The Minnow in Park Slope has turned into a great neiborhood spot, fresh tasty seafood!!

as wierd as this sounds, we had a fab veggie meal out of Taipei on China Airlines, a multi bean salad followed by tofu and veggies in a dark sauce w/ sticky rice, dessert fresh fruit, we were not hungry and we both ate every bite, and i licked my plates!!

Thomas Friedman is at it in the Times again, this time attributing
the cooldown of nuclear tensions over Kashmir to GE,
American Express, Dell, and other enlightened companies
who job out white collar coolee labor in India. Seems those
companies would have to take their high tech crap jobs
elsewhere because of the danger, so the indentured
servants put pressure on the Indian government to stand
down. To Friedman this is another example of how wonderful
global capital is. Not a word is said about all the money and
jobs and training being exported from the US because the
Indians are willing to work for so much less. On the subject
of Hindus, we can only hope Friedman will be reincarnated
as a minority American in an inner city with poorly funded
schools and no industrial base.

Pardon me for raining on Steve Fossett's parade, but isn't
his "world record solo balloon flight" a bit of a cheat? First, it
took him, what, eight tries? Second, he had bottomless
funding to keep making high-tech improvements on his
balloon technology. And finally, and most damning, if you
start in Australia, fly to New Zealand, and keep going east till
you hit Australia again, that's circumnavigation, sure, but not
so impressive and lengthy a voyage as starting and ending
on the equator. And the "southern route" is basically what he
did. I wince every time I hear some media ho refer to him as
a "world record holder." Oh well, at least it wasn't Richard
Branson.

Day 12/ Hoi An: Market for am meal and it was one of the best, Cao Lau a fab pork and noodle dish (linda got a veggie version with pickled banana flowers) sticky rice w/ peanuts, a thin pancake w/ seafood and veggies wraped in an rice paper, boiled pork in banana leaf--AWESOME. Dinner at Tam Tam, great place for views and great drinks but besides for the homemade pasta (yummy) the food was bad.

Day 13/ Saigon: Last supper at Temple Club (29 Ton Trat Thiep St) was better than our first night here, we ate the same two favorites plus a few more dishes, a bottle of champagne and one of rose, than retired to thier beautiful lounge room for desserts and dessert wines, wonderful end to the trip and the restaurant of the tour (outside markets).

memo from samoa : According to a drunk guy who residents at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, It will be an another strange lounge act will be committed by Samoa a front man of The Lonely Samoans and NYC's latest lounge band sensation "The Mood Illusion".

This Sunday August 11th at The lakeside lounge 162 Avenue B. 212.529.8463 7:00 till 8:30 It's friggin FREE!!!!!!!

Starts 7:00pm sharp! as razor which you could use for suicide or could use for plastic surgery.  

bjork

genghis blues from friends of tuva

Tron tech trivia from an unverifiable slashdot comment:

Fun factoids: the scenes with live actors inside the computer were filmed in 70mm black and white, then blown up to cel size for rotoscoping/effects work, and re-shot on an animation stand.

I think I know what that means. Sure worked out well. It's still a cool looking effect.

You know it's slow when Page Six leads with food news. See comments for the scoop on the Times' critic and here for his side project.

Day 10/ Hoi An: Getting the stomach back in order with coke's, orangina's, water, omlette, chicken sandwich and finally MEDICINE.....need to get it ready for more market food:>), wonderful visit to an ancient Hindu spot...

Day 11/ Hoi An: By night I was back, so we went to the beautiful upmarket Brothers Cafe, food was good, views amazing, sadly they overcooked the tuna (the tuna in the market is so beautiful, we hoped to see it on a menu, it was yummy but we could only imagine if it was cooked right!!). We have realized that besides for the market and a few restaurants the only real was to eat would be befriending a local family and go to the market and shop with them and cook it up....if you read Saveur (a must) you can see they go to some regions and eat w/ family's....#2 would be get hold of a kitchen myself:>)

wylie is a cut-up.

i only caught the last few minutes of this documentary about a young vietnamese girl who comes to study in america but wish i had seen more. can you imagine the image of america one would construct if you were plucked from your home and stuck with a family of uncaring rednecks for your senior year of high school in rural mississippi?

