Doh! Worlds collide!

Ron English, Morgan Spurlock, Homer Simpson...

worlds collide!

NYT article, pointed to by Juju, Ah, Homer, It Seems Just Like Yesterday

Brooklyn Machine Works

Hey, Tchochkie, the latest installment of Made In N.Y.C. at the Times is about Brooklyn Machine Works. Seriously, drill down on the bike index page until you get to the choco-brown and gold trimmed gangsta. Does your heart skip a beat? Juju, are you looking at this down in EPT? Doesn't make you want to get yourself up here?

Collage-itti

Carroll St. F.

Sent via thingy.

The best anisette I ever had...

... I had last night before beddy bye, just a wee dram, and it was made by me from this simple recipe in Dona & Mel Meilach's Homemade Liquors, page 83:

• 2/3 tbsp anise seed
• 1/2 tsp fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp coriander seed
• 1.5 cup vodka

Mortar the seeds, and put into the vodka for 1 week, shaking daily. Then strain and add

• 1/2 cup simple syrup

I strained it a number of times before I was happy (cheesecloth). I also turned it a few times a day for a few days until I was really happy with the integration of the syrup and the infusion, but I probably could have instead just shook it real hard when I added the syrup.

Way less cloying than most. (My syrup was 2 parts sugar to 1 part water.) Spicy! Yummy! Finished product about 30% alcohol.

World Naked Bike Ride - giddyap!

an endeavor recommended for..

the more hirsute amongst ye...

Beard Team USA

Amaro me, Dr. Memory (crosspost)

(The partners in our little 11th Street winemaking group have a private blog - and I'm cross posting this little ditty from there.)

Started on the Amaro recipe at about.com. The hard to get herbs all came from Aphrodisia, and the grain alcohol and vermouth from Slope Cellars. Since the recipe is silent on amounts for the roots, I used 5 grams of each, and where I had dried herbs rather than fresh, I used a teaspoon. And where I had leaves instead of root, I winged it. So:

• Lemon balm 1 tsp
• 5 leaves fresh sage
  
• 10 leaves fresh rosemary
• Centaury plant 1 tsp. dried
• 15 juniper berries
• 5 cloves, check
• 1/2 inch cinnamon stick
  
• Orris root 5g.
• Calmus root 5g.
• Gentian root 5 g.
• Blessed thistle I have is dried leaves, not root, and I am using 2 tsp
• Milk thistle 1 tsp dried
  

Step 1 is complete. Sugar is dissolving in vermouth, herbs are steeping in grain alcohol. More work a couple of times in the next week or two, then 8 months of waiting.

And then we just went ahead and made it, Maraschino 3

So we went out and bought the oils we needed. Someone out there already knew, I bet, that you can't buy bitter almonds in the US of A. Because eating somewhere between 20 and 50 of them uncooked will kill you. (But you can buy them in other countries where people won't eat them raw because, Duh!, that would kill you.) But pure almond extract is the oil of bitter almonds diluted in alcohol. So we went for it and guessed at the quantity. Made just a quarter recipe, in case it's gawdawful. Still need to get some cochineal for coloring. And wait for next summer when the cherries are in season, pit a bunch of them, and add them. Then put it all in fancy jars and send one of them out to Jolly Pirate and the Lady M for next Christmas. Man! Only the 4th day of the year and everything is falling so nicely into place.

Bestest Xmas gifts 2, and Maraschino 2

Lori got me a facsimile copy of Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, Cordials and Liqueurs from Fruits, Flowers, Vegetables and Shrubs, by Helen S. Wright, originally published in 1919 and gathered from a half dozen earlier (some much earlier) collections. The facsimile is published by Kessinger Publishing.

And right there on page 141 is a recipe for Maraschino:

One gallon proof whiskey, two quarts of water, dissolve four pounds of sugar, one third dram oil of bergamot, one third dram oil of cloves, two drops oil of cinnamon, two thirds ounce of nutmegs, bruised, five ounces of orange peel, one ounce of bitter almonds, bruised, one third dram oil of lemon. Dissolve the oil in alcohol; color with cochineal and burnt sugar.

My Mario Valente chicly covered my Roberto Bolaño

OK, Juju, since we're letting it all hang out.

I have this beautiful Mario Valente herringbone thigh-length overcoat. Everyone comments on it. It's the nicest piece of clothing I own. Très chère!

