the new york landmark that is saturday night live…has its critics, detractor, imitators, competition and people who continue to wait for its final burial. but its still around and no other late night show has impacted society and pop culture than snl. especially during the political season. below are an array from the current skirmishes with obama, hilary, mcain…and now, palin.
tickets are distributed via lottery each august. one in theory submits an email and receives tickets if chosen. in theory because i have yet to win. the process is very don’t call us, we’ll call you….but how do i know you received my request??? tickets also come by lining up the day off which in ny translates to the night before. i might have to wind up doing this to get in.
these were the debate sketches that brought to national light that the media coddles obama and harshly treats clinton:
here’s the second one.
here’s an nba promotion spoof depicting the obama/clinton rivalry. i wonder how much this confirmed suspicions of hilary’s entitlement.
i have always loved john mccain on snl. he is self deprecating, sarcastic and so real. he’s got great comedic instincts.
here tina fey passionately pleads hilary’s case. she did wind up winning the primaries that followed!
but here is tracey morgan’s response…..and we know the results for his choice.
and here’s what many think will actually take place next year:
finally, a bonus video with mike huckabee…..i always thought he was a comedian! i’ve been laughing at him since day 1. but here, he’s harmless!
we return to the city for food reviews during this week of reflecting on new york. we’ll return to la and sf in the next few weeks….
when people come into the city, we are always surprised by where they want to visit or go eat. they are equally surprised that we do not frequent those places or want to go eat there. no. i do not want to eat at ruby tuesdays , bennigans or tgifridays in times square. then they ask where we go……so here are the places we like…not the best or the cheapest or whatever category….just where we go and go on a regular basis:
without a doubt, one of our favorite places for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner is community food and juice. when theresa and i lived in the lower east side, we were part of the masses to discover clinton street bakery now with the epic 3 to 4 hour waits on the weekend. when we moved to the columbia area, we lamented the hour long trek back and forth for magic food…but we made the trip anyway for special occasions and to take friends.
however, the owners opened an outpost(that’s what successful places down south are calling branches up north)in my fraking neighborhood. this joint is within walking distance. we love love love that. food here tastes the way it’s supposed to taste. people sometimes are disappointed that we come for french toast, bacon and orange juice. but then they taste the food and realize that they’ve been eating counterfeits all their lives.
dj jazzy victor and love it too for our midmorning meetings with the magic sun on our skin and luxury in our mouths.
this morning, we get the unlisted, insiders’ pancake special. their cracked laced blueberry pancakes with cocaine butter syrup, coffee, juice for a nyc low price. but i can’t just eat cake for breakfast and also order some grilled ham.
my favorite thing to get is the fish sandwich. recently, they had a summer replacement of soft shell crab sandwich. magic and more magic. this is our duartes in the city.
from the nytimes: A study conducted by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s own advocacy organization for transit riders found that nearly half of the subway stations examined “need more attention,” and that the worst stations had decrepit conditions, including water damage, exposed wires, rodents, foul odors, clogged track drains and general filth.
………….you needed a study to tell you that????? read on!
While calling for additional state and city aid for mass transit — a difficult proposition given the current fiscal downturn — the study also made several proposals: imposing “station impact fees” on new developments built within a quarter-mile of a subway station; enlisting business improvement districts, which are financed by special property assessments, to help maintain stations; and creating an “Adopt-a-Station” program.
The findings, part of a 61-page report released on Wednesday, came as no surprise to many subway riders, as similar complaints have been made by the Straphangers Campaign and other advocacy groups. But they carry particular weight coming from the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the authority, created under state law in 1981 as the official voice for riders.
The stations are not merely subway entrances, but “welcome mats” to neighborhoods, said the panel, which called its report “Unwelcome Mats: New York’s Subway Stations in Disrepair.”
The committee noted with dismay that New York City Transit, the arm of the authority that runs the subway and buses, announced on July 9 that it would postpone various capital projects, including planned renovations at 23 subway stations, because of budget pressures.
