will someone get this baby out of my soup?

got some new zealand culture last night with a night at the cinema. brendan and i saw sione's wedding, a domestically made film shot in the auckland area about a band of troublemaker friends who are banned from another friend's wedding due to their past history of bad behavior. the only way they'll be allowed in is if they're able to find actual girlfriends (instead of their usual one-night stands) to bring to the wedding with them. i suppose it would fall into the "urban comedy" category and shares a number of tropes. the cast was mainly minorities (in this case polynesian), the soundtrack featured almost exclusively polynesian hip hop and r&b groups, and much of the humor was based on race (prejudiced police officer, the white guy acting like he's a minority, playing up the differences between white and polynesian women, etc.). it's kind of weird how american culture has been force fed to/adopted by other nations. the movie itself was fairly enjoyable. it was pretty amusing and had some fun oddball characters.

today we headed over to the auckland botanic gardens, which we found out was a hell of a long way away, especially if you take the bus just after school has let out. it took about an hour and a half to get out there from downtown auckland and about an hour to get back. it turned into a fun photo-taking expedition.












































for more photos check out my flickr page.

if any of the formatting on this blog looks weird on your browser, let me know. i've had some weird spacing problems with firefox when posting photos.

day 4, rainbow 8

yup... saw 2 rainbows again today... i also got to check off two items on my list of things to do: visit the war memorial museum and see the maori culture show, and visit my old neighborhood in northcote. the latter was an experience that was a little difficult to describe. the last time I'd been there was at least 12 years ago. it all seemed pretty familiar (here's a map of the general auckland area), but there were some definite changes: fisherman's wharf, down at the end of my old street, was abandoned; the dairy my brother and i used to frequent for candy (i specifically recall buying gummy coke bottles) is now a wine shop, and the lotto store is a chips shop; northcote primary and a ton of new buildings, one of which pretty well blocks the entrance to the school; the onepoto domain is really a pretty nice place, and the soccer fields, in hindsight, are probably the best ground i've ever played on; and the northcote shopping center has basically turned into one giant asian mart, which i can't say isn't an improvement, but it was a little striking to see pretty much every store sign there have asian lettering. the old house is still there, though...

flowers in the auckland domain's winter garden

maori wood carvings in a traditional meeting house

the northcote tavern, located across the street from...

my old house and its ski slope of a driveway (yes, that is the ocean behind it)

day 2, rainbow 4

wandered around auckland today. bought a cell phone, looked for a pair of jeans... apparently i failed to pack a pair (...because, really, who needs pants?), ate at some tastey asian place for lunch, hit up the auckland domain, dropped by the museum, but didn't purchase entry as we'd missed the last maori cultural performance for the day. promised ourselves we'd come back. walked the 8k from auckland to the bruell's in st. helier's. got soaked through by sideways rain.













... made with real malaysians--spicy!













graphitti bores brendan, pictured sleeping whilst standing



















an old railyard near the auckland domain













auckland, city of rails.













rainbow #2... #3 was actually just to the left and #4 appeared later

two americans not killed by dormant volcano

so, after a 3 hour delay at jfk, a 12 hour flight, a short stop in tahiti, a six hour flight, and multiple interrogations by new zealand customs officials (including a thorough check of the contents of all of my bags, a gander at my backup computer files, and a cleaning of the hiking boots i brought along), we finally made it to the home of the bruell's in st. heliers in the suburbs of auckland. most of the day was spent wandering around the waterfront, checking out the local shops, and chatting with jules, a friend of the bruells. this may seem pretty uneventful, but after spending nearly 20 hours sitting on airplanes, the sight of anything not beige was really a point of interest.

first second impressions: there's more grass and sky than i remember their being. the air smells of ocean salt, which is something i quite like. the auckland area has seen a huge amount of development in the past 12 years, and seems incredibly commercial compared to when i left in 1994. maybe i was just oblivious at the time, though.

Rangitoto is a party animal

here is where the avians like to party

rainbow count so far: 1

august 5 shim sham part deux

august 5 shim sham

see here:

australia vs. new zealand

for the record australia and new zealand are different countries. see them on the map here. they have many differences. for instance, australia was colonized by europeans who oppressed and murdered the native aboriginies. they also dumped their prisoners there. new zealand was colonized by europeans who oppressed and murdered the native maori. they did not use the island as a jail. australia is mainly desert and grasslands, with some lovely tropical areas along the coast. new zealand is sub-tropical. it has some desert, but is mostly a nice shade of green. australia has snakes and poisonous spiders. new zealand does not have snakes or poisonous spiders. australia has the tasmanian devil (specifically in the island of tasmania, which lies to the south of mainland australia), koala, kangaroo, and wombat, among other native wildlife. new zealand has the tuatara, kiwi, kea bird, tui bird, and hector's dolphins (hector does not want them back), among others. new zealand also has some really cool trees, like the pohutukawa, rimu, and kauri. australia does not have these trees. new zealand, outside of zoos, does not have kangaroos, koalas, devils, or wombats.

