Good bye East Village...

...I'll miss you

I finally realized that Carol from the Bob Newhart show is Ms. Krabappel!!!

I watch the Simpsons pretty much every night when I get home from work. Recently, I realized that that I knew Ms. Krabappel's voice, but just couldn't place it.


Being a huge fan of the Bob Newhart show (I am currently in the middle of Season 4 on DVD), I was finally able to connect that Carol, Bob's secretary, is the voice of Edna Krabappel, Bart Simpson's teacher.



Why it took me so long to figure this out...I don't know.

I love me some Blueberry Pie

We had dinner last night, and on the desert board I saw that they had Blueberry Pie. I told the waiter, 'I sure would like some of that' but needless to say, they were out. I had been thinking about that blueberry pie for my entire meal.

So we leave the place and start to head home thru the East Village, planning on stopping at a few of the bakeries. None have the pie. There was a crazy foaming at the mouth guy at one bakery who volunteered that he used to pick blueberries as a child. I looked him in the eye and said 'I just want some blueberry pie dude, I don't care what you used to do' and started for the exit. He responded with 'thanks for the compliment.' Whatever, freak.

I was a man on a mission.

When we got home, we started calling around to diners and found a place a few blocks from my house. Yes, The Gramercy Cafe had the pie! We were on our way.



I could end my weekend a happy man. I sure do love me some Blueberry Pie.

we were there but left @ 8:45

Just saw this on Gawker:

"Spoon & Radiohead members
169 Avenue A
Jul 10th, 2007 @ 9pm
all members of the band spoon as well as ed o'brien and colin greenwood from radiohead at hifi bar (hush hush listening party for spoon's new album). ed o'brien is a giant of a man and i want to climb him like a tree. from 9:30 pm on."

We left around 8:45-9. Sitting around in a bar waiting for some musicians to show up listening to records I have at home and paying $5+ a drink isn't as fun as it was when I wasn't 30.

We went to Texas last week to get our Texas on.

Austin is a really great place. Most people I know in NYC only know Austin because of SXSW or now ACL. Austin is kind of a gross place when the foreigners descend en masse.

We basically camped out at the San Jose for 4 days, swam and ate every egg and piece of beef we could get our hands on. It was mostly overcast or rainy, so that kept the heat down.

Mates of State in new AT&T ad

My how they've grown...

Me as a rat

Does Umbrella sound like Blond Redhead?

Can someone do a Umbrella mash up with the Blond Redhead song that sounds like it?

This device rocks

I've hated every cell phone I ever got from Sprint, and always hated the day I had to get a new one because I always felt I was going to get ripped off. But calls connected, no matter where I was. I've moved alot since I got my Sprint account post college.

I've never owned a Mac, but my little lady, dad and a few informed friends swear by Jobs, his software and hardware. The things just work. I've owned 4 ipods (2 paid for - 2 freebees - one stolen, one left on a plane, and 2 that still work)

So on Friday, I decided what the hey, I'll go down to the ATT&T store 6 blocks from my house, wait and see. If I get one, I do, if I don't I don't.

Cell phone stores are notoriously crap. There was very little movement in the hour I had waited. No matter how crazy Apple stores are, you can get your product fast. Jobs knows retail. I found out the crazies who waited in line for days had cleared at the Apple store in SoHo and decided to head over there. Lock and loaded, no turning back dude.

I had dinner plans, so didn't jump on the set up ASAP. Got home and activated the account via iTunes. No dice, bed time, it'll work itself out while I sleep. I woke up the next morning, account activated, problem solved.

I now have 2 cell phone plans. I'll cancel Sprint after I feel enough of my regular peeps have the new number. I'll pay the early termination fee and most sadly, lose my San Francisco based number. The number that has defined me during my 20s. I turned 30 last week. New decade, new number. A NYC based number. A big boy number.

So I played with the phone all day yesterday. And it does everything I want it to do. And its the best thing I've ever bought. And it's worth more than what I paid for it (its worth closer to the price of a good lap top - but if it cost that much, I probably wouldn't have bought it)

I can take pictures and drop them into my flickr account. Text, instant email, call people, read my Bloglines (much better when I am in a wi-fi zone - EDGE SUCKS), listen to the Talking Heads, watch some random free crap I found in ITunes, listen to an NPR podcast, get weather reports from all over the country, check stock reports, all pretty much by dragging my finger across a screen. I am not as excited for this (even though its great), but what the future holds. This is the beginning of the on the go, always connected device.

And if that scares you, like in a 1984 kind of way, you can always turn the thing off.

Thanks Shane for my Joe-Fro pic

Best b-day present eva!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to Blue Hill Stones Barn for my birthday.

Here is my review on Chowhound. There have been 8 comments so far. Pictures below.

Went to Blue Hill last night to celebrate my 30th. The atmosphere was pleasant, it was nice to be out of NYC and on a farm.

