Well, no, maybe not, it was hell getting out of bed and I feel kind of woozy. (God my vocabulary keeps getting better and better.)

But post work party, Pia and I wandered over to Pipa, a restaurant she used to work at and we got hoooooked uppppp with the most amazing tapas and sangria. I normally shy from squishy seafoods (I have a strict definition of this — includes squid, octopus, and abalone exclusively) but no lie, I'm fairly certain the calamari made a guest appearance in my dream last night, it was that good.

My new thing is food service. People are anti-food service because 1) you're often treated like a bitch and 2) it "does nothing for your resume" but working retail, even if briefly, taught me a million things and I think working at a restaurant will probably do the same. God knows if/when(!) I move to the city, I will need the income to supplement my $26k editorial assistant job. Plus the whole it's not what you know but who you know deal applies to the restaurant industry completely. What the hell is knowing people in media going to do for me? (Ok a lot but that's beside the point.) Food service connections: getting wined and dined wherever you go by restaurant owners, bartenders, servers... not a bad way to live.

Having lost my cell phone I never know what time it is anymore, so I made it back at what I thought was 1. Am told by roommate it was er, not. So I came home, made what I perceived to be a very quiet entrance, ate all rice crackers within reach, and passed out. That makes me sound like more of a mess than I am. You should know I eat rice crackers in an extremely dignified manner.

I love the go out go out go out culture of New York. I swear I'm a homebody through and through — where would you find me in San Diego? on the couch, watching the Food Network — but somehow this city brings out the social butterfly in me.

My high school friend AJ comes to town tonight. Sharad Singh and Sue Zhang are about to paint the town red. If you didn't understand that reference, shame on you, you don't read my blog enough. One of my best guy friends Byron is also showing up at some point this weekend. I haven't seen him since winter break, so I'm excited beyond words. I contemplated a different word because "excited" seems a little 5th grade but all I could come up with was "juiced." So yes. I'm juiced. By the end of this summer I'll have a new term of enthusiasm, and no it will not be "wasted."

My black men report — because I know you all love it — I had zero last night! Times are a'changin', my friends.

Now I know what they mean by the wine-headache. Eww. Where can I find pizza at 8 a.m.?

Time to get ready for work so that I can look composed from 10-6. There's probably no hope because at least three work people read my blog. Shhhhh. I realized that's what a lot of city jobs entail. Just doing your very best to appear like you didn't just go out until 3 in the morning. Fortunately, this is one thing in life I do exceedingly well.

It's raining outside. Gustavo is also moping on my bed because I'm not entertaining him. I know, World, I'm depressed we all have to go to work on Thursdays too.

In exclusivitate si premiera, iata cateva imagini cu o parte din lucrarile realizate de Linda, IRLO si Marwan in galeria Institutului Cultural Roman din NY, precum si pe peretii salii teatrului 37 Arts, unde va avea loc, la inceputul lunii august, premiera spectacolului dedicat legendei muzicii africane, Fela Kuti.

Fotografiile sunt realizate de Andra Matzal, proaspat intoarsa din trip, si vor face obiectul mai multor materiale de presa:

I'm putting it out there: folks fighting for fair housing and lower rents in New York have dropped the ball.  Just in the past few months, we saw a series of inept, boring or ineffective protests calling for better rent controls, preservation of historic neighborhoods, and a stop to huge government led gentrification processes, all to no avail.

First: at the Rent Guidelines Board meeting that finalized drastic rent increases for rent stabilized tenants (the largest since 1989), activists opposing the hike attempted the OK strategy of disrupting the meeting by blowing whistles - OK, except when considering that strategy failed already in 2006, and the most activists got out of the meeting was meaningless pontificating by Christine Quinn and Scott Stringer (whose job description seems to be nothing more than meaningless pontificating)

Second: The Die Yuppie Scum protests - a two parter, targeting... well, something that folks just don't like about the Bowery.  These protests seem like an effective strategy (menacing landlords), but taking into consideration the overbearing influence of the NYPD on the protest's actions and direction, the latest iteration of the Slacktavist's rage looked and felt more like a parade of the old LES preserved behind bars than a real threat to neighborhood change.  These protests tried too much of the "Stop! No!" style that ignores the incredible cultural cachet of the new-New York, and the organizational difficulties of assembling a good fightin' crowd for battle with the police these days.  The "Die Hard" protest did a fine job ginning up interest through theatricality, but the execution fell flat on anything other than interesting sloganeering.  The upshot: I don't think anyone is betting against a further Varvatos-ification of the Bowery.

Third: Chinatown/LES rezoning and protest.  I think this is an interesting story - in the beginning, anti-gentrification folks rallied for the rezoning, with testimony in early zoning meetings focusing on NYU, the bar-ification of the East Village, and the need to include anti-tenant harrassment planks in the rezoning proposal.  Then, somewhere along the way, things got lost.  The Bowery and 3rd Ave, originally targetted for downzoning got written out of the proposal, allowing for a continued up-sizing and up-scaling of a key thouroughfare for the east side.  Inclusionary zoning made its way to Delancy, Houston and Avenue D, paving the way for more lux development.