And, I think I've said before, I'm reading Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives, at the urging of Kansas Bunny, who himself is starting in on 2666 and went to see Bolaño's translator, Natasha Wimmer, give a talk last week.

So. You know, there's this little scene early on in the first book of The Savage Detectives where Poet García Madero is in a park and is daydreaming and gets a boner and then needs to move on and has to awkwardly deal with his physical state? Well, I'm on the R train Brooklyn bound, around Pacific, crowded, standing facing a line of people seated in front of me, and reading my TSD, in which at that very moment Luscious Skin is describing a very steamy and slap-happy encounter with Maria Font, when... Uh oh!

And that is how my Mario Valente chicly covered my Roberto Bolaño.

I am the one on the right

We partners have a little private bloggie off to the side for our nefarious local wine making endeavors. Posted the above LOC pic to it yesterday, along with a number of others.

How' it goin' you ask? MyTFine, I answer. The Cab S. is 25 days off the vine, and 17 or 18 days post press. MLF is sending out the occassional bubble. Dark and lovely. First racking some time around Christmas. Even been fiddlin with the first few label ideas. (Here. Here. Here. Here. There'll likely be a hundred or so before anything actually gets into a bottle.)

Salute!

Zazzle fizzle

After I posted What I talk about when I talk about coughing I thought it might be fun to contact zazzle and have them make real USPS postage from the image I used there.  

Unt, today I got the bad news.  REJECTED!

Result: Not Approved 
Policy Violations: 
--- Incorporates the name or likeness of a current or former world leader or politician, or a local, regional, national or international leader, religious figurehead, or politician.
--- Parodies an underlying copyright or trademark including well recognized brands, logos, titles, or phrases.

Skank.  Will resubmit it as BAM BAM CATS.  The underlying images are PD.

Bike polo

Met a couple of bike polo players Saturday. Gwah! Where have I been? Gonna try to get down to Broome & Christie one soon Sunday to check it out.

Convergence: Brooklyn for Peace / Mermaid Parade

Be a Mermaid for Peace!
Join Brooklyn For Peace Contingent in the Fabulous Coney Island Mermaid Parade!
Saturday, June 21, 12:00 Noon

We'll dress up (costumes provided, or bring your own) as mermaids, mermen, and other nautical characters, and hand out peace sign Mardi Gras beads along with glossy cards urging spectators to contact our Senators demanding an end to the Iraq War, and no new war against Iran, as well as information on alternatives to the military for our young people.
Tuesday June 17, 7 pm: Pot-luck supper and costume-making party. nowar at brooklynpeace.org for location.
Saturday June 21, 12 noon: meet at NE corner of W. 8th St and Surf Avenue, in front of Aquarium Parking Lot. See a map

1 pm: Proceed as a group to Parade starting point.
2 pm: Parade starts. It's over by 4 pm.
$9 fee per individual to participate.

Questions, and to let us know you'll be coming, email nowar at brooklynpeace.org,....

fun at work...

damn...
don't know what i'd do if i couldn't blog from work
muchas gracias, esteban, for allowin' me to keep my hand in..

mini discussion amongst my co workers and myself re Alt bands, 90's bands...
my mention of original Alt rocker Captain Beefheart had 'em all going
"Huh?"

damn, me old...

Practice in front of a bush: Captain Beefheart's rules for guitarists
and jessferdahalibut, some mo' Bo D. (courtesy A.'s gmtPlus9(-15) )

Biking on my mind

Streetsblog; Transportation Alternatives; Block Magazine; Bikeroute;

Yesterday Danny Boy biked down from the 160's where he lives to our office accross from the Staten Island Ferry. Damn him. We've both been talking about riding to work and now he's upped the ante by actually doing it. Madman. Now I need to de-duff.

me am borink today...

actually,
me been borink for weeks, mebbe months...

now me depressed...

well,
maybe this cheer you up too...

happy happy happy birfdey...

to Andrew A. & his gmtPlus9 (-15) for NINE years of providing quality linky goodness!

personal Hiya Hiya to the MNIDOAILY folks out dere on the other coast, wishin' ye all a very fine three day weekend!

the mysterious Big O...

and we all know you wanna know more 'bout dat, eh Binky?

credit for the heads up on that bit of linky goodness goes to the fine minds over at Boing Boing where MUCH linky goodness abounds...

Supertouch...

Just been in touch w/ Cuz K who is in London headed either to Paris or Chile - plans are loose and coming looser - and who says, for a glimpse of some fun, check out http://www.supertouchart.com/. S'yeah.