Twitchy

The Facts As They Stand

1. I have been in NYC for 8 months
2. I have been in my apartment for 6 months
3. I am starting to twitch

After last year where I was pretty much changing my home base every four months, I feel like my feet have been stuck in cement. Part of it’s the weather, I always feel a lot more trapped when it’s cold out. I think sometime after February, because there’s a lot going on this month, I shall do the good ol’ pick a bus route and do a day trip trick. If you have suggestions for potential weekend adventures let me know!

For longer trips I’m looking at Montreal or Toronto sometime in April or later.

For now twitch!

Cold War Kids for the win…

…G train, we cannot say the same for you.

So one of the best things about living in NYC is the fact that it has an awesome music scene. That is also one of the aspects that I take the least advantage of unless someone says, “Hey, so-and-so is playing, you should come.” And I’ll do my usual hmmming and ummming and agree. Which was essentially how I ended up at Cold War Kids last night.

I’m not going to lie, when I think, oh major band playing in NYC, I imagine huge stage and packed seating/floor. This was not the case. The Music Hall of Williamsburg is actually not that much larger than The Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri. Which was perfectly all right with me. You felt closer to the bands on stage and you didn’t have to worry about being trampled to death. I was going to add, not having to worry about sweating to death, but compared to the freezing winds outside, that wouldn’t have been bad.

The opening band was Alec Ounsworth and they were crap. Not complete crap, they just tried to overcomplicated things. They snatched trends, no doubt from their favorite bands, put them in blender and then served whatever came out. What came out was unbalanced, with good beats and an awful singer. Actually they had borderline good stuff at the end. Oddly enough those were the songs that were simpler and the singer was either blessedly silent or drowned out. Get rid of the singer and they had potential.

Then came the Cold War Kids, for this we went down to the main floor and proceeded to rock out. I found these guys during one of my early link hopping trips through MySpace during my freshmen year of college. Then proceeded to forget about them until the broke the scene on MTV-U. Only to forget about them again until two weeks ago when I was convinced (it was oh so hard to do) to go to the show. I’ll say this, after seeing them live, I won’t be forgetting them again.

Cold War Kids, have a pretty simple sound. I’m not sure how you would describe it. It’s not really melodic, it’s actually kind of harsh. I was trying to explain them to my friend Erin and the best I could come up with is think Kings of Leon, that kind of weird cross genre sound. Cold War Kids played a tight, clean set. They weren’t overly dramatic or showy, instead they just let us enjoy their music and rock out. Which meant I had fun being that annoying girl screaming along to the lyrics. Yep, I was that girl and had a great time being her too.

Stand out song of the night: Audience. I have had it in my head for the entire day.

Music ADD

So I finally got a new computer. Which means my OS is finally up to date, beautiful thing really. This all leads to me being able to once again listen to music on MySpace. Wonderful and horrible. I’ve spent the evening link hopping from page to page enjoying new and forgotten music.

The Rushes
Mew
Animal Collective
The Big Pink
Jacqueline Francis
The Devil Whale (used to be Palomino)

Oh glory and on Thursday I’m seeing Cold War Kids. Music I love you.

Winter Brownines

In the fall I made orange cinnamon brownies. Now it’s time to make something for the cold season. As I did last time I started with my basic browning mix and then I had fun.

Winter Brownies

1- box of brownie mix

2- eggs

2/3 cup- veggie oil

1/4 cup- peppermint schnapps (instead of water)

2 handfuls- semi-sweet chocolate chips

Truth, the peppermint didn’t come out very strong. I’m going to have to work on that. Maybe if I partner the schnapps with mint extract…I guess more experiments will be required. Well gosh darn it, I’m just heart broken.

Dreamtime

Catarina and I with Ana and Ronaldo in Portugal.

I dreamt I was back in Portugal last night. Once again I found myself hanging out with Catarina. The strangest thing was that while I was thinking in English I was speaking in a mix of Spanish and Portuguese. Or maybe I should say I was butchering it.

So what does that mean?

In the short run I’d say I miss traveling. While New York City is an adventure, it’s not quite the same. Maybe I need to do some random solo trips in the upcoming months. I definitely need to wander more.

But hey, guess what, I have a whole year to do it and a relatively new area to do it in!

Food for thought

• Brooklyn Bread Cafe- Park Slope: The cheesecake at this place is to die for. Ben D. has been raving about it for weeks on in and I finally had some last night with Lukas. Ben D. was right. One slice and you’re in a heavenly food coma for the next hour. I think I need to learn how to make cheesecake.
• Food blogs are addictive and distracting: A lot of my friends are big cooks. As a result I’m gaining a greater and greater appreciation for it. I’m also being introduced to more and more food blogs. This is dangerous because now in my spare time I’m thinking of strange wonderful concoctions I could potentially make. (Sugar Plum and Chocolate and Zucchini)
• Gaiman movie night!: So my love and adoration for Neil Gaiman is not a strange occurrence. It ends up several others share my obsession. So in the near future we are having a Gaiman movie night. Woot.

Nucleus Art Gallery

Why don’t you have a location in NYC?! You house artists I’ve been following since I discovered web comics. You support major Flight authors/artists. But you’re all the way in California. I would happily stalk your galleries every week if you would simply come over here.

Pretty please?

by Brooks Salzwedel

Review: Daybreakers

Daybreakers (R)

First of all I would like to thank the creators of this film for checking the urge to populate it with super sexy people who have a habit of taking off their clothes. No, instead they have normal people, in muted clothing in a slightly futuristic world. The characters are adults with emotions, history and substance.  Not one dimensional, jail-bait tortured souls. The story was actually fairly original, the solution was decent. And for the love of goodness the vampires didn’t sparkle in the sun, they burst into flames.

So thank you.

Now I have to ask you: what the hell were you thinking for the last 10-15 minutes? Was there a bar night and your boss was buying so you just did a rush job?! I mean we had the slow dawning of the sun with a steady crescendo of dramatic music. Our heroes stood perfectly still as it all happened, looking intensely towards the future until they cut to the silhouette and then had them driving off into the sunrise in a freakin’ TransAm. Yeah, that’s right with a giant phoenix on the hood. Subtle as a brick through a window.

It was a great movie (beautiful shots, good actors, and slight commentary on society) and then YOU RUINED IT.

Boo. And the popcorn was stale too.

Review: The Child Thief by Brom

Growing up I always liked Peter Pan. But it was a quiet like that usually was prompted by humming “Following the leader, the leader, the leader.” Then I read the original uncensored story. That’s when I fell in love with the Peter Pan myth. The darkness of Peter not only being forever a child, but to be trapped forever in the present. Unable to form permanent bonds, love, or to truly feel. Yet at the same time he lives more fully than many of us.

So when I read the synopsis of The Child Thief I was essentially tripping over myself to get my hands on it. Finally I finished it today. Brom in his re-imagining of the Peter Pan story mixes the concept Neverland and the Lost Boys with the Arthur myth. Creating something both familiar and disturbingly unique.

Peter has to save Avalon (Brom’s Neverland) where the Flesh-eaters have invaded. To fight the demonized adults Peter steals runaways, orphans and abandoned children from the real world to come back and be his private army, the Devils. For it is up to them to protect not only Avalon but the Lady.

The last boy who Peter tricks into coming is Nick, who lives just a few blocks from my home in Park Slope . Peter is half faerie, half human. Nick is in many ways his equal but with his adult potential just beginning to be realized while still in touch with the magic of youth.

Throughout the entire conflict both boys are forced to not only face the outward conflicts between the Devils and Flesh-eaters but also they have to fight their inner desires. Nick must fight his inner darkness brought upon by the magic of Avalon mixing with his burgeoning adulthood. Peter must decide whether his loyalty is to the Lady, the one person that has loved him unconditionally, to the lives of the children of his clan. Both are forced pick what future they want, who they will pledge their loyalty too.

And they have to save Avalon.

Along with this entrancing, delectable story, are illustrations drawn by Brom himself. Gothic pencil/charcoal sketches mark each chapter with additional full color characters in the middle.

So for those of you who love Peter Pan, dark fairy tales or just a downright good story, go find this book and read it.

Disclosure: Yes, this is a HarperCollins title. That does not sway my opinion.

It was no joke

Riding the A train home today a man stood in the center of the car and started speaking. He said that he was a disabled Vietnam Vet, and he and his family had been recently burned out of their home. Despite help from the Red Cross, they had nothing. Could we please spare some change or at least a smile?

Even before he finished speaking, the man sitting across from me pulled out some money and told him he always had some for the vets, he’d been there too. I, on the other hand, had found a point in the middle distance the moment the first man had started speaking. I’m not proud of it, not at all, but by now it’s a reflex and something I should work on changing.

The man continued up and down the car for another stop and then got off. But after he got off the man who had given him some cash began speaking to his neighbor, a complete stranger. And all I could think of was, I wish I had my tape recorder, because I then proceeded to overhear a fascinating bit of oral history.

The man had been drafted, he like many of the men his age had received the letter in the mail attached to a token. It told him where to report to and unless you had money and could get to Canada fast, that’s where you went. Once he reported he took the exact same oath as the President of the United States.

Vietnam he said, was no joke. He described the jungle, crossing rivers and being shot at while he did. About having his mates shot down next to him and not being able to do anything but eventually go back and retrieve them once the skirmish was over. He spoke about being wounded and then going back, except this time in the helicopters. But the story I remember most vividly was the story of him finally leaving Vietnam.

We cheered twice on our way out. When they called our flight number all of us yelled and cheered. But then as we walked across the flight strip everyone was silent. Not one of us spoke. When the plane took off we were still silent. It wasn’t until one of the guys up front looked out the window and shouted,’We’re out!’ Did we cheer again. Because now Vietnam was only this big [held his forefinger and thumb an inch or two apart.]

We didn’t cheer before that because we could have been shot while loading. Or the plane could have been hit when we were taking off. When you were there, you were never safe until Vietnam was this big, it didn’t matter where you were.

And the crazy thing is that this guy wasn’t bitter and he said that. He says, now looking back, he’s glad he went. Yes, when guys like the man who stood up spoke of the war he was instantly taken back, but in the end it seemed he had made his peace with all of it.

He was still talking when I got off and I wished I had had the courage to say thank you for sharing and for going.