the shrewdness of apes

as the wife and i devoured a large pie from Totonno's this afternoon (obligatory made-up pretentious bourgeois yuppie comment: as we ate the wife kept looking at the unglamorous surroundings and the styrofoam plates and saying "at least the pizza is fantastic"), we got the news that a plane had crashed on the beach at Coney Island earlier in the day. the 4 people on board were killed, but fortunately no one on the ground as hit or hurt. the section of the beach where it happened was cordoned off, but some people were lined up to gawk and you could see the tail just sitting there. we're not the camera-carrying type so i didn't get any pictures but it was kind of surprising how much everything around there was simply business as usual. we had already ridden the Cyclone twice and walked around for a while without any indication of something amiss. i guess a plane wreck just isn't enough to hold the attention of most New Yorkers, especially among the colorful distractions of the boardwalk and Astroland. and that includes us, as we were soon back on Surf Ave. giggling as the disembodied voice from the bumper cars once again encouraged all passersby to "Bump, bump, bump, your ass off!".

Posted by Jamie at 07:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

good news for Brooklynite fans of good, cheap Cuban food and renewable energy: Soho's Cafe Habana is opening a solar-powered outpost next weekend on Fulton Street in Fort Greene. according to the press release, the space will be multi-functional, with indoor and outdoor areas, a flea market, outdoor movie screenings, DJs, etc. and the word i got from someone involved in the project is that this is a temporary endeavor that will act as a placeholder for the site while a bigger project (also designed with sustainability in mind) is developed. i'll probably try to get the wife to come along for some grilled meats and corn if any current or former area residents are inerested in joining us.

***UPDATE*** Habana Outpost: Brooklyn got a writeup in the free Brooklyn 24/7 paper over the weekend (under the terrible headline "Filet O' Sol" - what the hell does that mean? it's not a fish joint, nor Irish), which led me to the restaurant's website which has much more detail about the project.

meantime, a posting on eGullet about a weekly, A to Z restaurant tour of Manhattan got me thinking about an equivalent tour in Brooklyn. what restaurants should be included? while not economically feasible in reality, here's a selection that i would be very happy with (with some 2nd choices in parentheses) that includes a variety of cuisines, a few cheap eats, and at least a modicum of geographical diversity. have i missed anything obvious? i couldn't come up with anything better than Nathan's for N, but at least that's an institution, while the only U i could come up with is the long-closed Uncle Pho. X is just a lost cause.

Al di La (Alma)
Blue Ribbon
Convivium Osteria
Diner (Di Fara)

Elia
Franny's
Garden Cafe (Grocery)
Hope & Union
Io
Joya
Kapadokya (Keuer N'Deye)
Locanda Vini e Olii (Liquors)
Madiba
Nathan's
Ocean Palace (Oznot's Dish)
Pacifico
Quercy
Rose Water
Stone Park Cafe (Superfine)
Totonno's
U
Vesuvio
Water Street Restaurant & Lounge
X
Yolélé African Bistro
Zipi Zape

Posted by Jamie at 01:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

just when i thought today's game between the Royals and Devil Rays couldn't get any more lame than Kansas City having Tony Graffanino, Emil Brown and Matt Diaz hitting in the 3-4-5 slots, along comes an ad hyping the Devil Rays that ends with the tagline "Devil Rays baseball...Watch It Happen." literally not even an exclamation point on the end. my god, they could just as easily have said "paint drying....watch it happen" and achieved the same result in terms of raising excitement levels on Florida's Gulf Coast. just by sitting there in the stands or, more likely, on your couch, you're already watching it happen. what kind if call to action incites you to do something you're already doing? they couldn't even give us a generic "Take It In At the Trop" or a "These Kids Are Really Trying Hard" or a "Come Sit In Our Office Chairs!"? they might as well add "And don't forget to breathe!" on the end there.

now, if you'll pardon me, i've got to go watch some laundry happen.

