you're shorter than you think you are

lined up for the zulu parade

foxy throws rocks at the cameraman

sunset obscured

where deslonde street runs into the north claiborne bridge

NOLA photos

Walgreens, Canal Street

Absinthe poster by Ron English

Café Du Monde serves up the beignets

eviscerated shops support Georges for Gov'na!

Claiborne Avenue Bridge, Day

Keith Calhoun


the neighborhood


Claiborne Avenue Bridge, Sunset


Levee, Lower 9th Ward

after the tornado warnings

today the sun was shining and the wind was blowing down on deslonde street. woken by a fellow bunker's early morning calisthenics, i lazed about on the mattress (luxury!) in the top bunk of a bed in a house that will eventually hold offices for common ground's bioremediation project, free legal advice for residents dicked over by contractors, and other useful community programs. after about a half hour, i managed to peel myself out of bed and jogged down to the kitchen house to get started on my dish washing duties for the morning. around 8:30 we had our morning meeting and then split off into our different work groups. today i was with zeke and nutmeg doing some gardening work. we prepped a spot for for the pink project to come in and plant some roses next to 1800 deslonde and then headed off to meg's garden where we set up some beds and planted some broccoli, carrots, leeks, turnips, and sunflowers among a couple other plant-y items.

the afternoon was less busy, but i managed to drop a bunch of doughnuts off at lowernine.org. some woman apparently brings a large box full of sugary baked goods to common ground every few days. our capacity to consume them is outweighed by their numbers. maybe one day lowernine will bring common ground something.

cgc

we've moved a few blocks to from lowernine.org to common ground's digs on deslonde st., right where the barge burst through the levees. it's also where branjolina's make it right group (pink tents below) is situated. spent the day doing some sheetrocking and some gardening. the plan is to get in on some bioremediation work and work some at meg's community garden. the people here are pretty cool--a mixed bag in terms of ages, but a good slice comprises left-leaning 20-somethings. it's a bigger crowd and seems slightly better organized than lowernine, but it's also been around about 2 years longer. there are regular morning meetings and a weekly meeting, a chore chart, and running water and electricity. we're also provided 3 square meals a day.

MREs are nutritious because they say so

twins

foresight

underdogs

DIY city planning

our quarters

foxy dresses himself in front of some meals ready to eat



walking through the lower 9th



still rebuilding



branjolina's pink tents

i've got shingles

we put some shingles on a roof today. not too complicated. of course, i say that now, but who knows how leaky that thing'll be in 2 months. cutting shingles with a razor blade is lame. hammering nails into them is awesome!

jonah took us out to meg's garden in the afternoon. it looks well cared for. beans, rhubarb, broccoli, lettuce, arugula, dill, and a couple other odds and ends were all growing. it was nice to reminisce about the good times hanging with meg, late night theater adventures and diner runs.

and now i have a cold.

dude, we're finally landing

the heavens opened today, we took this largely as an excuse to sit around. well, that's only partly true. we took some time out to get some serious cleaning done. i wish i had "before" photos. the office/kitchen/lounge area we've been using was a complete shit hole. and now it's a slightly cleaner shit hole. at least it's functional and we've instituted a no-shoes rule, which will hopefully stave off a reversion to its previous state at least until we can get the actual LowerNine HQ up and running. we also started working on some brochures and on the website. so it wasn't completely wasted. we even had a couple of mobile attack units tackle some insulation and drywalling. dinner consisted of a po'boy and a freaking ginormous daiquiri from a drive-through daiquiri establishment. drive. through. daiquiris.

take it to the streets

two and a half years after katrina and the freaking street signs still haven't been replaced in the lower 9th. i spent some time today with tim working on making new ones.

the grilled chicken MRE is truly awful. it smells kind of like cat food. it isn't so much grilled chicken as modified soy protein with fake smoky flavoring and grill stripes painted on it. the chicken piece is also pentagonal (irregular). it does come with rice pilaf, which is delicious.

the MRE

it's been about 2 days. lodgings are bare, but improving. the house we're staying in has been gutted, but that's about all. currently there's no running water. plumbers were in yesterday and today working on installing the hot water heater and getting pipes put in. we've dropped some wires from neighboring houses for now, but we're waiting on an inspector to approve of the electrical work in the house so we can get it up and running. we also can't put in the insulation and sheet rock until the wiring's approved, so all the walls for now are stud walls, except for a section of what will eventually be a bathroom. there are a couple of port-a-potties out front and one half of a duplex down the road that we have access to for showering, kitchening, and computering. we do have about 3000 military-style meals ready to eat sitting out behind the house. so free food galore.

