Stuff in the Sky

If you're in the New York area next week, apparently you'll be able to catch a glimpse of Space Shuttle Atlantis lifting off.

When I was a kid in 1986 I remember it being a big deal that we were going to catch Halley's Comet-- my science teacher was all a-flutter. To me, it just looked like a shooting star, but it felt fairly important with all the science-class hype. If I live to be 86 (and have not fallen prey to the elderly drug habit I'm expecting), I may be able to catch it again.

Then once in college, maybe my freshman or sophomore year, I was walking home from class. I walked by this once dorm where everyone had on crazy sunglass-machines, sort of looked like the gas mask version of eyewear. (apparently you can also use simpler 3D-esque glasses, but this was college and fancier). They were watching a solar eclipse, and one of them let me borrow their specs. And sure enough, the moon covered the sun, it was creepy and amazing, and we all got on with our day. At least those of us who had not done preparatory pre-eclipse celebrating for the occasion. I think those guys kept their glasses on for days.

So next week, go stare into the sky at sunset and let me know what you see!

I have not ruled out moving to Europe...

I have not been following the debates, but luckily John Clancy has:

Vote Democrat. Vote for whatever pathetic corporate whore they nominate. I'm an Obama man, of late. If they nominate Hilary, I'll swallow it and vote. If they nominate Edwards, I'll pretend that the corn-pone horseshit doesn't physically cause me to wretch and I'll vote. If it's a write-in and it's Ronald McFuckingDonald on a platform of forced French Fries for all, I will fucking well vote for the clown.

If it's Rudy, we're all deeply, deeply fucked. Look above, we'll live under a Fascist government. It will be extremely well run. Every train will arrive on time. It will always be sunny and quiet. You will never have to see anyone who is not hard-working, tax-paying and scared out of their poor fucking mind. You will live in constant, unrelenting fear. That's how those boys play and they play like a Vegas casino. The house always wins.

I don't like these choices. It's really really scary. I do, however, enjoy Berlin. The trains run on time there, and they already went through their Fascism phase.

Looks Like Compu-Geek Talk, Is Actually Universally Applicable

I fear the sharks are on to me...

From XKCD (I skip the Math-y ones that I don't get and really dig the others) via Will.

Will Sums Up Our Thanksgiving (Robin Still Full)

With photos and commentary, Will wins the Who-Will-Blog-Thanksgiving-07-First contest.

And the dishes are nearly finished. If anyone is still hungry, we've got turkey, potatoes and cranberries for days!

In Our Grown-up Apartment...

Will and I are hosting a little Thanksgiving Day feast here at our place. There's a poor dead (but surely delicious) bird in the fridge right now, just a-waitin' to be brined and roasted.*

We'll have his folks, his sister and her boyfriend and our friends Nicole and Marc. I'm really looking forward to it. I made soup stock. I've vased flowers. We bought a new coffee maker, glasses for liquids other than wine and knives for the occasion. We've got a rack full of wine, some gift whiskey and... well, what more do you need than gift whiskey?

Have a Happy Thanksgiving. See you next week!

* Many times this week I've found myself alluding to the fact that I have to get home because there's a turkey that needs brining. Though I don't really see myself getting around to it, I enjoy using that as my excuse...

Restaurants I Like, Episode 1 - Hope & Anchor

Will's series on Media Consumption inspired me to finally get around to writing about places we've found to eat in and around our new neighborhood, Carroll Gardens.

We moved to Brooklyn nearly two months ago and have been slowly making our way around the food scene here. Moving from the East Village was a tough decision, and one thing we seriously considered was just how much we LOVED the restaurants in our old 'hood. We lived in walking and therefore (sometimes more importantly) delivery distance from some of New York's most delicious restaurants. I'm not talking the heavy hitters like the Jean-Georges empire or anything with a dress code. I mean some casual joints with some serious food:

Minca (Ramen Factory, 5th btw A and B)
Esahi (Sushi, A btw 2nd and 3rd)
Supper (Italian, 2nd btw A and B)
Il Bagatto (Also Italian, Also 2nd btw A and B)
Luzzo's (The Most Delicious Pizza, the awesome like-really-Italy-Italian kind, 1st btw 12th and 13th)
Cafe Mogador (Morrocan, St. Marks btw 1st and A) and the list goes on.

