Well, I think it's a safe bet that the power brokers in the Democratic party thought long and hard about my last Dark Slide post. The point was taken, the ocean liner was turned, and the convention went from being a dull same-old-same-old snooze fest into a stadium-filled spectacle of excitement. It kind of resembled an Olympic opening ceremony. Hmmmmm.

Well, I won't dwell on the events of last night as they speak amply for themselves. We're going to move on to some odds and ends today. We've got a lot's of fun tidbits to get to, all utterly unrelated. And so, without further ado, here we go.

Andrew Ferren, I don't know who you are but I hate you.

A few years ago, Maya and I were in Mykonos with Alexandra, who was two and a half at the time. Mykonos has always been known for its very expensive shops, its nude beaches and its celebrity star power. One of the things it's not known for is solitude. But that's what we were after one day when we asked our concierge about whether there were any places we could escape to, off the normal tourist path.

How about Agios Sostis? the woman asked. It's a secluded beach on the north side of the island, she explained, and then quickly cautioned that this particular beach had no taxi service, no public phone and only one taverna where we could get some food.

Listen for the sound of clinking plates, we were told. That's how we should find the restaurant.

What the heck, we thought. It's worth a try. Maya speaks fluent Greek and we'd find someone to give us a ride back. And so off we went to Agios Sostis.

As promised, the beach was beautiful and completely deserted. Alexandra frolicked in the waves with only a handful of people visible for a miles. And when we got hungry, we started off on our quest for that one phantom taverna.

Listen for the sound of clinking plates.

And listen we did. But we still couldn't find the place. Around and around we wandered until we finally came upon an old Greek man. Maya asked him about the restaurant with no name and he smiled. "You walked right by it." He pointed, we retraced our steps and sure enough, tucked there in a grove was the tiniest little lunch joint you've ever seen, a 20' x 20' patio with some streamers strung between the trees and a wood burning fire pit.

What happened next was this: the most incredible lunch we've ever had, bar none. It was like a scene from The Secret Garden. So good, in fact, that I still think of that pork loin all these years later. It would always be our little secret, something no tourist (certainly a non-Greek speaker) could ever gain access to. Too hard to find.

Until this past Sunday.

As I sat on a chaise at Highlands Swim Club this past weekend, I literally gasped out loud as I read the following in the New York Times Travel section, under the heading, "Follow Your Nose":

"Just above Agios Sostis is one of the island's best-known secrets. A restaurant with no sign, no phone and open only for lunch, Kiki's is well worth seeking out--just follow the smell of barbecue--and waiting as long as it takes for a seat at what could be the world's most idyllic seaside restaurant. The sweeping sea view is matched by the simple rustic fare."

Thanks, Andy. Thanks a lot.

Daniel Mendelsohn at Politics and Prose, Tuesday Night

For those of you guys who live in the D.C. area, my brother Daniel will be reading from his new book, How Beautiful It Is And How Easily it Can Broken, at Politics and Prose next week. The book is a collection Daniel's critical essays, mostly taken from his regular gig at the New York Review of Books. The reading and book signing will take place at 7:00 on September 2. Politics and Prose is located at 5015 Connecticut Ave. NW.

The last time Daniel read here, there was some crank Yiddish professor who kept asserting that even though she had not yet read The Lost, she was sure--sure!!--that it denigrated the Yiddish language. If you've ever wanted to see what 100 people saying Oy, vey in unison looks like, that would have been the time. Given that How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken has nothing to do with the subject matter of The Lost, that shouldn't happen at this reading. But maybe there are some people who really, really hated Daniel's review of The Lovely Bones or Marie Antoinette. See you on Tuesday!

And one other thing: Don't forget that both Daniel and I will be appearing at the Mémorial de la Shoah in Paris, France on October 5, 2008. I'll be exhibiting a collection of pictures from The Lost and Daniel will be fetching me croissant and Perrier. Well, that's doubtful, but if you're in the area (in the area? Paris??), come on down and say hello.

Hey, Kid, Wanna Make a Movie?

Well, as long as I'm hawking for one brother, I might as well hawk for all of them. My other brother, Eric, is about to start shooting his long-awaited follow-up to Judy Berlin, a film that earned him Best Director honors at the Sundance Film Festival many moons ago. That movie was truly a darling of critics everywhere. It starred Edie Falco, (pre-Sopranos, of course), Ann Meara and Madeleine Kahn, sadly in her final performance. You can still buy it on Amazon here. Of Eric and Judy Berlin, David Denby wrote in The New Yorker, "Mendelsohn is possibly a major talent: a large cast of New York theatre pros, including Barbara Barrie, Madeleine Kahn, and Bob Dishy, deliver exquisite performances for him. Of all the young directors whose work I saw, he has the greatest chance of attaining the stature of Robert Altman and Errol Morris."

The new film is titled Four Backyards. Here's the synopsis from the press release. Sounds very much like an Eric Mendelsohn movie, which is a good thing.

"Seen through the prism of sunlight and glittering leaves, Four Backyards tells the story of four inhabitants of the same suburban town over the course of one curious autumn day. The appearance of normalcy is delicately fractured in the quartet of tales.  A businessman with marital troubles gets 'lost' on a business trip without ever leaving home.  A little girl who steals her mother's jewelry finds herself tangled in a web of frightening adult implications. A well-meaning housewife offers her celebrity neighbor a lift and the trip detours into profoundly unsettling territory for both of them. And lastly, a head trauma victim with amnesia assumes a new personality with the help of a lost dog."

So what can you do?

If you've ever been wanted to help finance a small, independent film, now's your chance. This production needs as much help as it can. Through a creative partnership with the non-profit New York Foundation for the Arts, a donation to that organization can be channeled back to the film itself. And your donation is even tax-deductible. Here's a link to the form.

One Swanky Party

A quick thanks to fellow event industry friends Pam Barefoot, Laura Weatherly, Jamie Sears and Jennifer Domenick for throwing a really great end-of-summer party last night at swanky The Park at Fourteenth in D.C.. Me and swank don't usually end up in the same sentence but I crawled out of the cave just long enough to not be called anti-social. And boy am I glad I did. It was a fun time seeing all the folks you run into each week in and week out, from caterers to musicians, but in an environment where no one is stressed a bit.

I did chuckle a bit at the back of the VIP card from The Park which came with the incredibly cool, aluminium cased invite. If you read the really, really tiny print on the back it says that The Park reserves the right to deny entry based on not just clothing choices but on execution of said choices. Whew! 

But seriously, it was tremendous fun and my sincere thanks to those guys for dreaming it up and putting it on.

That's it for now. The new wedding will be up shortly, for those keeping score. I'm paddling as fast as I can.

Matt