yesterday a group of like 20 jewish teens from a new york synagogue came by to help. mostly they moved some dirt around while throwing rocks at each other. charming.

foxy, tim, and i dropped by the branjolina site last night to check out the art installation. they've got these pink tents set up all over one section of the lower ninth ward. for every certain amount of money that gets donated to their organization, they put up a new section of these tent-houses that are supposed to represent where real houses will eventually get built. it's a pretty cool idea, though a couple of the lowernine.org people have noted that they're planning on spending way more money on these houses than they need to. i got some photos. i'll post 'em at some point.

returning to the gulf coast

i'm flying back to new orleans on the 10th, this time with foxy berger and maryland's favorite son, tim g. it'll have been almost two years since my previous stint volunteering with HAWC and bayou liberty relief. this time around i'll be working with lowernine.org and it looks like i'll get to do a little house building and help pack down some of Emergency Communities' camp and kitchen. in '06 i helped build a tipi for the EC camp site. fun and educational!

the plan is to stay for two weeks at minimum. if everything goes well and the work isn't too physically and psychologically taxing, i may stick around until march or so. i'm not entirely sure what kind of availability i'll have in terms of the internet, but hopefully i'll be able to update y'all on what's what and how things are while i'm actually there.

Todd "Tastic" Collins

I ♥ Todd Collins. A 106 passer rating is pretty -tastic. tastictacular.

Say what you will about Joe Gibbs being too old for the game, not
understanding contemporary schemes, etc., but he's led the 'skins to
the playoffs twice in four seasons, which is twice as many times as
the skins went to the playoffs in the 11 years he was not the 'skins
head coach and he's done it with fairly mediocre talent. The man knows
how to motivate players and when things are going well, the 'skins are
fun to watch.

And finally, can anyone stop Chris Cooley? Anyone? ... Hello? Didn't think so.

my top cinco songs of two thousand seven

i don't really have the attention span to do more than a top 5. and i'm far too lazy to write about 5 whole albums. my biases: i have a predilection for power pop and hip-hop with r&b/soul inspired production. i also have a soft spot for music that might somehow (really, in any way) be related to rivers cuomo (this is related to my love of power pop). whatever. my list:

5. hold it in - jukebox the ghost. jump into the water and see for yourself/take a deep breath and hold it in hold it in. ben folds five meets queen. hand claps, piano, and falsetto vocal interjections. support your local indie rock.

4. sweetness and tenderness - the rentals. yes, i realize that this song was originally recorded by the rentals in 1994. but they re-recorded it. yes, this year. jerk. and this version is arguably better than the original. the rentals give you viola, beautiful harmonies, dreamy atmospherics, and sincerity. and what do they ask for in return? they deserve your everlasting soul, but all they want is you to enjoy their goddamn music, you lilac. go listen.

3. the coolest - lupe fiasco. really, i wanted to put fiasco's "just might be OK" on here, but that was clearly on an album that was released in earth's previous orbit around the sun. clearly. that said, i'm going to say that "just might be OK" is pretty fucking awesome. i mean, the production is badass--horns, bitchin' soulful vocals, and airplanes overhead. and how often does cornel west get name dropped in a song? well, once it would seem. oh, yeah, and the coolest is pretty good too.

2. lady snowblood - olmecha supreme. as seen on my mog: lady snowblood kicks off with what might be called a moment of pure, unadulterated rock'n'roll, transitions into some rhyme-spittin' goodness, and ends on a high note. you can rock out to this tune. you can bounce to this tune. you can skank to this tune. you can sing along to this tune. there's beat boxing, wailing guitars, rhyme-spitting, fluting, and primal screams. olmecha should be the future of pop music.

1. lover in the snow - rivers cuomo. see biases stated above. and so what if it was recorded in 1997. it was released in 2007 on alone: the home recordings of rivers cuomo . it's arguably the best weezer song that weezer never got around to recording. i quote myself: "there aren't any spine-tingling solos. there isn't even a bass line. This is stripped down weez (it is a home demo after all): rivers' emotive vocals supported by a jumpy strumming pattern, hand-claps, and a hi-hat. and it's got a melody that just begs you to sing along." ...just listen to the goddamn song, OK?



