September 16, 2007 - November 3, 2007

Saturday, November 03, 2007 Focus? Current mood: blah Here it is Saturday night, and I pretty much haven't left my house since Tuesday night. 'Tis nice, indeed. I did leave last night to do a catering gig out in Long Island. A brand new company, but there it was, the exact same menu - complete with mini hamburgers, mini lobster rolls, and something else that was mini, but I can't recall at this time. Oh, when will the mini fad die??? I am thinking about leaving the house tomorrow, but what will I do? Perhaps a trip to Kalustyan's, or perhaps a trip to Arthur Avenue? Those seem to be my default excursions when I'm not in the mood to be around people, yet I need to get out of the house. It's the best of both worlds. I should check up on my friend James. It's been months since I've spoken to him, seeing as we've both been so busy (re: out of town). After he published his cookbook, he became the Editor in Chief of a very big culinary magazine. A great gig, but I sometimes wonder if it's the job for him. I'm not saying that he can't do the job, it's just that I don't really see him sitting at a desk so much. Well, perhaps there's more to it than sitting at a desk. Hopefully he still gets to travel, as he has always loved to do that so much. Speaking of traveling, my latest foray in the Internet world has been with couchsurfing.com. I've heard a lot about it through my travels, and I'm wondering if it's such a bad idea. I've posted my profile, and have made a few inquiries with other people that have profiles posted. I'll let you know how it turns out. Or, perhaps you know something about this site and/or have had experiences with it? Let me know. Now to figure out why the "L" key on my keyboard keeps on sticking. What an exciting life I lead these days. 2:50 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 The Twelve Days of Halloween Current mood: discontent It seems to me that there have been so many Halloween festivities, that it SHOULD be called "The Twelve Days of Halloween". Frankly, I've had enough. I've so much had my fill that I even decided to stay in on the actual night. I think the beginning and the end was on Sunday night. First, it was Susie Mai's benefit at Midway, which, by the way, was a smashing success. I think over $1500 was raised for her! After the benefit, off we went to the Beauty Bar's Zombie Beauty Pageant. At first I was really hoping that the whole thing would be over by the time I got there (when did I become such a curmudgeon?), and there would be miles of empty seats with Hollis spinning a few of the hits. Not to say that Hollis spinning means empty seats, it was merely wishful thinking. But that was not to be the case, and in the end, I am glad. I mean how often do you get to see zombie chicks competing as brain eaters??? It's definitely a first for me. A good time was had by all at Beauty Bar (except for the losers???) but it just couldn't be enough. Afterall, is enough ever really enough? I suppose that depends on who you ask. Well, my "enough" came at about 10:30 a.m., when I finally made the sensible choice to crawl into my bed. Clever, aren't I? Hmm. Now, to go back to my tea-totalling status, and look for some local catering work. Any ideas? 4:30 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, October 27, 2007 You Should Seeeeee My New Couch! Current mood: lazy Okay, maybe not, but I certainly have been seeing a lot of it since I've been home. As a matter of fact, I haven't really left it, except for an occasional visit to the kitchen for tea or abuelita. God, I love that stuff. Mexican hot chocolate! Yum. I've been ripping CDs to my computer all day. It's funny what surfaces when you start really looking through your collection. I just found the That Petrol Emotion, Peel Session CD that I've been looking for. Those guys were truly amazing, and as a matter of fact, THEY should have a reunion tour. If the Nightingales (UK) can do it, they certainly can as well. Speaking of reunion shows, two Saints shows this week. Oh, oh. Actually it's only Chris Bailey, but I'm sure it will all be fine. I wonder who his backup band is. Probably somebody from You Am I, or some other Australian indie band of years gone by. Actually, aren't You Am I still together? Probably. Although, that being said, I do know that the drummer is playing drums for Radio Birdman now, and they've been on tour forever. Something to probably NOT ponder as I move onto the next CD to rip. Perhaps some Chris Knox is next on deck. Next to post another reminder about Susie Mai's benefit show that is taking place tomorrow night. If you are reading this, then don't bother looking at the bulletin that I will be shortly posting. Details are as follows: Cancer Benefit for Susie Mai Estes Sunday, October 28th, 2007 Midway Bar Avenue B, Between 2nd and 3rd Aves. Cover - $15.00 - all proceeds going to Susie Mai to help pay for bills and general living expenses while she goes through yet another cancer treatment. Also, if you can't make it, you can send donations to: Cowgirl Hall of Fame 519 Hudson Street New York, NY 10014 212-633-1133 See you at Midway. 4:16 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, October 22, 2007 New Records Update Current mood: confused I have now listened to The Ponys - "Turn the Lights Out". Amazing. That, and I'm having cooking anxiety dreams. I dreamt that I was cooking for some sort of corporate party and there was not a morsel of food to cook. I found some spinach which I was going to make into some sort of roulade - something that definitely doesn't work in the real world. I did it anyway, then baked it. It came out like some sort of phyllo cigar. Odd, considering that I didn't use any phyllo whatsoever. After making this dish, I spent what seemed like an hour looking for the front of house staff who had disappeared completely. They finally reappeared with only five minutes remaining before service time. They were completely drunk, and were laughing at the fact that we weren't ready. We finally got the food on the table, then I left the building. I was suddenly in front of the Home Depot on 23rd St., talking to some Canadian guy that I met the other night. Weird, but true. I wonder if this is a sign? Stop cooking? Stop talking to Canadians? Start using more phyllo dough? Or is it just because I was listening to Jacobites when I went to sleep? That Nikki Sudden will get you everytime! 11:50 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

New Records! Current mood: accomplished O.k., not records, but CDs, if you will. There was a time in my life when I would spend at least $100.00 a week on music. For some reason, those days have passed, and it's more likely that I'll spend $100.00 a month on CDs/vinyl. Is it just that I'm jaded, or perhaps it's just laziness that keeps me from seeking out and finding anything that's decent. I know there has to be stuff out there, but where??? Well, I did pick up some stuff today, some new, others, not so much. What did I get??? Here it is: The Ponys - Laced with Romance (Ooh, this is a good one! I highly recommend it!) Clinic - Walking with Thee (I haven't listened to it all the way through, but what I have heard, I really like) The Ponys - Turn the Lights Out (I have yet to listen to it) Jacobites - Robespierres Velvet Basement (It's Nikki Sudden! Need I say more!) Supergrass - Alright/Time (A listen is forthecoming) The Darkness - Permission to Land (I had to get it.) After spending way too much on records, I made my way to the cheese shop! Cheese and records! How could the day get any better? 3:50 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Friday, October 19, 2007 Some Things I Discovered on the Road Current mood: exhausted Or in some instances, rediscovered. It was a long trip back from Atlanta, driving a twenty-foot box truck, sometimes for fourteen hour stretches. Fun, though, because honestly, I love driving. I get some of my best thinking done while driving. Some random thoughts that passed through my head were: 1. My first inclination that our kitchen manager is a total nut case was totally correct. 2. My new croquette DOES have the texture of tater-tots, but there are no potatoes in it. 3. Abacab is a really good song to drive to, so is any ELP, ELO or Rush songs. 4. Death Cab for Cutie is not a good band to drive to. As a matter of fact, they're not a good band to do anything to. 5. Mick Fleetwood is a good drummer. 6. Southern people are fun. I would say that seven times out of ten they are more fun than Northeastern people. They're probably equal to Midwestern people, though. 7. "Good beer" in a southern bar, doesn't usually taste as good as a regular ol' beer like a Budweiser. 8. Phish has a song that I actually like. 9. Phish has about seven hundred other songs that I don't like. 10. I feel somewhat uncomfortable walking around in the country, and especially if I see someone else walking nearby. 11. I really need to learn how to play accordion. Oh, I could go on and on, but not today. On to other subjects. I've been back in the city for, oh, about two and a half hours, and I already feel stifled. It was a long bus ride back from Portland today. Eleven hours to be exact. I think there was a traffic jam surrounding every major city along the way, which put us two hours behind schedule. When I arrived in the city, it took about an hour to get a cab, and once I did get one, it suddenly died in the middle of the road and I had to fetch another one. I finally made it in my door with what seemed to be a thousand pounds of luggage, and suddenly realized that I hadn't eaten in twelve or more hours. For my breakfast/lunch, Kerry, as promised, bought me a lobster roll before I left Portland. Thoroughly enjoyable, to say the least. A ton of unadorned lobster tucked into a soft, buttery roll, with just a little bit of iceberg lettuce. Delicious. Yum. Awesome, but twelve hours earlier, nonetheless. Now, for dinner. Mediocre Chinese food from down the street, but it will have to do. Now for bed. 6:58 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, October 03, 2007 We Have a Kitchen! Current mood: cold Amazing! We finally have a kitchen, and with only two days to spare. The food order and refrigerated truck came in today, now we have to do the extra shopping, set up our prep tables and then start cooking! I can't wait. Sarah arrived today, and the rest of the kitchen crew will arrive on Sunday. We have an easy weekend of forty people per day, then our numbers go up to 250 on Monday. Starting on Friday the 12th, our numbers go up to about 500, then the following Monday, the numbers go back down to 100 or so. With these festivals, the time goes soooooo fast, it makes your head spin. The numbers go up, the numbers go down. We buy the food, we cook the food, we throw out the food. It's a cycle. Tomorrow, we were informed that we have to move to a different hotel. The weird thing is that I knew this was going to happen the minute that I unpacked all of my stuff. So, tomorrow, we check out of the Sleep Inn in Douglasville, and check into the EconoLodge in Union City! Movin' on up, I guess! 