American Madness

As today is Halloween, I feel it only fitting to post at least one pumpkin related post. So I searched around and found a really impressive site:

PumpkinGutter is the website of one really impressive pumpkin carver. Clearly a person with talent who up dates the site one month out of the year, but what impressive work there is in the galleries.

A junior high school teacher with really honed pumpkin carving skills, definitely worth checking out today.You can even check out previous years galleries and see how hehas improved over time.

Reflecting upon Cook. Eat. Drink. Live., I noticed a bit of a trend developing amongst mixed drinks.

Herb’s Vodka flavors their vodkas with rosemary, dill, coriander and fennel.

DH Krahn Gin was serving a Basil Martini.

U’Luvka Vodka had a drink that called for fresh rosemary and another on their website that calls for sage leaf

And of course there is always the mojito with fresh mint.

I think this is going to be the summer of the herbed drinks. To get you started on mixing the perfect summer cocktail, here are a few recipes that you can work on to get you through the winter and look forward to what awaits: (more…)

Do you have awful neighbors? Maybe a slum lord managing your building? Feel like you have no recourse about the problems you are dealing with in your current situation? Well, that really kind of sucks. And this isn’t going to make things too much better for you, but it will help others from falling into the same situation you are in.

RottenNeighbors is a site that let’s you locate your apartment on a Google map, label it and write your problems with where you are, allowing other visitors to learn about the pitfalls of that seemingly perfect building they were considering renting in.

Gripes go from the paper thin walls and loud neighbors next-door to stolen grill components, homeless sleeping on the stoops and collapsing roofs. It even says on the site: “we are here to help you find and discover bad neighbors no matter where you are thinking about relocating.”

Of course it only works if you take part as well, the more people who write their stories on the site, the more neighborhoods are covered. There is even a blog that discusses different ways to deal with bad neighbors and advice on how to resolve problems with neighbors. Pretty interesting, well at least until your apartment is highlighted as an undesirable neighbor… So preempt that, go on their and write yourself up as being an excellent, caring neighbor, as oppossed to all those other bastards who live in your building.

Different folks like different levels of scary for Halloween, some people are all about watching the slasher flicks and checking out the newest haunted house guaranteed to make you wet your pants, others prefer something a bit tamer like Bedknobs & Broomsticks.

While people are headed out to the parade or heading to their local watering hole to get their Halloween groove on, if you are one of the ones who prefers a good fright maybe you are up for something a little different. If that’s the case the NY Post has just the thing for you: A list of the 10 most haunted sites in New York.

Included on the list we have Washington Square Park, the Chelsea Hotel and a couple of restaurants also some other hotels, churches and cathedrals and the like. The list was compiled by FindingDulcinea, a site that works to compile information.

Kind of neat and worth checking out if you are up for a good Halloween scare.

Thank you for tuning back in for the stunning conclusion of Cook. Eat. Drink. Live. Review.

Yesterday we discussed prepared foods and some of the classes at the show, today we are focusing on pre-packaged food and booze. Also at the end you will get a little rant from me about last minute price dropping and my thoughts for the future of Cook. Eat. Drink. Live.

On the pre-packaged food side of the event, everything I had was really tasty, though didn’t necessarily “rank” as far as I was concerned, there were some cookie people who had a decent product, but by no means great. Stonybrook yoghurt was there, that just confused me, then on the flipside there was Snooty Foods which had some fantastic spreads and dips (their pickles were so/so though), Feed Granola (which I admit, I liked before I cam into the show so I am a bit biased there) who have a great story behind the company which we will hopefully be able to write about and a new flavor called “Bittersweet-ness” which was really tasty. And then there was Pesto with Panache by Lauren. They had four different varieties-Smoked Salmon, Blueberry, Strawberry and Pumpking Chipotle, apparently they are sold frozen, defrosted and served- they were excellent pestos, the blueberry was especially good (and I am not a huge blueberry fan, so that says a lot). (more…)

I hear so many people gripe and bitch about how expensive New York is and how there are no deals to be found in this town and that rent is too high and that they never have any money to do anything, and that is why they claim they have holed themselves up in their apartments on a Monday night watching Law & Order reruns on TNT rather then coming out and joining you for a drink.

