February 28, 2006

Fridge MIA

I checked out my new (to me) apartment Saturday morning before leaving town. First time I've been inside since the contractors finished "renovating." (Apartment still looks the same to me.) It's tiny, crazy downstairs neighbors live below, but it's all mineminemine!

My mind was buzzing with the prospect of life sans roommate that I didn't notice one important element was missing until hours later: the refrigerator.

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February 27, 2006

Subway Observation of the Day

Where: N train from Brooklyn to Manhattan

When: Around noon

What: Middle-aged man clad in earthtones sitting quietly across from me. He clutched a 8"x6" soft black pleather case which was covered in a large red sticker rimmed in silver glitter and bearing the sentence, "I believe in GOD" in a large yellow font.

Yes, I believe you. Your sticker is more convincing than the homemade T-shirt bearing messages of faith which a stranger showed me (after whipping off his parka and sweater on the Delancey Street platform at 1am).

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Best Laid Plans

I almost always have very ambitious Monday plans. Usually something along the lines of getting up early, trying to accomplish 283 tasks by day's end. I'm usually tuckered out by Friday, so might as well aim high at the beginning of the week, no?

Today was no different. Boarded the train just before 7am. Got stuck on a stationary train for an extra 20 minutes due to a mysterious track condition. When I finally staggered out of the subway station with only one thought in my mind, "coffeecoffeecoffee," I was greated by a closed Starbucks (!). After staring groggily at the brown paper-shrouded Starbucks for 10 seconds, I staggered over to Taralluci e Vino -- too early, staff still setting up. Then tried the News Café -- success, they're open! I didn't get to work as early as I wanted, didn't accomplish 283 tasks. But there's always next week...

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February 21, 2006

Subway Observation of the Day

Photo by newleaf

Where: F train from Manhattan to Brooklyn

When: Around 7pm

What: Guy in early 20s eating sour patch kids the sour sugar residue that you usually find at the bottom of a bag of sour patch kids. His technique: jabbing his left index finger into the kids-less bag, rapidly removing finger and inserting it in his mouth at a rate of one jab per second. It was like watching a chicken peck the ground for grubs.

I was hypnotized by his movements for about two subway stops. Jabbing stopped when he bolted off the crowded train at the 4th Ave stop.

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February 20, 2006

Oscar Fever

Check out the beautifully arresting photos of Oscar maybe's and have-nots in last weekend's New York Times. They were shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

Starting to feel a touch of Oscar fever.

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February 19, 2006

Saturday Night Respite

Popped into Webster Hall last night in between bouts of feeling craptastic for a set by Elefant. Starting with "Uh Oh Hello" (which sounds fantastic live), the guys played a solid set which included other tracks from The Black Magic Show including "Lolita," "Sirens," and "The Clown" (I think, mind's a bit fuzzy), plus older stuff from the previous album. Since they made me forget about about growling and shooting nasty glances at random folks for an hour, I forgive them for playing a show on the coldest friggin' night of 2006 (the walk to Webster Hall hurt my face), and having painfully young fans (I felt like a crone seeing the baby-faced teen crowd in their "grown-up" indie rock outfits from Hot Topic.)

Diego and Jeff/Elefant

Best Moments of the Night: watching Diego "bless" the audience by touching them with his fingertips and his bare feet, licking their foreheads, and of course, grabbing audience members' (like Marisa's) hands. Nothing new for Diego...

Runner-up for Best Moment of the Night: watching screaming and pointing man (they're everywhere!) trying to make contact with Diego during the entire set. He sorta got his wish when Diego either spat or "accidentally" dripped his drink in the direction of this guy (hard to determine which from my position). That guy sure has a lot of enthusiastic fans...

Diego, preparing to dispense blessings

The Morning After Girls played before Elefant.
Need to give their album a proper listen.

More photos from last night here.

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Winter Blahs

(This post is dedicated to Kini. Evil salon owners aside, many thanks for trying so hard to cheer me up the past few days. You are a superstar.)

I've been feeling foul lately due to combination of weather so cold that I can feel the skin of my hands start shriveling, workaholicism, apartment-related stress, missing out on getting tickets to Franz, disappointments, too many late nights, too many early mornings (i hate 8am meetings), and general just not taking good care of myself. So apologies to the folks at whom I've growled or cast nasty glares since last Thursday (except for the 6 foot tall idiot on the R train who refused to step aside, so a pregnant lady and I can get off the train. I still think he's an asshole.).

I've resisted the idea of taking a vacation somewhere warm and far away this winter because I have too many NY-bound commitments the next few months. But I think I may need to give into the siren call of a warm sandy beach and lots of sitting on my ass doing nothing.

