Sabbatical shots Vol 4: More Food Finds

I stumbled upon an ancient Chinese restaurant in Kingston, NY, dating from 1927, surely one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in the country. I can't recommend it enough. I took the 30 minute drive up there from Gardiner four times in less than a month. If you're interested in fresh, modern, "authentic" Chinese food, Eng's isn't the place. Rather, Eng's is a remnant of what Americans wanted in Chinese cuisine in decades past. Eng's is a living archeological dig. The decor is dim, Sixties wood paneling and formica booths, but the food is straight out of La Choy and Charlie Chan. Eng's excels in all forms of Chow Mein and Chop Suey, Sub Gum this and Wor that, Sweet and Sour whatever. I saw things on the menu that I've only encountered in pre-war Chinese cookbooks. I found everything delicious and I can't wait to go back...I'm trying to work my way through the whole menu.



On a drive through Newburgh, I found Pete's Hot Dog Stand. I'm a sucker for anything that's got "Since 1932" on its sign (not the sign pictured below, with Eli mooning for the camera, but another one).

Pete's serves a fine double dog with chili and onions. I'd definitely stop again.

Sabbatical shots Vol 3: My Son the Blacksmith, Biologist, Fireman, Backhoe operator

Besides most weekends, we got to spend a solid two weeks up at a log house we rented in Gardiner, NY, on a heavily forested 250 acre mountainside property. We explored the woods and the streams, and we took a few fun day trips around the Hudson Valley. The boys got to scrape their knees on rocks and sticks instead of worrying about playing in broken glass.

We found an uncommon salamander, shown here on Leo's chest.


Here's a massive bull frog, found in the drained pool of the property's owner.

Leo's developed a fondness for the lost art of the blacksmith. We were able to find a wonderful expert blacksmith in the area and got to take a couple of father and son lessons

The fruits of our labor: two skewers for the grill.

At a fire engine show in Kingston, a number of classic vehicles were on display.


250 acres on a mountain takes some massive upkeep, so the property's owner recently bought a backhoe. Eli was thrilled to get to take a seat.

Sabbatical shots Vol 2: A Day at the Races

One of the highlights of our summer stay in Gardiner, NY was a Friday night trip to the nearby Accord Speedway, a quarter mile dirt track where they really know how to kick up the dust. Here's a video of Steve Krom from the night we were there. We were lucky enough to meet Steve, and exciting driver with the shiniest car on the lot, later on.

Here's Dana and the boys watching the action from the bleachers as twilight comes.





The boys take a turn on the Winners Circle.


We lucked out...it was meet the racers night. The drivers and their engines lined up on the track while all interested parties got to hit the dirt, get close and say hello. To a man, the drivers were friendly and gracious to us all.


Steve Krom and his team were particularly nice. Steve's wife (I think) had tipped us off that he'd be signing frisbees, so we scooted down to the track to meet him

Sabbatical shots Vol 1: Niagara Falls

While the first Shore Fire Sabbatical (mine!) is over, the memories remain. Here's a spread from a two night zip up to Niagara Falls.

All of us in front of the falls, from the deck of the Maid of the Mist (I think).


We've visited an impressive number of Revolutionary War historical sites, and on this trip we added Old Fort Niagara, and key position during the Northwest expansion and the longest continuously manned military instillation in North America.

The boys in front of the falls.

Of Montreal + Home Decorating = Monday Morning Awesome Overload

I love Of Montreal. I also love interior decorating and the new trend of wall decals (I have these ones up in my apartment). So when I saw the awesome pictures on Pitchfork today of the special edition wall decals that come with the new Of Montreal album 'Skeletal Lamping,' I cried a little. From happiness.

Nice styling with the Eames chair, too. The special 'Skeletal Lamping' CD package deal comes with the album, the lantern, 9 buttons, a tee shirt, a tote bag, wall decals, stickers, downloads galore and more.

Mmm, so best. I'm super excited for their concert at Roseland on October 10. Who else is going?

They Made Me Realise (I Needed Earplugs)

I saw My Bloody Valentine at Roseland last night, on the final evening of their three night New York reunion run.

My ears were pummeled. My mind was blown.

The last (and until recently, only) time MBV toured the US, in 1992 I was living in New Orleans, and they didn’t come anywhere near there. But I have friends who still talk about MBV’s show at the Ritz with utter reverence, as if it were Coltrane at the Village Vanguard. I wasn’t about to miss them this time.

