latkes

tonight we are having potato pancakes for dinner in celebration of the second night of hanukkah. we are only marginally jewish but that doesn't make latkes any less delicious!

however, i would not want to eat 46 latkes in eight minutes!

r.i.p. dock ellis

i posted about him before. man, what a crazy story, his supposedly pitching a no-hitter on acid. i don't think i'd really like to be at a ballpark on acid, much less try to play!

does he not look like a total badass? check out the ap/times eulogy here.

arts and crafts christmas!

celebrate the holidays with crafts! make your own snowflake. aseom!

http://www.tamponcrafts.com/snowflake.html

the muppets take brooklyn

this muppets christmas special was filmed in the heights. AND the first song is all about our awesome postal service! yeah, cadman plaza is not exactly singing and dancing. but i guess it would be if the muppets showed up.

check it out here!

HIBACHI!!

I've missed my favorite radio station!

Listen to 89.3 The Current at http://www.mpr.org

Adventures in Budweiser

On the A train, 9:30 am on a Wednesday. Breakfast of champions!

Best. Playwright. Name. Ever.

dad, i know they're your favorite but...

Rom-coms 'spoil your love life'

Films like Four Weddings and a Funeral could promote unrealistic expectations

Watching romantic comedies can spoil your love life, a study by a university in Edinburgh has claimed.

Rom-coms have been blamed by relationship experts at Heriot Watt University for promoting unrealistic expectations when it comes to love.

They found fans of films such as Runaway Bride and Notting Hill often fail to communicate with their partner.

Many held the view if someone is meant to be with you, then they should know what you want without you telling them.

Psychologists at the family and personal relationships laboratory at the university studied 40 top box office hits between 1995 and 2005, and identified common themes which they believed were unrealistic.

The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise Dr Bjarne Holmes Heriot Watt University

The movies included You've Got Mail, Maid In Manhattan, The Wedding Planner and While You Were Sleeping.

The university's Dr Bjarne Holmes said: "Marriage counsellors often see couples who believe that sex should always be perfect, and if someone is meant to be with you then they will know what you want without you needing to communicate it.

"We now have some emerging evidence that suggests popular media play a role in perpetuating these ideas in people's minds.

"The problem is that while most of us know that the idea of a perfect relationship is unrealistic, some of us are still more influenced by media portrayals than we realise."

As part of the project, 100 student volunteers were asked to watch the 2001 romantic comedy Serendipity, while a further 100 watched a David Lynch drama.

Predestined love

Students watching the romantic film were later found to be more likely to believe in fate and destiny. A further study found that fans of romantic comedies had a stronger belief in predestined love.

Kimberly Johnson, who also worked on the study, said: "Films do capture the excitement of new relationships but they also wrongly suggest that trust and committed love exist from the moment people meet, whereas these are qualities that normally take years to develop."

The researchers have now launched an online study on media and relationships.

They are asking people to participate by answering questions about personality, relationships, and media consumption habits by filling in a questionnaire which you can click on here.

the eyes are the windows... of your face.

i can't believe i never saw this before!

death of an icon - r.i.p. bettie page

this is a strange interview... bettie page hasn't let herself be filmed on camera in decades. but what a story.

in just seven years in the business, bettie page was featured in more magazine pictures than marilyn monroe and cindy crawford combined.

my favorite line from bettie in this video: "i never felt i was doing anything wrong when i started posing nude... i don't believe god disapproves of nudity. he put adam and eve in the garden of eden naked as jaybirds."

Carroll Gardens Christmas

baseball in december?

i know, i know.

but i am not the only one who was excited over the last couple of days to watch the mets finally put together a bullpen.

endy chavez, you will be missed.

awesomely canadian.

ok that movie i watched yesterday was pretty amazing. bill murray as gonzo! awesome!

also neil young did the music which consisted of multiple feedback-laden versions of where the buffalo roam. also some creedence. hard to go wrong there!

today's movie: looking out my window on a rainy day.

note: not actually a movie.

go bill murray go

i just discovered this movie: where the buffalo roam starring bill murray as hunter s. thompson.

and i have also discovered that it is available free on netflix!

no. really? REALLY?

