It was a beautiful day to bike out to Ridgewood last week for the Babycastles Indie Arcade open hours. Syed Salahuddin chopped onions for his curry for attendees:AdamGetsAwesome, Zen Albatross and Goatslacker provided a chip soundtrack to the hackday. People were lounging around, eating lunch, playing the games or ripping apart computer mice to make one button game controllers! This young gentleman managed to make a game controller out of a clamp! He and Kunal (from Loud Objects) tried it out on Canabalt. Videos of the games and performances are coming soon !
One of our beloved local chip musicians, Natty Adams, is a host on the show Destination: Bollywood ! I have such a soft spot for Bollywood because one of my high school friends, Chandi, used to make me watch Hrithik Roshan movies.
Here's the video of my favorite dance sequence from Mission Kashmir:
3/16DATAPOP feat. The Mysterious H, Sievert, Nullsleep, IAYD, Hally, Random, Bit Shifter, & nordloef with viz by Jean Y. Kim & Omeros at The Highball Ballroom 8pm, free
3/17 DATAPOP feat. Talk to Animals, Starscream, Henry Homesweet, 8BK-ok, Sabrepulse, Je Deviens DJ En 3 Jours, Anamanaguchi & Trash 80 with viz by Paris & Outpt at the Highball Ballroom 8pm, free
3/18 Anodyne, The Records Machine & Mushpot day party feat. Olympic Size, Capybara, Cowboy Indian Bear, Little Brazil, Roman Numerals & Open Hand at The Jackalope 2pm, free
Bands I really want to see, but who knows if I'll see them: Reading Rainbow, Fenech Soler, Fungi Girls, Classixx, Tobacco, Inlets, Surfer Blood, The Hood Internet, Uffie, Fool's Gold, This Will Destroy You, Memory Tapes, Best Coast, The Golden Filter, Toche, Boy 8 Bit, Fake Blood, The Antlers, CFCF & Baby Monster
More treasures from my Sunset Park grocery haul ! I had a crock pot of broth simmering for the whole week with fennel greens, onions, garlic, beet greens, and mushrooms. I clarified it and gave a batch to a friend. The rest was used in my pancit ! I shredded 1/4 f a fennel bulb, 1/2 block of spiced firm tofu, garlic and chinese sausage. After I sauteed the mire poix, I turned the heat up high and added the broth and rice stick noodles. The noodles absorb all of the broth like a sponge: After I turned off the heat, I piled on a little arugula to wilt with the steam:
My homie, Mendeley Wells, knows a thing or two about djing. Check him out every Friday at Revival, it's free to hang out! I'm a fan of their upstairs lounge, but the magic happens downstairs. Learn something!Anything else we should check out?
My friends Angela, Jeff and Madeline have been hosting LOST dinners at their house on Tuesday nights. If you know me, I'm obsessively posting LOST memes on my apartment blog. I'm going to be better at documenting the food we make. On the past couple of Tuesdays we've sampled tacos, grilled cheese with pineapple and ham; pineapple pizzas, and salads. For now, I give you my pear palm tree with cheddar bark:Jeff gets this twinkle in his eye when he has an idea. Here he is trying out his homemade salad spinner made of plastic bags: Do you watch LOST?
Chris W. and I checked out the Pegu Club on West Houston. I wish I wrote down the names of the cocktails, but I had the Earl Grey (with controversial egg white shaken into it) on the right. Chris got the Pegu Club cocktail and I got something with apple brandy in it. The apple garnish was extremely dreamy and perfumy. All of my drinks were very clear and clean tasting. Definitely didn't have the cash to try the snacks. Have you been?
Best email sig ever: "Sent from my Game Boy Color"
News: So very upsetting, y'all ! I can't find my copy of the That Horse Yonder compilation to pay tribute to Sparklehorse!
(From Brooklyn Vegan)
Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse has committed suicide, according to a report from Rolling Stone. His family has released a statement reading, "It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there's a star for you." [Pitchfork] "Linkous' publicist confirms he was nearly finished with a new album that was due on Anti- Records."
