Getting By, Dreaming Big

This is a blog for me to share my thoughts on my favorite things: books, traveling, food and entertainment!

Entertainment Thursday: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button August 13, 2009

Filed under: Entertainment Thursdays,Movie Reviews — readerbean @ 12:49 pm

When this movie first came out I heard such mixed reviews that Jon and I both agreed we’d rather rent the movie and watch it at home then see it in the theater. There were just too many good movies out at the time.

Well, many months later, we were finally in the mood to give it a go. Our expectations were really low going into the movie and we were kind of stunned to find that we enjoyed it – it was kind of a sweet little movie.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is the story of who else but Benjamin Button. He’s born an old man and ages backwards – essentially as he grows older he looks younger. He is raised by the woman who found him, her acceptance and love of Benjamin regardless of his strangeness is beautiful. His mom runs a nursing home and he befriends a young girl, Daisy and maintains their friendship through his life. There is a love story there as well but I don’t want to give away any part of the movie.

The beginning is just strange. We watched this movie in two parts. The first 60 minutes and then the rest of the movie. I wasn’t liking it when we stopped the first night, it was weird, and it just wasn’t flowing right for me (truthfully I fell asleep – but that’s not hard for me to do when it’s past 10PM and I’m laying on our couch!) The 2nd night we started it up out of pure obligation to finish the movie. The 2nd half of the movie was much better, much stronger, and the longer we were watching the more that I liked the movie. When it ended we both agreed we had liked it more than we thought we would. It was just a sweet story of love, acceptance of other people and who they are, friendship, family and what you make of your life. All themes that I generally enjoy.

This is not a movie that I would heartily recommend. If you’re curious see it, but go in with low expectations, and maybe you too will be surprised.

4 stars
Post in Comments:
Have you seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? Did you like it?
 

Foodie Wednesday: Restaurant Review, Les Halles August 12, 2009

Filed under: Foodie Wednesday,Restaurant Reviews — readerbean @ 2:11 pm

A couple of weeks ago we made plans with our friends Matt & Jenn to get together for dinner. Matt choose Les Halles because he had recently read Kitchen Confidentials, and apparently they talk alot about Les Halles in that book. Jon & I had walked by this restaurant fairly often and were excited to finally try it out.

Les Halles, is a french style brasserie. It has a great feel when you walk in, it’s bustling, I loved the decor, it just totally fit that Parisian style. Matt informed us that it is known for good steak so even though I was leaning towards getting the scallops (next time) I opted for a steak. I rarely eat steak or red meat, not because I’m a vegetarian, but just because I never think to order it.

We ordered drinks. Jenn and I split a bottle of the House Wine and the boys drank Vodka tonics. I wasn’t in the mood for an appetizer but everyone else ordered one and they all enjoyed them. Jon and Jenn both had Croutons De Coulommiers Rotis Au Miel Et Poivre (brie topped with honey & cracked black pepper roasted and served on croutons) and Matt had a Smoked Salmon Sandwich that was one of the specials.

Then for the main course Jon had Steak Au Poivre, Frites (steak coated with cracked black peppercorn); I had Onglet A L’Echalote (hanger steak, shallot sauce); Matt & Jenn shared Côte De Boeuf (prime rib on the bone, for two).

I have to say my meal was delicious!!! The shallot sauce was out of this world. It had a light shallot taste but was also a little smoky perfect for dipping my steak pieces in. Everyone really enjoyed their meal and the people watching was fabulous!

I would definitely visit this restaurant again. If you like steak or all things French then I would recommend it as a restaurant you too should visit.

Les Halles
411 Park Ave S
(Btwn 28th & 29th St)
(212) 679-4111

Post in Comments:

Have you eaten at Les Halles?

 

Tuesday Travels: Review of Homeaway.com August 11, 2009

Filed under: Tuesday Travels,Vacation — readerbean @ 1:54 pm

I’m in a little bit of a lull for Tuesday Travel topics (which is why I skipped it last week). Jon and I apparently haven’t done anything fun in NYC recently that I haven’t already blogged about. Have no fear, Tuesday Travels is going to rock when I get back from our trip and give you guys the detailed blow by blow of 10 days in Germany & Austria!

In the meantime, I thought I would write a review of Home Away. We used this service when we went on our girls trip to Puerto Rico in March. For whatever reason we couldn’t find a hotel suite in San Juan that would sleep 5 (suites just don’t exist there!) and we didn’t want to have to pay for 2 hotel rooms because it was just going to be expensive for 4 nights. My friend Rachelle informed me that for her girls trip to Napa (coming up in September) her and her friends had booked a house through Vacation Rentals by Owner. So that got me thinking, maybe we could rent an apartment for our trip!

Both sites are great resources for the savvy traveler. Renting an apartment or a house is much cheaper then getting a hotel room during your vacation, especially if you’re going to be staying in one place. Of course this depends on how many people are traveling, if it’s just 2 it’s probably not that much different, but for a group of 5 of us it made a huge difference.