In response to the report, New York City Transit issued a statement saying that the effort to keep stations in decent shape was “challenging, ongoing and one of our top priorities.”
The agency said that the new managers appointed to oversee the No. 7 and L lines — as part of an experiment to manage all aspects of subway operation by line — were working to analyze how best to improve stations. The agency also said that it had proposed a $71 million fund to address station infrastructure problems immediately, rather than waiting until a station is due for a full rehabilitation, which can take years to schedule.
For the study, the members and staff of the New York City Transit Riders Council, an arm of the advisory committee, inspected 50 of 422 stations and station complexes late last year and early this year. The sample represented stations from the most heavily trafficked to the least used.
The report said that 23 of the 50 stations had ratings below 70, on a scale of zero to 100, and therefore were “in need of attention.”
The report identified the five worst stations surveyed as Beach 90th Street on the A and Rockaway Shuttle lines in Queens; the 149th Street-Grand Concourse station on the No. 4 line in the Bronx; the 138th Street-Grand Concourse station on the Nos. 4 and 5 lines in the Bronx; the Jay Street-Borough Hall station on the A, C and F lines in Brooklyn; and the 103rd Street station on the No. 6 line in Manhattan.
Three of the stations had evidently never been renovated. The 149th Street station was renovated in 1992, and the 103rd Street station in 1984.
Four of the five worst stations, the report noted, were in sections of the Bronx and Brooklyn that are designated as economic development areas. The report said that the city’s “lack of participation” in maintenance had been “glaringly illuminated,” and it urged the city to do more.
The study found some signs of hope: A pilot cleaning program, started in 2007, appears to have significantly improved conditions at several stations.
from the gothamist.com:
Rats Boldly Swarming Subway Platforms
“People have seen them sitting on benches,” says Andrew Albert, an MTA board member and chair of the NYC Transit Riders Council. “From what riders have told us, they appear to be getting bolder.” That’s the subway rat population he’s talking about, which many commuters say is surging, at least according to an amNY article that’s teeming with great quotes. “Next thing you know the doors are going to open and one is going to come on the train with us,” one exterminator predicts.
Rats have been growing increasingly comfortable hanging out on subway platforms, with popular hot-spots including Chambers Street on the A, Jay Street-Borough Hall, West 4th Street, and Spring Street on the C – though rats who want to party on that exclusive platform have to agree to buy bottle. One theory is that increased interaction with people may, in a way, be domesticating the rats, or at least making them less fearful of humans. “They chase me to work,” says straphanger Yvonne Ouchikh. The MTA blames the rat boom on an increase in subway ridership that’s led to more litter.
what’s more new york than the f-word? its like the official word of the city! but there’s another f-word that is turning up in popular culture and in real life!
frak is growing into the other f-word. its work safe and it conveys the same meaning. it may even be church safe.
where is it from? its from that show that many have heard about but have not watched, my favorite….battlestar galactica.
here’s how to use it:
here is the history of the word from cnn:
Lee Goldberg thinks Glen A. Larson is a genius, and not because the prolific television writer and producer gave us “Knight Rider” and “B.J. and the Bear.”
It was Larson who first used the faux curse word “frak” in the original “Battlestar Galactica.” The word was mostly overlooked back in the ’70s series but is working its way into popular vocabulary as SciFi’s modern update winds down production.
“All joking aside, say what you will about what you might call the lowbrow nature of many of his shows, he did something truly amazing and subversive, up there with what Steven Bochco gets credit for, with ‘frak,’ ” Goldberg said.
There’s no question what the word stands for and it’s used gleefully, as many as 20 times in some episodes.
“And he was saying it 30 years ago in the original goofy, god-awful ‘Battlestar Galactica,’ ” said Goldberg, a television writer and novelist whose credits include “Monk” and “Diagnosis Murder.”
The word is showing up everywhere — on T-shirts, in sit-coms, best-selling novels and regular conversation.
“I have to start by saying that I’m drinking coffee out of a mug that says ‘frak off’ on the side of it, so much has it seeped into my life,” “Galactica” star Jamie Bamber said.