And most importantly, folks outside the propsed rezone area saw the writing on the wall and realized they were next should the neighborhoods covered limit development.   That began the backlash. There were screaming fights at Community Board 3 meetings, direct accusations of racism, and more.  At the same time, community organizers for people left out of the rezoning have refused to target landlords, instead calling for a 'me too' mediocre response to a big problem, leading up to... this -  Another sign waving, speech making 'protest' asking to 'preserve', standing in front of a civic building.  Their demand makes only limited sense - even if rezoning happened for all of CB3, it would give no guarantee of low income housing, and more likely sneak in more inclusionary zoning or worse - turn Chinatown into the West Village, a historic neighborhood under glass.

To me, the LES/CB3 rezoning debacle points out the inherant flaws of approaching zoning and real estate from the perspective of preservationism - it favors affluent communities (73% of CB3's white residents are in the rezoning), and fails to take into account the social justice componant - namely, spillover effects that potentially displace other communities.  It also shows the flaws of a government-focused approach, producing a problematic rezoning law, and a probably more problematic response to that rezoning.

The one brightspot is the Union Square pavilion fight, where community activists seem to have turned the tide a bit, stopping the resturant in the short term, and lauching the Community Improvement District idea in the longer term.  With a narrow focus and popular opinion clearly agains the proposed changes, this was perhaps a winning battle from the get go.

Still, it shows the usefulness of theatricality, and a serious engagement with the culture of New York - the Union Square 'CID' employs historical figures intimately connected to New York - George Washington, Emma Goldman, etc. - to make an argument about preserving a contemporary space.  That's not enough - they also take it a step further and mix in the Reverand Billy factor, using participatory street theater and well planned media actions to draw attention to their cause.

Here's the upshot - anti- gentrification and fair housing advocates need to do a better job ju-jitsuing the myths, lies and media mockups surroundign New York.

Don't preserve the past, turn it into an argumetn about the future.  Like Andy Warhol?  Well, he certainly couldn't rent out that nice loft space any more, thanks to gentrification - maybe if there was serious funding of housing for artists, New York could stumble upon the next Warhol in the rough.  Same with CBGBs.

Don't just condemn the people selling New York, make their pitch part of yours.  How about Sex and the City?  A tough one - clearly a product designed to sell glitz and glam New York - but who designs all those clothes?  Not just Donna Karan, there's a hoarde of underpaid staffers and interns making those fashion choices possible - they certainly can't get by in a red hot real estate market.

Even government ad campaigns to sell the city can be flipped - all those Welcome to New York, Just Ask the Locals ads?  Bet you DeNiro, Chuck Close and Julianne Moore didn't start out in $3 Million apartments.

Rising rents in New York are driven by the cultural product of the city - the skyline and nightlife sold in dozens of movies, hundreds of TV show episodes, and by the government of New York itself.  That image has gone global, and makes it possible for foreign investors to pour capital into the city by puchasing buildings wholesale (as is happening in el Barrio), or buying up apartments for vacations (as is happening... well, everywhere).  Cheap rents and rent control made New York's globe-spanning cultural products possible in the first place.  (think grafitti, Jay-z, SoHo artist lofts, Punk Rock, New York's literary avant guarde, etc.) Fair housing and anti-gentrification movements will only get off the ground and into serious change by starting with the popular idea of New York and using those cultural norms against the rapid transformation of New York City into a playground of the rich.

So, this past Monday marked the first day of Restaurant Week NYC, summer 2008.  I love restaurant week.  I love seeing what different restaurants offer on their menus for budget-diners, how one place's selections differ from another, similar restaurant's selections, and how it compares to their normal menus.  More than that, people are usually more willing to go out to eat if they think they're getting a good deal, even if that isn't always the case.

Today (or technically yesterday, since it's past midnight), I met up with a couple of my friends to go to Opia restaurant, on 57th and Lexington.  One of my friends, Jon, wanted to go to a French restaurant, and my other friend, Catie, had no preference.  Since we waited too long to book reservations at, say, david burke & donatella, we settled for Opia.  In particular, I was intrigued by the charcuterie entree, and considering that I just finished reading Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn's Charcuterie, as well as the fact that I did not encounter any other entree at any of the 50 other restaurant week menus I perused, I was sold.

Immediately, upon walking into the restaurant, I liked what I saw -- tastefully dimmed lights, lounge-style seating, an eye-catching bar, and big windows.  Unfortunately, it was fairly busy that night, so the three of us were led to the back area, where they presumably seat their larger parties (it was someone's birthday that night, too, so there was a table of, like, 50 billion 14).  They were loud.

Since there were three of us, and there were three options each, for appetizer, entree, and dessert, we all ordered different things.  We would pass our plates clockwise, so that we could taste everything.  Catie had the vichyssoise, Jon had the crispy frog legs with parsley and garlic puree, and I had the chicken liver mousse bruschetta with red currant relish.