Day 8/ My Khe Beach & Hoi An: Lunch at Loi Restaurant (all seafood and its in tanks) was great, grilled clams w/ spicy tomatoe, stir fried shrimp w/ tomatoe onion, 3 small lobsters, and I am sure we were overcharged at $20 w/ 4 beers but I cant bargin....Dinner in Hoi An (a famous port city from 1400's to late 1800's) at Ly 22 Cafe was purr-fecto, shrimp dumplings, green papaya salad, fried wontons, all were clean and clear.

Day 9/ Hoi An: 6:30 am to the market, one of the best I have been to, boats moar up and fish is unloaded, greens of every shape and scent are cleaned and sold, we eat a donut like cake w/ a bean paste in side 100 points, right by the river in a down and dirty stall I go for a local dish, rich fatty pork over rice + egg cake, with a side of a green's I have never seen or can name but it was like spanish taraggon. All afternoon I felt microbe's eating my insides, not an amebic(sp?) reality luckly but a bugger for sure, Linda's just thinks I am getting lazy, so we head to the pool and than a long nap.
Dinner at Cafe des Amis, open now 10 years, set menu's at less than 4$ either seafood or veggie, we do one of each, all the history of the local food is in these dish's, one is verry Chinese, one is made with curry, others are local specialty's (Haoi An's sister city's in history are Malaka and Macau), we thought very good and the view's of the river and its activity from the balcony was priceless. After dinner Ho Chi's revenge sets in......

Day 6 Hue: Com Hen (Clam Rice), one of the greatest dishes so far, beach for lunch steamed crab & grilled fish, dinner at Paradise Garden Restaurant, very nice riverside setting, nice food best is grilled chicken lemon leaves...

Day 7 Hue: Com hen at another location (Quan Thanh Xuan/4 Truong Dinh, yesterday was 2 Truong Dinh but today they not serving), this dish is amazing, clams, rice, clam broth, some slivered browned corbicula, couple sauce's, on top peanuts, sliced starfruit, and crispy pork rind, than you add hot peppers to taste plus some stinky gray (fish) sauce.....
Dinner at Truong Tien 1 under the bridge in a drop dead location on the river, a local joint, fab beef wraped in a leave like the other day but this time steamed in banana leaf so tender and more juicy, located at Cong Vien Thuong Bac.

Summer in the City

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city
Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop
Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city

All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head

But at night it's a different world
Go out and find a girl
Come-on come-on and dance all night
Despite the heat it'll be alright

And babe, don't you know it's a pity
That the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city

-the spoonful

Day 4/ Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City: Awesome breakfast at the market (one of the best eating spots for sure), lunch of coffee (here coffee is STRONG and served over condensed milk-YUMMY), dinner @ Indochine--ROCKED--crab x 4:>): spring rolls, Asian Stone claws tamarind, fried soft shell, medium sized steamed in ginger, we also had clams lemongrass, grilled crawfish, and I needed some pork chops like no other!!--GRAND CRU.

Day 5/Hue: Lunch at Houng Sen, a 16 sided wood building in a water lily patch, we were not so hungry so we passed on the house special of blood curd and crab, had a tasty ground cow with herb/sesame fried in an aromatic leaf.
Dinner at Tinh Gia Vien was sadly not at all what we expected, we loved the villa and Madame Ha, the presentations were Imperial for sure but not special in flavor, we had hoped to eat here all 3 nights. BUT A MUST FOR ONE NIGHT!!

Mr. Wilson I just discovered that it is not possible to post on your page, what's that all about? I have been experiencing that flit, unfortunately the flit's are cock roaches. Where are you? Do you know what night it is?