australia.
new zealand.
australia.
new zealand.
australia.
new zealand.

there are many, many other differences. suffice it to say that when i say i am going to new zealand, i do not mean that i am going to australia.

do you remember the time?

do you remember when i used to post on this thing all the time... and by all the time i mean maybe once a week? yeah. that was the best. for anyone who actually still reads this thing, i'm headed to new zealand on the 9th. hip hop hooray.

i got a couple of my first palgrave jackets back from the printer and, i'm not gonna lie, they look pretty sexy. thumbnails here and here.

this bullshit in the middle east is out of control. as my cousin pointed out yesterday, we've successfully created a crescent of shiite controlled countries surrounding israel, so there's really nothing to stop arms trafficking between iran and hezbollah stationed in lebanon. well done u.s., for taking out saddam and completing that nice little trade route. and well done israel, bombing both a u.n. station and 50+ refugees. i read in the post today that over 500 lebonese have been killed, most of them civilians. this isn't justice. it's revenge.

Man moves things with brain.

A paralyzed man with a small sensor implanted in his brain was able to control a computer, a television set and a robot using only his thoughts, scientists reported yesterday.
-NYtimes.com (courtesy of Claire)

The hell? If this doesn't result in a cyborg army snuffing out the human race, I don't know what will.

Cyborgs are cool.

achenblahg

Joel Achenbach's Sunday piece about blogging and journalism is pretty good. Here are the first paragraphs:

"In the news media there is much talk of "interactivity," of breaking down the wall between journalistic producers and consumers. No longer will the news be proprietary to a professional elite that attempts, in an Olympian voice, to speak down to the unwashed masses. Instead, everyone will be an equal, fully respected partner in the news process, including nitwits, fanatics, the extremely daft and the recently straitjacketed.

"I'm all in favor of this, as I have a blog, with many excellent commenters, some of whom comment on the comments of other commenters and manage to develop, over time, a kind of cult following of their own, such that the readers of the blog tend to forget all about the writer to whom the blog technically, in an old-fashioned sense, "belongs." Which is fine! Into the future we go! My feelings aren't hurt. We all know who's actually getting paid around here. Paid. Paid. Not to rub it in. Paid."

Most of it is old hat, but it's entertaining and the last paragraph is an unexpected, but welcome, tack off course, revealing the larger implications of the blogosphere on public discourse.

War on Terrorism

Listening to Open Source on NPR right now. William E. Odom made a point about this that I think everyone realizes, but not many have articulated particularly well. A war on terrorism is a ridiculous because it's a war on a tactic, which is ridiculous. Militarily it doesn't make sense, it doesn't allow for a real enemy. He likened it to waging war against people who use knives--it's impractical. The rhetoric is distracting us from the real problem. Our war isn't really against terrorism, it's against al Qaeda, the Taliban, Wahhabis, and against, essentially, those who are violently anti-American. This is a culture war. Democrats should grab ahold of this.

USA 1- Ghana 2

That was never a penalty. While I can't blame the ref for our poor finishing, I can blame the ref for giving Ghana a freebee. I can also blame the ref for not carding the two or three flagrant dives from the Ghana side. That said, with the exception of a clever backheel from McBride that ended up fizzling into nothing, the US lacked any kind of creativity. Our counterattacks, until the last fifteen minutes, were far too slow. We didn't press enough in the first 20 minutes of either half. Our bright moments were few and far between, but they were there. Lewis did a good job with his crosses; Dempsey was all over the field for the first sixty minutes and hammered a fantastic shot into the back of the net; Beasley finally put in a good effort, grabbing an assist, winning a lot of balls in the midfield (even if they didn't amount to much), and helping out the back line; and McBride broke my heart with his header off the post. And I was happy to see Ben Olsen get a CAP, even if he didn't contribute much. Donovan looked sluggish. I think putting Convey in was a mistake. I would've dropped O'Brien in. We needed someone with a little more of a creative mind.

All in all, I would say it was a pretty mediocre game. It's a shame that the ref had such a heavy hand in its outcome. At least there's some hope with our next generation of players... Adu, Convey, Quaranta, Johnson, and Donovan and Beasley still have another cup left in them. South Africa in 2010!

the netherlands vs argentina

remember what happened the last time the oranje played the blue stripe-y team?



(thanks for the reminder nytimes.com)

more of the magnificence that is dennis bergkamp (a man who, like john madden, refuses to take an airplane):


(or in a slightly more legible google video version)

OMG!