Chinese girl gets 'kiss of deaf'

Couples are advised to "proceed with caution" A young Chinese woman was left partially deaf following a passionate kiss from her boyfriend. The 20-something from Zhuhai in Guangdong province arrived at hospital having completely lost the hearing in her left ear, said local reports. The incident prompted a series of articles in the local media warning of the dangers of excessive kissing. "While kissing is normally very safe, doctors advise people to proceed with caution," wrote the China Daily. The doctor who treated the girl in hospital was quoted in the paper explaining what had happened. "The kiss reduced the pressure in the mouth, pulled the eardrum out and caused the breakdown of the ear." The chorus of warnings was echoed by the Shanghai Daily, which wrote: "A strong kiss may cause an imbalance in the air pressure between two inner ears and lead to a broken ear drum." The young woman is expected to regain her full hearing within about two months.

white rabbit cult

i get a lot of spam comments. sometimes they contain remarkable advice. mostly they are just crap, and in russian.

but i received a request via comment to link to the white rabbit cult. which led me to a stunning series of images.

like this poster for the sequel to snakes on a plane...

2008 is the year of the potato??

Lebanese finds 'heaviest' potato

Khalil Semhat insisted he had not used fertilizer to produce his potato

A farmer in southern Lebanon has dug up what might be the heaviest potato in the world.

"This giant weighs 11.3 kilos (24.9 pounds)," Khalil Semhat told the AFP news agency at his farm near Tyre, 85 kilometres (50 miles) south of Beirut.

"I've been working the land since I was a boy, and it's the first time I've seen anything like it."

Mr Semhat, 56, said he had to ask for help from a friend to get the huge vegetable out of the ground.

He insisted that he had used no fertilizer or other chemicals to produce it.

Mr Semhat said he hoped his potato will be recognised as the heaviest potato in the world.

The current world record, as recorded in the Guinness Book of Records, is held by K Sloan of the Isle of Man in the United Kingdom for a potato weighing a mere 3.5 kg (7 lb 13 oz).

2008 is the International Year of the Potato, a project sponsored by the United Nations which aims to focus attention on the importance of the vegetable in providing food security and alleviating poverty.

living dangerously

Man Killed for 'Hogging' Karaoke

A Malaysian man has been stabbed to death for refusing to stop singing and hand over the microphone at a karaoke bar, police say.

Abdul Sani Doli, 23, reportedly angered some of the customers when he hogged the stage at the bar in Sandakan town on eastern Borneo island.

Witnesses said he was attacked, and the fight spilled out on to the street.

He was punched before being stabbed to death with a knife. His body was found a short distance from the bar.

Sandakan's police chief ACP Rosli Mohd Isa said two men were in police custody, helping them with their inquiries.

Karaoke, in which amateurs can sing along to their favourite songs, first emerged from Japan and became hugely popular across Asia during the 1980s, before spreading to other parts of the world.

drunk history

check out this five part series on funny or die. part one stars michael cera as alexander hamilton... i know the ladies loves the michael cera.

See more Michael Cera videos at Funny or Die

GIVE ME MY DR PEPPER

Guns N' Roses lashes out at Dr Pepper

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Guns N' Roses became Guns N' Roses N' Lawyers this week.

The band, which released its first album in 17 years last week, has found itself in a legal tussle with soft drink giant Dr Pepper over a promotion turned awry.

Dr Pepper rolled out a marketing campaign in March promising a "free soda" to "everyone in America" on one condition -- Axl Rose, lead singer and frontman for Guns N' Roses, had to "finally release his 17-year-in-the-making belabored masterpiece, 'Chinese Democracy,' in 2008."

Guns N' Roses, often called GN'R by its fans, released the album last week. And Dr Pepper followed through, posting a coupon on its Web site for a can of soda. There was one catch: fans had 24 hours to go the Web site and print out the coupon.

That's when the Pepper hit the fan. Video Watch why GN'R is so angry »

So many GN'R fans -- and, no doubt, fans of free stuff in general -- tried to get the coupon that they choked the site and it crashed. Disgruntled and downright ticked off, some blamed the band.

