Vino e Vito: Saturday night dinner & a movie

At the end of our first day in our new house, pulling up carpet, nails, staples, dusting and cleaning here and there, it was time for dinner and a movie. Neither of us felt much like cooking, and Heath's hankering for Italian steered us to Veneto's for some woodfired veggie pizza and chicken and spinach pasta. Veneto's, a small, unsuspecting upscale American-Italian restaurant, we found, is one cozy spot: exposed brick walls are tastefully decorated with the mandatory pics of the owner's hometown as well as some funky, silk draperies and even funkier lights.

And what could better follow our glasses of Moltepulciano and Chianti than "The Godfather", in all its glory, on the big screen at the Dryden Theater. (A gratis screening to boot: I'd won tickets just a few weeks ago!) It had been years since I'd writhed and shielded my eyes from the horsehead-in-the-bed and Moe-shot-in-the-eye scenes, but hey-- now all the pieces I'd watched on t.v. fit together.

Now, I'm trying to figure out how to fit the tarantelle into our wedding dances. . .

wedding update no. 2

You can make yourself silly on wedding websites, so I'll leave you to it: our information can be found both at
this website and that website.
(We will be thrilled if you actually sign our guestbook, seeing as we've gone through all the cheesiness of having one.)

Babka & Vodka Warms Many a Heart

The grassrootsy, folkie storytelling conference I attended in 1993 finally came in handy last month during a YLD-sponsored event called "Babka and Vodka." Rabbi Rebecca (a friend and one very hip rabbi) and I emceed: we introduced the real entertainment of the evening, a funky, young klezmer band composed of students at the local Eastman School of Music called New Kids on the Shtetl (no joke). We told stories and riddles from the Old Country, and, vat else, nu? Had a little vodka. Our audience enjoyed a fun and geshmake program.