http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/ fine wine and war crimes en-US 2005-09-14T11:07:00-04:00 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/LopAiZA8RBI/plays_more.html In the interest of keeping our log up to speed, plays we've read in the last few weeks include: Caryl Churchill, Top Girls Brian Clark, Whose Life is it Anyway? Nilo Cruz, Anna in the Tropics Rebecca Gilman, Spinning into... Books Modernity Theater Elissa Meyers 2005-09-14T11:07:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/09/plays_more.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/El0qdgrdMro/wd50_tasting_me.html Having not been back in far too long we dropped in to WD-50 for the summer tasting menu recently. If there's a more fun place to eat in town we've yet to find it. Any hint of fussy service has... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-08-25T00:45:52-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/08/wd50_tasting_me.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/x9I2KoREeNI/5_ninth_by_zak_.html Always a surprise when a place lives up to its hype. We've been to 5 Ninth twice now - once for dinner and once for brunch. Quite liked the beautiful, pared down space with its minimalistic, Meat Market industrial country... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-08-18T09:45:13-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/08/5_ninth_by_zak_.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/r072ZP4S52s/veritas.html Such a lot of noise in the popular press about establishments where the food itself command marginal interest. Such at least we have find to be the case at Alto, the Modern at MoMA and Cru: all terrifically overrated in... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-07-20T10:02:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/07/veritas.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/RiRGyb8VyOE/craftbar_redux_.html Craftbar's new space, in what was Morell's downtown, took a moment to get back up to speed, but once again they've got all pistons ablaze. While we're not nearly as fond of this space as the original and can't quite... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-07-19T11:13:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/07/craftbar_redux_.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/d0BbdZC_XMI/up_your_hudson.html In honor of a visiting CQista from St. Paul we recently made our way up to the restaurant Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Part of an otherwise non-profit agricultural center, BHSB is housed in huge Norman-style stone barns built by... Food and Drink Modernity NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-07-17T22:46:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/07/up_your_hudson.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/WPJ8geEi1C4/fancy_food_show.html City Harvest, who deliver food to roughly 1/3 of New York City's 1.6 million hungry, collected about 100,000 pounds of food at the closing of the Javits Center's Fancy Food Show today. Exhibitors were breaking down when the lot of... Cook Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-07-13T00:58:38-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/07/fancy_food_show.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/r4MUsiXYNyA/new_obsessions.html In last few weeks we've read: Edward Albee's Delicate Balance, Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe Mary Coyle Chase's Harvey Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya Jean Cocteau's The Human Voice Maria Irene Fornes' Mud, The Danube The Goetz's The Heiress John Guare's... Theater Elissa Meyers 2005-05-11T02:29:11-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/05/new_obsessions.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/gJHab4yNEbE/happy_bday_bill.html A slew of Californian CQistes came for diner tonight to help celebrate Billie Holiday's birthday. To the tunes of the permanent (now through April 15!) Billie Bday Broadcast on WKCR, the CQ editorial board assembled a meal fit for the... Cook Food and Drink Elissa Meyers 2005-04-07T23:41:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/04/happy_bday_bill.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/5NihchLPSTc/basque_bash.html CQ's latest feast took its cues from the culinary munificence of the Basque Country. After an afternoon set in rosemary, crushed coriander seeds and garlic, a number of bunnies got roasted whole - one for each two guests. We baked... Cook Food and Drink Thee CQ Diet Elissa Meyers 2005-03-24T09:26:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/03/basque_bash.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/VoqyKrJOv9s/us_terrorist_re.html Hooray for another tiny but significant reason to cheer - and we don't like to let them pass unnoticed as fewer and fewer present themselves. As the WaPo reported, Bush Bullies dropped controversial anti-abortion language from a proposed U.N. women's... Current Affairs Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2005-03-05T10:01:58-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/03/us_terrorist_re.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/mO9hdGAy7vc/juve_death_pena.html Good to start somewhere! The ACLU report here. At issue in this case is whether the state may execute capital defendants who were between the ages of 16 and 18 when they committed murder. The Court upheld the constitutionality of... Current Affairs HRW Modernity Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2005-03-02T08:30:52-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/03/juve_death_pena.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/LqBsZLn1nPI/culinaria_pover.html In honor of a far-flung Contrarian in town for the weekend, we whipped up a Tuscan feast last night, culled in its entirety from Paula Wolfert's brilliant Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. Compliment of the Night award went to the guest of... Cook Food and Drink Thee CQ Diet Wine Elissa Meyers 2005-02-12T13:00:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/02/culinaria_pover.