"When you go on the blogs and you read the responses from the fans, they associated Axl with this promotion ... and blame him for the fact that they didn't get their free soda," said GN'R lawyer Laurie Soriano.

That's when GN'R became GN'RN'L. Soriano fired off a letter to Dr P. No one is LOL.

Her letter asked the soft drink company to make good on its offer. She has yet to hear back, Soriano said this week.
Don't Miss

* EW.com: 'Chinese Democracy' gets a B

"We've gone public with the fact that we are not involved but are trying to clean up the mess," Soriano told CNN.

Dr Pepper told CNN it had "taken great steps" to keep up its end of the bargain. It said it extended the window for the giveaway from 24 to 42 hours, added a toll-free line to handle consumer requests for the coupons and set up an interactive voice recorder to accept coupon requests. None of those measures are still in effect.

"Additionally," the company said in a written statement, "for those who contacted us in the week after the giveaway about difficulties requesting the coupon, we continued to offer free coupons to address any problems they may have encountered."

That may be so, but the band still wants an apology.

"The door to a lawsuit being filed is always open until the fans are taken care of and Dr Pepper has done the right thing," Soriano told CNN.

The band may have other concerns. "Chinese Democracy" received mixed notices upon its release, and some bloggers are blaming Axl Rose for the new album's reception.

"The album was beaten to the top of the UK charts by The Killers' 'Day And Age' on Sunday," the British music news site NME.com said Tuesday in a segment labeled Today's Top Gossip. "Sources have said that record bosses are fuming because Rose has been AWOL for the last two months -- meaning he hasn't done any promotional work for the album."
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And an official Chinese Communist Party newspaper was widely reported as describing "Chinese Democracy" as a "venomous attack" on China, accusing the band of turning "its spear point on China."

As Rose once sang, "Welcome to the jungle. It gets worse here every day."

go my church!

welcome back.

i have decided it would be nice to engage in adventures again. i will not apologize for the hiatus because i was pretty regularly writing elsewhere.

i have spent the last month thinking long and hard about religion. after much consideration, i have come to the realization that there is only one god, and sorry my muslim friends but his name is not allah.

FROM NOW ON I WILL BOW DOWN TO THE GREAT AND POWERFUL SPONGEBOB.

tough as toast

"Hey man, check out my tag. I WILL TOAST YOU!"

Greed

I just want to point out that already multiple times after asking ADULTS to only take one piece of candy that they have taken more than one.

And then we wonder why our financial system fails...

NO REAL THAN YOU ARE

hello. i am back, for now.

do you remember this giant lego man appearing on a beach?

he's back!

Giant Lego man appears on beach

It is not known where the giant Lego figure came from

A Dutch artist is thought to be behind the mysterious appearance of a giant Lego man on Brighton beach.

The 6ft-tall (1.8m) red, green and yellow figure has the slogan "No Real Than You Are" painted on the front.

Brighton resident Peter McNiven said he had spotted the figure in the sea while walking to work this week.

A spokeswoman for Lego said the artist responsible, Ego Leonard, would be exhibiting artwork in London in the coming weeks.

A Lego man with the same slogan appeared on a Dutch beach last year.

Mr McNiven, 32, who works for a digital marketing company, said: "I just happened to stumble across him on Wednesday morning.

"I took a couple of pictures because it's not something you see every day.

"There's a lot of talk about him coming over from Holland to here, but there's no tide marks on him."

The Dutch Lego man was pulled out of the sea last year

In August 2007 a giant Lego toy, bearing a close resemblance to the Brighton figure, mysteriously appeared on Zandvoort beach in the Netherlands.

The blue and yellow figure was pulled out of the sea and bore the same slogan "No Real Than You Are".

A Lego spokeswoman said: "This giant Lego figure [in Brighton] came as quite a surprise to us when we heard about it yesterday.

