What?

Goodbye to the Buyback

I don’t remember the upside down shot glass, (or the term buyback,) but getting one “on the house” every third or fourth round was standard back in the day when we hung out at bars like MiLady’s or Barnabas Rex, ordering beers. I get a free glass of wine sometimes at South Brooklyn Foundry, if the server knows me, or the owner’s around to tell them; at Brooklyn Beet Co, where I’m a regular, they don’t buy me any, but they always give me a very generous pour. Yes, I tip well. 

Brexit! Obviously it's massively complicated and I don't think anyone has a real grasp on what the ramifications will be. I think this article is an even handed look at the range of possible economic implications, and it shares (mostly) my general pro Brexit feeling at least insofar as it represents a strike against the clearly failed policies of neoliberalism (failed, that is, for all but the very top of the economic ladder.) Interesting times and all that....

 

holy crap!!!

via

The 10 Best New Restaurants of 2008

By FRANK BRUNI
Published: December 31, 2008
1. MOMOFUKU KO David Chang’s intimate 12-seat, sushi-counter-style restaurant heads this list not only because its best dishes and moments are so memorable, but because it’s a paradigm-busting experiment that, like so much of what Mr. Chang has done, heeds and adjusts for what a new generation of discerning diners cares most about — and what fuss and frippery they can do without.

2. CORTON This blissful collaboration of the restaurateur Drew Nieporent and the chef Paul Liebrandt presents luxury of a more classic sort, at an admirably moment-reflecting price of $76 for a three-course prix fixe with a flurry of amuse-bouches and petit fours. And it finds Mr. Liebrandt at the sweet spot between runaway imagination and good sense.

3. (TIE) SCARPETTA To what heights can a simple dish of spaghetti al pomodoro rise? Scarpetta provided the answer — the sky’s the limit — and a host of other delights, its sometimes agitated setting in the meatpacking district not among them. At Scarpetta the chef Scott Conant reconnected with his early glory days at L’Impero.

3. (TIE) CONVIVIO The post-Conant L’Impero, meanwhile, became this warmer, redder, more convivial restaurant. The chef Michael White’s improved menu here pegged him as one of the city’s top pasta whizzes, and he showed a Batali-esque enthusiasm for organ meat.

5. DOVETAIL The chef John Fraser abandoned Compass but not the Upper West Side, reemerging in this somewhat plain but entirely comfortable and charming restaurant, which surpassed just about everyone’s expectations, becoming more than just a neighborhood favorite.

6. MATSUGEN In the TriBeCa space where he had tried to make a lasting success of 66, Jean-Georges Vongerichten decided to treat Japanese cooking in a more straightforward and respectful vein than 66 had treated Chinese. He left the menu and cooking to a team from Tokyo, who rewarded him with underexposed, compelling dishes and excellent soba.

7. ADOUR ALAIN DUCASSE Mr. Ducasse ratcheted down the opulence of his previous fancy Manhattan restaurant in the Essex House with this successor in the St. Regis, notable for Sandro Micheli’s exceptional desserts and for a blockbuster (and pricey) wine list. I’d rank this higher if a first-year change in executive chef and Mr. Ducasse’s distant involvement didn’t raise questions about consistency.

8. BAR BOULUD This relatively casual effort from Daniel Boulud doesn’t get everything right, but for its outstanding charcuterie, an exemplary wine list and scattered other delights, it deserves big applause.

9. ALLEGRETTI Alain Allegretti, a French chef who worked under Mr. Ducasse, struck out on his own, choosing an odd block and a risky moment for saucy cooking that was, at its best, a heady ticket straight to Provence.

10. MIA DONA The chef Michael Psilakis, perhaps more prescient about the economy than some peers, responded to the kudos for his haute Greek restaurant Anthos with this Italian restaurant of big flavors and big portions at accessible prices.

word to the wise.... do not get into an argument with jim over the relative merits of synthetic versus natural decking materials if you are itching for a quick and easy exit from a mutually besotted encounter. i wont mention which jim as i suspect either or perhaps all might take the installation of composites as a personal affront.

Ocularis at Galapagos Art Space 70 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Contact Thomas Beard for further information :: thomas@ocularis.net 646.420.0359

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Argument Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, 1978, 84 minutes Monday, April 24 at 8 PM

"The twin principles of modernism and marketing: seeing fresh promise in familiar things."

Or the music page... T. Rex live with Tony Visconti commentary.

