James Bewley » The Latest

		May 18, 2008 Cheap Shots are Still Funny There’s no two ways about it. Things Younger Than McCain.

		May 13, 2008 Southern Surprises Just got back from visiting a top secret set for a top secret new reality series on Country Music Television. Being of CMT origin, it only made sense for it to take place in Music City, USA: Nashville. I learned a great many things down south and thought I’d share a few with you here. 1) Nashville is like 5% of what you think it’s going to be. Seriously it’s like one street with bars. Thayer Street in Providence may have had more to offer. 2) People are crazy for painting pictures of country stars. And they’re less crazy about being good painters. 3) Mother’s Day is not the day to go to Bob Evans outside of Opryland. Half hour wait? For biscuits? 4) I don’t think it’s a good idea to assume that every woman at Bob Evans wants to be greeted with Happy Mother’s Day. Not everyone is a mother. The carnation was nice, though. 5) Barbara Mandrell seems like she was a freaky bed time companion. Mirror on the ceiling of the canopy bed? I could see that for Irlene, but Babs? Shocking. 6) Charlie Daniels has a museum. 7) If you do paint Conway Twitty- it’s okay to leave out the chest hair. Yeuh. 8) Brisket Sandwich at Jack’s BBQ = Pork Bun at NY hotspot Momofuku. Fat + Starch + Sweet Sauce is a recipe for magic. 9) Newark Airport is far from Brooklyn. 10) Late night trains smell even worse than day time trains. GO COUNTRY!

		May 4, 2008 Dadwood Like I said, Spring and Bewleys just go together.

		May 2, 2008 Sprung From the time I was a squishy big headed squeaker riding a tractor wagon through my grandmother’s flower gardens in Newtown Square, I’ve always fallen for this time of year. Now after essentially ten years without a change in season, this Spring has got me all a twitter. I find myself mumbling about cherry blossoms, dogwoods and rhododendron and just marveling at what is surely the luckiest, most beautiful one block walk from the subway a fella could have.

		April 18, 2008 Celebrity Hunting Oh it used to be so easy in LA. I was well on my way to seeing the entire cast of Head of the Class. Dennis, Ms. Meara, and Mr. Moore. I had em all. Dennis was actually on my flight to NY from LA! But now that were settling into the New York way of life, I’ve seen an entirely different kind of celebrity. The reality show kind. So shopping at Fairway market - Alex McCord with her adorable little son talking about becoming a marine biologist with the fish monger. Outside Momofuko, Victorya Hong the always kind of angry one from Project Runway. In fact last time I was here, I saw Jai from Queer Eye outside a gym. Anyway - reality is much more real in New York. Oh and I saw the Pope today. Twice. Totally underwhelming.

		April 10, 2008 Spring Street Back in blossom filled New York. You can almost smell the urine of summer. Last night we enjoyed a Stravinsky concert at the Morgan Library and dodged a few raindrops back to the F Train. The F is the 22 Fillmore of NY. And someone needs to start a daily review site for all the various homeless pitches on that train. Instead of stars it should be used Metrocards. Would I give more MCs to “Morty” for his played down approach, the barely able to carry a tune quartet that sang In the Jungle into my ear, or for toothless Dream Shirt man who asked for hugs from the attractive people on the train? I dunno, but someone should be rating this stuff. Unless that’s offensive, and then of course not. *This image is a Raymond Pettibon, that now that I think about it is a somewhat spring-timey limited edition print that I just bought. Soon to replace some weird thing hanging at the end of our hall. Enjoy the buds!

		April 1, 2008 Lost Again I find myself back in the arms of Los Angeles for the week. Sitting atop the freeway in the Angeleno Hotel, listening to the constant roar of the 405. It’s like they designed this to be a traffic themed hotel. It even looks like a parking garage.

		March 24, 2008 There Will Be Boxes So many cardboard boxes. We’re still digging out from the cross country move. Kellie and I are fighting the cold. AGAIN. Which meant we spent Easter in the Emergency Room at Chester County Hospital. They didn’t have any marshmallow peeps or honey baked ham there, but they did put me on anti-biotics which I hope finally kill this damn cold once and for all. Good news is that I don’t have pneumonia or influenza, but whatever I have has got ahold of me good. And no amount of extra spicy Thai takeout is helping! But given that I’m eating so much of it, I want to give a shout out to the fine folks at Ghang Thai in Brooklyn. It’s still early, but in the new-to-the-city takeout competition of 2008, they’re pulling ahead.

