A Capital anticipation list: Thelma & Louise, Montauk, Heavy Warm-Up mixes, popsicles
A biker at the beach in Montauk. chrisjb on Flickr
11:48 am Jun. 10, 2011
Each week, Capital's editors and writers will offer a list of the events, activities, releases and personal obsessions that we are looking forward to during the next week. Here is a list of our anticipations.
Montauk
Gillian: I've never been to Montauk, so at some point during the next few weeks, I plan to take a bike ride out there. There are lots of organized rides that cost a bit, but are worth it for the snacks, social perks and riding encouragement if you've never biked more than a few miles before. You can also get there on your own with the right equipment and some friends. There's plenty of options to take the train and work your way toward the beach once you're off the L.I.R.R. But I recommend checking out this great route that Adam Pollack wrote about in New York Magazine a few years ago. Follow his advice if you're organizing your own ride.
Heavy Warmup Vol 4: DJ Sure Shot (NYC) by T&ARecords
Heavy Warm-Up mix series
Gillian: If there were a way for me to strap some kind of boombox onto my backpack while riding, I might just play all of the Heavy Warm-Up mix series, featured on my pal DJ Ayres' site. Some of the city's most talented D.J.s mix together the smooth jams that percolate the dancefloor before they transition into the requisite radio hits zone. As Ayres wrote, "I love this DJ slot, it’s the time of the night when people are getting their second drink, the dancefloor is just starting to fill up, and the DJ can tease the crowd with great forgotten jams and new secret weapons." The series? There's "no drops, talking or crazy Ableton trickery, just the pros warming it up like Kane." DJ Sure Shot, DJ Eleven, Low Beezy, Scott Melker, and more beat-match the pre-midnight heat from Prince, TLC, Jay-Z, Pharrell, Stevie Wonder, The-Dream, Frank Ocean to some dancehall and disco to keep things smooth. Perfect summer soundtrack.
Coconut popsicles
Gillian: It's popsicle season and there's really no use in buying the expensive kinds at Whole Foods when you can make them yourself. There are all kinds of crazy flavors you can try out (passion fruit! avocado! mango!). But here's one of my favorite recipes, which was posted on Salon last year. Just mix 7 ounces of coconut milk, 7 ounces of regular milk (or soy milk), 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk into a bowl. You can pour the mix into popsicle mold trays, which can be purchased at any kitchen gadget store and even some cheap 99-cent stores in the boroughs or Uptown. Or you can use empty yogurt cups and stick a popsicle stick in the middle before covering each one in plastic wrap. Or just keep the recipe in a big bowl and scoop out with a spoon. Freeze for four hours for optimum coolness.
Thelma & Louise at the IFC Center
Sheila: It's the 20th anniversary of Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise, and IFC Center on 6th Avenue is commemorating the anniversary with two midnight showings of the film Friday and Saturday night. Ridley Scott was nominated for Best Director, both Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon got best actress nods, and Callie Khouri won the 1991 Oscar for best original screenplay. It was a huge moment in American cinema history, one of those movies that got everyone talking. A female spin on movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Thelma & Louise has some problems in the script and execution (it represents a simplistic world of evil men and victimized women) but for me, as always, films are about the acting and both Davis (Thelma) and Sarandon (Louise) give iconic performances as the female outlaws.
Thelma is perhaps not the brightest bulb: a follower who has her first orgasm with the hot drifter they pick up (played by Brad Pitt in the role that launched his career, small wonder), which seems like an innocent fling until events start to tailspin. I love that it's an orgasm that makes Thelma wake up to her own possibilities, her own validity as a person, even if her fling does have tragic results. Sarandon's Thelma, bogged down by the crescendo of their problems, takes the time to say to Louise, supportively, "Oh, Thelma, you've finally gotten laid properly." The script is full of specific humorous small moments like that. Louise is the brains, the survivor, the one keeping the duo together.
The anger at men that pulses through the film is nowhere clearer than in the scene where they blow up the trucker's rig, for no reason other than the fact that he has offensive mud-flaps and makes an obscene gesture at them out the window. At that point in the film, Thelma and Louise have had it. Their old lives, back there in the rear view mirror, have vanished. For good. They embrace total anarchy.
My favorite moment in the movie is towards the end: The cops chase them through the desert. Louise is at the wheel. She careens the car off the road, tearing over rough terrain, blasting through fences, performing switchbacks and U-turns like a professional stunt driver. They finally lose the police, and they keep barreling down the road, not talking, not looking at each other. Their faces are panicked, yet also firm and resigned. They don't look at each other. Geena Davis, staring straight ahead, says, simply, "Good driving." I wish I could explain why I find that moment so moving, why I remember it so clearly, but I can't.