3:31 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, October 01, 2007 The People of Douglasville! Current mood: contemplative Another wasted day at the site. For some reason, this particular site manager just doesn't seem to understand that if we're going to start feeding a couple hundred people on Friday, it would be in our best interest to be able to set up our kitchen immediately. As of now, we only have a tent and a generator. One lone tent, and a brand new generator, but nothing to be hooked up. We need two more tents, plus we need to install the floor, and all of this should have been done yesterday. Oh well. So be it. Now I have another afternoon off. Oh wait. No I don't! I have to write a weeks worth of menus. I guess I better get on that. In a minute, I think. Last night turned out to be rather interesting. I decided to make my way over to the barbecue place that's across the street from our hotel. I had some pulled pork, ribs, collard greens and macaroni and cheese. The ribs were dry and over-sauced, if that makes any sense at all. Ditto for the pulled pork. The collards were totally flavorless, and the macaroni was very, very mushy. All and all, a totally less than adequate dining experience. While there, I asked my waiter about local bars. He directed me to a beer and wine bar called Topps. I made my way across the bridge and up a couple of blocks to check it all out. Topps is a good sized bar that's in a strip mall with lots of NASCAR stuff on the walls, and a lot of old men drinking budweisers, mixed with twenty somethings getting rowdy on Coors Light. Good times. Me being who I am, made my way to the old man section of the bar. The bartender proceeded to chat with me and serve me what he refered to as "one of those weird, fancy beers". It was a seasonal Budweiser, I think by the name of pumpkin ale. He then had a little joke about it with the patrons that were sitting at the bar. I guess they knew at that point that I wasn't from around there. I then got to talking to the person that was sitting next to me. His name was Paul, and he had lived in Douglasville since 1972. He moved there from Boston, of all things, and still had somewhat of a Bostonian accent. Russell, the bartender, on the other hand, had a thick Georgia country accent. Wooooo Wee, boy! He was about as Southern as they come. Paul and I continued talking, and then people kept on coming up to me and introducing themselves. Bizarre to say the least, but completely enjoyable. I met some more of the old timers sitting at the bar, I got to know all of the waitresses, I met Rita the Canadian, and I met a few more of the locals. Most importantly, I met Bill, the one and only taxi driver in Douglasville. He actually came back to Topps to specifically pick me up, and even waited for a half hour! In the end, I couldn't say I disliked one of them. They were all completely affable and every one of them had a really great sense of humor. I had a moment where I just had to wonder why I live in snobby New York City. Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of "nice" people in New York, but overall and in general, people are pretty snotty and somewhat unfriendly. Now that I think of it, it's kind of that way in Minneapolis as well. Well, that's not exactly true. Minneapolis people are just very insular and somewhat reserved. Once you get past that barrier, everything tends to be fine. If I remember correctly, the snobbiest people in Minneapolis tended to be from other places, and it's kind of that way in New York as well. Oh, I don't know. So, Laura, one of the waitresses and I made plans to go to Bourbon Street tonight - the "other" bar in Douglasville, GA. I'm kind of looking forward to it. Laura is a 27 year old nursing student from Gainesville County Georgia. Not sure where it is, but according to her, it's "just up the road a spell". God, I love the south! She told me all about her Mama, her Pa, and her baby sister. Most definitely very charming. 9:54 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, September 30, 2007 I’ve Got the Golden Ticket... Current mood: complacent Or perhaps not. I'm in a small town outside of Atlanta right now, and actually have the afternoon off before we go into festival mode. How nice for us! Nothing too out of the ordinary has happened since we were in Maine. We did the Barrack Obama benefit in Maine, which was really nice, and quite interesting. It was on this one hundred and forty-seven acre, beachfront property, right outside of Portland. It was probably the most beautiful piece of property that I've seen in a while, with the exception of National and State parks. This was actually owned by an eight-five year old man who made his money in hedge funds. Go figure. While there, I actually got to see Barrack speak. He had a head cold, which I noticed right away. The first thing