"We understand the person behind this is a Dutch artist called Ego Leonard who will be exhibiting in London in the coming weeks."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said the figure had been taken away.

hiatus

i don't really have time for the adventures right now. :(

you probably know why already but if you don't:

groinstrong.com

another great shirt from toothpastefordinner.com

things i think about.

this thing: <3

that means HEART.

not cleavage.

that was confusing for a long time.

monkeys!

monkeys working at a restaurant?

awesome. and so sanitary!

here.

the world's next sociopath

7-Year-Old Breaks Into Zoo, Feeds Live Animals to Croc

Oct. 1: Security footage shows a 7-year-old boy throwing a turtle over a wall at Alice Springs Reptile Centre in Australia.

AP/Alice Springs Reptile Centre

SYDNEY, Australia — A blank-faced 7-year-old boy broke into a popular Outback zoo, fed a string of animals to the resident crocodile and bashed several lizards to death with a rock, the zoo's director said Friday.

The boy jumped a security fence at the Alice Springs Reptile Center in central Australia early Wednesday, then went on a 30-minute killing spree, using a rock to slay three lizards, including the zoo's beloved, 20-year-old goanna, which he then fed to "Terry," an 11-foot, 440-pound vsaltwater crocodile, said zoo director Rex Neindorf.

The boy, whose deadly acts were caught on the zoo's security camera, also threw several live animals to Terry over the two fences surrounding the crocodile's enclosure, at one point climbing over the outer fence to get closer to the giant reptile. In the footage, the boy's face remains largely blank, Neindorf said.

"It was like he was playing a game," he said.

He killed 13 animals worth around $5,500, including a turtle, bearded dragons and thorny devil lizards, Neindorf said. Although none were rare, some would be difficult to replace, he said.

"We're horrified that anyone can do this, and saddened by the age of the child," Neindorf said.

Alice Springs police said they identified the boy, who lives locally, but were unable to press charges because of his age. Children under age 10 are not criminally liable under the law in the Northern Territory.

"By all accounts, he's quite a nasty 7-year-old," said Neindorf, who plans to sue the boy's parents. "If we can't put the blame onto the child, then someone has to accept the responsibility."

The zoo's security system, which relies on sensors, probably did not detect the boy because he is so small, Neindorf said.

asheville skyline

asheville bookstore

amazing.

Woman Wearing Cow Suit Charged With Disorderly Conduct

MIDDLETOWN -- A Middletown woman is accused of being disorderly in public -- while wearing a cow suit.

A police report filed about the incident said Michelle Allen allegedly chased children in her neighborhood while wearing the suit on Monday evening.

Allen also urinated on a neighbor's front porch, the report said, and was warned by officers to go home and stay there.

Allen was charged with disorderly conduct after an officer found her causing traffic problems on North Verity Parkway.

The officer's report stated that Allen was verbally abusive to him on the trip to jail and smelled of alcohol.

The report did not speculate as to why Allen was wearing the cow suit.

Understandable graffiti (F train)

CRAYONS!!! remember this one?

Adventures in housesitting (2nd avenue)

i'm in a spanish paper!

internet fame here i come! my karaoke performance is featured on the front page of the most read paper in spain! i'm right under obama!

http://20minutos.es/

i'm in a spanish blog!

today is my day for creative participation i guess! that seems like a good theme for the day.

my friend dani highlighted my performance of ace of spades on an entry about karaoke. check it!

http://blogs.20minutos.es/entradagratuita

Karaokes de rock and roll en directo, ¿un fenómeno exportable a España?

Durante mi estancia en Nueva York, el pasado verano, me llamó la atención un fenómeno que triunfa entre los aficionados a la música de la Gran Manzana: los karaokes. Pero no cualquier tipo de karaoke. En la "City", como se refieren a ella los neoyorquinos, arrasan los karaokes en los que una banda, con su guitarra, su bajo y su batería, toca en directo sobre un escenario. Nada de música pregrabada. El valiente que decide subir a las tablas escoge entre una amplia lista de temas, la banda lo toca, y él o ella disfrutan de la sensación de ser toda una estrella del rock durante unos minutos.

