Here at CrapWeLike, we’ve posted a few times about Miranda July. Steph introduced me to her long ago in 2008 and I have loved reading her stuff since.

Tonight I’m going to see her at Symphony Space, where she’s hosting Selected Shorts for her new book It Chooses You. I’m kicking myself for having to miss her at Book Court last night.

It Chooses You chronicles July’s side project that she takes on while she’s finishing the screenplay for The Future, interviewing people she finds in the Penny Saver. The photography by Brigitte Sire is especially great and yes damnit I cried at the end.

Looking for more Miranda July? Me and You and Everyone We Know is available for streaming on Netflix. Add that to your instant queue. And don’t miss this quick piece in the New Yorker that she wrote about shoplifting, or as she puts it, being a part of a “legion of energetic, intelligent young lady criminals.”

Yelp is great, but sometimes you just want someone to make a decision for you when you’re looking for a restaurant. I’ve been really enjoying Immaculate Infatuation as I’ve started to research where to have dinner on my birthday. Their categories are quirky (if not slightly douchey..) including: Day Drinking, Impressing Out of Towners, Full on Pork Indulgence etc) and their listings for Brooklyn aren’t bad. If not extensive, they are pretty accurate.

I agreed with their post on The Grocery – where we went last weekend – and it was freaking delicious. Super tiny place, simple, cute place on Smith Street in Cobble Hill. I had fried artichokes and pork loin and I am still thinking about it. Great place to take parents or go for a special occasion – their chefs even come out and see how you’re doing which makes you feel like you are the king of the world.

So, where should I have my birthday feast? In the running we have: Buttermilk Channel, Prime Meats, Frankies Spuntino, and Flatbush Farm, none of which I have been to yet.

I just finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close last night, by Jonathan Safran Foer -and man oh man, was it a tear-jerker.  I was crying through the last 60 pages and to be honest, through the whole book, which is sort of awkward on the subway, but whatever.

This isn’t your average 9/11 story – it’s so much more than that, but I won’t give away the whole thing. I know it’s not new, but if you haven’t read it yet, you should before the  movie comes out this winter, starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. As good as that movie might be, there’s no way it could come close. The author does some really cool stuff with the actual text of the book – it’s a really interesting reading experience that I’m not sure will translate totally on-screen.

I’m going to see Louis CK this Thursday as a part of the NY Comedy Festival, so let’s celebrate that with a few videos. First up, Louis hates Twitter – then Louis saves his dumb dog’s life. Here’s more from Conan, including more about this week’s show.

via NYT and more here

The idea is once you’re let loose on one of the floors of the hotel, you pick out a single character and pursue him or her (though you can switch any time you want), as the performer runs, dances and vaults all over the place. Dressed in drop-dead, Deco-era evening clothes, scanty lingerie or nothing at all, these characters include the Macbeths (of course), Macduff and his wife (who is conspicuously pregnant), Duncan (the king) and various witches and hotel employees. (Because the roles are mostly double-cast, I am not mentioning individual performers, but they are all lissome enough to make the audience look slow and dumpy.)

These jaded figures can be found in bedrooms, bathrooms, ballrooms, hospital rooms and nurseries getting dressed and undressed, doing the foxtrot, making every kind of love, killing one another and washing off blood. (The Macbeth mansion has many bathtubs.)
I’m gonna have to be brave!!

Sorry to be cheesy, but I loved this. Via Jezebel.

And if you’re NYC-based, write a letter here: http://dontclosethebook.nypl.org/