We each ordered the 3 course tasting. I was about to jump at the Farmer's 7 course tasting where the menu is prepared just for you and off menu, but the entire table has to order that way.

I started with a yummy pickled ramp gin martini. Had never had anything like this before.
First two tasters were a pork breaded cutlet on a stick, and a mini 'burger' of beat paste on crunchy dough.

We then received mixed greens with a 'farmers' egg - something they are known for. Dreamy medium boiled then breaded deep fried egg. Have no idea how they did this, amazing.

Next I had the hake in pea and asparagus sauce. This was the some of the best piece of fish I have ever eaten. The peas were sweet and the asparagus was crunchy. When i had eaten most of the solids, I has a nice fresh green fish soup. My girlfriend has the gnocchi with the morels. She said it was great.

By this time, we had ordered a half bottle of the Borarolo. A nice complement (I like bold wines), but a bit spend-y for a half bottle ($52).

Next up was the third course: she had the chicken and I had the veal. Her chicken was succulent, and I had never had a chicken breast as dense as this before. Such strong flavor and a nice crisp on the skin.

But oh no - my veal. Center was really tough. I confirmed with the presentation waiter that this was in fact the veal, and he could see that I was only eating around the center, so he took it away, handed me a menu and said - select something else with no hesitation. I felt bad, given you see everything your about to eat as you drive in. So to think, this was messed up somewhere along the way to end up as waste didn't sit well with me. I will probably never eat veal again.

The veal was replaced with the Berkshire pork. Quite tasty, and dense meat (like the chicken) with a side of pork belly/bacon? The pork was over salted (and I like salty pork) and the belly/bacon was cold. The meat was on top of something like hominy that had very little flavor. Over all, the two 'land' proteins were a disappointment.

For desert I had a rhubarb compote with goat cheese and fresh honey. Great flavor profile. The cheese was almost like ice cream (waitress called it their cheesecake). We also had cappuccinos, which were also excellent.

Given the effort to get there, and the disappointment in the two proteins, it will be a long time before we will go back. I am really happy we went, and the meal will definitely be something to remember, just wish the middle of the meal hadn't been derailed.



Here are some lovely pictures of the food and the place. (Its beautiful in Terrytown.

www.flickr.com

jack doing this to meg in the icky thump video kind of creeps me out

Must burn

...my camo green Crocks my mom sent me for my birthday last year.


I know I am an influencer, but this is too much.

Sorry Mom, I know you live in Bush country, but this crosses even my line of influencing bad taste.

I'm keeping my pearl snap shirts though.(Thanks Melissa!) Would even love to get more short sleeve ones.

Young Hearts be free tonight

I am not his son.

and I did not throw a brick at anyone.

What's been going on?

I just dumped 2 weeks worth of cell phone pictures into flickr. We've been doing tons of stuff given how nice the weather had been.

I saw the Faint the Sunday before Memorial Day. I hadn't seen them since they opened for No Doubt with Nissa in San Jose.


We went to Moncia's birthday/going away party last Saturday. They're moving to Boston because she got into Harvard.



I had an NYU reception on Tuesday and here is a picture of the presidential bathroom.



Since I was in the west village, the little lady and I went to Eno for dinner. Their egg truffle toast is to die for.


Wednesday night, we made meatballs and cabbage.


And given that Katz's may close soon, and I was in the LES on Thursday, I decided to bury the hatchet with the place and get my meat on. I got in a fight with their staff about 5 years ago and vowed never to go back. Really dumb, and I am happy to 'rediscover' the place.


This really is some of the yummiest beef I have ever had. There was so much meat I had the 2nd half for lunch the next day.


Susie and I had dinner at Dukes on Friday.


I didn't get a picture of it, but had the lobster roll at Buchon on Saturday. Considering they usually cost 20 bones at most NYC restaurants, this was a deal at $15 at a Keller establishment.

And today...one of my favorite food outings in NYC - The Big Apple BBQ festival. It's great because Salt Lick comes up all the way from Texas!




After reviewing the pictures from all of the good food I've had in the past week, I will need to go on a diet before we head to Texas the first week in July.

Creepy Robot Baby!!!!!!!!!

I shop at Urban Outfitters and like the Cure.

"You have some sense of style and decent musical appreciation, but there are some glaring holes in your hipster resume. Don't worry. In this case holes in your resume are a positive thing, because it is a job that you probably don't want."

Not as good as the hipster bingo card we saw like 4 years ago, in this weeks' TONY.

I don't think I was ever a hipster. Or if I was, I was really bad at it. I like having my own money and eating too much to have ever been a hipster. More like a music snob with a big appetite.

And yes, I may start using the word REGS, as in 'I am a REGular person.'

PS, I am moving to Greenpoint later this year.

C'Mon chemicals

Don't usually shill for the stuff I kinda work on here, but this is my favorite song of 2007 thus far, done all acoustic style and presented on a player I help work on.

KEWL

Icky

self portriat

I'm digging thru blogger looking at me.