Sushi Search: Chicago

Here’s a selection of sushi restaurants I pulled up because I like research and not being bored at work. I’m focusing my search on byob so we can bring our own crappy sake or soju. 

Restaurant: Greentea Japanese Restaurant
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Pros: I have eaten here before. It is sufficiently crappy looking inside. The chefs were really legit looking japanese dudes with long hair. I remember that it, like all sushi I have ever had, was nummy.
Cons: It’s in Lincoln Park. But whatever, it’s not like there’s a forcefield around the place.

2206 N Clark St
(between Grant Pl & Sedgwick St)
Chicago, IL 60614 Yelp it.

Restaurant: Toro Sushi
Neighborhood: Lincoln Park
Pros: Seems like a cool small neighborhood place. Everyone on Yelp seems to know the chef by his first name.
Cons: the chef’s name is Mitch
2546 N Clark St
(between Deming Pl & Wrightwood Ave)
Chicago, IL 60614 Yelp it.

Restaurant: Coast Sushi Bar
Neighborhood: Bucktown
Pros: It has “decor” and “servers” (plural). Also it is in Bucktown.
Cons: Sneaky feelings. I distrust sushi restaurants, or any ethnic restaurant, with “decor” and more than one server. I also demand to see said server rolling silverware or drinking diet cola out of a big red plastic cup.
2045 N Damen Avenue
(between Dickens Ave & Mclean Ave)
Chicago, IL 60647 Yelp it.

Restaurant: Excellent Sushi
Neighborhood: Vancouver, between a whorehouse and a head shop
Pros: 22 pieces of sushi plus miso soup for $5
Cons: It’s 2000 miles away
www.I’msadnowbecauseI’mnotatexcellentsushi.corn Yelp it.

Restaurant: Shiso
Neighborhood: Near North Side
Pros: It has sushi and is byob. It’s closer to where Ryan and I work.
Cons: Sneaky feelings. Everyone who goes there is just glad that it doesn’t cost a billion dollars. The kind of people who use the term “Dive Bar” way too liberally.
449 W. North Ave.
(between Cleveland Ave & Hudson Ave)
Chicago, IL 60610 Yelp it.

Restaurant: Tampopo
Neighborhood: Lincoln Square
Pros: It’s called Tampopo
Cons: It’s far away and probably lame, plus I don’t want to go there because I want to go to Green Tea.
5665 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60686 Yelp it.

Dan

Tonight I met a character named Dan. Dan was a friend of a friend, and based on every description I knew that hanging out with Dan would be a unique experience. That day I had done nothing but eat sandwiches and watch

Fifthpocket’s Trailers: It’s my turn.

Here’s some stuff I’ve worked on in the past few years.  The stuff that I have access to, anyway.  The best place to view them is actually Twitch, a great website which lists all of the movies that I’ve worked on with Eric Lim, Niko Pueringer, and Sam Gorski.   I know very little about the technical side of blogging, so I can’t post them here myself.  One more thing that causes me shame in my daily life.

Dark Island

• Production Designer
• Key Makeup/Hair
• Co-Producer
• Casting Director
• Insane overachiever.

Greenside

• Art Director
• Key Makeup/Hair
• Costume Designer

Zero Trooper F

• Costume Designer

Los Angeles

This is where I am.

Hello there! I’m currently in a fabulous apartment smack in the middle of Hollywood, CA. There are two days left in filming “Feed the Fish,” and I’m officially here in a professional capacity. Professional for two days, much earned vacation for the rest. If only it were sunny.

I didn’t think I’d like Los Angeles. I had too many preconceived notions. I had spoken to too many actors who praddled on for hours about their diets, spf and bowel movements. About bottled water. Golden highlights. Yoga vs. Pilates. I assumed a total obsessions with one’s body and the things that go into it, nourish it and adorn it. I assumed it would be like my stay in the suburbs of Chicago times a zillion. Depending on who I speak to, I am and am not correct. If you ask people enough questions, you’ll get many different answers. None of which completely convey a real idea.
First impressions: Los Angeles is a place. With people. Surprise! For the most part, the people are slightly cooler, slightly more beautiful than the average person. The streets are wider, and the restaurants are slightly hipper. I see more of the things that I’ve sought out in other cities. Ethnic restaurants in strip malls. Stripper supply stores. Hole in the wall drug stores. Middle aged men in expensive jeans. It’s all stuff I’ve seen elsewhere, just more of it. Like other places I’ve been to and lived, there’s plenty of stuff that isn’t “me.” But like other places that I’ve been to and lived, I just don’t see it. Cheers to a selective consciousness. And a nod to L.A.

Filming Wrapped!

The Wisconsin leg of filming for “Feed the Fish” has wrapped! No more standing for hours on the frozen Ellison Bay, no more sprained ankles and drippy noses. Off to LA on Tuesday! LaLaLand, here I come.

Feed the Fish

I’m currently working in snowy Door County, Wisconsin doing makeup and hair for “Feed the Fish,” the feel good film of the winter. I’m working with a mixed bag of great actors, including Katheryn Aselton of indie hit “The Puffy Chair,” Ross Partridge of “Baghead,” Michael Chernus from “Winter’s Passing,” Barry Corbin of “Northern Exposure” and “No Country for Old Men,”and Wisconsin native Tony Shaloub of “Monk.”

I have high hopes for the film, which is full of charm, warmth, and a handful of good ball jokes courtesy of writer/director Michael Matzdorff.

