In order to make any headway on the writing front, I need the authorial equivalent of a running start - all the way back to the Tease, reading over what I have, zipping along through the first act, picking up speed in the second act until I reaching the point where I left off -…
July 25, 2009: I’m Ice Cold! Prepping for Tokyo! The Corn Soup is Back! Outside Icarus Base!
I wanted to work on the script - really, I did - but as fired up as I was yesterday, I was stone cold frozen today. The words just wouldn’t come and, after a half an hour of futile spinning, I decided redirect my attention elsewhere and pick things up tomorrow. I only have a…
December 4, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #12, The Sayanora Wrap-Up
Well, that’s that. Today marks the end of my culinary expedition to Tokyo and, last night, I closed it out in fine style with a return visit to Sushi Kanesaka. As I was heading in, former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was heading out, flanked by a security team that whisked him into one of…
December 3, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #11, Dinner at the Chateau, and Hey Mom Look at the White Guy in the Audience!
So, last night’s dinner reservation was at Chateau Joel Robuchon which is - surprise surprise - an actual chateau located in the heart of Yebisu, across the street from a big honking DVD store and right beside something called the Yebisu Beer Station. I took a stroll through the Christmas displays and then headed inside…
December 2, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #10, I’m Early!, I’m Late!, and A Lesser Dessert Day
Last night’s stop on my Tokyo culinary tour was Kanda, another Michelin 3 star pick tucked away on a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it side street. Given the luck I’d had with the local cabbies, I opted to leave a good forty-five minutes before my target time and ended up making it there with five minutes to spare. I…
December 1, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #9, My Big Subway Adventure, Checking out the Iron Chef’s Dark Digs, and I Take the Day Off
Yesterday, I took my very first trip on the Tokyo subway. And quite the experience it was. Having put down some 25 different desserts over the course of the day, I was feeling mighty exhausted and looked forward to a leisurely cab ride to our dinner destination - Morimoto XEX - but Jessica was having…
November 30, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #8, My Driver Loses His Way, and a Dessert Blow-Out
Among the many fond memories I’ll bring back with me of my trip to Japan are the numerous meandering interludes I’ve spent with many a directionless cab driver over the course of my stay. Like today, for instance, when a ride to the Jiyugaoka Sweets Forest turned into a seemingly endless cruise through the narrow…
November 28, 2008: Tokyo Trip Day #6, My Morning Run Almost Ends in Disaster, Shinjuku Avec Mes Amis!
I must say that one of the great things about traveling alone is being able to improvise your own schedule without fear of holding anyone up, being held up by anyone, being dragged somewhere you don’t want to go, or dragging someone where they don’t want to go. I woke up at a reasonably early…
November 27, 2008: Tokyo Trip Day #5, Neighborly Natives and Western Wankers, Fancy French, and Shibuya Tour.
Here’s something interesting I discovered over the course of my first four days here: Tokyoites are notoriously shy and unlikely to engage in spontaneous conversation but, given the opportunity to open up, they can be incredibly friendly and loquacious. Westerners either visiting or living in Tokyo, on the other hand, are, with very few exceptions,…
November 26, 2008: Tokyo Trip Day #4, Kaiseki Feast, Porking Out, Sweets and Such, and The Weird Food Purchase of the Day – Japanese Ice Cream Edition
Hop into a taxi in Tokyo and you’re in for a wild ride because it’s pretty much a given that your driver will have no idea where he’s going. Chalk it up to the city’s antiquated address system, its winding side streets, or its crisscrossing thoroughfares - whatever the reason, cabbies seem to be veritable…
November 25, 2008: Tokyo Travel Day #3, Sweets Heaven and Hell, Sushi Breakfast, Sensory Overload
So as I was wandering around Ginza yesterday, thwarted by the line-up outside the Pierre Marcolini Café and Ice Cream Shop, when I spotted a promising-looking dessert destination on the third floor of a nearby building. “Sweets Paradise 90 mins.”read the sign outside the window. “Sweets Paradise” was self-explanatory (and just what I was looking…
November 24, 2008: Tokyo Trip Day #2, Tokyo Toilet Tour, The Weird Food Purchase of the Day: Japanese Edition
Greetings from rainy Tokyo! Despite the wet weather, my spirits remain undampened - although the same can’t be said for the rest of me as I was strolling through the side streets of Ginza when I got caught in the downpour. Today, I had lunch at one of my wife’s favorite places - a Korean…
November 23, 2008: Tokyo Day #1, The Sock Hunt, The Dalloyau vs. Pierre Hermes Macaron Throwdown
The fact that we wrapped work up a day early turned out to be very good for me as I spent most of Friday preparing for my Tokyo trip. Yes, there were the last-minute errands, the organizing, the packing – but almost half the day was dedicated to uploading Tokyo maps to my new portable…
November 4, 2008: The Results Are In!
In the words of The Wire’s State Senator Clay Davis: “Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit.” The results are in. No, I’m not talking about the Presidential election. I’m referring to our whirlwind tour of L.A. According to our agent, response to the horror pitch ranged from “I didn’t get it.” to the ubiquitous “It’s not quite for us but…
November 2, 2008: Projects, Plans, Pooches, and Poltergeists
I decided to take it easy today because it was Sunday. Of course, since season five wrapped, pretty much every day has been Sunday for me. Not that I don’t have things to do. I have an SGA movie to write, that super, secret project to complete, a horror movie to set up, a pilot…