Chinatown bars, what an anomaly. Enter Apotheke, whose mixmaster (ok ok ok mixologist) Orson Salicetti (sounds like he should be north of Canal) has something that will put a spring in your step and all around, put the spring in spring, and involves "dust" that isn't from drugs or Peter Pan.
Picture and ingredients taken from the friends at Food2:
"Ingredients: 1 oz. Navan Vanilla Liqueur 1 oz. Ice Wine 1 oz. Fresh Honeydew Juice 1 oz. Honey Lime Honeydew and Madagascar Vanilla Dust Garnish"
I have none of these things. Which is why on my way to pick up some noodles, cheap seafood, oyster sauce, and other assorted Chinese things, I'll make a stop.
Ah, the old favorite. Remember that movie Laws of Gravity that I posted about a while ago? Yeah they would totally trash hipsters that invaded their north Brooklyn hoods.
Take this hipsters, an old thorn that keeps coming back, every Siren Fest:
Best known for her collaboration with Michelle Branch in the country duo The Wreckers, Warner Nashville is proud to release Jessica Harp’s first solo album A Woman Needs this summer, with her album single “Boy Like Me” already climbing the charts. This week, the pop-country singer secured the iTunes Video of the Week spot for “Boy Like Me,” which fans can download for free from the site.
In June 2004, aspiring country singer Jessica Harp packed everything into her car and left her Kansas City, MO, hometown for Tennessee to finalize a recording contract with Nashville indie-label Dualtone Music Group. Fate intervened when her best friend Michelle Branch called somewhere along the way and asked her to form a country/pop duo, which the girls dubbed The Wreckers. A No. 1 country single, a gold album, a Grammy-Award nomination, and high-profile tours with Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban followed, but Harp could never shake the feeling of wanting to show the world what she could do on her own.
Now she finally has that chance with the upcoming release of her major-label solo debut A Woman Needs — a breezy modern-country collection that finds the honey-voiced Harp telling appealingly relatable stories about her life, loves, and heartbreaks on tracks like the playful “Boy Like Me,” the feisty “A Woman Needs,” and the earthy “Homemade Love.” “Country music is about real people and real things, and that always spoke to me not only as a music fan, but as a singer-songwriter,” Harp says. “I like to tell stories with my songs. This is the album I have dreamed of making since I was eight years old and singing along to my mom’s Judds and Reba McEntire records.”
While The Wreckers were touring with Keith Urban in the summer of 2007, Harp had begun writing songs on her own. She befriended Urban’s bass player, Jerry Flowers, who, in addition to being a musician, is also a singer, producer, and songwriter. Flowers wound up co-writing several tracks on A Woman Needs, including the title track, “Break-Up Song,” and “More To This Than You,” as well as producing the album.
One thing Harp and Flowers knew going in to make A Woman Needs is that they wanted the album to be fun and upbeat. “That was another lesson I learned during my crash course with The Wreckers,” Harp says. “Aside from the singles, Stand Still, Look Pretty is a sad album, and we would play hour-long sets at these big fairs and festivals where people just wanted to dance and have a good time. So I was thinking about touring and playing the songs live when we recorded the album. But I think there’s something for everyone here.”
I've never been a huge bread fan. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy eating bread at restaurants because I'm waiting impatiently for whatever greatness lies ahead. As well, olive oil and fresh bread is something I will keep eating until someone rips them from me.
I'm not a bread expert though; I don't have loaves sitting around to create snacks and assorted foods. I grew up in the more rice/stir fry/dumplings vein, the Chinese aren't really bread-y.
I think I'll start to take notice though after I witnessed something kinda incredible yesterday, which was SCRATCHbread. Not sure why Scratch is in caps, but hey, it's modern. I was at Toby's Public House for a Brooklyn Yelp event (for those who don't know Greenwood Heights, it's actually an interesting quiet section that goes unnoticed). A man with a plan came around and he said, "have some SCRATCHbread, I'll be coming around later with coupons." I like coupons, especially cutting them out of the Sunday paper, but this bread was insane. It looked like someone burned off a piece of the Toxic Avenger and infused it with this really hearty, crisp flavor that grew tangy as I kept chewing. It was the South Slope Sour (pictured above), or at least it had to be.
The founder, Matthew J. Tilden, says he wants "approachable sophistication" and I couldn't agree more, this is what food is about. It's what Brooklyn can be about most of the time.
This is the kind of bread that you invert the sandwich for. Yes so you put the meat on the outside and the bread sandwiched in the middle.
Cage Potato has the breakdown of the push for a MMA regulation bill for the state of New York. For those who are out of this political loop, New York, for example, has laws and commissions set in place to regulate boxing, but MMA has yet to be included in the discussion. According to the original MMA Weekly story, this hearing on June 3rd, if it turns out favorably, will allow a draft of the bill to enter into the committee process (both legal and financial) before getting put to a vote (if it gets that far).
The KCB has been eating, weather provided, at Hope & Anchor (it's a very nice walk down Columbia, oh dub pies!!!!). Last time they had some gas problems (I know I do) but the cobb salad is so bank. Anywho, the friends at Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog serve up some wonderful food porn today courtesy of the Red Hook Fairway Cafe, check out their post here.
