WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:03.960 align:middle line:84% So I wrote this book called, 7 Controlled Vocabularies 00:00:03.960 --> 00:00:07.890 align:middle line:84% and Obituary 2004-- the Joy of Cooking. 00:00:07.890 --> 00:00:10.740 align:middle line:84% And I wrote it when I was at the Getty. 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:14.970 align:middle line:84% I was doing a book on Andy Warhol and the books he wrote. 00:00:14.970 --> 00:00:17.190 align:middle line:84% And one of the women at the Getty 00:00:17.190 --> 00:00:19.320 align:middle line:84% had come up with an object ID system, which 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:23.790 align:middle line:84% is a controlled vocabulary system that enables museums 00:00:23.790 --> 00:00:26.790 align:middle line:84% to talk cross-platform, and to other institutions, 00:00:26.790 --> 00:00:30.840 align:middle line:84% so that a "stool" in America is a "tabouret" in France, 00:00:30.840 --> 00:00:34.320 align:middle line:84% and it enables them to just sort of communicate. 00:00:34.320 --> 00:00:36.570 align:middle line:84% So anyway, so I did this book called 7 Controlled 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:42.390 align:middle line:84% Vocabularies and I wanted it to intersect 00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:44.820 align:middle line:84% with a lot of elements of my life. 00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:46.440 align:middle line:84% I didn't really want literature to be 00:00:46.440 --> 00:00:49.080 align:middle line:84% something like, oh, a serious poetry book that I wrote. 00:00:49.080 --> 00:00:51.915 align:middle line:84% I wanted to intersect with all the other things I was doing. 00:00:51.915 --> 00:00:53.790 align:middle line:84% And one of the things I was doing at the time 00:00:53.790 --> 00:00:55.530 align:middle line:90% was reading cookbooks. 00:00:55.530 --> 00:00:56.820 align:middle line:90% I really like cookbooks. 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:59.250 align:middle line:84% I mean, I almost like reading cookbooks more than cooking. 00:00:59.250 --> 00:01:02.828 align:middle line:84% But so I was-- so I stuck "the Joy of Cooking" 00:01:02.828 --> 00:01:03.870 align:middle line:90% at the end of this thing. 00:01:03.870 --> 00:01:05.670 align:middle line:84% And people always ask me, well, why did you do that? 00:01:05.670 --> 00:01:07.128 align:middle line:84% And I really did it so that I could 00:01:07.128 --> 00:01:10.710 align:middle line:84% increase the number of Google hits that the book would get. 00:01:10.710 --> 00:01:13.830 align:middle line:84% But I was also writing a lot of Yelp reviews, 00:01:13.830 --> 00:01:15.480 align:middle line:84% and this is one of my Yelp reviews. 00:01:15.480 --> 00:01:18.540 align:middle line:84% It's about a restaurant called WD-50. 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:22.132 align:middle line:84% It's a conceptual food joint down in the Lower East Side. 00:01:22.132 --> 00:01:23.590 align:middle line:84% And maybe I should stop after that. 00:01:23.590 --> 00:01:30.130 align:middle line:84% I think I've run out of time and goodwill. 00:01:30.130 --> 00:01:35.940 align:middle line:84% This is called "RPT MC-40 00.27 8." 00:01:35.940 --> 00:01:39.330 align:middle line:84% "What is the relation between a fruit and a vegetable? 00:01:39.330 --> 00:01:41.280 align:middle line:84% A book transpires one letter and then 00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:43.560 align:middle line:84% one word at a time and nothing about reading 00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:46.020 align:middle line:90% can prevent this from happening. 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:48.330 align:middle line:84% For this reason, books are best diluted, 00:01:48.330 --> 00:01:51.030 align:middle line:90% or read over a good many years. 00:01:51.030 --> 00:01:55.000 align:middle line:84% Only things that are consumed endure beyond their shelf life. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:58.830 align:middle line:84% Nothing is really very different if you say it is. 00:01:58.830 --> 00:02:01.470 align:middle line:84% I had dinner yesterday at WD-50, which 00:02:01.470 --> 00:02:06.000 align:middle line:84% is a restaurant located where the Fukienese area of Chinatown 00:02:06.000 --> 00:02:09.150 align:middle line:84% and the old pickle shops of the defunct Lower East Side 00:02:09.150 --> 00:02:11.580 align:middle line:90% almost come into alignment. 