If anyone is going to the Halloween parade along 6th avenue on Tuesday, keep an eye out for a group of zombies dancing the choreography from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. After dressing up as a zombie 3 times in the past week, I joined the group who have done this performance in the past 2 parades. I spent Sunday afternoon at the YMCA on Bowery learning the dance, and about 20-30 of us will be repeating the dance down 6th avenue near the front of the parade. We will be after-partying at Dusk Lounge if you want to stop by.
In other Thriller news, Hello Nurse covered Thriller at our Halloween show at The Tank on Saturday. We all dressed like zombies, and Joe and I even tried our best to perform the set in character. I will upload pictures soon.
7:12 AM
Sunday, October 22, 2006 ZOMBIECON 2006
On Saturday Jackie, Mike Bruso, and I participated in ZOMBIECON 2006, which was basically a flash mob of people dressed like zombies roaming around New York City.
We spent the morning destroying some clothes we purchased at the Salvation Army the weekend before. The we bought some white makeup, black makeup, and of course - FAKE BLOOD.
The best part of the day was going through Bloomingdales. Almost 100 people turned out for the event, including a zombie Steve Irwin, a zombie bride, and a mother & child zombie combo.
Jackie and I are going to work on our zombie costumes and perfect the makeup for Halloween this year. Anyone in NYC who doesn't have a costume idea, please join our zombie army. Hello Nurse is playing a Halloween costume show at The Tank on Saturday, October 28, and we will all be zombified. Shred some clothese, get some makeup, and come get UNDEAD.
A few weeks ago some I met up with some guys for the 2006 running of the Tour De Slice. It was basically a bike ride around New York City to famous pizzerias. The conditions for the ride were perfect: beautiful weather and starving stomachs.
1. DiFara The first stop on the ride was DiFara in Midwood. Mike and Brian were the only two riders to check out this place, and Max and I joined them in Fort Greene afterwards. Mike and Brian proclaimed DiFara to be one of the better pies they had all day.
2. Fornino The second stop of the ride was Fornino in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We ordered one pie with different toppings on each half. I forget one half, but the better half was the Asparagi E Prosciutto, which featured asparagus, prosciutto, fontina, mozzarella, carmelized onions, and cherry tomatoes. I'm usually not a fan of asparagus, but this slice was my favorite of the day.
L to R: Christian, Mike, Brian, Max at Fornino
3. Two Boots From Fornino we rode across the Williamsburg Bridge to Una Pizza Napoletana. we arrived at 4:30, but the place didn't open until 5 - so we took an unplanned detour to Two Boots pizza on Avenue A. After all those pesky vegatables on the previous pie, we decided for a meatza: pepperoni, sausage, and riccotta cheese. I wouldn't put Two Boots on the same tier as some of the other places we visited, but it sure was damn good.
Tour De Slice still life
4. Una Pizza Napoletana We rode back to Una Pizza Napoletana after our Two Boots excursion. We got there at 5:20pm, just 20 minutes after it opened, and the entire place was full. We walked in to leave our name for the next table, and the surly waiter wagged his finger and me and told me to leave the dining area. The door was open when I came in, so I missed this sign.
Pizza Nazi Directions
After waiting for 20 minutes we finally got a table, and we couldn't wait to try the Margherita (San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh basil, sea salt), one of four pies on the entire menu. Una Pizza Napoletana claims that there is no more purer pizze on the planet, and they may be right. We divided the small pie into fourths, and my slice tasted like very good bread - there was hardly any sauce or cheese, so I was somewhat disappointed.
This place is a great to take a guest in from out of town, but not a place to satisfy serious pizza cravings. Be careful with the hours: Una Pizza Napoletana is open Wednesday-Sunday, from 5:00pm until the fresh dough is sold out.
When we left, there was a long line of folks waiting their turn.
Long line = worth the wait
We were now about half done with our ride, and the sun was setting. I kept the bike ride fun by blasting tunes on my boombox. I hooked up my iPod to the tape adapter, and the Tour De Slice playlist features such classics as Bicycle Race by Queen, Boombox Generation by Motion City Soundtrack, and No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn by the Beastie Boys.
Thanks to Drew for this $4 boombox from Thriftland in the Bronx
At each stop we had to go through a ritual of chaining all our bikes together, and of course, wrapping a U-lock around the boombox.
You can never have enough locks. People will steal anything.
4. Lombardi's The home stretch featured two pizzeria's the battle for "Best Pizza in the Universe" each year. First, we stopped at Lombardi's. We waited at the bar for a while before sitting down and ordering the clam pie. We were thinking that we should try the specialty pies that are unique at each place, but the clam pie wasn't the best idea. I've had it before and it is interesting. But in hindsight we should have ordered something more standard. The clam pie certainly was distinct, to say the least.
A New York Classic
After waiting for so long at each of the previous restaurants, I had a fantastic idea: phone in our order at Grimaldi's so it will be ready when we get there. BRILLIANT.
Back on our bikes we go over the Manhattan Bridge.
