Long Island Calling

…one of my all time favorite Super Bowl commercial campaigns.

Terry Tate, Office Linebacker.

Cause when it’s game time, it’s pain time!

In case you didn’t know, The New Yorker just closed the submissions for a cool contest. the 2008 Eustace Tilley Contest. Through this contest, the magazine has been soliciting submission to reinterpret the iconic “mascot” of the publication, Eustace Tilley. As their site explains:

“Eustace Tilley was drawn by Rea Irvin, the magazine’s first art editor, for the cover of the first issue of The New Yorker, in 1925, and has returned for nearly every anniversary issue since. (Louis Menand gives a detailed history of Tilley.) Since 1994, the magazine has invited contributing artists to reinterpret this iconic dandy. “

Now The New Yorker will choose their favorites of the submissions on Feb 4, who will then will be featured on their site and in the anniversary issue this year.

Here is the flickr page featuring the submissions. My favorite was this one:

Kind of like an alien/steampunk interpretation of Eustace. Just as cool as this fine reinterpretation of a sci-fi classic.

Okay, so this pick has nothing to do with LI, but I wanted to give it a shout out to my latest TV obsession: Ninja Warrior!

For the initiated, it is Japanese reality show/contest that puts the strongest and most nimble athletes in the land in a gigantic obstacle course. As they clear the levels, they progress to more challenging courses. It’s like watching a live-action platforming video game, but with English subtitles!

Observe:

The show airs on G4 at  6 and 10 p.m. ET weeknights.

In LI it can be found on:

Cablevision- Channel 174      FiOS- Channel 171  (not exactly prime real estate on the cable map for these two)

Now I’m really hoping that I can get some help from the BLOG-O-SPHERE on this one. Since Friday, wifey has had a cravin’ for some Hershey’s chocolate milk. Not that busta ass Nesquik with its anthropomorphic bunny mascot, but some smooth, rich and creamy Hershey’s chocolate milk.

The problem is that this stuff is really hard to find. I couldn’t find it for her on LI, couldn’t find it in Jersey either . In fact the only place I know that sells it is Gristedes in the city, and I’ll be damned If I have to go there every time she needs a fix.

If anyone has any suggestions on where I can find this product, especially in LI, please let me know. For those who don’t know about it, this is what it looks like:

..now you know!
Yo, Slick, blow..

Makes me want to find a old-school grey-scale Game Boy!

Wow…feels like I haven’t been here in awhile.   Been busy over the weekend with a Landmark Education forum.   If you haven’t heard about it,  feel free to check it out.  Good stuff!

In the meantime, a quick book recommendation.  Been reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.  It is also fantastic!

That’s all for now.

No lists here though.  I started this thing too late in the season to post any original “best of o7″ lists.  Not to mention that there are too many of these things to read online these days and there is only one day left in the year, so do you really need another?

Okay, the real reason is that I’m too lazy strapped for time to make one of my own.  But I will do the next best thing and list a couple of 07′ lists that I enjoyed.  Maybe you will enjoy them too.

Oh 2007, I hardly knew ye:

• Bill Maher picks the biggest assholes of the year - Rolling Stone
• NYTimes does a nice year in pics
• Not a list, but John Mayer declares 07′ the year of the ‘douchebag‘
• A list of the 10 best videos of the year, courtesy of Gawker
• Gamespy gives their list of best games of the year by console
• A list of the 10 best and worst TV shows of the year from EW.com
• 2007 book recommendations from the National Book Critics Association
• A different take on film with cinematical’s Ten Really Bad Moments in 2007 Cinema
• Top 25 albums of the year from Blender by-way-of Idolator
• The New York Sun on the year in theater
• A very non-intuitive rundown of the top news stories of the year, courtesy of CNN
• Reuters reports on the year in quotes, bro
• PR blunders of the year - Fineman PR, by-way-of PR Newswire on Forbes.com
• Best and worst ads for 2007 from the WSJ
• The Year in Ideas - New York Times Magazine

And maybe one day, Long Island Calling can find its way on this list…or maybe even better, this one!

And with that, I am outta here  for 2007.  See you on the flippity flop in 2008.  

So the wifey and I ended up at the famed Knitting Factory last night to be a part of a special screening of the new, long awaited 11th episode of Yacht Rock. For the uninitiated, Yacht Rock is a series of hysterical fictional films that tell the stories behind the biggest hits of the “smooth” music of the 70’s and early 80’s. The films follow the lives and careers of soft rockers such as Toto, Steely Dan, Michael McDonald and of course, Kenny Loggins.

So when the wifey and I heard that Yacht Rock mastermind, comedian J.D. Ryznar was having a special screening of a brand new episode of Yacht Rock, we set sail to Tribeca for the event. Unfortunately we didn’t see it, due to what seemed like poor planning. The club itself is three floors and we knew a band was supposed to be playing “smooth” music that night, along with the showing of the new episode and the older ones. Problem was that no one at the club could tell us the order of the events or which floor it would take place. After about an hour or so (doors opened at 8 pm) the band School of Rock started into a nice session of old school Yachtesque cover songs. The neat thing was that the band was made up of grade schoolers, just like that movie. Nice job kids!

It was then I got lucky and discovered that the band was to play at set downstairs, repeat the same set at the upstairs stage and then at 11 pm, the club would show the episodes of Yacht Rock. To make matters worse, they would be shown on little TVs above various bars on various floors. Well call me a snob, but when I hear the word “screening,” I imagine some cinema set up with a screen, not a bunch of TVs. With all of the people at the event and the limited number of screens, I knew that it would have been impossible for wifey and I to see the episodes clearly, considering we’re shortys! With that, combined with the commute back to the Island, wifey and I said “Fuck it!” and set our sail back to the north shore.

To J.D. and co - We love Yacht Rock and the work you do, but next time, have an event with a real theater and party space. I recommend Tribeca Cinemas. That would have been perfect.

Rock on!