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February 15, 2006

Sounds of the City

As I was leaving the office tonight, I stopped in the lobby to put on the earbuds of my iriver iHP-120 (nope, i haven't jumped on the iPod wagon), which I tried to turn on.

Nothing happened. No music, no LCD screen lighting up. Security guard noticed the look of omigodwtf on my face as I pressed every button on my iriver trying to get it to work. So instead of spending my evening commute listening to music, spent it listening to guys in suits yakking about the idiotic exploits of Dick Cheney, local and not-so-local accents, the unintelligible announcements from subway conductors, jarring sirens of passing ambulances, cell phones ringing as our train crossed the Manhattan Bridge.

Surprisingly having my musical soundtrack of indie rock replaced with a real urban soundtrack was a being a refreshing change. Most times I find it a bit stressful after 9 hours of work. Not tonight. The sounds made me feel more connected with the city. Perhaps i should go on a mp3 player hiatus.

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Blizzard Show 2006 Starring E6

The star of this year's rock n' roll blizzard show was the Electric Six with a cameo from She Wants Revenge. Snow was falling as we walked to the Bowery Ballroom. I had no idea that we would end up with over two feet of the white stuff the next day!

Was looking forward to hearing She Wants Revenge live. I liked the few tracks I heard (you know I love Interpol-y dance-rock). But I must admit that after a few songs, I grew a bit weary of their sound. The songs started to blur together. (The Rolling Stone review of their self-titled album is snarktastic and spot on about their style.) From my view in the balcony the lead singer looked a bit too self-aware; like he knew exactly how to position his body with the guitar in relation to the microphone, so he'll be lit in a certain way. Would have loved seeing a bit more abandon and spontaneity on stage; or at least as much abandon and spontaneity as their moody sound allows. I still like some tracks, just don't want to hear them in huge blocks.

She Wants Revenge: dark blue lights = "Take us seriously.We are a moody band."

As soon as SWR finished their set, a good third of the audience left the stage floor. Perhaps they were buying more drinks? Went home early due to the blizzard? Most of them never returned, which was a shame as Electric Six put on a much more entertaining live show. The band played many tracks from Señor Smoke, their "new" album which just hit stateside last week. Unfortunately my favorite "Boy or Girl?" didn't make the cut, but "Jimmy Carter" and the crowd fav "Danger! High Voltage" did. Fans ate it up. Dick did his exercising and posing schtick on stage. Although I've seen him do it several times, I never get tired of it! However he did keep his pants on for the entire set this time around.

Pointing man never let up.

Introducing Johnny Na$hinal

More photos here.

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February 14, 2006

Fever Friday

Last Friday I along with The Fever's Biggest Fan trekked out to Jersey to catch The Fever gig. And whom do we see as soon as we enter Maxwell's? 1/2 of The Fever hanging by the bar. Tried to get the FBF to say howdy or something; no luck.




The space was fairly packed. Motel Creeps opened for them; the lead singer has a seriously strong voice. Imagine Bono's voice coming out of a clean, non-drugged up, velvet blazer-wearing, vaguely Jim Morrison resembling guy. Wow. Another band called Aberdeen City played next. Whatever they played, it wasn't memorable. I am blanking on any recollection of their set. All I remember is the lead singer repeating "We're Aberdeen City. From Boston."

The main event: The Fever's set was a mix of old and new songs. Kicked off with "Redhead," which sounds the most like their frenetic, high-energy Red Bedroom sound compared to the other new songs which were performed. Midway through the set they played "Waiting for the Centipede," a song which I am beginning to dig. Closed the show with the "romantic" "Little Lamb & The Shiny Silver Bullets."

Most of the new songs sound more like "Waiting for the Centipede" than "Redhead." Their set was strong as usual. Waiting for their new album before deciding whether or not I like this new direction.

Post-show: reemained conscious during the train from Jersey to NYC. Fell asleep on the subway home to Brooklyn with the other tired drunktards (scary!). Collapsed in bed when I got home.

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February 12, 2006

Blizzard 2006

Didn't think NYC would escape without one ginormous snowstorm this winter, ay?

26.9 inches of snow! When it snows that much in the city, it means one thing to me: rock concert! Attended The Fever show during last year's blizzard. Attended the Electric Six show during this year's blizzard. It's tradition.
Snow = rocking out.

More on the E6 show later. Am pooped from hiking through Prospect Park looking for the perfect (uncrowded) sledding spots. Found them, slid down on them. Narrowly avoided colliding headfirst into a tree (only because a few wonderful folks jumped in front of the tree to block the collision; my head smacked into their shins instead. thank you, whomever you are!). Am in defrosting mode now. Tomorrow's trek into Manhattan should be an adventure.

