Back for more at I am a Food Blog: Oxtail Pho. 

“The Map” a drypoint by Mary Cassatt (1890).

R.I.P. Peter Matthiessen. Check out this recent profile of the author by Jeff Himmelman:

In his own life, Matthiessen found a home in Zen. As he writes in “The Snow Leopard”: “In the longing that starts one on the path is a kind of homesickness, and some way, on this journey, I have started home. Homegoing is the purpose of my practice.” And yet, in “In Paradise,” Matthiessen takes even that consolation away. The evil that Olin encounters at Auschwitz is so terrifying that spiritual practice can’t mitigate it. Olin reflects on Solzhenitsyn’s observation that “the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being,” and then decides to show it to one of the retreat leaders — who responds with a Buddhist bromide about eliminating “all self-lacerating partial truths while good and evil fall away.” It is correct doctrine, but Matthiessen makes it sound like claptrap. Of spiritual practice in general, with which he has a casual and conflicted relationship, Olin wonders: “How long would such delicate attainments have withstood the death camp’s horrors?” It is another way of asking the question we all ask of ourselves: How would I have fared?

The book is grim, but Matthiessen isn’t. Earlier that morning, I watched as he said goodbye to a guest who stayed over the previous night. They were business associates, friendly but maybe not friends, and as the guest was at the door, he good-naturedly offered optimistic advice about radical experimental measures that Matthiessen might take. Matthiessen smiled and said: “I don’t want to hang on to life quite that hard. It’s part of my Zen training.” In preparing for our interviews, having read “In Paradise,” I wondered whether the Buddhist teachings were providing him any more consolation than they did the characters in his book. I hoped so. “The Buddha says that all suffering comes from clinging,” Matthiessen said. “I don’t want to cling. I’ve had a good life, you know. Lots of adventures. It’s had some dark parts, too, but mainly I’ve had a pretty good run of it, and I don’t want to cling too hard. I have no complaints.”

The characters in “In Paradise” cling too hard and are full of complaints, which is one reason that the book doesn’t feel like any kind of “final word.” The novel lacks the beautiful and affirming moments so much more present in Matthiessen’s nonfiction, moments more beautiful even than the dancing at Auschwitz, because they don’t come with the same complications. When Matthiessen was happy, as a writer and as a traveler, he always let us in on it; most often, he found that happiness in reverence of the natural world and in a hard-won, if fleeting, acceptance of his own uncertain place in it. “Lying back against these ancient rocks of Africa, I am content,” he writes in “The Tree Where Man Was Born.” “The great stillness in these landscapes that once made me restless seeps into me day by day, and with it the unreasonable feeling that I have found what I was searching for without ever having discovered what it was.”

[Photo Via: Getty Images]

So what’s with Melky? Dude hit another homer yesterday, a lead-off shot against C.C. in the first inning. And there was Melky, up again in the ninth, the go-ahead run. Two out, two men on, the Yanks ahead 6-4. He smoked a line drive off David Robertson. But it was a liner and didn’t have enough lift to go over any fence. No, it went right to Ichiro in right who made the catch to end the game. Nice cut, Melk: Now go away.

Sabathia wasn’t great but he pitched a decent game, the Yanks finally hit a home run–Brett Gardner did the honors–as they won the weekend series and evened their record at 3-3.

Today gives the home opener. And with it, seeing all these newcomers in pinstripes, will really make it feel as if the season has begun.

[Picture by Bags]

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brian McCann C
Alfonso Soriano DH
Kelly Johnson 1B
Brian Roberts 2B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte 3B

Let’s Go C.C.!

Michael Pineda doesn’t look like your traditional Yankee now does he? Looks like Bernard King with that big ass. Plus, he sports his cap with a little Fernando Rodney sideways thing. And the Gold chain. Kind of nice to have a fat ass like him around. And even better because he pitched well yesterday.

I enjoyed the game even though the Yanks couldn’t come up with a big hit. They had their chances so it was just one of those things. But the loss didn’t ruin the good feelings about Pineda.

David Phelps gave up a couple of bombs late and the Jays won 4-0.

[Picture by Bags]

It’s Michael Pineda folks. (Teixeira to the DL.)

