Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Hip Hop Translations

Lisa Katayama posted this great little bit over on her Tokyo Mango blog, but I found it funny enough to repost here. What if all Japanese translation were run through a Snoop Dogg filter first?

Drawing With Water

This is pretty damn amazing!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Upper West Side Shake Shack - NOW OPEN!!

Expanding out with their second New York City location, SHAKE SHACK HAS ARRIVED! We residents of Manhattan's Upper West Side now finally have a real burger joint we can call our own! (No offense, Big Nick's and Nice-Matin, but you just weren't cutting it.) Located on the corner of 77th St. and Columbus Ave., right behind the American Museum of Natural History, Shake Shack had its soft opening last week and there was no way I wasn't gonna be there.


Yes, the lines were long, even though there hasn't been much hype about the new establishment yet. I got there about 3PM and the line already snaked around the corner. I was expecting a 45 minute to one hour wait, similar to the Bryant Park lines, but was pleasantly surprised it only took 20 minutes to get up to the counter to order. I'm sure this has something to do with prominently placed, easy-to-read menus you could check out while waiting inside and out, as well as three registers with experienced cashiers taking orders at a pretty rapid pace.


There are some new original items on the menu at this Upper West Side location, mostly Concretes, but they also serve specially made Shake Shack wine and beer here.


I went with my usual order, a Double Shackburger with cheese...


...and their incredible Cheese Fries...


...but I also added one of their Chicago-Style "Shack-Cago" Dogs this time around!


This Shake Shack has two dining rooms, one upstairs that seats 20-25 people, depending on if you wanna sit family-style or not, as well as a smaller downstairs eating area, that's also available for party rentals. We were lucky enough to find a two-person table with a window view upstairs and quickly dug in...




It didn't last long...



Mutsumi, who had never eaten at Shake Shack before, was blown away. One of the best burgers she's ever had, according to her! She had my favorite quote of the day: "It's SO dangerous having this just blocks from our home."

This new Shake Shack totally lives up to the impeccable reputation and high standards for quality and taste that the original Bryant Park location has so deservedly earned.

So who wants to make a trip uptown to join me for a burger?!

JSC Covers X-INFERNUS #1

J. Scott Campbell provides an amazing variant cover to issue one of X-INFERNUS this December!

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Coming Soon...

Looks like we may be only mere days away from the opening of the new SHAKE SHACK here on the Upper West Side!!

Don't Fett It

Yesterday was the first day cold enough for me to finally don long sleeves, so much to Mutsumi's embarrassment, my Boba Fett hoodie made its long-awaited debut...


Always A Sucker For Cats

I usually make it a rule never to give money to the beggars here in NYC. I have some personal opinions on the matter I'll keep to myself, but it basically comes down to me needing my hard-earned money more than they do. Selfish, I know, but I'm a little bit jaded after too many years in this city and I always doubt where the change I give them would go anyway. I always make my donations to charity and in the form of food or clothing or something I know will be used, and I always give money to animal adoption centers. Which segues nicely... I do sometimes make exceptions for homeless people with animals however, and it's always usually folks with dogs that end up pulling on my heart strings. But yesterday, this beggar, who I am not even sure was homeless really, got one dollar of my money as long as he let me take his picture. He was just walking around NYC like this, his cat, named Nicholas, on top of his head like he didn't have a care in the world...

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Kim and The Treats Truck for their People's Choice win in the Dessert category at yesterday's Vendy Awards here in NYC, honoring the best street food vendors in the city! Kim hooks up the Marvel Comics crew every Tuesday and Thursday on 38th and 5th if you ever wanna drop by and see her. Best Rice Krispie Treats you will EVER have!!



These pictures courtesy of Blondie and Brownie as I couldn't make the awards. Check out more of the Vendys over at the their site: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Monday, October 13, 2008

James Gunn's PG PORN

Nathan Fillion stars with Aria Giovanni.

And it's work-safe. That's the point.

Brilliant!

Can You Beat These?

As children of the '80s, we grew up being exposed to plenty of weird shit in our young lives, a lot of it pumped into our brains courtesy of MTV. Remember these fine folks?


But for every great music video we remember, there are hundreds of others that were complete shit. Now aside from being a great editor, my buddy Steve Wacker has the uncanny ability to recollect and dig up a lot of these forgotten gems from days gone by, which he's always happy to share. Of all the links he's sent over, up until recently, my vote for most utterly nonsensical video went to Hall & Oates' underrated classic "She's Gone"...



That was until last week when Steve dug up this freaky eye-popper of Olympian Carl Lewis doing his best Grace Jones impression...