In an interview with UPI about his new best seller "The Blank Slate," Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker was asked about his voluminous curly hair. The interviewer thought Pinker looked like musicians Peter Frampton, Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Pinker saw more similarity to Mark Bolan from the band T. Rex, conductor Simon Rattle, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and "Bruno," the pianist on the television series "Fame."

NYTimes editorial subhead: "The return of riders to the Staten Island ferry on Thursday morning was a testament to the resilience of Staten Islanders." I guess that's true if by resilient they mean "broke," "overextended," and/or "working for heartless employers." (As many people are these days--hello? NYTimes?)

Is that badass cat Rex still looking for a new home?

the next best thing to the cat psychic, and she's right here in nyc. rex's troubles may soon be over.

i bought expensive fresh NY porcini at the market this am and while they were ok as a pasta sauce (butter, oil, parm chesse, pasley), we could not eat them all, so lets see if the cats will, rex 4 or 5 pieces, prisilla eat everyother one left and licked the bowl clean, she ate more than me.....she's purring taking a nap now

i recieved a birthday kitty today, her name is ??

rex is not happy:>)

sick bird. bother. rexilla brought it in and there was a commotion in mike's office. we rescued it and now it's in the backyard "resting" - we hope that he starts to feel better and flies away. if not, what to do? (it's too small to grill)

"Michael Moorcock, a living saint of English gutter fiction, once observed that Victorian middle-class morality had erected wrought-iron rails about the confines of what could be considered literature--essentially Jane Austen and the novel of manners. All other forms of writing, like genre fiction and the literature of the fantastic, were exiled to the wastelands out past the perimeters. Literature was a vanity mirror for the social strata that could afford to be literate, and only writing that reflected an absorption in the social intricacies of the book-buying classes would be allowed past the gate, past the critics, past the guard dogs. This still obtains. No admission for the too-flamboyantly attired, for the impassioned and overexcited, for the rowdy or intoxicated or possessed, who are relocated to where the surfaced roads peter out and the inbred web-toed monsters really start to kick in. With the gothic melodramas and pornographies and ranting pamphlets. This isn't a nice district. You're not likely to have a park named after you. On the other hand, there are advantages . . ."

--from an interview with Alan Moore, writer of the graphic novels Watchmen and From Hell.

We know about the Tiger, but what about the birds? Are they live, or are they Memorex?
My favorite story from the Masters golf tournament.

More trouble with names and fancy language.
Owing to priority rules in paleontological nomenclature, Tyrannosaurus rex is in danger of losing its name. Say it ain’t so, Manospondylus! (via Ancient World Web)

5/28/00 how can you tell what is a great restaurant?? well i heard of one supossed here in merida, only open for lunch when they feel like it. so as this is my final day in merida i was happy to see the doors open. it was a small clean but sparce place with photos on the wall of the owner with the pope, bull fighters and the local music stars so i knew it was going to be fun and as its name is "el cangrejito" (the crab) i was sure that seafood was the speciality. and as a recent veghead turned fish eater i was excited. all the foods were served by the owner himself from behind this small glass stand and all of the tapas like foods were served as tacos with superb admixtures. i orderded one of each as there were only 5 (shrimp, lobster, fish, crab, conch) sucked them down quickly with a beer and the "fish nazi" watch my every move to see if i liked. and then he came over to see what i thought to the dislike of other patrons whom had to wait while i commented as no one else could get back behind the maestro's glass arena. out of respect i said another round and el capitain smiled like a cheshire cat and made me up another round. i stuffed them down with another beer and was about to burst and i was about to get the check when another beer arrived from the waitress whom said was from the chef whom had misteriously disapeared to the kitchen. when he returned he told me to wait and at this point some guests had walked out do to no service and the whole time i was there the phone was ringing and maestro picked it up "yes were open" and hang up the phone without another word. boom another plate of tacos is placed in front of me and as i feared it was no fish but what appeared to be an animal from the inside out, which reminded me of when i was in north thailand one chinese new year hanging with the chief of an opium hamlet and i had to sit by his side as guest and get the prime parts of a rarely eaten bird again from the inside out. the grandson started with the brains and i was next and i started with the womb and its egg--scary shit!! at this point i had the whole restaurant watching me as i was now eating more tacos than two huge mexicans and must be important to get all these "specials". i ate them as fast and as respecfully as i could and was hoping to bolt back to the hotel to hang with my good friend Anna Rexia when another beer appeared and the place was put on hold again as el freako ran off laughing to the kitchen to come back with one final taco. not recognizing it at all i sluged it with beer down with the chef towering over me awaiting my responce. "excellente senor, que es??" at which point he takes his hat off and said "brains me amigo brains" something i thought i didnt have for steping in here.....