US-Italia

About US forward Brian McBride, who took a vicious elbow to the face in the first half of the match:

No broken bones were reported as a result of the elbowing. In fact, McBride said he did not even feel much pain. After repeated operations — including plastic surgery — to repair shattered cheekbones, McBride said: "I don't have a lot of feeling in my face. My nerves are all dead from the surgeries. You get hit and you get back up."

The team out on the field on Saturday looked like a completely different squad of players. We made some good cuts up the front, with some nice runs down the wings. We also won a number of 50-50 balls and held possession quite well in the first half. Dempsey even showed a little flair with some stepovers and a couple decent crosses.

WC Trivia: Apparently Ukraine has seven Andriys in their squad...

And Argentina's amazing goals.

Oy...

Highlights of the US - Czech Republic game:



You'll notice that most of the hightlights involve the Czech Republic attacking. This is because we played like ass. The only reason I post this is to remind us that (1) the first goal was scored by the 6' 7-1/2" Jan Koller, or Frankenstein as he's better known, and (2) Reyna did actually hit a post.

Other cup news: I listened to Spain destroy Ukraine, a team which may have looked worse that the US. Granted the Ukraine may have only had 10 men on the field for half the game, but still, at least we don't look like the only chumps in this tournament any more. Spain were dominant even before the red card though, and it sounds like they may have actually fielded a contender this time instead of a lot of hot air.

___________

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzzzzzzz!

Arjen Robben

Arjen Robben was incredible. The Serbia-Montenegro defense looked like turtles compared to this guy. He was all over the field. It seemed that nearly every time he touched the ball he created a chance on goal. The only piece he was lacking was a decent touch in a dead ball situation... but then, neither side had a free kick or corner kick on mark the whole game.

I cannot wait until the next game the Netherlands play. Netherlands-Ivory Coast. Don't miss it. It may be one of the fastest paced games in this round.

holy god. this is why the world cup fucking rocks.

Lahm's goal for Germany...


Fring's goal for Germany...

a boring, whiney post about pop-culture

X-Men III is schlock. I would have asked for my money back if I had actually paid to see it. It's a b-movie with an a-movie budget--written by hacks with cornball dialogue, glacial pacing, boring choreography, and clichés galore. I think the best word to summarize it is unimaginative, from the production design (the pristine white science lab with extras in white coats all scurrying around and peering into things to look science-y and Magneto and his band of merry evil mutants in the forest), to the characters, the plot, the use of mutant powers (repetitive use of telekinetic levitation, telepathic voices echoing in peoples heads, equally opposing blasts of fire and ice from Iceman and Pyro in a standoff, a general lack of acrobatics from Beast... The list goes on), and the dialogue:

Wolverine: The whole world's going to hell, you gonna just sit there?

Warren Worthington, Sr.: Warren, it's a better life. It's what we all want.
Warren Worthington III: No, it's what you want.

Jean Grey: Would you die for them?
Wolverine: No, for you.

A few examples of other grievances:

- blatant inconsistencies, like a scene turning from day to night from one shot to the next, without the passage of time

- Angel, besides being a completely useless character in the film, looks ridiculous, striking cheesy, heroic poses throughout

- the decision about keeping the Xavier Institute open is out of context and is abrupt and seemingly thoughtless

- the head scientist working for Worthington is a science lab cliché

- whereas in previous films, Magneto and his group appear as a more radical mutant activist / terrorist group, in this movie they're just portrayed as evil and any kind of moral ambiguity is shoved aside to make it a good guy vs. bad guy battle at the end as opposed to a conflict of ideas

- Jean Grey, the most powerful mutant on the planet sits around and does nothing for most of the movie... when she finally does do something, she levitates some stuff and disintegrates things... that's it.

- why didn't Magneto take out Wolverine and Colussus by himself at the end? They're made of metal. He could've have twisted them into knots instead of letting them kill a dozen of his mutant cronies.

- why move the golden gate bridge to get to Alcatraz? It was just a little ridiculous.

- throughout the diagolue was trite, characters lacked depth, the story was slow.


... Highlights:

- Shadowcat... decent acting and some pretty cool use of her powers... well, a couple of times... was useful as a foil for Rogue

- Wolverine... despite some shitty fight choreography, cheesy lines, and too much lone wolf bullshit, Hugh Jackman still managed to put in a pretty decent shift as everyone's favorite mutant badass.

- Preview for the new Jet Li movie looked fucking radical. That shit is going to be an hour and a half of awesome.

- Preview for Superman looked pretty good. I think it was the third trailer... no John Williams soundtrack to this one, which is a bummer... but Kevin Spacey is going to kick ass as Luthor, even if the rest of the movie blows chunks.