Well it’s time to blow their excuses away with FreeNYC. FreeNYC is a listing of what you can find for free around the city today: special events, regular events and everything in between. Enjoy a free burger and beer at the Town tavern until the 11th, some bourbon in park slope, or free drinks and music on the Lower East Side. Each day a new set of free events is listed specific to that day.

They hope that “by scouring the city and its outlaying lands, FreeNYC helps you save a buck or two, while still enjoying all the city has to offer.” The site is updated daily and “supplies a variety of activities to keep you busy all week long. From bars and booty shakin’ good times to museums, performances and gallery openings, FreeNYC serves up culture that promises not to break the bank.”

So there you go, now it’s either time to admit you are obsessed with Jerry Orbach and S. Epatha Merkerson or get off your couch and spend some quality time with those friends you’ve been neglecting.

Friday and Saturday did not have the nicest weather, from the misting all day Friday to the pouring almost all throughout Saturday. It was just really pretty wet. That made it the perfect combination of days to spend indoors at the Cook. Eat. Drink. Live. event on the pier.

Now first, let me bitch for a second (and this is really only a problem because it was so wet this weekend): Why the hell are there no subways that go that far west? Walking over to Pier 94 (or was it 92?) in the pouring rain from 60th and 8th Avenue is just not fun. Okay, good, got that out of my system, moving on…

Cook. Eat. Drink. Live. was a massive 2 day event on the pier. There were lines of exhibit booths where you could sample wines, various packaged foods, caterers, some beers and a whole lot of booze. Beyond the booths, there were classes and demonstrations throughout the day, almost every hour on the hour. Usually, there was a cooking demonstration in the main room, a cocktail demonstration or wine tasting in one of the two side rooms, and another cooking demo or tasting in the other side room. The events started around 11 in the morning and went until 5.

In writing this up, I am finding I have the same problem as when I arrived at Pier 94 on the first day: I am overwhelmed by it all. When I got there, I wandered in a circle around the booths 3 times just trying to take it all in. I was totally overwhelmed by it. Everything looked incredible and I just wasn’t sure where I wanted to start. Today, though, we are just going to start with the cooking demos.

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I am so used to writing about being pissed off based on my experiences dealing with customer service departments and the like that I am almost at a loss this morning about what to say about some great service I got. I think it is only fair that if I am going to sit here writing rants and bad mouthing folks for having stupid policies (like Citysearch) and poor customer relations it is only fair to highlight good service when it is received.

We’ll start with a bit of back story: In June of 2000 when Rachel (now my wife) and I moved into our apartment we got a Polaroid JoyCam and started snapping photos of our friends who came to visit us. We took these photos, glued some magnets to the back and slapped them up on the fridge. By the time we moved (within the same building) a year later, our fridge was almost filled with pictures, we decided to continue the project and started covering our front door with magnetized pictures after the fridge was filled. Every now and then we would miss a photo and 1 of the originals was even stolen, but for the most part we have photos of every one who has been to our place (give or take 15 people). When we were out of the JoyCam film we tried snapping digital photos of folks and then transferring them to the JoyCam film when we got more of it with mixed results.

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Just wanted to let folks know that this is going to be a slow post day. I am headed to Cook. Eat. Drink. Live. today to learn about a whole bunch of new stuff to share with ya’ll tonight and over the weekend.

Sorry if my lack of posting negatively impacts your time wasting today. Just think there will be so much more to read when you return on Monday.

Tune in next week for a full review of the Cook. Eat. Drink. Live fiasco fiesta.

Well, I guess that is one way to look at this one.

It’s not really that surprising that some people want Rudy Giuliani dead. He has been controversial in what he has done almost since day one. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that while he was a U.S. attorney the mafia discussed taking him out (especially since he was going after organized crime).

Well, as it turned out two of the five family heads, mafia bosses John Gotti (Gambino family) and Carmine “The Snake” Persico (Colombo family) were in favor of having Giuliani sleep with the fishes. But this is all kind of old news. The memo that states this is from 1987 and was found in a file being reviewed during the prosecution of a former FBI agent Roy Lindley DeVecchio who is on trial for leaking information.

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