5. Grimaldi's We ordered a pepperoni and onion pie, and it was ready just minutes after we arrived. Thank goodness, because the line extended down the block.
We took the pie down to the waterfront and gobbled it down. Even with several pizzas already in our stomachs, we had no problem polishing this one off. It was delicious.
You can barely make out the Brooklyn Bridge in the background
Final pie of the night - STILL HUNGRY!
All in all it was a great night, and I would like to give a huge thanks to Mike, Brian, and Max for making the ride such a fun, positive experience. Thanks also to Jacob Press who thought of this idea a few years back and gave us pizzeria recommendations. There are so many pizzerias out there that I'm sure we can come up with several more tours. Let me know if you want to join the next one we do.
Thursday, October 19, 2006 Best Interactive Subway Map
There are some great map sites out there, and this one is my new favorite. onNYTurf uses a google map base and includes subway routes. For some major stations that serve several subway lines, the map even shows where the station entrances/exits match up with the train platforms. There's nothing worse then going into a subway station and then having to weave around a labyrinth to get to the correct platform.
HopStop: Point-to-point directions via public transit. Available for NY, Boston, Chicago, SF, and DC.
WalkJogRun.net: Use this site to find out how far you walked, ran, jogged, or pogo-balled on your last route. You can save and share routes and view routes of other walkers, runners, joggers, and pogo-ballers in your neighborhood.
Gothamist Maps: Shows all up-to-the-minute happenings in New York City, such as robberies, fires, car accidents, building collapses, partial amputations, struck pedestrians, perps on the loose - you name it!
Taxi Fare Finder: Get an approximation of a yellow cab taxi cab fare by plugging in origin and destination locations.
ListPic: This isn't a map, but it still rocks. Tired of combing through hundreds of Craigslist posts every day? Now you can browse a thumbnail page of everything for sale in each section. For example, now I can look at bike porn simply by going to the bikes section of ListPic instead of clicking on every single stupid link. This site is essential for Craigslist addicts (like Jackie and I).
1:56 PM
Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Brownie the Cow
Mmmmmm, brownies... Oh wait, this is actually serious.
Check out the Brownie the Cow website about a standardized test question for 4th graders in New York State. It's a listening comprehension question, so go ahead and listen to the clip and check out the writing prompt question here.
Companies are paid a lot of money to come up with standardized tests, and it looks like this question was just thrown together at the last minute.
Personally, I believe there is a place for standardized tests because our education systems needs to hold students and teachers accountable to specific, measurable goals in order to both measure and improve student achievement. But in order for standardized testing to help lead toward these goals, the questions need to be aligned with state standards and, Helllllooooooo?!?!?!?!, WELL WRITTEN.
This block is right across the park from where Jackie and I live, and we walk down that block quite frequently on the way to the C or G train stops and to some of our favorite restaurants: Pequena, Cafe Lafayette, Stonehome Wine Bar, and Habana Outpost.
Everytime we walk down the block we peek in the window and admire the homes. One window has an African Grey parrot on a bird perch. One house has an ornately painted ceiling with magnificent molding work. One has a spiral staircase to die for. Once I found a cell phone on DeKalb, and I called numbers in the phone until I found the owner - a nice family on South Portland. (I blogged about it last summer.) This summer there were several houses on the block undergoing exterior renovations, so that block is only getting nicer.
Of course, living next to such prime real estate does have drawbacks. We got a letter from our landlord the other day saying that our rent will increase by $100/month starting in January, and then increase almost another $100/month in January of 2007. Our landlord specifically noted that his policy is not to raise rent, but that insurance and tax increases have forced him to raise rents for all apartments.
So, as much as we LOVE our current apartment, it's not a sustainable place for us to live long-term. This sucks, because we can't say enough about our apartment, our neighbors, our block, our hood - it's just a great place to live.
7:21 AM
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 This Smug Smile Ain't Going Away Soon
Watching the Detroit Tigers' pitchers wipe their nasty butts with Yankee pinstripes was the most satisfying television I've seen in a long time. Hating the Yankees is a pasttime I've grown to love, and rooting for the Red Sox during their 0-3 comeback a few years ago was great fun. But nothing, NOTHING, beats the feeling of watching your own hometown team, a total underdog, embarrass the Yankee faithful and piss out the fire on Steinbrenner's 200 million dollar dream.
Even now that the series has been over for a few days, I still take great joy in reading any article, watching any sport-break, and evesdropping any elevator conversation on the topic. I will never get sick of hearing about this series.
Now I just hope that both the Tigers and the Mets make it to the world series so I can spend the entirety of my next paycheck on a single bleacher ticket.
6:55 AM
Tuesday, October 03, 2006 Another Reason to Despise Texas
FRISCO, Tex., Sept. 28 — “Keep the ‘Art’ in ‘Smart’ and ‘Heart,’ ” Sydney McGee had posted on her Web site at Wilma Fisher Elementary School in this moneyed boomtown that is gobbling up the farm fields north of Dallas.
