Not sure there is much more to say... if letting your Hooter's waitress play w/ your assualt rifle is wrong? Well, then I don't wanna be right! By the way, did you catch the double entendre in there?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Jay About Town Goes to NYC
I have the distinct pleasure of celebrating my wife's birthday and Valentine's day in a 2 day span. Yup, the old 2-fer weekend! Well, this year we decided to head on down to NY City and paint the town red. I really enjoy visiting NY, there is just alot going on. I could probably write a 2000 word tome on the weekend but I think I will stick to a quick hit format.
-Where did we stay? The Tribecca Grand. This place is very hip. Great bar w/ an amazing selection of booze, the well drinks would be top shelf in most joints! Pretty decent apps as well, we really like the lobster salad. The rooms were suprising large for a boutique hotel, and very well appointed w/ what my lady described as "products you buy @ Barney's!". Hot Damn!! We really enjoyed the stay here.
-Where did we eat? Friday night we had our romantic dinner out @ "Po". We started w/ a white bean bruschetta which was good but had a ton of garlic. We then shared a goat cheese W/ black olive tartufo and a salad of greens and I believe hard parm cheese. Both very good. For our main courses, my lady went w/ the Orechiette, I rocked the veal marsala. We also took down an Italian bottle of wine I am at a loss to remember. All in all, delicious food, nice sized portions, reasonable px, great atmosphere, solid service. 2 thumbs up. Thanks Steve C. for the recommendation.
Brunch the next day was at "The Odeon". They had these fantastic fresh warm doughnuts w/ a carmelized maple dipping sauce. Add that to a fantastic bloody mary, very nice eggs bene., and good beer selection... I give it a solid 1 3/4 tumbs (a little priecey for smallish drinks) and decent buzz up!
Dinner Saturday night was a pizza joint in SoHo. Hey, it was f*ing delecious, you can't get good pizza in VT.
-what else did we do? We saw my first Broadway show, Marry Poppins, Saturday night. Love the story, thought the actors were great, fun set, she got to fly around a bunch. Plus we had great seats, 1st row in the mezzanine. It's Broadway... call me fruity if you like but it was a ton of fun!. Saturday we walked, shopped, and drank beers. Great day.
-How was the flight? As you might expect... it sucked. For the 1000000th straight flight we were delayed in and out of JFK. The best was the delay out, the XM radio was busted so we had to sit at the gate for an hour so Jetblue could detemine is was busted, tuen the whole in flight entertainment system, and then finally attempt to take off w/ no tv (the best part about Jetblue), a screaming kid in front of us, a huge snoring dude (300lbs?), and hopefully a very rewarding $10 in the mail for our trouble!!! Thanks Jetblue!!!!!!!!
So there you have it... a great weekend, w/ a lovely partner, having loads of fun. I am ging the weekend a very solid 2 thumbs up!!!
btw... in other NY news...hahahahahahaha
Friday, February 15, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Inspiration
Ok Ok... so I kno I just posted, and I know the title of this post calls for a picture of a cat falling out of a tree or a sunset or something but... I was cruising home and the radio had a little Pixies going and I started to think about inspiration. Music plays a huge part in my life, there is always some random tune going down in my head good, bad, silly... but always something. So I thought I would pay tribute to the people that brought certain music to my life.
Carrie C. - Phish and Primus. She was a crazy character and a wacko girlfriend but she added a little alternative to my buttoned up life.
N.L. actually a good girlfriend and just a good friend but f*ing country music?! Well, Garth Brooks has friends in low places and so do I, thanks Nik. but I will never forgive you for the "Boot Scootin' Boogie"!!!
Jon M. 3-11 and Sublime... even before he went to Cali... Jonny M. brought Cali to us, thanks bro!
Puma - Dead- while Otter nonsense really embraced the Dead, it was the Pume who brought it to me. Hippy!
Matt M. from Pearson fame... Hendrix "Machine Gun"... WHOA!
Sully and Sig Ep - the Police- partying in a whole new arena
Mike M. one night after a bit of ingestion... the Beatles "Ride a Pony" seriously blew my mind. Mike you have always been on the cutting edge and been a musical inspiration to my lady who has been a musical teacher to me.
Tom R. high school neighbor wwho always played AC DC. I was a little kid and it got me VT fired up for metal!
Mum - all classical... the intracacy, the power, the beauty. like my mum, classy, strong, and timeless.
Mark and Karen W. - Jazz. when I was a kid they had a cool finished basement w/ hundreds of jazz records that were always spinning. They were the coolest uncool people ever.
... and now the top 3!
Otter Nonsense - MFO, if you are reading you have been a huge and very odd influence... Pixies, Dead beyond the greatest hits, Blind Melon beyond the bee outfit ("Soup" is one of my top 10 alltime albums), Pink Floyd early early early pre acid Sid Barrett freakout... there were so many tunes and so many tweaked out nights were you were willing to put those crazy tunes on... expanded the way I think about music, thanks.
