Dylan and Dr Seuss

Now this is good stuff. Check out "Dylan Hears a Who" and listen to all the tracks. It's surprisingly good!

New TV and my girlfriend is a genius!

So after a year of wanting one, I finally bought a high definition TV for my bedroom. Sitting at the foot of my bed at 32" of LCD glory--I lied on my bed for most of the weekend and watched 6 college basketball games--5 in HD and one not--but rest assured, it was worth it to watch my Terps knock off #5 UNC. Fear the turtle!!


On other very important news, Deanna passed the last CPA section exam that she took in early February. She nailed a 75, when the minimum passing score was, you guessed it, a 75. WOOOHOOOO!!!!!! So now she just has the audit section left, which she's already passed convincingly. April 7 baby.

Other highlights of the weekend--Ivo and Lulu's for dinner on Friday was an excellent selection for our "I" restaurant. Amazing boar sausage and rabbit sausage. And the duck confit was fantastic. God bless BYO places!

Jen Safady's birthday party was a blast. Lots of good people there--it was nice to see Gabe upon his return from several weeks in Thailand. Sunday Deanna kicked my ass in the gym and I treated us to some bloodys and beer at the Henry St Ale House (I do love me a good stale house) and then dinner at Joya, a phenomenal Thai place in Cobble Hill--and we're on to "K" next.

And since I'm listening to it on this snowy morning, I leave you with Dylan playing Isis in white face from Rolling Thunder 1975:

DC with my nieces!

I was lucky enough to spend all of last weekend at my parents' house with my whole family. Both sisters, both nieces, both parents, one aunt and uncle, and one grandmother. Aliza and Dalia just keep getting bigger and talking more--and becoming more and more like actual people. It was nice to have four generations together.

Started off with a great sushi dinner in Jersey with Deanna's parents. Drove down to Rockville that night and went to sleep. Saturday morning we played with my nieces, ran errands, helped out around the house and did some shopping. My parents had all their friends over for a party on Saturday night so I got to catch up with a bunch of good people.


Sunday we drove my sister down to Georgetown for a conference she was speaking at. We walked around the icy neighborhood and had some coffee. Went to my grandmother's place for brunch. Sunday afternoon I watched the Terps win and then Miriam, Deanna and I went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner.

Monday we said goodbye to Aliza and Dalia and drove back to Jersey and trained back to the city. What a great weekend!

Tonight is the Paste party and tomorrow is THE WEEKEND!

...and just because it's funny:

Disco Biscuits spun the wheel in Sayerville

Last night was a blast. Road tripped with SuperDee, Schwartz and Mitch to Slayerville. Some traffic getting through Staten Island, but it wasn't that bad. What really sucked was the horrendous line to get into the venue. Bottle necking, line cutters, 20 degree weather and incredibly tightly packed quarters--80 minutes of hell. It was the worst... and we missed 2/3rds of the first set.

But, the lovely Jenny (heady Jenny), my old intern, created a fantastic wheel for the ladies to spin to select the next song. It was a blast. Another Relix gal, Liz Rubinstein, landed on Mr. Don, which was a blast. But the highlight for me was "Pygmy Twylyte" with a perfect segue into "Gangster jam". It ruled!!

And tonight we're off to DC.... where hopefully I'll get to post about Austin :)

Happy Valentine's Day! Bisco and DC and Austin

Hey there! Been a busy week, so I apologize for not updating this 'ol blog. A full write-up of last weekend's awesome trip to Austin will come later (Orf and Elana were spectacular hosts and it was great to hang out with Zander and Ashley).

Last night was V-Day and I spent it with my amazing girlfriend (who earlier in the morning, braved the horrible weather to drop off yummy lactose-free cupcakes at my office). We had a fantastic dinner at Taro Sushi in Brooklyn where I got the omakase. Mmmmm omakase... Dessert was at Room for Dessert, which was also very very tasty.

And tonight I get to see the Disco Biscuits in Slayerville. Spin the wheel, baby!!!!

Best concert venue in NYC

So last night I went to the Angel Orensanz Foundation to see Patty Griffin play her record release party for ATO Records. The show was fantastic but the venue left me speechless. It is far and away the best place I've seen a concert in NYC (indoors--outdoors would have to go to U2 under the Brooklyn Bridge or Bruce Springsteen in front of the Hayden Planetarium).


Angel's art hangs in the stairwells and lines the third floor and candles hanging all over the place light the floor and balcony. The neo-gothic architecture is just gorgeous. What a fantastic place. Patty's voice filled the sanctuary and her guitar tone was perfect.

The night was capped off with Tom Hamilton's American Babies at the Living Room. This incarnation was Tommy, Joe Russo and Dave Dreiwitz. Good stuff!!! Don't miss the last two shows of their residency--Feb 20 and 27 at the Living Room.

Travel notes:
Deanna and I head off to Austin tomorrow to visit Orf and Elana and Zander and Ashley. Can't wait!

Music notes:
I heard Page McConnell's new album yesterday and have been singing "Maid Marion" in my head ever since. This song would (will?) definitely have been played by Phish. It's awesome. Can't wait to listen to it again.

The Slip on Conan tonight!

Everyone tune in to Late Night with Conan tonight to see The Slip play!!!!

Don't miss it.



And here's a clip of them playing Even Rats on 12/29/06 in Providence. Enjoy!

Worst superbowl TV production EVER

Did anyone else notice how HORRIBLE CBS was last night? There were so many CBS house commercials, as CBS couldn't sell the ad space. That was abismal (just drop the price a little and people will buy it--trust me, I know sales). But what really pissed me off was the RAIN on the main CAMERA. Come on now... I've seen a lot of football games in my life and plenty of them have been in the rain. But I've NEVER seen the main camera have rain drops and wet smears on it for an ENTIRE game.

It really defeated the purpose of watching it in hi-def! It's hard to see the crispness and color contrast when 3/4 of the screen is BLURRY. I understand it was raining pretty hard, but you are professionals. Get a bigger umbrella! Wipe off the camera in between shots. But don't give me four quarters of blur. That really grinds my gears (yes, I saw that Family Guy last night).

In the biggest football game of the year, with the most money riding on the telecast (I can't even imagine how much production costs were), CBS dropped the ball. Worse than Grossman did on those two fumbled snaps. I really hope "the media" calls them out because they did the worst job I've seen. The producer and cameramen should be fired...

John Popper Project video for "Lapdance"

Check it out! you can see me twice--
at :38 on the right side facing the camera and again at around :54 and :55
and you can also see me from behind on the right side of the screen (I'm pretty prominent) at 1:45-6.

Good times!