tigertail in new york

The pho was ok - not the best I've ever tried, but not awful either.But then I went to MOMA (for free thanks to a good friend and her special work connections - thank you!) and saw some great stuff, including some amazing sculpture by Martin Puryear and some great photography by Garry Winogrand including this great work New York 1963


I just love the way everyone is looking at the walrus, and s/he's looking at the photographer like "oi, you! whaddya think you're looking at?"









The Martin Puryear sculpture Ladder for Booker T. Washington is hung from the gallery ceiling in the attrium. All of his work is monumental in size, and spans several floors of the gallery as it ascends the wall. You can see it here in my photo.












There were a lot of other great works too, including Roni Horn's Some Thames and Allan Mccollum's The Shapes Project, which you can see my photo of here.

A pretty enjoyable day, and after yesterday's visit to the International Centre for Photography to see their amazing current exhibitions focusing on the Spanish Civil War, it's been a very arty week!




1st photo is copyright Garry Winogrand, but the other 2 are my own and are copyrighted.

Posted by Ness at 11:20 PM | Permalink | Comments

I love spice. Hot spicy food, definitely, but also the strength and delicacy of spices and their flavours.

I love cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamon, lemongrass, galangal, star anise, cloves, corriander, tamarind.. the list goes on and on.

So, although I've been very happy with pumpkin spice and gingerbread lattes at Starbucks, foods I love, like fragrant pho bo, laksa, rendang, salt & pepper squid, and foods I love to cook - soy & star anise simmered chicken, whole steamed red snapper with chillies, lemongrass and Shaoxing wine, have been in short supply here in New York City.

Sydney has Thai restaurants like my neighbourhood here in NY has Chinese restaurants - they are everywhere. Within walking distance of my place back home were at least 8 Thai restaurants, and 6 of those had really good food. I miss the diversity of authentic food we had back home.

Because as much as I love spices, what I can't stand is bland food, and in particular bland food when an authentic version of the dish would not try and appeal to a generic american palate.

Chinese dumplings here have wrappers that are thick and tasteless - almost like a pancake has been wrapped around the delicate shrimp inside. No delicate see-through Har Gow to be found at local chinese restaurants. And generally Thai food has been boring, except for a few notable exceptions (like Sea in Brooklyn, and a mid-town spot my brother and I found).

For a few days now I've been craving pho bo - Vietnamese Beef noodle soup. In Vietnam I ate this almost every other day for breakfast, lunch, whenever the mood took me. In Sydney, I sampled several versions, always trying to find one that matched what I had tasted in Vietnam. Oh how I miss XIC Lo, Naughty Chef and Pasteur near my old work.

So today I'm on a mission - I'm going to try and find the best Pho in New York. I've had several suggestions, and think I'm going to check out a place on Mott St. And tomorrow my brother and I will try and find the best laksa, which he's been missing.

Suggestions are gladly welcomed!

Posted by Ness at 10:54 AM | Permalink | Comments

I finished a job recently, and the weather has started to turn cold - first snow yesterday.. brrrrr... So I've spent a lot of the last week cleaning up my room, making space and putting away all of the stuff from the last few jobs.

I found something during the clean up that I want to share.

Most people in a film crew work long stupid hours and get very little thanks and/or recognition for it. So it's nice to occasionally get a bit of praise, a thank you note, something that just says hey - we know you worked your arse off, and we just wanted to say thanks.

On the last big job I worked the producers and the director often noticed when our team had done a good job, and that was actually a nice change from some other things I've worked on. But on that big job, after filming on location, we got a fax from some of the people we'd worked with there, and it made our day..

Dear [Tigertail],

just wanted to thank you once again for an interesting day. You, [Fred], [John], your staff, your crew are unbelievable people. We've had all kinds of characters come through this place, some certifiable nuts. You helped restore our faith in humanity. You screwballs were professional, courteous, and some of the nuttiest bastards we've ever met. Everybody loved you. You folks are welcome at our joints any time. You can film here any time you want. On a more personal note I just want to tell you that you're my all-time favorite Aussie, beating out that bum Paul Hogan. Good luck, and don't be a stranger.

With Love,
[Steve], [Bob], [Sue] and all the staff of [No Name]

Sometimes being called a "nutty bastard" can make you smile..

Posted by Ness at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments