( the book )

PX This. (diary of the potted plant) is the witty, irreverent
(star-studded) four year journal of a struggling New York commercial-artist/fashion-designer moonlighting as a maitre d' at some of Manhattan's most well-known restaurants...
(more)

 

> PREVIEW the BOOK <

[ BUY the BOOK from Amazon! ]

[ BUY the BOOK from Barnes&Noble.com ]

/ read what people are saying about PX This. /

[ the blahg ]

 

- the following "blahg"* [please scroll down] consists of excerpts from
PX This Too.
(the sequel to PX This.)
as it unfolds.
[ PX This Too release date: to be determined ]

 

 

[* warning: contains explicit language not suitable for children or sensitive individuals ]

 

[* other warning: Eats, Shoots and Ladders Leaves freaks
please CLICK HERE and HERE before reading any further.
then take that favorite book of yours and stick it up your ass.
thank you!]

 

 

please see PX This: The Greatest Hits Collection
for archived (pre-september2007) excerpts of theBlahg

> the forum <

 

 

 

join theForum* @ PX This to:

- comment
- share
- read
- discover
- discuss
- debate
- suggest

- have fun
- laugh your ass off
- meet the notorious "Dick Johnson"

 

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2009. 12:34PM pxthis.com entry

yah so have you heard? i'm famous, bitch ---> http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/good-night-mr-lewis-px-this-abbe-diaz-vs-gawker/6249
and also ---> http://www.blackbookmag.com/article/diaz-vs-gawker-round-2/6273 hahhahahahahhahahhahahaa

:)


and check it. the "PX This" SERIES PRODUCER, ZAINAB JAH is famous too ! yay !! ---> http://www.examiner.com/x-1471-Boston-Theater-Examiner~y2009m2d17-Trancing-queen

"... But this is okay. All of this is okay, and I will tell you why in two words:

Zainab Jah.

I have had the good fortune of seeing some truly great performances, and Ms. Jah’s work as Azmera gets a top spot on my list. This young actress is a revelation, turning in a stunning, startling, wrenching performance that no MRT audience member will soon – if ever – forget. She commands the stage with a power and presence like few actors I’ve seen; her luminosity fills the theater. She is the only actor in this production who is not only intimately and thoroughly in touch with her character but is also completely real, aware, and alive in every single moment of the play. Ms. Jah is, in a word, electrifying.
And for her performance alone, you should run – do not walk – to the Merrimack Repertory Theatre to see Tranced.
The play is adequate.

Zainab Jah, however, will move you."

:)

[ in case you were wondering what's taking so long, it's cuz zee-jay had to go off to boston and director tim-naylor had to go off to san francisco. paying gigs, you see-- you know how it is. they should be back soon. ]

• march 3, 2009. "i'm the opposite of moderate, immaculately polished" • COMMENT on GNML: "abbe vs gawker" • COMMENT on "PX This" series / zainab-jah
(registration required)

 

 

 

 

= "personne extraordinaire"

* about the author

"...has been exposed as a poor customer in a new book by former maitre d' to the stars Abbe Diaz. Diaz, who hosted dozens of top New York restaurants, says in her memoirs PX This the Oscar-winning actress wasn't the most pleasant of customers..."
-The New York Daily News

"...is so annoyed by the success of his former Maitre D' Abbe Diaz's new tell-all book, he is forcing his employees to sign confidentiality agreements. They were also banned from discussing the [book] at work." - The New York Post

"Abbe Diaz is a blogger and the author of the caustic restaurant expose 'PX This!'..."
- The New York Daily News

 

contact us with questions/comments/tips:
px.this@gmail.com

 

HIGHLIGHTS and HOT TOPICS
from theForum @ PX This:

- the HOSTESS DIARIES CONSPIRACY?
[did Gawker and/or
The NY Times
try to exploit PX This?

- abbe diaz ejected from JeanGeorges,
NY Magazine acts like catty jilted bitch

- did Morandi's chef jody-williams plant a grasshopper in a Mangia wrap?

- an open letter to Page Six's Corynne Steindler

- an open letter to HBO

- addressing Eater.com's inaccuracies about
The Forum@ PX This.

- addressing Gawker.com's inaccuracies about theForum@ PX This.

- addressing Gawker.com's other inaccuracies about theForum @ PX This.

- "geesus, it's like all journalistic standards go out the window when it comes to [abbe diaz]..."

- "ignorasshole" at Gawker.com quits his job

- abbe diaz busts out alls over the interwebs

- the class action lawsuit against Jean Georges Enterprises

 

other buzzzz about abbe diaz:

- Who is Abbe Diaz...?
[eater.com]

- Self-Publishing Ruins Author/Agent Friendship
[GalleyCat, mediabistro.com]

- Hey, How'd You Publish an Industry Tell-All?
[mediabistro.com]

- Abbe Diaz: Talk Loudly
and Carry a Big Stick...Too
- Part One
- Part Two
- Part Three
[goodnightmrlewis.com]

Ex-maitre d' Shown Door
Instead of Table
[The NY Daily News]

- Chef Roman à Clef: "I'm not Abbe"
[Grub Street, New York Magazine]

- Those Who Can't, Hire Consultants
[Sympathy for the Restaurant Industry]

- Abbe Diaz Takes the Fifth...
[Fishbowl NY, mediabistro.com]

- Is our mystery roman a clef writer Boston's$2.45Million Dollar Bartender?
[Grub Street, New York Magazine]

- Is Abbe Diaz Behind another Crazy Food Scandal?
[gawker.com]

- Sympathy Responds, Declines to Admit Identity
[Fishbowl NY, mediabistro.com]

- Abbe Diaz Accuses Eater
of Morandi Favoritism
[GrubStreet, New York Magazine]

- Go For Toque
[Time Out New York]

- Endorsement for the Day
[Spread Eagle in NYC]

- If Two is a Trend...
[jossip.com
]

- A Blogger's Peril at La Esquina
[jossip.com]

- The Long-Winded History ofGraydon Carter and Jean-Georges Vongerichten
[jossip.com]

- Leigh Haber Takes Her Complaints Straight to the Top [gawker.com]
(hyperlink directly to this entry on pxthis.com)

- Internet People Dine at Balthazar, Talk Trash
[gawker.com]

- Maer Roshan Needs a Cellphone to Cry On
[jossip.com]
(hyperlink directly to this entry on pxthis.com)


- Maer Roshan Spotted Not Crying on His Cellphone
[jossip.com]
(hyperlink to this story on pxthis.com)

- Auteur Kevin Smith HEARTS abbe diaz
[viewaskew.com]

- New York Magazine Displays its Astounding Ignorance [Grub Street, NY Magazine]

 

also by abbe diaz :

 

 

videos:

("bonus")

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2008. 12:38PM pxthis.com entry

Producer Zainab Jah and director Tim Naylor are currently in pre-production for the first eight-episode season of "PX This," created and co-written by Abbe Diaz, the "former maitre d' to the stars." The new web series is based on Diaz's published four-year ('real-time') diary of the same title, widely regarded in NYC as the "bible" of the restaurant world. Diaz, a 20 year veteran of the food/beverage industry, has manned the podiums for such illustrious restaurateurs as: Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Brian McNally, Jonathan Morr, and current Waverly Inn proprietors, Eric Goode and Sean MacPherson.

Producer Jah had heretofore intended to keep the project under wraps and was unwilling and/or unprepared to disclose any information regarding the series, until last week when, on October 14th, 2008, she discovered an article in Variety, which forced her hand. It seems CBS has just signed a development deal with Jason Jones and Samantha Bee ("The Daily Show") to pen an as-yet-unnamed series about the "behind-the-scenes world of a celebrity chef... and the two women who run his cooking empire."
[More information at http://www.variety.com/VR1117993924.html ]

The series treatment for "PX This" (registered with the WGA on December 7, 2007), which has been making the rounds of several Hollywood agencies, is strikingly and undeniably similar to CBS's as-yet-unwritten concept.

"We are still hesitant to provide all the details," says Jah, "but we do feel confident and proud to divulge some of the names involved," which include such bold-facers as: Michael Imperioli, Steven R. Schirripa, John Ventimiglia ("The Sopranos") and producer Brian Grazer.

"Well, I guess CBS might have another 'Cashmere Mafia' vs 'Lipstick Jungle' situation on its hands," remarks Diaz, "but it's all good. After all, CBS is a TV network, and we're a web series. I mean, they're not going to show on the internet, right?" she chuckles, "Why would they? Besides, I feel strongly going forward-- at least I have true life experience, insight, credibility, tenacity, and passion on my side-- as well as talent (referring to director Naylor and series co-writers Benjamin King and Fernando Gomes). Now we'll just strive to be like Ratatouille's answer to No Reservations. Is that a restaurant insider joke?"