First Course

I'm not a big fan of liver, usually.  I've not grown quite accustomed to the taste yet.  I suppose my palatte is still young and inexperienced.  Or maybe it's because, when I think of liver, I still think of the grey, boiled-to-death, mealy-textured mess my mom used to force me to eat as a kid.  Now, however, I do enjoy the occassional pâté, although I still have to get over the thoroughly liver-y liver taste.  As far as my bruschetta went, it was good.  I liked it.  My only criticism would be that I wish they had soaked their livers in milk for a while, if they hadn't done so already -- and if they had done so, I wish they used younger chickens' livers or soaked the livers they already had in even more milk for even longer, to remove some of the harshness of the liver that too often occurs in older chickens' livers.  I had a very similar appetizer at La Provence, in Lacombe, Louisiana (another one of Chef John Besh's restaurants), and that particular appetizer was done perfectly.

I have some chicken livers in my freezer.  Maybe I'll try to make my own chicken liver mousse bruschetta this weekend?

Catie's vichyssoise was all right.  It wasn't great, and I wasn't crazy about it, but hey . . . cold soup on a hot, humid, rainy day.  What more could you ask for?

The real star appetizer, in my opinion, was the frogs' legs that Jon ordered.  Although it wasn't quite as "crispy" as the name implied, it was a good value and there was plenty of food on the plate -- three pairs of meaty frogs' legs, tasty croutons, and very fresh-tasting, clean, garlic and parsley purees.  Excellent.  The only criticism I had was that the garlic had too much of that raw garlic harshness that I don't like and that I could have personally used a touch more salt on my frog legs -- but, I eat a lot of salt and so I have a higher tolerance for it than some.

Second Course

I'll start off by saying that I was very, very disappointed in my entree.  Again, since I just read Charcuterie, my head was filled with romantic notions and ideas about pork, fat, and sausages.  While I was expecting something a little more adventurous or perhaps foreign to the average American palatte, what I got instead was basically boiled fingerling potatoes, sauerkraut, and kielbasa.  Catie commented/complained that it smelled like her family.

Don't get me wrong.  I love me a good kielbasa and kraut, but I expect more when I'm paying good money for a plate.  If I wanted kielbasa with sauerkraut (and maybe a pierogi or four), I'd have gone to Sava Polish Deli in downtown Jersey City (I'll blog about this one, too.  Eventually).  I'd also save about 30 bucks and a trip into Manhattan.  What a fucking waste.  It was good kielbasa, though Sava can do it better.  Ditto on the kraut.

In a word or two, Catie's saffron risotto, with asparagus, pearl onions, artichokes, and tomatoes was fucking terrible.  Sure, it's nice to see a vegetarian option on the menu, but if you're gonna offer something to the vegetarians -- sorry, to the paying vegetarians, at least make it taste good!  Vegetables aren't that expensive, and for God's sake, you people were trained to cook food.  Make it taste good!  Or else we'll [gladly] go to Gobo.  I felt really bad for Catie -- she barely touched her plate and she still had to pay for her meal at the end of the night.  Instead, I had to eat a large portion of her entree, in all its acid, large-hunks-of-not-quite-cooked-garlic misery.  In short, I did not taste any saffron, the asparagus was pretty much raw, and the acid from the [canned?] artichokes and tomatoes just overpowered the dish.  And did I mention the huge chunks of nearly raw garlic?  The flavors were just muddled and it just didn't taste very good.  Saffron risotto?  Hell, my sister could have made a better risotto.  And my sister burns soup.

Dear God, I hope my sister doesn't read this blog.

Luckily, Jon (once again) pulls through with the undisputed star entree of the night.  He got the herb-crusted monkfish steak with orzo pasta, mushrooms, lemon confit (hooray, charcuterie!), and broccoli puree.  The orzo was delicious -- al dente, buttery, flavorful.  Tasty.  The horseradish-tinted monkfish was also excellent, although it was a little overcooked and firm.  I could have done without the broccoli puree, which is a shame, because I adore broccoli.  At least it brought some creaminess and color to the plate.

Dessert

Despite his previous successes in ordering the better dishes for the previous two courses, Jon didn't enjoy his white chocolate & lime soup with bittersweet chocolate mousse.  I, on the other hand, preferred his dessert, and not being totally happy with my cointreau parfait, we happily traded, both of us believing that we got the better deal in the transaction.

The lime was easily overpowered by the sweetness of the white chocolate.  I didn't care because I wasn't exactly aware that there was supposed to be lime in it.  The bittersweet chocolate mousse, on the other hand, was fantastic.  Light, airy, ethereal to eat, it was a perfect balance of sweetness, bitterness, and chocolatastic-ness.  Then, there was this crispy cracker-cookie on top.  I could have done without that.  I appreciated the thought, and I appreciated the texture it brought to the table, but it kept sticking to my teeth.  Made me wish I brought my toothbrush.

