Yesterday, after reading Uptown Collective's great review of La Marina, a new restaurant that just opened in Inwood, Stephen and I decided to try it out asap. We took the A-train up to the Dyckman stop and walked west to the river. For anyone who remembers the old marina, which was a graveyard of rotting boats, abandoned buildings, and punishingly loud cars ominously circling around under the West Side Highway, you'll be amazed by the transformation: La Marina is very mod, with lots of steel, glass, and stone, and sits right on the Hudson with perfect views of the water and of course the greatest bridge in the world: the George Washington. We made a reservation (via Open Table), and were seated immediately. Our only regret was the overcast sky, because there couldn't be a better place to watch a sunset. Our waiter was very friendly, and the frozen drinks (mango daiquiri and three-berry mojito) were strong, not too sweet, and served in the right kind of glass (without paper umbrellas and other such adornments that can make frozen drinks embarrassing). The appetizers -- fried calamari and crab cake -- were also great. My only quibble about the food was a seared tuna salad with four pieces of tuna about an inch long and the size of a thin french fry -- I guess it's fine if you're on a diet -- but Stephen's salmon was good. The music was festive without being too loud, and the crowd -- like the best places in uptown -- was what you could call very "mixed" (however you want to define it: old/young/gay/straight/black/white/Spanish/etc) without any of the hipster/moneyed attitude you sometimes find downtown or in "white-ppl Brooklyn." Everyone seemed very relaxed, in other words. It would be a perfect place to have a party or go with a larger group, since there's plenty of room to spread out up and down the shoreline. At one point after our second drink, I told Stephen that it felt like being on vacation: then, on the way out, we ran into another non-heterosexual couple we know who has lived uptown for many years, and one of the guys was like, "this place is amazing -- it's like being on vacation!" We'll definitely be going back -- hope to see some of you there.
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07/14/2012
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A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.
All photographs on this blog can be purchased HERE in many formats including tiles :)