That's a very LONG intro to say that we are ok: there are some great restaurants in Brooklyn. Duh.

The best breakfast we've found so far is at Hope & Anchor in Red Hook. (be sure to click on that sailor girl on their website-- woo-hoo!)

Hope & Anchor is basically a really good diner. It's got diner-style pricing (we had breakfast + coffee for two for just about twenty bucks) and a retro-but-not-annoying decor-- vinyl barstools & banquettes, vintage pulp/pop wall art mixed with what looks like the requisite paintings by local artists.

The service is good-- laid back and friendly-- the coffee is strong and the food is great. I've ordered the same thing both times we've been there: chorizo and green onion hash with eggs. The chorizo is spicy and tossed with sliced green onions and hash brown potatoes. Will had another hash last time, with BBQ Ham, which was ok, although the BBQ sauce was a little sweet and proved an odd mix with eggs. The spicy chorizo is the winner-- we both had it this time (yeah, we order the same thing sometimes-- it drives Will mad!). And it's seven bucks. The rest of the breakfast menu is largely standard fare and they have a couple of specials each day (I was nearly tempted by today's Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes).

We haven't been there for lunch or dinner yet, but I like the look of the burger menu. Their fun cocktail list features drinks named after nearby streets-- and eight dollars seems a small price to pay for something called The Red Hooker. And zing! Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights offer Karaoke. A Red Hooker and the Neil Diamond Songbook? Sign me up!

Downsides? Red Hook is a bitch to get to without a car (from Manhattan it could be a couple of trains plus a hearty walk). And though I wouldn't call it "kid-friendly" per se, they are what I would call "kid-tolerant", which means that my winter coat just narrowly avoided being doused when little Mabel at the table next to us threw her sippy cup of OJ at the height of a tantrum. I guess people with kids still have to eat, I just sometimes wish we could set up separate rooms for them.*

But if you're headed to the Fairway for some heavy-duty suburb-style grocery shopping, stop by the Hope & Anchor for a bite. And a Red Hooker.

Hope & Anchor
347 Van Brunt St
Red Hook, Brooklyn

Hope & Anchor on Yelp

* Of course, I only mean this with regard to the children of strangers. I love all of my friends' kids like they were my own.

I'm Torn

Is it absolutely disgusting or a thing of inspiration?


The Ultimate Bacon Sandwich!

How do YOU spend YOUR Friday night?

Social McPopular (that's me) spent it updating her website. Yee-Haw!!

200th Post! And, where you can see me perform in the coming chunk of time!

Yes, friends, this marks Post #200 on the ol' oh. you again. I just took a moment to fondly look back on February 2005 when I started this little guy with perhaps the most fascinating post ever. Weeks later, I followed up with a couple of everyday stories of Life in New York. Three posts for the year, I thought back then, was a nice round number.

Flash forward to 2006. I've given up waiting on the tables and was trying to forget I dipped my pinkie toe in the world of New York Real Estate. I've thrown myself head first into the world of the New York City Temporary Staffing Pool. For one week, to be exact. But that was just enough time for me to really see how to perfectly craft these newsworthy gems.

Enough with the reminiscing. If you want more, check out the handy archive list right there on the left! By month, by year, by title. Have at it!

The news of the present is this: I've got a lot of performing going on, so come check it out!

