The Walkmen @ Music Hall of Williamsburg - 9/14

Went to see The Walkmen play last Friday at the new Music Hall of Williamsburg – similar setup to the Bowery Ballroom, nice and small, I liked it alright. I heard someone raving about the bathrooms (?), but I didn’t see and AVH didn’t really mention them being all that special, though she may have been a tad frazzled as she’d taken the wrong exit and ended up back outside with the door guy hesitant to let her back in (she is trouble…that guy knew what’s what).

The Subjects opened – not bad, plenty of plaid. Liked it.


The Walkmen sounded sweet, Hamilton Leithauser killed and also bled profusely. There was an appearance of horns, which I did enjoy. Lots and lots of new stuff. New songs made up about half of the set, I’d say. I recognized a couple that they played last December – the waltz and ‘what happened to you’. Definitely excited for the new album whenever that gets out.


Here are some videos I got of The Waltz and “Louisiana” – they’re not so good, but that’s what I get when I don’t watch what I’m recording. Sorry.

S E A T T L E - Entry No. 005

TOPIC: Bumbershoot 2007: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival
EXPERIENCE DATE: 9.1.07 - 9.02.07
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Great!
DO IT AGAIN? Sure!
BRIEF/EXTENDED SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:
Well, we probably missed the best day of the festival, but we did catch some good stuff!

Here's a bit:

St. Vincent performed Saturday afternoon.

We consumed a wonderful block of fries. An electric drill helped prepare this masterpiece.

Menomena played Saturday evening with a backup choir.

On Sunday evening Andrew Bird was a striped-sock-wearing, multi-instrument wielding, recording/looping/performing/whistling MACHINE. He even played Dr. Stringz!


Here's his performance of "Opposite Day" (he looks a bit squished...and apologies for the poor cinematography...seriously, you really expect too much.):

And here's a clip of the intro to "Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left" that I caught while trying to figure out how to record stuff on my camera.

Click here for more pictures from our Seattle trip including additional shots from Bumbershoot.

S E A T T L E - Entry No. 004

TOPIC: Crosswalks in Seattle
EXPERIENCE DATE: 8.30.2007-9.3.2007
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Frustrating.
DO IT AGAIN? Would I have a choice?
BRIEF/EXTENDED SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:
Someone said that jaywalking was “frowned upon” in Seattle. Someone else told tales of $60 fines. But really…the hell! I’ve never encountered such crowded sidewalk corners. The congestion of pedestrians that built up while waiting for these silly crosswalk signals was ungodly. Well fine, so this only occurred when hundreds of people all left the music festival at once, but on any other ordinary occasion, I’d have felt foolish standing at an intersection, waiting for the walking man when no car was in sight. Who has the discipline to do such a thing? Apparently Seattleites do. East coast city dwellers do not—certainly not without inching slowly into the street, glaring at the traffic lights.

S E A T T L E - Entry No. 003

TOPIC: Pervasiveness of soap in Seattle public restrooms
EXPERIENCE DATE: 8.30.2007-9.3.2007
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Exceptional.
DO IT AGAIN? Certainly.
BRIEF/EXTENDED SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:
I applaud you, Seattle, for your conscientious provision of hand soap! And your hand soap is not that industrial strength, runny, neon pink, rancid smelling excuse for detergent that requires pumping repeatedly in order to extract trickles, if not mere bubbles, either. No, Seattle, you offer ample supplies of fragrant (cherry?!), thick, dare I presume—moisturizing hand cleanser. At the airport, the supermarket, the film center, and every dining establishment, I was never disappointed for you bestowed soap upon my yet unclean hands. Thank you, Seattle. Thank you.

S E A T T L E - Entry No. 002

TOPIC: Food in Seattle
EXPERIENCE DATE: 8.31.2007-9.2.2007
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Mixed.
DO IT AGAIN? Ehh...
BRIEF/EXTENDED SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:
Our stay in Seattle consisted of—I’ll say—six proper meals:

Meal #1 - Lowell’s: On our first morning in Seattle, we headed straight for Pike Place Market. We walked amongst the glorious flowers and all of the luscious produce for as long as we could, but broke down for breakfast before we made it through. No matter. We saw a large line forming outside what I had mistaken for a hardware store (and I wondered what a hardware store was doing in the middle of the market) and decided to follow suit. A long line or a crowd usually indicates good food, right? In this case—indeed it did. It did seem a bit touristy to me, but the middle-aged man and woman at the other end of our table seemed to be locals on their first date. In any case, Lowell’s features three floors of seating with views on each level of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, generous portions, the most delicious corn beef hash I’ve ever tasted, and a decent chai latte.

Meal #2 – Bleu Bistro: My cousin recommended the grilled cheese sandwich at this place that was harder for us to find than it should have been. The grilled cheese was pretty special—with wasabi mayo and a tad of gorgonzola and the tables, each curtained off to create an intimate dining experience (though I’ve read that there are cameras above each table) are cute, but the ½ price happy hour drink specials are even better.

Meal #3 & #6 – Racha: After trying for a Sushi place and another Thai place that were both closed, we ended up at this big, elaborately decorated Thai restaurant. I suppose that I’m spoiled by all of the delicious Thai food available in New York City, so I found Racha’s Pad Kee Mao to be below par. Their Thai ice tea was over-milked the first day, fortunately my second glass the next day saw improvement. That’s right, we returned. Why? Well, the other Thai place was closed again, of course. Actually, the entire experience the second go was an improvement. Perhaps we were hungrier or had lowered expectations?