Jah laughingly adds, "And for all the naysayers, we have money, too. But not so much we won't consider an offer from CBS, in case they decide they'd like to save some time and energy."

• october 21, 2008. "dear CBS 'restaurant sitcom' prod's: buy a clue. xoxo, Us" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008. 11:28 AM

i'm back!
even though my trip was totally awesome, i am still really glad to be home-- it was so nice to have my favorite brand of coffee this morning exactly the way i like it. but then it was kinda a bummer cuz i suddenly realized i had to do regular boring everyday stuffs and so i felt all odd and displaced like what? no swimming? how bogus! ha ahaa anyways. i know you are just dying to hear alls about it so here goes:
[... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish...]


... fri.aug15: we decided to sleep on deck last night so we were up pretty early what with the blaring sunshine and all. the sea was looking so gorgeous, we simply had to have an early dip. the dr.banker (&wife) were leaving this day, so he too was anxious to enjoy his "last swim." m___ & l____ also joined us, despite *l* having a rule about never swimming before breakfast-- even she agreed the water "is too irresistible."
then the dr.banker&wife left, they headed into the village to catch a car since they'd decided to drive the four plus some odd hours to cesme.

and it was cute, just as the dinghy was pulling away, ürske splashed water in a bucket after them, supposedly it's a turkish superstition type thingie to encourage "coming back." eeheee it worked so well, they came back three minutes later, cuz the banker had forgotten his blackberry.
then *l* recounted how she always makes their daughter splash the bucket out the window whenever they leave their new york apartment for extended departures, despite the fact their daughter "hates it."
ahahaa can you just imagine?


anyways
the original plan was to leave bozburun right after breakfast, but then *m* decided to go back into town to pray in the mosque. when he returned, it turned out (again) he knew all the peoples on the yacht across the way (of course) and so they came on board to visit after lunch, it was two couples and evidently the one dude was some really famous turkish baller named ibrahim-kutluay aka 'ibo' and the other dude was also a baller but i unfortunately didn't quite catch his name. and their two wives were both former MissTurkeys from like ten years ago or whatever.
they were nice.

then we left for simi and since it was going to be about a three hour trip, they decided to hoist the sails. yay! it was soooo beautiful* but also kinda scary cuz i watched the crew the entire time and call me crazy but i would swear at one point '1st mate' the tall long haired mustafa just barely missed being bonked upside the head and tossed overboard i am not even kidding. but everybody just acted like eh that kinda shit happens all the time.
whatever!

we arrived in simi right before sunset and omygoodness it's just the most adorable place ever. oh but it was funny cuz right when the BlackSea was dropping anchor, some other sailing yacht came along and ahahaa they were so not amicable, they were all "what the hell are you doing?!"
i pointed them out to murat-kapitan, i said "i think they're trying to get your attention" but captain just waved them off like pssh fuck them. so then i got my very first taste of real live greek animosity, eeehee ahaa we even named their boat the SS Animosity forever after.
seriously though? i do think they were just being jellus cuz the BlackSea really is just THAT DOPE.

it was kinda hot in simi with no breeze at all so we took the dinghy around to other side of the island to have a swim for an hour.
then *m* drove the dinghy past the BlackSea all the way into the marina and i was so bummed i hadn't brought my camera along cuz wow both simi and the BlackSea were so incredible in that "golden hour" sunlight but my camera missed it all. boo!

later ... we had dinner at the little restaurant right on the waterfront (the name of which i can't remember. ugh) that *m&l* were raving about all day.
we discovered during conversation that *m* sometimes refers to the BlackSea as "the love boat" cuz evidently the whole crew is gettin it on with each other-- ürske the steward is "an item" with murat-kapitan and the cook[oops i forget her name. ugh] is the booboo of '2nd mate' the shorter quiet mustafa. only poor tall long haired mustafa is the odd man out, but somehow i get the impression he has one in every port anyways.

two tables over from us were more peoples that *m&l*  knew and it was funny, *l* gave us all the gossip about how the dude is some super rich turkish bazillionaire and how his one daughter had recently been dating some older turkish rock star and how it used to be such the tabloid scandal. until the rock star got scared the turkish bazillionaire was gonna "make big trouble" for him so he broke up with the bazillionaire's daughter.
then apparently *l* made some huge faux pas cuz she asked the bazillionaire if his boat was some old admiral she'd spotted earlier in the marina, but it turned out his boat is really a much newer bigger swankier custom-line.
hahahahhaa turkish yachting humor, i guess you had to be there.

yah so-- the owner of the restaurant ended up comping the entire meal. cuz presumably *m&l* are always sending all sorts of peoples there all the time and so the owner was grateful, she remarked "everyone comes and says they're friends of BlackSea!"

when we strolled around simi after dinner i realized the island of simi isn't really part of the greek animosity whatever brigade, cuz obviously it's constantly filled with turks (and holy geezus uh-luh *m* knows every single one of them), seeing as simi is so close to turkey and all.


sat.aug16: after breakfast [we] took the dinghy into simi ourselves since i didn't get to take any photos the day before. so i shot some really nice ones, but none really as great as i could have gotten had i not been such a bonehead forgetting my camera.

we stopped for ice cream at *l*'s favorite place and bought her a pint of plain yogurt flavored ice cream.
heee did you catch that? i said: plain yogurt flavored ice cream. not frozen yogurt mind you, but ICE CREAM that tastes like PLAIN YOGURT.
where, you might ask, might one find such a ridiculous concoction? why, in simi of course-- a greek island that caters predominately to turkish yachters. cuz everybody knows the turks and greeks looooves them some plain yogurt they toss that shit on everything.
i gotta admit, that stuff is pretty tasty though.

oh it was great too, the ice cream shopkeeper informed us how traveling to new york is all the rage with greeks these days, i'd had no idea. cuz apparently the euro is killing them so the dollar is mad cheap in comparison. she even regaled us with this anecdote about how her kids spent over €110.00 on "american northstar sneakers" but when her relatives came to the US, they found them in a store for $24.00 which is "like nothing" to them. hooray USA.

when we returned to the BlackSea we discovered the greek coast guard had some issue with the passports and whatnot, like they wanted to know "where the two americans came from" since technically we'd landed in istanbul. also i got the impression they wanted their palms greased or something but what the hells do i know.


then we took the BlackSea over to another part of the island called umm iodomenico(?) or something like that. it was great and the water was so warm and placid and lovely. even the SS Animosity was there, but they were far enough away they couldn't be creepy to us.

there was a beautiful british sailing yacht across the way instead and they were very nice. i even learned all about sailor etiquette, like how the crew of one boat is supposed to stand on deck and pay attention if another boat is mooring nearby, just to help look out and make sure it's okay. they even watched with binoculars, but haa maybe that's just cuz (like everybody else) they were totally sweating the BlackSea too.


after our swim we headed back to simi to meet the "greek friend" who just arrived. so we went to visit him and his whole entourage at the marina, aboard the Quintessa.
the Quintessa was grand and all, what with its 150' and 7 cabins and whatnot, but the BlackSea is much much more elegant and unique and tasteful for sure.
personally i was hoping we would get to dine on the Quintessa since i'd been hearing for days how great was "rupert-murdoch"'s chinese chef on board (but we all ended up going to the restaurant Mylopetra instead).

oh hahahhaa  i say "rupert-murdoch" cuz as we were sitting at dinner with 'the greek' and his nine guests, it suddenly occurred to my brain to try and put the whole experience in some kind of perspective it could better comprehend. so then [we] renamed everybody according to their stature, like for example we realized 'the greek' is "the rupert-murdoch" of greece.

so then *m* suddenly became to us "the ron-perelman" of turkey, but only cuz we couldn't think of any comparable affable self made independent american megabazillionaire who is totally devoted to his one and only wife of 35 years. so since the BlackSea is so well known in the "turkish riviera" we decided he should just be "ron-perelman."
[
oh and it just so happened we ran into ibrahim-kutluay aka 'ibo' again in simi, so then he became the "kobe" of turkey. see, isn't this fun?]

amongst the other guests of "rupert-murdoch" was the "david-duchovny" of greece and the "les-moonves" of the EU. there was also "the CIA guy." we couldn't think of an appropriate pseudonym for him so we just call him *theCIAguy* since *rupert* had informed us theCIAguy is "opening NATO schools in greece."

actually what *rupert* had said exactly was: "... i dunno, he must be a CIA agent, because how else could he get licenses to build NATO schools in greece?"
and *theCIAguy* had retorted: "well, i must not be a very good one then, because if i was, you would never know."
hahhahhaaa greek megabazillionaire humor, i guess you had to be there.


oh yah and there was a lunar eclipse this night. i don't know what it looked like here in new york, but in simi it was boom right there in front of your face.


sun.aug17:  we left simi pretty early cuz the Quintessa was planning on joining us all the way back to bodrum. everybody wanted to stop for a swim on the way, so it was planned to meet at some beach called patasomething(?) or other. *ron* was concerned about accommodating *rupert* cuz apparently *rupe* likes beaches, but to him a place isn't a "beach" unless it has snow white sand. finally they'd all settled on meeting at this patawhatever beach even though it was pebbly and not sandy, despite patawhatever being "too commercial" and *ron* much prefers quiet obscure coves and bays and whatnot.

oh yah that reminds me. i say "meet" cuz we left ahead of time. since the Quintessa travels about three times faster than the BlackSea, we arranged to leave an hour and a half ahead of them. sure enough when we arrived, the Quintessa was only 35 seconds behind us.
just to extrapolate further, get this: the BlackSea, a 109' motored sailing yacht, holds 5000 liters of fuel. the Quintessa, a motor yacht at 150', holds 70000 liters of fuel!

