at the sign of The Pink Pig

AM New York

"A dismal year in dining," says the Pink Pig.

Bah, humbug!

All The Fun Of 2010: Courtesy Of Eater

[Pigging by Wilfrid: December 27, 2010]

I just came out from under the covers long enough to read a round-up of what a motley of critics and industry people thought the best newcomers of 2010. I am reassured that I missed... well if not nothing, then very little indeed.  See here.  Who doesn't love Torrisi Italian Foods?

Happy Snow Day

I'm dreaming of a white two-days-after-Christmas, right?

Still, being snowed in might force me to get to the end of proof-reading Eating the Apple, 2011.  Meantime, find below an article by the man behind the pig on a good free East Village comedy show.

And in case you missed it, the story of some unique punk videos at The Local: East Village.

 The Pig sees all...

Free Hot Soup!: A Little Christmas Comedy

[New York Peasant by Kim Davis: December 27, 2010]

Manhattan is packed with pricy comedy clubs promising you appearances from Saturday Night Live or Letterman alumni, charging $20 and up for admission and usually adding a one or two drink minimum to your check. What they don’t want you to know is that you can check out up-and-coming talent for free in places like the back room of O’Hanlon’s, an Irish pub on East 14th Street.

Christmas In The City: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  December 27, 2010]

Christmas Day and a trek up to Jimmy's Corner which has a tradition of opening briefly on Christmas morning for regulars to toast the season.  The rest of the day spent in laziness.

What's In A Name?

It was Seymour Burton (not Seymour Butts), it was Butcher Bay (selling fish not meat).  What on earth can we infer from...

Goat Town?

 

Quick Bites: Korzo Haus Is On My Rotation

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  21 December, 2010]

It's not a frequent occurrence that a restaurant joins the rotation of local, reliable, regulars.  Especiallywhen you have been familiar with a neighborhood for years.

 

And it sometimes happens quietly, without you noticing.  It's a matter of repeatedly saying, "Oh well, how about that place again?" - and then realizing one day how often you say it.  So it is with Korzo Haus.

December Reading: Beware Hobbits

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid:  December 2010]

Did anyone follow the Atlantic Wire's intriguing series, "What I Read"  in which various writers and new media luminaries share their daily strategy for ingesting the information bomb which explodes around the clock?  I devoured the columns guiltily, as I have yet to find enough hours in the day to read what I need to read for work reasons. 

Of course, this is because my habits of reading for pleasure are unassailable.  Take this weird December, for instance.

In The Bleak Mid-December: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  December 20, 2010]

Up to the Triad Theater on the UWS to watch "madcap" pianist Mark Nadler's George Gershwin revue, "American Rhapsody," featuring stately soprano K.T. Sullivan.  A poor supper afterwards in a nearby Italian restaurant, the name of which is lost to posterity.  But that's okay - EMP beckons.

David Wojnarowicz: A Martyr's Destiny

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid:  December 14, 2010]

I wrote a short piece here last year about the riveting 1999 retrospective of David Wojnarowicz's work at the New Museum (when it was still in SoHo).  Who could have imagined then that the artist, who died from an AIDS-related illness in 1992 aged 37, would be victimized in 2010 by reactionary activists?

The response to the Smithsonian's cowardly removed of his video, "Fire in My Belly," from a current show has been heartening - especially the announcement by the wealthy Andy Warhol Foundation, co-sponsor of this show, that it will not fund future Smithsonian exhibitions.

The episode is a disgrace.  The video (not the full-length version) can be seen on YouTube.  It is a chilling and very painful work, but then death is a chilling and painful subject.

YouTube account required to view.