A Halloween Post

This is when Halloween really pays off:


There's nothing like getting to see your nephew's first actual Halloween costume along with a winning smile!

Plus, a sneak peak into my costume! I spent the bulk of the day sewing it together:

Pumpkin Party

It seems like everyone I know was going to a pumpkin carving party this year! So, I decided to have my own mini-pumpk-party coupled with a spur of the moment autumnal dinner of Julia Child's roast chicken, garlic sauteed greens, and herb-roasted yukon gold and sweet potatoes. I've learned that carving pumpkins is a lot of work. Here are our finished products:

Monday Night Dinner

Pan-seared trout topped with crimini mushrooms and parsley-cream sauce I discovered last weekend. Side of sauteed kale with garlic and parmesan. I've been making that a lot these days!

Wild Things

This is how I feel SO MUCH of the time.

Trying to get this costume together for Halloween. Hopefully I'll have time to do the sewing.

P.S. This movie is incredible. I'm avoiding writing about it because I can't imagine my words living up to the images. It was visceral, poignant, eloquent. Beautiful, haunting. So many words. It was about feeling and not thinking. Everything you wanted to say and could feel pulsing through your body and heart, it showed it to you. Not in words. In images, and relationships. I adored it. Spike Jonze is a true auteur. I'm with Manohla. This guy gets it, too.

Sneak Peak

From Meryl & Marina's first show:

Hand on Your Heart

Jose Gonzalez - Hand On Your Heart

Simple Chicken, Not-so-Simple Name

Last night, B and I ate a delicious dinner that, with his help, I managed to put together in less than 45 minutes. Feeling still inspired by Julie & Julia and eager to cook up a recipe of hers, I googled "Julia Child chicken" while at the grocery store and chose a recipe I found here for Supremes de Volaille a Blanc, or Chicken Breasts Poached in Butter. This was so easy to make and the pay-off was huge. I'll each chicken breasts every day if they taste like this, and the sauce--whew. I was eating spoonfuls of it before I poured it over the chicken!

We ate this alongside my favorite green beans tossed in a hazelnut-lemon-butter, and a small salad put together with the new Satur Farms Crisp Cut Salad Blend, radishes, scallions, and a Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette. Easy! Worth trying, my friends.

Pre-sauce:


Post-saucing:



We were so stuffed, that we had to forgo dessert (raspberries with whipped cream) for some early rest on the couch!

Hidaway

I finally saw Where the Wild Things Are last night. It's haunting my memory...it was so unbelievably good, but more on that later.

Meanwhile, these two songs have got me in a trance. Don't they sound similar?

Karen O and the Kids - Hidaway
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Rolling Stones - Play With Fire (via dailybeatz)

Mouths Shut

Yesterday, I attended a meeting with a young actor-cum-screenwriter who, when faced with my skepticism regarding his work and credibility, began to pick me apart. At one point, he even attempted psychoanalysis, asking if I had siblings and trying to relate my relationship with my brothers to my apparent "tough girl" personality. Apparently I come off as very tough when I'm running on a few hours of sleep, no breakfast, the memory of a catastrophic midnight show in a rowdy bar, and I'm meeting with a complete artiste of a stranger. Anyway, he asked me to delineate my intentions for my career. I stuttered and felt as if I could not answer him, but that's not the case. I realized that I didn't want to answer him, why should I have to reveal to this stranger a lifetime's worth of artistic goals I hope to conquer? This morning, I read a New York Times article profiling one of my favorite actors, Willem Dafoe, and I align myself with him:

"Nobody has to know what I think about what I do,” he said in his gentlemanly growl during a recent lunch in the meatpacking district. “In fact it’s very important, I think, for an actor to keep their mouth shut on some level.”

Chelsea Boot

Finally got the shoes I wanted, thanks to help from my keen, internet shopping savvy roommate. Not only are they lovely, but they were super cheap (in the realm of boots.) By Williamsburg-based line Marais USA.

Hot Air Balloon

I would love to do this. Though I wonder whether my fear of heights would come into play.

Found via Cup of Jo

P.S.

A bird pooped on my head yesterday.

Exquisite Corpse

Today was great day.

