Everywhere with Helicopter

Before I lose the memories, or the links, posting two pictures of Robert Pollard wearing the hoodie I gave him.

Gridskipper covers our local watering holes...

Gridskipper has a great roundup of our local bars. They missed a few, but that's probably a good thing.

I've had every sammy in Manhattan on this list

And Esquire is right. They are all amazing.

Playlist test

Braised Short Ribs from Alice Water's 'The Art of Simple Food'

I've been meaning to cook something from this Christmas present for a while now, but just got around to making the short ribs this evening. It's going to be pretty cold tonight and this is the perfect winter meal. Its also pretty decedent for being a cheap cut of meat. It just takes some time.

The book


The recipe



The meat



Salt and pepper the raw meat



Prepare the mirepoix and add garlic



Roast the meat for 25 minutes at 450




Add tomatoes, sage, bay leaf, tyme, wine and chicken stock to the mirepoix after you've roasted the meat



Place the meat on the veggies/liquid and place in the oven for another 2 hours.


Take the meat out of the oven


I broiled the meat to give it a crunch.


I then removed all the veggies and used the juice to make gravy for the baked potato.

Final meal:


That was yummy.

Well New York City really has it all

Did you know this is what Joey Ramone is singing in Shena is a Punk Rocker? He must mumble the lyrics because it wasn't until I heard Rancid doing the cover yesterday that I learned this. I was digging through our million CDs on Friday night to get some new music for the iPod. I ripped the Ramones tribute record Susie had picked up a few years back (when it came out). I appreciate that Kiss, Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie were all influenced by the Ramones, but why did they end up on this record? The only two redeeming covers were by Rancid and Tom Waits.

It had been a few months since I hung out in the East Village, but I heard the call of cheap wine, new glasses and ramen. You can't call yourself a real New Yorker until you've had to deal with an f'ed up L on a weekend.

Side of egg w/ ramen.


New glasses


The 3rd ave L stop was closed so I decided to walk down my old street (13th btwn 2nd and 3rd) to get to the 1st ave stop. There are 2 major construction projects with a third one scheduled. Weird to see a block that was unchanged for the 3 years I lived there to look so different just 5 months later.

A new condo? building going in where there used to be a random parking lot.


This building (two doors down from my old building) was totally vacated and sealed up.



I won't recognize this street/neighborhood in 5 years.