Nowhere Boy

Last night we headed to the US Premiere of Nowhere Boy at the Tribeca Film Institute.

The movie tells the story of John Lennon's teenage years, and the impact this had on his life. It examines the personality of the two dominant females in his childhood, his Aunt Mimi and estranged mother Julia. It also includes the first meeting of Lennon with Paul McCartney, and the development of the band "The Quarrymen" that evolved into "The Beatles".

Released as part of John Lennon's 70th Birthday Celebration, there were a slew of celebs in attendance such as Harry Weinstein, Ethan Hawke, Harvey Keitel, Salman Rushdie and the cast including Kristin Scott Thomas.

More impressively Yoko turned up! However she did commit a serious fashion violation via the mis-use of a fedora hat, and my comment "Yoko, your hat is whack" turned a few heads.

What can say? Make up your own mind from the picture below.

The truth hurts Yoko, and you also broke up the band.















After the movie, the remaining original members of the Quarrymen performed, which was amazing.
















We then headed out for a rather late diner at Mario Batali's Otto, before cabbing it home to bed.

All in all it was a great night, and I would highly recommend seeing this film.

As part of the 70th Birthday celebration, Amnesty International is re-releasing "Instant Karma", a fundraising album that covers Lennon's solo work by nearly two dozen current artists.
All proceeds go towards bringing awareness of human rights to a new generation.

http://shop.amnestyusa.org/Instant-Karma-The-Amnesty-International-Campaign/M/B000PMG9G2.htm

The Spotted Pig

With summer almost over, we took advantage of a decreased number of tourists and hit the very trendy West Village hot-spot, The Spotted Pig........aka co-owned by Bono.

After a week of rather mild weather, we were hit with a heat wave, and arrived feeling slightly less glamorous than anticipated.

We chowed down on burgers with gorgonzola cheese, rosemary & garlic string fries, and a local Brooklyn brew.............everyone was a happy!

Miss Julie

Last weekend we got a visit from Miss Julie, the lovely sister of our good friend Alison.

It is always a joy to see a member of our favorite Nordic/American family, with blonde hair to boot!

Julie's friend Tara joined us and we all met in Chinatown for some authentic Dim Sum aka Yum Cha.

We had a great time catching up, splitting soy sauce on ourselves and generally just bloating out over dumplings!

Shout out to Julie for spotting the pork bun trolley!

US Open

On Tuesday night my lovely hubby surprised me with tickets to the US Open - what a treat!

We headed out to Flushing, Queens in the early evening and entered the stadium just as the sun set.















We had great seats, just above the promenade but below the nose bleed.















Funnily enough Australian Samantha Stosur was playing against Kim Clijsters, so there was alot of Australian spirit, a few "oi oi oi" and many "look at moi kimmie"















It was then onto Rafael Nadal versus Feliciano Lopez. More Spaniards, flags with bulls and "ole ole ole" than sense!

Smores

This weekend was my first time experiencing the American Camp Fire tradition: Smores.















Basically it is a marshmallow melted softly from the fires, placed on squares of chocolate and sandwiched between two crackers.

Luckily David was there supervising the procedure to make sure each one was perfect :)

It was no Australian damper with honey and jam, but it was very tasty none the less!

Rock On

After such an indulgence the night before, we decided to get out in the fresh air on Sunday.

We made our way to the light house at Beaver River Reserve set on a rocky outpost perfect for climbing and exploring.

































We spent the afternoon picnicking, walking around the rocks and enjoying the scenery.

Happy Birthday Jeff

For Labor Day weekend we headed to Rhode Island to celebrate Jeff''s 40th Birthday.

After being slightly delayed by Hurricane Eric, we arrived on Saturday morning and spent the afternoon relaxing.

We then headed out to dinner at Catarina's Italian Village, with an old school vibe nestled into a hill over looking country side - perfect!































Servings were huge, but somehow we all managed to fit in birthday cake!