The cointreau parfait w/ honey sauce, served with "candy gingered & citrus madeleine" was decent, although I got neither cointreau, ginger, candy, candied ginger, nor "candy gingered."  Come to think of it, I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean.  Ah well.  Jon liked it.  It was sweet.  Oh, yeah.  "Honey sauce"?  It was just drizzled honey.  Don't let the menu fool you.

Catie's peach tatin with vanilla ice cream, a slightly fancier version of peach cobbler a la mode, was unfortunately the superior dessert of the night.  The roasted peach was excellent (hey, it's the summer.  One expects excellent peaches in the summer), although the juices from it soaked through the flaky tatin pastry, making it soggy and stale-tasting, even though it was probably freshly made.  Also, vanilla ice cream is always good.  Aromatic, tasty, sweet, complex vanilla.

Yes, vanilla is complex.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Overall, I still think it was worth the $45 dollars I ultimately paid, after tax and tip.  Nine dishes for $45 dollars works out to $5 dollars a tasting.  Sweet deal.  I'll probably never eat there again, not because the food was bad (not all of it, anyway), but because there are too many other places to eat.  The restaurant-tour must go on (har har, I'm so freaking lame).

Actually, I take that back.  The hostess was freaking cute.

Summary

Opia Restaurant. 130 East 57th St at Lexington.

From the restaurant week, summer 2008 menu, the frog legs appetizer, monkfish steak entree, and peach tatin dessert were particularly good.  Alternatively, order the chicken liver mousse appetizer or either of the two other desserts.  As for entrees, you can either get the charcuterie offering (severely overpriced kielbasa and sauerkraut) or this acid rice concotion they call a saffron risotto (don't order the risotto).

This was the screen capture of the radar weather reading tonight in NYC.  There was insane thunder, and lightening, and reports of hail, and about 60 miles from here the radar was showing circular wind patterns that could have been the start of a tornado.  DAMN.

What is it about me that brings the scary weather on.  If there is a tsunami in the next couple of days, or an earthquake, volcano erupts or brush fires...you'll know it was just me.  Of course with me back in the city, it is guaranteed that no cranes will topple over and kill anyone.  That only happens when I'm out of the city.

And life continues in the big city.

In California a couple of weeks ago they passed a law that drivers had to use hands free devices.  That's been true of New York City for quite some time.  I'm proposing they pass the same law for pedestrians.  With penalty of death if not followed.

I've been completely annoyed for the last two days walking around the city.

First a little background.  Since I moved here, people have said to me, "New Yorkers are so rude.  They push past you and shove around you and act as though you are in the way and have no right to be on the sidewalk with them."  And I always reply that yes, this is true.

But...

When you are driving to work on The 5, or I-75, or I-80, or I-95, or the state highway, or the turnpike, or Main Street, or Broadway or any other street that you might travel to get to work, how do you react when you get behind Granny going 45 in a 70 mile an hour zone?  How do you react when Suzy is putting on her make-up and keeps swerving into your lane?  Or how do you react when the Nelsons are slowing down to take pictures of the national landmark that you drive by everyday.  Or when Mr. Johnson does a whole head turn to look at the cute blond that just went by, or the three car pile up on the other side of the street.  Honestly how do you react?  It's not called road rage for nothing.

So imagine if on foot the streets are your highways.  And all you want to do is get to the subway as quickly as possible, have the train take you to your stop as quickly as possible, and then get to work from the subway as quickly as possible.

Now imagine how you would react if Granny is in front of you taking one step every four seconds and Grampa is holding her hand making it impossible to pass them.  Or imagine if Suzy is putting on her make-up, while walking her dog and talking on her cell phone at the same time.  Imagine that the Nelsons (all 10 of them) have spread across the sidewalk to window shop or take pictures of the Hard Rock, or Planet Hollywood, or the ESPN Zone.  (And why would you take a picture of a restaurant?  I don't come to your town and take a picture of Buster's Bar and Grill?)  Or imagine what it's like to try and get past Mr. Johnson whose whole head is turned around on his neck staring at the ass of the chick who just walked by, and of course he's still walking forward, but no longer in a straight line.

Yes, I imagine you would push past, shove people out of the way, be rude and get a bad reputation as well.  All I want to do is get to work as quickly as possible.  Yes, I know I live in a tourist destination, but really do you need a picture of everything you walk past.  Do a Google Image search, there are pictures of the same things on line taken by professional photographers.  These photos will look twice as nice as yours.  And do you really need to video tape people crossing the street, or guitars on a wall, or how big TGIF's is, or the Olive Garden, or a photo of Brad Pitt in a movie.  No you don't!  So just get out of my way.  If you get out of my way I won't be rude, I won't shove you and you won't think I'm a mean person.

And now for the cell phone portion of the post.  Now imagine all of the people mentioned above on the same block, and all on their cell phones, all even more oblivious than they were before, and if they aren't talking, they are walking while they text.  And they walk with their heads down, face in the phone, completely unaware that 12 people have just had to dart out of the way to keep from being run over by them.  It's enough to make you go "school" on them (no one shoots people in the post office any more) and shove them into oncoming traffic.  And no jury in the city would convict you because they would have pushed their own Granny's, Grampa's, Suzy's, Mr. Nelsons, and Mr. Johnson's into oncoming traffic on their way to court.

