Jess Jiang
Reitman vs. Reitman
Considering who his father is, you might think Jason Reitman left the womb grasping a sound boom in his tiny hand. Jason was still a toddler when dad Ivan Reitman was making Animal House (1978) and other classic comedies like Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981). By the time Reitman hit his stride with Ghostbusters in […]
Lessons in Enjoying Tea
Instead of drinking my daily 8 cups of water, I’ve kept myself hydrated (and warm) this winter with tea. I once thought making tea was as simple as boiling water. Oh, how wrong was I. Everything I now know about tea I learned onMalian Dao,a mile-long street in Beijing exclusively devoted to the wholesale of […]
Do the Golden Globes Have a Glass Ceiling?
The Golden Globe Awards are this Sunday, and I’m excited, especially for one nominee. The buzz is all over director Kathryn Bigelow and ‘The Hurt Locker,’ an action film about a bomb-defusing squad in Baghdad. Last summer, Bigelow talked to Kurt about her transition from young painter to action filmmaker(‘Point Break,’ ‘Strange Days’): But Bigelow’s […]
Helping Haiti: Relief through Music
The human tragedy in Haiti is overwhelming, and it’s hard to know what we can do from hundreds or thousands of miles away. Here’s one thing… January 20 through 25, New York’s City Winery (155 Varick Street) is holding a series of four emergency benefit concerts featuring an impressive line-up of musicians including some familiar […]
Nobody Puts Jane Austen in a Corner
It’s Friday night, and I’m sweating on the dance floor. Am I at some chic nightclub? Not exactly. Instead of a techno beat, the sounds of fiddles, guitars, recorder, dulcimer, and banjo hang in the air. Okay, I confess: I love Contra dancing. It’s a rowdy mix of square and line dancing. The constant swapping […]
Makin’ Whoopies
Julie Powell — the author and Julie of Julie & Julia — cooked 524 recipes in 365 days. That’s small potatoes compared to Brooklyn’s Cathy Erway, a twenty-something-year-old hipster who ate nothing from restaurants, take-out spots, or street-stands from September 2006 through September 2008. (The project began in an effort to save money, but it […]