Tomorrow, bring out your young ones to experience the magic that is me as Scooter, as I school them on evolution in Dr. Nebula's Laboratory presents: Life with Lucy. (2pm, American Museum of Natural History Kaufman Theater, $8 children, $10 adults)

My class show at the Magnet Theater is Thursday November 29 at 7pm. It's also Free. And should be Funny. (it's an intro class, so I'll guarantee the Free and hope for the Funny)

On December 1 at 8pm I re-join forces with Hope and Jeff for Piper McKenzie's submission to the Vampire Cowboys' Saturday Night Saloon in Lady Cryptozoologist. Also Free. (we've also begun talks for Babylon, Babylon, the next P.McK brainchild-- it's gonna be a doozy, so keep checking back for updates!)

And if you can see as far ahead as December 18th at 8pm, I'll rejoin Julia Lee Barclay and a bunch of friends from the London presentation of Word to No One for a reading of Barclay's new piece, Besides You Lose Your Soul. At the Brick.

I have also been invited to do some karaoke in the coming weeks. Email me if you want details for that, which I'm sure will be a performance nonpareil.

Did Someone Say The Crush Project???

More than one friend sent me a link to this article in the Times about -- *gasp* -- Fake Ads on Craigslist!

This, perhaps, could be how my two favorite Crush Project Recordings, blink and wink, came about:

Across the country, aspiring writers are using Craigslist not just as a place to offload their futons, but as a pixeled writing workshop where they test their stabs at social satire on some of the more than 30 million visitors that the site draws each month. Their personal ads ostensibly seek a soul mate, but what they’re really looking for is an audience.

Read the rest of the article here.

I wonder if said "aspiring writers" would appreciate me just helping myself to their work? Is this what they consider "an audience"? What do all those copyright symbols on CL actually cover? Thoughts?

Me & TV

Will sums up our (well, largely his which is, de facto, also partly mine) Television Watching Style in a post on his blog this week.

Two things:

One: You can pretty much follow the rule that if he calls it a "geeky show" (i.e. Battlestar Gallactaca), it's His Show Not Mine-- I have nothing against Sci Fi and have even watched a little BG, but I just can't get into it regular-style-- I'm just not that kind of girl?

And Two: He bemoans the presence of commercials on "regular TV" entirely spacing the fact that commercials are what I do for a living. When he's watching Sci Fi, I may sneak off to the You Tube to watch commercials. You know, check out the competition and what not. I don't look at them as trying to get me to buy shit but rather as reseach.

Will, if you want me to buy you an airplane, maybe you should try to download the shows with commercials. It's not that I strive to have a career selling soap/soup/perfume/womens television, it's that I strive to have a career full of residual checks.

He also goes on, in a later post, to talk about podcast consumption. Again, we share much of the same list with the exception of the tech stuff. When he's blasting a podcast about Rails or interface or how humans will soon live forever, I'm probably listening to the sound of my own voice.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our lesson on Media Consumption on Sackett Street. Tune in next time for an alluring tour of our sock drawer.

If this keeps up, I swear I'm moving to Europe

I thought it was bad that September 11th had a theme song. Now this? (via Urbaniak)

The Machines Have Aligned Against Me Yet Again

You may remember Not Too Long Ago when my hard drive lovingly shut itself down out of the blue.

Shortly thereafter, in rehearsal, my Handy Recorder ran out of batteries mid-recording.

Something else happened, machine-related, that I can't right now remember. (If you consider my brain a machine, you can see that's not on my side either.) And our DVD player laid itself to rest around the same time.

Well, the hard drive problem was thwarted, and thankfully under warranty, thanks to the Godsends at Tekserve. I recharged the recorder batteries, no problem. And Will made a gleeful trip to some Big Box Store somewhere in Queens? Brooklyn? to get a new DVD player.

Soooooo... just when I thought it was safe to consider my goods technologically sound, last night my phone shit the bed. You never fully realize just how reliant you are on something until it goes away.

I was meeting friends for dinner pre-rehearsal last night and all I kept thinking was 'I hope they didn't decide to change the place/change the time/cancel altogether because I HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING! We were in Hell's Kitchen, which already to me feels like stepping back in time to 1989 (I'll have to save that for another post, it's just a feeling...), and now this time with the added bonus of my lack of communication.