The show was like everything I’d expected, and yet, totally ..... beyond! MBV opened with “I Only Said” from ‘Loveless.’ My initial reaction, aside from utter bliss, was “Hmm, this is loud,but not deploy-the-earplugs loud.” But the decibel level steadily inreased throughout MBV’s set, and by the time they played “You Made Me Realise,” stretching it into a twenty minute long drone, I was completely immersed in sound. It was a total body experience. I could feel the back of my throat and the bottom of my spine rattling. It was easily the loudest music I have ever experienced. People around me cupped their ears. I pulled out the earplugs.

The world’s a different place now than when MBV toured the US. Now, of course, you can view clips from any of their reunion shows the next morning on YouTube. But it’s been widely commented that these online clips don’t even come close to conveying the full MBV live experience. After seeing them last night, I agree. Still, this is the best online MBV clip I’ve found. Check it out, and know that if you’re planning to catch one of their remaining U.S. shows, you’re in for a night you’ll never forget.

YouTube Friday: Future Shore Fire Client

Browsing through Luke Doucet's videos on You Tube I found this superstar in the making.

Pickles?

Well since the topic came up. Don't flinch, just click.

Pickles

Yesterday was International Pickle Day. A 1-block section of Orchard Street in the Lower East Side, NYC, was roped off in celebration of the tradition of pickling cucumbers (and other foods) in the 19th-20th century epicenter of immigrant cultures and infamous delis.

Though I was hoping for more vendors, the block was crowded with people and pickles of all kinds. Greenmarket faves Rick's Picks and the legendary Guss' seemed to get the most attention with their impressive spreads. A staple of Korean cuisine, Kimchi, also had a vendor tent of it's own, representing the ancient method of pickling and fermenting cabbage with fiery Korean peppers.

Some jars of Kimchi:















A blurry photo of the Rick's Picks spread:















Some fine looking samples at the McClure's tent:

Forget Hang Ten. Mine Goes to Eleven.

Surfing in New York City? Yes, it’s true. You CAN surf in New York City. And I’m not talking about those silly wave pools. Like, real waves in like, the real ocean. We certainly don’t have the greatest waves in the area (Long Island is much better) but you can’t beat the relative close proximity of surf-able waves in the city. My adopted break is Beach 90th Street in the Rockaway Beach section of Queens. The route I go takes me past the Floyd Bennet Airfield and Recreation Center, over the Marine Parkway Bridge, and along the way views of Riis park, the gorgeous homes of Breezy Point, and, ahem, housing projects (Thanks Robert Moses for that awesome idea). After parking the car and locking up SECURELY (don’t even think about the old hideaway key under the bumper trick), I’m on the beach. From my apartment in the Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn the total drive time is something like 45 minutes from door to ocean.

Once in the water things get a little surreal when the occasional huge plane takes off or prepares for landing overhead (JFK is really close by). Growing up in Ocean City, NJ the only planes I saw overhead were tiny one engine planes advertising things like a happy hour special at The Waterfront (Tuesday is Ladies night! $5 all you can drink!!) or how many clams you could get for your buck at Smitty’s Clam Bar in Somers Point.

The waves themselves are nothing to write home about in the summer time – the ideal time to surf here is in the winter. But if we’re lucky we’ll get a few nice hurricane or tropical storm swells in August and September. With ocean temperatures still in the upper 60’s or even low 70’s for much of September and the air still quite warm, late summer/early fall can be a real treat for NYC surfers.

But like everything else in the city, it can get really, really crowded in the water. Near collisions are a common occurrence. Bottom line: before you paddle out into a crowd you had better know what you’re doing in order to avoid potential serious injury to the body and/or surfboard. And even if you do know what you’re doing, it can be frustrating because there are simply not enough waves to go around on a good day. But for me, a few decent rides on a beautiful sunny day is more than enough.

Surfing in the city also illustrates the scope and variety of activities one can experience in just one day. For instance, this past Sunday, I played the opening soccer match of the Fall season for my team Gowanus FC in the morning at Bryant HS in Queens; had lunch with a friend in McCarren Park in Williamsburg; then went out to Rockaway Beach for an afternoon of surfing 6-8’ waves courtesy of Hurricane Hanna (I don’t have any pictures so you’re going to have to take my word for it). And it was worth every ache and pain this poor 38 year old body had to endure come Monday morning.

Paul Weller at Nokia Theater 9/10/08

If I hadn’t known any better, I would have thought I was entering the Space Mountain ride at Disney Land. But apparently no; in fact, I was going to see a Paul Weller show at Nokia Theater. After braving the bizarre neon descent taking me underneath Broadway at Times Square, I happened upon a Theater which apparently puts on rock and roll shows. Good thing I left the acid at home.

