Adventures in New York City

Today I went down to the IFC Center and saw Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, which is based on a David Foster Wallace novel of the same name (which I didn't read - don't tell). I went for the following reasons: (1) I wanted to see if John Krazinski could be unadorable and (2) the subject was men. It turns out John Krazinski can play a nonphysically unadorable character. That the subject was men motivated me not in a Samantha Jones way but more out of curiosity. The main character in the movie is a female grad student studying feminism who decides to do her research on how the feminist movement has affected men and on what modern men think modern women want. For a good review of the movie, see Jed Cohen's in the Huffington Post, but right now we're talking about me. I have a tendency to romanticize or completely simplify men, depending on the man. Since it was possible that this movie could provide a little insight to "the other side" I hopped and the subway and bought a ticket. Not that knowing what men think women want is a subject I often think about, but since I'm not a man, and can never be a man when talking to men, I've always wondered how (straight) men truly feel about women. But I'm guessing for every man asked a different answer is given. Which probably isnt' a bad thing. No person with a penchant for character-driven movies will feel they wasted their time watching this movie (just be prepared for the movie characters to sound like book characters), but it didn't make my to-buy list like Away We Go did. The book, however, I may read.

After the movie I walked over to Bleeker Street to the Magnolia Bakery. I'm not a person prone to whimsey, but visiting a bakery in Greenwich Village left me feeling a little whimsical, as did the sunshine, and the kids playing in the playground across the street. So, on a whim of course, I walked down 11th street to the river hoping for a riverside bench or park. And a park there was. I ate my flourless chocolate cake in the little riverside park, stood up and wiped the powdered sugar off my pants, and walked back to Bleeker on Perry Street. When I reached Bleeker I crossed it and kept walking on Perry because I saw stoops on that side of Perry, and, as I've learned in this past month, I like walking down streets with stoops. Because it's whimisical? I'd bet good money that one of those stoops was Carrie Bradshaw's, and if not, they were very similar. (On the show she gives her address as something East 76th street, but I don't think it's a real address.) So far it's my favorite street in the city, but it could have just been the cake talking.

I realize I made two Sex and the City references in this blog. I'd apologize, but it will probably happen again, so I'm not really repentful.