Life in Manhattan

The picture above is from a window my pal Jena and I saw during a walk last weekend. It was so odd that I had to snap a photo and share it.

In our ongoing efforts to get in shape, the aforementioned Jena and I have been trying to meet up and go for long walks on the weekend. The weather has been wonderfully cooperative. Last weekend, on Saturday, we did 4.5 miles around the reservoir in Central Park, and then on Sunday, we did 3.3 miles along the East River. The pics here are from that walk, which occurred after a ridiculously decadent & delicious meal at Harley's Smokeshack in East Harlem. Best. Barbeque. In New York.

I've had the opportunity to do a lot of cool things while living in New York. I moved here because I love TV and TV production, and I really wanted to learn more about non-news TV. I've attended some interesting panels and premieres, one of which happened on Sunday. Yesterday, I went to see the "Global Premiere" of Touch at the Natural History Museum (which is also the museum in Night at the Museum.)

The funny thing is that Jena and I walked through the museum's Great Hall and straight into the premiere. We had tickets, but no one from Fox asked us to see them. We walked straight into the LeFrak Theater and sat down, and no one bothered us. We spotted the chairs and screen set up on stage, so we figured we were in the right place. We were sitting there speculating which minor production staff members would be on hand for the Q&A afterward, when a fellow attendee turned around and said that Kiefer was on the red carpet when they came in. Red carpet?? Really? Where? Apparently we'd missed all the hubbub at the entrance to this event by coming in the "secret" way. We got fantastic seats, although my photo above is going to demonstrate my craptastic photo skills above anything else. I promise that is Mr. Jack Bauer himself on the right!

We watched an episode of the show, and it was engaging enough I suppose. I'm going to give the series a shot, but I'm not quite sure how long I'll be interested in continuing to watch it. The Q&A afterward was basically a series of pep rally type questions designed to generate excitement about this show that has been over-hyped already. I feel like I've seen ads for it everywhere, and the pilot has been broadcast over and over and over again. It's popping up constantly everywhere I look, to the point of being annoying. But I'll give it a chance. I wish the Q&A had been more industry-driven though. I would've liked to have heard more about how the production is done, and what inspires the writers to come up with the various storylines. On the other hand, I got to go to a premiere of a new TV show in New York City. And I walked there through Central Park on a gorgeous afternoon and spent some time with a good friend at the same time. Not bad for a day's work.

Radiohead + a recipe!

Attending a Radiohead concert is always a good idea! And seeing as no NYC dates were posted for this year's tour until recently, I wanted to make sure I could see them somewhere in the U.S. on this tour. (Of course, I'm not opposed to traveling for a concert or two, but this trip seemed a little extravagant, even to me!) So I trekked out west for less than 24 hours to see this show at the Toyota Center. And it was fabulous! Honorable mention to my buddy Chris Slack who was kind enough to purchase the tickets and make all the travel arrangements for this extravaganza.

Here's our view of the stage - we were quite a bit closer than this pic indicates. The show was a blend of mostly new songs with a few old tunes scattered here and there. I love how this band is able to recreate their studio sound on stage with a few added live show nuances. They are just remarkable on stage, and I can't properly gush enough about how much I love this band.

I'll stop there and describe the scene which included a massive light set-up behind the band. It was very Muse-like if you ask me, and I certainly don't disapprove of such a thing! Muse is consistently voted one of the best live acts in the U.K. year after year after year. And having seen a show or two of theirs, I'd have to agree. But I digress, Radiohead's stage set-up was very interesting. There were 12 video screens on pulleys that were "floating" above the band showing different shots of the band performing. The whole scene was mesmerizing between the lights, the cameras, & the music. I literally stood there and wondered how I could possibly get a job doing that kind of video production someday. (You catching that, Universe? Manashi needs to work for Radiohead someday.)

And of course, I had to buy swag on my way out. I was leaving with just the ridiculously overpriced bag in my hand, but then I decided I needed that moderately overpriced red t-shirt too. So there's the recap of my frivolous weekend away from NYC to see Radiohead. I'd do it again in a heartbeat!

On a completely different note, as the title of this post indicates, I did manage to eek out a new recipe in the past two weeks. I'm kind of proud of this one. It came out really well. And it finally allowed me to finish up that stupid never-ending head of cabbage that was living in my fridge forever.

South Indian Style Cabbage
4 cups cabbage, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
1/2 tsp whole mustard seeds
4-5 curry leaves
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup red wine vinegar or lemon juice
1/4 cup grated coconut
1/4 cup sunflower seeds

Put oil in a large saucepan and let it heat up over medium high heat. Add the mustard seeds (and be careful, it's going to splatter), red pepper, curry leaves, and onion. Put a lid on it for 1-2 minutes, and then it's probably safe to stir the goods. Add the cabbage & turmeric, salt & pepper, and then stir everything to combine. Keep stirring the cabbage every 2-3 minutes while it cooks through, and if you feel like it, turn the heat down and put a lid on it. I kept stirring mine every few minutes till the cabbage cooked all the way through. About halfway through, I added the vinegar. At the end, add the coconut & sunflower seeds, and then mix it all together. This is what it looked like with my poor photography skills. It tasted fantastic! And I'd recommend brown rice, flatbread (roti or naan) to accompany this dish. I'll surely make it again someday, when I'm less sick of cabbage. Sidenote: This dish is totally vegan for anyone following that diet out there.