The Weekly Hit List

A friend recently came to me with a great suggestion to help maintain regular updating... The Weekly Hit List will serve as a mechanism to compensate for lack of creativity/material much like the Top 10 lists have done in the past.

These lists will just be arbitrary things (events, news, food, music etc.) that have somehow caught my attention, but don't warrant a full explanation or post.

• First off, today is my buddy Kyle's birthday. If you're in Manhattan come celebrate at Cheap Shots (where you drink free on your birthday. Seriously) after midnight!
  

• Tonight is President Obama's first State of the Union Address. Highly anticipated topics include the stimulus bill, the current economic crisis and new approaches to foreign policy. I won't urge you to stay tuned because you either care enough to know to watch it or wouldn't understand if you did. 
  

• If you've been missing out on all the recession specials here's your chance to capitalize on cheap eats. A cleverly named new Vietnamese Hoagie spot in Murray Hill, "Baoguette" is serving up some scrumptious by-product of French colonial cultural subjugation. 
  

• Lastly if you've still got that "Jai Ho" song stuck in your head from the Oscars then tune in to this Jon Brion (music mastermind behind Eternal Sunshine and I Heart Huckabees) track from the indie flick "Synecdoche, New York"-- A heartbreaking hit.
  

Despana

I recently went to this tiny chic Spanish butcher shop on Broome St. by Centre St.. It provides high quality assortments of cured meats, cheeses and Spanish preserves. The back counter serves up a variety of simple hot and cold sandwiches on ciabatta rolls. Don't come here looking for the typical NY deli sandwich (piled disgustingly high with meat with a shred of lettuce and a stale tomato). Instead these sandwiches are true to their European roots-- meat that bursts with flavor paired with the perfect poignant cheese or spread. That's it. Despana's success lies in its simple authenticity. With meats like theirs, they don't need much else.

Old School Boss Footage

Here's a video from way back (1978). It's a live performance in Passaic, NJ... Essentially the equivalent of going to a Tupac concert at the Cow Palace in 1994.

Enjoy.

Bottoms Up!

Here's something to drink to.

Richard Applebaum, a New York City lawyer is turning heads with his unique proposal to pull Americans out of the current recession.

Rather than funnel government money through major corporations and financial institutions who are responsible for leading us into the recession, Applebaum suggests debt forgiveness on all student loans for graduates who make less than $150,000 annually.

Some real bottom-to-top change.

Check out the article on the Huffington Post

Iran So Far

These SNL Shorts seem to get better and better... Check out more at Hulu.com!

Top Ten Things You Love to Hate

Keeping with the theme of Valentine's Day, Love and Hate. I decided to take a moment to think of those special things that catch our attention. They captivate us, we simultaneously despise them and are infatuated with them. The mere sight of them brings fire to our eyes until we stop and think, "What would the world be like without them?" and smile. Sometimes our resentment is justified but often times we have no good reason at all.

Here's to...

1. Kevin Garnett

2. Frat Boys

3. Sorority Girls

4. New Jersey

5. The Economy

6. Made up holidays (Valentine's Day)

7. Conservative Republicans (especially the young ones)

8. Every celebrity with a tabloid nickname (LiLo, Jlo, Beniffer etc.)

9. Talking on cell phone's while driving (Who are you trying to fool? You either miss it or still do it!)

10. The Plain White T's (Why can't I stop listening to his whiny voice?)


Big thanks to Holly for the track.

Enjoy

The Sounds of Summer: 1996

*Bzablog fun fact: This is the third time I've posted a track that samples Sting's "Shape of My Heart"

Love/Hate

Radio Raheem probably captured it best, as he recounted Love's triumphant victory over Hate on that scorching hot summer day in Brooklyn. But this unforgiving and elusive quest to understand the deep complexities of two of man's most extreme emotions has been a reoccurring artistic theme that transcends various mediums through history, from Shakespeare to Martin Lawrence. (Barring sheer insanity) It is between these two extremes where the source of all artistic expression lies whether it be deep-seated rage, fear, infatuation or simply boredom. One might expect that with every imaginable emotion in between, the path from one extreme to the other would be enduring and the barriers resilient. However, this naivety is all too often met with the reality that no such linear spectrum of emotion exists "between" the two. In fact some might argue that Love and Hate share more in common than the differences that separate them.

As Man indefinitely hangs in the balance, helplessly inching his way forward along the razor-"thin line" between both extremes, this uncertainty will continue to fuel the vehicle by which an artist delivers his masterpieces to the common man.

Here's my favorite track from Q-Tip's latest album The Renaissance. It features Raphael Saadiq and is appropriately titled
"We Fight We Love"

Enjoy!

The Sounds of Summer: 1995

Last night I stepped out of a cab on 2nd Ave and took a brisk step onto a slick patch of ice on the sidewalk-- waiting for the worn rubber soles of my desert boots like an urban bear trap. Any other night my cat-like reflexes would have kicked in to save me from a spill but I was on the phone, distracted and short a hand. Those unusually strong gusts of wind that you feel when you walk down avenues were blowing in full force and blasting my face causing me to squint as I got off the phone with my brother. Just before my hand freezes off from being up to my ear for too long I walk into the bar where I meet my friends for a birthday.