The word is insinuating its way into popular vocabulary for a simple reason.
You can’t get in trouble. It’s a made-up word.
“It may have been the great George Carlin who talked about these things so cleverly,” Larson said. “He’d say, ‘Mother would say shoot, but she meant … when she reached in and burned her fingers on the crocker.’ And the child says, ‘I know what you meant, Mom.’ ”
The word has slipped the bonds that tethered other pretenders like Mork’s “shazbot” in “Mork & Mindy” or Col. Sherman T. Potter’s “horse hockey” in “M*A*S*H.” Its usage has moved from the small but fervent group of “Galactica” fans into everyday language. It’s shown up in very mainstream shows like “The Office,” “Gossip Girl” and “Scrubs.” One YouTube posting has 2 minutes of sound bites that cover the gamut.
“I’m in my own little cocoon of science fictiondom, but it is certainly used around here and amongst the people I know,” said Irene Gallo, art director at the sci-fi imprint Tor Books, where employees held a “frak party” to watch the season premiere. “It’s sort of a way to be able to use a four-letter word without really getting into any kind of HR trouble or with people you’re really not quite comfortable being yourself with.”
The word has even appeared in the funny pages where Dilbert muttered a disconsolate “frack” — the original spelling before producers of the current show changed it to a four-letter word — after a particularly dumb order from his evil twit of a boss.
“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams calls the word “pure genius.”
“At first I thought ‘frak’ was too contrived and it bothered me to hear it,” Adams said. “Over time it merged in my mind with its coarser cousin and totally worked. The creators ingeniously found a way to make viewers curse in their own heads — you tend to translate the word — and yet the show is not profane.”
Best-selling novelist Robert Crais slips the word into the prologue of his latest Elvis Cole mystery, “Chasing Darkness.” He did it because “Galactica” is his favorite show, like calling out in the wilderness to his fellow fans. But he sees the word popping up everywhere, even among those who have never watched the show.
“It’s viral, it spreads like a virus,” Crais said. “That first wave of people who use it are all fans. They use it because they’re tickled by it and like me they’re paying an homage to the show. When they’re using it, they’re probably doing it with a sly wink. But as it gets heard and people use it, it spreads.”
The re-imagined “Battlestar Galactica” tells the story of the human survivors of a war with a robotic race known as the Cylons. Fewer than 40,000 humans remain in a ragtag fleet being pursued across space by the Cylons, who wiped out the 12 colonies in a surprise nuclear holocaust.
Their destination is the mythical planet Earth, a legend passed down in religious texts. Shooting wrapped in July and the final 10 episodes will appear beginning in January.
Larson, one of television’s most prolific and successful writers, doesn’t much care for the new series. He used “frack” and its cousin “feldergarb” as alternates for curse words because the original “Battlestar” was family friendly and appeared on Sunday nights. The words fit in with his philosophy that while the show was about humans, it shouldn’t have an Earthly feel.
In what he said was his first interview about the series, Larson says there were no red fire extinguishers on his Battlestar Galactica and characters wore original costumes, not suits and ties.
“Our point was to whenever possible make it a departure like you’re visiting somewhere else,” Larson said. “And we did coin certain phrases for use in expletive situations, but we tried to carry that over into a lot of other stuff, even push brooms and the coin of the realm.”
When new series producer Ron Moore first introduced “frak” in early scripts, Bamber said the actors were dubious. But as writers expanded its use, they caught on to the possibilities.
“I mean why are we not offended by ‘frak’ because it means exactly the same thing as the other thing?” said Bamber, who plays fighter pilot-turned-president Lee “Apollo” Adama. “So it raises questions about language and why certain words are offensive. Is it their meaning? … Clearly it’s not their meaning. Clearly it’s literally their sound.”
Co-executive producer and writer Michael Angeli, an Emmy nominee for the episode “Six of One,” said using the word in scripts is satisfying for anyone who’s been censored over the years.
