Day In Jersey

Yesterday we took our Zipcar and made our way over the Manhattan Bridge, through the Holland Tunnel and over to Jersey.

With the exception of a brief hiccup (as in, taking a wrong turn, getting lost, and spending way too much time there) in Chinatown, it was pretty much smooth sailing getting from BK to NJ.

We spent some time (um, actually 6 hours) at Short Hills Mall, eating lunch at Legal Seafoods and later a snack at Johnny Rocket's prior to travelling to Exit 16W for the Nets/Raptors playoff game number 4.

Getting to the stadium was fine but the parking situation was less than desirable with general parking being relegated to a lot near Giants Stadium, thus causing everyone to have to hike a ways and walk through a tunnel just to get to Continental Airlines Arena. Pretty poor customer experience considering we shelled out about $170 for the tickets and $12 for the parking. Once we got there, we received programs and cheerstix and settled into our seats.

The stadium filled up as time went on and the Nets pretty much took it to the Raptors from the beginning. There was a barrage of highlight worthy plays - three pointers, alley oops, etc. By the end of the third quarter, the Nets were up by 30 points so we had the perfect excuse to leave early, beat the crowds and get our Zipcar back to Park Slope.

Looking Forward To This Album

Really looking forward to the new album by Feist called The Reminder.

Check out the video to her single "1-2-3-4" on YouTube here.

For more on Feist, check out her Wikipedia bio.

Dinner and a Movie

We had a nice dinner with some friends at their place (healthy vegetarian meal and chocolate/fruit for dessert). Afterwards, we fired up the movies-on-demand and watched Thank You For Smoking.

It was an entertaining film and an effective satire against the lobbying community. I'd recommend it.

That's Phat

I saw these pickled items at the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket today.

I just like the cool labels - like "phat beets".

For more info, check out rick's picks.

Broken Social Scene: 7/4 Shoreline

Nets Win but rest of NYC Teams Lose

Last night was one of those nights I wished I had multiple flat screen TVs in our apartment.

There was Yankees/Red Sox, Mets/Nationals, Rangers/Sabres (Game 2), Bulls/Heat (Game 3), and Nets/Raptors (Game 3) all on TV at the same time.

Unfortunately, all the New York area teams lost last night except for the Nets who beat the Raptors 102-89.

J-Kidd had a ridiculously good stat line of 16 points, 19 assists and 16 rebounds.

Agent Zero

First there was Barkley. Then Shaq. Now one of the more entertaining players in the NBA has to be Gilbert Arenas (nicknamed "Agent Zero").

His blog is pretty good. Check it out here.

And check out this YouTube clip of Arenas beating DeShawn Stevenson in a three-point contest with one hand!

Overheard in Prospect Park

I overheard this exchange in Prospect Park over the weekend.

Woman (to male friend): "What's your secret?"
Man (to female friend): "It's the hypnotherapy".

Pavement - Major Leagues

An oldie but goodie.

Ridiculously Good Weather

Yesterday's weather was flawless so we spent a good part of the day in Prospect Park and took some of the pictures you see here.

Then we headed over to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden and picked up a family membership. While we were there, we took these pics.

Indian Food

Last night we met up with a friend and tried out Amin (7th/Union) here in Park Slope. The ambience was fine (decor is fairly conservative), service decent and food was pretty good. In fact, I don't think we've had Indian food since we moved here.

We tried the assorted appetizers (samosa, floza, chicken pakora and papadom), chicken tikka marsala, and spinach. The best was the naan, however, which is unleavened bread baked in a clay oven.

Afterwards, we headed to the beer garden of Flatbush Farm and enjoyed the warm evening weather.

Cat Power - Lived In Bars

Finally Spring

I took this picture from our apt window today....

Everyone was out in the Slope....

We also sat on a park bench in Prospect Park and did some people watching....

Playoff Time

Things are looking up after a cloudy, rainy and depressing week.

The forecast for the NYC area is great for this weekend - sunny and the 70's and it's the start of the NBA playoffs.

I've been a huge fan of the NBA for some time and have been following the Nets for years. Today, they begin their first round series against the Toronto Raptors at 12:30 pm ET on YES and ESPN.

The big underlying story is Vince Carter going up against his old team, Toronto. Toronto absolutely hates him (he admitted not playing to his full potential so that they would trade him) so this ought to be interesting.

I've watched just about all the regular season games on YES Network this year and this season's team has been frustrating to say the least. Granted, they've suffered key injuries to Nenad Krstic, Richard Jefferson and Eddie House but even when they were healthy, they were up and down. The most consistently entertaining parts of the Nets broadcasts were the announcing of Ian Eagle and Mark Jackson's "You're Better Than That" segment. They have been playing well of late, however, so there's hope that they will defeat Toronto and move on to the next round.

Gone are the glory days of Nets past when they had some of my favorite players like Kerry Kittles and Kenyon Martin, but this team should be pretty fun to watch nonetheless with JKidd, Vinsanity and RJ being flanked by the rising play of Boki Nachbar and Mikki Moore.

For more on the Nets, check out the blog JoeNetsfan.

Human Giant - Illusionators

Hilarious skit spoofing Criss Angel and his "illusions".

Remember Britpop?

I recently watched an interesting documentary on the 90's Britpop phenomenon on BBC America.