Uno de los "live karaoke" más solicitados de Nueva York es el que tiene lugar una vez al mes en Otto's shrunken head, un pequeño local situado en pleno East Village. Allí, Bunnie England & The New Originals ofrecen un amplio abanico de versiones que van desde ACDC hasta los Beatles, pasando por los Ramones, Green Day, Motorhead, Nirvana, The Cure, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zeppelin y un sinfín de clásicos del rock de toda la vida que se pueden consultar en su myspace.

Como ejemplo, os dejo el vídeo de mi amigo Jonah reventándose las cuerdas vocales con el clásico de Motorhead "Ace of Spades". Qué grande. Hasta llevaba la carta preparada y todo...

El caso es que, tras ver el éxito del que goza una iniciativa como esta al otro lado del charco, uno no puede dejar de preguntarse si algo así triunfaría en España. Lo cierto es que la norteamericana Rachel Arieff ya trajo, bajo el nombre de Anti-karaoke, algo bastante similar a Barcelona y Madrid, en una mezcla de espectáculo de drag queens y karaoke al estilo del de Otto's. La idea cosechó un éxito considerable, y sigue celebrándose cada mes en las salas Sidecar y Sol.

Pero más allá de la iniciativa de Arieff, creo que es complejo que una idea de estas características triunfe en nuestro país a una escala mayor, tal y como ocurre en Nueva York. Casi nadie domina las letras de los grandes clásicos del rock, más allá de los estribillos. Y es que el nivel de inglés que tenemos en este país deja mucho que desear, casi tanto como la cultura musical de buena parte de la población. Allí, las canciones de los Ramones o la Creedence forman parte de la cultura popular. Todo el mundo las conoce. En caso de querer sacar adelante una idea de espíritu similar en España con espectativas de que triunfe, no quedaría más remedio que llevarla a cabo con canciones de Los Hombres G, Amaral, Los Secretos, Mecano o El Canto del Loco ... ¿o no?

i'm in a painting!

as usual this morning i was walking through madison square park, slowly, enjoying the cool fall morning. for the last three days a friendly painter has been working on a painting of the fountain at the south side of the park. they are building tree houses in the park for an art installation and i stopped to ask the painter if the tree houses had messed up his painting. he smiled and said no and told me that he had just put me in the painting!

check it out, i'm in the middle. it totally looks like me!

hello? HELLO?

dammit, there's no one there.

just hang up.

carefully.

Mmm chicken/ parmessang/.

WHAT?!?!? ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

IT IS TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY! WHY DO YOU PEOPLE NOT REMIND ME OF SUCH THINGS?

moonrise on the roof

weekend update

steak. cake.

my housemate's girlfriend is awfully sweet.

new ideas for grand army plaza.

bhutanese bouncing. brooklyn bridge.

central park reservoir.

best. slogan. ever.

I heart my new neighborhood

grammar... so bad... head... exploding....

morning in the new house!

us open final in madison square park

overheard in brooklyn, or, i miss magnetic field

Max Sometimes Awakens in the Wrong Body

Drunk guy outside window: Where am I? I know I'm in Brooklyn...
Drunk girl: Yeah, we're in Brooklyn.
Drunk guy: Yeah, but what borough is Brooklyn in?

--Atlantic Avenue

still not as good as the first one i got up there....

Let Me Guess: La Boheme

Hobo #1: You know what, man?
Hobo #2: What's up?
Hobo #1: Yo, I balls out love opera.

--Houston & 1st

it is a fact. (transit museum)

strange happenings on clinton street (august 11)

(the new) adventures in brooklyn

ok i have been bad. i'm sorry. i'm busy. and the groinstrong thing has got me all riled up today.

but i am actually interested in keeping the adventures going. so rather than write when i don't have anything to say, i'm going to keep things photo-based for a while. let's see how it goes.

today's entry: when there are no bike racks, you get creative.

best weekend ever!

new orleans

it being the third anniversary of katrina, i thought y'all might like to scan my pictures from my trip to new orleans last year at halloween. it was still pretty f'ed up. but it was encouraging to see signs of life and children playing and laughing. they're working hard. you get thirsty when you work hard.

guerrilla subway advertising