So last night ended with drinks and small plates at Nita Nita - a local bar with a friendly vibe, a good kitchen, a way with sweet potatoes and a really inventive bar menu. All very cool and the conversation was as good as the Jukebox (when I hear "This is a man's world" I know it's gonna be an okay crowd)
Today has been a mix of work (proposals, billing, a presentation) and exercise. Took time out from the scheedule to go to the gym, to have a massage and to take the bike out and across the Williamsburg bridge into the lower east side where I exchanged lighthly used but very much broekn sex toys for new, shiny toys on behalf of a friend not too embarrassed to buy but too embarrassed to return 'used'
Tonight Dressler is Kajsa and Nick and then on into the night for drinks on the LES.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
A quiet night out
As Jude prepares herself for departure from the B'Burg scene we're doing more than our fair share of eating out. Last night was Bozu (pictured) a small Japanese that does the best Tuna Tatake and can be hit and miss at other times. Last night they were a huge hit. This might have something to do with the fact that we bought caraffes of Sake (numbing even the pain of the 'we need Ikea shelves' / no we need West Elm shelves' conversation happening to our left and the old twat in mad specs (I know, dangerously pot like) behind us). The fatty Tuna was great, the smell of the place amazing (I love the smell of fruit being smashed for mojitos) and the lighting just dark enough.
Coming up we have broadway (as I said to my friend Baxter 'even my hands are jazzed'), a trip to Dressler (one of the new hot but expensive B'Burg spots) and a ciao for now to D.O.C our favorite winebar and scene of some of our most drunken moments (I blame the owner and his lethal post drink shorts - liquid death as Jax calls them)
Things shaping up in other areas. Housing to rent in MI still loooking tight but saw some places. Looking to help a friend plot a kid's animation series *think Bob the Builder with more of an educational subplot. A film producer (and yes he's real not just trying to see my tits a la Fames CoCo) wants me to have a go as a script doctor (we met at a Svedka party he may well remember me through very hazy lenses) and I'm back in touch with some people who have a track record of taking things off of my computer and actually taking them out into the real world. It's a strange and somewhat magical time. Wappingers Falls was all about hibernation and weight gain. Williamsburg has been about discovery and inspiration. Suddenly I feel the need to DO things again (rather than watch things from the good seats) and all seems to be falling into place.
Anyway enough premature crowing... it's time to do the daily. Dog out, me to work blah, blah, blah
Coming up we have broadway (as I said to my friend Baxter 'even my hands are jazzed'), a trip to Dressler (one of the new hot but expensive B'Burg spots) and a ciao for now to D.O.C our favorite winebar and scene of some of our most drunken moments (I blame the owner and his lethal post drink shorts - liquid death as Jax calls them)
Things shaping up in other areas. Housing to rent in MI still loooking tight but saw some places. Looking to help a friend plot a kid's animation series *think Bob the Builder with more of an educational subplot. A film producer (and yes he's real not just trying to see my tits a la Fames CoCo) wants me to have a go as a script doctor (we met at a Svedka party he may well remember me through very hazy lenses) and I'm back in touch with some people who have a track record of taking things off of my computer and actually taking them out into the real world. It's a strange and somewhat magical time. Wappingers Falls was all about hibernation and weight gain. Williamsburg has been about discovery and inspiration. Suddenly I feel the need to DO things again (rather than watch things from the good seats) and all seems to be falling into place.
Anyway enough premature crowing... it's time to do the daily. Dog out, me to work blah, blah, blah
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Man it's been cold
We've had two cold wet days in a row here and the temperature inside the apartment has dropped from an aircon assisted 24c to a rather chilly this morning 20c. Thank god it's going to be back into the 30s this weekend as the though of turning on the heating is something that's just TOO wintery to contemplate.
The house in the picture is one that's in Ann Arbor and (I think) would be lovely for Judith. According to the information I have here it was built in 1919, is 1248 sq feet and has a taxable value of $133,200 (about 65,000 of your UK pounds or 98.750 Euros)... why I have this information I'm not at all sure but I thought that as I seem to have turned into statto this morning I may as well go the whole hog.
Judith moves to Michigan in less than a week. Actually she moves in 5 days which is a scary thought as the days between now and then are packed and she's not. I have no doubt that we'll be packing and shipping books as we move forward and that she'll be looking to me to fill a suitcase full of 'home' with every visit. That will get easier once we find a house down there.
Ann Arbor is a buyers market at the moment. With major industry (think auto and pharma) pulling out of the area there are too many houses for sale and too few people moving toward the area. Of course the town is immune to the local economy to a degree as 1 in 2 people there are linked to the University (and therefore to out of state taxes) but what this means is that the rental market is extremely healthy (35,000 students all looking for a place to live for a year) whilst the buying market is weaker than a flu ridden Mr Bean.
So do we buy? Well no. Prices are falling. Houses aren't selling. And we don't want to be locked in to a place that we end up having to rent out just to cover the bills. So we join the rental charge and pay too much (by MI standards, not by NY standards) for somewhere like the above.
