Why didn’t anyone tell me that John Flansburgh had another band (Rich? Boyk? Frysinger?) ? They’ve got some neat stuff. I was perusing the TMBG site today and downloaded the TMBG Clock Radio — basically a downloadable program that acts as Internet radio station that only plays TMBG. On it, I discovered a song called “Hillbilly Drummer Girl,” which was really poppy and fun (turns out it’s a cover of a song written by the Young Fresh Fellows, but still). I couldn’t think of what album it was on, so I looked it up online, and discovered Mono Puff. I just bought three tracks off of the iTunes Music Store, after a quick search on the P2Ps came up empty.
Anyways, it’s been a little while since I’ve sent out one of these. (For you regular blog readers, I periodically email out entries to people who I think don’t read the blog regularly mostly to detail what’s been going on with me in NYC.)
Things have been going pretty well overall, minus the weather, which doesn’t seem to decide what it wants to be. Right now it’s about 70 deg. or so, but I’m still skeptical. Earlier in this week it dropped down to the 40s at night, and even during the day required a jacket and pants. My attire thus far has been sandals, long-sleeve t-shirt, fleece jacket and jeans. And occasionally my pakol if I feel like it. I feel like the weather is making fun of me for being from California: “Ah ha ha, we know you want to wear shorts! You’d like to, wouldn’t you?” Argh.
So this week we had to do an education story. Thanks to speaking with Carl Andrews, a state senator who covers Brooklyn a month ago for my beat note, I was able to get a story out of HIPSchools, a neat email and voice mail program that connects parents and teachers at a middle school in Flatbush (south of Crown Heights). Apparently it’s also helped to get the school attendance rate up and contributed to getting the school off of the state’s failing schools list. I pitched it to Wired News, and I expected it to be up today, but it’s not up yet, so maybe they’re holding it until tomorrow. I’m glad when I can take class assignments, find a tech angle, and sell them as real pieces.
After finishing some final edits early yesterday afternoon for that piece, I headed out to Coney Island with Lane. As he astutely pointed out, it was a beautiful day and with winter approaching, who knows how many more days like that we’d have. After some brief grocery shopping at the mini farmer’s market on 115th/Broadway (Thursdays and Sundays), I met Lane at the 96th St. stop and off we headed. I’ve never been further south in Brooklyn of Flatbush, and as Lane said, there’s just something slightly satisfying about going to the end of the line on a train, just to see what’s there.
From the penultimate stop, I was able to get a glimpse of the fabled Coney Island rides, games and, of course, The Cyclone. It was pretty dead, probably being closed for the season, but still it was something to behold. Just thinking about what a technological marvel a roller coaster must have been when it opened and what a fun place Coney Island must have been during the 1920s in the summertime. It’s easy to imagine the place bustling with activity, fun and games.
But our first stop was not The Cyclone, rather it was Tontonno’s, with recommendations and directions courtesy of the good folks over at Slice and their piPod. Given that it was a Thursday mid-afternoon, the place was pretty empty, but that didn’t stop Lane and I from enjoying pizza-making at its finest. At first, we saw the sign on the door that said: “NO SLICES.” — meaning we’d have to get a whole pie if we wanted some. We’d come from the UWS, galaxies away by New York standards, and we wouldn’t let quantity get in the way of our enjoyment. Heck, if I had to, I’d haul some back with me and enjoy it later on.
Tontonno’s, at least according to the Slice folks (and given that I’m a NY pizza noob, I defer to them on these issues. I’ve had pizza now at four places: Sal & Carmine’s, Koronet, Che Bella Pizza, and Tontonno’s) Tontonno’s ranks up among the tops of NY pizza, with their long-standing coal-fired pizza and very fresh ingredients. Reading some of the press that they’ve gotten over the years, it says that they make fresh dough and mozzarella every day, and never use day-old stuff.
Once we got our small pizza that I was worried would be too much for us, I grabbed a slice off the tray and brought it to my lips. This is probably the purest of pure classic pizzas. There are other great pizzas to be had, no doubt, like Frank Pepe’s clam, but of the stuff that I’ve had so far I think this could be called the Venus de Milo of straight cheese authentic coal-fired pizza.
Holding the slice in one’s hand, you notice the point of the tip. It was like a dagger, straight and pointed, just like the Slice guys had said it would be. (This contrasts with the tip of say, a slice from Koronet, which while good, is lacking in the pointed area. Firstly they use a gas oven and their slice is ginormous, requiring you to eat about a quarter to a third of it before it can be held without sagging.)