Work, bright and early (not so great), followed by bike ride home for the rare luxury that is homemade lunch, followed by awesome rehearsal, followed by quick and fun Fanny dinner at Five Leaves (homemade ricotta with honey, thyme, and figs, followed by whole grilled brook trout with spaetzle, brussel sprouts, pecans, etc--delicious!), followed by tech for an incredible show I'm participating in on Saturday night (more on that to come...), and then a lovely bike ride home coupled with perfect weather.

So, the show I'm in is a part of an art show called system:system that opens tomorrow night and takes place in an abandoned, dilapidated convent on the border of Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The performance, presented and gracefully put together by a Miss Bonnie Pipkin, is called By Virtues Guarded and Manners Graced...A Game of Exquisite Corpse. It is a ghostly story told by 4 different groups, in the manner of an exquisite corpse, i.e. each group is responsible for one section of the whole. The groups will not see the other performance's until the night of and have been rehearsing/tech-ing separate from one another. While the story is already written and the characters remain the same, each group conceives their own representation of their material. My group, led by my dear collaborator Meryl Williams, will be second--the lower torso.

Rehearsing in this space has been incredible. Artists inhabit every room and corner, their bicycles stashed in the main hallway, putting together intricate installations at all times of the night in preparation for Friday's opening. By tonight's rehearsal, the place was teeming with people--standing outside rehearsing segments in wild costumes, crowding the steps while smoking cigarettes, exploring three stories of rooms, waiting to get into the chapel where the lighting guy, projectionist, and musicians were syncing the performances with technical savvy. And these guys are awesome--multicolored clip lights, a white screen behind the altar projecting creepy, pixelated footage, and a ragtag group of musicians on guitar, keys, organ, cello, and violin. We would tell these guys what we wanted and they instantly made it happen, it was unbelievable. We asked for an "Unsolved Mysteries"-like theme and they composed it on the spot, and then played it alongside our piece flawlessly. And, they're doing that with three other groups! There were cans of Red Bull and Budweiser abound and relentless creative energy.

This show marks mine and Meryl's first performance project as collaborators, so we're very thrilled to be a part of this and to be working together in such a great environment. Here is the official info:

* Opening reception: Friday, Oct 23, 7pm – 10pm with performances by Matamoros and New Idea Society / after party at The Richardson, 451 Graham Ave, BK

*Performance: Saturday Oct 24, 8 pm / Bonnie Pipkin Presents “By Virtue Guarded and Manners Graced…A Game of Exquisite Corpse”

* Exhibition Hours: Friday Oct 23, 7 pm – 10 pm
Sat & Sun Oct 24 – 25, noon – 6 pm

* Location: St. Cecilia’s Convent, 21 Monitor Street, Brooklyn, NY

*Sponsored by The Richardson, the official after party venue. Support for system:system is generously provided by Brooklyn Brewery, the exclusive beer sponsor of the exhibition.

And below, some photos of the exquisite madness of it all:

Casa Michelson: Master Bathroom

More to come later.

Casa Michelson: Portraits

Mother and Father.

Casa Michelson: Living Room

My parent's have a beautiful home here in L.A., which they have re-modeled and designed on their own. I thought I'd share some pictures of their wonderful, eclectic taste.

Bust the Glee

I watched the Fox show Glee for the first time yesterday. I didn't like it much. I did like this clip, however. I watched it, hmm, 5 times already?

California Weather

I woke up this morning in Brooklyn and now I find myself in California, sitting in my parent's backyard and playing with our adorable dog, Sashi. After being unexpectedly bombarded with blistering cold weather on the East Coast, now I'm being treated to blissfully warm weather in L.A. Actually, it's not warm--it's hot. I'm wearing a dress with sleeves and I'm miserable. Thankfully, I've packed a pair of shorts and a beloved stack of late summer clothing that I've already had to put away in New York. I'm here for a brief family-filled visit. I'm expecting a few days of shopping, eating, and lounging, before returning to New York for a maddening week jam-packed with work, auditions, and whirlwind rehearsals for a quick production next Saturday night. But, more on that later. For now--sun, sleep, dogs, toddlers, little brothers, etc. Already had some delicious Cali tacos, shrimp and then tilapia!

P.S. I also have a trip to Lucques planned, which I've been dying to go to since falling head over heels in love with Suzanne Goin's cook book.