“It’s a great way to do something naughty and get away with it,” Angeli said. “One of the things that television shows do constantly is they battle with Standards and Practices over what can be seen and what can’t be seen, what can be said and what can’t be said.
“A lot of our characters are soldiers. That whole sort of view and that subculture, that’s how they speak. They’re rough and tumble, and they’re bawdy and they swear.”
He said producers have gotten no complaints from SciFi owner NBC Universal or the Federal Communications Commission.
Goldberg believes Larson should get more credit for “frak” and has posted an appreciation on his Web site. He even sought out Larson to let him know how he feels: “I told him, ‘Frak is fraking brilliant, Glen.’ “
in the book series, not so big house, the key to getting the most out of a small space are niches. even in big homes, what makes a home “homey” are the small little places that feel cozy and safe. where memories are made. so good architects, builders and home makers build little spots into a house or apt to make the space memorable and alive. i’ve been blessed to live in a few places with little nooks and spots that radiate with life.
we bought one of the not so big house books because we were moving from a 2400 sq/ft md house into a 1100 sq/ft nyc apartment. but it turns out the not so big homes in the not so big house books were not so not-so-big. they were huge places! we have different definitions of not so big house!
in these features, i’ll detail mundane little spots around our apartment…..the spots where we live…and life is made.
the kitchen used to be the heart of the home….where nourishment, refreshment flowed out to the family. the aromas of good food, good coffee would waft into the rest of the home giving life. just like a heart pumping blood to the rest of the body.
this has dwindled because people don’t cook anymore and the kitchen has lost its primacy. people eat out 3,4,5 times a week…sometimes all their meals are from restaurants! but in the tsang home household, we’re trying to fight that. theresa is taking more cooking lessons from the french culinary institute….the stove and oven will be her domain. i’m really happy for her. so much of her life is sacrificed living my life and the life of the church. whenever she can do something for herself, i’m thrilled.
my domain is this little niche. tucked around the corner of the fridge is this place where so much happens. not big things and not even exciting things…..but life things.
coffee is stored, ground and brewed here….in a few ways….i have two french presses, both wedding gifts of course. in fact, the majority of our kitchen was pimped out thanks to our friends’ wedding gifting generosity. if there is a gadget, appliance, plate, bowl, utensil, whatever you see in our kitchen, it was likely a gift.
i did buy the electronic coffeemaker to cut down on the amount of french pressed coffee i drink….theresa read a health threat article a few years ago and used it to threaten me into drinking less of the good stuff. we received a few coffeemakers for our wedding as well…my mother in law scavenged one and we returned the others until we could figure out which one really worked for us and serving groups.
in the early morn, before i go to work or to prayer, i make coffee or tea here. prayer and caffeine start my days.
coffee is not the only scent that comes out of this corner. two staples of life…rice from the rice cooker and bread, bagels are toasted here. for theresa, rice is life; a big part of our diet. so a few years ago, giving up rice during lent for her was near torture. i love rice too but i also dig toasted breads.
in this space, i also make shakes here: fruit smoothies for breakfast and dessert. protein shakes after lifting or for a meal substitute.
see? nothing exciting. but so much of our life starts here. maybe this corner and what happens here is a telling parable for our existence.
regardless, i love lingering here. with that coffee or that shake. nibbling on some bread. reading…waiting for something to finish being made. its a homey little niche that pumps life often.
our annual family trip to a nyc tourist attraction on labor day…a tradition that we just started doing a few years ago and kept doing. we discovered that tourists evacuate the city so the spots empty out and you have these massive places to yourself. mostly.
this year, we brought along my parents. my mom had been bugging me to take her on a cruise….i told her…here it is! cruise! boat! a 10 minute ride over……
we booked online weeks ago as special tickets are needed to ascend into the lady. many a unprepared visitor is disappointed to get onto the island but not able to enter into the monument itself. you have to book these at least a week in advance and during high season, way earlier.
