More buddha, less khan

Following another fantasically frustrating day in advertising yesterday, I met the Fork Floozies for dinner at Buddakan. The entry hall looks like a hotel lobby when you walk in, ie the greeter/hostess station is structured like the front desk/check-in area of a major hotel. Had some wine in the bar area. Dark lighting, dark wood. The vases on the bar tables had deer/reindeer/elk on them, and there were some stuffed exotic birds in display cases. Are these Asian decorating elements I'm not aware of? After we were seated, ordering was a long, silly process, but thankfully the food came out right away. Disturbingly quickly, actually. We ordered a bunch of stuff to share: I especially liked the the short ribs and the Taro Puff lollipops with pork. Had a really refreshing margarita with cucumbers. The restaurant patrons were a mix of couples on dates, tourist families and groups of douchebag guys on business dinners. Overall it was a good dinner, but this won't be my new hangout.

Super-dramatic dining hall.

Spotted: Susan Lucci on 9th Ave. outside the restaurant after dinner. Apparently she’s 5’2” but she seemed teeny tiny.

On Sunday afternoon I bumped into an art director I used to work with. He gave me his band's CD and asked me to come to one of their shows Wednesday night. So I did. Ran into other ad peeps at the venue. I would say it’s a small world, but really, who else is going to be listening to bands in a club past midnight on a Wednesday other than creative types? Glad to see Geoff play, and also liked the earlier band Seems So Bright.

Spotted: Sean, the singer for Blip Blip Bleep, at Mercury Lounge. Not exactly on par with Suan Lucci, but probably a sign that I go to see way too much live music.