		March 16, 2008 TV WATCH: The New Black One of the many reasons why I love Tracy Morgan. Watch this. But also mainly for things like this clip from Totally Awesome. Did that movie ever come out?? Peekaboo, I wanna hump you! (Which, it should be noted, should never be said while wearing the Eliot Spitzer mask below. shudder)

		March 12, 2008 Oh New York Lots to discuss now that we’re in NYC. Sorry for not posting more. Surrounded by moving boxes, metro cards, and figuring out where to eat at work. Finally joined Facebook, so that’s something to look forward to. Also, Obama has math on his side. And Eliot Spitzer has nothing on his side. Who votes for this as best Halloween mask in 08?

		February 15, 2008 Hammer for Armor And on the jorb front, this is a pic of the Park Avenue Armory, my new place of employment. Sorry that all my images of New York are old-timey, but I’m just excited to be going back to a place that actually has history, as opposed to the relentless new of the West. I’m going to be Program Manager of this crazy space which served as a social hall and drill facility for the military. Other bits of interest, this is where Louis Armstrong lay in wait during his viewing. You can see more about the Armory here.

		February 13, 2008 Palm Trees for Cobblestones Kellie and I are back from the -6 degree wind tunnel of New York, capping off what is surely one of the most productive weekends ever. Found a lovely place in the heart of Carroll Gardens, one block from the F line. Thanks to the copious amounts of diners, I rediscovered how much I like having breakfast at any and all times a day. In other news, Obama continues to exhibit the signs of a winner; I’ve almost gotten over this cold; and we’ll finally get some new episodes of the Office back on TV. Keep it goin, 2008!

		February 8, 2008 Sci-Fi Political Flu Season Yargh. Sniffle. I am gonna blame that Leonard Nimoy. Or I am going to blame myself for shaking his hand, even after he coughed into it. Anyway, I caught some kind of Vulcan Space Flu and it’s desperately trying to bring me down. Dammit Jim! In other news, I think I caught a political fever and it’s breaking my brain. I’ve overdosed on Hardball and Wolf Blitzer and because I can’t avoid gazing upon the master of evil, Karl Rove, on Fox. This primary season is like being on a Tetris bender. My eyes close and the only thing I see are delegates and super delegates. Oh and not sure if this is connected or not, but last night I dreamt that Kellie and I gave birth to a mixed race kid who looked exactly like Micah on Heroes.

		February 4, 2008 Words Without Thoughts First half of the day: Watch Superbowl. Second half of the day: Watch Hamlet. This was the to-do list at the Bewley house today. We’re hosting a talk between Casey Spooner and Liz LeCompte at the museum, and since I’ve been dying to see a Wooster Group performance since my days as a performance art tadpole, Kellie got us tickets to see their production for Christmas. Largely a reimagining of the Richard Burton 64 television experiment in theatrical broadcasting, the staging is reminiscent of the classic KML sketch “James is Dead” - but in case you missed that - it makes live actions out of the peculiarities of video tape movement. Rewinding, zooming, edits, etc. While also telling the story of the cursed Prince, and managing to mine Burton’s vision for plenty of funny moments. Ingenious and commanding, the show is a great one and if you are in LA, go see it at the REDCAT theater. Oh, and my dinner with Leonard Nimoy was cancelled as he caught that cold that everyone in America had. Maybe we’ll have another chance…

		January 28, 2008 Progressive Dinner Had a meal last night with some titans of the progressive movement. (Apologies to those 500 some people who could not get in to the public program at the Hammer….always hard to turn people away). Felt a little bad after dinner thinking about persimmon bread pudding immediately after discussing the hardships of Nigerians, so opted for just coffee. Around the table were Naomi Klein, Robert Scheer, Richard Kim, the Galefs, Ian Masters, Christina Pickles, and some folks from The Nation and truthdig. Naomi is both foxier than you would think and as smart as you would expect, which makes for a deadly combination. (Hey, Obama need a running mate?) Every word of her book The Shock Doctrine is worth reading over and over again. I also have to give props to the enchanting Christina Pickles, who along with doing a pilot with my friend Michael Cornacchia and my someday friend, Fred Willard (why did no one pick THAT up??), has some terrific stories, which I cannot repeat, about working on Friends and the sticky realities of doing voice overs for E! True Hollywood Stories. Up for tomorrow night, dinner with Leonard Nimoy. What a funny job I have.

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