- Jean Grey levitates and disintigrates things... yeah, it was repetative, but it was pretty cool at first...

...Congratulations X-Men 3, you made my list of top 5 bad blockbuster hollywood movies I wish I had not seen:

1. Star Wars: Episode II
2. X-Men III
3. Star Wars: Episode III
4. Star Wars: Episode I
5. Batman & Robin

Hamburger Helper

Summer has made an unfashionable, early appearance. Water molecules are doing that thing where they hesitate in mid-air, uncertain as to whether they should be forming a cloud or falling from one. It's the kind of weather where even thinking about moving causes perspiration. Everything seems to plod along with a bloated weariness. Yes, Memorial Day weekend made its successful return. Electronic road signs in Boston noted, in a rapid loop of fine rhetoric, to "Drive Safely" and that "Boston Honors its War Dead." I had my own little remembrance ceremony wherein I ate the ground flesh of a quadruped, freshly charred off the grill. Mix in a little crimson-colored corn syrup, and you've got quite a meal.

It seems our media outlets enjoy honoring our perished soldiers by virtually ignoring them. Rather, they prefer to make a big hullabaloo about a couple of journalists who were killed in Iraq. This is nothing to make light of, however it seems fairly self-serving and generally not front page worthy news, at least if you compare it to the fact that deaths of contractors or soldiers don't get similar treatment. It just seems uncouth for the media to be focusing attention on itself on a holiday where we're supposed to be remembering those who fought and died for our country as opposed to just... well, died.

Hooray for the free press.

______

In other news, I had a very enjoyable weekend with my cousins and oma up in Boston. We hit up the MFA (which has a few very nice Art Nouveau pieces) and the DeCordova (interesting sculpture park... didn't get to the museum). I also got a little of my game back in FIFA soccer, which I haven't played in maybe a year. The '06 version is buggy, but more realistic on the scoring front. Goals are almost fluky, which seems more in line with how things actually work, at least in my experience. I got schooled in some Nintendo fighting game by Andrew, the older of my two cousins, and schooled in Greek mythology by Sam, the younger.

complete the thought...

... a list in the style of a list from McSweeney's...

I almost married her. She was perfect in every way but one...

...she was dead.
...she was a he.
...she was 23 and I was 12. She was not into preteens.
...she had three elbows.
...she had four elbows.
...she was a Nazi.
...she was made of uranium.
...she did not believe in dinosaurs.
...she was inflatable. Actually, she was perfect. We honeymooned in the Himalayas.
...she was a leper.
...she had no neck.
...she was a silverback gorilla.

Please, feel free to add your own.

Albright is Alright.

"If Arab democracy develops, it will do so to advance Arab aspirations based on Arab perceptions of history and justice. The right to vote and hold office is unlikely to soften Arab attitudes toward Israel or to end the potential for terror, just as it has been unable to prevent terrorist cells from organizing in the West. Democracy should, however, create a broader and more open political debate within Arab countries, exposing myths to scrutiny and extreme ideas to rebuttal. Though some may fear such an opening, Americans should welcome it. For if we fail to value free expression, we forget our own history." --Madeleine K. Albright on washingtonpost.com

Tsar Nicholas II to Blame for Wayne Rooney's Broken Foot

From the Guardian:

Instantly supplanting the War of Jenkins' Ear as history's most depressing conflict about a body part is the War of Rooney's Foot, currently being waged between Sir Alex Ferguson and Sven-Goran Eriksson. Yet as they fiddle, the rest of us get on with the real business: whom to burn for The End of the Dream(TM). Happily my eye is drawn to a letter to Football365.com which suggests that stopping free school milk caused brittle bones in all subsequent generations of children, and therefore the blame for Rooney's injury must be laid at the door of Margaret Thatcher...

Continue reading what may be considered the most brilliant football article ever written.

The List

Here's the list of memorable places I've eaten pizza from (in no particular order):

1. Pepperoncino's (5th Ave)

2. Patsy's (118th & 1st)

3. Patsy's (11th & University)

4. Totonno's (26th & 2nd)

5. Totonno's (81st & 2nd)

6. Totonno's (Coney Island)

7. Ray's (2nd & 94th)

8. John's (44th & 8th)

9. John's (Bleecker)

10. Bleecker Street Pizza (7th Ave)

11. No. 28 (near Bleecker)

12. DeMarco's (was on Houston, CLOSED)

13. Joe's (near Bleecker)

14. Abitino's (Bleecker)

15. Lombardi's (Spring St.)

16. Una Pizza Napoletana (12th & 1st; CLOSED)

17. Waldy's Wood-Fired Pizza (6th Ave.)

18. Luzzo's (1st Ave)

19. Nick's (94th & 2nd)

20. Nick's (Queens)

21. Sac's Place (Astoria)

22. Grimaldi's (Dumbo)

23. Angelo's (57th & 6th)

24. Di Fara (Midwood)

25. Franny's (Flatbush)

26. 5th Ave Pizza (5th & Union St.)