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Derek Jeter SS
Carlos Beltran RF
Brian McCann DH
Alfonso Soriano LF
Kelly Johnson 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
Yangervis Solarte 3B
Dean Anna 2B

Never mind brunch:

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

[Picture by Bags]

It used to be that Michael Kay was as willing to cross the Canadian border as Snoop Dogg with a suitcase full of herb, but tonight’s game was big enough to pull even the reluctant Kay from New York into Toronto. A big game on April 4th? Not normally, but with Masahiro Tanaka on the mound for the Yankees, he being the splashiest Yankee acquisition since A-Rod, the most mysterious since Hideki Irabu, all eyes (and two Japanese networks) were on the Rogers Centre as the Yankees and Blue Jays met for the second series of the season.

If Tanaka was nervous about his debut, the Yankee offense gave him just what he needed with two runs in the top of the first. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a booming double off the centerfield wall, then moved to third on a single through the hole by Brett Gardner. (I love Derek Jeter like we all do, but it sure is nice having those two speedsters atop the lineup.) A bloop single by Carlos Beltrán plated Ellsbury with the game’s first run, and two batters later Mark Teixeira poked a single into left to score Gardner. When Kelly Johnson singled sharply to load the bases with only one out, the Rogers Centre crowd grew restless, and it looked like the Yankees might break the game open before Tanaka even took the mound. But Ichiro struck out and Yangervis Solarte popped out down the right field line; even though any starting pitcher would happily take two first-inning runs, there was a sense that there should’ve been much more.

But it wouldn’t really matter, would it? Tanaka, after all, is unhittable. Reports from spring training were beyond phenomenal — hitters couldn’t identify his pitches, manager Joe Girardi raved about his poise, David Cone proclaimed his splitter the best on the planet — but how would he fare in a regular season game?

The answer came quickly. Our old friend Melky Cabrera led off for the Jays and watched two pitches, a strike and a ball, as if taking the measure of Tanaka. The next pitch came in flat and belt-high, and the result was predictable; Cabrera hammered it into the seats for a home run that split the lead and raised a few Yankee eyebrows. But Tanaka recovered to get Colby Rasmus to ground out before striking out José Bautista and Edwin Encarnación, and it looked like he had settled down.

Or perhaps not. Cabrera’s home run was the result of just a single bad pitch, but the next inning was more than that. Adam Lind grounded out for the first out, but the rest of the inning played out like this: single, single, error, two-run single. Tanaka again recovered, this time striking out Cabrera and Rasmus to get off the field, but the inning merits a second look.

It’s tempting to give Tanaka the benefit of the doubt. All three singles, as well as the ball that Teixeira gobbled up and fired into left field, were hit on the ground. Perhaps Tanaka was just unlucky. But take a closer look. Dioner Navarro was down 0-2 when he started the rally with the first single of the inning, Brett Lawrie was in a 1-2 hole before his single, and Ryan Goins was at 0-2 before watching a pitch for a ball and eventually grounding to Teixeira. With huge advantages over three consecutive hitters and an otherworldly splitter in his pocket, Tanaka failed to put away any of them. He paid the price and lost the lead.

It didn’t take long for the Yanks to get the lead right back for him. Ichiro came up with two outs and Brian Roberts on second. He grounded the ball to second and was signaled out, but even to the naked eye it looked like a missed call. Girardi bounced out of the dugout, challenged the call, and the umpires took just ninety seconds or so to get it right. So instead of getting off the field with a 3-2 lead, Toronto pitcher Dustin McGowan had to face one more hitter. It would be his last.

Solarte, who is making Eduardo Núñez rather forgettable, crushed a double to right center, easily scoring both Roberts and Ichiro to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead and send McGowan to the showers.

The Yankees pushed the advantage to 5-3 in the fourth (Brian McCann singled home Ellsbury, who had led off the inning with his second double of the game), but the real story was that Tanaka was finding his groove. He yielded a ringing double to Encarnación with one out in the third, but he worked around that easily, set down the Jays in order on just six pitches in the fourth, and cruised through the fifth, finishing off that frame with a strikeout of Bautista, the eighth consecutive Blue Jay to go down.

It was more of the same for Tanaka in the sixth and seventh. Encarnación reached to lead off the sixth but was promptly erased on a double play ball, and Tanaka skated the rest of the way, retiring the final five batters he faced.