--
"Poppa's got a brand-new bag... of fish!" -- The Tick

2 Amys

I've said it before, possibly not in cyberspace, but in the real, physical world: pizza is all about the crust. The rest is easy. Truly easy. Crush some tomatoes, add some salt. Shazam! Sauce! Most toppings are sourced from outside. Really dedicated chefs will make their own sausage, or cheese, or roast their own red peppers, etc. But most just go buy the toppings. Really, how hard is it to get good cheese or pepperoni? It just takes some taste-testing. But I defy you to find a great pizzeria that doesn't make their own dough. The dough has to be tailored to the oven. If the dough is too wet, it will take too long to cook and you might have a burnt outside and a gummy interior. If it's too dry it'll turn crackery. The point being, if you can make a great crust, the rest should come easy.

2 Amys has a delicious crust. If they sold just the crust, I would buy it. The cornicione is perfect. 5/5. 100% good. Puffy, soft, chewy, and salty. I would describe it as meaty in some bread-like way. This crust is rolling in umami. Umami. That's the word of the day. Take that crust and put on some quality ingredients and you've got one hell of a pizza. photos for you:

Pupatella

Street vendors are known mostly for hawking greasy comestibles for low, low prices. A serving of chicken and rice from the local halal cart might run you four to five dollars and will last for couple of lunches at least. But then, you just might die of salmonella poisoning. Well, for those of you lucky enough to find yourself by the Ballston stop on the DC metro Orange line on a workday between the hours of 8am and 4pm, I have a foolproof answer to your stomach's lunchtime grumbles: Pupatella Neapolitan Food Cart.

I dropped by Pupatella on a frigid, snowy day last week to see if the rumors of quality pizza pie-ing were true, which clearly, based on the tone of this post, they are. Pupatella is run by a former employee of 2 Amys, who, along with her boyfriend (who learned the pizza-making craft in Naples), opened up a fire engine red food mobile. The pizzas are cooked at 650ºF in what looks like either a small gas or electric oven with a couple ceramic tiles on trays. I ordered a margherita extra (sauce, buffalo mozz, basil, cherry tomatoes, all topped with a drizzle of olive oil), which baked for a about two minutes. The results:



Even at 650ºF, the crust was very good--crisp yet pliant, with a nice char. The cornicione, sadly, was lacking in the oven springiness department. However, that's about the only negative comment I have for this pizza. It is magnificent. The sauce had a light sweetness, the buffalo mozzarella was creamy and salty with a slight tang, and the basil packed a punch, which was impressive considering the season. I was all set to give it top honors for the best pizza I've had in DC.

Then I went to 2 Amys.

complete idiot's guide to being an idiot. ¡gold, i tells ya!

so there i am, stomach grumbling, waiting two times eternity in the checkout line of the local Super Giant supermarket (it's just so super! i can't take it...), trying to avert my eyes from the lowest common denominator weekly magazines crowding the racks, when i see it: the complete idiot's guide to psychic awareness. guess what i'm thinking. oh, that's right, if you read the book, you don't have to. i have a photo, but no card reader where i am right now. feel free to click here for proof of its existence.

mog mog mog moggity mog

http://mog.com/egadman

Mia's Pizzas

Decent lookin' pizza based on the photo. Mia's itself is a nice enough place to eat with its hardwood floors and high ceiling. In better weather patrons can take advantage of outdoor seating. And located directly center at the back of the dining area is a georgous woodburning oven (if only i'd actually photographed it), with a yellow-tile epidermis. Sadly, the pizza I had that came out of that oven was just on the soft side of done. While the quality of the ingredients were high (the fresh mozzerella and basil were especially good), the sauce was almost non-existent (perhaps evaporating in the oven's high heat?), leaving the crust, which seemed to be a sourdough, too prominent a roll. It was further marred by a dusting of cornmeal on the bottom. Over all, I give it a B-: not bad if you live in Bethesda, but certainly not worth going out of your way for.

Mia's Pizzas

4926 Cordell Ave.

Bethesda, MD 20815

reason with the man

flantastic

condition seems to have improved somewhat since yesterday. i'm not in perpetual discomfort in the chestal area, just when i breathe in real deep like.

 

one more show to run and then i'm a free man. until tuesday, when i'm hanging lights. and possibly next week if i get another lighting gig.