Chromix destroyed Niagara last week during I/O. People were outside taking pictures of him through the window ! He played songs from Roll Trick and dedicated songs to many of the artists that came out to support. Zen Albatross played a set, too, and it was pretty enjoyable. Earlier that night, I was helping out at the Ok Go video premiere at the Tank. Damian Kulash stayed after the video screening to answer questions from the audience and the internet, via video stream. So high tech, you bands in 2010 ! The video took roughly 4 months to make with a full crew of engineers. If you haven't seen the highly publicized, single shot rube goldberg video for "This Too Shall Pass", peep it below:
Dude. All you can drink bloody marys served in pint glasses at Lovin' Cup. It's $15 with a coffee and any brunch entree. I got the bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and tots. It was too big, I only ate half of it. Bethany and I could only get through two drinks each.
WFMU was known as the KDVS mothership while I was in college and we were so inspired by their antics to create videos and aim high for worthwhile non-commercial radio. My one question is, did y'all build a parade float ?
From their site:
WFMU's 2010 Marathon is ON, running from now until March 14th. Make a pledge here or call us at 800-989-9368 to keep WFMU humming for another 12 months. We've got a fab new batch of Swag and DJ Premiums for the taking! Help us spread the word about the marathon by putting a badge or banner on your website or by tweeting about it - more info here. You can see the full schedule of upcoming DJ tag-teams on our marathon schedule page.
Yo La Tengo return live to the fundraiser Friday, March 5th from 8-11PM! Fresh from their Australia/New Zealand tour, Ira, James, Georgia and pal Bruce visit the WFMU Marathon once again for your cover song requests! It's simple, tune in and pledge, hosts Pseu Braun and Gaylord Fields throw them your pitch and they'll hit it out of the park. It's your only chance to program YLT's set list, don't miss out (while helping your favorite freeform station operate another year!)
In 2007, my friend Matt Kiser planted the idea of Sunday family dinners in my head. I took it a step further and made them about gourmet grilled cheese. I found an archive of my accounts:
9/30/07- Week 3: Buffalo Mozzarella Sunday morning, I had $5 brunch with Steven at Mugs. I dragged him to the Bedford Cheese shop and picked up some expensive buffalo mozzarella. It was still early , so We headed off to meet Brian S. at the Transit Museum to explore The Atlantic Antic. We took pictures in vintage train cars and looked disapprovingly at all the children screaming and running around. Atlantic Antic was a street fair with lot's of local crafts and carnival food. We were overwhelmed by all the people and their children. One kid kicked me! We found cheap Singha beers and drank them in the street.
We took the train back and I took a short nap before I started cooking for Grilled Cheese Sunday. It was probably the quickest cooking Sunday that I've had in a long time. I kinda cheated and made the Honey Almond pesto in the blender instead of hand crushing it with a jar like I usually do.
Ciel, Matt and his friend Greg joined us for a quiet dinner. We finished eating around 8:30 and I took a plate of the dinner to the bartender at our local spot, The Diamond. I told him last week that I'd bring him a plate and didn't believe me. He was pleasantly surprised. He said my cooking was excellent. We all had a round of drinks and then ordered this TRAY with eleven 7 ounce beers. It was good. At 9pm, Eric (the bartender) poured me and Yawen half beers to toast to Michael Jackson (the beer brewer) who died on September 30th. Apparently, bartenders across Brooklyn were toasting at 9pm. We threw out ideas for a blog and more ideas for grilled cheese. Yawen and I wobbled home, tired. Matt and I exchanged texted ideas for domain names all night and all morning. Menu for Week 3: Buffalo Mozzarella with Almond pesto, Balsamic Roasted Garlic Tomatoes, Spumante / Bellinis
Lesson: While this particular grilled cheese was tasty, I don't think fresh buffalo mozzarella is meant to be heated.
Can't wait for this! Greenleaf was so good when they played their first show at Death by Audio back in December. Greenberry Hill , their debut release, is coming out this weekend on Hemlock Records.