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/du5p3vnwfuA/post.html swing Church & State Modernity Music Reasons to Cheer Swings Elissa Meyers 2005-02-07T18:08:35-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/02/post.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/y5v9SQq4mH8/the_modern_at_m.html Ducked into Danny Meyer's new restaurant at MoMA the Modern for dinner. What a smashing space. Roberta Bendavid's floral design seems right at home in, or practically in MoMA's sculpture garden. Architect Peter Bentel, who also did Grammercy Tavern and... Food and Drink Modernity NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-01-29T17:06:11-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/the_modern_at_m.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/bACP9vgxZrI/hrw_icc_and_dar_1.html Over 300,000 people have died in Sudan's Darfur region, a place the size of France. 2 million more have fled their homes. In the first week of January, rebels and the government signed a pact ending their 21 year long... Current Affairs HRW ICC NYC Reasons to Cheer Sudan Elissa Meyers 2005-01-19T15:28:34-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/hrw_icc_and_dar_1.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/_4sxsIAuoE4/hrw_icc_and_dar.html 139 countries have signed the ICC's - International Criminal Court's - 1998 Rome Statute treaty. 97 countries, including the European Union, have ratified it. The US rather joined Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, China and Israel in a 1998 vote against... Current Affairs HRW ICC NYC Reasons to Cheer Sudan Elissa Meyers 2005-01-16T10:26:09-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/hrw_icc_and_dar.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/Puw0b_K4Ljc/kafka_fragments.html Peter Sellars directs György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments for Dawn Upshaw's Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall. Kurtág's duet for soprano and violin is an opera of aphorisms in which the phenomenal Ms. Dawn shared the stage with violintist Geoff Nuttall. His... Modernity Music NYC Theater Elissa Meyers 2005-01-15T18:06:49-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/kafka_fragments.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/FWHtbxjEG3A/devi.html Lunch yesterday at Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur's new restaurant, Devi. Pretty space: 20 foot ceilings draped in flowing tumeric and tamarind silks with clusters of stained-glass bejeweled lamps. An antique Indian door and reliefs complement Devi's welcoming vibe. Two... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2005-01-13T10:03:44-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/devi.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/wwzR1nzkMFQ/2001_white_burg.html Fat and steel, cream and acid: white Burgundy synthsizes opposites. No surprise then to find there a Temple of Janus, the god of two faces: one coming, one going, one happy, one sad. Contradiction may be at the heart why... Breakfast Wine Food and Drink Wine Elissa Meyers 2005-01-11T08:53:12-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/2001_white_burg.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/F6_LaoTdywQ/tsunami_relief.html The IMC's new director of international ops, Ellen Agler, wrote in transit to Indonesia: The International Medical Corps (IMC US & IMC UK) has been working in Indonesia for a number of years, with a staff of almost 80 people... Current Affairs Elissa Meyers 2005-01-04T05:06:51-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2005/01/tsunami_relief.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/n2yUKpCX-5g/lawrence_lucie_.html CQ had the pleasure of delivering guitar legend Larry Lucie to his birthday party at WKCR today: he turned 97. After gigs with Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, Lawrence Lucie went on to play with Coleman Hawkins. That's... Guitar Music Elissa Meyers 2004-12-18T23:58:56-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/12/lawrence_lucie_.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/zhCOMlA7gzo/for_nycs_highes.html For NYC's highest-falutin' Italo-American cuisine, Babbo still wins our vote. Si, we'll always be addicted to Lupa's escarole salad, and places such as I Coppi and even Lil' Frankie's surely have their charms, but blow by blow Babbo is pretty... Elissa Meyers 2004-12-17T14:56:26-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/12/for_nycs_highes.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/OFovK7vhQQU/wd50_redux.html WD50 just continues to improve. The wine list is looking a great deal better, with a deeper take on (CQ's preferred) old world selections and less emphasis on freaky Californian juice. (Kind of hilarious though to note that a Long... Food and Drink NYC Wine Elissa Meyers 2004-12-12T12:22:38-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/12/wd50_redux.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/1EE2L03A194/bush_condi_and_.html The woman presiding over national security on 9/11 - after she ignored specific warnings from the CIA, Richard Clark and Gary Hart among others about Al Queda flying planes into buildings on US soil - could be held personally responsible... Church & State Current Affairs DC Film Elissa Meyers 2004-11-18T10:23:16-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/bush_condi_and_.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/6n9QOd5s-tE/george_da_gangs.html The Canadian Star newspaper has an interesting suggestion: charge Bush with war crimes next time he pops up. Jelena Pejic, an advisor in the legal division of the International Red Cross suggests Bush's acts of war certainly justify such claims... Current Affairs Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-11-17T09:52:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/george_da_gangs.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/TKhVnhhRvN8/anatomy_of_a_lo.html A 16 page article in the Sunday's Boston Globe called On the Trail of Kerry's Failed Dream details the events that predicated Kerry's loss. Their take, as per CQ cliff notes: Chapter 1: Bush defines Kerry first, as indecisive. Bush... Church & State Current Affairs First Amendment Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-11-15T04:51:54-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/anatomy_of_a_lo.