 

and i ate a flan today. coconutty.

bubble bubble

so about 5 minutes after i woke up this morning, i got some chest pains a-goin'. i figure, it's probably no big deal. i've had minor blips of chest pains since i was like, 14. they'd last for like 90 seconds, really just kind of a combination of an acute and dull pain when i'd breath in. it kind of felt like a bubble expanding in my chest putting pressure on my chest cavity. so, i think wait a couple minutes and it will go away. 20 minutes later it's still there. so off to the emergency room i go. an ekg, chest x-ray, blood test, and a nap later, and the results are in: i do not appear to have a heart disease. the doctors also think they can rule out a blood clot in my lungs (which apparently are large according to the... uh, x-rayist? x-ray taker? x-rayer?). my diagnosis is nondescript chest pain. the theory is that it's some kind of muscle strain or pull or something. i'm not sure i buy into that, but considering everything else came back negative, i've got nothing else to go on either. note: plan your emergency room visits early in the morning. i got there a little before 9am and there was no wait. when i left at 11:30am, the place was packed.

 

and can i ask what the deal is with the facebook add-ons? am i the only one who's put off by the fact that these widgets like the zombie biting and the super wall or fun wall or super happy fantastic wall--whatever the fuck it's called--and so forth are made by unnamed third parties who want access to the information on my profile? i'm just saying, if i'm going to let them know who i am, i want to know who they are.

photoshop without the photo

results of part of the calendar assignment for my graphic design class. if i was motivated more, i'd fix some things, but i can live with it as it is.

Ride that Percentage like a Wave. A Wave of Concern.

According to the Population Resource Center the average voter turnout for presidential elections between 1960 and 2000 dropped from around 60% to somewhere in the 45-50% range while turnout for mid-term congressional elections seems to pretty consistently fall below 50%.

Here's my question: Why are we pretending that our "democracy" is a legitmate government? Our national officials represent the will of less than half of the eligible voters. The people in office right now are there because roughly 1/4 to 2/5ths of the voting population put a check next to their name on the ballot. That is hardly a majority. And this in a country with a "majority rules" motto. Choosing not to vote means something regardless of whether it represents apathy, disenfranchisement, or a statement against our political system. A no-vote should not be ignored as it is currently.

It's perturbing to think that our president felt he had some kind of mandate because he won with 51% of the vote in '04. The 2004 presidential election had only a 60% voter turnout, meaning that roughly only 30% of eligible voters actually voted for him. 30% gave Bush the thumbs up. This means that 70% of United States voters did not endorse him and yet he is still our representative.

It's fucked, I say. Totally fucked.

* * *

A shout out to Sanity Clause. Something to try to keep in mind this election season (or year... or two-and-a-half years as it seems to have become):

The Bully's Pulpit - Divide and Conquer

First, a caveat: ALL generalizations are flawed.

Having said that, I can unequivocally state that there are two kinds of people: People who divide things into two groups and those who don't. Too many of us are too sure that there are only two sides to every debate, just as there are two sides to a coin. Heads/Tails; Right/Left; Liberal/Conservative; White/Black; Male/Female. Why, if my opinion is Right, must yours be Wrong? continue reading...

Now Presenting...

... JESUS CHRIST: VAMPIRE HUNTER

goodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgamegoodgame

i hope gibbs can pull his act together after the pathetic showing yesterday. the word of the day is "german." the patriots were robots on the field moving like clockwork.

 

and props to the patriots' offensive line. those guys are solid. their offense works because of them. if jason campbell had five nice and quiet seconds to sit in the pocket and see his options, the skins would score a lot more points.

 

comments stolen from the Boston Herald's blog by John Tomase:

… check out the game log for the Colts in their 31-7 victory over the Panthers today. Unlike the Patriots, who converted a pair of fourth downs and were still throwing 30-yard passes in the fourth quarter of their 52-7 victory over the Redskins, the Colts took a different approach.

On their final possession, which began with 9:40 remaining, backup quarterback Jim Sorgi threw a 9-yard pass to Reggie Wayne. Indy than ran on 10 straight plays before Sorgi threw an incompletion on fourth and 12 from the Carolina 25.

In fact, of the Colts' 16 plays in the fourth quarter, 13 were runs.

It's an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least. Then again, maybe it isn't. To quote an e-mail from a bottom-line Patriots fan: "So the Colts have class and we have none. What's your point?"

and Belichick on running up the score

 

NBC also had some exclusive quotes from Belichick on the subject on Friday.