I thought when he started speaking was that he didn't sound anything how he does on the radio or on TV. He sounded nasally and weak. Sort of like our current president, now that I think about it. Only without the Texas accent. The politics certainly don't match up though, thank god. After the Barrack thing, we went back to Kerry's house to get some rest, because the next day we had to pack for our trip to Lowell, MA and our subsequent trip to Georgia for Echo Project. That meant packing up food and all of our equipment in two-twenty foot trucks, and a fifteen foot cargo van. The cargo van and I were going to be very close in the next few days, so I gave it some extra special attention in the organization department. Later that afternoon we drove down to Lowell, dropped off all of our stuff, and made our way to the Doubletree Hotel. I know the Doubletree isn't exactly something off of Park Ave., but the Doubletree has been one of the nicer places that we stayed. That's not saying much though. If you ever stay there, though, don't get the clam chowder from the hotel restaurant. It was, how shall we say, doughey! Hmm. The next day we came in and started with breakfast prep and continued into lunch and dinner prep for some country artist by the name of Phil Vassar. Nice guy, but I haven't a clue as to what his music sounds like. I know it's country, he has a ton of guitars, and a drum tech that has a mohawk and a bunch of tatoos. After we finally got out of there at 9:00, we made our way back to the Doubletree for a good night of rest. The plan was to leave the next day and drive for at least ten hours. When we drive long distances, we seldom stop. The only reason that we do stop is for gas and for the restroom, which in an ideal situation should happen together. Eating is something that has to be fit in with the first two, and it's usually something on the go that you gulp down in the truck/van as you cruise along at seventy miles per hour. This must be why I feel so sensational all of the time when I'm on the road. The first day we made our way to Chambersburg, PA, which is on the West Virginia border. I know it doesn't seem that far from Massachusetts to West Virginia, but please do consider how large of a state Pennsylvania is. We spent the night at the Super 8, and got up again in the morning to start the driving all over again. The route? 95 to 78 to 81. 81 to 77. 77 to 85. 85 all the way to Atlanta! Last night we spent the night North of Atlanta in a town that begins with an N, but I can't remember the name of. Go figure. Once again, we stayed at a fabulous Super 8. Gotta love the Super 8's! They've served us well for the most part, but my suggestion is to stay away from the one in Hartford off of 91. Scary! In the morning we headed off toward the site of the festival, which was an estimated forty minutes away. That's nothing, I say! We arrived at the site to find absolutely nothing set up for us! No floor, no tent, no water, no generator, no nothing! Typically, we arrive at a site, and it's usually quite raw, but there was literally nothing set up for us this time around! Well, I shouldn't say "nothing". At least there was a road for us to travel on. You see, with festivals, they even have to build the roads to get through these places. They're usually in quite rural settings, and there's never any infrastructure to speak of. A lot of trees have to be trimmed, if not cut down entirely, which is sort of ironic, seeing as the focus of this festival is sustainability. I mean they're not exactly clear cutting, but... In this case, despite the road building and tree cutting, the property is absolutely beautiful. It's probably a good seven hundred acres, and it's main purpose is for raising horses. There are several lakes (by Georgia standards, ponds by my standards) on the property, as well as a river that runs right through it. It's beautiful! Now if only my camera worked. We finally did find the site manager. He was hard at work on a bowl of weed with the site coordinator when we rolled up to the house. Hardly surprising in this environment. These festivals aren't exactly buttoned down, if you know what I mean. He showed us the site, we went over the specs, and back to the hotel we went. Oh, this is all so boring. Now that I'm at the hotel, instead of writing about my not so eventful week, I think I'll make my way over the bbq place that's across the way. It's my mission to find the best bbq in the area, which will be much more exciting than anything that's happened so far. Off I go! 10:52 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, September 16, 2007 Three Days and Counting! Current mood: listless Yes! In a mere three days, I will finally be leaving the city again! To say that I'm excited is definitely an understatement. To hear me talk, one would probably say that I don't like New York. This is the furthest thing from the truth. I actually really love living here and all the city has to offer, and really can't imagine living anywhere else at this time. What it all boils down to is that every once in a while, I just need to take a break from it all. The city can consume you whole, if you let it, and this is my way of battling it. Some might say it's escapism. All I know is that it helps in the end. 7:18 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove