Spend a Couple Hours »Lich King

lich king world of warcraftI suppose in some ways it shows a level of maturity that I haven't been playing much World of Warcraft lately; In fact, Jim and I will need to spend some time re-familiarizing ourselves with the game before even beginning the new goodies of the Lich King – but part of me is a little ashamed too. What joy can I gain from the level cap being raised to 80 when I am a mere 62?

Still as always, Blizzard has really put a lot into the project to wows it's wow-ers with the following awesomeness:
* Level cap raised to 80
?* Battle with the Lich King at the Frozen Throne
?* One new playable class: Death Knight
?* A new continent: Northrend
?* The creation of a new profession: Inscription
?* Profession level cap raised to 450
?* New items, quests, dungeons, creatures, spells and weapons
?* Siege weapons and destructible buildings (for PvP)
?* New character-customization options, including new hairstyles
?* First completely PvP zone (regardless of what kind of server you play on)
?* Improved Graphics Engine (applied to shaders, flame effects, water appearance and detailed shadows)
?* New factions including the Tuskarr (Walrus-men), Frenzyheart (Wolverine-men), The Oracles (evolved form of murlocs) and the Taunka, a racial cousin to the Tauren

Makes one yearn to be a nerdy shut in if only it didn't keep crashing my computer!!!!!

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Drinks »Mint Iced Tea

mint tea hummus place Hummus Place serves a mean mint iced tea, I downed this refreshing beverage before remembering to snap a photo. Mint tea is extremely popular in Morocco especially where the making and enjoying of the local favorite is full of ceremony and tradition. I don't know if the tea served here adheres to tradition, but it's worth a stop by the small space alone. While still sweet, it's world's away from the chemical tasting over sugared stuff passed off as iced tea by Lipton.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Desserts »Kadaif

Hummus Place deserves two spots on this week's list (it only failed to make restaurant because, I tried it and hummus just doesn't make a meal for me) but their house specialty dessert Kadaif is spectacular. In a city where it's easy to come across baklava, this nest like confection is a rarer treat. We first tried it when Zipi Zape served Turkish food years and years ago and have been on the look out for it since.

The piles of noodles, made from shredded phyllo dough make for a delicious sweet, especially topped with vanilla infused ricotta cheese, halva, mint and honey date.

Like everything on the menu, it's an affordable indulgence that can be shared.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Style Icons: Male »Omar Little

omar little Omar Little was named by USA Today as one of top ten reasons to still love TV. Michael K Williams, who played the cop in R. Kelly's odd opus Trapped in the Closet(!), was wisely given the role after just one audition portrays the complex, enthralling character with compassion and passion. Even president elect Barack Obama is a fan of the character saying “That's not an endorsement. He's not my favorite person, but he's a fascinating character.” Indeed. And really anyone that's seen the show is in agreement. When I first started watching, I discussed with the girls at work and Omar was everyone's favorite.

A homosexual inner city robin hood of sorts who not only robs from the local drug dealers but does so without getting himself killed. He's smart, he's ruthless, he makes no excuses for what he does or who he is. His open and often graphic sexuality is pretty daring, particularly in the homophobic climate that we're living in.

The character is more than just riveting, he belongs here for his fashion sense too. The scene where he testifies against a man for revenge is priceless and emblematic of the character. Forced to wear a tie to court, he fashions it like an ascot and charms the jury while still being a wildly dangerous man admitting to maiming people with a shot gun.

Little is a compilation character created by David Simon and Ed Burns based on Shorty Boyd, Donnie Andrews, Ferdinand Harvin, and Anthony Hollie. The New York Times recently ran an article about Andrews, who has now married a woman named Fran Boyd who also inspired David Simon's program “The Corner“. Together, they've beaten drug addiction and lives of crime. They volunteer in outreach programs and Andrews became an anti gang advocate while in prison (he was sentenced for life but released due to his impressive transformation).

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Albums »The Early Years Volumes 1 and 2

tom waits the early year vol 1 2A far, not so raspy cry from Tom Waits' later, more inventive career of murder songs and carnival bedlam, The Early Years (both volumes) are absolutely amazing for what they are: classic bar fly, late night piano man lamentations. These recordings are demos made when Waits was just 21 years old for Frank Zappa's manager Herb, just before his first album, Closing Time — and they're wonderfully gritty and low key.

I always seem to prefer the early demos of the artists I love to their more polished work (see Buckingham Nicks and PJ Harvey), and Waits' are no different. In fact, when I recently heard the Closing Time version of Ice Cream Man, I was confused and dismayed — this was not what I'd fallen in love with as a sophomore in college and I was prompted to track down the collection that I used to play regularly.

Waits is, and always has been, an excellent song writer, my favorites here are “Hope I Don't Fall in Love with You”, “Ol' 55″,?”Nobody”, “Ice Cream Man”, and “When You Ain't Got Nobody”; on these two albums they all get the beautiful, less-is-more treatment.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Songs »It Was a Good Day

ice cube it was a good day I'm actually quite surprised that Ice Cube's It Was a Good Day has not already graced these pages. You may not know it to look at me, but this is an old favorite of mine. While Cube and I may live very different lifestyles, I for example don't play bones and put girl's butts to sleep very often; I have had my grub on without pigging out and I've had my share of pretty good days — like just this last Tuesday when I spotted both Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jim Jarmusch in the same day.

This was the most popular single of his solo career, a career been that's strangely veering towards Cuba Gooding Jr. style family comedies for awhile now. The relaxing samples come courtesy of The Isley Brothers' 1977 slow jam Footsteps in the Dark and “Come on Sexy Mama” by The Moments.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

TV Shows »The Wire

the wire hboGetting into The Wire is like joining a cult, anyone whose been there knows that once you tap into season one, hours, nay weeks even months of your life will be devoted entirely to the world of Baltimore's rough streets. It's riveting drama and the perfect argument against those people who refuse to watch TV, claiming it's nothing but crap. It's?a show entirely worthy of it's hype and word of mouth.