27. La Villa (5th Ave)

28. Anthony's (7th Ave)

29. Li'l Frankie's (1st Ave)

30. Gino's (Washington Ave)

31. Nino's (Franklin Ave)

32. Vinny Vincenz (1st Ave)

33. Monty's (Montague St.)

34. Two Boot's (Bleecker)

35. Two Boot's (Grand Central)

36. 33 (23rd & 8th)
37. Fornino's (Bedford Ave, Williamsburg)
38. La Pizza Fresca (20th & Broadway)
39. Graziella's (Vanderbilt Ave & Dekalb Ave)

40. Famiglia (Crap. Don't ever eat pizza from here.)
41. Lazzara's (38th b/t 7th & 8th; Square pie)
42. Serafina (somewhere in Midtown)
43. Celeste (Amsterdam Ave b/t 84th and 85th)
44. The Alligator Lounge (Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg)

45. Pizzatown (5th Ave., Park Slope)

46. Isabella's Oven (Grand St., LES; CLOSED)

47. Dean's (85th St. & Broadway, UWS)

48. Lucali (Henry St., Carroll Gardens)
49. Toby's Public House (South Slope/Sunset Park)
50. South Brooklyn Pizza (Court St. & 3rd Pl., Carroll Gardens)

51. Co. (24th & 9th)
52. Kesté (Bleecker)
53. Artichoke Basille (14th & 1st)
54. Pizza Mezzaluna (W. Houston; MacDougal)
55. Motorino (Graham Ave., Williamsburg; CLOSED)
56. Motorino (East Village)
57. Rose & Joe's Bakery (Astoria)
58. Rizzo's Fine Pizza (Astoria)
59. The House of Pizza & Calzone (Carroll Gardens)
60. Tomato & Basil (Park Slope)
61. Paulie Gee's (Greenpoint)

Plus a number of other corner slice shops that dot the cityscape.

To do list:


Best Pizza
Totale
Olio e Piú
South Brooklyn Pizza (Manhattan)
Artichoke Basille's (Westside)
Rose & Joe's Italian Bakery
Donatella's
Roberta's
San Marzano
L&B Spumoni Gardens
Arturo's
Leonardo's
+ more!

My current top 10 (in order):

1. Di Fara (excruciatingly long waits for works of edible art)
2. Motorino (wood oven, crisp and tensile crust, delicate buffalo mozzarella— and excellent gelato!)
3. Grimaldi's (coal oven perfection, quality pepperoni, and root beer)
4. Anthony's (homemade cheese, amazingly delicious crust like fresh bread)
5. Nick's (wood-fired, crust quality varies, excellent pepperoni, all in the exotic locale of Queens)
6. Artichoke Basille (the square. really. it's that good. crisp, rich, oily.)
7. Totonno's (the most consistently made pizza, paper thin crust, smokey coal oven)
8. Pizza Mezzaluna (wood-fired, Neapolitan-inspired)
9. Lombardi's (America's first licensed pizzeria)
10. La Villa (the DOC is wood-fired new york-italianess; bonus!: delicious house salad)

What?

Ridiculous.

Cigarettes and Pollution

Below are some statistics I looked up. I don't have anything to compare cigarette pollution to yet (except for the segment from the Italian Institute for Higher Health), but I'll see what I can come up with. I think my math is right, but I welcome corrections.

According to a study conducted by the the Italian Institute for Higher Health, three smouldering cigarettes produced a 10-fold increase in air particles compared to those produced by an idling 2002 Ford Mondeo turbo diesel with a two-litre engine, fuelled with low-sulphur diesel. (http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6312)

The mean average of milligrams of CO per cigarrette is 11.5mg (taken from data corresponding to 103 different kinds of cigarettes, a sampling of the statistics found here: www.ftc.gov/reports/tobacco/1998tar&nicotinereport.pdf , a Federal Trade Commission report).

Estimated number of cigarettes smoked in U.S. in 2005 by the U.S.D.A.: 389 billion
Estimated number of cigarettes produced in the world in 2004: 5.662 trillion

Approximately 4.5 million kilos or 9.9 million lbs of carbon monoxide released into the atmosphere via smoking in the U.S. (11.5mg x 389,000,000,000 / 1,000,000 = # of kilos x 2.2 = # of pounds).