"I've been coaching too long," Belichick said. "I remember being on that side. When I was coaching defense it was my job to keep the score down, not theirs. When you're playing defense it's your job to stop them. It's not (the offense's) job to not score. It's like I tell the offense, what the (bleep) do you think I send you guys out there for? To punt? We have a punt team for that. That's not your job. Your job is to go out there and score points. If you come off the field and you haven't scored points you haven't done your job."

 

 

A Trove of Bill Watterson's Early and Rare Work

http://ignatz.brinkster.net/cbillart.html

"There's a pizza place near where I live that sells only slices. In the back, you can see a guy tossing a triangle in the air.” -- Steven Wright

The pizza-making got off to a surprisingly good start on tuesday. After a 4-hour journey into the suburban strip mall jungle, I returned to civility with a large block of granite that I plopped into the oven and began heating not long after I made sure it wouldn't break the oven rack.

The dough this time around comprised King Arthur bread flour, tap water, Fleischmann's fresh yeast, and table salt. Using bread flour made the dough much easier to work with as it has a higher gluten content, which keeps it from tearing. I also lucked out when mixing it all up and ended up with a dough that wasn't too wet or too dry. It was as close to perfect as I've made yet. While the end resultant was a crust that was perhaps a bit too thick for the diameter of the pizza, it was both crisp and chewy. No charring though. Still, I was baking these pizzas in 10 minutes rather than 20, which was probably largely due to the thicker and more dense baking stone holding its heat as well as an oven door that actually closed.

The finished product:

Check out the hole structure:

Sadly, no charring:

Dawn Raids

There were a number of police raids yesterday in Aotearoa (New Zealand), ostensibly looking for weapons and trying to weed out a terrorist plot of some sort. One of the places that was raided was the community house where I was a caretaker. It apparently has been under surveillance for the past year, which means New Zealand authorities have some kind of dirt on me frying tofu in the kitchen and dumping compost out the back. 17 people in total were arrested around the country, most being held on weapons charges of some sort.

While I can't speak for the other places that were raided, the idea that they might find some kind of weapons cache at 128 is completely ludicrous. I mean, that all the cops came away with were bags of clothes and some documents seems to discredit them. Yes, anarchists hang out at the house--a group of people who would like to see government abolished--but from my experience there, they're all non-violent activists. I don't think the NZ government is really in any danger. The thought that these people are going to terrorize New Zealand in some way is farcical. If anything, the raids support the anarchists' arguments about hierarchies, government, and abuse of power.

In the end it seems like a Bush Administration ploy to cultivate a politics of fear. If New Zealanders buy into it, it will just result in further abuses of power.

Contrary to what Western governments would like us to believe, terrorism isn't the great political issue of our time, it's intolerance of different value systems and cultures.

You can watch a bunch of news clips about the bullshit that's going on here.

i expectorate better

i'm not entirely sure what the latest typography assignment was supposed to imbue in the young, impressionable minds of my classmates other than if you organize letters in a certain way, you can make a picture resembling a face. the kids in my typography class seemed to like the image i made of a collection of characters (century gothic bold--point sizes vary) depicting a face vomiting other characters. the kids like the puke. it reminds them of halloweens of yore, their kid sisters' birthday parties, apple pie, and fields of corn.

when my prof. saw my preliminary sketch, she asked, "what is that?"

lady, if you can't tell it's a face coiled in on itself while disgorging the subject of your class back at you, than i can't help you.

contempt is probably too strong a word to use at this point, but frustration certainly applies on occasion.

take a gog at my mog...

... and learn why i like the washington social club and see if you might like them too.

http://mog.com/egadman

some photos

flickred a few more photos.

welcome to maryland.

we've got crabs.

"Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion"

In tribute.

that no-talent sonovabitch

music to my eyes:

 

http://zappinternet.com/flash/zappplayer.swf?embed=true&idvideo=fodCyoDmiV

yellow-shirted.

the candy-coated lure of the shiny hi-def idiot box is truly remarkable. two hours of Undeclared on DVD (all hail Judd Apatow) and an hour of the Daily Show makes for a quality evening of entertainment. i'm tricking myself into thinking that if i'm selective enough about my viewing that my brain won't become slothful.

today i woke up at 7:30 to go to a class that the teacher bailed on midway through due to some kind of reception that she was required to attend and only just found out about. there was no lecture. just lab time, which meant half the class got down to the business of inking their projects--business which could have been accomplished in the comfort of my own home--and the other half texted on their sidekicks or surfed the net. MK ain't no VC (apparently the "K" actually is for "Learning").


and bless these men:



mr. poise, I presume:

this man is my age. he gets knocked over by angry, muscly men for a living. he also throws oblongs at people. well done, sir. an extra serving of lard to you and your humpbacked, oswegan poodle.