And all of this could be eliminated if we just passed a hand's free law.  Make it a law that to talk on your headset while walking you must have an earpiece.  To text, you must move all the way to the left or the right side of the sidewalk, stop where you are, until you finish the text.  To take pictures you must move all the way to the outside of the sidewalk and gather in a single line following the street.  As for make-up, it's not going to help so why bother.  And as for Mr. Johnson whose head is turned around, really?  Really?  You think you could get that girl?  She's not THAT hot anyway, and if you just want to look at a hot chick, move to the side of the sidewalk, pull out your I-Phone and do a search for hot babes on line.  You are more likely to get somewhere with them, than the girl that just walked by.

And one last note.  Do you really have to hold hands as you walk down the street?  In Times Square?  The place is a fucking zoo.  There are 10 million people per square block.  And you take up the space of three people when you are holding hands.  So don't.  And if you do, don't be surprised if I walk right between you and make you play "Red Rover, Red Rover" with me.  And trust me.  I will always win!!!

And just so you know, it's actually more dangerous to walk in NYC than it is to drive or ride in a car.  And this is simply because I push so many people into traffic.

Just think how many lives could be saved with a Hands Free Law.

I've never seen anything like this before - onomatopoeic street art, and made with balloons? Presumably with added pop!s or maybe whizzzzes at the demise of the balloon. From Brooklyn based artist DBILLY. This seems to be the first work he's done with balloons, but theres some sweet illustration based stuff. And something else I've never seen - though it's probably been done before - words made with electrical tape. Interesting in that it looks photoshopped, but isn't; I'd love to see this from afar.

I don't normally like this kind of cartoony stuff but aw. In his artist statement DBilly, or David William, says,

Using colorful media such as twisting balloons, party streamers, and artist tape, I have begun to add visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti. After embellishing the found scenes and photographing the results, I leave my additions in place to engage passers-by for as long as the materials hold up. For me, this process encourages a reexamination of surroundings and objects that are usually taken for granted, and injects a hint of the fantastical surreality that I have established in my other work.

Or, at the very least, I hope someone thinks these things are kind of funny.

Dbilly can also be found at FLickr, and blogs over at andiamnotlying.

Remember the Golden Girls them song?...click here

Ok, we step foot outta Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophias house out in Miami, to travel up north to NYC to see whats up with my homie Lolo and his show "Its Lloyal" on Tuesdays 9-11. What seemed like an ugly day from the start ended up being a day ending in a few hours of fun and laughs..I knew Lolo for quite some time now and what he's doing every Tuesday seems like the perfect job for him. He needs to be heard.

We're gonna leave out the part of Lolo sayin LL Cool J isnt a legend....Why he thinks that?- we have no clue, but enjoy more pics from the show.

The show didnt have any specific topic, but we spoke about a few things, played a GZA track throwing shots at G-Unit (refer to my previous blog posts about G-Unit battles)..along with new Doom, and Ghostface as well on 2 of Dillas Donuts...One subject in particular bothered a few of my peers back home in Jersey, which was basically about the so called lack of respect New York dudes have for Jersey. When I came home, I jumped on my computer, and saw about 3 different messages from people on my AIM list asking me why is Lolo trying to play NJ out and I sat there and let it happen....Ok, he asked a few questions about Paterson, and whats going on out there, and quickly compares my hood to his hood in the BX...Frankly, I dont buy into any of the shit people may have gotten from the other night, I just know that I'm from where I'm from and I'm getting respect regardless of whether im in NJ, or NYC at a radio station and never thought twice about anybody there disrespecting me because of where im from and where I currently was at the time. Even people at my job throws a few jokes here and there because of where I'm from... My only argument is honestly not even with anyone from the NYC or work, but to my people in Paterson who make absolutely nothing with  themselves to even to try to put us on the map. You would THINK being that we're a small city, we would somehow try to come together and make our name bigger than what people already know us for which are high prices for drugs, deaths, jail bids, and cop funerals(<--fuck the police though..!!!)

Me personally, I would never turn my back on where I'm from, but it comes a point where we need to use every joke, disrespect, or comment that someone makes about what shithole we live in to our advantage and actually use it as fuel to get the fuck up outta here and respresent where we're from like we were born here to do.

I dont know what the hell everyone else is doing around here, but Im from Paterson, and I'm well on my way up outta here. Open invitation for anybody who wants to come through to see what bullshit living is all about....I'll greet you on my way out.

20 minutes away.

Before I go to any restaurant, I always (if I can) research it online beforehand. I check out the website, the restaurant's history, its menu, etc. After perusing the Shake Shack's website, I was even more excited to check it out after finding out they try their hardest to be "green" and it's located in the middle of quaint Madison Square Park. I also discovered that New York magazine, the NYTimes, Food & Wine and others have rated the burgers as among the best in NYC.