And of course, when my phone breaks, the only thing I can see around me is everyone on their phone. Everyone. Then that sort of makes me glad I don't have a phone because I see how reliant everyone is on them. That dawns on me and I think, 'gee, I should text this genius thesis to Will' but I DON'T HAVE A FUNCTIONAL PHONE!

I think I need to go back to Silent Camp, where the highest level of technology you have to be concerned with is a spoon.

Performance on the Internet, an NYTheatreCast

As I mentioned before, I was part of a panel discussion on performance on the internet. Here are the links I'm sure you've been dying for:

to the blurb on the nytheatrecast blog
and
to the podcast.

We only chatted for about a half hour on the topic, so many many things were missed. If you've got something to share about your own performance in this medium or comments about anything discussed, please email me or leave it in the comments below.

FFFFound!

Will got me hooked on this website called FFFFOUND! It's basically a repository for images found on the internet, from design to doodle. It's been a great tool for me in researching images for The Project (details soon). Above is an image I found there today-- Will and I agree that they must be Italian. Just look at all that emotion!

Hello, World!

I'm back! Still a little stuffy, but back from the depths of the dead in which I was held captive lo these past two days. I'm schloffing off the remnants of a Nyquil hangover and still have Tissue Box, my trusty steed, by my side, but the light of day pains me no more.

Game on!

Sick Day

I have a full-blown case of something-- stuffy nose, weird throat, foggy-cloggy head with a hint of dizzy. I called in sick to work and spent the bulk of the day 2nd grade stay-home-from-school-style: under a heavy blanket on the couch either sleeping or catching up on Heroes and drinking more OJ thank I've seen in years.

I'm always funny about being sick-- I try to a) pretend it's not really happening and b) think I'm better after a single nap. Waking up for the second time at 11am today, I was rather miffed that my throat still hurt and my head was still cloudy. I'm trying to sleep you off, Illness! Work with me here! Although the couch is lovely and OJ yummy, I have Things to Do!

I'm about to go try the hot hot shower trick and then some soup and see if we can end this bad boy once and for all.

If you were thinking about that flu shot or buying echinacea in bulk, now's the time.

I Kinda Already Knew This, But I Love a Quiz!

I think we ladies are trained to love a quiz early on in teen magazines. I really thought Jane Pratt might well have had secret premonitions about what lipstick shade was right for me or what my dating style was at age 15. (yes, I know I'm dating myself with Jane Pratt-- it's sort of a phase I've found myself in lately...)

I don't know how I was planning on segueing that into this topic (I'm a little under the weather with a stuffy nose and sore throat), but here it is, the Which Presidential Candidate is Right for You quiz.

My top five, you ask?

Dennis Kucinich
Bill Richardson
Chris Dodd
Hillary Clinton
John Edwards

I've dug Kucinich for a while now-- I truly believe he's the least political of all the potential candidates, left or right, and the only one with implementable plans. Too bad he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning the nomination. And what of my numbers two and three? Christ, I guess I should be loathe to admit this, but I wasn't sure until just now if Bill Richardson was Republican or Democrat and I thought Chris Dodd hosted a news program on CNN.

What this quiz has ultimately shown me is that I have to stop skipping over articles in the paper about the candidates. I sort of swore it off when a certain girl friend of mine said that I had to vote for Hillary Clinton because I'm a woman. Team Gender for President? That's not quite my style.

Thanks to Kevin at Rumproast for the link. Take the quiz for yourself here.

"Performance on the Internet" Pocast Tonight

I'll be at nytheatre.com headquarters tonight recording a podcast interview with Martin Denton about performance on the internet. My co-interviewees are Matt Freeman and Chance Muehleck. This should be a pretty interesting discussion, as the world of internet performance is pretty much unchartered territory. Sure, there's YouTube and podcasts and other stuff, but there are No Rules. At least as of yet. Exciting, inn't it?

I'll surely be plugging The Crush Project, and I'm totally interested in hearing what the fellas have to say about the subject.

Unchartered Territory. Just how much of that is left in the world???