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Night Court

Well, not exactly. Last Thursday I visited Sandra, my ADA friend, while she was arraigning men (hallelujah! -- borrowed that Weather Girls ref from mars) during an evening shift at Brooklyn Criminal court. My judicial-related experiences are limited to my observation of jury selection as a student in Boston and a US Court of International Trade trial in New York. And of course the exciting 4 hours which I spent in the basement of the Norfolk County courthouse for jury duty.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It wasn't Night Court; didn't spot any wisecracking judges, sex-obsessed ADAs (but really, how can I tell as an observer?) or bald bailiffs. I did see lots of arraignments for drug possession and one for assault with a table (mars says she spotted some cops giggling during that one). If I were to draw a completely un-scientific conclusion from this sampling, I would say Brooklyn sure has a lot of drug users or at least drug users who aren't too savvy about hiding their habit.

Slightly tangential: Conviction, the new NBC show from Law & Order creator Dick Wolf about the lives of seven NYC ADA's will premiere soon. It's "character oriented" (interpret as you will) versus specific crime/case oriented like the other L&O shows. Word on the street that it's rather soapy in tone. I'm not a TV person, but this looks like it has potential to be a deliciously good guilty pleasure show.

Conviction cast

Didn't see any folks who looked like this wandering the halls of Brooklyn Criminal Court.

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Happy Dance

My internet access has been non-existant at home for the past few days. During those few days, I've felt like I've been missing a limb. Everytime I had an impulse to upload photos to flickr, email weird links to friends at 3am, I couldn't. But I (no thanks to Time Warner) fixed the problem, and now I feel whole again (doing happy dance a la Balki in Perfect Strangers!). I am such a nerd.

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February 10, 2006

Insurance Schminsurance

World's Largest Snowball Fight stymied by insurance problems?

Whatever...I say show up in Prospect Park for a good ole snowball fight anyway. Heard that we should expect a foot of snow in NYC (!). Fun will be had, world's record or no world's record, event insurance or no event insurance.

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February 09, 2006

Jersey, Baby, Jersey

Only one band has the power to make me cross state lines just to catch their gig -- The Fever. Ok, maybe one or two other bands with names that begin with F, but they're nowhere near Maxwell's, which is where I'lll be tomorrow night.

I'm intrigued by their new tracks "Redhead" and "Waiting for the Centipede," off their next album, In the City of Sleep. Heading towards a new sound, eh? They aren't as immediately dance-rock catchy like most tracks off Red Bedroom or Pink on Pink, but they are growing on me...fast. "Waiting for the Centipede" makes me think of haunted circuses and carnivals filled with animals waltzing with each other while Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band members walk in and out of the Big Top. Uh, listen to it and maybe you'll understand why I'm babbling this way.

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February 07, 2006

Quote of the Day

"cant help but check out crotches now and then! especially when they're onstage!" - Christina

Riiiiight.

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February 06, 2006

You partially sitting on my lap makes me feel like we are good friends.

I don't ride the 6 train to work anymore, but this list applies to any subway ride.

Responses to People on the 6 Train That Hopefully Convey My Feelings in a Polite Way.

Bwahahahah! Didn't have an opportunity to use any of these responses, as I was not harrassed today. An obese man leaned on me and nearly elbowed me in the chest a few times, but I'm chalking that up to the jerkiness of the F train ride to Brooklyn.

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Tenants, Beware

A seriously addictive website for all apartment dwellers -- Trembicky.com

I can't stop reading it. It's a scary scary world out there for renters.

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February 05, 2006

Careless Roommate, Careless Me

I don't post a lot of "I'm angry at &*$@#-ing " posts, but am making an exception tonight because I just got into a stupid cooking accident which freaked me out. Target of my wrath: my roommate and her carelessness, and myself for not pointing out her carelessness earlier and being careless myself.

Because both targets contributed to my accidentally slicing open my left wrist on a serrated steak knife that she left in the drying rack blade up. I didn't notice the knife, and my left wrist rubbed across the edge as I was removing a dish from the rack. The cut wasn't deep or long, but the amount of blood that dripped from it was freaky. It's been cleaned and bandaged, but my wrist gives the impression that I was fatally upset over the Super Bowl results. I guess the cut could have been worse if I didn't react so quickly. Grr, if I could kick my own ass I would! But my roommate's ass is within kicking range. Counting the minutes until she returns...

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Nutella/Beanfest

Realizations made at yesterday's Nutella/Beanfest last night (yes, it's exactly what you think it is -- a party celebrating Nutella and Mr. Bean):

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