SoundBites January 2008

Is anyone listening to anything else now besides Mr. Wainwright's latest double CD, Rufus does Judy at Carnegie Hall? A full 26-song recreation of Judy Garland's famous 1961 concert, enacted at the same venue with letter-perfect orchestration, the event throbs with the theatricality of an homage taken to the level of performance art. Ever nepotistic, Rufus brings in Sis and Mom for cameos but soars on his own through 2+ hours of beloved classics perfectly suited to his timeless vocal stylings . . . Mad pleasure being derived from Alicia Drake's new chunk of brilliant and bitchy reportage, The Beautiful Fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent and Glorious Excess in 1970s Paris (Little, Brown, 2007). This compulsive and handsome read dwells happily on every decadent, tawdry detail of the two fashion icons' halcyon days, encompassing a cast of hundreds of beautiful and (sometimes) doomed misfits. Cafe Drake spurted a vicarious nosebleed just from the (endless, one to yet another) party descriptions . . . If you're in LA this weekend, your first stop should be Meridith Pingree's solo show at Molten Sprouts Gallery, and if you can't make it - check out the intriguing sculptures at her website . . . still whining about the writers' strike? No worries: check out re-runs of Mad Men which you shouldn't have ever missed in the first place but we all did. Cafe Drake thinks it's the niftiest show on television with its depiction of 50s/early 60s Madison Avenue and a time when executives actually had 3-martini breakfasts (in addition to lunches) . . . another respite from the desert of decimated American TV programming is BBCA America's aces hot Torchwood - think X-Files updated and made hawter . . . given our location in Brooklyn, Cafe Drake has no shortage of primo pizza parlors to choose from, but right around the corner is the newly remodeled Nina's 1 (635 Meeker Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn; 718/389-8854), a family-run Paison Pleasure Palace dishing out single slices of impeccably crusted pies. Our current faves (all $3 each) are Italian Sausage and Broccoli Rabe, Calamari and Black Olive and the mushroom-laden Chicken Marsala.