In fact, word of mouth and the release of all the seasons on DVD is what's made this series, which began it's run way back in 2002 so popular lately. More and more people are discovering what at least someone at HBO knew all along. Sure they failed to gain a huge audience for the hailed program, but they did allow it to go on for five years – all of which I am excited to watch. (Like I said this show can take months of your life from you.)

Former homicide detective, Ed Burns and his co creator, and former journalist David Simon were clearly inspired by their real life experiences and have written three dimensional characters who feel nothing like the expected television versions of themselves. No cop is on a vengeance tour after loosing his wife to a bad guy, even the bad guys aren't bad guys in the typical sense. Some have more honor than the police officers, others are just kids stuck in a losing cycle.

The women are given equally complex and dignified roles. No where is there a boring twenty year old blond girl in charge of a crack team of detectives, a TV trend I've already railed against. Sadly, despite critics constantly calling this one of the greatest television shows ever created, if anyone in the networks saw it, they took no notes from it except that it wasn't an instant success, because nothing since has come close to the complexity, sophistication and greatness of The Wire.

Each season focuses on a different aspect of the city of Baltimore: the projects, the docks, politics, schools, and media, which maintaining some central characters like Avon Barksdale and Stringer Bell – the top men in a drug ring, Detective McNulty and Detective Greggs who try to catch them, and characters like the drug addicted Bubbles and the Robin Hood like Omar who are just trying to make it in a crazy world.

To get into the plots would be unfair to you that have yet to watch it and simply too much to get into here (I recently finished an explosive season three), but I can say that this is a thought provoking and worth while journey with some of the best characters put to the small screen.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Restaurants »Hiroko’s Place

hiroko's place nycHiroko's Place is a comforting, welcoming spot with overstuffed couches, Japanese reading materials, a smiling staff, and a windowed kitchen where you can watch the chefs make all the home cooked meals. The menu is very unlike the Japanese cuisine that most Americans are familiar with and would probably confuse anyone who's only had sushi and hibachi (including myself before I moved to the city).

Instead it's real Japanese comfort food that a few spots in the city are great at introducing us to: try Aburiya Kinnosuke – for the high end, Uminoie – for a great unpredictable place that, unfortunately takes forever (hours actually and the only reason I've yet to recommend it) and Cafe Zaiya for cheap and excellent snacks (the spicy cod roe nori pizza actually makes me miss working in midtown).

Jim tried omurice – the ultimate comfort food for a little kid, even right down to the funny face drawn in ketchup on it – a perfect example of the cheery joy the restaurant exudes. The thin omelet shell opens up to a pillow of ketchup flavored rice and chicken. My dish, a very simple spaghetti, nori and spicy cod roe combo was right up my alley flavor wise, the kind of dish I would make for myself on rainy Sundays all the time if the roe were easier to come by (note to self to find some for my fridge).

You'll really want to give yourself some time to enjoy Hiroko's Place, the home cooked meals take their time (which shows in the quailty) so, sadly clock-wise, it's only barely doable for a lunch hour. The environment too, really spacious and open in start contrast to most bustling spots that cram as many two tops in as possible, begs for?relaxation. It's only been a day between eating there and writing this and I am already craving it.

So I went back and I reordered that amazing dish and Jim got to try what my future brother and law raved about during his trip to Japan a few months ago, the egg salad sandwiches (fried scrambled eggs, mayo and thin cucumber slice with spicy Cheeto type things). As the weather gets crummier there's no way I will not be heading back to try the hamburg rice.

While I wish it was just a little cheaper and quicker for a speedy workday lunch, as a restaurant without those needs, it's truly, truly a wonderful find in the neighborhood.

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Posted on November 17, 2008

Recipes »Root Beer (Worst Recipe)

My friend Mike amazes me often with two qualities I do not possess: patience and being good with his hands. He always has something time consuming and wonderful going on. Home made peppermint patties from scratch, hand made molded candies, pretzels straight from his oven, a new tasty ice cream every few months, as his friends, we reap the benefits of his craftiness – until recently.

For weeks he bought odd and neat sounding herbs and spices, including sarsaparilla and sassafras and even found some great bottles to make home brewed root beer. Sounded lovely and we all eagerly awaited the first batch. Then, we heard nothing for a bit, but one look on Mike's face when we asked how it turned out said it all.

I guess using a 200 year old recipe can result in unexpected things, in this case a bizarre medicinal beer like froth. Not to be totally dissuaded though, he's going to try again with a more modern and familiar recipe.

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Posted on November 10, 2008

Laughs »Darell Bluett in World of Pictures (Worst Laugh)

darrell bluett in world of picturesLike a Kangol capped Rupert Pupkin, seemingly alone in his basement (or are there people in the corners of the room, at whom his eyes keep fearfully darting?) Darrell Bluett had plans to take the world by storm with his camcorder, or at least “The World of Pictures” the completely inexplicable title to this infamously horrible stand up routine.

By the looks of it, Bluett has failed to grasp the concept of comedy and his jokes about fat people, fat people losing weight, people out to kill fat people trying to lose weight and Tammy Bakker are not really jokes at all but something incomprehensible.

And I love it! And even funnier is this response, where a You Tuber named chesspieceface reenacts the routine word for word, awkward pause for awkward pause, mispronunciation for mispronunciation (“eatin their branola”, “people say some weird aggestions”). Re-contextualized, the work of Bluett reaches spectacular new heights that make you appreciate the original video even more.

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Posted on November 10, 2008