Look for me on Japanese TV

I am taking every single person who visits me from now on to Kee's Chocolates, immediately. It doesn't matter whether they like chocolate or not! In my lifetime, I have never tasted anything as delicious. I woke up very early Friday morning (9 am) to get my hair cut. Almost immediately after I left the salon I came across Kee's. Now, I have walked by Kee's many times, but she keeps odd hours, so this was the first time that I encountered her shop open, and fully stocked with her handmade chocolates (she runs out all the time!) I had to go in. So I did, and there was a film crew inside. I paid them no mind; I was focused only on my mission. This mission was: choose the best possible chocolates, and don't screw up, because they are 2 dollars a pop. I asked the girl behind the counter what every single chocolate was. What flavour is this one? And this one? And how about this one? The crew filmed me the entire time. I settled upon one white chocolate ball, covered in almonds, and one tiramisu chocolate. As I was leaving, one crew member asked, "You are going to be on Japanese TV. Is that OK with you?" I said, "Killer! Of course!" Oli, look out for me!! This is my big break and only Oli and Timomi might potentially see it. The funny part is that I had just gotten my hair cut, and I got bangs for the first time since grade 10 (sweeping bangs, Nada, not brush-rolled bangs) and they were driving me crazy, flopping in my eyes. So the entire clip is probably me brushing my bangs frantically out of my eyes while interrogating the sales clerk.

I didn't eat the chocolates immediately, because I didn't realize how incredible they would be. I waited until my mid-afternoon coffee break. I had the almond chocolate first, and I was BLOWN AWAY. I have never tasted anything so fantastic. I am not exaggerating. Forget about cupcakes! I am so lucky that I live a good 30-minute walk away from Kee's, or else my grant money would be gone within a month. I am going to leave the description at this, because you truly have to taste these chocolates for yourselves.

After this heavenly experience I toured a few galleries in Soho, went to the International Centre for Photography, had drinks at the Delegates Lounge at the UN (thanks Lyndsay!) and eventually ended up at karaoke with a whole bunch of UN interns from the Netherlands, Canada and the U.S. It was the kind of karaoke where you get your own private room. It was quite fun (Summer of '69 was a big hit) but inevitably there were some dry moments, during which I was able to put in place a very important lesson once taught to me: if karaoke is lagging, put on Complicated, by Avril Lavigne. It will instantly liven things up. Thanks Yumi!

A Trip to the Brooklyn Museum

Today I went to the Brooklyn Museum because they are hosting two exhibitions that I was very interested in seeing: a mid-career collection of Ron Mueck sculptures, and "Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005". Ron Mueck is a London-based artist who creates the most amazingly realistic human sculptures. Often naked, these sculptures are either massive in size, or very small in scale. They are crafted out of fibreglass and silicone, and then Mueck and his assistants painstakingly add all of the details that make them look so human: veins, freckles, age spots, goosebumps, raggedy toenails, shaved hair follicles etc. Mueck uses silicone for the face because it allows him to punch the hairs in, individually, so that they look like they are actually growing out of the skin. It's truly unbelievable. It's the opposite of what I experienced when I went to see BodyWorlds: I knew that those sculptures actually were human, but I couldn't believe it because they were just freaky collections of muscles, ligaments and stretched skin; whereas with Mueck's work, I knew they were fake but they seem so astonishingly real.

The other thing that makes Mueck's sculptures seem so alive is that they all have a certain vulnerability about them. Some seem unaware that they are being watched, others are hyper-aware of their audience, but all of them are frozen in a moment of poignant emotion. You can see more of Mueck's sculptures and read a Times article about the exhibit here.

The Leibovitz exhibit was also excellent. It is a collection of almost 200 of her photographs, culled both from her professional portfolio and from her private collection. Leibovitz is a photographer for Vanity Fair and she does a lot of their celebrity portraits - including the infamous early 90s cover shot of a naked and heavily pregnant Demi Moore. Leibovitz also did a very powerful photo spread of Sarajevo during the war for Vanity Fair. Unfortunately not many of those photos were on display, although they had her shots of the underground bunker where the newspaper Oslobodjene was published, amazingly, every day during the seige. Leibovitz's partner, Susan Sontag, lived in Sarajevo for several months during the war, and was good friends with the editor of this paper.

