Happy Birthday, Sunny

Should have said earlier, but last Friday evening we went down to Sunny's for his birthday bash. Happy birthday, Sunny! Great, great fun. The Woes were spectacular (Hey, Hey!). And we ran into Julie Cummings, Urban Gardener there, with Chris and Julie's Mom - also spectacular.

There's lots of nice stuff about Sunny peppered through the web. Here's my nice thing: the first time Sunny met us he hugged us both and said, "You guys make me high." And, you know, I can't think about Sunny ever since without feeling the same.

I am so effin glad to be done with The Part About the Crimes

Has anybody counted? I'm sure they have. How many murders are detailed in this part of 2666? Seems like easily 100. And just when you're feeling numb to it all, some detail makes the horror of it all more real again.

And so I'm glad to be launched into The Part About Archimboldi. 50 pages in, and loving the oddness of Hans Reiter - whichever Hans he turns out to be.

(earlier, Fate...)

NYTimes endorses Bill de Blasio for Public Advocate

I know this is hard to swallow for some of our Manhattan friends who are wedded to an older vision of the world that included a Giuliani / Green death-spiral... but that's ovah! The New York Times endorses Bill de Blasio for public advocate.

Because he has shown that he can work well with Mayor Bloomberg when it makes sense to do so while vehemently and eloquently opposing him when justified, City Councilman Bill de Blasio best fits today’s requirements for the job.

And he enjoys a good plate of puttanesca.

Woody mo

Juju emailed me this link to the astounding Renovo bikes of Portland, OR, which defnitely turned my volume up way past 11. But it also reminded me that we ran into these fine folks in Redhook one day, the Bamboo Bike Studio. Read up. Maybe, if I'm fighting of a large cash splurge and I know I'm going to lose, this is where I should lose it?

Ed Koch (Remember Him?) Robos For De Blasio

Daily News / Daily Politics blog by Elizabeth Benjamin. Keep Mark Green under 40%, force the run-off. Force MG into debates. Bill de Blasio becomes our Public Advocate.

Dems, get out there and vote in the Sep. 15 primary.

New Amsterdam Bike Slam

Be there, or begorrah!

Tomatillo 2, iPod 0

Dear diary,
knowing that I would not be buying tomatillos again today to ward off my techsplurge (but knowing I had leftover salsa in the fridge for tonight), at lunchtime I trucked up to faithful Tekserve, got blue ticket number 37 for the iPod store, was called and promptly ordered the model iPod I want, of which the inventory system showed 4 in the store. After a nice chit-chat with the iPod lady about Crown Heights, the Slope and the in-between neighborhoods, and after an unusually long wait for the silver and black thingy to arrive... Apologies!! There wasn't a thingy to be found, inventory system not withstanding!

The spirit of the tomatillo is clearly protecting me.

While I'm here, let me say that the peppers I used in the salsa last night were garden cayenne that I picked up at the frmers market in Oly WA weekend before last. And woof! The basil we used on the red tomatoes last night came from neighbors Doyle & Nikki's roof garden. Ain't summer grand?

Lions

Susan Walsh / AP

Tomatillo 1, iPod 0

Dear diary,
at the end of the party we had for Bill de Blasio on Sunday, after most folks left and there were just a half dozen or eight of us, the heavens opened and there was crazy rain. We huddled under the tent and cracked open the anisette and the juju pongo's love balm and brought out some cheeses and fruit and maybe another bottle or two of wine and were guffawing along, all snug, when I saw that my iPod and sound-dockey-thing were out there in the rain, under the grapes, drip drip. Gzzzzzzp. Schwffffffpt.

OK, so after lunch yesterday I decided I'd pop into a shop by the office and buy another iPod. But they didn't have the model I wanted, and while I was deciding what shop to walk to next I noticed the little farmers' market by Bowling Green. I walked over to it, saw the fresh tomatillos and cilantro and peppers and... four dollars and fifty cents later I was headed to the office with a bag of goodies for the evening and wondering what I thought I needed an iPod for.

But what will save me today?

In 2012 I will be elected president of the universe. Trust me.

Oh, boy, Arnold. Juju, you in on this?

Looks like the work of Fake Steve, nu?

Wired Raw File: Rebels Without a Hog

The article is Rebels Without a Hog: Inside Brooklyn’s Moped Gang. Photos: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com. Weeee!

Bill de Blasio sings for his supper - in our back yard

Yesterday afternoon we had a fund-raising party & puttanesca dinner at our place for Bill de Blasio, the man we hope will be New York City's next Public Advocate. Just before Bill arrived he was tipped off that we'd told everyone he was going to deliver a talk on The Long and Peculiar Relationship between Puttanesca and Public Advocacy. And the man delivered!