Meal #4 – Zeeks Pizza: Popular among Bumbershoot attendees for its close proximity to the Seattle Center, where the music festival was in full swing, Zeeks Pizza was bopping when we arrived on Saturday night for some food and a brief respite before returning to more music. Three of us squeezed into a two-person booth and proceeded to wait way too long for a salad and mediocre pizza. I think this is the meal when I realized that I missed New York (and its food).

Meal #5 – Dick’s: Pros: Tasty burgers; Super cheap (deluxe burger w/ cheese and pickles, lettuce and tomato: $2.20 – size: bigger than shake shack); Solid strawberry shake – as in the shake is quality, not physically solid. Cons: Seating is scarce (it’s meant to be a drive-thru); Ketchup is $.05 a mini container; Prevalence of pigeons.

I was expecting lots of homey, colorful cafes and bistros with menus featuring locally grown foods, lots of seafood, and a good choice of (open) Asian restaurants. We weren’t successful at finding these things, though I still like to think they exist somewhere in Seattle.

S E A T T L E - Entry No. 001

TOPIC: Long-Lasting Cherry Flavoured Gumball
EXPERIENCE DATE: 8.31.2007
OVERALL IMPRESSION: Thumbs up up up!
DO IT AGAIN? Can’t wait – I’ll be forever stalking gumball dispensers until we meet again.

BRIEF/EXTENDED SUMMARY OF EXPERIENCE:
Day 1 in Seattle found us wandering around the Capitol Hill neighborhood along Broadway. Soon after lunch the clouds finally let out a cold drizzle, so we ducked into a chain clothing retailer that we discovered was attached to a mini-mall establishment. There was a ground-floor grocery, some food vendors, and not too much else. But on our way out, with the lingering taste of lunch growing stale and unpleasing in my mouth, I stopped at a small candy-dispenser setup for a treat. The long-lasting cherry flavored gumballs looked like quite a delight, and they did not disappoint.

The initial gumball-in-mouth-gotta-crush-this-sucker sensation is always a tad overwhelming for me. The hardness and smoothness of a gumball’s exterior always makes me think that I am definitely biting into something that should not even be in my mouth. Once the ball was destroyed and all that remained was its malleable innards with only shards of the sugary façade left to chew to smithereens, the taste was amazing! Cherry cherry cherry—that is of course, the artificial, “red” cherry I’m speaking of. I could not keep from remarking to my companion about how delicious and enjoyable this cherry gumball was indeed.

Sadly, the chew ended prematurely (the flavor proved all too long-lasting for me) when we stopped at a café for warm beverages, and I sacrificed Cherry for a super-spicy cup of chai latte. I was regretful.

Dance dance, stewie, dance!

Stewie does a fancy dance with Gene Kelly - Enjoy!



HERE is the original clip featuring Jerry of Tom & Jerry in the original role, which heinrich! was sharp enough to identify.

who is this?

The morning of August 28th begins as any other morning for the most part…not that I would really know considering I am asleep until a peculiar phone call awakens me at precisely 10:35 am. The number doesn’t come up with any sort of identification tag…just the phone number, and because I habitually refuse to answer calls from numbers that I don’t recognize, I decline to answer this call as well. The area code is what confuses me the most as it is the area code of my home town and currently I’m halfway across the country, so who is it that called? It irks me that the mystery caller doesn’t leave a voicemail, but no sooner do I make this comment in my head, than a new text message arrives. I flip open the phone to see if this message is perhaps from the mystery caller, but to my astonishment and horror, the message is from a number I recognize all too well…the phone number is my own! Yes, sometimes I do send text messages to myself as reminders of some kind, but this time I know that I am not the sender and yet I am. The message itself proves even more disturbing. It is simple, curt, and has an eerie foreboding quality to it. It is: 65. Just the number: 65. Nothing more. If these two incidents had been isolated I most assuredly would have let them go…but the uncanny timing implies a connection and spurs me on to investigation. Uncertain, and almost trembling with anticipation I dial the mystery phone number. It rings…once…twice…three times before someone on the other end answers the call. No one says hello so I wait. All I can hear is heavy breathing, with more distinct and lengthy exhales. After a few rounds of noisy breath I say, “hello?” and a faraway childish voice replies, “hello.” Again I say, “hello?” and the voice echoes back, “hello.” This continues at least 7 more times before I hang up the phone bewildered. I try again with the same result. Needing reinforcements I call upon the skills of a wiley detective and compatriot by the name of Howard Chase Victorino. Using his extraordinary tactics, Howard Chase Victorino tracks down the phone number to a Max E. Joseph of Trenton, New Jersey. I’m positive I don’t know any Max E. Joseph’s in Trenton. Fortified by this new information I decide to dial again. The phone rings once…twice…three times before someone on the other end answers the call. Again I can hear the heavy breathing. I say “hello?” and the voice on the other end which this time sounds like a choir of distant Asian women asks, “Who is this?, Who is this? Who is this?" to which I respond, “Who is THIS?” We continue to echo one another, “Who is this?” “Who is this?” “Who is this?” again and again until finally I shout out “65!” Silence. I hang up the phone. The mystery remains unsolved.