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/s0jv7cFCzd4/wines_by_the_gl.html Though it was a bit past noon yesterday when we wandered into Craftbar, it was in some deeper sense still early. To brace ourselves against the day we first gave the Alsatian 2002 Paul Zinck Prestige Riesling a spin. A... Breakfast Wine Food and Drink NYC Wine Elissa Meyers 2004-11-11T10:22:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/wines_by_the_gl.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/WvoJ-VYqlEE/the_congressman.html With regard to our recent post concerning election results in Ohio, we are happy to be able to quote that state's progressive Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, who writes: Glitches in electronic voting in the Columbus area should move all legislatures... Current Affairs Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-11-11T00:01:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/the_congressman.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/8u2_CO6RNrM/austrian_wines_.html Beauty, poet and sculptor Gita Ghei once noted that if ever you're having a bad day, just have breakfast and you can start over. Taking her wisdom to heart we've begun to research which wines work best with, or instead... Breakfast Wine Food and Drink Wine Elissa Meyers 2004-11-10T16:06:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/austrian_wines_.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/-wBpapROw0c/riesling_redux.html Another recent CQ foray into Rieslings, this time via Germany, occurred in the wake of an American contrarian's trip to the fatherland. There he'd learned to rustle up the Black Forrest delicacy, Schwabian Maultaschen, pork and leek dumplings. When correctly... Breakfast Wine Food and Drink Wine Elissa Meyers 2004-11-10T01:02:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/riesling_redux.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/J2i_mn0IpT8/delicious_libra.html Link: Delicious Library. Catalog your music, books, films by scanning barcodes with an iSight camera. Elissa Meyers 2004-11-09T03:01:40-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/delicious_libra.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/xPOefmoEZvo/2004_hacked.html At least another Bush term bodes well for the prospect of engaging progressive politics. The win did not surprise CQ - we do our best not to underestimate the lengths to which dictators will go to ensure themselves another 20... Church & State Current Affairs DC First Amendment Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-11-07T11:11:00-05:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/11/2004_hacked.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/9BfgaWOfn4E/not_likely_to_h.html As War in Context notes, the New Scientist reports that Bush's coalition forces (don't forget Poland!) have likely killed 200,000 civilians in Iraq. "The most common cause of death is as a direct result of violence, mostly caused by coalition... Current Affairs DC Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-10-29T01:26:26-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/not_likely_to_h.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/VE87BsqRTps/dubious_blessin.html With one week to go until the vote, CQ counts dubious blessings: 1* The NY Times reports Bush allowed 380 tons of explosives to disappear from Iraq. 2* Time magazine reports that one Miss Bunny Greenhouse, who objected to the... Current Affairs Reasons to Cheer Elissa Meyers 2004-10-25T20:00:25-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/dubious_blessin.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/7nlorDiN3kA/sumile.html Curious about chef Josh DeChellis, we ventured out to the West Village's newish Franco-Japanese fusion Sumile last night. The restaurant's design underwhelms: minimalistic to the point of dull with unadorned white walls in a boxy space and kind of annoying... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2004-10-23T16:47:25-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/sumile.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/QX3aC3FKtuw/the_final_two_w.html The prospect of depths of depression, should Bush win again, have CQ of two minds regarding the election. On the one hand, we caution ourselves not to underestimate the duplicity and evil at the heart of the Bush regime. We... Current Affairs Elissa Meyers 2004-10-21T09:02:58-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/the_final_two_w.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/dBV6tWQDiGk/heavens_gate_re.html Don't miss the big screen version of notorious epic western Heaven's Gate. The $54M film - the most expensive ever, when made in 1980 - sank its studio, United Artists. However, extrordinary cinematography and historical attention to detail, c. 1890... Film Elissa Meyers 2004-10-12T11:21:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/heavens_gate_re.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/HIGT7bkKGjI/wd50.html Meals at Wylie's Wonderland Emporium of Emperor's Delights may well leave you hungry but that just lends all the more reason to order dessert, which is fine news. We're f the considered opinion that pastry chef Sam Mason's creations seldom... Food and Drink NYC Elissa Meyers 2004-10-12T10:13:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/wd50.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ContrarianQuarterly/~3/kDieMYDs3nY/do_you_remember.html It's one thing to see blinking images of war culled from digital TV broadcasts, but the full color celluloid images of amputees trying on new prosthetic limbs as war profiteers proclaim treasure-to-be and coffin makers explaining the small ones (for... Current Affairs DC Film NYC Elissa Meyers 2004-10-08T22:00:00-04:00 http://elissa.typepad.com/cq/2004/10/do_you_remember.html http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/fb_pwrd.gif