Hey, next to Bill in this snap from his first TV ad is the silver fox himself, James Guido, puttanesca chef extraordinaire.

And B just sent us this link to the Mario Cuomo endorsement of Bill, over at the Times.

wishes for a fine frolic on friday...

to ye all...
via the living spectre that is Riley Dog @ Posterous,
Sotadic and Other Zones: The Cartography of Human Sexuality;
from the marvel that is Akkam's Razor,
the 50 Funniest Internet Infographics.
fyi, some content on that Coed site may be somewhat NSFW.

Have the Franks become too famous?

Maybe. But still completely delicious. Let's start with a bottle of Lambrusco, then share the shaved fennel salad and maybe a toast or two, then the pasta with fava beans, then the cold herbed prime rib. No?

not only is ju ju fulla white fat...

now he learn he is mutant!

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.
Via fakesteve.

The part about fate

I'm feeding my Bolaño habit again, this time with 2666. Have finished The Part About the Critics, and The Part About Amalfitano, and will finish The Part About Fate tomorrow, likely. That'll get me about a third of the way through - my days are spoken for.

So... I'm a pretty impressionable reader, and tend to pick up the writer's cadence and patterns (not on display here) and run them through my head, extending the writer's story with my own, as though it were being told by the writer. I kind of assume everyone does this to some extent, and that's the why and how of being mesmerized by what you're reading. It's a way of entering fully into it and it's a way of it entering fully into you. When I'm tipsy I maybe do it more than when I'm not.

In this vein, sitting out back one night last week before our little jaunt out west, somewhere in the middle of the part about the critics (although it would have made more sense in the part about Amalfitano). Maybe it was.), I had this quick split vision - a young me meeting the current me and thinking, I kind of like that older guy. The young me feeling warmly about the older me, but having absolutely no inkling that he would become that person. Not even thinking he would want to. Because, just like in real life, the younger me's vision didn't extend into that haze of years. The whole idea of becoming was over the horizon. (I'm not sure I've reached the horizon yet.)

Anyway, Oscar Fate's just gotten the call to go to Mexico to cover the Count Pickett fight, and I need to go with him.

Pretty good hat, Oly. WA

Sent via thingy.

ju ju getting a brown fat transplant A S A P !

OH YEAH! it will go so well w/our beautiful brown skin tones...
the linky goodness on brown fat vs white fat via Boing Boing.
(& as far as the labels go, image, as in Self Image; Navel Gazing as in ju ju can't see his navel any more: nicknames as in Pillsbury Dough Boy; power of positive thinking as in Brown Fat will save me from exercising; Pudding as in maybe ju ju eats too much pudding; uh schnockered as in da more schnockered ju ju gets the better idea brown fat transplant is; unsettling modern realities as in well, once ju ju has to buy any pants with a waistline larger than 46 he be beside himself...)

Off the point

When I lived in the Bronx we called it stoop ball. Or, when we played it against the wedge of a wall and the sidewalk, we would call it off the point. (Counterintuitive? Do I misremember?) When we moved to the suburbs, where there were no stoops and where walls didn't meet sidewalks, but lawns, we played in the street and of course it was curb ball. And my brother and I played our own special variation of the game, called roof ball or off the roof. (You can imagine.)

Streetplay.

Cheap ain't

Mark Frauenfelder post at Boing Boing re Ellen Ruppel Shell's Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture.

Me, too. But of course it's a monied stance to take. I can not buy, because I don't need, and I can spend more because I have more. I'm in the choir.

Les Paul has left the building...

jeeebus...

haven't got one yet, but ju ju has always wanted to get hisowndamnedself a Les Paul guitar, the real thing, not some Epi knock-off (altho' we might be tempted on occasion to settle for one, if it be nice). Plenty out there in the ether about L.P. and his legacy, but definitely one cat who left big footprints in the world of music and guitar playing layabouts like us...

Dutch Master - total Brooklyn bike porn

Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Gasp. Core77.

Oh, hey, look at the cans on...

Juju, look, there's more tomato at the NY Times! And it's our good friends Dave & Laura Shea getting the glow @ Applewood!! Hooray! Shameless promotion! Corey Ramy posting in Bitten.

Hey, while I'm here gabbing about Berkley East Brooklyn restaurant friends - the Peter Sclafani / Kristen Hallet empire (Bar Toto, Bar Tano) birthed little Provini this week on 8th Ave at 13th. Opened on the sly, and something more grandly official coming, but opened & beeyootiful.