Day 3: We drive to Mekong Delta and eat at Lan Que. First course is spring rolls fried but the rice shell is a mesh, dont know how they made it but they were awesome, followed with an eel dish spicy with mushrooms, very tender. Next are a small bird, not sure what kind, strong taste and texture comes alive (saved:>) with a dipping sauce of crushed pepper and lime, following that we have a fish that lookes like it came from the bottom of the river (the Mekong feels a bit like the Amazon, the town is a cool backwater place, the people so friendly, just 30 years ago the US was spraying napalm here), it was sweet but strong textured. Than comes the snake, sauted with a bitter green, shallots, peanuts, this dish is eaten with a thin flat bread, like an Indian bread, cooked with spices in it, you dip it in the mixture and eat, its supposed to be good for your body, last dish is snake bone broth soup with cilantro and shallots. Could not do the turtle which is another special of the restaurant. Interesting meal. Dinner we needed some pro-flow veggie food, so we went to a local tourist hot-spot called Lemongrass. It was more Thai/Chinese but the food was clean and what we needed.

Day 1/ Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City: Dinner at Temple Club was a great start, fab mixed drinks that went wonderful with the food, the two highlights were Linda's choise's, mustard green spring rolls followed by fried fish (covered in peanuts and sauted scallion) with lettuce, basil, cilantro, mint and noodles, which you rolled up in the lettuce with fish sauce....

Day 2/ Saigon-Ho Chi Minh City: Market (a great explosion of color and aroma, small but very cool) for breakfast after dragon fruit at the hotel, beef noodle soup, and it was all it was supposed to be. Lunch: Angkor Encore, the city's only Cambodian restaurant, two dishes shined, fish soup in a light coconut curry, w/ noodles, basil, bean sprouts, not heavy. Fish baked in banana leaf covered in a curry like paste on a bed of a bitter-ish green. Dinner: we were thinking Vietnamese House but I had a bad vibe so we went to the bar and had a drink and watched the food, didnt look special, so we went back to the Temple Club for more fab drinks, what a beautiful room, we went upstairs for BBQ but it was now to late, some basic Japanese food on the way home filled the hole.

I rarely regret cable TV, but I would like to see this one: a documentary focusing on Detroit in the late sixties, and how the World Series winning '68 Tigers salved the wounds of the previous year's race riots. I was nine that summer, and barely cognizant of such matters, but I do remember the remarkable nature of that season. It was the year I got socialized. I'd never had any interest in sports, but that spring they had us playing T-ball at school, and as the Tigers gained momentum the interest among my peers was so pervasive that I couldn't help but become a fan. It was one of the few times I've wholeheartedly been involved in something so unabashedly mainstream. It was the year that Denny McLain won 31 games. That was (and remains) an amazing figure. My Dad told me stories from his childhood about Dizzy Dean, the St. Louis eccentric, and the last pitcher to win as many as 30. That had been in 1934, thirty-four years earlier; an unfathomable gulf for a child to contemplate. Now it's thirty-four years since '68, and while I've got a broader perspective on time, I'm no closer to understanding it. McLain seems as far away as Diz, yet I can recall the year's events as if it were last season. Mostly I heard them on the radio, narrated by Ernie Harwell, Detroit's Hall of Fame play-by-play man, who is retiring this year at age 84. Despite dominating the American League, the Tigers were Series underdogs against the champion Cardinals. They had Bob Gibson, who set the ERA record that year, but "only" managed a record of 22 and 9, which goes to show why '68 is remembered as the "year of the pitcher". He easily defeated McLain in their two series match-ups, but our number two guy, pot-bellied southpaw Mickey Lolich, emerged as the hero, winning three games. He beat the invincible Gibson in the deciding seventh game, pitching on short rest, as the Tigers came back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to win their first series since 1945. It remains one of the most satisfying experiences of my life. The next year, I found out that (Yankees aside) sports is really about your team losing more often than it wins. Denny McLain ended up in jail as a two-bit mobster, and I haven't had much satisfaction from the mainstream since.

i forgot how sucky daytime tv is.

From NY Press, John Strausbaugh talks to Richard Metzger about the travails of Disinformation.

oh yeah, lomax died