over the weekend

Les Blank, who has been making small documentaries about Americana, music, and eating for decades now, is the subject of a lively retrospective over at Film Forum this week. Check it out. On Friday, I saw Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, Gap-Toothed Women, and All in this Tea. For Garlic, they popped some cloves in two toaster ovens in the theater…. this inspired me to make two-garlic garlic bread for Saturday’s dinner for five (four means death in Japan, you know). Roasted a whole head, smeared the result on the bread that I’d also brushed with raw garlic that had sat in olive oil most of the day. This went with a baked pasta and rocket salad, then blueberry cobbler.
Sunday: walked up Clinton Avenue from Fulton to Lafayette Ave, a couple blocks with wonderful old homes. The liony thing above was at 487 Clinton Ave, just north of Fulton, a little Loire chateau with a Romanesque Revival entry. Eclectic city. On Vanderbilt Ave, just north of Lafayette, I found this: Ever see an Oompa-Lumpa on the picket line? Even the Teamsters are scared.
The Brooklyn Flea was under a strong wind that knocked over displays, even a whole tent. Cool skates.

Across Vanderbilt from the Flea, 200 Lafayette St, a fabulous 1850 Greek Revival, displayed a poster letting me know I’d missed the centennial of the Prison Ships Memorial at Fort Green Park. Damn.
Bought this earring at the Flea.

Sunday night, I was treated to 'Cesca on the Upper West Side. The fried cauliflower was fantastic. Afterwards, saw the closing film of the Margaret Mead Film Festival, Throw Down Your Heart, about banjo man Bela Fleck traveling through Africa, ur-source of the banjo. Great music, not so great doc.