It was a beautiful day outside the first time I went, which made the expectation of a ridiculous Saturday lunch wait not so daunting. In reality, we only stood in line for about 45 minutes, which was not terrible when we expected two or more hours. The two of us both ordered shackburgers and fries, along with the custard of the day. Every day, the Shake Shack changes its custard and displays the monthly calendar on the front. It was my lucky day -- chocolate peanut butter custard, which happens to be my absolute favorite ice cream flavor.

We waited about 10 minutes for our food and sat down at one of the cute tables to the side of the shack and dug right in. A shackburger comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomato and (drum roll, please) shack sauce. I'm a SUCKER for burgers with special sauce, so I knew I was in for a good time. And on top of the famous shack sauce, the burger is not your typical bottom-of-the-barrel meat, but it's a blend of some of premium cow cuts.

First bite and I was sold. Juicy, perfectly cooked, shack sauce deliciously dripping down my chin. And the fries had a somewhat healthier taste to them; my guess is they're cooked in a healthier oil. And, my custard was thick and yummy.

Flash forward to a year later. My same friend and I went back to the Shake Shack three weeks ago for another delicious lunch. This time it was raining so we figured it would be a quick bite in the neighborhood with a small line. To our surprise, there were still plenty of people at this outdoor eatery willing to sacrifice their comfort for a taste of the Shake Shack.

We were plenty hungry and immediately dove into our same meal of a shackburger and fries, minus the custard considering the weather. Boy, was I disappointed. After eating at UBurger in Boston, I was majorly let down by the shack sauce. It was too mayonaisse-ey. My memories of the Shake Shack were ruined.

I don't think I'll go back. It's definitely a NYC destination, but I know there are better burgers out there! And even if I have to go all the way to Boston for them ... so be it.

Shake Shack, www.shakeshacknyc.com, Madison Avenue & 23rd Street, 212-889-6600

As a jersey girl finally learning to love the subway I still have one gripe about the subway: humidity/heat. Like most other curly-haired girls I straighten my hair almost EVERY DAY. (for me straight hair = sexy ) So after spending 4 hours (yes 4 hours, my hair is unruly) straightening my hair, I get upset at the subway for being humid and ruining my chances at NYC subway love.

I fantasize about running down the steps towards the A train (west side!) and looking down the platform and seeing him there. Him being a summer intern or recent grad preferably working in banking, management, or engineering. But due to my hair, which insists on curling because of the ridiculous humidity, I have not been courageous enough to approach anyone and play the "naive, new New Yorker" role. I had the perfect target today but the hair situation was not helping my ego.

So where am I supposed to meet my Mr. NYC summer 2008? Central park? on the subway? MoMa?  walking down ____ ave?

Must I go to a furniture designer's showcase a la Carrie Bradshaw?

I'm a girl willing to fall for someone, not anyone.

THE Disney starlet, who has made guest screen appearances on Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, is reportedly being given the thumbs up by radio king Kyle Sandilands.

Sandilands, the "pop star observer", is being reported by several Internet sources as being "thrilled" to have Jeremy Shum on the Idol show, predicting him to be the "next Hilary Duff".

Tons of yelling Jeremy Shum female fans are apparently extremely excited the starlet has announced he is taking singing lessons and will try again for Australian Idol 2009. In 2008, he was famously told by Sony Executive Greg Beness that he "had a good speaking voice... got it happening with the looks... but sung off-pitch".

Jeremy Shum's Disney Management has also been rumored to be tipping hard to clean up the starlet's image on the Internet, with Jeremy Shum's personal assistants sending various legal messages to clear up the various "Jeremy Shum fakes" on the Internet, with a recent example of an unsolicited e-mail in false pretences to being from Jeremy Shum asking that if they sent jeremy-shum@aim.com This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it their password Jeremy Shum would go out on a

date with them. Jeremy Shum's PA stated, "Fans should note these e-mails are hoax and Jeremy Shum is NOT offering a date with whoever sends these e-mail addresses their usernames and passwords". Shum's media advisors said to media, "This is a result of the popularity of the teen star as a result of his Disney30 presence. It is inevitable, but the result of overexcited female fans, who are often duped by their hope to get it on with the star, even if they might even think it's a hoax - because their fantasy takes them wherever they want". Jeremy Shum's legal advisors however took the opportunity to remind fans, "Hoax messages are considered fraudulent and can result in criminal liability. We are taking a hard-edged approach and fans who do not take care of hoax messages, can be reported to the NYC or U.S. Federal Police, and action can be taken up with the United States Supreme Court on a civil action lawsuit". Jeremy Shum's publicist however reminded fans that the "hard-edged approach" was merely a way of pursuading fans from removing "fake" material off websites, and it was "unlikely" Jeremy Shum would take legal action. Miley Cyrus' management has also recently been doing the same, with Miley's OFFICIAL website warning of "fakes" who are "pretending to be me (Miley)".

