Generally speaking, Martin Scorsese movies don’t put me in the mood for romance

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks, what with visitors, work and what not. I apologise profusely for my lack of blog hopping. I’ve also been getting some stick from my pals for being a bad email friend too, but my new client’s been keeping me on my toes since I started working on his account about three weeks ago and then I’ve been trying to leave the office at a reasonable hour to hang out with visitors, Miles and B last week and, of course, to see Catweazle this week.

So yes, Catweazle is back in town from North Carolina and we had our second date on Saturday, only a mere 2months after our first outing, which you can refresh your memory of here should that be your want.

I had fond memories of our first date and was looking forward to seeing him again, however I wasn't especially romanticising the prospect of our second date, because…well, even though we got on like a house on fire on our first date I wasn’t sure if that would still be the case 2months later, you never know right, so I was playing it cool and not getting my hopes too high, however for all my outward complacency about seeing him again I did spend some time ensuring all the appropriate bits were waxed, my legs shaved, my hair perfectly styled and my duvet coverings freshly changed. Yup, I don't mind admitting it kids; I was hoping to get lucky ;-)

We met on Saturday afternoon by a subway station on the Upper East Side – he’s staying with a friend who conveniently lives 9blocks from me - and headed downtown to check out the New Museum. As the name would suggest it’s a new contemporary art museum which opened on the Bowery towards the end of last year, but which I hadn’t yet had a chance to stop by. Having met on a tour of contemporary art galleries it seemed like a good choice and I’d read in Time Out magazine that the Paul Chan exhibit, The 7 Lights, was worth a look.

The exhibit is certainly interesting, projecting digital silhouettes onto the walls and floor of the gallery. We didn’t stay too long pondering the pieces, to fully appreciate it we’d have had to stay a good while as according to the museum blurb each of the seven pieces – Lights - are “structured over the course of a day, each of the Lights begins peacefully, with the warm colors of dawn. Slowly the atmosphere changes: silhouettes of objects rise up through the air and are dismantled by obscure forces, while human shadows plummet towards the ground. Like a dream deteriorating into a nightmare, the sequence becomes increasingly horrific until it fades to dusk and peace returns, waiting for day to break again.” Below is a tiny still of the exhibit courtesy of the Greene Naftali Gallery.

To be honest I was quite disappointed by the New Museum, since the space held over for exhibits was on the frugal side with just 2 of the 7 floors - 8 if you include the basement which I believe houses a theatre – fully used for exhibits, with one floor being closed and we were in and out in about an hour which included 10minutes enjoying the view from the 7th floor. I’ve previously balked at the $20 charged by MoMA – most museums in New York charge $12 which is the entry fee at the New Museum – but at least MoMA is chock full of art. Seriously if you were to measure a museum experience based on entry fee per piece exhibited I think the New Museum would be up there. I sound so cheap grumbling about $12, but it’s not as if I begrudge the cost - they do have a beautiful SANAA designed building to house the collection – but I was looking forward to spending a couple of hours browsing and I felt cheated out of that experience.

Fortunately we got over our museum disappointment by heading down to Orchard St and joining the line outside Il Laboratorio Del Gelato, which in my opinion serves the best gelato in the city. I had a small cup with half amaretto crunch, half espresso; Catweazle foolishly passed up the espresso flavour – which is to die for – in favour of a small cup of amaretto crunch and dark chocolate, which was good, but not a patch on the espresso, but I was in a good mood so I shared some with him ;-)

We spent the rest of the afternoon having a lovely time pottering around the Lower East Side, NoLIta and SoHo before heading back to the Lower East Side for early-ish drinks and tapas style snacks at The Stanton Social, in the popular upstairs lounge where they serve divine potato and goat cheese pierogies and other delights. Afterwards we headed uptown to the cinema in Kips Bay to see the movie 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall'. An okay movie I thought, there were a few good laughs and Russell Brand is actually fairly decent in it, which I wasn’t expecting. I’ve tired of Mr. Brand of late finding him a touch over exposed, but he was a good fit for the film which I’d give 6/10, maybe 7 if I were in a generous frame of mind.

After the movie Catweazle came back to my place and we snuggled on the sofa watching Taxi Driver. He’s quite the snuggler is Catweazle, although Taxi Driver wouldn’t be the first film I’d pick should someone ask me to name a snugglesome date movie, however it happened to be starting and I’m ashamed to say I’d never seen it before, which is just not on at all is it? I mean how can any person seriously lay claim to being a New Yorker if they’ve never seen the movie Taxi Driver? It's just not feasible. After the movie??? Well...I'm going to close the bedroom door on you there and leave the rest to your filthy imaginations ;-)

All in all it was an excellent date, so good in fact that it’s still kind of going on since Catweazle is in town until Wednesday morning. Our, second date morphed into more of an extended spring fling weekend and I shall in fact be seeing him tonight for date #5. He’s a nice guy and if he lived in NYC it would be a complete no-brainer, but unfortunately he doesn't, he lives in North Carolina and he has no plans to move from there any time in the immediate future since that's where he shares custody of a very cute 4year old Catweazle Junior with his ex-wife.

Dating eh!! It’s never straight forward, but whatever the outcome of my spring fling with Catweazle I've got some enjoyable memories ;-)