My Special Lady - The Boss- loving "The Rising" as a top 10 all time fave. Dan Bern, Elvis, De La Soul... so many others. For one, my wife is Brooklyn born and bred so she has such a different and varried musical experience to bring to the table. Two, her folks were sixties hippies and bring tons of cool old school music I had previously dismissed to the table. Three, she has such a love of music and sophisticated mind, she brings a whole new experience to the game.
Papa Bird - alwyas had the records spinning or the tapes rolling. My dad loves it all, and gave me the bug. Fleetwood Mac? CHECK! Journey? CHECK! Chicago (70S style) CHECK! Elton John? You F*ing Bet! Plus. Van Halen, Heart, Genesis, Styx, Allman Bros., Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Grand Funk... my dad listened to it all and gave it all to us. i have his record collection and he still passes on all of his CDs... My musical adventure begins and ends w/ the old man!
So there you have it... play your tunes for everyone you know, they may love it, they may hate it, but they will always remember where they heard it first!!!
Carrie C. - Phish and Primus. She was a crazy character and a wacko girlfriend but she added a little alternative to my buttoned up life.
N.L. actually a good girlfriend and just a good friend but f*ing country music?! Well, Garth Brooks has friends in low places and so do I, thanks Nik. but I will never forgive you for the "Boot Scootin' Boogie"!!!
Jon M. 3-11 and Sublime... even before he went to Cali... Jonny M. brought Cali to us, thanks bro!
Puma - Dead- while Otter nonsense really embraced the Dead, it was the Pume who brought it to me. Hippy!
Matt M. from Pearson fame... Hendrix "Machine Gun"... WHOA!
Sully and Sig Ep - the Police- partying in a whole new arena
Mike M. one night after a bit of ingestion... the Beatles "Ride a Pony" seriously blew my mind. Mike you have always been on the cutting edge and been a musical inspiration to my lady who has been a musical teacher to me.
Tom R. high school neighbor wwho always played AC DC. I was a little kid and it got me VT fired up for metal!
Mum - all classical... the intracacy, the power, the beauty. like my mum, classy, strong, and timeless.
Mark and Karen W. - Jazz. when I was a kid they had a cool finished basement w/ hundreds of jazz records that were always spinning. They were the coolest uncool people ever.
... and now the top 3!
Otter Nonsense - MFO, if you are reading you have been a huge and very odd influence... Pixies, Dead beyond the greatest hits, Blind Melon beyond the bee outfit ("Soup" is one of my top 10 alltime albums), Pink Floyd early early early pre acid Sid Barrett freakout... there were so many tunes and so many tweaked out nights were you were willing to put those crazy tunes on... expanded the way I think about music, thanks.
My Special Lady - The Boss- loving "The Rising" as a top 10 all time fave. Dan Bern, Elvis, De La Soul... so many others. For one, my wife is Brooklyn born and bred so she has such a different and varried musical experience to bring to the table. Two, her folks were sixties hippies and bring tons of cool old school music I had previously dismissed to the table. Three, she has such a love of music and sophisticated mind, she brings a whole new experience to the game.
Papa Bird - alwyas had the records spinning or the tapes rolling. My dad loves it all, and gave me the bug. Fleetwood Mac? CHECK! Journey? CHECK! Chicago (70S style) CHECK! Elton John? You F*ing Bet! Plus. Van Halen, Heart, Genesis, Styx, Allman Bros., Gordon Lightfoot, Jim Croce, Kinks, Pink Floyd, Grand Funk... my dad listened to it all and gave it all to us. i have his record collection and he still passes on all of his CDs... My musical adventure begins and ends w/ the old man!
So there you have it... play your tunes for everyone you know, they may love it, they may hate it, but they will always remember where they heard it first!!!
Jay About Groton!
As I am sitting here finishing up another day of economic kicks to my balls... I thought I might reflect on a very nice weekend I had w/ my special lady. I was pretty sick and stayed home Friday. Turned out to be a great move, I was able to rest all day and put my mind and body back together. By Saturday I was raring to go!! The weather was great, we had just had a pretty good snow storm that dumped well over a foot of unexpected snow. The snow was deep but pretty light and the temperature was a quite pleasent 30 degrees. My lady had a plan and we ran w/ it... a trip to the Northeast Kingdom! Well, it's actually quite a haul up to VT's nether regions but we were able to get to the fringes just north and east of Montpelier in the Groton State Forrest. It was great, there were miles of untouched hiking trails (only a few snowmobilers were on some VAST trails) and the snow was great. We strapped on the snowshoes and cruised around in solitude for a couple hours. Really quite beautiful.
