip to New York in calendar year 2007. It was a great trip, foodwise. That being said, I really need to stop eating so much if I plan on fitting in my summer clothes. The best meal of the weekend was at Momofuku Ssam Bar, which I have to say I liked better than the original Momofuku. I'm not sure why, other than we enjoyed talking with the bartender about his favorite dishes, I appreciated the kimchi-infused flavoring in many of the things I tried, and I liked the ambience slightly more. We also ate soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai (yummmm), and I was finally able to try A Voce. I can't wait to try the cheese I bought from Murray's.

OK, sidebar -- Al Gore and Queen Latifah?! Really? And my boyfriend, Justin Timberlake, did oh-so-well.

Okay, back to New York. A Voce was delicious, but I think because I had such high expectations, it was just sort of okay. I really could not get over how odd and almost distasteful the decor was. The service was impeccable and the appetizers delicious, though. We had beet salad and cured salami, he had veal stuffed tortolloni, and I had lamb on risotto with hazelnuts and mint pesto. For dessert, fried bananas with hazelnut ice cream and brownie, and a mocha-hazelnut-chocolate gelato. Muy delicioso. No pictures though, sadly.

I'm too tired to write more.

Addendum -- I forgot to comment on another place we went to: Bar Martignetti. I tried it based on things I'd read about it, such as this, but The New Yorker's review, which of course I can't find online, captures it more accurately. The restaurant appeared to be straight out of a scene from American Psycho, circa 2007. I saw a higher concentration of $200 haircuts, perfect Ralph Lauren ensembles, and cufflinks in a casual setting than I have in any other restaurant or bar. And this was the men! We entertained ourselves by sipping our $14 tequilas and listening to the un-ironic conversations about bears, bulls, IPOs, pharmaceutical stocks, and patent law. We then immediately left for Momofuku Ssam Bar. Certainly, the East Coast frat scene is better than the Midwest frat scene of infantile clothing, Big Ten sports talk, and bad beer drinking, but it was not for me, nonetheless.