Posted by Jamie at 03:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)

dear Hulk,

i know that bringing this up puts me in danger of severe bodily harm, what with your rage and your strength and your smashing and your Red Bull superdrink, but i'm afraid that i am going be forced to take legal action against you for your infringement on my intellectual property. to put it in terms you're sure to understand: Hulk stole idea from puny human, now Hulk must pay. if you would like to avoid a messy lawsuit (or a messier assault case), i will happily settle for a 10% cut of the income generated by your site. or for an autographed pair of those cool purple pants - your choice. don't make me break out the gamma rays.

sincerely,
t.s.o.a.

cc: Bruce Banner

Posted by Jamie at 11:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

just saw Will Ferrell do the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley (in his full-on Harry Caray mode), which reminded me of the link that ended up in my inbox earlier this week courtesy of DC correspondent Matt: Oh Say Can You Sing! this one has something for everyone. Kelly Wunsch singing "Hurts So Good"; Sean Casey doing Toby Keith; the original hip-hop stylings of Coco Crisp and Jimmy "J-Dog" Rollins; a video tour of Ozzie Smith's memorabilia room! and take it from MLB.com "This is an awesome project - no cheesy or campy elements allowed!" this CD/DVD will set you back $18 plus shipping and a small kickback to Bud Selig, but really wouldn't you rather spend the money to hear Omar Vizquel cover the Goo Goo Dolls rather than shell out a similar sum for one of his rookie cards?

Posted by Jamie at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

there's been a dearth of good TV lately - a void amply filled with baseball in the t.s.o.a. household - as evidenced by the lack of posting on Marc's DVR blog. thankfully, HBO OnDemand just re-started The Wire from the beginning and i do want to check out some of that Alan Partridge stuff, but that stuff will only go so far.

the wife recently discovered the Style Network's Craft Corner Deathmatch, which i was reminded about at the end of this article on the Pillsbury Bake-Off. the show is fairly standard third-tier-channel fodder, with C-list judges (including Frank DeCaro - note to self: get his book) scoring two contestants as they create crafts with limited time and materials. all this, while bizarre host Jason Jones bellows like he's announcing a Hulk Hogan-Randy "Macho Man" Savage championship match. the winner then takes on the "Craft Lady of Steel" for, i don't know, some prizes or something. it's pretty surreal and worth tuning into once, but i can't say i've been moved to really rave about it.

for some guilty TV-related pleasure in prose form, check out TVGasm's live blog of that Rosie O'Donnell TV Movie from Sunday night. or their biting rebuke of hipster Danny Masterson's radio show. or anything else on their site, really.

Posted by Jamie at 01:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

coming on the heels of last week's beer-related banter, Slate published a piece on how beer sales are lagging for the largest breweries, with Anheuser- Busch down 2.7% from a year ago and Molson Coors down 2%. the causes are laid out as follows:

[breweries are] facing the same difficulties as other manufacturers. Costs for raw materials and energy are rising, and they're having difficulty passing costs along to consumers. But beer companies are also butting up against some powerful demographic and cultural trends that may flatten sales for years to come......Americans increasingly tipple with wine and hard liquor. Health-conscious baby-boomers, fretting about waistlines and heart murmurs, are eschewing high-carb beer for cardiac-friendly merlot (or, post-Sideways, pinot noir). According to the Wine Institute, U.S. wine sales have risen smartly in recent years, from 558 million gallons in 2000 to 627 million gallons in 2003. Meanwhile, the young and hip—traditionally the biggest consumers of beer—are looking for harder stuff. Club-goers want less Molson Ice and more Maker's Mark.

that's all well and good , but their leaving out the obvious effect that my Bud boycott is having. now that i'm on the anti-Molson bandwagon as well, it can only be a matter of time before i have the whole malted-barley-and-hops industrial complex on it's knees. in the meantime, i'll happily stick with the Brooklyn family of beers (they're 100% wind-powered, y'know). no word yet on whether this news will bring the WhiskeyDrinker out of self-imposed blog exile.

Posted by Jamie at 11:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)