Best Things from Between Thanksgiving and Christmas

Today I would like to post a post of things from between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I would like to begin with a picture of Aubrey, our former neighbor, and then move on to a additional photographs.

Do you know what museum this is?

Trick Question.  It's not a museum, it's an apartment building lobby.

This is a thank you card I sent my Grandma, thanking her for letting me be in her house.

One Saturday I met up with friends at Eataly, Mario Batali's new grocery store/restaurants/panic attack where they sell what they cook and cook what they sell.

This right here is the #1 Highest Quality Milk You Can Buy in New York State!  Don't believe me?  Read the label!

And here's goat's milk, just like nana used to make

Out on the street, an alien



 a stuffed pigeon

and me, as photo'd by Beth



We dipped into the Ace hotel for a minute

New York's most popular studyhall

Back to the streets

There was this one day where I ate a McRib.  I had never had one before.  It was both bigger and smaller than I had expected, both better and more disgusting than I thought it would be.  A sandwich of contradictions, a complex lunch choice.

Made up for it that night by going to Frankies

Jeff and I ate with Janelle and Angela in an effort to make Keith and Leslie jealous.

The dinner was so excellent, too excellent to spend photographing.  But here's our awesome pork shank and cranberry beans.  I love cranberry beans!

Sinister drink.  Not from Frankies, from an English place.

Deep fried Twix.  Not from Frankies, from an English place.

And I haven't had any of these yet but trust me, I'm interested.

This, however, is not a very good looking cheese steak.

One Saturday found myself at Crifdogs with Jeff R.

We left just as the crowd was getting out of control.  See these people?  They will never get their hot dogs.  Their hot dogs are still being cooked a month later.

This is an elegant apartment building between Avenues C and D.  Who'd have known?

One day these mysterious items appeared mysteriously on our doorstep.  Don't know why.  They're gone now.

I've been eating tacos at Taco Mix on my way home from La Casa on and off for years now, but I finally had a torta there for lunch one day.  Holee Smokes.  Look at this thing!  Can you believe this thing?!

Bad news.  The Homeboy Sneaker Shop?  It's gone out of business.  Homeboys, where've you been buying all your sneakers?  Why'd you take their business away?

This is the card I gave Andy as a Christmas card.  And Andy's coffee table.  See those M&Ms?  They're not at Andy's house anymore.  I ate them.

Feeling a little guilty about loving Taco Mix so much, I hit up La Casa with my amigos for Christmas tacos.  There's Dave!

Jenn and Jeff!

The most wonderful tostada,

and tacos that were so, so perfect that night.  I was slapping the table and singing out loud all the meal long.

On my block they've been filming a movie for weeks, an Indian movie.  Bollywood West, that's where I live.

Clothes hung to spell out Materialistic.

Spencer got new glasses.

Broek got music video-hair, for a night.

A grassroots campaign conducted in my apartment building lobby.

Movie-themed gingerbread houses at the Parker Meridian.

A lion in a deli

Rag and Bone Christmas windows

And just before leaving New York I notice this: The Iron Giant.  Playing at the Film Forum?  The good news is I made it back from Chicago just in time to catch it.

And at the apartment?  Things are better than ever.

I would like to close this post as I began it, with a picture of our former neighbor, Aubrey.  Just kidding!  It's me.  Look more closely next time.

I bet looking at all those pictures from Christmas wore you out.  Why not relax by reading about my trip to Disneyland?  Or downloading it?

Bests of 2010

You know what I don't think I've ever done?  Or you know what I hardly ever do?  Make Year End Best Of lists.  So here are some little ones for 2010!

Best Meal of 2010:
While Blue Hill Stone Farms was an unforgettable dining experience, course for course, nothing tops my dinner at Ma Peche (the midtown Momofuku) in August.  I went in wondering if this restaurant would have anything to show me and at the end of the night I had definitely been taught a lesson about having my guard down when entering a Tien Ho establishment.

Honorable Mention:
The spread at the Frankies cookbook launch party.  All the meatballs and celery root salad I could eat!

Best Movies of 2010:
Honestly, don't know that I watched a Best Movie in 2010, something of amazing cinematic quality or gravity.  But these are the movies that had me leaving the theater with a spring in my step:

-Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
-Tangled
-The Green Hornet (coming to a theater near you January 14th!  Don't sleep!)

Honorable Mention:
True Grit.

