The great Sarah Kurchak—whip-smart journalist and U.N.C.L.E. fan extraordinaire—is now the proud owner of a vintage (and slightly disintegrating) Illya Kuryakin costume. Check out her photos; this thing is amazing. It’s simultaneously nightmare fodder and the greatest thing in the world. I wish I owned it. (Doesn’t that mask in the photo below look like it should’ve been used as a prop in an actual U.N.C.L.E. episode about THRUSH creating an evil Illya doppelganger, in which a THRUSH agent puts on the mask, and then there’s a tasteful cutaway, and then for the rest of the episode he’s played by David McCallum?)
Gearing up for the holidays. I’m thinking prime rib for Christmas dinner, though I’m still having flashbacks to the last time we made it, two years ago, when the hot grease from my Yorkshire pudding overflowed and came thisclose to starting an oven fire, and I spent all of dinner shaking so much from repressed terror that I couldn’t lift my wine glass without sloshing the contents. We placed an order for a kitchen-grade fire extinguisher on December 26th that year.
We’re sticking in New York for Christmas, then heading out for a brief post-holiday getaway to Atlantic City. I’ve never been there; my sister assures me it’s absolutely awful. I’m looking forward to it.
Of interest to Duranies, or all aficionados of terrible holiday movies: Tonight at 9:00PM Eastern, the GuyFansOfDuran Twitter account (@BoysMakeNoise) is doing a tweet-along of A Diva’s Christmas Carol, which stars John Taylor as a lethargic but glamorous Ghost of Christmas Past. To participate, view the movie at this YouTube link and use the hashtag #DDDIVAXMAS while tweeting. Should be fun.
Last weekend, we walked to Brooklyn for BUST Magazine’s annual holiday craft fair. Brooklyn and Queens are located on the same land mass (Long Island); despite this, and despite northern Brooklyn being only a shortish, pleasant-ish walk away from us, we rarely go there. Brooklyn’s great! It has cute neighborhoods and good restaurants! But… well, look, Brooklyn’s reputation as a hipster mecca is well-earned. I was looking at Google Maps, trying to find a good place for brunch after the craft fair, and these are the actual verbatim Google Maps descriptions of all the restaurants closest to the venue:
"Mediterranean-accented New American fare served in a dim-lit atmosphere heavy on reclaimed wood.”
"Mediterranean fare & cocktails served in a former glass factory with rustic-cool decor, bar & patio.”
"Seafood, cocktails & beers served amid seafaring accents, a wood bar & a ceiling tented with a sail.”
"Gastropub-style small plates, house cocktails & brews in a quaint corner tavern with a tin ceiling.”
"Hip bar with wood floors & tin ceilings offering creative cocktails & small plates, plus a backyard."
These are all probably very good restaurants, but oh, man, the hipster spirit is strong with those descriptions.
Related BuzzFeed article: 24 Of The Worst Things Hipsters Did To Food In 2016. The fried-appetizers-served-in-a-sneaker is probably my favorite.
A pair of Duranalysis cartoons from the Duranalysis Facebook page:
Song to send you into the weekend: Trans-X’s “Living On Video”:
Enjoy the weekend, everyone. Wear warm socks and drink hot tea.
Comments
It is a small world indeed. I was also in Brooklyn last week end on my yearly Christmastime visit to my daughter. I dearly love these December excursions, although I seem to plan them for the most frigid day of the year and SantaCon weekend so I can be surrounded by tipsy revelers in Santa and Elf costumes on my train ride home.
You are right about brunch in Brooklyn. The description of our brunch place was, "a trendy bistro..." I am pretty sure that describes 95% of brunch places in Brooklyn
Brooklyn! I really like Brooklyn -- the food tends to be really good! But there's a vaguely hilarious hipster sameness to it all, what with the reclaimed wood and repurposed factories and the cocktails served in Mason jars. I hope you had a great visit with your daughter (though, yes, it's terrible planning to visit the city during SantaCon. The subways are jam-packed with drunken elves!).
My sister has just left New York to spend Christmas with us in Wales. I think after the election she's never been so happy to leave the US for a while.