If I survive the cold, and avoid falling through the ice, I’ll report back with more juicy behind the scenes gossip.

Fact of the day: Michael Chernus is a boring no-funster, and Barry Corbin can beat me at arm wrestling.

http://www.feedthefishmovie.com/

Apply sparingly with a soft cloth to remove greasy Films

I remember the bad promotion for this movie.  It had one of those terrible promotion schemes that basically just featured reveal shots: Tom Hanks.  Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Julia Roberts.  Should have been enough.  Except one crowbar in the cog of movie promotions:  Julia Roberts, our Julia Roberts, our beautiful brunette ray of American sunshine Julia Roberts looked all blonde and weird like a toothy nightmarish Erasorhead.  So I didn’t see it right away, and I think that’s how most people went.

I picked it up at Four Star Video Heaven on impulse, and it has sent me  on a spiralling love affair with Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Have you ever noticed how brilliant that guy is with props?  Even as a fat, mush-mouthed son of a Greek soda-pop maker, he inspires gleeful giggles from me every time he opens a sugar packet or calls someone a cocksucker behind his Wilford Brimley moustache.

And Philip Seymour Hoffman isn’t the only good thing about this movie.  It follows a brash and irreverent womanizing Texas congressman Tom Hanks as he lead the fundng of Afgani troops against the Soviet Union, putting heliocopter-destroying rocket launchers into the well-meaning hands of Afganis to shoot down communism in the 80’s.  Then America screwed it up in the end game, and the rest is pretty much history.   Good movie.

More Movies

Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie. Oh my god I hate this movie.

I felt like I was in hell for the entire second half.  Who saw this movie and thought it was ok?  Was that even an ending?

This movie is so underrated.   So much better than A.I., but then again so is an accidental enima with a garden hose.  An early Ron Howard film, it has all of the aspects of a totally solid sci-fi movie.  Except it’s better because Wilford Brimley and that kid from The Neverending Story are in it.

Thing that have made this movie a total punchline:

• Horny, breakdancing old people.
• Steve Guttenberg in short shorts.
• Alien on human, bright glowing laser sex.
• Steve Guttenberg

In a world jaded by the explosive retinal displays of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge and the well orchestrated jolly romp Amadeus, Topsy-Turvy is a sensory disappointment.  This biopic follows the latter part of the career of  Opera cohorts Gilbert and Sullivan.  As a theater veteran, I find rehearsal time as interesting as a nap and that is what comprises the basis of this film.  The costumes were perfect and the makeup was beautiful and skillfull.  But it wasn’t enough to make me care the least bit about this movie in which nothing much happens.  I love the DVD cover.  It’s a splendid DVD cover, full of lies that tricked me into watching this movie.

Note: I think that being familiar with the work of Gilbert and Sullivan would make this movie slightly more interesting.  Also, those interested in the wave of orientalism affecting western culture in the late 19th century and early 20th century would find some good bits to this film.  Also costume designers that hate actors.  Overall there are a few good bits in a very uneventful movie.

Merry Christmas

Gonna go get drunk at Grandma’s.

Senility Sets In

When you’ve spent the past month renting a minimum of three DVD’s per day, you start forgetting what you’ve watched.  Not the first week, or days ago, but earlier that day before trading in for your latest choices.  From what I gather, this is what I’ve watched in the past day and a half.

 

Driving Miss Daisy- This was my first viewing of the movie.  I couldn’t keep myself from imagining Jack Black’s performance in Be Kind Rewind imitating Jessica Tandy’s role, making the film both heartwarming and shit splitting hilareous.

Bull Durham- Another first time view, if you don’t count watered down tv viewings, flipping back and forth while Junior or Captain Ron was on commercial break.  Overall, this movie was great.  I may have been the first person since 1993 to actually sit down and watch this movie beginning to end, and I’d say it’s worth doing.  Features the world’s least sexy foreplay scene to date: Kevin Costner unzipping the back of Susan Sarandon’s churchlady dress to reveal a big mole and the top of her above the hip Jockey brand white granny panties.  The sax music in the background really tops it off.

Curse of the Golden Flower- It was a second watching for me, and I was way less impressed with it when seeing it on my 28 inch Sanyo brand TV that I bought from a fellow college kid on Craigslist.  The first time I saw it, I was in a private movie theater on a snakeskin-print couch drinking posh sodas, so don’t hold it against the movie.  It’s a massive textile porn, silk everywhere.

 

Amadeus- This movie reminded me once more just why I hate Sophia Coppola so deeply.  Well, the first reason is the Godfather part III and the second reason is her face, but the third reason is that Amadeus is thousands of times better than Marie Antoinette.  Even though it’s 24 years old it hardly feels dated even though it featured 1770’s styles with 1984 hipness-it doesn’t feel like a 1984 movie.  This is possibly the world’s best biopic, but don’t quote me on that.  I might have just liked the wigs a lot, who the hell knows.

How to Marry a Millionaire- Betty Grable=Cuter than Peaches.  With legs.  Oh and some chicks named Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe were pretty good in it too.  Made me want a hamburger with cole slaw on it, Pabst on the side.

Raging Bull- I’m waiting for my boyfriend to trudge home from the bar in the snow before I watch this.  I don’t know if I should meet him with a cup of hot chocolate or chamomile tea.  I wish I could go out and buy some Pabst, but the law isn’t on my side after 9pm.