We got a great apartment downtown in the Old Historic District of San Juan. If you want to check out the place we stayed click here! For 4 nights and 2 days car rental we each only had to chip in $180! There is no way it would have been that cheap if we were staying at a hotel. I had no reservations booking through Home Away because the reviews I had seen were top notch. It was very easy to work with them. They sent me a contract and I had to put down 1/2 up front and then the other 1/2 right before we left. I also had to put down a security deposit that was returned to me once they saw that the apartment was returned to the way we found it. The woman met us at the apartment when we arrived and showed us in, gave us a tour, told us where things were in the city, gave us the keys and we were on our own. She gave us her cell phone in the event we had any problems and needed to reach her.

The other great thing about renting an apartment as opposed to staying in a hotel is that we were able to go to the grocery store and purchase food for breakfast, lunch and we ate 1 dinner in. We all chipped in about $20-$30 and that covered breakfast for 4 meals, lunch for 4 meals, 1 dinner and alcohol for the weekend. You can’t beat that. We also commented that we ate a lot healthier because we were eating “at home.”

Now don’t get me wrong I love staying in hotels! They’re awesome, but if you’re looking for a more affordable way to travel with a family or with a big group of friends apartment/house rentals are the way to go!

Post in Comments:

Have you ever rented an apartment/house when traveling?

 

Monday Bookworms: Just Take My Heart August 10, 2009

Filed under: Book Reviews,Monday Bookworms — readerbean @ 5:55 pm

Just Take My Heart, Mary Higgins Clark
322 pages, @ 2009

I have been an avid Mary Higgins Clark fan since I was 13 and on vacation with my parents in Cape Cod. One rainy day I declared I was bored and my mother gave me While My Pretty One Sleeps and I was hooked.

I went on to read every book she’d ever written. My mother obviously is also a huge MHC fan and so every year for Mother’s Day part of her gift is that I get her the latest MHC book. Luckily, once she’s finished she always passes them on to me!

I realized not too long ago that I had never gotten this year’s book, Just Take My Heart, so when we stopped by my parents this weekend to drop off the car I picked it up and promptly started it on the train ride back to NYC.

Just Take My Heart centers around the Bergen County assistant prosecuter, Emily Wallace, who is assigned her biggest case yet, the murder of actress Natalie Raines. The obvious suspect in this murder is Natalie’s soon to be ex-husband Gregg Aldrich. Emily’s, put-away witness, is an ex-con Jimmy Easton, who claims that Aldrich hired him to murder his wife. While all of this is going on, Emily, unbeknownst to her, has a larger problem on her hands, that of her creepy neighbor, Zach Lanning. Will she realize in time that he isn’t who he says he is?

Of course in typical MHC fashion this book flew, I finished it in about two days! I did however, disappointingly, figure out “who done it” about half way through the book. I wouldn’t say that MHC mysteries are usually the most difficult to figure out, but she usually narrows it down to two men, one who will end up wooing the main female character, and one who is the murderer and therefore trying to stop the main female character from putting all the pieces together…who can she trust?

In this book however, MHC took the approach of introducing a totally different storyline that had nothing to do with the main part of the mystery. This story line instead of adding to the mystery was just a distraction from the main plot. Therefore, I found it easier to figure out the mystery.

While I didn’t think this was MHC’s best effort, I did thoroughly enjoy it!

3 stars

Post in Comments:

What is your favorite Mary Higgins Clark book? Mine is definitely Stillwatch!

 

Entertainment Thursday: In the Heights August 6, 2009

Filed under: Entertainment Thursdays,NYC Experiences,Theater — readerbean @ 2:17 pm

In the Heights
As I said in my previous post, my friend Katie and I decided to start a little Broadway Tradition. Once a year we’re going to get in line at TKTS and get tickets to a show together! I’m so psyched about this tradition, you all know how much I love to go to the theater.

This past Sunday was the day. I got to TKTS at 10:20AM about 40 minutes prior to TKTS opening. I was shocked by the line at that time. I read in line and made friends with a guy from Peru (Marco) we swapped theater stories about what we’d seen and liked recently. Katie got there a little before 11AM. I was surprised by how quickly the line moved. I’m not going to lie I was kind of dreading getting in that long line but it flew. We had our tickets by 11:30AM AND we got the show we wanted.

We snagged 2 orchestra seats to In the Heights. We had great seats – Row O, Seat 14 & 16. I was concerned we’d be too far to the side but the center section of the theater was much smaller then in other theaters so we were just slightly right of the center. I didn’t really know much about this show other than that it featured some rap music, Latin Music and took place in NYC.

The basic premise is that Nina Rosario comes back to her old neighborhood, Washington Heights, after not doing as well at Stanford as her family & friends had hoped. It explores many people’s views on their neighborhood – the relationships formed, the expectations, the people, etc.

