M Shanghai String Band

I don't have anything particularly novel to say about them, but watching the M Shanghai String Band play is such an incredible joy that I have to go ahead and throw something out there on the Intrawad to try and increase the chance of you, potential listener, finding them. You will be amazed. Believe me. They're just so fucking great to watch and hear. You can watch a couple of videos here. You should see them live though. They play at M Shanghai (the Chinese restaurant, and their namesake) once a month or so. They must be seen to be believed. It's really so awesome that I'm just going to shut up now and wait for you to go see them. In other words, I saw them tonight (at Freddy's Bar & Backroom), and they were excellent as always. tagged local brooklyn blues country folk bluegrass music.

2006 Prediction: MacBook Pro -> Video Blogging

I don't really keep up on all the Apple sites, so maybe this is a common thought, but I predict that the built-in iSight on the MacBook Pro is going to lead to a surge in video blogging. Vimeo may be in a good spot to host it and make their careers, if they can keep up. Of course Google Video can handle the load. But can Vimeo provide a compelling enough user experience that we put up with their growing pains for the joy rather than go to Papa Google for horsepower?

...@realplayersucks.com

So I'm shopping at Turntable Lab, and they have RealAudio samples. Now there was a time when RealMedia stuff was a reasonable way to offer audio samples, but that time has passed. Short, low-quality mp3 samples are superior in every way, not least of which is that all users of modern computers can hear them without downloading any proprietary software. Turntable Lab is good though, and I wanted to hear the music, so I headed over to real.com. Now there was a time, I think, when you could download the free RealPlayer without registering, but that time (if I'm not imagining it) has passed. So I hate these guys. I don't want a username and password at real.com. So as my email address, I enter fuckreal@realplayersucks.com. I'm so clever. But not unique apparently. The error message is:

fuckreal@realplayersucks.com already has an account.

Sweet.

Best ... Open Mic ... Ever.

Last night I had to go into Philly to trade out my rental car. (Avis will give you a six month contract to rent a car with a registration that expires in 2.5 months. Dorks.) Since I was going to be sort of in her neighborhood, I have my friend Nikki a call, and lucky day, she had the night off and hadn't eaten all day. A friend of hers had recommended Tritone (on South St between 15th and 16th) for affordable, tasty food. It delivered on that for sure. Start with the freshest (vegetarian) Spring roll I've tasted. She had red beans and rice with Andouille, which was totally delicious, and I had a nachos with black beans, also excellent. I know what you're thinking: nachos are unfuckupable. That's just not true. Many restaurants are serving totally uninteresting nachos. Tritone's are excellent. (They also had a vegan black beans and rice on the menu, which, based on the nacho black beans, I would guess are muy delicioso.) Meanwhile, there's an open-mic happening. We got there at about 8 and the place was pretty sparsely populated, so I was really surprised by the quality of the music. This is an unusual open mic in that a music store across the street supplies a full backline (amps, drums, mics, PA) so a band can show up with guitars and plug 'n' play. By 9 or 9:30, the crowd had thickened considerably, and the good music continued. I would say more about it, but I have to go to work, and the only name I remember is "Suburban Missile," for whom I can't find a web page. Dumb web. tagged local philadelphia music food

Ah Sunday

Huge and delicious late brunch at Maggie Brown on Myrtle. They're crowded and slow but worth it. I had a Spicy Vegetarian Mexican Lasagne, which I thought would be pretty much like unrolled enchiladas, but was different and interesting because of the thick tomato sauce that covered it. A mixed green salad was a smart accompaniment, since Mexi-sagne is rich and heavy. (I feel a bit like I've been untrue to french toast and bacon, but those things are just so easy to find elsewhere, I had to go for the weird item.) It was completely unnecessary that I order a side of biscuits with raspberry butter, but I couldn't resist. I should have had just a bite, but at $3.50, I couldn't let that high-priced biscuit-ey goodness go to waste. Unfortunately the raspberry butter, while lovely to behold, doesn't pack a lot of raspberry flavor, so I laid it on pretty thick trying to up the berriness. I'm blaming that for the fact that it's now almost 7 and I'm still not hungry again. tagged local brooklyn brunch food

"tagpost" Bookmarklet

Since I'm almost definitely too lazy to implement my own category or tagging system, I went ahead and created a bookmarklet to generate technorati-style tag links. It puts the link right at the end of the content of the posting. I'm not sure how fancy Blogger's editor is in IE, Firefox, etc., so maybe it won't work there, but it kicks buttocks in Safari. You'll have to smash this onto one line. Added the breaks for a little readability.

javascript:var tags=prompt('enter tags, space delimited').split(' ');
var s='\ntagged ';
for(var i=0;i<tags.length;i++) s+='<a href="http://del.icio.us/duelin_markers/'+tags[i]+'" rel="tag">'+tags[i]+'</a> ';
document.getElementById("textarea").value+=s;

Mucho Gusto

Last night, right after I got in from PA, my roommate Shana and I went into Manhattan to celebrate her birthday. We met Emily, an old friend of hers, at Gusto (a review, more info), where Angela, another old friend of theirs, tends bar. She pretty much took care of us the whole time we were there, including giving some great food suggestions. Warm focaccia topped with sliced pear and Gorgonzola was an amazing appetizer. My main course was a subtle and delicious tagliatelle pasta with prosciutto. Also sampled 4 delicious deserts. It was an awesome meal. Sitting at the bar was fun, but it's too shallow to be able to sit straight and still be close enough to the bar to eat. My knees were unhappy. Afterwards we first went a couple of doors down the street to Fiddlesticks, an Irish-ish pub. I mainly didn't like it because I found the name so ridiculous. The place itself was interestingly decorated. The people were pretty lame -- attractive, but lame. The music was good though, and we danced. After a few drinks there we headed to another bar which I have completely forgotten the name of. It was very narrow. tagged local newyork food

Toes

I noticed this morning that the second toe of my right foot is considerably longer than the second toe of my left. How did I not notice that for 27.9 years? Is it still growing? Answer me! tagged fluff

Happy New!!

So it's 2006. I was kind of whatever about that, BUT ... I thought I'd gone over my allotted vacation days for the year in 2005 and had to borrow a day or two from `06 for my Xmas/New Year's week off. Now the word comes down from the official keeper of such info that I'm somehow taking two-point-some-odd days from 2005 into this year. Woo hoo!!! Yea for other people doing the counting.