70,000 LITERS. it eats up approximately 400 liters PER HOUR. yes you calculated that shit right mutherfukker, it burns through about $500.00 worth of fuel every 60 minutes.
crazy.


anyhoo. so right when we got to the beach
[... sorry! the rest of this entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]


*here's a little something to make you feel like you were actually there! ---> (click! warning: audio)

• august 21, 2008. "friends of Black Sea" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

 

MONDAY. JULY 14, 2008. 9:39AM

i want to say i visited three countries the last ten days (cuz it sounds so impressive) but as my (jaded peevish surly) buddy commented last time, that would make me "full of shit" cuz really it was just "three cities." actually come to think of it, it was really about five or seven cities (so nyeeeah) but hey who's counting.


whatever, first stop was: badoc, ilocos norte. oh no wait that's not true-- technically, first was manila. but we only stayed there one day thank goodness, cuz as we alls know already, i really despise me some fucking manila.
yah so fuck manila. badoc is much doper anyways.

anyhoo, badoc was lovely as usual. oh okay that's a lie, badoc was actually ten times better than it has ever been. lots has changed since my last visit six years ago, i almost couldn't believe it, except for of course my whole family has been bragging to me for like four years now how awesome it is and how i've been totally missing all the fun-- ya know, "just because" (?!) i'm too uppity to travel 31 ridiculous hours to get there (and cuz i haaaate manila, and unfortunately there aint no getting to badoc without landing in stupid manila first).
well anyways, yes they were correct, badoc is pretty sweet these days all right.

ha ha aha haa but mainly cuz WOW my fam is really REALLY some serious hot shit up around those parts now i am not even kidding. no joke, if ever you are up in that area, drop on by. it's really easy to find, alls you have to know is mom's maiden name and alls you gotta do is ask ANYONE where "we" live. your ass would probably get escorted there personally and happily. (please make sure once you get there to ask auntie-belling or auntie-perling to see to it your guide gets made a fresh pot of coffee or tossed a pandasal or some shit for his/her trouble, cuz it's just the neighborly thing to do, you see.)
even the MAYOR [snap] showed up for our little "affair"
[... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish...] along with about 500-700 of our neighbors. i'm just sayin.

yah so, the "affair" went really well, thanks for asking. aside from the "16 piece orchestra" i think the best part was the catering. i mean, yah we've had some impressive catering for other events before, but this one was really off the hook.
hahahahhaaa as i was watching them prepare all the foods, alls i could think to myself was: "ha HA chefs in new york think they have it so tough? whiny PUSSY BITCHES, all of them."

by the way, have you ever seen a pig in a sidecar? top that shit, pat-la.frieda! [hahahhaa whoops sorry! 'industry insider' joke.]


the other bestest part was going to badoc island. basically it was the only thing i really wanted to do, seeing as i enjoyed it so much last time. unfortunately the typhoons made the ocean slightly more turbulent than usual, so it wasn't quite the calm clear awesomely blue fishie filled waters i remember, but it was still wonderful. and we got to ride in the funky boat again, which is the dopest part of all.

cousin-fraul told me she saw some random video on youtubes that was just "My Tricycle Ride In Badoc." and so i was all: "word? salita? talaga?" and we laughed about the utter silliness of such a thing.
but then i decided i should film one too, to post on my blahg thingie since maybe this is amusing to some peoples. and so i did, but i forgot to adjust the video size on my camera and so alls i got was a postage stamp sized one, you can't even really see the goats and cows and water buffalos chilling on the side of the road or anything. sigh.


click! [warning: AUDIO]


click! [warning: AUDIO]


next up was hongkong. hongkong is beautiful, but had this trip not already been booked awhiles ago, i think i may have had second thoughts about visiting after meeting theVenerable Palden Gyatso.
i was kinda ambivalent the entire time, i mean-- lots of the cool stuffs in hongkong was built by the british but then again there's no denying there's a whole lot about hongkong that's totally chinese too. and anyhow i'm just not so sure the entire chinese population should be held responsible for the awful actions of the red commie government creepies. imagine if the whole world boycotted all our great cities because of you know who? wouldn't that be terrible?

anyways, we went to a few cool restaurants and bars and shops and whatnot in hongkong so that was fun. there was even this one place that was a cafe and pastry shop, and their specialty is making cakes that are shaped like sculptures of trees and teacups and stuff! and i got to ride the StarFerry, which is the boat that takes everybody back and forth from hongkong to kowloon.


after hongkong was supposed to be a visit to saigon, but i couldn't get a visa in time cuz there aren't enough pages in my passport-- just something to keep in mind if you ever plan on seeing ho chi minh. so we didn't get to visit with brian-mcnally after all. oh well.

 

click! [warning: AUDIO]
 


instead we took a day trip to macau since it's only about an hour from hongkong via hydrofoil. so that was fun, i never traveled on a hydrofoil before. and those suckers are fast all right-- i was really impressed with the first hydrofoil that had to have been moving at like 65mph (i don't know anything about knots, sorry!) but then the TurboJET on the way back was even faster! that thing was FLYING omygoodness, if it wasn't doing like 95mph in the water, then slap my face and call me fâ kuáng.
and by the way, the yellow sea really is yellow! it's pretty fascinating but also a little gross since it sorta looks like it's a portion of the ocean where everybody maybe pees or something.

anyways, macau was nice and all, but despite what you may have heard, it aint no las vegas (yet). oh eeheee what's pretty funny is last night right when we got home from the airport, i turned on the teevee and Ocean's Thirteen happened to be playing.
OH yah lemme just digress a minute and remark: abigail-sponder? ha ahaa really? thanks, that's sweet, but not EVERY fictitious hip f&b type person has to be 'based' on me, but i totally appreciate it though, dudes! i should clarify i'm only commenting on it at all since "abigail sponder" is just a half hearted anagram of "abigail respond." and so i am.
:)

YAH SO. i turn on Ocean's Thirteen last night and right away is this line from brad-pitt: "...all i had to say were the words general manager and macau..." [and she was 'in' (?) or 'sold' (?) or whatever the hell he said].
well. what popped into my head hearing that line was: "better think again, sweetie!"
don't get me wrong, macau is cool and all, but umm. what's the difference between macau and atlantic city on thanksgiving day, hmm? <-- har har i'm pretty sure you have to be chinese to get that joke. so, never mind.

we only visited Sands and theVenetian and theWynn casinos. theVenetian is exactly like the one in vegas, but theWynn is the nicest-- it's the prettiest and the most 'chinese' of them all. plus theWynn has this pretty cool feature where the ceiling opens up and this giant chandelier drops down, as this golden tree rises up from the ground. i didn't know this beforehand, i just happened to catch it at the right time so that was nice.

click! [warning: AUDIO]

 

the only other thing i can think to mention about my awesome trip is how i got to ride in a rolls royce for the very first time too, and it wasn't even prom night or anything. it was neat.
in the mood to take a short quick ride through hongkong in a rolls royce? click here ---> :)

• july 14, 2008. "another three cities" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 


 

TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2008. 11:48AM

last night lelaine-lau of Salon403 held a gathering to meet the tibetan monk, the Venerable Palden Gyatso, author of The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk and the subject of the upcoming documentary Fire Under the Snow [... sorry! the rest of this entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

july 1, 2008. the Venerable Palden Gyatso - Fire Under the Snow

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 2008. 12:59PM

[sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]
... last night was dinner at theWaverlyInn because _______ is in town, and his wife ______ really wanted to try it.

and it was cute, at one point they were amused cuz they were thanking me for arranging the dinner and so i recounted to them the story of making the reservation-- how emil-varda had asked me immediately if i'm bringing somebody important and i'd retorted "of course! i'm bringing the mayor of _____ !" hee heeee ahaa.
[and then right after that they amused me back by telling the story of the only time they've ever dined at Nobu... "with ahmet-ertegun..."]


