Frontyard and back patio on GMaps

Front Yard


Back Yard

Our friend's kid is so adorbale!

Susie found us a new apartment

Susie mentioned wanting outdoor space a few weeks back, so she started looking on craigslist for a new place to live.

She found us a new apartment pretty quickly. The new place has a huge kitchen, three huge rooms and a huge patio (did I mention HUGE?)

And the park where this Flight of the Concords skit was filmed is basically our front yard.



We'll have you over for a bbq asap. We move in on May 1.

Save It For Your Blog (dot com)

A few years ago I registered the url Save It For Your Blog (dot com) thinking I would make t-shirts of the phrase and get rich. I never really did anything with the url so I can't say if I was going to get rich or not. (I tend to think not - phrases on t-shirts don't have the same cache as they did, say in a Wham video from the 80s)

I decided to use the url for my Tumblog. I just officially started using it yesterday, and I love it. Hits that sweet spot between Flickr and this blog.

Me...and my Tumblr

I am trying out something new. Twitter seems too self indulgent for me.

Without further adieu, I present my very own Tumblr blog.

Basiclly, its like a mini blog I can update from the road. As I see the action happen. I may then blow that out to something larger on this blog. I can also email pictures directly to my Tumblr and Flickr. I wish I could port text from Tumblr to my Facebook status though.

Its all just a big test. We'll see.

A lot to celebrate/we get what we want

Alot has been going on, kind of like expected, but one never knows until things pan out. I got my final pay out from the last company I worked for and was made an offer for a new job (a good offer, a job I want, at a company I like).

The lil lady suggested we celebrate. A plate of tacos and a 6 pack of Corona always seems like the way to go and would make us happy. But we decided to go to the best place we could think of.

So I booked Jean Georges for Friday night.

Not really the type of place you take pictures, but I snuck in 2.
The Lobster


The desert plate


Oh my goodness. This really was the best meal of my life. And for how much a fancy meal can set you back in the city, it really wasn't that ridiculous. Not for everyone, and not for everyday, but definitely a meal I will continue to dream of.

We also bought a bed frame, something I've wanted for years. All of the beds I'd seen were either too expensive or too ugly or to cheap. To quote Goldilocks, this one was just right.




One sacrifice I've had to make with all of the life change is not being able to go to SXSW this year. I thought I would have the time, so I used a voucher and dropped a few hundred dollars on a plane ticket. I called United on Friday to cancel, and was told I would have to eat $400 on the ticket. SO DON'T FLY UNITED. THEY TREAT YOU LIKE SHIT! If you find a cheap deal, use them, but certainly DON'T COUNT ON UNITED.

I've been seeing bunch of flyers on Facebook and the blogosphere as to all of the fun my tech friends are having this week and music friends will have next week. Maybe next year...who knows. I've done it for 10 years, but haven't been back in 4. I may be eating $400 on the plane ticket, but would loose alot more than that in pay if I ditched on my 2nd to last week at this job.

This guy looks weirdly like me

Saw this on Youtube main today.

He looks like me, except for the larger schnaz.

You can drink me now.

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.

How cute!

Scenes like this really make me happy that so many people 'feel the power' of change.
These kids are adorable.


(No I haven't made up my mind on who to endorse yet. But the fact that there is so much energy and passion in the air is exciting. That last round with Kerry was so umph :(

And then I saw this. Cougars looking for boytoys. Being billed as a sport. How New York. I actually expect to see an uptake in dating events like this now that the stigma is basically removed. But to say this is political...puleeze...

He asks. He gets. Part 2

The Rock and Roll karma of publishing my music diaries continues...

Last week I wrote how after 20 yeas of looking, I finally found an affordable copy of Appetite. The day I publish that piece, Chris and I met for a pint at Tom and Jerry's. Robert Plant comes in with a lady friend for a few pints. We didn't want to bother him, as I was lucky enough to meet him at an AOL Sessions 2 years ago and got him to sign 4 pieces of Zep vinyl. He said that was the first time he had signed Zep 2 on vinyl in over 20 years. Meeting him a second time wouldn't have been as great as meeting Jeff Tweedy in Amsterdam last fall, but it was great to see a icon in the flesh.