Enjoy!

55 Cents?!

So I pop into Duane Reade the other night to pick up some quick household items on the way home. It was just before midnight or so and I figured the place would be empty and I could just breeze in and breeze out. No such luck.

I grabbed a gallon of water, squeezed me some Charmin, broke out the Bounty and picked up a pack of some sour Jelly Bellys, then headed to the check-out counter. As I walked down the aisle, I smiled as I noticed there was only one customer in line. In and out, just like I planned, I thought... until I got within ear shot and heard this woman arguing with the cashier.

Arguing because the cashier wouldn't let her charge a 55 cent pack of gum!! 55 cents?!! You gotta be kidding me, I thought!

The cashier repeatedly apologized as she explained that the store has a '$10 Minimum Charge' policy but the woman wouldn't hear it. She was from California and there were no minimums there, she angrily explained. She never carried cash and always charged everything. She knew was being discriminated against by the cashier for being beautiful. And that's when it finally hit me that this woman was plastered. High as a kite. Out of her gourd. Probably coked up and on her way to some club and desperately in need of this pack of gum for some reason. And she wouldn't give up.

I then started to get a little pissed as this continued. Not only was she holding me up, as well as the other late night shoppers now in line behind me, but she was really being rude to this woman at the register, who was just doing her job.

Rather than get into it with her, I figured I'd just kindly step in and diffuse the situation. I reached into my pocket as fished around for change as I was gonna buy this woman her damn pack of gum just to get her to shut up and on her way. But as if sensing sudden kindness in room, the wasted woman stopped yelling and turned around, finally noticing the line behind her. She stared at us all for a few seconds, looked back at the cashier, slammed the gum down on the counter and just silently stormed out with her head down.

As I walked up to the counter I just smiled at the still-flustered cashier. "Some people, eh?", I rhetorically asked. "Dumb bitch.", she replied, but then immediately regretted it as her hand moved to cover her mouth in embarrassment. She then silently rang up my items.

I paid in cash.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Harold F?

After listening to the TOP GUN soundtrack more times than I care to share, I've decided the world needs more film scores from Harold Faltermeyer. A quick google search informed me that after semi-retiring to raise his kids in Germany years ago, Harold F's recently moved back to Los Angeles to start working on music again. Hopefully we'll be hearing more from the man who brought us Axel F, Fletch and so many other amazing melodic memories from the '80s.

Intentional?

Am I the only one who finds it funny that a show named RAISING THE BAR is sponsored by Viagra?

Hola, Darkhawk!



LONERS in Spanish!

Monday, October 06, 2008

Happy 100th Birthday, Philippe's!


Wish I could be out in L.A. celebrating with 10 cent French Dip sandwiches with you!!

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-philippes7-2008oct07,0,2138601.story

Catching Up with Me

Did a nice interview with the wonderful Vaneta Rogers down in Baltimore and the transcript is now up on Newsarama here.

Celebrity Sighting of the Day

Saw Judith Light on my way out for milk this morning. You might know her best as Claire Meade from UGLY BETTY...


...but I always liked her better as Bureau Chief Elizabeth Donnelly from Law & Order: SVU.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Ring Moan?

Mutsumi and I were sitting on a packed train back from CT today, headed to Grand Central. We were lucky enough to get seats on the crowded express, but were sitting middle and aisle with a heavy-set, middle-aged woman next to us at the window. She was a pretty plain-jane, motherly type of lady, who was reading an architectural magazine, I happened to notice for some reason. Anyway, I pulled out an article about Paul Feig I had been waiting to read as Mutsumi fell asleep on my shoulder. The ride was typical and uneventful.

For about 30 minutes.

Which is when "Me So Horny" by Two Live Crew started blaring through the train.

I immediately looked up and looked around. Then I noticed all the other passengers were glaring my way. But it wasn't me! So where was the music coming from?

Then I noticed the woman in the window seat next to me madly scrambling through her purse. And all of a sudden, out comes her cell phone, now clearly identified as the source of our oh so sexual musical interlude.

"Oh me so horny! Oh me so horny! Me love you long time!

She looks at the phone's screen, smiles, then opens and closes it, ceasing the ringtone rap. But rather than look flustered or embarrassed, she just calmly turned to me with a friendly smile on her face.

"Sorry. Boyfriend.", was all she said.

I nodded knowingly and she turned back to her magazine, completely unfazed.

Thursday, October 02, 2008

I get boobs?

"If you've read Wonderlust you know he gets high school angst and chicks and boobs"

Well, maybe in the literary sense I do. Always have had trouble getting my hands on them in the real world though...