anyways. the other funny part was seeing brian-mcnally there last night too!
cuz just last week moogooloo and i were discussing the possibilty of visiting saigon for a few days (if we do go back to seoul and then on to manila). and i'd mentioned perhaps looking brian-mcnally up, since we're all well aware he lives in ho chi minh city now.

yah so i was just saying how i'd maybe have to track down his new information since i only have his phone number from back in like 2002-- and boom i look over and it's brian-mcnally across the room!
apparently he's in town for "about another week" until he goes back. so yay that would be fun, no? seeing saigon the brian-mcnally way? i think so.


les-moonves & julie-chen were at the table across from us, by the way. i'm vaguely aware random peoples alls over the interwebs hate julie-chen because they have nothing better to do, but as a couple they looked totally cute and in loooove if you ask me. before their guests arrived they just sat at their table alone and smiled and even touched noses like two kids eskimos at the prom.


oh ! i just remembered the other night (wednesday the 4th) was dinner at LureSushi and we ended up at the table right next to paul-liebrandt. again (!) i should say-- cuz this is the second time now, it happened at Allen&Delancey a few months back too.
i was so tempted to just reach over and tap him on the shoulder and say "hey did you actually like your dinner that night?" cuz i remember we'd ordered the same appetizer (ramps? or was it leeks? oh i forget now) and personally i thought my dinner was awful. but now apparently the whole entire world is in love with Allen&Delancey even though they all hated chef neil-ferguson back when he was still at gordon-ramsay's Maze cooking 1000 times better (since alls they can do is listen to idiots like frank-bruni & adam-platt).

oh whoops! sorry, i'm digressing. that's way too much stupid restaurant talk. for a second there i forgot this is my journal book thingie, not my interweb blog thingie. it gets kinda confusing sometimes.


ANYHOO
so yah i guess i left off where? i know it's been a couple weeks since i did an entry-- somehow i feel like i never have any time to do anything despite the fact it seems as though i never accomplish jack shit.
but i'm still being good with the jotting down notes every day though so lessee


OH. ha ha ahaaa may 22nd.
oh brother.
okay

geezus christ where do i even begin
well
do you remember this website thingie i've mentioned a few times it's called gawker dot com? just to refresh your memory, basically what they do is write about the peoples in the media like journailsts and authors and celebrities and bloggers and whatnot.

yah so. a whiles back they hired this new dude named joshua-stein, i guess it was his job at one point to write specifically about restaurants and nightlife in nyc. so, right when the "industry forum" section of my blahg thingie launched, we sent him a link to the story about how a grasshopper mysteriously appeared in a sandwich wrap...

you remember the whole sordid saga, yah? sure you do.
whatever-- it turns out josh-stein wasn't that smart cuz somehow the grasshopper story went right over his head, he completely missed it.
but then for some reason, suddenly he had a bug (haa look i made a pun) up his ass, and then he started saying all sorts of nasty (untrue) stuffs about me for absolutely no reason at all.

for example like this:
"... Abbe Diaz, the Koreshian mercurial leader of PXthis (the forum-land for nightlife, hospitality, and seedy underbellyness)..."

and like this:
"... Abbe Diaz.. has serious beef with Page Six's Corynne Steidler. Oh, and she's nuts...."

and like this:
"[the biggest surprise of 2007 is] that Abbe Diaz hasn't killed anyone yet..."

and my personal favorite:
"For those who love crazy tirades about the restaurant world but hate punctuation and capital letters, Abbe Diaz's non-anonymous PXThis is a real boon.... That forum brims with Ms. Diaz's invective-laced bromides against what she sees as the perfidious backstabbing restaurant world. She writes about it with Napoleonic pizazz and an almost Cummingsian disregard for punctuation...
Now there's Sympathy for the Restaurant Industry... Is it the work of Abbe Diaz?
... There are two basic arguments for the blog being penned by Ms. Diaz. One is the pure unbridled crazy batshitness of it all... Either Diaz is actually secretly capable of stringing together words into sentences using syntax and grammar, or there's another someone out there bursting with the same vitriol and petty anger..."


now get this. it turns out since joshua-stein knows absolutely nothing about restaurants and/or nightlife and just sounded like a clueless idiot the entire time he was writing, i guess he finally had to quit his job writing about those particular topics. however, it now it turns out that joshua-stein does some sort of "guest blogging" type thingie where instead of writing about nightlife and restaurants, he just writes about teevee shows about nightlife and restaurants.

following along so far? [no? i can't blame you, really.]

okay. so apparently there's this "reality" teevee show called Top Chef and so that's what he writes about. every time it airs. well, a couple weeks ago he remarked about how he's all upset cuz some mean horrible chef ON THE TEEVEE SHOW somehow manages to go about her life just fine and dandy with no repercussions at all for being a mean horrible nasty disgusting human being.

ha ha ha haa ha aha haaa i'm sorry but when i saw that nonsense i couldn't help it, i composed him a little letter and posted it on the big massive ubiquitous omnipotent invincible interweb thingie for alls the world to see. and here it is:

Whoa, whaaat?! Time out, douchewit.

Generally, I don't watch Top Chef because it's retarded, and I don't read you, because you suck. I accidentally somehow ended up in here, cuz I wanted to see more of this awesome screwing-your-coworker clusterfuck that "the media" is so impressed with this week, and I dunno, maybe my mouse got all trigger happy or some shit.

Yah so uh, lemme get this straight-- you come back here to Gawker to blog about this bullshit in your oh-so-absolutely-clueless fucking way, because right now nobody else is paying you to spew your typically pedestrian idiocy, yes?

Now, did I just read correctly, or are you seriously being indignant about some chef on a fucking TEEVEE SHOW, because she's an ass-sucking fuckface (or whatever)?
Huh, that's pretty funny, cuz I wrote an entire BOOK and keep a four-year blog, writing about JUST such "injustices," in the REAL RESTAURANT WORLD, and do you know what you did to me, you cocksucking mutherfukking piece of hypocritical shit?
Do I have to LINK to it, asshole? No, I think you remember it just fine. DICKHEAD.

In short: Fuck you, and the fucking stupid, self-righteous, dumbshit horse you rode in on.

SIGNED,
abbe diaz
PX This.

p.s. NICE JOB with your so-called "career" so far, dweeb.

hahhahahahahhaaa aint it great?

then gawker dot com banned me. as in: they revoked my "commenting privileges."
because i guess maybe they're a bunch of punkassed hypocritical bitches who can't take the heat in their own kitchen or eat what they dish? (haa look i made a pun.) or maybe it's because poor little joshua-stein is helpless and defenseless, all his fingers fell off or some shit.

oh no wait, look there he is again today, still typing about Top Chef and still bitching about the same mean nasty horrible chef ON THE FUCKING TEEVEE SHOW.


mhmmp. yah but evidently I'M the one that's "batshit crazy" you see. for writing some stuff about real live mean nasty horrible people in the real live restaurant industry in the real live actual world-- that i DIDN'T EVEN WRITE.

i'm also the one who's "crazy" & "boring" & "incoherent" & "psycho" just because i choose to write in my journal only about things of which i know. unlike, of course, josh-stein the "journalist" who chooses to just write about things of which he knows nothing.


remember how i said "the industry" is turning me into some serious misanthropist? ahah ha haa that aint nothing compared to what i am now.


i think i have to finish telling about may23rd to june6 some other time cuz i just got awfully tired all of a sudden.