I know, it's not a very normal list.  Here, for fun let me comment on Roger Ebert's list:
1. The Social Network—Oh yeah, this was a well-made movie.  But the fact that I totally forgot about it when making my favorite movie list might be the reason it didn't make my favorite movie list.
2. King's Speech—Didn't see, but I know my aunt liked it.
3. Black Swan—Didn't see, would not see.  I did see a lot of the Red Shoes one time, does that count?
4.  I Am Love—?
5. Winter Bone—Name sounds familiar, didn't see.
6.  Inception—The more I think about it, the more comfortable I am saying I didn't like it.
7. The Secret in Their Eyes—Never heard of it.  I promise I didn't start this list to be a contrarian!
8.  The American—Didn't see it.  The trailer made it seem like something you'd watch on an airplane.
9. The Kids Are Alright—Didn't see it.  Looks like something they'd play on an airplane.
10. The Ghost Writer—And, whoah, this I DID watch on an airplane.  And liked!

Best Album of 2010:
Best Coast, "Crazy for You"—By a long shot this was the record that I listened to the most this year and the 2010 record that I see myself listening to the most in 2011.  Short and catchy songs mixing a 60's and 90's sound, I'm super down.

Runner Up:
LCD Soundsystem, "This is Happening"—Favorite record of my favorite live band, if I can't listen to a short and catchy song then I'm happy to listen to a long, complex dance jam.  Impeccably produced, may I add.

Special Jury Prize:
Beach House, "Teen Dream"—So dreamy that sometimes I wonder if it was all just made up.
Flying Lotus, "Cosmogramma"—More and more I like these sounds.

Honorable Mention:
Hot Chip, "One Life Stand"
Male Bonding, "Nothing Hurts"

But for real, there were a whole lot of good records this year.  This list could go on forever.

And the Award for Excellent Album Taken Out of Rotation Because I Couldn't Stand You in Concert:
Wavves, "King of the Beach"

Best New Read of 2010:
John Barth, "Lost in the Funhouse"—It's absolutely unethical of me that I never posted about this book, but it made me say "Whoah."  A collection of somewhat related short stories, they're all perfect examples of how to write a story (you know, characters, characters that want things, beginnings, middles, ends, etc.) as well as perfect examples of postmodernism.  If you've got some fool bugging out over what is or isn't postmodern writing, hand them this book and tell them to get back to you.  A highlight of the collection: "Menelaiad", where Barth has Menelaeus tell his version of the Trojan war through the use of seven-framing stories.  What I'm saying: this story has six stories within the story, it has dialogue bracketed within seven sets of quotation marks, out Inceptioning anything Christopher Nolan has for you.

Best Re-Read of 2010:
Thomas Pynchon, "Against the Day"—I'm so down with this book, who knows, I might read it again this year.

Most Enlightening Re-Read of 2010:
Thomas Pynchon, "V."  Reread the first Pynchon book I ever read this summer.  Nine years after my first read, with four more Pynchon novels read now, I understood more and my overall Pynchon comprehension increased as well.  Doubling and reflections is a major theme of Against the Day and V. is full of "V"s (like parallel paths [story, thematic, characters] that converge or paths that begin at one point and diverge in parallel ways) and really, those two things aren't so different.

Best TV Show:
Parks and Recreation—Don't even get me started on how much I don't care about any other TV show in comparison to this TV show.

Best Exception to Above Statement:
"Does that include hour-long high school football dramas?"

Favorite Person of the Year:
You, of course.

Best Thing For You to Do Right Now:
Either read my Disney post online or download it.

Best Other Option

It's a lot of work reading my Disney post, that's no secret to me. I've posted a .pdf of it to download here, if you'd rather read it on your computer/some other device/print it. The choice is yours. But this print version doesn't have any pictures. If you like seeing nieces and a nephew, online is the way to go for you.

2000th Post PDF Download
Okay, thanks for your time.

Best Last Two Episodes

...I don't mean last two episodes ever, I mean the last two episodes of FNL to have come out since I'm two behind.

Friday Night Lights is getting real good.  There's a bit of menace in the series, things are a going wrong within the Lions and in the Taylor family and it all could be stuff that Eric and Tammi can't fix with just straight-talkin'.  With only five more episodes left, I have to wonder where this series is going to take us.  The East Dillon Lions seem to be on an unstoppable winning streak, but "at what price"?  You know?

Also of note, Billy and Mindy Riggins have been more interesting than ever this season.  Good job, FNL writers and directors, on finding new depth to these long-term supporting characters.

And isn't it unbelievable how much Buddy Jr. looks like Buddy Sr.?  Great work, casting department.

Also, hey, if you're not doing anything, why not read 2000th post? It's about Disneyland.

Best Disney Report Ever

 In researching my Disney Post, I came across this national treasure, a 30 some minute homemovie about when the Barstow Family won a trip to Disneyland in 1956.  Things besides Disneyland you'll  see in this movie: the Huntington Hotel, Knotts Berry Farm, Universal Studios, (and allegedly) Steve Martin.  This film is beyond fresh, you've been good, you deserve to watch the whole thing.  Especially if you read my post.


More details (and direct download) here.