America's Team

it just seems fitting that the team that was caught spying on its
fellow league members is the Patriots. it's like some twisted,
third-rate metaphor for the Bush Administration. the Patriots are seen
around the NFL as cocksure and smug, not unlike how people see the US
these days, and now they're also corrupt, also not unlike the US government
(or any government, really). maybe Belichick's been taking notes from Robert
Mueller.

anyway, the Pats can go eat a bag.

also, apologies, for being a poor correspondent of late. i've had less
free time. should get better at it again soon.

new face

so i figured i'd alter the look of the blog (duh). initially i just did it to stave off boredom, but i realized that there were some template options that would actually make for a decent upgrade. the photos now are presented without the ugly border and the white background should also make photo display a little more aesthetically pleasing. i'm not dead set on the color scheme, but it probably won't change for a while. i got busy with classes and theater tech.

who is like a music blog?

i am like a music blog.

mogging is the new blogging.

check out my mog-y mcmog here.

we've got crabs!

a few more photos have been posted on flickr in the last few days. i'm running out of the good ones, i think. click the above image to get to the rest.

frenzy!

interesting statistics in this nytimes.com article about US incomes in 2005 . needless to say, the rich got richer. some choice quotes:

Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

and

People with incomes of more than a million dollars also received 62 percent of the savings from the reduced tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividends that President Bush signed into law in 2003, according to a separate analysis by Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that points out policies that it says favor the rich.

The group's calculations showed that 28 percent of the investment tax cut savings went to just 11,433 of the 134 million taxpayers, those who made $10 million or more, saving them almost $1.9 million each. Over all, this small number of wealthy Americans saved $21.7 billion in taxes on their investment income as a result of the tax-cut law.

The nearly 90 percent of Americans who make less than $100,000 a year saved on average $318 each on their investments. They collected 5.3 percent of the total savings from reduced tax rates on investment income.

i mean, of course, people who earned less saved less. that's no surprise. but the fact that what (roughly) 133.895 million people saved on average on an individual basis equaled 0.00017% of what, on average, the richest 11,433 people saved individually seems ludicrious. but then, that's capitalism.

thanks to the achenblog for the tip.

from slice @ seriouseats

who thought this was a good idea?

last little life

saw the rentals tonight. fan-fucking-tastic show. they crammed in nearly all my favorites, including Getting By off of 7 More Minutes and a great weezer b-side (i just threw out the love of my dreams). matt sharp pin-balled around stage doing what looked like some kind of modern dance exercises. sara radle, rachel haden, and lauren chipman's vocals were tight. they've cemented their place as my new (old) favorite band. hear some stuff.

and: signed up for graphic design I and typography I at the school of art + design at montgomery college. classes start on the 5th. should be swell.

also: looks like i have a gig doing a hang and focus for a show at the roundhouse theatre.

too: superbad is freakin' hysterical. incredibly misogynistic, vulgar, and just generally offensive. but hysterical.

it's a mirage!

new photos up on flickr.

a-beetz

so i was able to do some flybys on eight (8) pizzerias in my 9-1/2 days. sadly, i wasn't able to nab photos of the last three as my camera battery went kaput. but in no particular order, here they are:


Di Fara (Midwood, Brooklyn):



still seems to be suffering from uneven oven treatment. it got all medieval on one half and left the other half blond. while the toppings were solid--the Dominator, as he's known, still serves up the best pepperoni i can recall eating--the crust was actually a bit bland. maybe could've used a bit more salt? or maybe that's the down side of the gas oven--no smokey goodness. also: no basil? wtf? it is the height of basil season is it not? we did get a healthy hand-cut sprinkling of fresh oregano on our pie, but i hardly need point out that oregano is not greater-than-or-equal-to basil. still worth the two hour wait i think. i mean, it's no longer just the pizza you go for at Di Fara, but the experience and watching the completely unorganized clump of disgruntled and hungry customers bumming around the counter waiting to order whilst Dom is painstakingly making each pizza by his lonesome. 1 out of 1 Kyles approve.


