You probably know by now that the Dolan family, Cablevision’s overlord/proud owner of NY Rangers (and…um…that other team) are now the new owners of Newsday, the paper of record for the island I call home.
What you might not of heard about was how the family reacted when the paper went to make an offical editorial introduction to the family.
See here for this great article by John Koblin of the New York Observer about how Newsday reporters got treated like they were Knicks beat reporters when they tried to interview the new boss man.
Got a tip on some events that are coming to LI relatively soon. Figured I’d share them with you.
- A performance at The Tilles Center at the CW Post campus called “Artmosphere” (stay with me people). According to the description on the Tilles Web site:
“Artmosphere” is a live piece of art, with the involvement of the visual arts in a dynamic way. The dancers will be “in the face” (LIC- like the Lion King?) of the patrons, the music and sights will wash over them, stimulating their senses and drawing them into the performance. This exciting project involves dance, music, visual artists and performance poetry with state of the art lighting and multi media technology.”
Interesting, but I’m still on the fence on whether I will go or not. If you are down with this though, the tickets are on sale now at $30 each for shows taking place between 9/4-9/7. Fun fact: Joe Satriani is part of the show. Remember when guitarists putting out albums with long solo guitar tracks were big? Where hath Yngwie Malmsteen gone?
While exploring the Tilles Center site, I did come across something that is also coming to the center on September 20…
Manhattan was really buzzing on April 12-13, 2008 as consumers and area retailers gathered in the beautiful Metropolitan Pavilion to learn about, and sample, some of the best coffees and teas from around the world. “Attendance at this year’s show was the highest to date. We expect the 2009 show to continue the upward trend”, said Lynda Calimano, event producer at Starfish Junction.
The recent 2-day event presented a great lineup of international coffee and tea exhibitors and guest speakers. Attendees were thrilled to meet Tea Master Yoshikazu Tafu who journeyed from…
…wait a minute… let me take a closer look at the photo in the SW corner above-
OH MY GOD! That’s the wifey and and I! How the hell did we get in this newsletter? I mean, my left bicep looks totally ripped and all, but it looks I’m sleeping or in deep, mediative thought. At least wifey looks engaged in coversation.
Though I am a New York State resident, for some reason I keep receiving spam emails from the committee to elect Rob Andrews, who is running as a primary challenger against incumbent Senator Frank Lautenberg in, you guessed it, New Jersey.
Now the first time I received this type of email, I didn’t mind so much. In fact, I even followed the instructions noted at the bottom of the email:
Paid for and authorized by Andrews for Senate Committee.
To unsubscribe from this list, please reply to this message with “unsubscribe” in the subject line.
So I followed the instructions and even said in the e-mail- “I am not a Jersey resident so this is meaningless to me. Remove me from this list.” Maybe I could have been more polite, but I wanted to get to the point. That took place on Monday, April 28.
naturally, what email did I receive this evening:
Dear Neighbor,
At a time when our community and our nation are facing overwhelming challenges — an economic recession, historical foreclosure rates, and millions of Americans without access to healthcare — we need leaders who can chart a course to solve these problems. A whole new generation of challenges awaits us - here in Burlington County and across New Jersey - and we need leaders like Rob Andrews to fight for us in the Senate.
Rob started his race to give New Jersey a choice for the U.S. Senate and to change the status quo. He’s starting with his campaign, hosting Town Hall meetings in every corner of New Jersey. Rob wants to hear directly from residents and to share his vision for the future. I want to invite you to the Burlington County Town Hall Meeting in Evesham on Saturday, May 3rd at 12 noon. We’ll get the chance to see Rob, to ask him questions, and to hear how he can bring the change we need to the Senate.
This is going to be a great afternoon, so bring your family and friends and come prepared to see why Rob Andrews is the change we need right now.
Hope to see you there,
Mayor Randy Brown
Okay, so I might be jumping the gun- it’s only the second email and it’s been just two days since the first one. My real concern here is that his primary season is starting to hit its peak. If I don’t nip this in the bud and get unsubscribed, I will likely get inundated by emails from this Congressman as the season unfurls, particularly if he dethrones Lautenberg in the primary and is up for the top prize in November.
So Congressman Andrews, if you have any college interns working for you whose job it is to scour the internet and the blog-o-sphere to search for news/posts about you- and they see this one, please give them the carte blanche to unsubscribe me from your mailing list.