• june 6, 2008. "if you can't take the heat... then i hope you get run over by a fucking bus" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2008. 2:38PM pxthis.com entry

yay i'm famous ! a couple weeks ago i did this interview thingie with this other interweb bloggetty blog, it's called Good Night Mr. Lewis dot com.


oh wait-- did i never tell about steve-lewis ? well
steve-lewis is this dude i know from another lifetime ago, like 1992 or something. he used to work with peter-gatien too, running alls the hottest nightclubs like Limelight & Palladium & Tunnel and whatnot.
anyhoo, not so long ago he started this bloggie thing, i guess he was encouraged by this company that promotes nightclubs (or whatever). well evidently he's doing super awesomely these days (with all sorts of "traffic" in like the gazillions), cuz several weeks ago he "scooped" all the press & media & bloogeroos with some exclusive information he had about ashley-dupre (whom we alls know now as the $4300 vagina that toppled a frikkin empire. ya know-- like helen-of.troy or some shit).

yah so
it was kinda neat cuz one day i get this call out of the blue from steve-lewis and he's all: "my editor is a big fan of yours (!!) blah blaah, and like-- what the hell is your story again? alls this time i thought you were just another dress making art painting street selling kungfoo fighting hot chick on a kawasaki ninja 600R."
and then he asked me if i'd like to submit to some questioning.
so of course i responded: "hells yeah!" and a few days later i met with him and his really nice editor dude (named josh-malin).

it was a lot of fun, but ahhahhaaa--- i totally ran my mouth offs, i didn't give a flying fuck. i was spouting all sorts of stuffs, they even asked me "are you suuuuure we can print this?" eehee hee heee.
and so i decided: "whatever." lord knows being nice and doing "the right thing" has caught me pretty much nothing but grief from a bunch of stupid idiotarded ignorassholes alls this time anyways. and i checked my horoscope last week and it essentially said "FUCK THOSE BITCHES" anyhow. so-- yah.

in any case, it turns out i yappetty yapped so much, they had to break my interview down into three parts, which are running on three separate consecutive days. parts I & II are already "live" so please by all means, check them bad boys out:

click here for Part One ---> http://www.goodnightmrlewis.com/2008/04/abbe-diaz-talk.html
and here for Part Two ---> http://www.goodnightmrlewis.com/2008/04/abbe-diaz-tal-1.html

UPDATE 4.26.08: and here's Part Three ! ---> http://www.goodnightmrlewis.com/2008/04/abbe-diaz-tal-2.html personally i think it's the bestest part of all, so maybe start here and go backwards !

enjoy !
:)


• april 23, 2008. "talk loudly... but really, i don't even need no stinking stick :) " • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY, APRIL 15, 2008. 12:28PM

last night was fun, it was the Time Out New York Eat Out Awards party thingie. i got to go cuz i was an invited guest of CentroVinoteca-- it got nominated for "best new restaurant." yay!
:)

i got to see a whole bunch of famous chefs and restaurateurs and whatnot, like: sam-mason & david-chang & anne-burrell & ryan-lowder & emil-varda & florent-morellet & of course sasha-muniak. so that was great.
it was actually kinda funny, cuz we just happened to pick some table that had plenty of open seats and right when we're inquiring "are these seats taken?" i look over and it's emil-varda. eeheee hahahahaaa

so emil-varda says to me "YES! they're taken! you can't sit here, go someplace else!" and thus i respond: "whaaaatever, bitch!" and plop my ass down directly across from that mutherfukker.
haaa okay i'm kinda only half kidding, of course i gave him a big slurpy kiss and patted him on his cute little head. (what an industry, ay?)

oh but it was kinda odd, emil-varda introduced me to another guy from theWaverlyInn, lynn-oops-i-never-got-a-last name (bad me bad me). emil-varda said to him "do you knoooow who this is?" and he responded "yes of course" (!!) so i guess i must be really really much more famous at theWaverly than even i had ever surmised.
anyways, he was really nice, whomever he was.

the ony thing that was kinda a bummer is that david-chang ran off the stage so fast, i couldn't get a really good photo of him. and then he just disappeared, so i didn't get a chance to tell him alls about my awesomely cute korean friend who has a mad crush on him, she's like totally in loooove with him she wants to have like 10,000 of his babies.
oh well.


afterward was fun too, we stopped by CentroVinoteca to celebrate, and then popped into theSpottedPig too...
[... sorry! the rest of this entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• april 15, 2008. "the other TONY awards" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 2008. 10:35AM

yah so i'm back. from the new "usual" joint
:)
obviously it was great, which is why it's the new usual joint and the old usual joint isn't going to be the usual joint anymore--

aww :(
poor
____________ [... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• april 1, 2008. "04-04-08-04-08-08" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2008. 1:12PM

last night was great, it was a fundraiser party thingie for StudioDante (sponsored by Architectural Digest), which is the theatre owned and run by michael&victoria-imperioli. yay!
i got to go because...
[... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

... aside from meeting the imperiolis i also saw (in order of appearance): chris-cooper & john-ventimiglia & tony-sirico & drea-dematteo & david-chase & aida turturro & vincent-pastore & stanley-tucci & lauren-bacall.
evidently there was some other famous lady in the restroom too, this other woman was gushing "ooooh my gawd you were soooo great in" such and such and blahblaaah but unfortunately i didn't recognize her at all or the names of the (movie ? teevee?) stuffs she was in, and so that's why i can't remember anything about her. she seemed very nice though, she said oh thaaaaank you and even joked with me about the water pressure in the faucet.

anyways
they had this "reading" thingie performance too so that was a lot of fun. and afterward everybody hung around and drank and ate hors d'oeuvre.
i spoke to
[... sorry! the rest of this entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

<--- click here [warning: AUDIO] <--- click here too! [warning: AUDIO]

 

<--- and definitely click here to see a special tribute to lauren-bacall !! yay !! [warning: AUDIO]

• april 1, 2008. "First Readings by Studio Dante" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

 

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008. 10:43AM

so my trip to santa monica was lovely, the weather was beautiful so i got lucky, apparently it's been rainy and in the 50's the last couple weeks or so.

anyways [... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]


... and i found this really great artist on venice beach, i bought a nice tiny painting of this cute little dude for only 40 bucks! and i love it-- i propped it up right on my work table so now every time i look up from my laptop, the little dude is staring at me with his big bug eyes.
(the artist has a website, it's: rezakassai.com)


...
and oh ! remember how i was just talking about the creepy food writer dude who wrote (silly, ignorant, totally transparent) things about me for New York magazine's food blog thingie ? well apparently last night he dined (again) at ___________
[... sorry! the rest of this entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• march 7, 2008. "'...remember it was how to deal with an Upset'" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 2008. 10:48PM

finally i'm off to santa monica tomorrow, yay!  i must say i'm pretty anxious to see [... sorry! the rest of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

 

 

 

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2008. 9:36AM

yay, i was in the NY Daily News yesterday !
see -----> http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2008/02/25/2008-02-25_exmaitre_d_shown_door_instead_of_a_table.html

neat, huh? i especially think it's cool cuz i remember way back when i was in the Daily News the very first time-- i have these aunties and uncles and cousins and whatnot, they alls live in the boonies of new jersey. well
the last time i was in the Daily News they were all "ohmigawd, we saw you in the NEWSPAPER!! YOU WROTE A BOOK?!! you get to see FAMOUS PEOPLE?!!"
it was pretty funny. so now i think of them and they must have been so hysterical for me yesterday over morning coffee or whatever. isn't that sweet?


anyhoo. so yah
being asked to leave this restaurant last week ended up turning into such the cheezy soap opera! see
what a lot of peoples don't realize is that the "press" and "media" is like this big freaky weirdo political machine. oh eeheeee of course you knew that already duh, but were you aware it's the exact same way for even the more diminutive journalist who writes about more trivial stuffs than wars and tragedies and crimes and whatnot? like i mean for example: there is a whole mess of journalists here in NYC and alls they write about is: Food. (or maybe i should say "Restaurants," to be more specific.) crazy right?

anyways. so here i come, i'm just this person who published my diary, but it turns out there happens to be a lot of stuffs about restaurants in there cuz i only spent about ohhhhh twenty some odd years of my life in this fucking ridiculous industry.
now check this out:
there is this magazine here in the city called New York, maybe you've heard of it? well what they do is write about goings on in-- GUESS WHERE! (hahaa.) and so one of the subjects they address is: Restaurants !!
following along so far ? it gets better, i promise.

okay so here they are, and every single week is new information in the magazine about what restaurants have opened or closed or added pork to the menu. the funny thing is mostly they just print the SAME information week after week after week after week but whatever. i digress.

in any case, one of their "food journalists" is named [... sorry! the rest of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• february 26, 2008. "i got iiiiiiice cream, and you aint gotttttttt none" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2008. 10:32AM pxthis.com entry

so. didja hear ? i got thrown out of a restaurant the other day.

if you wanna read alls about it, here ya go! click here----> http://pxthis.invisionzone.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=333&view=findpost&p=5018

enjoy !