His-ever-changing-moods seemed decidedly spunky and electrified as he sauntered around the stage. Weller can have a very commanding stage presence and last night was no exception for His first of two shows in NYC. He seemed revitalized, rejuvenated and as excited as the brash arrogant teenager who first graced the stage in the mid-70’s. Perhaps the fact that He had a new band playing with Him had a lot to do with it -- with the exception of ex-Ocean Colour Scene guitar maestro Steve Craddock, this was a totally new band. Indeed, Weller die-hards surely would have noticed the conspicuous absence of His long time drummer Steve White.

Early on in the set, He made His purpose known with a Cuban heel stomping rave-up version of “22 Dreams” from His latest album of the same name. After ending the song, a broad smile ran across His face. He knew it was game on. And it certainly was.

Fans were treated to a healthy dose of songs dotting His thirty plus years in rock and roll, including numbers I’ve never heard Him do in his solo career. “Shout To The Top” from the Style Council was the first surprise of the night followed later on by the spooky “Butterfly Collectors” from His Jam days. The audience’s enthusiastic cheers at the end of which prompted Him to announce His surprise that the NYC crowd even knew the song that well. Clearly He underestimated the huge contingent of aging Anglophile mod grups who always flock to His shows, dressed in their best Fred Perry shirts, skinny jeans (even if they have no business wearing skinny jeans anymore) and Clark's Desert Boots or Wallabees. For my part I went with the Lonsdale t-shirt, Levi cords and trainers. But enough about the fashion, back to the music:

The modtastic set lasted for nearly two hours and ended with two encores. Kelly Jones from The Stereophonics joined the band onstage for rousing encore renditions of “That’s Entertainment,” and “Eaton Rifles” amongst others (oddly though, they didn’t do “Call Me No. 5”, the track they performed together on ‘Illumination’). The final encore ended appropriately with (this having been the eve of the 7th anniversary of 9/11) “All You Need Is Love.” Clearly there was much love to go around between audience and performer. The only sad point of the night was that it had to come to an end.

Large Hadron Collider, Rap, and Pizza

You may have heard some of the news lately about the large hadron collider, a piece of machinery that smashes particles into each other by rocketing them around a 17-mile loop built at the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. You may have also heard that it was supposed to cause the end of the world by creating a rogue black hole "that will engulf the planet or produce “quantum strangelets” transforming the Earth into a dead lump of “strange matter”."

So far though, that hasn't happened. And in fact, besides for proving or disproving the standard model of particle physics, serious eats has discovered that the LHC could moonlight as the world's biggest microwave, able to defrost a frozen pizza in, oh, about 30 billionths of a second.

My favorite piece of silliness related to the LHC though is the inexplicably catchy "Large Hadron Rap", featuring a cameo by my favorite rapper who also holds a PhD in theoretical physics, MC Hawking. Give it a listen below.

New Joan Osborne clip

Check out Joan Osborne's take on "Cathedrals," from her new album 'Little Wild One,' out yesterday. Her voice just soars on this song:

Hurricane Gustav Claims A Victim

I have a friend in New Orleans who lives 2.5 blocks from The Saturn Bar. He is a very lucky friend. Though I'm no world traveler, I can say with a fair degree of confidence that The Saturn Bar is the coolest bar on the planet. If you're a fan of rock & roll, flea markets, cats, having your car broken-into, outsider art or, as the Saturn Bar calendar reads "a large selection of imported beers," you really must go.

So, this friend of mine called me earlier this week, after returning from the Gustav evacuation to tell me there was a fairly serious fire at the Saturn Bar. My heart sank. It seems that when the owners returned after Gustav and flicked on the Saturn Bar's famous neon lights (see pic at left) there was an electrical short that caused the fire. I don't know the extent of the damage, but I'm told the owners have hope to reopen in a month or so.

The Saturn Bar has been down, but not out, before. Located near the 9th Ward, the bar sufered no major flooding after Katrina, but was without power for weeks. And then, in December 2005, before the Saturn Bar had even reopened, its long-time owner O'Neil Broyard, passed away from a heart attack.

Childless, O'Neil willed the bar to his nephew, who vowed to reopen within months. He made good on his promise and the Saturn Bar was back in business by spring 2006. Since then the Saturn Bar has really thrived. It's cleaner than it's been in years (but not too clean) and has become a destination venue for live music in New Orleans.

Godspeed, Saturn Bar. Here's hoping everyone there is back on their feet soon.

Zappa Knits Zappa

On Friday, I went to the Candela/Decker Gallery to see work by the talented Diva Zappa. Her knitted works are colorful and remarkable. She donates a portion of the proceeds to the Watato Fund and Creative Visions, funding orphan care in Kenya. It's all a part of fashion week. Take a peak at some of her creations below.

A very special Hold Steady Youtube Friday

Now here's what happens when you have some seriously dedicated fans. Priceless: