New York City Metblogs » nyc_sarah

San Gennarriffic!

nyc_sarah — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 14:44:31 +0000

If you’re planning to check out Little Italy’s famous San Gennaro Festival, you can get all the details by clicking the link. We had our own version, the Feast of Santa Rosalia (…I think it’s a feast, anyway), out here a few weeks ago, but I might have to commute in for a cannoli taste test. Just, you know, for quality control. Heh.

Comedosaurus

nyc_sarah — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 16:26:21 +0000

Is it me, or does the proposed lineup for the NY Comedy Festival seem a little…creaky? I wouldn’t pay to see any of these folks except Leary.
Still, the idea is cool; I hope it gathers some steam as time goes on.
In the meantime, check out my boy Jeff at Comic Rhythm, Monday nights in the East Village. “Oh, I don’t know.” Oh, go on. He lists awkward silences as a skill on his c.v. That’s awesome. Go check it out.

Meanwhile, in Flushing…

nyc_sarah — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 13:09:26 +0000

Art “We Try To Win, But We Don’t Know” Howe gets the gate. I can’t speak to whether this is deserved; the scuttlebutt seems to be that the manager is not taking a hard enough line with certain lazy veterans.
If dumping Piazza isn’t an option, I guess this is the smart move. Any Mets fans care to comment?

Better dead than Red (Sox)

nyc_sarah — Wed, 15 Sep 2004 09:15:08 +0000

David Ortiz, Johnny Damon, and other Hose get with the trash-talking prior to this weekend’s showdown.
And, you know, they’ve got us on the facts. Our pitching is so shitty right now that I keep thinking I’m watching a Tigers game, and despite a few recent encouraging starts, our middle “relief” is anything but, the Loaiza trade looks dumber with each passing day, and A-Rod still is not getting enough done with guys on base. Right now Boston is the better team, handily.
But trying to roll up on the Yankees all “we’ll beat your asses” is…whatever. Seriously, whatever. First of all, trying that kind of high-school-football intimidation tactic on the winningest franchise in the game is sad. Second of all…you probably won’t beat anything but yourselves, same as you always do.
So, we’ll see. My prediction: Boston takes two out of three but still can’t win the division.

They Call Him…Don

nyc_sarah — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 17:18:28 +0000

Not quite three years ago, a man named Don was my disaster buddy. I never got to say thanks; if you know where I can find him, drop me a line.

Decasia-dence

nyc_sarah — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 09:17:47 +0000

If anyone’s planning to check out the symphonic-movie dealie at St. Ann’s Warehouse this weekend, please post and let us know what it was like. I can’t go but I’m curious.
On a not totally unrelated subject…do any of y’all know if Void is still operational? Void was/is a bar on, I think, Mercer, close to Canal, that would play surf movies and whatnot on the back wall and pair it with trip-hop; they had tabletop video games and stuff like that. Back in the day when I had a public access show, they’d always hold the producers’ party (…I know, whatever) there. Cool space, and I’d always run into someone I knew there randomly (once my brother materialized at the end of the bar and I was like, “Whoa, worlds colliding”).

BQEeeeeeeeeeevil

nyc_sarah — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 12:42:54 +0000

I got from close to the tip of Cape Cod back to the NYC city limits in four and a half hours yesterday — pretty good time, even for a leadfooted Jersey girl (and really good when you factor in how many times I had to stop to REPAIR MY CAR’S FRONT BUMPER WITH CHEWING GUM, and sadly, that is no kind of exaggeration at all, there’s the better part of an economy pack of Trident Original Flavor holding that bitch on right now, ARGH, fucking Jetta, ANYWAY).
From the edge of the Bronx to my house? Another TWO HOURS, and that’s AFTER I bailed out on the BQE at Atlantic Avenue and took 4th Avenue south to my happy home in Dykerhurst or whatever the hell they’re calling this neighborhood now.
Whatever. Regardless. That is INSANE to me, that on a Wednesday at 3:30 PM, it takes me two hours to go seven miles. And I don’t get it. Does rush hour start at 2 PM now? Do New Yorkers not know how to drive in the rain? (Actually, anecdotal evidence suggests that this is true, which I don’t get, since we get more rainy days than Seattle. People, it’s a little water. Cope.) Did everyone else have the same “sneak back into the city on a weekday” post-vacay idea I did? Or are there just too many damn cars on the road these days?
I love my car, don’t get me wrong. Okay, I don’t love my actual car. My actual car is an abusive shitpile. I love *having* a car, because…Jersey girl, that’s how we do. But I think we need some kind of legislation, or restrictions, or driver day rationing (like, if you have a MWF card, you can’t drive on Thursdays), or something, to force people to take public transit, because it seems to me as though traffic is getting noticeably worse, just in the past few months, and do not get me started on the insane clown double-parking in Brooklyn because ACK. I think there are just too many cars in NYC, and I think we need, I don’t know, a lottery or something to see who gets to have a car here, and if I lose on that, well, okay, the Jetta goes to Jersey and stays there, but it’s becoming a big problem.
If anyone else is seeing an increase in traffic/driver stupidity lately — or is seeing the opposite — please comment, but it’s getting worse from my perspective, and my friends with bikes report that it’s getting worse too.
Also, if this post made you want to ditch your auto, consider giving it to charity. It’s a sweet write-off; I’d do it myself but I think the car is supposed to actually HELP people, which mine wouldn’t. Because HATE.

Dateline: 34th Street

nyc_sarah — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 08:46:51 +0000

I trucked up to the old neighborhood, Murray Hill, today to run errands. A few things I saw and heard:
1. The cops lining 34th Street all looked about 20 years old.
2. I went to a coffee shop on 30th to try to do a bit of work, and got sucked into a conversation with the San Franciscans at the next table; initially, they were annoying me with this Beckettian conversation about brioche that seriously Would Not End, but then they started trash-talking W., and a local chimed in, and then he and the SFers and a Quebecois and I were all sitting around with lattes, bitching about Giuliani’s speech.
3. Next stop, Macdougal Ale House, and I decide to walk. The streets seem remarkably deserted, even for the week before Labor Day, and I kid you not, EVERY conversation I overhear on the street is about the current administration and NONE of them is flattering to said administration.
4. I’m buying smokes on Bleecker and a guy is panhandling outside the deli. [cup rattle] “Donate to the Buy Bush A Clue Fund!” Hee.
5. Riding home on the D train, a guy is taking pictures of the moon out the window.
Greatest city in the world, and starting tomorrow, it’s ours again. If you haven’t registered to vote, please do so first thing tomorrow. It’s important.

Be careful out there

nyc_sarah — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 14:52:52 +0000

Apparently, conditions in Protester Jail are not the best — people stuck for up to 30 hours before getting their tickets issued, then coming out all stained with grease and soot — and now former tenants of “Li’l Gitmo,” which used to be a bus depot, are saying that the building has a fairly serious asbestos problem. (I can’t find a link at the moment, but heard it on WINS earlier.)
I’ve gotten pinched before, but that was in the suburbs; I got my own bathroom. This is decidedly less posh, and if you get collared, you’ll be there for a while — as the Hill Street Blues guy used to say, let’s be careful out there.
Also, (Thomas) Frampton comes alive!

Life goes on

nyc_sarah — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 11:56:01 +0000

…during the RNC, and so does live music. If you’re at loose ends on Thursday night, step over to the Baggot Inn to hear Emith at 8 PM. It’s an acoustic duo with a variety of influences, sure to soothe your red-state-inflamed nerves. Plus, Carol is pretty.
More scheduling info here.