Nick's (Forrest Hills, Queens):

significantly better than my one previous visit from last year when the crust was dry and cracker-like. this time around i was pleasantly surprised by a nicely charred crust with some moisture intact in the puffy edge. and look at it! a work of beauty. it tastes as good as it looks. thanks to Em for suggesting and accompanying me there. who knew Queens boardered Europe? not i.

Franny's (Flatbush, Brooklyn):

sorry. no upskirt. don't know what happened there. sparsely topped, but you wouldn't know it from the x-treme flavor x-plosion (tm) when biting into it. great smokiness from the oven, a beautifully crisp, yet pliant uber-thin crust, and good company made for an excellent meal.


Isabella's Oven (Grand St., LES, Manhattan):

my first meal back in the states after a year in New Zealand and i'm lucky enough to convince Sarah to have it at Isabella's. a great addition to NYC pizza, if a little pricey. $26 for a DOC Margherita, if I recall correctly. the inside seems kind of like a hole-in-the-wall, cramped, run of-the-mill pizzeria, until you notice that there's a guy working a wood-fired brick oven in an open kitchen--open as in, i could've stuck my hand in the oven as i walked past it on my way to their garden seating out the back. the down side to this is that the interior feels like a furnace, which is probably going to be great for winter, but in the summer heat, it just makes you wilt. Sarah and i split the substantial garden salad and the pizza arrived just before we were able to finish it. a crust with good hole structure, a healthy dose of sauce and the buffalo mozz had a light but noticeable tang.

Grimaldi's (Fulton St., under the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn):

consistently one of my favorite spots. Amie, Jason, and i had a lovely stroll across the Brooklyn bridge prior to grabbing a table before the dinner-time rush was in effect. i overheard the guy working the oven say that he bakes about 500 pizzas a day. the edge crust on Grimaldi's pies is a little on the flat side to be perfect, but i would say it's still consistently the best pizza in the city, and considering the quantity of pizza being made, that's pretty impressive and i can understand how some of those pies might come out under or over-done. the place is a factory, but one with delicious results.

also visited but not shown:

Angelo's (Broadway b/t 53rd & 54th): great pizza in midtown? who knew? certainly as good as any of the Patsy's around the city, and almost as good as the pie I had a Nick's (the owners of both restaurants are somehow related... in-laws maybe). good hole structure with a springy crust and a nice charring pattern underneath--you'll just have to take my word for it.

Joe's (near-ish Bleeker & 6th Ave): a pretty good corner slice, doesn't hold a candle to the city's best though. bland, dry crust kills the thrill for me a little bit.

Graziella's (Vanderbilt Ave, Fort Greene/Clinton Hill, Brooklyn): where's the sauce? otherwise not bad. rooftop dinning space is always closed when i drop by, which is a bummer.

it smells a little like heavily fried food... or is that home?

so i'm back in maryland where shopping malls frolick uninhibited through the grassy knolls and meandering highways of suburbia. it is also where i'll be spending the next few months. turns out montogomery college did get my application, so perhaps i will be taking classes after all. i spent the morning sanding down joint compound that my dad filled pin-holes with in my sister's old room. all those backstreet boys posters came down.

 

new york was a blast. it was great to see people. sorry i wasn't able to meet up with everyone. hopefully i'll be back in the city in the next few weeks. didn't make it to all the pizzerias i wanted to either. never got to the bronx or staten island (which really requires a car, i think). some more photos are TK.

the big banana

stepping out of the earsplitting screeches and echoing foot patter of the union square subway station and into the garbage odor that wafts through manhattan's streets reminds me of why i left new york to begin with. the sense that every mundane action is a grand event reminds me of why i stayed here for two years. sleeping on the subway, waiting in line, buying corn chips at a bodega--they somehow mean something more because they're being done in new york. it's not the glamour. new york is hardly glamorous. it's grungy and loud and in the summer it's damp from humidity. but new york is the nexus. the city itself is an urban legend.

two hundred

bye bye
,
hello
!

i didn't lie straight to your face.

for more photos click on this one:

rainbow bright

made it up to auckland in one piece. though it seems i should've given my backpacks some swimming lessons before i got on the bus. they apparently sat in a puddle for most the ride and came out pretty well soaked through. the ride up was actually alright for an 11 hour bus ride. parts of new zealand really remind me of utah and montana--expansive, vibrant sky; lush pastures along an oscillating landscape; cows...

...photos TK in the next couple of days.