The photos of Sontag were the most beautiful, in my opinion. Leibovitz and Sontag (a well-known American writer and intellectual) were together for many years, during which Sontag suffered a recurrence of cancer, finally succumbing to the disease in 2004. Many of the photographs document her illness, and some are extremely intimate - Sontag having her hair chopped off, during chemo; Sontag in her hospital bed, naked and tended to by nurses; Sontag, aged rapidly by cancer and unrecognizable; Sontag laid out in her funeral clothes, alongside a careful description of why Leibovitz chose that particular outfit; a photograph of Sontag's unlit apartment window, just across the way from Leibovitz's, after her death.

Leibovitz gave birth to her first child in 2001, and had twins shortly after Sontag's death. There are many photos of her three daughters, as well as many photos of Leibovitz's parents, who were married over 50 years and madly in love. Her father passed away in her mother's arms, just a few months after Sontag died. Lest this sound like a totally depressing collection, there are also a lot of funny and quirky photos, like Brad Pitt in crazy leopard skin pants and Johnny Depp sprawled on top of Kate Moss. But, my favourites are the ones of Sontag and Leibovitz's family members because they are less glossy or portrait-like, and they are hugely affective. In a way they are similar to the realism of Mueck's sculptures, if you take realism to encompass not just the realistic but the reality of the everyday, ugliness, heartbreak and all.

Celeb Encounter Supreme (also titled: As celeb encounters go, I will never top this one)

There are really only a couple of people on my "Favourite Celebrities" list: Madonna and Keifer Sutherland, hands down. And David Letterman too. And Amy Sedaris as well. Damn, I guess the list is longer than I thought. Anyway, with the exception of Sedaris I have seen them all in real life, which is pretty lucky (Madonna in concert, Keifer Sutherland smoking a cigarette in East Village, and Letterman on stage at the Late Show) but yesterday I had the MOST incredible experience....a conversation with Kiefer Sutherland! Here's how it happened:

I took a very long walk yesterday (4 hours!) because until Tuesday I basically sat in front a computer for a million days straight. I walked all over the place, I had no destination. It was amazing. Anyway, at one point I was in Greenwich Village, and I passed a bakery. So, of course I had to go in. It was time for a cupcake! But, this bakery was one of those stale kinds that doesn't sell anything good, only shortbread cookies. I was perusing the display to figure out what i would get, since once I walk into a bakery I have to get SOMETHING, especially if it is a small place. You don't want the staff to think that none of their stuff is appealing. Anyway, who is in there but KIEFER SUTHERLAND, and he starts talking to me!! He says:
"It's hard to know what to get!"
and I said, "Well I'm sure everything is delicious!" and then I said..."You know, I'm Canadian too!" Cheesy, I know, but I wanted to keep the conversation going. So then he says,
K: Oh yeah? Where from?
S: Toronto!
K: How long have you been in New York?
S: Just since September.
K: Are you here for school?
S: Yes.
K: What are you studying?
S: Anthropology.
K: Cool. My daughter just started at NYU, it's her first year.
S: Cool. What is she studying?
K: Journalism.
S: Cool.
K: So, did you get back to Toronto over the holidays?
S: Yes, I just got back on Sunday. It was great! Do you live in Toronto or New York?
K: Oh, I go back and forth between them.
S: So, what are you going to get? (referring to the baked delicacies).
K: Oh, nothing, I'm holding back today. I'm just waiting for my friend, he's getting something. (At this point his friend smiled at me. I don't think he was famous).
Then, the staff person takes my order, and as I turn to talk to him, Kiefer says, "Great to meet you!" I say, "You too!". I order 3 cookies. I pay and get ready to leave (even though I wanted to stay FOREVER), and I said "Bye!" to Kiefer, and he says, "Bye! It was great to meet you! Good luck with school!" and I said "Good luck to you too!"

Sorry for the complete transcript but I had to record it for posterity! Kiefer was supernice, really friendly and full of smiles. I could barely look at him, I couldn't believe what was happening! Imagine meeting your favourite celeb, and the grandson of the man who gave Canada healthcare. It's momentous!

I haven't even eaten the cookies yet, they really do seem unappealing. But who knows, maybe they're delish! I'll have to try.