Google has gone to the dogs.

This ad just showed up on a CNN page.


I've always known that the web attracted advertisers on par with the classifieds, the penny saver and infomercials but this is a new low.

He asks. He gets.

I've started blogging about my all time favorite records put out in my life time.

It has been hard. A few days of self doubt. Magnetic Fields and Cat Power have new records that are phenomenal. Wow, their early records changed my life and why didn't I put them on the list? And ELO? I love them as much as (or more?) than the Talking Heads and the Cars. Wings and The Cure too.

Because I discovered these records after I accepted that I am music snob. or I don't really know. All I know is the first list was hard to put together and I listened to those CDs, tapes and mp3s like there was no tomorrow. I wish I could have included L7 and Skid Row too.

Its freezing today (actually below freezing.) I know if Susie and I hung out at the place we would have gone at each other like cats and dogs, so I devised this plan to grab a bite at the local pub. After we had a few Bloody Mary's and played a round of Scrabble I suggested we go to the little 'we're on the verge of being the hip record store in a recently gentrified neighborhood' record store looking for the BetaBand's 3 eps. I think I heard a song of their's in an ad and it won't leave my head.

I start flipping though the vinyl and right away I find ELO's 'Out of the Blue' FOR 5 DOLLARS. Daniel recently played me his recently repressed copy. He paid $25 for it. Heh.

And there she was waiting for me.


Basically this record (this copy, on vinyl) has been like $50+ for the last 20 years. Appetite has sold more than 20 million copies wold wide. There were 25,000 of these things made, 20 YEARS AGO. I now own one. Today is a great day.

I blogged about my favorite 30 records this week, included Appetite in that list, and got the hardest copy of it known to man today for 20 bucks. This never happens.

I passed my first semester of Business school!

The next batch of 6

Purple Rain – Prince
Prince made a whole movie on trying to write one song. All his life’s passion went into writing this song. I saw Prince on New Year’s eve at the Summit from 1998 into 1999. He did like a 4 hour set. Every song on this record is amazing.

Elliott Smith - Elliott Smith
As mentioned in the previous post I had a radio show. I used to tape my show, and Aaron sometimes would listen to the last 30 minutes when he would get up super early. The girl who had her show after me started her show off with Needle in the Hay. I got home and Aaron was so blown away he bought this record. We were in Paris a little after that and went to see him. By the time we got back to America he was pretty big and we went to see him at Liberty Lunch. Aaron buying this record started it all. When I lived in LA, I would see him hanging out at Spaceland. I really wish he didn’t die.

Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens
I saw him on the Michigan tour and made fun of the Boy Scout outfits. I then get to New York and throw a party where a Craig showed up. He said he was helping to make this record and that I should listen to it when came out, that it was going to be great. I got sent an early promo with Superman on the cover and put it on. And listened to it again and again.

Team Boo – Mate of State
I am biased. I was selling tshirts for the Mates right before they went to make this record. I heard HA HA every night for 2 weeks. I liked Mississippi and St Louis the best, mostly because the opening band hated these shows so much.
This record has such strong songs and was so well made, I am blown away every time I listen to it. ‘Middle is gold and gold does not forgive’

The Soft Bulletin – Flaming Lips
And it seemed to cause a chain reaction.
I saw one of the first shows of this tour. I’ve seen more iterations of this show (20+) then any other tour experience I’ve ever seen. For me, it was like going to the circus as an adult. Over the past 9 years, I’ve seen some iteration of what started at the beginning of this tour at least 3 times in each city I’ve lived in (and I’ve lived lots of places) Shit, does that make me a Lip head? A Flaming head? A fearless freak?

Nissa took me to the Yahoo Xmas party they played, and I grabbed Wayne’s boot begging him to play Xmas at the Zoo. He looked down and me and said ‘Josef, we don’t know that song any more, Ronald’s left the band!’

The Cars – The Cars
They could’ve made this album and called it thier greatest hits. I love this band so much I could cry.