The Yankee hitters also had a nice night, and they added a run in the eighth and another in the ninth to make the final score Yankees 7, Blue Jays 3. Ellsbury went 3 for 4 with two doubles, two runs, and two stolen bases; Gardner picked up two hits and a stolen base; Ichiro followed up Thursday’s two-hit night with three more singles; and Solarte had two doubles and three RBIs, but the story of the night was obviously Masahiro Tanaka. Yes, he struggled a bit at the outset, but he was dominant over his final five innings. He ended up pitching seven strong innings, giving up just two earned runs on six hits while striking out eight. One start does not an all-star make, but considering his stuff, his mound presence, and his demeanor, Tanaka looked like an ace on Friday night. I’m already looking forward to his next start.

[Photo Credit: Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images]

Masahiro Tanaka makes his American debut tonight in Canada.

Jacoby Ellsbury CF
Brett Gardner LF
Carlos Beltran DH
Brian McCann C
Mark Teixeira 1B
Kelly Johnson 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte 2B
Dean Anna SS

Never mind those butterflies, brother:

Let’s Go Yan-kees!

[Image Via Stellar Caprice]

Drink a lot of soda so they call me Doctor Pepper.

[Photograph by Gjon Mili, 1943]

Marianne Faithful by Robert Maplethorpe (1975)

Blueberry lemon mini-crepe cake? Bring-it-on.

Hello again to the latest round of Where & When. It’s been a pretty busy (and somewhat lame) week so far with the big club, so let’s try to spin things around a bit and see what we come up with when we look at this:

Yes, it’s contemporary. I just like the picture a lot because of the clue. And here’s another: after the first two games this season, we can agree that if this place were still in prime condition, the Yanks could use a lot of what it would have. A whole lot.

So there you have it; it’s in the area, but it may take you some time to figure out where unless you happen to see it on a regular basis. By the way, this is not the best picture of the location, even from the website I referenced; inside is an explorer’s fun park or a developer’s almost literal pipe dream.  After I confirm the answer, I invite you to take a peek at the site from the photo credit’s link to see and learn more about it.  I geek out at a place like this for quite a few reasons.

On that note, the first person who determines the location will win a barrel of Barq’s root beer; Barq’s being my favorite and again, I like this place for what it could become if someone had the gumption to do it.  The rest of us will get Virgil’s cream soda and a cool place to look at from the comfort of our seats; mind you that you don’t let images of the current Yankee Stadium mix in with this though; it’s way too early to be that cynical… >;)

No peeking at the photo credit until after I say okay!

[Photo Credit: AbandonedNYC]

The other night the Wife and I were talking about this  year’s Yankees. I told her about some of the new players and when I got to Eduardo Nunez’s replacement, Yangervis Solarte she said, “Wait–who? Port Jervis?”

And so a new nickname was born in our home.

Solarte had 3 hits and a couple of RBI last night, Ivan Nova lucked-out getting 4 double plays, David Robertson earned the save and the Yanks left Houston with a win.

Final Score:  Yanks 4, Astros 2.

We will take it.

[Picture by Bags]

Yanks play tonight, they win tonight.

Brett Gardner CF
Derek Jeter SS
Carlos Beltran DH
Mark Teixeira 1B
Alfonso Soriano LF
Francisco Cervelli C
Brian Roberts 2B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Yangervis Solarte 3B

RHP Ivan Nova

Fug what you hoid.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

Mmmm.

[Picture by Bags]

A most serious question: What’s in your NYC care package?

[Photo Credit: Brent Herrig]

Photograph by Elliott Erwitt (1946).

Nice story by Melena Ryzik on Jim Jarmusch in the Times today.

I like this:

“What I loved when I came here from Ohio is that I realized, you could be the weirdest person in the world and then walk around, and in three blocks, you’re going to see someone way weirder than you,” he said.

Though he misses the wildness of those days (in the SoHo of the late ’70s, “I looked out my window at about 3:30 a.m., and I saw a man walking a llama down Prince Street”), “I’m not nostalgic,” he said. “Because New York’s only about change and conning everybody out of whatever they have. That’s just what New York is.”

[Photo Via: NY Film Festival]