The pizza itself is amazingly flavorful and really light, almost what you might think of as one of those California-style hors d’Ïuvres pizzas with veggies and what not on them. This was just straight sauce and mozzarella, but I’m talking about that level of thinness and crispiness. Lane and I polished off four slices apiece in no time. I probably could have eaten the whole thing myself without a problem. The cheese too tasted amazingly fresh and was even slightly creamy in texture. Fresh mozzarella is leagues better than the unfresh stuff, it’s just unfair.
After Tontonno’s, Lane and headed toward Nathan’s, which is just kiddy-corner to the subway terminus. This is the famous hot dog stand (since 1916!) that hosts the annual hot dog eating contest, which according to Lane is now also big in Japan.
Lane didn’t think he was up to getting dogs after pizza (and after he’d had pizza for lunch earlier that day), saying that he was too full. And I replied: “In the words of Boyk: ‘So!?!'”
We headed down Surf Ave. and happened upon the Brooklyn Cyclones (The Mets Single A minor league team) gift shop, which was open and was having a sale (everything 50% off on now through tomorrow). I picked up a standard dark blue cap for myself and a black version for my brother, Alex.
We discovered that the ballpark was open, too. Once inside, there were two high school teams going at it. With no one to stop us, Lane and I sat right down in the front row, just to the left of the catcher. What a place for a ballgame! The Cyclone roller coaster can be seen just off past left field and the Atlantic Ocean is just beyond the right field wall. Even though I’ve only been to one minor league game ever, I love the idea of it. It’s small, compact, and these are ballplayers who just play for the love of it. They get paid very little and they dream of making it to the big show. But this is where it all starts, where they can hone their skills in a stadium of a few thousand.
And as we watched, two teams that we didn’t know, and didn’t have any affiliation with either team (save accidentally meeting the father of this 15-year-old tall hard-throwing southpaw, who was packin’ some heat up there), it was really relaxing to watch. And as Lane said: “Summertime, hot dogs, baseball in Brooklyn — life doesn’t get any better than this.”
The game ended, and we headed over to Nathan’s. $2.44 got me the classic dog, with free sautŽed onions, and a few dashes of mustard. Crispy, flavorful, and boy those onions are great.
We hopped back on the F train heading back towards the city. I stopped off at 4th Ave. in Park Slope to go watch the Dodgers vs. Cardinals Game 2 playoff game at the apt of friend of one of my classmate’s, Joe, who hails from St. Louis. Joe said he’d meet me there. I was early, so I caught a northbound 5th Ave. bus and killed an hour at my favorite Brooklyn cafŽ, Gorilla Coffee.
I headed back close to game time to Joe’s friend’s Dave’s apt, on 16th St. I got there, but no was answering the door. I called Joe, but that was pointless because he’d called me earlier saying that his phone was dead, but he left his girlfriend’s phone number. I tried calling her. I ended up getting some gruff-sounding guy named Frank. (Joe gave me the wrong number.) I rang the bell of the neighboring apartment, and some girl came and answered the door for me, then ran up the stairs to knock on the other apt’s door to see if they were there. They weren’t. So I gave up and headed back towards the subway. But, I ran into Joe en route, and he apologized and we went with his other friend Andrew to the apt, but not before stopping off to pick up beer (for Joe) and Jarritos for me.
Dave’s TV didn’t work, but once I called the cable company and reset the cable box, we had the game. Other than the fact the Dodgers lost, 8-3, it was fun to hang out with Joe and his buddies. Joe lived in China all of last year, working at a small movie house in Beijing. And he’s interested in interfaith stuff, so I told him about Heidi and suggested they get in touch with each other. (Heidi, you’ll be hearing from him soon.)
After the game ended, at about a quarter to midnight, I stumbled (I was tired, not drunk) towards the subway stop a few blocks away. They said that F was stopping at that stop to Manhattan, so that I’d have to backtrack on the line and then catch another train. That was annoying, but I did it. So at 7th Ave. I caught a Manhattan-bound F train. Subway stations are really lonely places late at night, let me tell you.
At Borough Hall, I switched to the A train, it stopped at the same time across the platform, which actually helped because then I could just transfer at 59th St. instead of having to transfer twice to get on the 1/9 line from the F. So I fell asleep, smiling at my good fortune. However, when I woke up periodically to check the stops, I ended up waking up just as the doors closed and we were pulling away from 59th St. Argh. So took the A up to 110th St., walked over to Broadway, got a slice at Koronet (I didn’t have dinner), hopped on the M60 to 120th and walked home from there. I was home by about 1:30 am.
And even better, Critical Issues was cancelled today!
Debates, Round 2 tonight. Should be interesting.
Saturday is an eight hour police ride-a-long in Brooklyn. Could be interesting. I’ll let you know.