I'm not sure I fully understood everything that was said thanks to the very heavy cockney accents, but it sure did bring back memories of high school/college - picking up copies of Select magazine and brooding to the tunes of The Verve, Sleeper, Gene, Oasis, and Blur....

Last Weekend

Since I was sick all week I am behind in blogging...anyway, last Saturday we finally checked out Brooklyn Fish Camp (162 5th ave.) here in Park Slope and...it was good. We were there for lunch and I tried their signature lobster roll while my wife had the shrimp tacos. Although it did carry a steep market price of $28, the lobster roll did deliver.

Later we went over to the Court Street cinema in Brooklyn Heights to see Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory. The film did not disappoint and was solid fare among the others in the Ferrell pantheon (Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Old School).

Afterwards, we walked down Atlantic Ave. and headed back to Park Slope and saw some interesting places in Boerum Hill that we may have to check out again - like Betty Bakery, a French bistro called Jolie, and a wine bar called Donna da vine.

Eventually we made it back to Park Slope and ended up at the fairly new neighborhood gastropub Alchemy (pictured from their website). It's got a great vibe and the fried chickpeas were a nice touch. My wife enjoyed the lamb stew and we had no choice but to try the Sticky Guinness pudding. We'll definitely be back....

GE Aviation Commercial

How is this commercial for real? It seems like an SNL skit. It's really corny.

Sick All Week

Sadly, this was my drink of choice all week.

It started on Sunday - headache, chills, stomach problems...

Continued on Monday with a sore throat which kept me at home...

And on through Tuesday until I had a persistent cough on Wednesday and then an interminable and yet intermittent runny/stuffy nose on Thursday and Friday.

I've had a lot of cough drops, Cold-Eeze, Airborne, tea, and soup along the way and I think I am finally feeling better. What a bitch.

Belle and Sebastian - White Collar Boy

Tribeca Film Festival...

is coming April 25th. I'm thinking about checking it out. Click here for more info.

Passing On Beer Pong

Earlier in the week I must have taken every subway line to get to the Upper East Side for a free happy hour that my wife won at Mo's Caribbean.

It's not the kind of place that we would, um, normally frequent but long story short, she was there once with co-workers, dropped the biz card for the free happy hour, and next thing you know we have free drinks.

We stayed long enough to catch up with people but departed once the beer pong started.

Later, we walked down 2nd Ave. and ended up at Ko Sushi (2nd/70th) which was surprisingly good.

American Express - My Life. My Card. (Deniro)

My Media Consumption Habits

It's interesting to think about how much media consumption has changed over the years. Driven by the constant introduction of new technology, I've certainly noticed changes in my behavior.

Here's a look at some of the media I've been consuming lately and any relevant changes:



PRINT
We get a ton of publications thanks to turning in some unused airline miles. It's almost too much so I tend to scan them or just read articles of interest instead of reading cover to cover.

1. 4 weeklies: BusinessWeek, Economist, Time Out New York, New York Magazine
2. 1 daily: The Wall Street Journal
3. 1 monthly: Fast Company

TELEVISION

I'll rarely watch live television unless it's news (NY1, News 12 Brooklyn or the local NBC affiliate) or a sporting event. Most of the time I tend to "binge" watch my DVR'ed programs on the weekend. DVR'ed programs include:

1. Lost
2. Heroes
3. The Colbert Report
4. The Daily Show
5. The Soup
6. The Office

There's also the occasional one-off program: a special on The Travel Channel or Fine Living or NYC-TV...

RADIO/MUSIC

I don't listen to terrestrial radio at all. I do consume some Internet Radio, like:

1. Soma FM
2. Download specific shows from KCRW.com like Jason Bentley's Metropolis or Nic Harcourt's Morning Becomes Eclectic
3. Download podcasts from i-Tunes for shows like NPR's This American Life
4. Hardly ever buy actual CDs anymore (pretty much never!). This is a total change from all the cassette tapes and CDs that I used to buy. Now it's pretty much relegated to one-offs from i-Tunes.

GAMING

1. PS2: a couple hours a week - gameplay has significantly dropped off as I get older
2. Nintendo DS: Just picked this up - been playing "Brain Age" to stave off old age!
3. No online gaming or Second Life for me - I don't get it

ONLINE

1. Hours spent online too numerous to count
2. I blog (obviously) and read some blogs daily (Gothamist.com, Brooklynvegan.com)
3. Look at news sites daily (CNN.com and NY Times.com)
4. Sometimes randomly search Youtube for random videos
5. Occasionally look at social networking sites but it's not that fun since I'm out of the demo and most of my friends aren't on there

MOBILE

1. Not into ringtones, playing games or downloading songs/videos to my phone
2. Rarely use my phone to take pictures
3. Have finally begun text-messaging (yes, a late adopter)

FILMS

1. Go to the actual movie theater 1-3 times a year
2. Mostly watch films via Netflix and usually it's the DVD of tv shows that I never got to watch

I Need to Start Using My Camera Phone

Saw two interesting things in East Village yesterday....

1)The irony of a homeless person wearing a baseball cap with a "Credit Suisse First Boston Private Equity" logo on it; and

2)A squirrel in Tompkins Square Park perched on a park bench next to a brown paper bag with his hands on a full sandwich.

Reading Pays Off

I was talking to a Brit recently and somehow I worked into the conversation the recent NY Magazine article "NY vs London" AND a recent Economist article about pub closings b/c they can make more money turning the property into condos.