The 465 billion cigarettes smoked in the United States in 1998 translates to a total of 176,250,000 pounds of discarded butts in one year in the United States alone.
(http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/cigbutthowmany.htm)

The average diameter of a cigarette is approximately 10mm or 1cm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette). One football field is approximately 110m x 50m (http://www.ncaa.org/champadmin/football/football_field.gif). If you stood each cigarette on end, like a chimney stack, you would need 55 million cigarettes¹ to cover an entire football field. It would take about 7,072 football fields, or slightly over 15 square miles², to house all of the cigarettes produced in the U.S. Now imagine those cigarettes burning.

1. 110m = 11000cm; 50m = 5000cm;(11000cm*5000cm)*(1 cigarette / 1cm^2) = 5.5x10^7 cigarettes

2. 1m = 0.000621371192 miles; 110m = 0.06835083112 miles; 50m = 0.0310685596 miles; 7072*0.06835083112 miles*0.0310685596 miles = 15.017829547194793606144 miles^2

from nature.com

Puzzle of leaping liquid solved
Physicists explain how shampoo streams can bounce.

Philip Ball

Dutch researchers believe they have cracked the physics behind a mysterious bouncing behaviour of liquids, first seen more than 40 years ago.

British engineer Arthur Kaye first noticed this weird phenomenon in 1963, while experimenting with a mixture of obscure organic liquids. When he poured his viscous mixture on to a surface, the down-going stream would suddenly throw up a jet that merged with the incoming stream.

Continued...

Videos of the phenomenon.

Di Fara Strikes Back

Monday night Haley "the Nomad" Malm was in town on the second to last leg of her whirlwind east coast tour / Ryan Greene Yale Interview Support Group Field Trip. Of course, we did the same thing I do with everyone who visits--we went out for pizza. This was the first time I'd returned to Di Fara Pizzeria since August, when my dad, cousin, and I did our pizza tour, and was only the third time I've ever been there. This time I though, I feel I'm finally able to articulate what's so great about this pizza and what makes it perhaps less than perfect in my eyes.

First, of course, as mentioned in previous posts is the whole process of actually getting your pizza. There's no line, per se, just a random smattering of people gathered around a counter, behind which Domenico DeMarco makes the pizza. Slowly. There's some charm in that. It kind of a ritual. You stand. You try and make eye contact with either Dom or one of his kids, who by comparison is a blur of activity. You wait. You try and maybe wave a little bit, hoping that like that T. Rex in Jurassic Park, movement will attract the attention of one of them. Eventually, you get in your order, after which there's more standing and waiting. A half hour passes. Others, who have been waiting for what seems to them like an eternity, finally receive their pies and slices. There is rejoicing. Then forty-five minutes pass and an hour and five minutes. You notice that the girls in the corner are finally called upon to pick up their slices. As one of them walks past, pizza in hand, you can't help but comment on how good it looks and smells. You find yourself oogling the slices, rather than the girls, who under other circumstances might be oogle-worthy themselves. Finally, after an hour and fifteen minutes, your pie is out of the oven. It's done. Almost. At this point drool is peaking through the sides of your mouth and your stomach is attempting to digest itself, but Dom--still in slow motion--is cutting fresh basil directly onto the pie and then is off to grate parmesean cheese. You realize that this is your chance to pick up an IBC root beer or two out of the fridge so everything can be added up and paid for by the time the last of the cheese has been sprinkled on and the pizza cut into eight unevenly sized slices. This way no time is wasted and pizza consumption can begin as soon as it can be carried over to a table, if not before.

Okay, so maybe some of the above is just me, and not the general public "you." Regardless, there's a lot of waiting and lot of anticipation. By the time Haley and I got our half pepperoni/half green peppers, mushrooms, sausage, and onion pizza we were starving, but goddamn, did that pizza taste magnificent--all fresh ingredients, including three kinds of cheese (fior di latte, mozzerella, and paremsean), a simultaneously sweet and savory sauce, fresh basil, and thickly sliced, beautifully seasoned pepperoni, which made for a knockout combo. And the crust was nicely charred to boot. There was also great variation to how the toppings are spread on the pizza--a little collective of pepperoni over here, an island of cheese over there, and little ponds of sauce dotting the landscape made for distinctive mouthfuls of pizza each bite. So delicious.