Buggy diversion

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo. via gizmodo.

ju ju has big crush on Rachel Maddow...

and have become big fan of her & her MSNBC show like J. Carroll.

and here, jessferdahalibut, a couple of chunks of chewy linky goodness. Yourstruly and piano-bangin' pal enjoyed lovely luncheon on Sunday of grilled sea bass, some asparagus, and delicious sliced heirloom tomatoes. Here a NYT link to remind you to go out and find some yummy ones while the getting is good. While we are mentioning yummyyummy stuff, another foodie related link, this from the local fishwrap, on the topic of sweet corn and a variety of recipes to attempt, again taking advantage of summertime bounty.

Two Women, Ready to Wear

Over the last couple of days I ran into jpegs of two paintings I've had a nice relationship with over the years - Milton Avery's Two Women, (thank you, Roy Neuberger), and Stuart Davis' Ready to Wear. The first I would see in the flesh now and then, long ago, and half-remember writing a something about. The second I had a print of, don't remember who gave it to me or where I bought it (DK?), but it traveled about with me, and then with me and Lori, until it tattered and tore. Hi, fellas, good to see you again.

More pics.

Purple rain, purple rain

NPR piece about last evening's Purple Rain screening and sing-along down the block. And, jah betcha, we were there. Most bestest stupidest fun. Wish you were there, too. Go crazy. I woke up today and I was still singing it, and started thinking, Hey, maybe I could play some of these tunes on the uke... (No.)

Pulse - obvious, but will it irradiate your garbanzos?

Via treehugger.

Which, sadly, reminds me that I lost a favorite hat on the way to work this morning.

Very unlike me, I decided I would wear a helmet for the ride this morning, then I decided I would wear a cap under it - my Prospect Park Alliance cap - and then I decided not to wear the helmet, but the cap was still on my head. Avante! Whizzing down 11th St. & close to 2nd Ave the cap kept coming up so I pulled it off and looped it on the left side of the handlebar. Yada yada yada, until I got to Jay & Fulton, pretty deadly spot in the morning rush, where I like to ride the yellow line so I can turn left into the extension that heads toward Boro Hall. Well, it was clogged with panel trucks, pick-ups & buses and I decided it might preserve my wished for life expectancy if I used a hand signal while turning through the gap between a couple of buses... and that's when it happened. Saw a little something flutter behind me, didn't think much of it but when I got to the next light, no cappy. Lah. I liked the little guy.

The Art of Penguin Science Fiction

Wow. I don't read much science fiction, but I sure do like the covers.
Via Internet Scout.

William Jefferson to the rescue!

via the New Yorker online,
ol'dawg Willy C. saves the day.

and ain't that a truly fearsome duo pictured in the post below,
Dante and Ju Ju be striking the fear of Dawg into one and all.
AND just where in the hell is that lazy-ass chango tonto muckerfrikker?

Step away from the keyboard. No, really.

the esteemed Naomi Klein writes about...

Capitalism, Sarah Palin-style and 'tis worthy of a studied perusal
(as is Ms. Klein herowndarnedself...).
credit to Akkam's Razor for providing that nice chewy, chunky bit of linky goodness, and here be some others from the August 4th post there...

gosh, while we're at it (we = ju ju and his head full of imaginary friends), a review of Katherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker from Kevin Murphy's Ghost in the Machine.

Back for a moment as we wanted to be sure to point ye to Three Good Reasons to Liquidate Our Empire and 10 Steps to Take to Do So, courtesy Tom Dispatch, but credit to the heads up on the linky goodness goes to Gordon Coale.

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch

Just read Michael Pollan's Aug. 2 NYT Mag article, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch. It starts with Julia, then Julie & Julia (see our own juju here), then Food Network and competition shows, and swims through the whole sad fact that most people just don't cook anymore - they eat ready-mades and watch cooking shows. Worth the read, but likely preaching to the choir.

(Photo: Paul Child/Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University)

Bottwell Gladton nightmare

I woke at 4:45 this morning. Don't remember what I was dreaming, its pleasures and sorrows or what tipped me to the point of waking, but I had a very clear image of the mashup below. Yes, Master, I will make it now...

كيف تشعر أن هذه المشكلة؟

Dear diary,
recently, de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (eh) => Auster's Man in the Dark (ouf) => Critchley's The Book of Dead Philosophers (nyuk) => Moustafa Bayoumi's How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? (damn!).

Vanity Fair Dante - 1861

Yes, the Vanity Fair Dante, from the July 6, 1861 Vanity Fair original image. The entire magazine is posted at Making of America. And Polish just seemed right, I don't know why.