when we got to the ferry point, there were two lines…..prepared and unprepared. they called them reserved tickets and flex tickets. reserved, sold in advance, have a specific time given to board for security checks. flex are the tickets sold to people who walk up to the booth that day. the flex line was 4 times(at least)longer than the reserved line. and when they saw that my dad had a cane, they brought us right up to the front!
here, the nerds in the family take the obligatory audio tour to learn more about the island and the statue. i only paid for one but the lady gave us two….again, the end of the season….labor day visiting pays off! all the tourists are already at lga, jfk and ewr.
we bought food onto the island which you are discouraged to do. but we’re cheap and we bought breads, mcdonald’s chicken biscuits and my mom bought a ton of beef and pork jerky. we did purchase drinks at the monopoly on site.
i dunno why we do this every year. to affirm our love for the city? to affirm our love for each other? to affirm our calling to the city? to affirm our calling to each other? because its fun? because its silly and stupid? just because?
the traditions that we inherit, the traditions that we create and that we choose to carry on define us in conscious and subconscious ways. it might be all these reasons…and others that we have not brought to the surface yet.
normally, we go to the tourist site…..top of the rock, empire state building…..closer to dusk and watch the sunset. but visits to the island end before that. and climbing the statue herself ends at 4:45. a bummer……i think i insist on doing this to symbolically transition from the hot summer to the cool magical fall. having missed out on that, fall does not seem like its arrived yet. technically, we do have a few weeks of my least favorite season.
the original torch is on display as you ascend as are replicas of the statue. theresa likes to pick noses. my dad does his best shaq imitation(kobe, tell me!…..), my mom reaches for the skies and the girls play with her toes.
you used to be able to go up higher all the way to the crown but 9/11 stopped that. there are rumors that they will open up eventually. but there is no elevator up to the top so that’s a healthy walk for the view. i believe that we will one day return here if access is granted. who knows how long they will keep it open or before al qaeda decides to attack again?
we took multiple shots trying to catch us and ms. liberty and this is the best of the bunch. we’ve gotten pretty good at these self portraits.
our noses look perfect in this one. the key to my heart is a good nose.
my parents liked tagging along even though they had to sit and rest a lot. afterwards we had dinner and even walked home on the upper west side. my dad assured us that he would not have a stroke.
at some point, they realized that chinese dramas would be on cable and they walked even faster.
love of family, love of city and calling affirmed. thanks, tourists, for your loot and booty; especially you european tourists with your valuable cash reserves. you may leave now. see you again next year, somewhere in the city.
we close with the annual ancestor picture. unfortunately, theresa’s sneer is starting to look like her smile.
Sometime over the course of a person’s first year in New York, there usually comes that moment. It can happen in the first days or weeks, or after 10 months. It can happen repeatedly, or without people noticing, at least not at first. Newcomers suddenly realize either that the city is not working for them or that they are inexorably becoming part of it, or both.
so that first year is telling….whether this place is for you or not. here are my comments on the article with the ny times in bold and me in not bold….make sure to check out leonard’s thoughts on it as well.
(if you make it…)The subway begins to make sense. i forget how much of the system is intuitive. friends and tourists wind up in harlem all the time. its like the subway is alive….like parts of the amazon, designed to keep outsiders out. there is more to the trains than is advertised and posted. the racist but still funny phrase harder than chinese arithmetic comes to mind. by comparison, my friend and other dc transplant calls the washington metro something akin to fisher price’s my first public transportation. but once you get it….you get this city. a related skill is knowing whether walking, cabbing, busing or subway(ing) would be faster. while some are puzzled, nyk’rs know what i’m talking about.
“It can be lonely, very lonely, and I knew I would find it hard,” said Lisa Phin, 25, who moved to New York from Dallas in late May. “But if you can stick it out for one year, you’re home free.” this is not a friendly city when it comes to community. the city almost makes you earn it. it suspects that you are a poser and will be gone in two years tops(but you should have left after that first year)…so it doesn’t pay attention to you.but if you tough it out, there’s a niche here for everyone. the best part of the city is that you can believe anything, wear anything, be from anywhere, be anyone….and have a place and find companions. you just have to work a little….and wait for things to develop and fall into place. But sometime during her first year, she stopped trying so hard. “I just realized that I didn’t need to find ‘it,’ that my place in the city would fall into place,” she said. “Now I don’t make an effort; I roll with things. It’s not just the city, it’s yourself that you have to deal with as well.” as a side note, this can be a friendly city in everyday interactions. outsiders are surprised that people genuinely try to help when asked.