Management however, still struggles to do with anti-teen pop protestors, who claim the entire Disney Genre is "plastic" and a "disgrace" to everyone who listens to music. The contention reached a record high when a hacker hacked onto a often-visited Jeremy Shum fan website and wrote:

"Shum meaning slut in French is a pop star for all those skanky fagget (sic) teens around. They offer overprised (sic) albums for all them try hard bitches hu r lesos n lyk sexin (sic et al) each otha (sic). "Hi, welcome to shum (sic), here we sing about showing off ya titys (sic) to turm (sic) on em other lesbians!"

Jeremy Shum's publicists stated to media "fans will be excited to know that Shum is in fact not French for 'slut', noting a recent interview where Jeremy Shum stated that the "mean-ness" is simply a result of people who are 'mean' who shouldn't say anything if they can't say anything nice".

Norms are not easy to enforce when then target of the enforcement is insouciant or otherwise resistant to the threat of being shamed or embarrassed. Lance's experience (suddenly feeling like he's the jerk, anger channeling into embarrassment, etc) is likely very common.

This strong, unpleasant emotional reaction could be thought of as part of the cost of enforcing a general norm when you personally don't have much to gain from doing it, and thus a reason to pass it by. But there seems to be more to it than that, as the emotional upset also pushes the interaction forward.

Living in NYC, I find myself in an environment where social etiquette is far more crucial to everybody's happiness than anywhere else I've ever lived.  Everyone here is so continuously amongst each other, and every good and service so sought after by throngs of people, that there's no putting social transgressions aside, knowing that you'll go home and forget about it.  Home is nothing but a small eye in the middle of a continual hurricane, and there is never a moment of silence and space in which to decompress from the constant pushing and shoving of everybody else.

It's pretty unlivable, especially for somebody with my temperament, but it will teach you to be assertive.  Six years ago, I'd never have dreamed of calling a stranger out for anything.  Now, if someone jumps me in line, I can't keep from saying, 'Excuse me.  I was here.'   Or, on grumpier days, 'We-ell, go right on ahead, then!'

People always get embarrassed and pretend they didn't see me there, but they saw me.  They just thought I wouldn't say anything if they bowled right over me.  Which is another thing about NYC - not only is it not ok to let people jump you, it's also not ok to let them get away with thinking you're the sort who'll suffer a jumping.  It's a point of pride.

The other day, I was in a very crowded subway train, and there were two young, cute girls in summery dresses right in front of me.  This guy, who was in the center with nothing to hold onto, sort of grabbed or pushed up against one of the girls, and when she glared at him, he smiled in a smug way, and said, 'Can't help it.'  Referring to the crowded train and lack of hand-holds.

'Oh, you can't help it?'  cried the girl (and you can always just see it in someone's face when they've had it - I really pay attention at these times, because it's bound to be awesome).  'You can't help it?  Well, I can't help this:  I'm gonna slap the shit outta you!   Think you can just grab me - I will slap that smile right off your face.  Look at him, some smarmy little asshole, oh, he's smarmy, too, look at him, think he gonna grab me.  I will kill you, fool!'

And on and on she went, giving a very loud and accurate description of all the various ways in which this fellow was not desirable to any woman anywhere, until her friend grabbed her by the shoulders and told her to stop.

I was so thrilled!  It was the best thing I'd seen in weeks.  I managed not to applaud, but couldn't suppress my ear-to-ear grin, which this guy also saw, as he got more and more trounced in front of this train packed with strangers.  By the time he got off, his head was so far down in his neck, all you could see was his bald spot sticking out of his collar.  It was glorious.

If only every woman eviscerated gross guys like that, we'd have no more issues in the subways.

The Saw Lady

30 seconds of nothing is a place to go and watch short 30 second videos of absolutely nothing and "take a nap on the internet" as Ryan says. So give it a lookover, relax, and spend some time away from all the noise and flashing lights and do nothing.

30 seconds of nothing at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville Kentucky.

...and I did! Huzzah! So, prepare for the updates.

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RSI’s Themes:  One ETF pick today and it is the Mexico fund.  Stock picks were a mixed bag with a new pick,  Red Hat.  Remember when that was the red hot stock and market darling?  At the top of the Tech Bubble it traded close to $140/share.  Today it ended it $21.43.  Anyway RSI believes it has potential, but don't expect anything close to its record highs of eight years ago.  Again we are seeing a ton of falling knives as RSI detects some life in this group.  Please use caution.  As its name implies, you can get slashed.

ETF/CEF Medium Volatility:

• EWW - Mexico iShares

Stocks Low Volatility:

• ATT - AT&T Inc. - Sr Notes

Stocks Medium Volatility:

Stock Picks New to RSI:

• Red Hat, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides open source software solutions to enterprises.