Catering is tough. I would say that it's the arena where I've learned the most as a cook. Experimenting at home doesn't provide the pressure to succeed against strict deadlines. If you drop that pan of asparagus, you could very well ruin someone's wedding dinner, graduation party or fundraiser. Speed, accuracy and alacrity when things go awry take a lot of time (and patience) to develop. My absolute favorite task at weddings was arranging the cheese plates. It's a science, really. I combined my boss' vision for style and incorporated all I knew about cheese. At first, she'd make one and I would copy three more. As time went on, she would let me shop for the cheese and arrange my own plates without supervision. The cheese plate is the first thing that wedding guests descend upon after sitting through a long ceremony. The wow factor also gives them a sneak peak of what's to come out of the kitchen for dinner. Personally, my style has evolved from "crazy amounts of snack bounty" to a scaled down 1:1 ratio pairing as well as regional theme; it also helps to taste good with whatever we're drinking. What can I say? I'm cheesey or whatever.
Jeff saw this torta on Serious Eats' Hot Dog of the Week. It was Valentine's day, why not venture down to Sunset Park for brunch? Puebla Mini Mart is an innocent looking and unassuming arsenal of the biggest and most outlandish tortas I've seen.Angela and I split the Espanola Doble with hot dogs, ham, 2 kinds of cheese, tomato, lettuce, egg, bacon, avocado, and refried beans. Jeff got the Torta de Salchicha: Angela was worried about eating half of it. So was I ! And then we had to walk it off in the park...oy.
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato / Intelligent Dance Music: cameraphone photos of food and music around BKLYN through the eyes of Jenn de la Vega. Schedule a snack! Or share a track: gimmegrilledcheese [at] gmail [dot] com
Support Facts N' Cheese with a donation or by sharing! MYSPACE
AdamGetsAwesome, Zen Albatross and Goatslacker provided a chip soundtrack to the hackday. People were lounging around, eating lunch, playing the games or ripping apart computer mice to make one button game controllers!
This young gentleman managed to make a game controller out of a clamp! He and Kunal (from Loud Objects) tried it out on Canabalt.
Videos of the games and performances are coming soon !
After I sauteed the mire poix, I turned the heat up high and added the broth and rice stick noodles. The noodles absorb all of the broth like a sponge:
After I turned off the heat, I piled on a little arugula to wilt with the steam:
More Filipino cooking !
Anything else we should check out?
Jeff gets this twinkle in his eye when he has an idea. Here he is trying out his homemade salad spinner made of plastic bags:
Chris got the Pegu Club cocktail and I got something with apple brandy in it. The apple garnish was extremely dreamy and perfumy. All of my drinks were very clear and clean tasting. Definitely didn't have the cash to try the snacks.
Earlier that night, I was helping out at the Ok Go video premiere at the Tank. Damian Kulash stayed after the video screening to answer questions from the audience and the internet, via video stream. So high tech, you bands in 2010 ! The video took roughly 4 months to make with a full crew of engineers.
If you haven't seen the highly publicized, single shot rube goldberg video for "This Too Shall Pass", peep it below:
Bethany and I could only get through two drinks each.
My absolute favorite task at weddings was arranging the cheese plates. It's a science, really. I combined my boss' vision for style and incorporated all I knew about cheese. At first, she'd make one and I would copy three more. As time went on, she would let me shop for the cheese and arrange my own plates without supervision. The cheese plate is the first thing that wedding guests descend upon after sitting through a long ceremony. The wow factor also gives them a sneak peak of what's to come out of the kitchen for dinner.
Personally, my style has evolved from "crazy amounts of snack bounty" to a scaled down 1:1 ratio pairing as well as regional theme; it also helps to taste good with whatever we're drinking.
What can I say? I'm cheesey or whatever.
March 5th - Babycastles RUNNN!!! Arcade Opening @ Silent Barn, 8pm, FREE
Angela and I split the Espanola Doble with hot dogs, ham, 2 kinds of cheese, tomato, lettuce, egg, bacon, avocado, and refried beans.
Jeff got the Torta de Salchicha:
Angela was worried about eating half of it. So was I !
MYSPACE