Thanks,
Scott
P.S. Thanks for invite Mayor Brown, but I will have to pass on this one. I will be in a far sunnier place at that time.
Radiohead did an amazing performance on Conan O’Brien the other night for Earth Day, performing their fantastic song “House of Cards” from the album In Rainbows. First saw this on Pitchfork, but I enjoyed so much, I had to post as well.
As most commuters will tell you, it usually takes something special to make them come into the city on a day where they don’t have to. I couldn’t agree more, which is why the something special that brought me into the city this weekend was the 3rd Annual Coffee and Tea Festival NYC, which took place at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea. (Editor’s note- Before Scott got married, he wouldn’t have been caught dead at this event. But times and tastes do change.) The cool thing was that there were many companies from the tri-state area reprezenting, including several tea/coffee places from Long Island, but we’ll get to that later.
So with further delay, the logo for the festival-
Thank you ladies!
First, here are some of the companies and products the wifey and I discovered at the festival that we liked.
Straight outta of Arlington, MA comes Best Friends Cocoa, a company that specializes in, you guessed it, cocoa mix. The wifey and I tried some samples they had at the the show and we were hooked.
Pictured here at the Best Friends booth is Linda Guttman, one of the founders of the company holding a bag of her fine product. Besides the taste, the thing that drew wifey and I to the booth was the marshmallow flavored mix. I love marshmallow in my cocoa, but there is no point buying it cause’ the wifey is a vegetarian and I think they make the stuff with hooves or something. Linda’s product solves this problem because the marshy flavored mix does not have real ones in them and is also fat free. Plus for those who follow kashrut, the product is kosher. UPDATED- Best Friends is available in Long Island at the Fairway in Plainview, NY.
A Long Island company! Real Coffee Corp is based out Farmingdale. As for the coffee, honestly, we didn’t try any because we were immediately drawn to samples they were giving out of this sipping chocolate that they sell:
It’s called Bellagio Sipping Chocolate and it was awesome. Thicker than chocolate milk, but not so thick that it can be used as engine lubricant. So tasty that we ended up buying some to use for fondue purposes. But don’t take my word for it…SEE THE VIDEO!
And the chocolate did turn. Kudos to Stewart Cooper and the Real Coffee guys for bringing this machine out. It was a big draw.
Yes, we did actually drink tea at the show. One of the ones we enjoyed the most was the English tea from Harrisons & Crosfield. UK company with their US office (from Chatham, NJ) at the show.
That’s Meg Schaefer, the Sales Account Manager chatting up some serious tea convo with the wifey. I wasn’t too involved in this conversation, but after trying their tea, I didn’t have to be. It was good quality, nice aroma and tasted like a fine British tea should. As for where you can get it in LI, according to H&C, this site sells the stuff, but according to Meg, she was trying to make inroads with some of the merchants in Huntington. We love Main street, so good luck Meg!
Not a tea or coffee company, but instead, a non-for profit organization that has a very unique mission.
When wifey and I got educated about Cup of Education, we found out that they work to help the people of rural coffee growing communities in Central and Latin America to build schools and to give the kids of these lands the supplies needed- pencils, books and even teachers. As you can see from the picture, this organization is about helping the real people behind the coffee, and not about played out stereotypes.
I’ve heard of these guys before and had seen their tea bar on 14th street, but was never really interested. Plus, I have a finely tuned radar for hyperbole, so I am wary about any tea company that refers to itself as “the future of tea.” Nevertheless, I strolled over to their booth and was pleasantly surprised. They ended up having some nice, exotic tea mixes and the sample tea tasted like Hawaiian Punch, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Plus they were the only tea company to bring their own DJ to the event. I give them a 10 for style points on that one.
When I think of instant coffee, there are two words that usually come to mind- Total Crap. Most instant coffee is not very good, which is why this awesome company from Mexico blew my mind with their instant grind.
All you have to do is add hot milk or water to this coffee, which is seasoned with brown sugar cane and cinnamon to make a delicious cup of cafe de olla style Mexican coffee. Don’t know where you can find it in Long Island, but it is available on eBay. We ended up buying the last bag they had left that day, so don’t even think about it…
…hate all you want, but the bag is OURS!!!