Eat It discusses the Red Hook trajectory taken by some but still undiscovered by many!
Here is their lovely photo: Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog wines and dines every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday complete with mouth-watering photos, be sure to check them out as they are the real deal for Brooklyn eats.
I had half a mind this morning as my lobby trot was interrupted by a nicely structured and somewhat pleasant BellTel Lofts NYC Landmark Preservation Ceremony. We all know it's a landmark. It says so outside the building. I know it's supposed to be a nice pick us up to start summer in terms of getting some more press, but there are concerns amongst many residents and the last thing I need to see is self-congratulations at this point.
Things are indeed getting repaired and maintained but it will take a while with the little manpower available to the building...again as the neighborhood shifts and changes along with the local politics the overall vibe may climb, but I question the amount of vision to see things through from up top. This is not to be snobby; I don't want to talk the talk and not walk that proverbial walk. It just kind of annoys me to set up something that I'm sure is a nice dedication to the building when the building itself just needs more work done with residents already inside it. The pushing and shoving to this point is disheartening but there has to be a way to stop looking at the glorious past and start thinking about how to honor it properly now and in the future with a residential building people can be truly proud of.
So I'm watching Popular and enjoying it immensely due to it's over the top nature (although I can see how the plot may have become dangerously thin as the second season progresses, which could be part of the reason for its cancellation).
And I'm the biggest Nip/Tuck fan (one of the few shows that I've actually seen every episode, that and like Walker, Texas Ranger).
Thus it would be natural that I would be a fan of Glee, which aired a sneak episode tonight on Fox and will air several episodes to start the fall season. I've enjoyed Ryan Murphy's work until this point (even with some reservations) for many reasons, and Glee seems to be a really mainstream and punchy formula that could work. The plot might run out of steam but the characters have an endearing quality and Murphy's familiarity with the territory (he even takes several small plot points from Popular) gives the sensibility of the show a stylish quality.
I think, and partly because it's a pilot, a lot of things were shoved unevenly into the first episode, but hopefully the fun will smooth out in the fall. I'm not sure how they are going to constantly remind people about it through the summer (of all seasons how to do that could take some real ingenious marketing) but we'll see.
All I know is, that was the most exhilirating version of "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey I've seen. It kicked ass, and totally in earnest. It's pop in the purest, best form.
Murphy has done this with his previous two flagship shows as well; it's a matter of embracing the surface qualities, the junk and excitement of what people enjoy seeing, or what gets under their skin easiest. High school melodrama/wacky exaggeration campiness made Popular unpredictable in a lot of ways and a lot of fun to watch, and the serious moments are echoed in Nip/Tuck, where a lot of disturbing issues are brought to the table each episode. The problem with Nip/Tuck is keeping the soap opera shenanigans up; at certain points it gets tiring but there's plenty of skin-deep beauty that keeps 'em coming back. On top of that, the superficiality employed is a reflexive thing due to the premise of the show, which is very cool. It's Cronenberg-lite.
Glee seems a bit more sentimental and exudes a vibrancy from which we might need a breather to take in some more dramatic moments. It's the sharp writing that Murphy pens, because the level of wit carries shows as well as the superb acting. There might be concerns over the role of the teacher, Will, as being a bit on the bland side but hopefully we'll see more difficult decisions that he'll have to make. There will be problems; Murphy, with such a distinct style, might repeat some of those as the show moves along, but the cast seems well oiled and totally game.
There are a lot of similarities from Popular (who made a reference to Freaks & Geeks in the last episode I saw which was awesome) to Glee in tone and shape. In the Popular commentary for an episode, Murphy describes Popular as a show about high school girls written for 35-year-old gay men. Hopefully he has similar aspirations for Glee because it worked on Popular. The thing is, neither show is very realistic and both are over-stylized, but in a great way because realism is not the point. The show is a vehicle for big themes and that's what great pop TV and films are about. The thing that theoy hammer on that's real is the emotion and idea that most of the time, shit hits the fan. Sure they are more glamorous and are in a TV show, but there's a real drive I feel that Murphy has to really hit particular moments with more aplomb than anyone else. Yes there are plenty of sarcastic and satirical scenes, and it's through those that the earnest ones shine through. It's not even gentle satire really; the characters have a self-awareness that goes back to the unrealistic nature but for an audience it can be a lot of fun. It's like they know what is wrong and right for them and they never seem to make good choices. You follow them because at the moments of clarity, the characters get it right and that's the little jolt of sympathy we root for. Great combo. Not only that, perfect casting with huge vocals (who doesn't like huge vocals) and great re-working of songs just gives it a lot of heart with a good dose of sass. The music is already available on iTunes. I just might purchase a song or two.
In the end, Glee is also about something so typically dorky and suavely turns it into something fun to watch and the viewers who enjoy it into big dorks. And that's pretty cool in my book. Sure it's not for everyone, but what is. The one thing I was kinda worried about was them singing Gold Digger by Kanye in the season preview after the episode and doing the "Broke, broke" censored version. Sure, it's network television, and yeah, the white teacher is doing the rap, it's just kinda weird.