Mr. Ingersoll painstakingly saved $8,000 over a year and a half in Seattle, working three jobs to prepare for life in the city of his dreams. He burned through it in no time when he could not find full-time work. Nothing comes easily, even if one can get past the dauntingly high cost of living. the upside of living in this crazy priced metropolis is that everywhere theresa and i vacation in the rest of the states….seems cheap; and is cheap(er)! when we first got here, we didn’t buy certain items like juice because we couldn’t believe what they were charging. but, we’ve become jaded to the exorbitant prices in the city. so we shrug at $3000 a month for a one bedroom in our neighborhood. we’re not surprised at million dollar apartments that middle class people live in. we accept that lunch is $10-$20 and cheap eats sometimes means under $30. we make up for it with an $81 all you can ride subway pass and……visiting your town and eating there. wink.
There also usually comes a time, early on, when newcomers must accept that the city is a power greater than they are. i think this is the key reason so many teens, college students and young adults are so stunted in their development….they’ve never had a place that pushed them or tested them beyond who they are. the places they live in are not greater than them…..they’ve become the kings of their cul de sac’s….its like the arrogance of winning your thursday night poker game every week only to discover vegas. in nyc, you can get humbled at every turn…and often, you are. people don’t like that and look for a place to settle where they are not so exposed. but for those who stay, this place can transform you if you are willing to learn in the crucible. “Every day you encounter situations where you have to step out of your safety zone, and it’s really kind of a self-discovery experience,” she said. “I see myself fighting it, but I also I see myself, every day, becoming a New Yorker.”
starting soon! as nykr’s reflect on the city and 9/11 this week, a wide range of nyc posts raining down on you soon. back to the regular programming…
duh! journal scours the world for stupid(and overtly obvious)news! we found a diverse three course meal for all!
this is from gampepro.com: seems that this is news to microsoft!
‘Xbox vice president Don Mattrick acknowledged that regaining first place from Nintendo is unlikely, but he’s confident in a second place finish over Sony.
Microsoft will do everything within its power to beat arch rival Sony in this generation’s console war — even if it’s for second place.
In an interview with Business Week published on Wednesday, Xbox vice president Don Mattrick admitted the 360 probably won’t catch Wii, but he still believes his company will outsell the PlayStation 3.
“I’m not at a point where I can say we’re going to beat Nintendo,” he said, before predicting, “We will sell more consoles this generation than Sony.”
Microsoft has sold an estimated 20 million Xbox 360 units worldwide since November 2005. By contrast, Nintendo has sold 32 million Wiis in half the time, while Sony has sold 15 million PS3s during the same period.’
really? nintendo is going to win? microsoft even declared themselves the winners of this competition at one point! what they meant was that they were ahead. a year ahead as the 360 was released a full 365 before the wii. its like declaring yourself the winner way before the finish line. but now, microsoft is willing to mouth what everyone already knew….the wii is a hit! it is the winner of this round of console wars!
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this is why so many (yankee)fans hate arod…he’s just not aware of his team or seemingly the game. the suspicion that he is self absorbed gets reinforced.
on sunday, the yankees lost and the blue jays won, moving ahead of the yankees in the standings. here’s the q/a from the nytimes that follows:
‘Without realizing what he was saying, Alex Rodriguez wrote off the Yankees’ chances. Asked about falling to fourth, Rodriguez tried to compliment the Blue Jays but made a damning statement about the Yankees in the process.
“I tell you what, a lot of people should be happy they’re not in the playoff race, because they’d be the scariest team,” Rodriguez said of the Blue Jays.
When reminded that the Yankees now trail Toronto — the team he had just stated was not in the race — Rodriguez did not know quite what to say.
