Upper Haight, San Francisco. 2008.
]]>Upper Haight, San Francisco. 2008.
]]>It's been a hugely busy couple of weeks and the next few will be as well. But there are two events I cant let pass without some major fanfare.
First and foremost, Tammi ran the New York City Marathon. More on that in a bit.
Second, Barack Obama was elected to the Office of the President of the United States.
Both leave me elated. What an incredible way to usher in the month Tammi and I begin our life together.
This year has been a difficult one on so many levels. Personally, there has been the stress of planning a wedding and juggling obligations to finance, career and family. All the while, that's been mirrored on the national and international level with economic and political struggles that seemed like they would never end. Every obstacle at home, seemed matched by another in the news.
And many of them are still there. I don't say 'Yes, We Did,' like a lot of others, because it's not over. This is just the beginning. There are bound to be more challenges in the future. And with the hope and awe of this moment, I feel like we can do anything.
Last Friday Morning, Tammi and I braved the bureaucracy of the City of New York, pale flourescent lights and surly city workers to obtain our Marriage License. We're nearly there, which feels great and terrifying at the same time. Terrifying only because there's quite a bit left to do and mere weeks to get it completed.
]]>I first heard about Porchetta, a month ago when Eric sent me a link via IM with the sweetest piece of food porn I had seen in ages. A gorgeous shot of Porchetta's pork sandwich that far surpasses the crappy cameraphone shots in this post. We both clearly had to have it.
So, when they opened, I snuck out of midtown and took a long lunch to meet up with Eric and check it out.
The space is infinitesimal and any publicity at all will doom it to lines much longer than I can ever tolerate. Luckily, we beat the food blogs to it - if only by minutes.
We sat in the window on two of the handful of stools at the counter, loving the crunch of a few pieces of cracklins that topped the sandwich and the fragrant herbiness that underscored every bite into my sandwich. It was small and gone far too soon, but it was amazing.
I also picked here and there at the roasted potatoes, which were allegedly mixed with burnt ends that I never found.
While we ate, a woman with a camera and a tall, grey-haired man walked up to the shop. The camera was an SLR and immediately caught my attention more than the people until Eric said, "That's Ed Levine."
As we ate, his group and the chef, Sara Jenkins chatted in front of the store. I'll skip the foodblog, 'celebrity' gawking and fast forward to late that night or the next, when I found myself on Serious Eats, not as a contributor but as a part of the scenery.
In another display of serendipity this weekend, I planned to meet up with Tammi and our friend Mandy Saturday evening having no idea that there was going to be an art show starting right when I got there.
It turned out that a group named fokus was hosting a gallery show of John Wright, whose work I don't really know and AV One, who I've seen all over town for ages. I got to meet AV One and talk briefly, which was great after all these years of shooting his stuff and seeing his art on Flickr.
I somehow always manage to miss these art openings, so I was really happy to finally have one fall in my lap. It was a good time, I hope to finally start going to more.
We had surprisingly good weather last weekend here in New York. Hopefully not for the last time, we had temperatures in the low to mid--70's with the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky.
I took the opportunity to go for a bike ride around Brooklyn and found myself running into the Panamanian Day Parade in Crown Heights. I stood there for an hour watching the marching bands and flag wavers and men and women in traditional outfits.
Check out the Photos on Flickr.
The crowd in front of Brooklyn Industries dug through mountains of discounted clothing looking for a good deal.
]]>]]>
As always, the stage on the corner of Atlantic and Clinton hosted Middle Eastern performances, including Belly Dancers throughout the day.
]]>I caught this guy walking around wearing pig ears and a tail attached to his hat.
As I was taking his picture, I heard him telling someone, "Yep, they're real - and tasty!"
He was promoting something called Gastrofreaks.com, a site that seems to be very much in progress. At the Antic, they were selling "Obama Burgers," one of about a million Obama-hyping signs and products shilled on Sunday.
The longest line I saw all day was in front of the stand for Building on Bond
]]>Allow me a little schadenfreude. Jeanine Pirro, whose foibles and failed campaigns entertained me on Gothamist a couple years ago, is now yet another TV judge.
]]>I was very disappointed to be too full by the time I made it to this shwarma stand, near Clinton. I've only ever had it at the antic and never figured out if this stand is affiliated with any particular restaurant. The meat is juicy and spicy and making me hungry just looking at the photo.
I'll have to investigate further next time I'm in the area.
Here's a bit of geekiness for the fanboys out there.
Last year in Tokyo, Tammi and I passed through the Anime Museum, which was more like an anime store in Akihabara and I found these awesome Transformers toys.
The Transformers were pretty much the coolest thing around when I was a kid, so I snatched them both up.
The coolest aspect to me are the little differences. Optimus Prime is called Convoy, a much more descriptive name, when you think about it. He's also listed at "Cybertron Commander," while Megatron is the "Destron Leader." There's no mention of the Autobots and Decepticons that every boy knew in 1984.
The Revoltech series also includes figures from other famous animated series, including Evangelion and other robot-focused titles. It's cool stuff.