ETF/CEF Catch a Falling Knife:

ADX    Adams Express Co.
DGT    SPDR DJ Global Titans ETF
DIA    Diamonds
EFA    EAFE Index iShares
EFG    iShare MSCI Growth
EFV    iShares MSCI Value
ETG    Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Global Dividend Income Fund
ETW    Eaton Vance Tax-Managed Global Buy-Write Opportunities Fund
EWG    Germany iShares
EWH    HongKong iShares
EWJ    Japan iShares
EWY    South Korea iShares
EXI    iShares S&P Global Industrials Sector Index Fund
FEU    streetTRACKS Dow Jones STOXX 50 Fund
FEZ    streetTRACKS Dow Jones Euro STOXX 50 Fund
FGF    Sun America Focused Alpha Growth Fund Inc.
IHF    iShares Dow Jones U.S. Healthcare Providers
IOO    S&P Glbl 100 iShares
ISI    iShares S&P 1500 Index Fund
ITF    TOPIX 150 Index iShares
IVE    S&P 500 Value iShares
IVV    S&P 500 iShares
IWB    Russell 1000 iShares
IWD    Russell 1000 Value iShares
IWV    Russell 3000 iShares
IWW    Russell 3000 Value iShares
IYC    Consumer iShares
IYK    Consumer Non-Cyc
IYY    Total Market iShares
IYZ    Telecom iShares
JKD    iShares Morningstar Large Core Index Fund
JKI    iShares Morningstar Mid Value Index Fund
KF    Korea Fund, Inc.
NYC    iShares NYSE Composite Index Fund
OEF    S&P 100 Index Fund - iShares
PPA    PowerShares Aerospace and Defense Portfolio
PRF    PowerShares FTSE RAFI U.S. 1000 Portfolio
PWV    Powershares Dynamic Large Cap
SCD    LMP Capital and Income Fund Inc.
SPY    S&P 500 SPDRs
TTF    Thai Fund, Inc.
TTH    Telecom Holders
VEU    Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US
VGK    Vanguard European VIPERs
VO    Vanguard Mid Cap VIPERs
VOX    Vanguard Telecommunication Services VIPERs
VTV    Vanguard Value VIPERs
VV    Vanguard Large Cap VIPERs
XLG    Rydex Russell Top 50
XLI    Industrials Select Sector SPDR

I didn't filter this list so here is the full 50 count.  Use this list with caution.  Talk to you tomorrow.

View the chronological ART data base of RYAN SESLOW.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmsmovement/sets

From here you can navigate the multidisciplinary works by genre.

Changes are being made, worlds are being synthesized together.

You can also visit :

http://www.rmsmovement.com

The RmS Movement site is being re-designed but

you still have access to the RmS Video Art/ Film Art Library.

Want to Purchase The Ryan Seslow Rare Drawings Book?

The book is here: http://www.ryanseslow.com

Like I said, change is in the air. The Ongoing Rms is undergoing many changes.

Next Stop -

" The Art of Ryan Seslow : A Full Synthesis of the Metamorphosis "

Stick around.....

We must band together and unite in opposition to these scoundrels of the night and boycott these 'hot' clubs that we all continue to attend for reasons beyond explanation. It seems to us that for $2000 you could throw a pretty baller-status party at your spot that would grab you some serious cred among the bros and bro-hos. You would be in control, showing your skillz as a socialite and best of all wouldn't have to slide some douche a fitty just to use the bathroom.

To play bro's advocate for a minute, yes we understand that the bro-ho quotient is much better at the club and that there is so much dime ass just waiting to be taken down by your moves on the d-floor. But lets be straight with each other for just one minute, 95% of the time that bro-ho you've got your eye on just drinks your booze and leaves with her boyfriend, let's remember you're not a rapper or a professional athlete. If you want to keep lying to yourself that Tao, Opera, LAX or Harlot are the only places to find the ladies then go ahead and throw around those Benjamins, we'll wait outside where the drinks aren't $18 and you don't have to tip the waitress who hates you $500 to pour you 15 RBVs.

The cookie's are HUGE but mysteriously don't flatten out in the oven. They stay over an inch high and maintain a wonderful gooey center while still enjoying a good crust on the outside and not getting cakey. One cookie is usually enough to put someone serious out of commission, but very happily so.

 
(The prices have gone up to $3.95 since this picture)

Having enjoyed these monterous treats for quite some time, it was nice to see them get some recognition on the Food Network. They were on Bobby Flay's Throwdown show and soundly defeated Bobby's best cookie attempt. Now, there's really no such thing as a bad chocolate chip cookie, especially when they are warm. But poor Bobby never really stood a chance on this one.

Here's my top 3 pieces from Israeli fashion designer Yigal Azrouel, the first piece, VJ Top pictured above is a really dope deep blue double layered knit with the asymmetric black and white stripe under layer. It has a off center placket with snap and button closure which gives it a nice touch.

This second piece, is a stripe cotton shirt, and has a nice placket covering most of the buttons and a mini chest pocket. The blue shirt is in, so go get yours!

This last piece from Yigal, is a wool jersey top, with an asymmetrical seam going from the front to the back of the top that throws off the black and white stripes which is awesome.

All three pieces are available at OAK:

1. Yigal Azrouel "VJ Top"
2. Yigal Azrouel "Stripe Cotton Shirt"
3. Yigal Azrouel "Wool Jersey Top"