Category Archives: ho hum

Elvis is on Twitter

Posted on November 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

Check it: twitter.com/brooklynelvis

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Posted in elvis and company, elvis gets out of town, ho hum

Happy Happy New New

Posted on January 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

Elvis wasn’t expecting to spend the start of Twenty Ten with Marty Markowitz at Grand Army Plaza, but there he was, a Dixie cup of champagne in hand and a smile on his face. While Marty barked in the new year, Elvis’s toothy grin was lit up by the  fireworks popping above the great lawn. They were not high, big, nor long, but the pyrotechnics, viewed through the freezing rain and bare trees of Prospect Park’s northern entry, were a lovely way to begin the new decade with Emma Lee and her beau. New Year’s toasts were followed by  a less-lovely, more frostbitten dip into the Atlantic with Emma, Beau, and the Coney Island’s Polar Bears. The longstanding tradition felt more like a dirty baptismal than anything else, but Elvis spiritedly darted across the frozen sand and plunged in with the rest of the pasty revelers. This year, he’ll need all the good-luck dunks he can get.

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Posted in boozehound dogs, elvis and company, ho hum

Elvis vs. winter

Posted on March 2, 2009 | Leave a comment

It’s a good thing Elvis just got back from Vegas (post forthcoming), and will be going to Arizona in a few weeks to crush on Frank Lloyd Wright and Ken Griffey Jr., because this snowbird has had it up to his neck with New York’s harsh winter of 2008-2009. Just look at this morning’s scenario:

elvis_in_snow1

Good thing Emma Lee has provisions that’ll last a twenty-five year old writer and a diminiutive version of the king of rock and roll all week. Bundle up!

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Happy belated, EP

Posted on January 13, 2009 | Leave a comment

elvis_birthday

Emma Lee, the scatterbrain that she is, missed Elvis’s birthday this year. She was busy making a carrotcake with blue frosting (go Mets!) for Blondie’s 26th, eating dim sum in Flushing, Queens (Jade Palace: go, and get there at 11 AM, practicing her sabotage techniques (spontaneous crying is quite the booby trap); and watching movies about art .She hopes Elvis will forgive with well-intentioned pen and ink.

Recent natal days and all, she’s feeling pretty low tonight… still nursing a cold that came after the 20º polar bear swim Jan 1 at Coney, got in a fight with the New BF, and had to say goodbye all over again to Diana Ross. It doesn’t help she saw a ghost on the train tonight, got a call from one two days ago, and ran into a third last week at Redd’s. So she’ll probably watch an hour about American Art with Vincent Scully, then go to bed. Elvis may get jealous for lack of attention, but he’ll pull through.

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adios, 08

Posted on January 1, 2009 | Leave a comment

elvis_works After a week in Seattle and a few days of getting-back-into-things New York chores, Elvis is dipping his toes back into the icy waters of his Brooklyn freelance existence. Beside the predicted wind-chill of 0º at midnight, what awaits him in the New Year? Emma Lee knows she will be getting some big news that’s bound to shake things up, about books and graduate schools and boys, but for Elvis, a rock icon that’s had his calendar cleared for thirty-one years, just about anything could be coming his way, via Brooklyn. How does he feel about the uncertainty of the new year? He smiles at Emma Lee and says: Bring it.

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Elvis under an Obama adminstration

Posted on November 6, 2008 | Leave a comment

obama

As polls opened on Election 2008, Emma Lee and Elvis were too nervous to write their book(s), so they spent the morning making a state electoral cookie map. Here’s some early returns. Pictured: New England (democrat, blue), West Virginia (republican, red). Sugar cookies from the Joy of Cooking, 1943 edition; brought into the 21st century with ginger cream cheese frosting.

electoral-cookies

When Barry hit 270, there were grins and champagne all around, backslaps and hugs…even a few tears for the the youngun’s at Blondie’s that had never voted for a winner. On the way home, riding the Great White Hope down Bedford, the exultant crowd parted for Emma Lee and Elvis, hooting and high-fiving as they rode by. Emma Lee, decked out in red, white, and blue, felt a little like winged victory, espeically when a dude grabbed her handle bars and kissed her, I’m-going-to-the-Navy style. Then she ran into a rockstar she knew, who pedalled the young lady home.

Tuesday night was a good one for Elvis, Brooklyn, and the whole of the US. Except, of course, if you were one of the pirates on Bedford that got arrested. Even the biggest victory is bittersweet.

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New Times, New York

Posted on October 31, 2008 | Leave a comment

This week, Elvis went to his first architectural league lecture (Craig Dykers and Snøhetta have made some very nice buildings), saw his first John Adams opera (Dr. Atomic at the Met), and made his first spray-paint tiger (JS’s costume for Halloween). He also wrote a bunch, but not of the new book, and made minestrone (another first). Today’s victory was buying the last pair of sideburns at Ricky’s (for Emma Lee).

