Screenings at Socrates Sculpture Park

Not content with a mere one weekly outdoor film series, Cafe Drake also hauls ourselves over to Long Island City in Queens for the nighttime flicks at Socrates Sculpture Garden, located in a lovely grassy glade on the East River and glowing from the lights of Manhattan mere yards across the water. Recently on tap was the tale of a Japanese schoolgirl rock band called Linda Linda Linda, strange and somewhat culturally obscure for American audiences, but far far less freaky than an opening act of demented manga characters belting boisterous heavy metal in flea-bitten costumes. Cafe Drake loves the marginalized and even the abject, so naturally we warmed to the oddballs by their final number, washing it all down with red wine, Thordis' pasta salad of bleu cheese and radishes, Israeli salad fresh from the backyard garden of Amanda and Odette and a Mexican corn salad with cactus and onions.