:)

 

 

 

   

THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 2008. 9:31AM

whew
well i know it's been a long while since i did a diary entry thingie, but this whole past month has really been just a whirlwind i almost can't believe it's only been 30 some odd days cuz it feels like it's been 300. no joke. a whole mess of stuffs has happened-- ahahaaa some stuffs have even happened and then not happened and then happened again.
makes no sense ? good. now you know how i feel.

anyways i've been really conscientious though, every day i have been taking little notes and whatnot. and so away we go-- this first month of this new 2,008th year went a little something like this:
[... sorry! a portion of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

... dec25.07 : 7:30am flight to our usual joint. we got to the airport at 6:35am and they wouldn't let us check in cuz we were "too late." and so we spent another 15 minutes running around from person to higher person to higher higher person and alls they did was tell us again and again how being 5 minutes late is simply our fucking problem (yah merry christmas to you too, fuckface). and then right around the time i was ready to either go totally postal or cry, one nice lady FINALLY took pity on us and spent approximately 22 seconds worth of her time and energy to check us into our flight. and so we got our boarding passes and went through security and made it onto the plane with about 3 minutes to spare.
then the airplane decided to sit on the runway for no good reason at all for about 45 additional minutes just doing nothing but taunting and mocking me just because.
whatever!
the in flight movie was No Reservations which made me just want to gag myself with a jumbo jet. gawd was that thing retarded. and i didn't even wear the headset i just read the lips and heard all the trite idiotic nonsense inside my brain.
didn't i read somewheres that catherine-zeta.jones got all her training for the movie at Fiamma ? yah well. it shows, bitch.
at one point i looked alls around the cabin i wanted to observe all the stupidheads being fascinated with this garbage. and they really were all right ! holy cow. i don't think i have ever hated the United States of America more.
after it ended, some dude yelled over three rows of heads just to ask his pals if they enjoyed the film. and he was all "wow it was good wasn't it?!" and then he went on to spew some kind of Foodie drivel that he probably read in the NY Times and has been waiting all this time for the perfect opportunity to regurgitate. and he said how he's such a big fan of "anthony booohr die in." i wanted to slap him across the face with my emergency escape manual.

dec26.07 : booo today was still a little bit cloudy. oh well, it's 84 fucking degrees what the hells am i bitching about.
we had a really great conversation over breakfast about ______ and so right then and there i decided to give it a go. why not, it sounds pretty intriguing i must say.
we stayed in for dinner again. ee heee when room service delivered it i remembered how last time they told us we're their "favorite guests."

dec27.07 : just out of nowheres i decided to send my boy brian-grazer a merry holidays and early happy new year SMS. and it popped into my brain "he must be in maui" so that's exactly what i said in my message. and he was so sweet he responded right away and his reply said yes he's "in hawaii." wow i'm psychic.
yah so. evidently one phone call back home and boom i'm already signed up for ______. i have no idea why but suddenly i feel fluttery inside about it.

dec28.07 : evidently joshua-stein the ignorasshole at gawker.com is at it again, i just discovered he's mentioned me twice during some new year Q&A with eater.com (apparently they asked several "restaurant experts" ahhahaHAHAHAHhahahaa their opinions on some whatever the fuck went on this past year in their own little Delusional Foodie World). apparently joshua-stein thinks the "biggest surprise of 2007" is that i haven't killed anyone yet (is that an invitation, bitch?) or some shit, and that he thinks the most important "restaurant neighborhood" of this year is my twat.
something like that.
what ??
yah exactly.

dec29.07 : [... sorry! the rest of the entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• january 31, 2008. "anthony boohr die in" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 2008. 8:53AM

sorry, but theForum @ PX This is experiencing technical difficulties :(

please be patient while the nice peoples to whom one pays good $$ for making sure shit like this doesn't happen figure that whole mess out. thanks.


happy new year by the way :)

 

 

   

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2007. 8:34AM

last night i had a dream that *rollerfink* won the Project Redlight contest !!

oh wait did i never tell about *rollerfink* ?

*rollerfink* is a piglet (the greatest piglet of them all!) i "met" during the very first original Project Greenlight contest.

anyhoo. right now apparently Radar Magazine is having this funny Project Redlight contest (isn't it ironic ? don't ya think) in which harvey-weinstein is trying to find funny writer "scabs" who are not in the writer's union by initiating this ostensibly satirical contest wherein regular peoples are supposed to send in BAD movie "pitches" (that's hollywood jargon), which of course in turn will unearth all these funny fantastic "notWriters" (not to be confused with real actual Writers who are allowed to call themselves "Writers" because they are members of the Writer's Union, unlike all the rest of the stupid Writer-wannabees who go around calling themselves "writers" when in reality they're just lame assed "hobbyists" and "budding wordsmith[s] at best") cuz DUH-- if one is smart enough to discern what is a BAD pitch, then surely one must also know what is a GOOD pitch, yes ?

following along ? no ? it matters not, really.

anyhoo as soon as i saw the rules and regulations of this Project Redlight i absolutely 100% without a doubt knew right away *rollerfink* is the perfect contestant. so i told him all about it and he says he is going to enter.

and last night i had a dream HE WON ! yay !

he's going to do it too. you just watch mutherfukkers.

 

12:21PM
uhh yah so here i am telling all about my dream last night-- but i left out the part about steve-schirripa.
ha ha ha aha ha ahaa and then right afterward i go and click! on this website thingie and boom

LOOK ! it's fucking steve-schirripa !!

i cannot even begin to recount how totally utterly bizarro
if that's not a sign from the cosmos i swear i don't know what is.

• november 28, 2007. "rollerfink" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

   

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2007. 1:22PM

i just spent the last hour listening to moms babble on the telephone.

hahha aha haa that bitch is crazy.

the funny thing is she asked "what's new?" but since she spent 45 minutes yapping incessantly, my brain was too exhausted to talk by the time it was my turn so i just replied "nothing."
then moms told me i should go to law school.


whatever !

i am pretty sure eventually moms is going to end up reading the new PX This Too book, the same way she read the first PX This book.
so. lessee. what's new

well, this morning right before i dropped everything to phone moms cuz i felt guilty since i know i didn't speak to her on the day they slaughter all the poor turkeys cuz my acupuncturist distinctly warned me to avoid all stress as much as possible--

i just found out this website on the world wide internet thingie is sweating me. again.

see moms, on the computer internet thingie there are these websites called "blogs" and basically they're like little magazines that people look at every day.
well anyhoo there's this one in particular called eater.com and what they do is "blog" about restaurants. and i, having worked in all those restaurants all those years and having written a book and whatnot, happen to get mentioned every once in a while. sometimes they say nice things but sometimes they say mean things about me too (but don't worry, moms ! i don't take it personally cuz i realize they're just being jerkfacey cuz THEIR mamas didn't raise THEM right).
in any case, just being remarked upon at all sort of means i'm kind of a iittle famous ! cool huh ?


what else
oh yah ! ee heee
remember kaity-tong, moms ? i think you met her at the last trunk show at 60thompson maybe ? the news anchor from channel 11 ?

well anyways, yesterday this OTHER "blog" on the internet wrote about her-- they said she had to move out of her building because her condominium has molds.
well that "blog" is called gawker.com and basically what they write about are celebrities. and people in the media. like kaity-tong for example.
they've written about me a few times too ! (so see how really famous i am?) they're not very nice though and sometimes i'm forced to rebut. so that's what i did yesterday.


i've been working on this other writing thingie too the last week or so
but that's sort of a long story.
in any case, there's this writer's strike in hollywood right now so in a way it kind of affects me even though i'm not even in the writer's union.
whatever. you know all about unions, i think maybe you get the picture.


oh ! the other night i saw this guy david-chang at this store called PaulSmith (they sell men's clothes). anyways this guy is a chef and restaurateur, he's pretty famous-- not quite as famous as my old bosses, but he did just win this big chef's award. and he's kinda young. he's korean !

oh did you ever meet my korean friend ? not the ones i lived with in college but this other girl, maybe you met her at the trunk show too, i used to work with her.
well she's friends with this guy whose brother is friends with this chef's brother (or some shit). and he says nobody really expected this kid to be so successful cuz basically he like didn't even finish cooking school or something like that ? then he worked in some commercial kitchens but he apparently couldn't cut it for very long. then he opened a little place selling noodles. and now he's famous and has a few restaurants, he makes a lot of money now ! and he's young.

anyhoo i ran into him in this store the other night. which wouldn't be such a big deal except that i had just made a joke about him on this OTHER "blog" website that's owned by New York Magazine.
oh hey remember moms, that time when People magazine came and took pictures in my store of that actress lauren-valez wearing my dress but then when the article came out i was the only designer they didn't credit even though mine was the only full-page photo in the entire six-page spread?
well i had sort of a similar kind of thing like that happen with this New York one too.
hahahaa i happened to meet the editor of that New York website "blog" thingie last week too so it's kind of strange but whatever.

in any case, what happened was that i told this little joke about this chef named david-chang on the website that's owned by this magazine and then i ran into this very same guy totally randomly the next day.
isn't that funny ?
i was going to say something to him but the way he was looking at me i think he was totally sweating me and so i didn't want to go breaking his heart making him realize i am the smartassy chick that just dissed his momofuku mutherfukking ass on the interwebs. hahahahahahaa


oh i'm building a new website for myself by the way. you know how i used to sell dresses on the street in SoHo? well i only sell artworks now because they've been getting stricter on the vendors and they arrest you if you don't have a license. but artists are protected by this city ordinance so if you sell photos, paintings, or sculpture, you're okay. clothes (or even jewelry) aren't considered art even if you make it yourself, so if you get caught selling without a license they confiscate your stuff and fine you or arrest you or whatever.
anyways, last summer i did these paintings and they sold pretty well so now i'm building a new website just for that.


other than that i don't think much else is new. i did have a couple meetings this week and maybe i will have a few more before christmas. i might go to LA in january and there's a small possibility i will be going out of town sometime in december. i will have to meet with the architect soon probably and will be sure to draft the letter we talked about like i promised. plus i will call the other joint about the three missing checks. i will definitely finish your wrap by this weekend and the others by the time you leave again. i have another appointment with the acupuncturist this week and i can tell it's definitely helping so you needn't worry anymore about that. i still have some unpacking to do which hopefully i'll get to this weekend.

so yah while i'm doing that i'll be sure to think about going to law school.


by the way-- "bitch" is a term of endearment so just calm down there lady.