Speaking of hating, it’s time for me to address the things at the show that were disappointing.
1) Any and all of the food we tried at the show - Except for some olive oil and honey that we tried at Demeter’s Pantry, wifey and I were completely underwhelmed by the food that we sampled. Whether it be cookes, pastries or jams, it all sucked. Thankfully, Chelsea Market was nearby for lunch.
2) Tay Tea - I’ll be honest, I never even drank any of the tea they made available for sampling. Why? Because the tea leaves I smelled that they had on display all had the aroma of toothpaste. I enjoy Colgate as much as the next guy, but I don’t want to drink it. Next…
This machine (automatic tea making machine) is maybe the most innovative thing to come to the tea industry since hot water and they didn’t show up to this festival at all??? Wifey and I love the zarafina and we were shocked by it’s absence.
All in all, wifey and I had a great time and we discovered some new products at the festival that we would likely would not have found on our own back in Nassau. Speaking of which, wanted to give a shot out to another LI company at the show:
serendipiTea - Though we didn’t get the chance to spend much time at their booth, we discovered that they have recently moved to Manhasset, specifically to Northern Blvd near the train station. We promise to check it out sometime.
This past weekend, the wifey and I headed upstate to the Town of Kingston. When we first arrived to the jewel of Ulster County, when we drove down Broadway, it kind of had that run down, rustic, slightly depressing Upstate NY feel you get from towns like Elmira, Buffalo and Genesee. But then when got to another part of town with a long hill, we discovered the heart of a thriving art community, which was the reason we were there in the first place.
We came to The Arts Society of Kingston, for the opening night of great exhibit celebrating Israel’s 60th birthday and the Jewish experience in the US and Israel. Normally you can find something like this in the LES while noshing on Guss’ pickles, but this was different. Wifey and I went to this opening because of my sister-in-law. On this night, emerging photography artist Dina Hodara had her first art exhibit of her work. Great Success!
Here are some photos from ASK Center on Saturday Night.
The center itself.
Here is a shot of Dina’s photos, focusing on the U.S. Jewish experience celebrating the holiday Purim. These were mostly taken at festival in Williamsburg, where Dina was able to infiltrate the system and get some great, candid photos. Those krazy kidz! So cute, dressing up as sailors, rebbis and postal workers. At least they didn’t dress up like this guy…
The artist, Dina Hodara and one of her works of art.
The artist, Dina Hodara, leaving the building.
Reminder- Dina’ s work will be on display (and for sale) at ASK until April 26th. So go…NOW!
For another take on this event, you can visit the wifey’s blog here.
Okay, by now you are probably aware of the fact that Bloomberg’s traffic plan has been shot down, Albany didn’t see eye to eye with him, his approach was wrong, er, um, zzzz…
Look I can care less about the dramatics and egos behind the fight itself. From my perspective, as a freshly born LI to NYC commuter on a fairly popular line at a high traffic station, the mayor’s idea has the right intentions, but I’m not sure the public transit out in the burbs would have been ready in a year to absorb additional riders on the LIRR, and Metro North that would no longer be commuting by car. Don’t get me wrong, its a shame that the city will now lose potentially $13 billion and of course, the $354 million in federal mass transit funds. But for anyone riding LIRR, these days, many times it feels like this:
and that would not have gotten any better with the plan.
But according to the NYTimes, if the plan did pass, this money still wouldn’t have covered everything:
“But under a new spending plan released Wednesday by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, so-called congestion pricing would cover a relatively small portion — 15 percent — of money needed for transit improvements. That would leave the authority still scrambling for money. The authority said that it would need $29.5 billion from 2008 through 2013 for system improvements (like thousands of new buses and modernized subway signals) and expansion (like work on the Second Avenue subway).”
So regardless of my own desire to get a seat in the morning, this issue must be revived. The issue must be addressed, but in a way that meets the needs of the city and of the commuters. Otherwise, the city will still be full of cars, smog and the MTA won’t be able find the money for all of its capital projects and the maintenance, new buses, subway/train cars that are needed. Do I have the answer? Well…no. Would I be blogging if I did? Umm, no, I would actually be busy.
Particularly there is a project that is already underway and VERY important to me that might be in jeapordy of losing out on funding. Let all LIers pray that nothing happens to this one-
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