OUR HIATUS CONTINUES

Our hiatus continues, here at Mango Pudding Blues, as you have no doubt noticed by now. We worry that you, our faithful readers, will abandon our blog the way we have, leaving it ghostly quiet, overrun by weeds, vines crawling up the walls, paint peeling, cracks appearing. But no, it seems that you are all still hanging around, judging by a recent analysis of our back end. Our back end reports are looking surprisingly robust. Not only are the regulars still checking in from time to time, but a few new readers are popping up from places as far away as New Zealand and as close by as downtown Ottawa. We welcome our new readers warmly. C’mon in.

But, as we say, our hiatus continues. We are embroiled in a new venture that is hogging all of our consciousness, as new ventures do, and we expect it to continue hogging our consciousness for at least another week. Maybe more. One day we’ll tell you all about it.

In the meantime, we just want you to know that it hasn’t been all work and no play. We spent last delightful long weekend with our delightful girlfriend, Killer, in our favorite place, New York City, where we ate soul food in Harlem, steaks at Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant midtown, oysters at the storied Oyster bar in Grand Central Station, and tea and vegetarian sandwiches at Moby’s joint in the Lower East Side. Oh, and a pickle from the tubs at the famed Essex Street Pickle place, also on the Lower East Side. And that’s just the eatin’.

The weekend prior was spent whooping it up, quietly, in Montreal, where we ate real sushi for the first time ever. We used to eat only vegetarian sushi, which is like watching a movie with your eyes closed.

And so, our point here with the food update is that we’re still alive. And now, a few other updates:

KEITH RICHARDS: We’re a little concerned to hear that Mr. Richards fell down in not one but two concerts, one in Toronto just the other night and one in uh, Cleveland or Chicago a week or two ago. Fell down. Reports suggest that he was down on his ass for a full 15 seconds in Toronto, requiring help to get back up. In spite of his long-standing reputation as the cockroach who will outlive us all, (a hoary reputation trucked out once again in his recent topless Rolling Stone magazine cover story) we’ve suspected for years that he might not be as fit as he claims to be. We at Mango Pudding Blues were chilled a couple of years ago to read that he appeared disoriented during his acceptance speech at a Q magazine awards gala, and even more chilled when a couple of minor british rock stars who physically hoisted him up on their shoulders for a victory lap at the event reported that he was as light as a bird.

NAQOYQATSI: The long-rumored third installment of the “Qatsi” trilogy of films by Godfrey Reggio. It opens here on December 14th. We’re not at all certain about the actual film. The stills we’ve seen look a little cheesy, but we’re willing to give it a shot. What’s really thrilling to us is the Philip Glass soundtrack. The last one, Powaaqatsi, is still in heavy rotation around here, and it came out years ago.

MANGO PUDDING REGRETS: We’ve been meaning to clear this up for ages, but sometime last summer we reported that we drank a bottle of wine at the Hotel St. James in Montreal. This is not true. It was, we think, at the Hotel St. Sulpice. We actually are against the Hotel St. James, for family-related reasons that are too complex to address here.

Okay, that’s all for now. Keep those cards and letters coming, kiddies!

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