It was phenomenal!!!! It was fun & funny – I was dancing in my seat. The music was so great. There were many elements of rap, but also great vocals, specifically from the character Benny (he was amazing!) It was very Latin which I also loved. In the Heights made me realize that what I love best about musicals are the ensemble numbers with all or a large part of the cast. In this play almost every song was sung by numerous people making each song powerful. Each song was better than the next (I can’t wait to get the soundtrack!) To get an idea of the music you can click here for their Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade performace.

I also felt that they handled the Spanish language much better in this play then in West Side Story. They did use it in the dialogue but more for small sayings (ie: Bueno, no me diga, caridad, etc). It didn’t take away from the show at all only added to it (in my opinion). They did sing a lot in Spanish but every song that was sung in Spanish was also sung in English if that makes sense. They would essentially translate the song for the audience so you never felt you couldn’t understand. Granted I’m a little biased in this statement becuase I could for the most part understand the Spanish so it didn’t seem that bad to me but I’m not sure what it would be like if you didn’t know Spanish, maybe it would take away from the show.

All in all, I would give this show 5 stars. It’s one I would see again, and like I said I can’t wait to get the soundtrack!!!

Post in Comments:
Have you seen In the Heights? What did you think of it?
 

Foodie Wednesday, Restaurant Review, Marsielles August 5, 2009

Filed under: Foodie Wednesday,Restaurant Reviews — readerbean @ 1:54 pm
(Outside view of Marseille Restaurant)

On Sunday, my friend Katie and I decided to start a great tradition. Once a year we are going to meet wait in line at TKTS, grab brunch and see a show. This is going to be our “special” thing. We finally got our schedules together and last Sunday was the day! I’ll be blogging about the play we saw in my Entertainment Thursday post. I didn’t really know of any good brunch places over in the Theater district as it’s not a place that I eat with any sort of frequency. I figured we could just walk 9th Avenue and see what we found.

(Interior Shot of Marseille)

What did we find? A gem of a restuarant with great prices, delicious food, fantastic service and a great atmosphere. Don’t you just love it when things work out like that? We were walking and saw Marseille across the street and thought it looked perfect. After checking out the menu (to make sure the prices were reasonable) we decided to give it a go.

We couldn’t decide on what to get so we decided to split two dishes. We got the asparagus and goat cheese omelet which came with delicious pesto pan friend potatoes and a side salad. There wasn’t a bad thing about this meal, every component was delicious. The other dish we got was the Belgian Waffles. They were dusted with a cinnamon sugar and we were provided with syrup, strawberries and whipped cream for toppings. These waffles were easily the best Belgian Waffles I’ve had. They were so yummy. I’m glad we split our meal though because both dishes were so outstanding!

We also each enjoyed a Cava & OJ mimosa – YUM! Katie also had a pot of tea and I enjoyed a hot chocolate. Our server didn’t once rush us out of there and we were there for a good two hours. The best part with tip the bill came to about $26 per person or something like that! Not bad for NYC brunch.

I mentioned the place to my brother who lives in the area and he said they’ve been there for dinner and thought it was really good. I also mentioned it to my mother who said she’s been there with friends before a show for dinner as well and that it was fabulous.

This is definitely a restaurant that I will be returning to without a doubt. What a great find!

Post in Comments:

Have you eaten at Marseille? If so, what’s your favorite dish?
 

Monday Bookworms: Angelica August 3, 2009

Filed under: Book Reviews,Monday Bookworms — readerbean @ 11:16 am

Angelica, Arthur Phillips

331 pages

Jon got me this book for Easter 2008. He found it at Borders and thought it looked right up my alley. In my quest to read the books Jon buys me instead of saving them I decided to pick it up.

The book takes place in the late 19th Century in England. They classify it as a psychological thriller which I’m not sure I agree with. Essentially “something” is occuring in the home of the Barton’s. The Barton family includes: Joseph Barton, the father; Constance Barton, the mother; Angelica Barton, their 4 year old daughter and Nora the Irish live in maid. Constance believes that she sees a ghost haunting Angelica and becomes very over protective of the girl, calling in a spiritual advisor. Joseph, sees how distraught his wife is but does not understand the reason for her bizarre behaviour. Angelica sees the division between her parents and is unsure what to do so she plays into both of their weaknesses.

Angelica is a well written book and what I loved most about it was that there were 4 parts. The first part was the story told from Cosntance’s point of view, Part 2 was told from Anne Montague’s point of view (the spiritual advisor brought in by Constance to assess the situation, Part 3 was told from Joseph’s point of view and the final part was told from Angelica’s point of view. I thought this was a clever way to tell the story. The reader was able to understand everyone’s point of view.

As a psychological thriller I would say it fell short. I knew there was going to be a twist and I was turning the pages waiting and waiting for it to come and when the twist came it was a little rushed and just fell short of my expecations. However, waiting for that twist definitely kept me engaged and turning the pages.

Overall Rating – 3 stars

Post in Comments:

Do you like psycholgoical thrillers?