Dog Is My Copilot
from Friday, December19th of the year2008.
So, I am just back from a few days in Los Angeles where I was promoting The Reader ““ all of this is very new to me, the idea of sub-promoting a specific element of a movie (the score), but it was, for the most part, good fun, and very “other” to my normal experience of padding around my apartment in slippers. On Sunday, I gave (?) a Question and Answer session for the Society of Composers and Lyricists, which was totally fascinating. Some of the questions were really specific, and others were kind of antagonistic; one boy, who seemed like he was probably my age, got up and said, “Congratulations on your achievement” and then as an aside, added, “not really.” Wow! That’s like from fifth grade when you’d say, “I like your new haircut. NOT!” He then followed it with a totally respectable question, so who knows if he was just trying to be funny.
A few things. I had a meeting at an office where everybody was encouraged to bring their dogs in. Mmm, there is nothing better than this; it makes me feel so productive, to have the snuffling of little noses around my feet. It feels very modern in a way, especially given the juxtaposition of a million computers at eye level and a bunch of sturdy dogs underfoot. If I thought for a minute that I could get away with it, I’d totally have a dog. I did see something sort of depressing, though, which was at a mall in Beverly Hills, a pet store selling very expensive puppies in small cages:
A little grim. I participated in Make Thine Owne Cobb Salad:
I had an amazing lunch at a sushi bar; the sushi chef was kind of a randy old coot who was very actively hitting on the lady sitting next to me; their conversation was something like this:
Sushi Dude: [presents Lady with a plate of sashimi] Here you go.
Lady: ooh, it’s beautiful!
Sushi Dude: No, you’re beautiful!
Lady: oh, no, the plate is beautiful!
Sushi Dude: it’s only beautiful because it’s for you!
Wasn’t that the same shit from Estar Wars?
Anakin: You are so…beautiful.
Padme: It’s only because I’m so in love.
Anakin: No. No, it’s because I’m so in love with you.
Padme: Then love has blinded you?
Anakin: Well…that’s not exactly what I meant.
Padme: But it’s probably true.
Moral of the story: the sushi was beautiful:
I went to Mozza, the Batali joint in LA, and had, appropriately, a mozzarella tasting:
The other thing I et which was really good but didn’t photograph well was a calf’s brain ravioli in a sage butter. Gorgeous texture.
7 Comments
December 19th, 2008 at 6:50 pm
COBB.
December 20th, 2008 at 2:14 am
You absolutely can have a dog.
December 20th, 2008 at 10:10 am
that mozarella tasting looks slammin. also the snippet of dialogue from revenge of the sith brings back so many memories of each of my 3 cathartic theatrical viewings of that film.
December 20th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Having a Batali finick at the moment. Our meal the other night at Babbo ended with full length, tinny Metallica coming over the speakers before we got the sweetbreads…
Not pretty.
In the midst of a catastrophic letter to the overseer.
[Nico responds: I wouldn’t waste your time. From what I’ve heard, the music is one of those things that they just won’t change. How were the sweetbreads, though?]
December 22nd, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I have been vegetarian for 20 years and your documentation is making me crave organ meat somethin’ fierce. Next time you’re in L.A., take me out for some foul looking/smelling/tasting crap and I will eat it.
Btw, saw the 22-minute featurette for The Reader. Impressive. Bravo. Cannot wait to see it.
December 25th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
looks like michelin man droppings.
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I saw pictures of you at the Reader promo on Opera Chic’s blog. So cute. Congrats on the success.