the second season of flight of the conchords has been a little disappointing particularly the song segments but the most recent episode seemed a return to form. michael gondry directs one of the more memorable video bits.
eastbound and down premieres tonight on hbo at 1030.
take a look at this cool wylie dish from opinionated about dining

http://www.opinionatedaboutdining.com/Home.php?homepage_page=2
Italy bans kebabs and foreign food from cities (uk times)

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5622156.ece
jumbo hotel
We ate at Babbo last night, warm lamb's tongue vinaigrette with hedgehog mushrooms and a 3 minute egg - delicious. pig foot milanese w/ rice beans and arugula, beef check ravioli - yum, and grilled quail with scorzerona and saba(grape must?), Barolo wine. very happy
another tivo special on ifc at 430am, miranda julys me you and everyone we know.
joaquin and dave
found this oddity while reviewing lost post-mortems. many of the characters names are related to writers, philosophers and scientists. in this case one has a psuedonym named jeremy bentham.
I think the most fascinating, and perhaps relevant, thing about Bentham was the disposition of his corpse: He hoped that his body might be of use to mankind after it had ceased being of service to himself, so he desired that following his death, his remains be turned over to science for dissection. He made the stipulation, however, that after dissection his skeleton be kept intact, that his head and hands be preserved, that he be dressed in his usual clothing, and that he be placed in his old chair in his accustomed attitude. This stipulation came from Bentham's odd notion that instead of corpses being placed in the ground out of view, they ought to be preserved by friends and relations and put up at carefully chosen points around the house and grounds as permanent monuments, or "auto-icons" as he called them. ...Bentham's requests were carried out by three of his trusted friends. After his body was dissected by a group of medical men, his skeleton--surmounted by a replica wax head--was dressed in his old clothes, placed in his old chair, enclosed in a glass and mahogany case, and all was put on permanent display in the Anatomical Museum of University College Hospital, Gower Street, London, where it can still be seen today. Bentham's real head was kept separately, but attempts to preserve it in its original condition failed. The head is now parched and withered. Photographs of Bentham's mummified head, together with his skeleton dressed in his old clothes, may be seen in issue 43 of Man, Myth & Magic.
a silver lining to australian bush fires? cutest koala pics ever.
erin
Swarthy arab terrorist found with dirty bomb material in the US.

Oh, no, wait, make that white neo-nazi pissed off that Obama was elected found slain with dirty bomb parts in his Maine house.

Let's invade Iran!
Hey MB, jiml, and sarah: do you have any thoughts about your meal at Allen & Delancy? Worth it?
two places i want to eat most
Michel Bras http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/dining/11gard.html
and Alinea
Top 10
CNBC "interview" with Nouriel Roubini and Nassim Taleb. Interesting because I think these two have correctly understood the financial situation and are able to articulate the solution. And the CNBC people demonstrate the sort of mentality that runs through at least some of the financial sector (and most of the major media) that has created all these problems. It's just amazing how dumb the hosts are (and yet, perversely, so arrogant at the same time!)
ealing comedy starring alec guiness the man in the white suit on tcm @10.
102.51
+2.79 (2.80%)
Feb 9 - Close

Jim 110 by Friday......
smArtHistory
classic shorts

how bout getting into dorothy parkers shorts?
What is Dirt Candy?
What is dirt candy? Vegetables, of course. When you eat a vegetable you’re eating little more than dirt that’s been transformed by plenty of sunshine and rain into something that’s full of flavor – candy from the dirt. Dirt Candy. It’s also the name of my restaurant, which opened about three months ago, after a long, long battle with the forces of evil.

I’ve worked in many of the vegetarian restaurants in New York City. I went to the Natural Gourmet Cooking School, was a chef’s teaching assistant at Angelica’s, managed the kitchen at the late Terra 47, was the first chef at Moby’s teahouse, Teany, went from being a line chef to chef de cuisine at Pure Food and Wine and was the Chef de Cuisine at Heirloom (R.I.P.). I also consulted at Blossom and Broadway East (a long time ago). With Dirt Candy I’m trying to do a vegetarian restaurant my way. Most vegetarian restaurants are lifestyle-driven, not chef-driven, and their aim is to present healthy food that conforms to vegetarian principles, often by serving basic meat recipes with soy products replacing the meat portion of the dish.

I don’t care about your health. And I don’t care about your politics either. But I do care about cooking vegetables. Most of the best vegetarian dishes I’ve eaten have been at non-vegetarian restaurants. The gnocchi at Il Bagatto, the vinegar potatoes at Grand Sichuan, the fried watercress salad at Sripraphai (they’ll lose the chicken and shrimp if you ask). I’ve always wanted to work at a place that put cooking vegetables and doing amazing things with them first, and put lifestyle, health and political choices second. It didn’t take me long to realize that if I wanted a place like that I’d have to build it myself, so I did. Just as BLT Fish is dedicated to seafood, and Peter Luger’s is dedicated to steak, Dirt Candy is dedicated to vegetables. It’s taken us almost a year to get here, but we’re finally open, so either sign up for our mailing list (here) or keep checking back to this blog for updates about menu changes and news.
Was lucky enough to be taken to Gotham Bar and Grill last night. I've actually never been before (also Union Sq. Cafe, but that's another post.) Food was great. The room is very nice if a little bit 80's. But what really got me was the crowd. Wednesday night at 8:00 and the place was rocking. Completely packed. And it ain't cheap. Good for them.
tivo specials tonight on tcm:

Georgy Girl
Carnal Knowledge
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice

Where was the NYC smells like maple syrup thread? In any case: mystery solved.
any one else doing the neti pot thing?
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create a phantasmagoric marriage of cinema and opera in this one-of-a-kind take on a classic story. In Jacques Offenbach’s fantasy opera The Tales of Hoffmann, a poet dreams of three women—a mechanical performing doll, a bejeweled siren, and the consumptive daughter of a famous composer—all of whom break his heart in different ways. Powell and Pressburger’s feverishly romantic adaptation is a feast of music, dance, and visual effects, and one of the most exhilarating opera films ever produced.

5:30 on tcm