• november 27, 2007. "selling noodles" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

MONDAY, NOVEMER 19, 2007. 2:28PM

[... sorry! the entire entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

 

   

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2007. 10:22AM

you missed my birthday.
but i guess i forgive you. seeing as i was in marrakech.
try to stay on the ball for next year though mmkay ? ee heee

yah so i was away all last week in case you were wondering. which is great because apparently it's supposed to be verrrry auspicious to be elsewhere other than the place in which you reside when your b'day rolls around. 
i must say
if my birthday this year is any indication of the level of auspiciousness i can henceforth anticipate,
HOOOOO BOY
that's all i'm sayin.

oh okay i'll say a wee bit more. evidently the other birthday thing i should be doing is starting anew with some personal stuffs and whatnot. ya know-- like new year's resolutions (which i never really believed in anyways). supposedly it's far more appropriate  to exercise  this tradition on your birthday, rather than on some kinda random first-day-of-the-year nonsense which truly makes no sense at all if you really think about it.
um why am i babbling again ?? oh yah
to stress how i have made some such "resolutions" and already i feel a massive difference in my inner chi.
seriously. try it on your next birthday you won't regret it i swear.


anyhoo
i want to say i visited three countries the last 8 days (cuz it sounds so impressive) but my good buddy already pointed out i'm totally full of shit cuz really it was just "three cities." fine. whatever.


so. first there was london:
eh. what can i say
london is okay and all and i certainly don't want to get all pompous dissing an entire city i only visited for two nights, but hey. i live in frikkin new york-- what's the big deal about london ? it's just new york city all over again except they speak a totally different language.

as a matter of fact it's so much like new york i even did the exact same shit i always do: run around looking at restaurants. and yah i got to try a few so that was cool, but i must say of all the ("hottest!") places i tried, it turns out theVirginClubhouse was the bestest of them all.
hahahahahaa okay did you catch that ? i said the fucking lounge in the airport terminal was the awesomest. i am so not kidding. i even saw steven-tyler there.
so ya know-- figure that shit out.

oh ! but oymylord speaking of airports
i just have to warn you if by some chance you happen to have a completely unavoidable reason to fly in and/or out of heathrow, GAWD HELP YOUR SORRY ASS.
holy cow what an bloody arseholed clusterfuck that place is, seriously no joke.
ah ha haa at one point there was even this airport security lady who requisitely asked us "have you ever flown through heathrow before?" and when we answered "yes" i swear she acknowledged: "and you actually came back?!"
hahahahahahahaa those brits are such the riot, innit ?

well anyways, i don't mean to keep going on endlessly about stupid airports or whatever but i just wanted to quickly remark one more thing and that's: VirginAirways kicks ass !
really the only reason i feel the need to comment is cuz i vaguely recall hearing or reading some shit forever ago about how some little airline called PeoplesExpress tried to operate out of london and BritishAirways came along and muscled and threatened and sabotaged them (or something like that) and poor little PeoplesExpress was totally bulldozed out of the marketplace.

now. i don't know a damned thing about VirginAirways except that it's owned by some filthy rich english megabazillionaire who obviously isn't susceptible to such crazy mick mafia tactics, cuz VirginAirways is clearly flying the not-so-friendly skies these days perfectly fine and dandy.
but what's my point you ask ??
BritishAirways SUCKS DICK.  geezus christ i can't even begin. SUCKS DICK i tell you. SUCKS DICK even worse than all our US-based airlines that all suck dick.
SUCKS DICK SO MUCH it's in my goddamned personal journal for fuck's sake.

okay so.
that's london for ya.


next up was marrakech.
oh my goodness marrakech is marragnificent !
so so beautiful.

but of course as you would expect, there is an economic disparity in marrakech so wide if you tried to draw a line to represent the distance, one end would probably go all the way around in a circle and end up touching itself again. (does that even make sense ?? whatever.)
but i suppose in a way that's probably what makes it so beautiful. and it is amazing when you see the magnitude of all their development that's happening boom right in front of your eyes-- like for example just when you are marveling to yourself how incredibly grand and majestic and luxurious is the "royal golf course," some Y-generation young woman saunters by on a grizzled donkey. wearing a burka no less. and she's got a hefty sack of oranges sitting on top of her head.
or better yet an entire family (Mom, Dad, Junior, and Baby) zips by on a rickety 1965 vespa180. TOGETHER that is. on ONE vespa. and of course not a single one of them is wearing a helmet.

and did you know that if you want to work in any sort of decent (or maybe even not-so-decent) job in marrakech, you have to be tri-lingual ? yes muttherfukker i said TRI-lingual. as in: if you can't speak english, french, AND arabic, then your sorry ass is just plain ole grass. makes you feel kinda STUPID, doesn't it ?

oh i could go on and on and on about marrakech but why bother. none of it would do it any remote justice anyways-- i think maybe it's just a place one needs to see to appreciate. so maybe add that shit to your Things One Must Do Before One Drops Dead list. personally i'm adding it to my Things One Must Do AGAIN Before One Drops Dead list right this very minute.


and finally there was istanbul (constantinople!).
wow.
istanbul is kicking ass these days too. if it wasn't for the fact that everyone speaks turkish and there isn't a single ASIAN asian person on the face of istanbul (their version of "asian" is just y'know-- different), i'd say they're seoul, korea.

no but seriously though
evidently istanbul is poising itself to be "the cultural capitol of the world by 2010." they are building all sorts of fancy shopping malls and restaurants and hotels, like "how you say... champignons?"

and they just might do it too ! although i don't know HOW they're going to manage this without any blacks, mexicans, or filipinos to do everything for them since no such persons exists in istanbul. but hey maybe they're just smarter than the rest of the idiot world, the fuck i know.

also they have this Bosphorus waterway too-- that might help things along.
see, the Bosphorus "River" [it's a point of contention, i gather. since technically the Bosphorus is the portion of the SEA -- it's not a river goddammit!-- that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara] is what separates the continent of europe from the continent of asia. it's kinda dope, really. because you can stand in europe and asia is just a stone's throw away. no joke in some parts of the Bosphorus, asia is closer to europe than manhattan is to jersey city. that means istanbul is actually situated on two separate continents. which is why all their "asians" are tall and white and round eyed. go figure.
anyways, the Bosphorus is the only way all the big cargo and oil and whatever tankers can make their way from one sea to the other. that means istanbul gots mad juice like tropicana. get the picture ?

the only other thing i can think to mention is how WOW those istanboolooroos sure are patriotic, there are turkish flags EVERYWHERES. there are more turkish flags hanging in istanbul today than new york had waving on september 12, 2001. plus there are photos of that leader dude who westernized türkiye (by banning all the fezzes) alls over the place too. it's pretty neat.
like imagine if new york had photos of george-washington or JFK or steve-jobs mounted everywheres you look. kinda funky, huh ?

oh the only other other thing i wanted to tell is: now i finally know why the term "carpet salesman" is derogatory. lordallahavemercy those fuckers are obnoxious. and then they have the nerve to be all "why so unfriendly?" when you tell the 30th one that's obtruded upon your personal space bubble "noooooooo thank you i'm not interested in any muther fukking carpet."

they have really great fake handbags in the GrandBazaar though ! every single brand and style you can possibly imagine, i even saw this gold ostrich YvesStLaurent for only YTL450.00 ! and i bet i could have talked him down another 30% if i'd wanted it too. so there is that.

so yah. that's istanbul.


all in all the trip was really great but i'm still glad to be home too.
:)

• november 8, 2007. "three cities" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

   

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2007. 12:29PM

i think i almost fainted last night it was pretty trippy. even right now i'm not feeling exactly 100% and i did sleep in much much later than usual.
i never fainted before so it's kinda freaking me out a little.

