Triscribe

Month: September 2007

  • Try to Remember

    Well, it is a time of year to reflect, whether it’s because it’s almost autumn and a new school year; or it’s Rosh Hashanah; or because of 9/11 and the passage of time.

    On the night of 9/11/07, after a mostly rainy day, I figured I’d stick around lower Manhattan to check out the Towers of Light. Walked to Battery Park, to pay a visit to the Sphere, and a heard a woman sing “Amazing Grace.” Looked up and saw the Towers of Lights – a pretty sight, once the low clouds cleared somewhat. Even headed to Brooklyn Promenade, but the low clouds didn’t quite clear. Once I got home, the night sky was clear and the lights were quite something to see from our backyard/driveway. A wet and somber Tuesday, a Tuesday different from the Tuesday we had 6 years ago. Speaking of the view of this year’s Towers of Light, Time Magazine’s art writer Richard Lacayo writes on the 9/10/07 entry for his Time blog, before segueing into a critique on the architecture of rebuilding:

    So here it is, the sixth anniversary of that morning. Last night I was walking down the Hudson River boardwalk near my apartment in Jersey City, N. J., which is directly across the water from where the World Trade Center used to be. Every year, there’s a memorial at this time produced by scores of floodlights positioned some blocks south of where the towers used to be. They shoot two broad columns of light into the sky.

    I’ve read complaints that the columns of light remind people of the vertical spears of floodlight that Albert Speer contrived for the outdoor Nazi party rally in Nuremberg, the one that Leni Riefenstahl made infamous in Triumph of the Will. Noted. But the Nazis do not own verticals of light against the sky forever. Last night, which was cloudy in New York, the columns of light were filled with changing formations of mist that reminded you, if you were there on the first 9/11, of the smoke that filled the air that day. From where I saw the lights last night, standing in roughly the same place I stood on parts of that day six years ago, they operated very powerfully, like a Light Art work by James Turrell or Robert Irwin, but one that intersected with a specific historical memory.

    Since I’m in the reflecting mood, a look back at our past September 11 posts:

    Try to remember the kind of September…

    Thinking about the idea of the 5th anniversary; realizing it’s still thought-provoking.

    9/11 on a Sunday.

    2004 with a number of posts from us.

    2003 also had an interesting item that was 9/11 related. However, we started after 9/11/03, so perhaps my searching missed something in 2003.

    Although it was humid and rainy on this week’s Tuesday, the Wednesday and Thursday had such beautiful skies. All the more to hope for the best, isn’t it?

  • Yet another quiz

    The Technosailor Self Importance Test

    Chris Pirillo

    You are most like Chris Pirillo!

    You are most like Chris Pirillo. You dominate your brand and do quite well in marketing it. However, you go out of the way to place the focus on other people as much as possible as a decision on power and authority. You may have many followers, readers or fans but you rarely let this distract you from your mission and focus.

    Want to know more about Chris Pirillo?

  • 9/10/07

    On a pleasant note:

    A common thread on this blog has been where we get pizza – as seen here (pizza in Chicago’s Giordano’s), here (Fornino), here (Grimaldi’s), here (Di Fara’s), and most recently (I think!) here (Franny’s). Or links to articles or websites on pizza. (even the concept of fried pizza… or how pizza’s advertised). Pizza, pizza, pizza, as the Little Caesar commercial once said.

    My latest contribution: Saturday – went to Totonno’s in Coney Island (it also has other branches in the metro area) with a friend. We had a white pizza. Quite tasty. Thumbs up, I’ll say.

    Speaking of Coney Island – whither Astroland? We shall see! From what I can tell, the progress of re-developing Coney Island has some kinks to work out.

    Dim sum on Sunday, since we had visiting relatives – Diamond on Eight on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn (formerly known as Ocean Palace). Used to be better, I’ll say. Not nearly impressed. Last month, we had taken other relatives to Pacificana, at the other end of 8th Avenue (brand spanking new place, with nice bathrooms, I’ll say) – and the food there seemed jazzier. I’m hardly an expert on dim sum though.

    Didn’t think that it’d be much of a primary election – next Tuesday – but there are some odd races in our borough. Oh, well. Guess I’ll do my civic duty.

    Anniversary of the A-line.

    9/11 observations tomorrow – Time magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger observes:

    Grief has always been our most well-policed emotion. Mourning is painful, so we make it the stuff of pageantry –of muffled drums and riderless horses and black-draped catafalques. To suffer collectively is, if nothing else, to suffer prettily.

    What’s harder to know is, When is enough enough? A lot of Americans are quietly, and guiltily, asking themselves that question this week, as Sept. 11–the sixth Sept. 11 since 2001–once again approaches. A sixth anniversary is an awkward thing, without the raw feeling of a first or the numerical tidiness of a fifth or 10th. The families of the 2,973 people murdered that day need no calendrical gimmick to feel their loss, but a nation of 300 million–rightly or wrongly–is another matter.