But Ms. McGee, 51, a popular art teacher with 28 years in the classroom, is out of a job after leading her fifth-grade classes last April through the Dallas Museum of Art. One of her students saw nude art in the museum, and after the child’s parent complained, the teacher was suspended.
Although the tour had been approved by the principal, and the 89 students were accompanied by 4 other teachers, at least 12 parents and a museum docent, Ms. McGee said, she was called to the principal the next day and “bashed.”
She later received a memorandum in which the principal, Nancy Lawson, wrote: “During a study trip that you planned for fifth graders, students were exposed to nude statues and other nude art representations.” It cited additional complaints, which Ms. McGee has challenged.
The school board suspended her with pay on Sept. 22.
In a newsletter e-mailed to parents this week, the principal and Rick Reedy, superintendent of the Frisco Independent School District, said that Ms. McGee had been denied transfer to another school in the district, that her annual contract would not be renewed and that a replacement had been interviewed.
The episode has dumbfounded and exasperated many in and out of this mushrooming exurb, where nearly two dozen new schools have been built in the last decade and computers outnumber students three to one.
A representative of the Texas State Teachers Association, which has sprung to Ms. McGee’s defense, calls it “the first ‘nudity-in-a-museum case’ we have seen.”
“Teachers get in trouble for a variety of reasons,” said the association’s general counsel, Kevin Lungwitz, “but I’ve never heard of a teacher getting in trouble for taking her kiddoes on an approved trip to an art museum.”
John R. Lane, director of the museum, said he had no information on why Ms. McGee had been disciplined.
“I think you can walk into the Dallas Museum of Art and see nothing that would cause concern,” Mr. Lane said.
Over the past decade, more than half a million students, including about a thousand from other Frisco schools, have toured the museum’s collection of 26,000 works spanning 5,000 years, he said, “without a single complaint.” One school recently did cancel a scheduled visit, he said. He did not have its name.
The uproar has swamped Frisco school switchboards and prompted some Dallas-area television stations to broadcast images of statues from the museum with areas of the anatomy blacked out.
Ms. Lawson and Mr. Reedy did not return calls. A spokeswoman for the school district referred questions to the school board’s lawyer, Randy Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs said, “there was a parent who complained, relating the complaint of a child,” but he said he did not know details.
In the May 18 memorandum to Ms. McGee, Ms. Lawson faulted her for not displaying enough student art and for “wearing flip-flops” to work; Ms. McGee said she was wearing Via Spiga brand sandals. In citing the students’ exposure to nude art, Ms. Lawson also said “time was not used wisely for learning during the trip,” adding that parents and teachers had complained and that Ms. McGee should have toured the route by herself first. But Ms. McGee said she did exactly that.
In the latest of several statements, the district contended that the trip had been poorly planned. But Mr. Gibbs, the district’s lawyer, acknowledged that Ms. Lawson had approved it.
“This is not about a field trip to a museum,” the principal and superintendent told parents in their e-mail message Wednesday, citing “performance concerns” and other criticisms of Ms. McGee’s work, which she disputes. “The timing of circumstances has allowed the teacher to wave that banner and it has played well in the media,” they wrote.
They took issue with Ms. McGee’s planning of the outing. “No teacher’s job status, however, would be jeopardized based on students’ incidental viewing of nude art,” they wrote.
Ms. McGee and her lawyer, Rogge Dunn, who are exploring legal action, say that her past job evaluations had been consistently superior until the museum trip and only turned negative afterward. They have copies of evaluations that bear out the assertion.
Retracing her route this week through the museum’s European and contemporary galleries, Ms. McGee passed the marble torso of a Greek youth from a funerary relief, circa 330 B.C.; its label reads, “his nude body has the radiant purity of an athlete in his prime.” She passed sculptor Auguste Rodin’s tormented “Shade;” Aristide Maillol’s “Flora,” with her clingy sheer garment; and Jean Arp’s “Star in a Dream.”
None, Ms. McGee said, seemed offensive.
“This is very painful and getting more so,” she said, her eyes moistening. “I’m so into art. I look at it for its value, what each civilization has left behind.”
School officials have not named the child who complained or any particular artwork at issue, although Ms. McGee said her puzzlement was compounded when Ms. Lawson referred at times to “an abstract nude sculpture.”
Ms. McGee, a fifth-generation Texan who has a grown daughter, won a monthly teacher award in 2004 from a local newspaper. She said the loss of her $57,600-a-year job could jeopardize her mortgage and compound her health problems, including a heart ailment.
Some parents have come to Ms. McGee’s defense. Joan Grande said her 11-year-old daughter, Olivia, attended the museum tour.
“She enjoyed the day very much,” Ms. Grande said. “She did mention some nude art but she didn’t make a big deal of it and neither did I.” She said that if Ms. McGee’s job ratings were high before the incident, “something isn’t right” about the suspension.
Another parent, Maijken Kozcara, said Ms. McGee had taught her children effectively.
“I thought she was the greatest,” Ms. Kozcara said. But “knowing Texas, the way things work here” she said of the teacher’s suspension, “I wasn’t really amazed. I was like, ‘Yeah, right.’ ” 6:44 AM
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