Lure

Ok, I got one. Not really interested in who you are. Even less interested in where you're from. Lure in SoHo is all about the food.

You might get it twisted when you venture downstairs to find a restaurant deco'd out in a cruise ship theme. You might even wonder if you've been caught in a tourist trap. But once that smiling face of the professional staff member pops up at your table, you settle back and relax to enjoy what will certainly be a meal to remember.

You start to wonder why the whole space doesnt smell like Fulton Fish market. It's obvious someone from this place represents Lure down there every single day and picks some very fresh fish to be prepared for their guests. The wine list smacks the ass of those who assume you need to buy within the confines of the local distributor's allocated allotment. I saw some very proud names on the legal page sized document, and all of them sat proudly, anxious to accompany your meal.

I'm getting away from naming producer names (Araujo), and describing dishes (Branzino). But I like it when courses come together like a symphony. I like it when service leaves you alone to enjoy what you've ordered. I like it when they insist you order desert, and I like it even more when they tell you it's gratis. If you want me to come back to your restaurant, treat me with respect for the money I'm spending, help me enjoy my meal by being aware of my mealtime needs, put a plate of poppin fresh food in front of me, pour (decant) me a bottle of wine that is produced by a person and not a wine corporation, and buy me desert. Winner, Winner, FRESH SEAFOOD OF ALL TYPES delicious dinner.

From the feedback I get from you (thanks), I know some of you follow my lead on your dining experiences. Lately I've been guiding you away from some less than wonderful establishments, and that's my job too. If you're in New York, go downtown.... spend some time walking around SoHo (when I was a kid it was dangerous, when my dad was a kid it was all textile factories), have a drink and some oysters at Blue Ribbon on Thompson, but save your appetite for dinner at Lure. Shelly Buck is the sommelier and she gets it. Introduce yourself.

"I'll be your Huckleberry"

I'm not entirely sure what that title means. It's from a time long ago (or a place far away). But Val Kilmer uttered that line in the movie Tombstone, and the hair on the back of my neck went straight up.

Doctor John Henry Holliday came from a large, close knit, family from Georgia. He was just a touch too young to serve the Confederate Army in their war with the North, and that is said to have had an effect on the way he was raised. Without strong male role models, he was said to foster a reckless streak not found in young men of that place and time.

After dentist college in Pennsylvania, he returned to Georgia to apprentice and practice in the towns where his people were well known. Back room poker games and other ways to take chances were readily available to him, and he was recorded to have done well in all of them.

Around the time he was twenty, he woke up with the common symptoms of Tuberculosis. After a period of denial, he committed a crime in Northern Florida while on convalescence, and from there headed west fleeing to SouthWest Texas.

He spent the rest of his life dodging his illness and the other dangers in the still untamed West. He used whiskey to dull the pain of his body, sore and weak from the constant spasm of cough.

He moved about frequently, usually avoiding the law that sought him for the disagreements that left other men dead. He befriended a reluctant Marshall named Earp, and with the Earp brothers took part in one of the most famous gun battles in the history of the West. Solidifying his place in the minds and imaginations of all of us who dream about what it would be like to be free.

Fellini No Like

They're still making Western's. 3:10 to Yuma is a story about courage, dignity, and re-evaluation of one's self. I go pig shit for Western's. I'd sit through almost any of them again, and some of them really sucked. But I like the simplicity of the value system. This is wrong, this is right. You dont do this and get away with it, and you do this when you're pressed against the wall.

A whole lot of us have forgotten how simple it is to do the right thing. If it's business, relationships, or even everyday situations that call your judgement into question. So many people now chose what's in their own best interest over what is obviously the right thing to do. Like somehow a culture from somewhere has infected the rest of the planet, and left us with a relentless pursuit of our own self interest. I look out for such behavior. I normally try and avoid it, but this is the United States, and even more this is New York; so you're going to step in it sometimes.

Christian Bale plays what would begin as the hero in this film. But Russel Crowe plays the bad-guy who transforms as if he's experiencing a catharsis right before our eyes. He seems like he takes some shots at redemption towards the end, but negating the existence of evil is always a big mistake.

At the risk of ruining it, he gets bathed in purity when he tells the story of how his father was killed over "a shot of whiskey" when he was just a boy. He goes on to reveal his mom packed them up and rushed them to the train station with the intent of giving them a fresh start. She set him down on a bench with a bible and told him not to stop reading that book until he was through with it. He did as he was told and lifted his head to find his mom gone, after three days had gone by. ********(one day Forrest just started runnnnningggg.......)********

I wasnt perfect, but it was good. I heard a newswoman report that Crowe was a film-crew favorite and it was Bale who wouldnt associate with the minions and only flew in for his sequences (by helicopter). It was reported (by above mentioned newsperson) that he would only speak with those he had shots with, and would speak to them only during the shooting of those scenes.

I love 5star hotels and helicopter rides as much as the next guy, but why be an asshole?

Every Man has a Plan

I cant remember the last good picture I took. It's been years.