    Some have suggested that we discontinue the moments of silence and solemn speeches and all the other ceremonies that have marked our recent Sept. 11s. While many argue that that would leave the day bereft of meaning, it’s possible that there are deeper kinds of meaning to be had. [….]

    There are many ways to remember the dead. It’s hard to argue that learning how to defeat real evil, slap aside pretenders and rebuild in the face of abiding sorrow aren’t three very good ones.

    Thoughts to keep in mind, a mindful time of year. Be they happy thoughts.

  • Cincinnati recap

    Cincinnati has a unique set of culinary touchstones that seem to have some connections with New York.

    Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse: The place seemed to be designed for the casual business dining crowd. We tried the BBQ wrap and a side of their ribs. The ribs were tasty, somewhat like Kansas City ribs. They were tender, and sauced with a distinctive BBQ sauce, which not much of a smoked taste. The most curious dish was the “Cantonese Shrimp”, which are lightly battered butterflied shrimp which are then served with a dipping sauce composed of a mixture of plum sauce and hot mustard. The dishes were served with Saratoga Chips (which are essentially kitchen-made potato chips) , onion threads (thin shredded onions floured and fried) and a nice salad. For desert, we had Greater’s French Copper Pot style ice cream. – vanilla bean and the black raspberry chocolate chunk . BBQ: good; Ice cream: recommended; shrimp – acquired taste.

    Skyline Chili: The thing that you have to understand about Cincinnati Chili is that while it may have some visual resemblance to what is commonly recognized as chili, that illusion is quickly dispelled once you dig in. It is probably better described as slightly overcooked spaghetti with Grecian sweet spiced (we’re talking sweet like sweet sausage, not sweet tea) meat sauce topped with thinly shredded cheddar cheese (the “3 Way”), and possibly diced onions and red kidney beans ( the 4 and 5 Way, neither of which are cooked in the sauced). Oyster crackers (the ones commonly used for New England clam chowder) accompany the dish – they are used to sop up the thin sauce at the bottom of the bowl. To mix the metaphor even more, they also serve chili dogs called “Coneys” (the name derived from Coney Island in Brooklyn), which are 5 inch German style wieners topped with the Cincinnati Chili and the shredded cheddar cheese . It is one of those foods like White Castle on the East Coast which are suitable for after –drinking munchies. If you are looking for traditional chili, you will be very disappointed. If you are looking for something to satisfy a craving you didn’t know that you had, and want to spend less then $5, fill up on Skyline Chili.

    Renaissance Fair Good stuff: mead – a local company in the area made the heavenly brew from local honey. Fantastic – I had two glasses, and each had a distinctive taste based on the honey it was made with. The best bargain was the smoked turkey drumsticks – the dark meat tasted like tender ham on the bone. Very tasty. The fair itself was a bit kitschy – something between Medieval Times and Great Adventure. Glad to have checked it out.

    Kroger’s: the things that we noticed: 1. lots of sausage and pickles – they had almost a aisle just for pickles 2. a lot of recalled item signs, including for cans of regular chili and even margarita salt. We bought grilling stuff, because it was inexpensive – grill gloves and apple wood chips.

    Jewish favorites: during the bris, we had excellent lox and various cream cheeses, chopped egg salad, hummus, and excellent bagel, bialy and hallah bread A wonderful spread.

  • Weekend!

    OMG. Time magazine’s tv critic James Poniewozik has done a 100 Best TV Shows for the latest issue! Awesome! Well, ok, I haven’t seen the list in its entirety yet (Beavis and Butthead?!), so I shouldn’t be so effusive. But, it’s all cool to me anyway – even if it’s still “just tv,” respect the tv. See the video where he explains how he did it. I may not quite agree with his list (Beavis and Butthead?), but it seems like a pretty cool list all in all.

    On serious notes:

    The passing of Luciano Pavarotti. A singular voice indeed. The NY Times’ classical music critic Anthony Tommasini said it nicely:

    But no one ever mistook the voice of Luciano Pavarotti. There was the warm, enveloping sound: a classic Italian tenor voice, yes, but touched with a bit of husky baritonal darkness, which made Mr. Pavarotti’s flights into his gleaming upper range seem all the more miraculous.

    And it wasn’t just the sound that was so recognizable. In Mr. Pavarotti’s artistry, language and voice were one. He had an idiomatic way of binding the rounded vowels and sputtering consonants of his native Italian to the tones and colorings of his voice. This practice is central to the Italian vocal heritage, and Mr. Pavarotti was one of its exemplars.

    For intelligence, discipline, breadth of repertory, musicianship, interpretive depth and virile vocalism, Mr. Pavarotti was outclassed by his Three Tenors sidekick and chief rival, Plácido Domingo. But for sheer Italianate tenorial beauty, Mr. Pavarotti was hard to top.