Now for the critical portion of the review. Here are what I think holds back Di Fara pizza from being perfect: it all comes down to the foundation--the crust. (1) The crust can't support the toppings. The cheese, in its pooling, is laid on thick and the toppings are generously sliced. It's too much for the poor, defenseless thin crust. The front half of slices are often overpowered and completely soaked through, making it difficult to pick them up without half of the toppings sliding off. (2) The crust's thickness is often uneven. This wouldn't necessarily be much of a problem if it weren't for #1 above. However, there are some places in the crust that are so thin, it just gives way. I actually had a slice that had a hole in the crust. As you can imagine, this makes it difficult to handle slices. It gets pretty messy, and dropping hot sauce or cheese on your hand can burn. (3) The crust, while pretty flavorful, is a little bland in comparison to say, Franny's or Lombardi's. I'm not sure if this is related to the use of a gas oven rather than a wood or charcoal one, or more related to the ingredients, but it could certainly use a little extra oomph, like maybe some seasoned olive oil brushed around the cornichone (the edge or lip of a pizza... thank you sliceny.com glossary). It's just a bit of a let down to have the last part you eat be not quite as pheonmenal as the rest of the slice.

Really though, that's some pretty nit-picky stuff. The pizza is so worth the wait and is definitely some of the best I've ever had. Thank you, Haley, for your excellent company and an excellent meal. I hope my next visit is as enjoyable.

New Zealand Hip-Hop

P-Money's myspace page

Scribe

A myspace site for Frontline

Ladi6's official website

Nesian Mystik:

Us? Like those savages in the middle east? Never...

According to a Washington Post article, John Bolton said of Iran, "It is not just that the regime is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but that it is also the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and is working to destabilize the region to advance its ideological ambitions."

Hey, Bush administration, what's so bad about destablizing the middle east in order to advance your own ideological ambitions? I wonder...

Working as an Autonomous Worker

New Orleans was a revelation for me. Volunteering there was a pleasure and I hope to go back maybe at the end of April. You can read earlier posts about the kind of activities I participated in, but they don’t really give you a feel for what it’s like. Cleaning a house of mold is fucking hard. Wearing a biohazard suit, rubber gloves, safety goggles (over regular glasses), and a respirator in humid eighty-degree weather is taxing. The respirator crushes your nose. And my goggles tended to fog up, making it difficult to differentiate between the areas on the floor and stud walls that had been scrubbed clean and sections that were still in need of work. On the bright side, the biohazard suit helped protect me from the mosquitoes, which were out in numbers and hungry for fresh blood. And thankfully, I managed to join in the work after most of the tough labor had been done on the house—it had already been gutted of its owner’s possessions, all the drywall and insulation below the four-foot mark had been removed, and the flooring was already ripped out. The owner was living in a F.E.M.A. trailer in the backyard and is a story in himself.

A black man born in the Philippines—his father was in the marines—he spent a good part of his childhood growing up on Bourbon Street. While there, he learned “everything he needed to know about life” with a pair of binoculars. At 18 he too joined the marines, an organization to which he would give 30 years of his life. He was promptly shipped off to Vietnam as a sniper. Not long after, he got his first kill after another sniper revealed his location by shooting him in the wrist. He would go on to kill many more, including two men in Hanoi for their diamonds. He and a friend who had worked as a jeweler used the diamonds to stud a large gold ring that they were crafting together. He spent 39 months in Vietnam and later also spent time in Cambodia and Laos. After returning to the U.S. he eventually settled down with a wife. Today she’s in the hospital, and has been for quite some time, for reasons unknown to me. At 58 he’s retired and spends his days engaging in a variety of recreational activities, including visits to the nudist colony a couple miles down the road. His fridge houses copious amounts of pot and moonshine, the latter he makes in Mississippi. He carries thousands of dollars in cash in his wallet because he doesn’t believe in banks, has a .357 magnum with a laser sight under the front seat of his car, and a 9-millimeter lying on his bed. He used to play the organ and saxophone in a jazz band, but has mostly given that up. Though, on occasion he’ll still tootle around on the sax. He found the volunteers to help with his house through his church. The man’s as multifaceted as Epcot Center.

His home is now almost ready to get moved back into. The walls need some taping and joint compound, a paint job, and some molding. New floors need to be installed and a new kitchen and bathroom too. But considering the amount of damage that was inflicted, it’s come quite a long way. At least, he shouldn’t need to worry about possible health problems arising from breathing in mold spores while sitting in his living room, watching television.

Here's some video taken of the lower 9th ward by the H.A.W.C. kids:





If for some reason this doesn't work, you can go to the H.A.W.C. site here.

photos from the post-apocalypse

Some photos of my trip to New Orleans are below. Most of it is from the upper and lower 9th wards, though most of the work I did was actually in Slidell, a town about 30 to 40 minutes outside of New Orleans.

Some notes on the photos:

Common Ground is a grassroots volunteer organization that's been doing a variety of things from food distribution, to house gutting, to bioremediation. They have volunteer centers all over the city.

Meg's House is the bunk house at the Bayou Liberty Relief Camp and stands as a memorial to Megan Perry.

The markings on the doors were put there by inspection crews after the flooding. The top number is usually the date of inspection, the number or initials on the left signify the inspection team, the number on the right is the number of pets found, and the number at the bottom is the number of bodies found. "TFW" stands for "Toxic Flood Water" and "NE" stands for "No Evidence," which I believe is in reference to pets since it normally appears where the number of pets is located.

A couple of photos at the end are of the French Quarter.

(click on the photos for larger versions)





















































My experience in New Orleans was really amazing. I highly recommend taking some time to go and help out some. As a volunteer, housing and food are free. And I'd point out that I ate extremely well.

Hopefully, I'll get around to actually writing about this stuff a little more...

activities participated in so far:
1. trash clean-up outside a daycare center in new orleans. this is the site of some planned bioremediation, which as i understand it is all about removing the toxins in the soil (of which there are many from a variety of sewage spills, oils spills, and general chemical mishaps resulting from the hurricane), and getting regular plant life to grow in it again. instead of using other man-made chemicals to do this, chemicals are generated through hippie flower power. various composting concoctions, mushrooms, etc. general the right chemicals and microorganisms to get rid of this stuff. there were some pretty bad chemicals that spilled during the hurricane and the flooding and a lot of the land has toxic chemicals that have seeped into its nooks and cranies. these are chemicals that apparently can cause neurological damage among other things, so it's a pretty important part of the effort to help people reestablish residences.

2. carl's house. carl is a retired u.s. marine whose house was ruined in the flooding. besides generally ridding the house of its mould infested objects, it's also been completely stripped down to its plywood floors and stud-walls. we've been using clorox to clean the mould that's left and scrubbing it down with brushes. respirators, biohazard suits, safety goggles, and gloves are a must. i arrived to help with the end of the bleaching and scrubbing. yesterday we began installing insulation. today we began installing drywall. in the meantime, carl had to go bail some relative out of jail in mississippi to the sum of some five grand. the fun never stops.

3. jen's house. i've not been yet, but it's more or less the same situation as carl's house. it needs to be gutted, cleaned of mould and then redone.

4. bayou liberty relief camp. the home base has been gradually accumulating upgrades, from a roof over the outhouse to new paint on walls and general cleaning.

that's about it for now. hopefully i'll get to post again soon about the group and life at the camp.

i barely made the plane to new orleans, as the early morning subway trains run far less frequently than i had expected. when i checked my bag in the jet blue lady told me to run to the gate. she did not, however, tell me which gate i should be running to. by the time i figured that out, the door to the walkway leading to the plane had been closed. lucky for me though the hatch to the plane was still actually open.

new orleans welcomed me with the message that my luggage did not make the flight. it ended up shipping on a flight later that afternoon and i managed to pick it up that evening. post parcel pick-up, the merry members of the hurricane autonomous workers collective, who i had been working with that day, and i headed to the bayou liberty relief camp in slidell, la. the bayou liberty relief camp functions as hawc's base of operations, storing equipment like goggles, rubber boots, biohazard suits, respirators, and all sorts of construction tools, as well as shelter, food, and items for recreation like a canoe, a bayou, and a guitar.

having been living in the urban jungle that is new york city, i had forgotten that mosquitos existed. that did not prevent them from trying to literally suck the lifeblood out of me. it is humid here and they are everywhere.

this does seem to really bother most of the members of hawc, from heading out to gut houses, scrub them clean of toxic waste and mold, and help reconstruct them. it's time for the morning meeting. i'll post again about our activities at a later date.

Dick Cheney... what a dick.

Cheney shot his millionaire hunting buddy. We're supposed to believe this was an accident. First of all, what the hell is Dick Cheney doing hunting? Shouldn't he be busy plotting the demise of civilization? Really though, for an administration that claims to have a lot of hard work to do all the time, they waste a lot of their efforts having fucking tea parties and and hugging their taxidermied animals. Hey, dipshits, how about instead of running around pretending like your fucking Roy Rogers, why don't you actually do some "hard work" and run the goddamn country like you're supposed to. Seriously. To quote Ivan Brunetti, "It's like a hamster trying to pilot a spaceship."

Also, as an amusing sidenote, the hunting buddy he shot was 78 years old. At that age it's probably best that he took one for the team. What the hell is a 78 year old man doing running around in the wilderness with a shotgun? Really, this kind of activity should be regulated. I mean, for god's sake, they have rules of fucking participation for fucking bumper cars. Jesus fuck.

It's apparently all the rage...

...and no, i'm not talking about the artic monkeys. rather, there's a virus going around, and the only cure is batgirl...



















it's a batgirl meme! for nearly 1000 other, better renditions (many by actual professional artists) of everyone's favorite bat-stamped heroine, go here.

thank you, lunch hour.