Ain't life complicated?
The house in the picture is one that's in Ann Arbor and (I think) would be lovely for Judith. According to the information I have here it was built in 1919, is 1248 sq feet and has a taxable value of $133,200 (about 65,000 of your UK pounds or 98.750 Euros)... why I have this information I'm not at all sure but I thought that as I seem to have turned into statto this morning I may as well go the whole hog.
Judith moves to Michigan in less than a week. Actually she moves in 5 days which is a scary thought as the days between now and then are packed and she's not. I have no doubt that we'll be packing and shipping books as we move forward and that she'll be looking to me to fill a suitcase full of 'home' with every visit. That will get easier once we find a house down there.
Ann Arbor is a buyers market at the moment. With major industry (think auto and pharma) pulling out of the area there are too many houses for sale and too few people moving toward the area. Of course the town is immune to the local economy to a degree as 1 in 2 people there are linked to the University (and therefore to out of state taxes) but what this means is that the rental market is extremely healthy (35,000 students all looking for a place to live for a year) whilst the buying market is weaker than a flu ridden Mr Bean.
So do we buy? Well no. Prices are falling. Houses aren't selling. And we don't want to be locked in to a place that we end up having to rent out just to cover the bills. So we join the rental charge and pay too much (by MI standards, not by NY standards) for somewhere like the above.
Ain't life complicated?
Monday, August 20, 2007
Slutz
In recent times Barbie - herself no stranger to sleaze - has found herself under attack from The Bratz. The Bratz are a bunch of obnoxious 'tween' dolls with a taste for the mall and a penchant for sluttery. This has prompted Barbie to ditch Ken (too boring) and move into the odd world of 'dating.'
Meanwhile The Bratz have gone from doll to animated series (basically how to be a highschool teen bitch / slut n 26 easy episodes) to real action live movie that has flopped harder than Naomi Campbell's literary pretensions.
Not sure what all of this means for America but when we're told that teen girls are hooking in the mall for the money to charge their phones and put gas in the VW daddy bought them as a sweet 16 then there's either smoething very wrong - or we're really seeing a generation that understands the protestant work ethic.
This should go somewhere but it won't. It's late, I'm tired. People have defaced the posters. The movie sucked - mainly because the gir;'s kinda promised that they would and then didn't really put out. Too real for Tween girls, too lame for teen boys - rock meet hard place.
Meanwhile The Bratz have gone from doll to animated series (basically how to be a highschool teen bitch / slut n 26 easy episodes) to real action live movie that has flopped harder than Naomi Campbell's literary pretensions.
Not sure what all of this means for America but when we're told that teen girls are hooking in the mall for the money to charge their phones and put gas in the VW daddy bought them as a sweet 16 then there's either smoething very wrong - or we're really seeing a generation that understands the protestant work ethic.
This should go somewhere but it won't. It's late, I'm tired. People have defaced the posters. The movie sucked - mainly because the gir;'s kinda promised that they would and then didn't really put out. Too real for Tween girls, too lame for teen boys - rock meet hard place.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
All a bit grim
Today the clouds came, the sun vanished and the temps plummeted. It's still mid 20s here but you can feel winter edging in. The stores are selling off flip-flops, new products are at least 75% lambswool and all over the city people are stripping down whenever they see a human being sized pool of light.
Meanwhile the 'gentrification' of Williamsburg continues unhindered. The new condos cast a literal and figurative shadow over the community and we're all left looking at the biggest building boom in 45 years and wondering "where are the neighborhoods going to go?"
It seems that people are attrected to the grit of the Bowery, the flighty here today gone tomorrow squalor of the lower east side and the skinny jeaned hipsterism of Williamsburg and will pay top dollar for ivory towers that afford them the best views of these places - yet fail to see taht the very act of moving in changes the neighborhood beyond recognition. That's not always a bad thing but it's not what anyone signed up for either.
My solution? Well I don't have one. I say build massive homeless shelters. Have free needle exchanges in very public places. And encourage more 'affordable housing' not near but IN the new towers of glass and bamboo flooring. Maybe that will attract the right kind of money and scare off the tourists. Said he from his too expensive, security camera'd loft
Meanwhile the 'gentrification' of Williamsburg continues unhindered. The new condos cast a literal and figurative shadow over the community and we're all left looking at the biggest building boom in 45 years and wondering "where are the neighborhoods going to go?"
It seems that people are attrected to the grit of the Bowery, the flighty here today gone tomorrow squalor of the lower east side and the skinny jeaned hipsterism of Williamsburg and will pay top dollar for ivory towers that afford them the best views of these places - yet fail to see taht the very act of moving in changes the neighborhood beyond recognition. That's not always a bad thing but it's not what anyone signed up for either.
My solution? Well I don't have one. I say build massive homeless shelters. Have free needle exchanges in very public places. And encourage more 'affordable housing' not near but IN the new towers of glass and bamboo flooring. Maybe that will attract the right kind of money and scare off the tourists. Said he from his too expensive, security camera'd loft
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