    The passing of Madeline L’Engle, one of my childhood’s favorite writers. Among other thoughts:

    “A Wrinkle in Time” was amazing – heck, the entire Time series was an epic work of characters dealing with their universe. L’Engle was fantastic for her creations: Meg, who wasn’t the prettiest of girls, who envied her mom for being intellectually brilliant and beautiful, who later found her own beauty and strength in her capacity to love and understand and overcome her anger; Charles Wallace, the baby brother who grew to be an unusual teenager (surely I wasn’t the only one who thought “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” was such a vivid and amazing epic of time traveling? Who’d think that this was the same Charles Wallace as in “A Wrinkle in Time”?); the twins Sandy and Dennys, supposedly the normal ones of the four Murry children – who get their own epic time adventure in “Many Waters” (I don’t think I ever quite appreciated the Noah’s arc story until L’Engle did it); and even Calvin O’Keefe, the athletic smart boy who ends up being the love of Meg’s life and becoming the marine biologist he only dreamed of being. I never quite got into the stories of Polly O’Keefe, Meg and Calvin’s daughter, or the other books by L’Engle. But, there’s no doubt that she made children’s literature literature. Gosh, just remembering the books and gleaning at them on Amazon makes me want to find my old copies and re-read them.

    The L’Engle obituary in the NY Times that I link above – I thought it was great, I thought – little touches of the person, not just the achievements.

  • On the road jack!

    I’m back at it again. Transiting through Taoyuan, Taipei, Taiwan….. Just came back from a 2 day excursion to Korea, Jeju Island. What a fantastic little island that has great vacation to-dos. I went there for a team building with my new colleagues from Korea. Great Korea food that busted the gut, too much Jinro soju (F C should know this pretty well ;)) and lots of good learnings and discussions.

    We did ATV and live round shooting. I scored a 75 out of 120 on the pistol (used a HK issue 9mm) but rocked on the rifle shooting with a 119 out of 120. First round missed the mark pretty wide. I’ve a future as a Marine sharpshooter if this tech thing doesn’t work out…. haha. I’m going to put them up on my office walls :). First time doing it and I gotta say, it was a rush. Almost like how I read about shooting. You’re supposed to gently squeeze the trigger, not yank it otherwise the recoil will make your shot go all over the place. You breath slowly and squeeze the trigger and bam bam bam, pretty much hits the place you’re aiming at. Way cool!


    Which Peanuts Character Are You?
    You are Charlie Brown. You are always optimistic and persistent, and everyone appreciates your simple sweetness. Sometimes, however, your anxieties get the best of you, and life’s mysteries can confuse you.
    Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

    What City Should You Live In?
    You should live in Los Angeles. You are snarky, headstrong, and will step on toes to get where you want. It takes a certain type of confidence to make it in sunny L.A., and you may have what it takes!
    Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

    Which Office Character Are You?
    You are Pam. You are sweet and likable, but your shyness makes it hard for you to express yourself sometimes. Regardless, you are always there for your friends and will usually come out of your shell to help anyone.
    Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

    What Car Would You Be?
    You would be a Ferrari Enzo. You are quick, slick and ever-so-cool. Your ostentatious showiness may put some people off, but your friends know you’re the real deal.
    Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

  • Labor Day Weekend

    Recently joined Facebook, since friends of mine are on it and, well, it is the wave of the future, isn’t it?

    Friday night: Dinner at Django‘s, for the last chance at the Restaurant Week prixe fixe. Lovely ambiance. The three of us shared the scallop appetizer (seared diver scallops and Cauliflower Puree Orange & Coriander Vinaigrette – very nice). On the Prixe Fixe menu, I had the gazpacho for the appetizer (yum); the pork tenderloin, which had a gorganzola puree – umm, tasty enough, did better with pepper; and dessert was a lovely chocolate financier.

    Sunday: siblings and I watched the movie Ratatouille at the AMC at Times Square. Visually amazing movie. An homage to cooking and the world of foodies. An homage to Paris. But, still – the idea of rats… I mean, yeah, you got to admire Remy the Rat’s desire to be a chef and rat. But… rats… only in a cartoon movie can rats be – well – cute.

    Also on Sunday: There’s something to be said about taking the Staten Island ferry just for the hell of it. And, the same to be said about walking across the Brooklyn Bridge (the latter being good for the views and the exercise).

    Actually, we meant to go to Governor’s Island, but the ferry service wasn’t doing its last run of the day, allegedly because they already had too many people on the island. Bummer. NYC and the federal governments ought to have better planning concerning Governor’s Island. Otherwise, I thought our last minute doing Staten Island and taking the bridge back to Brooklyn weren’t bad alternatives, since Sunday had such great weather.

    Labor Day Monday: We tried out the new bbq grill at home; quite cool, even if we still have to learn how to use this thing better.

    And, yes, yet another online quiz:

    Which Peanuts Character Are You?
    You are Charlie Brown. You are always optimistic and persistent, and everyone appreciates your simple sweetness. Sometimes, however, your anxieties get the best of you, and life’s mysteries can confuse you.
    Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com