This was the song playing when I first walked in; a great track from way back that has always reminded me of summer. When leaving the house at the wrong hour was a serious threat to one's health and the temperature hit the 90s before noon. Ah, the good ol' days of summer.

To keep warm the majority of us who don't live in regions that are enjoying mid-70s to low 80s this time of year here are some jams from the past. Songs that will always remind us that summer is just around the corner. Hang in there.

Today's featured song is one of my favorites from L.

Ingredients for successful summer jam video= overcrowded block/dance party, Female R&B group harmonizing in neon green outfits, the audacity to wear a Tommy Hilfiger sailing jacket in the summer (see dude at block party), and of course... Hershey's Chocolate syrup.

Watch and enjoy

LL COOL J - Loungin' (1995)

Top Ten Failed New Inventions in Consumer Electronics: Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing

Keep in mind that these are from the perspective of a 22 year-old. I can't honestly speak about the 8 Track or the Delorian or anything predating the early 90s.

In no particular order.

1. Segways

2. Nintendo's Virtual Boy

3. Digital picture frames (got tacky after Christmas 2007)

4. Cell phones with cameras

5. Tablet PC

6. Windows based PDAs

7. XFL (I know this doesn't fall within the realm of consumer electronics... but let's face it. It sucked)

8. The Magic Bullet

9. Voice activated typing/ anything voice activated

10. Verizon Ring Back Tones (completely unprofessional)

Rule # 31

Sometimes two great things together can be amazing. (The exception to rule #30)

Rule #30

Sometimes two great things together don't work.

Rule #29

Timing is everything.

Rule #28

Mayo is not as gross as you think.

THANKS FOR THE PIC. GO check out Foodmayhem.com!

Train of Thought: Next Stop... Impulse Purchasville!

In the past two days I've noticed (thanks to the ever-so-voyeuristic 'News Feed') that three of my friends on Facebook used famous lyrics from Notorious B.I.G. tracks as their status.

It reminded me of "Notorious" the highly anticipated biographical flick that depicts the rise of the slain Brooklyn rap legend.

I quickly checked Fandango for show times but learned that it premiers next Friday.

Then I thought to myself "What is my favorite Biggie classic?"

Ah of course! The best usage of a Notorious B.I.G. track in a feature film is undoubtedly "Can't You See" in "The Wackness"

"The Wackness" was released on DVD four days ago and available at Best Buy for $19.99

Run and grab this movie ASAP... It's a sure-fire hit!

Give me all the chicken heads from Pasadena to Medina...!

By Popular Demand

Unlikely circumstances have lead to my relocation into an undergraduate dorm here at NYU. I can't help but note the irony that my final semester in college will be my first semester in the dorms (a fact that also owes itself to unlikely circumstances). While it seems like every sophomore is dying to move out into their own overpriced bachelor(ette) pad in Manhattan I've found myself settling into a mediocre apartment-style residence hall in a neighborhood that an optimist would call TriBeCa but your nose would tell you Chinatown.

Regardless of the change in scenery I can't find a single thing to complain about. Sharing a room for the first time will undoubtedly take some getting used to. But I couldn't of asked for a better person to share a room with (team mate/ friend/ and of course, avid reader of the Bzablog). Not to mention all the other familiar faces who I've already run into here. People I've known since my first week in NYC.

Maybe it takes two years struggling to find a shoebox for rent in the Manhattan real estate market to appreciate the luxuries of the dorm life I've never known.

So here's to the next and for some of us the last semester.

Rule #27

Mixed nuts on the street never taste as good as they smell.

Rule #26

Every year seems to go by quicker. Don't let this one pass you by. Try new things, be more considerate and don't wish for better health, but work for it.


Try and think of a resolution.

Cole's

No, not NYU's Sports and Recreation Center. When Cole's first opened in Downtown LA used to serve up french-dipped sandwiches that rivaled a little place called Phillipe's by Union Station. After decades of dormancy it has recently been re-opened thanks to new owner, Cedd Moses (7 Grand, La Cita etc.)

I had the roast beef sandwich with cheddar and a side of baked potato salad. Both were surprisingly excellent given the time of night, the late-rush and relatively new kitchen (less than 2 weeks open). The roast beef was prepared perfectly medium and the au jus wasn't too salty like you might find at a regular diner. Although the prices are relatively higher than Phillipe's, the quality of the ingredients and the final product make for an overall better sandwich.

10 Flavors I Hate

10. horse radish

9. black olives

8. paprika

7. anchovies

6. dentists' "bubble gum" toothpaste (that's not bubble gum)

5. wasabi

4. plain arugula

3. flavored rum

2. Tap water from the spout with all the buttons behind the bar... (aka the water at Tonic on 3rd Ave.)

1. capers