October Explosion of Pent-Up Inspiration

Like Krakatoa frothing lava, Cafe Drake is a fount of inspiration these days, finding it everywhere we turn our slender frame and ready to spew forth. Not to worry; loads of recipes to follow shortly.

The iPod too it seems is bursting at its 4 gig seams (we have the old skool mini model) in October: our new favorite genre of music is Afro-Preppy-Pop though we only know of one current purveyor of this particular aural pastiche - the absolutely brilliant Vampire Weekend. We were fortunate to catch an early gig in Williamsburg this summer and know they've blessed us with a self-titled EP that we can't stop playing.Get on the bandwagon before they produce a debut long player. The early autumn also found us unexpectedly at the semi-swank Music Hall of Williamsburg on a Tuesday night soaking up for two hours in equal parts the genius of Nellie McKay and her piano and high-octane gin Gimlets. If we could only do in the kitchen with a whisk and egg what that woman can do with a single instrument and her uncanny voice! (Note: Nellie the Socialist openly encouraged the audience to download the album for free so what are you waiting for?) Other music you should own by now: Places, the second/third record by the lovely Georgie James; remixes of Soulja Boy's incomparable summer anthem "Crank Dat" and Chromeo's "Tenderoni" given the remix/mashup treatment by Guns and Bombs.

Surviving the indignities of an early, brutal Indian Summer by cooling off on our air-conditioned feather mattress with tales before bedtime, Cafe Drake was deeply moved by Miranda July's debut collection No One Belongs Here More Than You, each small polished jewel as enigmatic and loaded as the book's title. In the same vein but slightly more pessimistic, we're owning our dark side with Emporium: Stories by Adam Johnson, rife with lost souls who just might find themselves one day . . . hopefully at the dinner table at Cafe D.

The TiVo is ready to ignite in flames, burning kilowatts so furiously it threatens to smoke us out on Wednesday nights. Hump Day in Fall 2007 finds us fast-forwarding through the commercials on Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Gossip Girl (um, of course), Top Chef (though wrapped up last night and Congrats to Cafe Drake underdog fave Hung) and Hotel Babylon.

TV is so damn good this year, and combined with an agoraphobe's best pal Netflix, Cafe Drake seemed destined to never make it to the movies again, but for the first time in a great while, Dinner and a Movie now entails a trip to the cinema. Wanted to come home and whip up a Russian feast of blintzes and caviar, a venison stew with prairie herbs and a Pacific Northwest seafood platter after watching, respectively: Eastern Promises, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (how clear is it now that Casey got the lion's share of talent in the Affleck Clan? We'll reconfirm after we see Gone Baby Gone) and Into the Wild. Homage theme dinners to surely soon follow. Now that we're out of the house Gus Van Sant's Paranoia Park and Todd Haynes wacky Dylan pic are future must-sees.

Nothing inspires like a good deed, and Thordis Adalsteinsdottir along with David Herbert recently paid it forward in the Bronx school system, crafting a hall mural to be filled in and finished off by the students. Cafe Drake may have to hop the 6 train to personally view this community contribution and grab a slice of Boogie Down Bronx pizza (at pie shops all along Gun Hill Road arguably better than even the Brooklyn variety).