In other news, while the temps have yet to dip below freezing, he’s already making snowbird plans to go to Phoenix for Spring Training next March. A trip to Taliesin is a given, but what’s still up in the air is: MEXICO

In celebration of Halloween, Elvis with a giant pumpkin.

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Also, Studs Terkel just died. This is very sad, but he lived a good, long life. Ninety-six last May. If Elvis had to have a new ghost on Halloween, he’d pick him.

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sunsets in hurricane, a brief domestic disaster, and brunch: 24 hours of Elvis

Posted on September 8, 2008 | Leave a comment

After holing up through the afternoon storms and buying an apartment’s worth of furniture and kitchen supplies with $350 worth of Scooby Doo-themed checks, Elvis had a busy night and day.

First, Elvis, Emma Lee and the Porcelain Rose went to the MMA to catch the Turner. Turns out Elvis LOVES late Turner, especially the ones with yellow and very few references to discrete geography. The 19th century Brit tended towards more reddish-browns and blues in his work, but perhaps it was because there was a hurricane outside that Elvis appreciated the sunset yellows the most of all. Here’s his fave from the show:

A potpourri of stuff happened that night: the new craft galleries in the modern wing; Elvis sold an Emma Lee drawing; a visit to Botanica; rosemary-infused vodka and studmuffins; the JMZ shuttle; a birthday party; a keg of Brooklyn Lager; a table lamp that lit up the word “nice” in a pleasing sans serif font; a deeply heart to heart convo with the Bronx candy factory heir (he lost his virginity much later than Emma Lee and Elvis would have guessed!); a nice fire escape; a chat about the profundity of Stephen Dubner;  the last whisp of  Hurricane Hanna sprinting west, periwinkle across midnight blue; and a creepy train ride home sitting next to a man in red pants (not just for slutty women any more).

This morning, Elvis woke up with a start at 9 am (five or so hours after bedtime) to some sort of crashing and thrashing next door. Turns out the ceiling fell down; about  five feet of plaster had decided life was no longer worth living. Elvis couldn’t fall back asleep, so he went for a jog and drank an Americano he got for free from someone nice.

Brunch happened. Things were busy: Elvis made friends with a regular; the little red-headed boy came in; and for a second, Elvis forgot his proper place at the restaurant and yelled to a customer “Hey, chico! I gots you a chair!” (to his credit, the dude, a laidback twentysome in plaid, a trucker hat and two days of stubble, looked like he could be a chico. It is a term of endearment in Graceland.) After serving up Nachos Supreme, corned beef and steak sandwiches for six hours, Elvis set up a date to visit a chocolate laboratory operated by a hunky chocolate scientist, had a glass (okay, two) of rosé in the best backyard in north Brooklyn, and made his first thoroughly vegan dinner for the Vegan Translator.

Whew! Busy day. Bedtime for bonzo.

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Posted in elvis on art, ho hum

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Football season started. Elvis cheers for Eli.

Posted on September 5, 2008 | Leave a comment

Not entirely nothing happened since Elvis’s last post. He biked to Coney Island with Emma Lee, and ate striped ice cream (white, green, white, green; they were both disappointed to have missed a chance at documentation); grilled shrimp in a NYC park (counterintuitive, but delicious); made pasta sauce from scratch (fresh tomatoes, garlic, mushroom, peppers, olives, and more peppers); spent two full days at the Dorot Jewish Division of the NYPL (breaking microfiche and reading about 1950s Jerusalem); went to the Ear Inn, which was too loud but still charming; talked to J. Chicago in Chicago, the DrLady in SF, and her big sister in Seattle. The third of these women is in loooove.

Also, in the interveneing days, Emma Lee fell hard for a boy (Elvis and Diana Ross said it was a bad idea from the get-go, Emma Lee is slowly coming around), cut off the Swede because she didn’t like the looks of him (and because his “profound sense of doom” made a nervous), did a bunch of design work, starting thinking about fiction again, and made two more “pretty in pink” drawings: “recklessness” and “irresolute.” “Disillustionment (for Rose)” is on the docket. Oh, and TWO ghosts texted last night. One, to invite the pair to a $30 all you can drink party in the trashy corner of west village. The other, to send a two-thirty AM “Hey.” There’s a reason that Emma Lee deleted these fine young gentlemen from her telephone. It’s a wonder they got in there at all.

But none of this matters. Eli Manning is in New York.

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Posted in Elvis does his homework, ho hum

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58. Elvis will put on pants in time for dinner

Posted on July 1, 2008 | Leave a comment

Another day on the ranch (read: apartment), means Elvis probably won’t get dressed until early-to-mid afternoon, even though he started working at 7. Such, such is the life of a freelancer. Good thing he and Emma Lee have matching bathrobes for every season.  Or at least, they both have one for summer and a big terrycloth one for winter.

Last night, in a gesture of awesomeness, Diana Ross and Blondie (formerly Lorraine), cooked Emma Lee and Elvis dinner. Gazapacho, and those ladies roasted their own beets. They mean business.
Delicious business

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