“I’m too tired to answer that,” he said. “You confused me on that one.’
can you imagine jeter making the same mistake? no.
sigh.more like duh!
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speaking of the nytimes, here’s some crappy reporting by them at the toronto film festival:
‘Over the last three days parties celebrated movies that were intended as much to be heard as seen. “It Might Get Loud,” a documentary about the electric guitar and what it becomes in the hands of Jimmy Page, Bono and Jack White, had a Friday night bash. “Every Little Step,” a documentary about the musical “A Chorus Line,” held a dance party (naturally) on Saturday, while “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” a film about teenage love and the modern version of the perfect mix tape, rented the Tattoo Rock Parlour club in downtown Toronto a few hours later.’
seems innocuous enough….except look at the accompanying photo with the article: jack white, “bono” and jimmy page:
wow! get your facts right! what makes it even more damning….here’s the accompanying caption for the photo:
‘From left, the musicians Jack White, the Edge and Jimmy Page at a screening of the film “It Might Get Loud” at the Toronto International Film Festival.’
doh! nytimes, you just wrote for duh!journal by accident! (btw, bono plays a terrible guitar)
we’ve been traveling so i thought i would share a few places that we like to eat at not in nyc. again, not necessarily the best or whatever superlative…just places we go to regularly when we are in your town.
this is for leonard, who happens to be in my town today:
when we are in la, we ask theresa’s aunt and uncle to take us here……..
i only knew this as the vietnamese place…i don’t even know what town it is in but i manage to get a shot of the cross streets(see below)if you are interested in going. what’s the big deal? cheap good food, a latino waiter who picks up chinese and the only vietnamese place i know of that actually has an a rating. in la, they grade their restaurants on cleanliness. there maybe others but usually asian places garner b or even c ratings. we eat at those places anyway…..we know that the more ghetto, the more realistic the food is! but this place is tasty…..and clean! a good sell for koreans!
theresa would recommend the rice paper wraps, pho with everything. i like the bun, the cold(room temperature)noodles with roast pork and fried rolls…at saigon grill in nyc, they only give you the option of one or the other so i wind up getting charged 2 entrees to get what i want. here….its set up nicely for me.
pride used to prevent me from saying that asian food is better on the west coast but i am a believer now. from taiwanese to korean to chinese and now vietnamese. look up mission and las tunas and check it out.
also…..as a programming note…upcoming this week as we enter into a few somber days when new yorkers reflect on their connection to the city…some very new york-y posts…rapid fire and abundant. this city inspires in multiple directions.
u2 is not the only band that we have a special relationship with. we have high hopes for coldplay too…hopefully, they’ll play longer concerts and bring it every night…and be around for a long, long time.
here’s an interesting tidbit from entertainment weekly that will make christi chew happy:
In an Aug. 30 interview with the BBC, Chris Martin revealed the group would release an EP called Prospects March on Dec. 26 — and another full album in December 2009. Is he for real? Well, back in April, drummer Will Champion told EW that there was ”potentially another album left over” from the band’s recording sessions with producer Brian Eno. Bassist Guy Berryman added, ”It’s not disposable B sides. It’s songs that didn’t quite fit this record. We’re still very keen for people to hear them.”
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not quite christmas….but better than no coldplay….or no u2!….speaking of which, the new projection date is february. this is from hotpress.com:
A band insider confirmed to Hot Press that February 2009 is now the likely launch date for the band’s long-awaited follow-up to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. That new target was set, Hot Press understands, at meetings that have taken place over the past 36 hours in Nice, where the band have been based for the latter part of the summer.
“There’s still some details to be decided before the date is confirmed one hundred percent, but that’s the plan,” the source confirmed.
Bono has already spoken about how U2 intend to make 2009 their year.
“This is our chance for us to defy gravity once again,” he enthuses. “We have what it takes, we have the songs, new rhythms and a guitar player who is not ready to re-enter earth’s atmosphere until he’s taken a slice of the moon!”