thank goodness i was on my way back to bed anyways, i'd gotten up in the middle of the night to grab myself a glass of ojay. i had the first dizzy spell right when i was pouring from the carton and when i felt my knees buckle and my heart start racing and the nausea building i went straight back to bed where i had the second dizzy spell right as i was climbing in. i don't think i actually did faint but i guess i must have fallen asleep not long afterward.

and i totally know what did it to me too, it was right as i was opening the refrigerator door to grab the ojay that the conversation i'd had earlier (over dinner) just sorta hit me i guess. but it was weird cuz it wasn't like it was the discussion itself that got to me, but more like a certain part of it suddenly struck me as untrue [... sorry! the rest of the entry appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• october 29, 2007. "so that's what fainting feels like" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

   

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2007. 3:12PM

i had another dream about water last night, i haven't had one of those in a while. and it was good, the water was clear and blue and beautiful and calm, but there were rocks on the bottom so i had to be careful while i was swimming. and it was crowded too-- i was at a big beach resort apparently, and so there were mobs of peoples all over the place i remember i was trying to find a nice open place to dive in easily. the resort was built on a cliff so there wasn't a typical beach with sand and shores and whatnot but there were palm trees everywhere. and the ocean only flowed through this one narrow inlet, which i guess is why the water was so placid and warm.

well whatever. overall i think it was a good sign.

and it's even better come to think of it, since i've been feeling pretty icky and funky lately. maybe the whole Mercury retro whatever the hells was fucking with my inner chi or some shit. or oh !
maybe it was that cuntface in the bookstore.

ah ha haa yah i never told about the jerkohead in the bookstore. it was i guess last week sometime i was just browsing in this old bookstore on mercer street. and there was this couple the next aisle over, i could hear them talking through the bookcase.

i had my back turned to them so maybe that's why even though there was a wee bit of open space between the tops of the books and the underside of the next shelf up, she didn't see me all that clearly, which is probably why she thought it was perfectly okay to suddenly vociferously blurt out: "oh yah my grandmother haaates asian people."

it must have been the dude with her who spotted me cuz just as she was about to elaborate, it seemed like he cut her off midsentence. and then they left the bookstore.
hmm maybe they were afraid the one asian person on premises (that's me) might suddenly flip out and get all bruce-lee on their asses ?

ahhahaaa ha haa. no seriously though
it IS almost 2008 right ? and i AM in new york fucking city right ? just checking.

sigh

i dunno. really. i don't get it. i mean

i know asians can't drive to save their lives and they shuffle annoyingly when they walk dragging their fucking heels so noisily all over the place an'shit
but
what else is there ??
- grandma went to Columbia and she's still pissed cuz all the asians shot the fucking curve up ? she coulda had a 4.0 but now she's gotta live all her life with her lousy 3.7 ??
- or maybe grandpa's got a mad case of yellow fever or something ??
- she's pissed about the korean monopoly on bodegas and drycleaners ??
seriously
i just don't get it.

OHHH wait. it's probably a japanese/vietnam thing isn't it ? i always forget that one.

come to think of it maybe that's why i got yelled at outside the Waldbaum's in jersey city a few years ago too-- some old lady with a thick russian accent kept screaming at me to "go back" where i "came from" for absolutely no reason at all.
and i was all: "what ? i should go back to hackensack ? what for ?!" as that squat little witch was threatening to clobber me over the head with her umbrella.

sigh

whatever. never mind.


oh suddenly another part of my water dream last night just popped into my head-- gwen-butler was there !

did i never tell about gwen-butler ? she's "Boston's $2.45 Million Dollar Bartender" according to New York magazine. even though she really got $3 million.
well anyways, gwen-butler and i met through the Forum thingie, she was really cool she even wrote me a totally awesome "fan letter" once !

well anyhoo. to make a long story short, she [... sorry! the rest of this entry appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

• october 27, 2007. "granny wants to hate on chinese/ well here's a reminder/ she better check her teeth/ they say "made in china"..." •
COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

 

   

MONDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2008. 12:24PM

actually i don't really have much time for this right now but i just wanted to catch up and tell how everything seems to be going pretty well, the project and the other project and the other other project are all under way. granted it's all developing kinda trudgingly, but maybe that's just cuz of how the entire universe needed to be dropped suddenly to make time for all the packing, and then of course after the days of packing were all the days of unpacking. which i'm still doing right now by the way.

i'm not complaining at all though cuz the packing went rather smoothly and the unpacking is progressing quite swimmingly. and i'm pretty excited too cuz then after all the unpacking is finally finished then the other other other project can start too.

aha haa of course that will be right around the time i'll be dropping everything all over again to do a few days of traveling ! yay !

isn't this fun ? YES IT IS.

yah so anyways. speaking of all the packing and unpacking, i never told about how the fungshooey master came and said how the new fungshooey is soooo much better than the old fungshooey. and i am totally thinking it MUST be true ! cuz already... [... sorry! the rest of this entry appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

bye bye
old fungshooey

 

hello
new fungshooey

• october 15, 2007. "this one is for: my sum dum goys [patience, young grasshopper - PART III]" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

 

MONDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2007. 3:45PM

[... sorry! the entire entry for this date appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish]

 

 

 

   

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2007. 1:08PM

[sorry! the beginning of this entry appears only in PX This Too -- coming soon. ish] ...which is so funny.  cuz remember the time i was in LA and i had dinner with gary-dourdan ?

well i didn't bother mentioning it back then but actually i had asked gary-dourdan if he would consider maybe producing my book as a teevee series. actually all along i had been fantasizing how gary-dourdan would make a great "eric-goode character" but that part only comes later in the story, so i'd wondered if maybe gary-dourdan might want to produce or something instead, since maybe the eric-goode role wasn't big enough for him.
in my head i'd been thinking how CSI had already been on teevee so long, so maybe it wouldn't have many more seasons left ? eeheee i was hoping maybe gary-dourdan would be looking for a job afterward.

anyways. gary-dourdan was super sweet he'd said he would definitely consider it. and i remember he had asked me "who would play you?"

i'd wanted to show him i wasn't as ignorant about television as i seemed, so i responded something like: "well maybe hollywood will want to change the lead character to a white person instead..." i was trying to show him i'm not stupid at all.

but it was (kind of) surprising, gary-dourdan replied: "but that's what makes the story interesting! that's it's YOU, and you're NOT white. you shouldn't cave when it comes to something like that..." and then he went on to explain how originally the idea for CSI was a dud, nobody wanted to touch it with a ten foot pole. and look at it now (!) it was like the number one rated show on teevee for like forever or some shit-- he even recounted to me how the quentin-tarantino directed episode had something like 30 million viewers the night it aired.

anyhoo so then i felt awful, i didn't want gary-dourdan to think i am weak, so i said something like "well okay... but i have no idea who would play me."
immediately he'd suggested: "how about lucy-liu?"

ha haa i totally recall thinking to myself back then: what is he crazy ? lucy-liu ? she's like a huge FILM actress, why would she be interested in teevee ?

and now look isn't it nutso ? not only is lucy-liu starring in a teevee series, but she's playing a white character.
how bizarro.


anyways. so then that whole gary-dourdan story led to me elaborating all about how i always sorta pictured jennifer-esposito as the "Loser" character. and not just because i think she would be awesomely great at it, but also because it maybe wouldn't be that hard for me to get a hold of jennifer-esposito, seeing as she's kinda my homegirl from back in the day.

i was trying to show how smart i am again, you see. apparently this is how it works, you have to "attach" (that's hollywood jargon) famous peoples to your "project" and that's how They decide if your idea is good enough for film/teevee or not (cuz evidently nobody in hollywood reads and that's why They can't just figure that shit out for Themselves).
oh yah ! and then i also added how i would really like maxwell to at least play himself in a cameo, if not a whole "character" on his own. i have no idea whether maxwell is at all interested in acting, like ice-cube or mos-def or fitty-cent, but i do think he would pretty good at it if he tried.
oh and then i told all about how i met john-gulager and how he liked my book too. even though poor little Feast wasn't featured in very many theatres, i still think john-gulager is a super talented director. i'm not sure whether it helps to "attach" really talented peoples who aren't that famous yet though.
whatever


ahahaa so check it. then all this led back to big original question all over again-- "and... who would play you?"
so of course i was all: "uhh... hmm..." cuz honestly i had no answer at all-- the fuck i know who would play me ??
and thus i was sorta totally joking when i offered: "how's about marja-allen.vongerichten ? everybody says she's my 'twin' and i think i read somewheres she's an actress!"

ee hee heee ha ha ha ha ha haa
wouldn't you know he fucking looooves the idea he thinks it's "BUH RILLIANT."


ahhahahahaa geezus christ.

• september 30, 2007. "who would play you" • COMMENT on this entry (registration required)

 

   
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