00:02:11.580 --> 00:02:14.400 align:middle line:84% The restaurant is located at 50 Clinton Street 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:18.150 align:middle line:84% and it has a post-Craftsman style decor with bulbous glass 00:02:18.150 --> 00:02:21.270 align:middle line:84% lamps that look like fluorescent flower bulbs. 00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:23.430 align:middle line:84% The chef's name is Wylie Dufresne. 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:26.610 align:middle line:84% He is young and he looks like a cowboy reincarnated 00:02:26.610 --> 00:02:28.140 align:middle line:90% as a skateboarder. 00:02:28.140 --> 00:02:31.200 align:middle line:90% His father Dewey is also a chef. 00:02:31.200 --> 00:02:34.320 align:middle line:84% WD-50 is probably the only restaurant in Manhattan 00:02:34.320 --> 00:02:36.330 align:middle line:84% that makes you hallucinate the food you are 00:02:36.330 --> 00:02:38.400 align:middle line:90% eating while you're eating it. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:41.190 align:middle line:84% The food can be quite un-foodlike. 00:02:41.190 --> 00:02:43.170 align:middle line:84% I ate at the restaurant a few nights ago 00:02:43.170 --> 00:02:47.670 align:middle line:84% and afterwards my taste buds felt incongruous and ecstatic. 00:02:47.670 --> 00:02:50.760 align:middle line:84% I remember seeing something on another table that looked 00:02:50.760 --> 00:02:52.860 align:middle line:90% like dessert and I ordered it. 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:56.670 align:middle line:84% A few moments later there were bonbon sized bits of pineapple 00:02:56.670 --> 00:02:57.780 align:middle line:90% on a plate. 00:02:57.780 --> 00:03:00.150 align:middle line:84% They had been soaked in something briny 00:03:00.150 --> 00:03:02.220 align:middle line:90% and had become pickles. 00:03:02.220 --> 00:03:04.800 align:middle line:84% Off to one side of the fruit was smeared 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:07.410 align:middle line:84% what looked like hot fudge sauce except that it 00:03:07.410 --> 00:03:10.380 align:middle line:84% was made of ketchup and jalapeno peppers. 00:03:10.380 --> 00:03:12.630 align:middle line:90% The sauce was semi-frozen. 00:03:12.630 --> 00:03:16.020 align:middle line:84% The sauce was hot and cold and cold and hot. 00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:17.670 align:middle line:90% I couldn't tell which. 00:03:17.670 --> 00:03:19.620 align:middle line:84% I put the pineapple in my mouth and it 00:03:19.620 --> 00:03:22.650 align:middle line:84% was like eating something that had been a vegetable. 00:03:22.650 --> 00:03:24.750 align:middle line:84% The chef had sprinkled some salt scented 00:03:24.750 --> 00:03:27.810 align:middle line:84% with what looked like dour chips of limes. 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:30.540 align:middle line:84% It was not really necessary to eat the food. 00:03:30.540 --> 00:03:31.980 align:middle line:90% One could breathe it. 00:03:31.980 --> 00:03:33.750 align:middle line:84% When I put all this in my mouth I 00:03:33.750 --> 00:03:37.290 align:middle line:84% tasted so many things I forgot what was in my mouth. 00:03:37.290 --> 00:03:41.310 align:middle line:84% Eating at WD-50 is like reading Proust backwards. 00:03:41.310 --> 00:03:43.950 align:middle line:84% I looked over at a man at the table next to ours 00:03:43.950 --> 00:03:46.690 align:middle line:84% and he had the face of a six-year-old. 00:03:46.690 --> 00:03:49.020 align:middle line:84% The ideas of food erase the food itself 00:03:49.020 --> 00:03:52.800 align:middle line:84% and then become the food you did not think you were eating. 00:03:52.800 --> 00:03:55.980 align:middle line:84% Time passes inordinately or not at all. 00:03:55.980 --> 00:03:59.160 align:middle line:84% What is it like to eat an idea or its suggestion? 00:03:59.160 --> 00:04:01.260 align:middle line:84% As anyone who has eaten can tell you, 00:04:01.260 --> 00:04:03.570 align:middle line:84% the most beautiful memories are memories that one 00:04:03.570 --> 00:04:05.340 align:middle line:90% has forgotten how to have. 00:04:05.340 --> 00:04:08.550 align:middle line:84% Eating at WD-50 is like having psychoanalysis 00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:11.570 align:middle line:84% with a starch, a sugar, or a fat." 00:04:11.570 --> 00:04:13.000 align:middle line:90%