The best thing about winter sports is apres ski... even if you were not actually skiing!! For this we went to a pretty slick place in St. Johnsbury, Elements. It is a little off the main drag on Mill Street. Suprisingly enough, it is a gutted and refurbished mill?! Who knew? The space is really beautiful w/ exposed beams and wonderful woodwork throughout. It is quite an anomoly for St. J let me tell you. They started us off at the bar w/ wine for m'lady and a beer for me as well as these really crispy homade sweet potato chips. The bar opens @4pm, the kitchen @5. After chatting w/ our friendly bartender and another host we sat down in the bar area which is still quite clean and pleasant. The menu changes every week which is pretty fun. It is not too large or overwealming and gives you apps, small plates, large entrees, and side dishes. The little lady started w/ a green salad w/ a delicious maple dressing (not too sweet or syrupy), I hit up an amazing roasted onion soup w/ a blue cheese crositini. The soup had a great flavor and a maybe even better texture, pureed but w/ body. We then went w/ a couple of small plates. My wife rocked out with a bones clinging braised bork dish w/ blue cheese and toast. The pork was very tender and delicious. I went w/ the duck leg confit. it dropped off the bone and was accompanied by a sweet acorn squash surrounded by a raspberry reduction. We finished off w/ a very pleasant conversation w/ the owner and a couple of espressos (that and an amazing key lime pie slice we took to go!). I am giving this place 2 solid thumbs up... good food, good service, good atmosphere. This place had the whole package. So there you have it!!!
***btw, spell check on Blogger is not working and I am a suki spellor, sori.
The best thing about winter sports is apres ski... even if you were not actually skiing!! For this we went to a pretty slick place in St. Johnsbury, Elements. It is a little off the main drag on Mill Street. Suprisingly enough, it is a gutted and refurbished mill?! Who knew? The space is really beautiful w/ exposed beams and wonderful woodwork throughout. It is quite an anomoly for St. J let me tell you. They started us off at the bar w/ wine for m'lady and a beer for me as well as these really crispy homade sweet potato chips. The bar opens @4pm, the kitchen @5. After chatting w/ our friendly bartender and another host we sat down in the bar area which is still quite clean and pleasant. The menu changes every week which is pretty fun. It is not too large or overwealming and gives you apps, small plates, large entrees, and side dishes. The little lady started w/ a green salad w/ a delicious maple dressing (not too sweet or syrupy), I hit up an amazing roasted onion soup w/ a blue cheese crositini. The soup had a great flavor and a maybe even better texture, pureed but w/ body. We then went w/ a couple of small plates. My wife rocked out with a bones clinging braised bork dish w/ blue cheese and toast. The pork was very tender and delicious. I went w/ the duck leg confit. it dropped off the bone and was accompanied by a sweet acorn squash surrounded by a raspberry reduction. We finished off w/ a very pleasant conversation w/ the owner and a couple of espressos (that and an amazing key lime pie slice we took to go!). I am giving this place 2 solid thumbs up... good food, good service, good atmosphere. This place had the whole package. So there you have it!!!
***btw, spell check on Blogger is not working and I am a suki spellor, sori.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
COMMANDO
Today is kind of a tough day... the Patriots crapped out in the final push for immortality, the financial markets are looking to join them in the toilet, and I am a little sick today. Sure, I could wallow in my sorrows and whine and moan about my troubles, but I am instead inspired! Inspired by a gem from the '80s. Thanks to the miracle of cable and the "Action" movie network, I was able to rock out w/ one of my all time faves... "Commando"!!! After seeing it again in its uncut entirety I am going to go so far as to say it may even be the top action movie of all time. Now I know what you are thinking... "hey, that Jay guy is a stupid piece of... what about Die Hard, Terminator, Batman, Lethal Weapon, hell, what about Predator!!!". I have not made my mind up yet, I mean, I love Predator, but indulge me for a moment. First off, what a cast... The Govenator, Rae Dawn Chong, a super not legal Alyssa Milano, that guy bad character Dan Hedaya, Bill Duke (also of Predator fame). This is a murderer's row of randomw 80s actors. Second, who was in charge of wardrobe? Between Arnold's short shorts, the "military issue" vest w/ no undershirt, super cheesy stewardess outfits, and the other 1980s hallmarks such as acid washed denim and leg warmers... that's a winning combo. As w/ any good action movie there is one great out of no where gratuitous nude scene.
Here is where we get to the nitty gritty. For one there is fantastic cheesy action. The fight scenes are over the top, they make the WWF look like a legit operation. There are also random explosions which lead to extras flailing around in an attempt to look like they just got blown off there feet. There is one scene where Arnold flys through a mall attached to a long balloon (physics be damned!). My favorite of course is where the characters shoot heavy artillery w/ one hand. Ever try to shoot a handgun w/ 1 hand? How about a shotgun? Now try a 40lb gun launching automatic 8" slugs! Naturally, you would drop the gun and be lucky if it did not spin around and rip your leg off. So that's fun.
The other great thing about the eighties is that Schwarzenegger is still very unfamiliar w/ the english language (not sure what excuse the other actors have?). Every line is like a waterboarding gone bad. Of course it also produces such gems as... "Remember when promised to kill you last? I LIED!" and "Don't bother my friend, he's dead tired." Where has the wit in Hollywood gone?!
And finally? I present the best cast of villans ever. There is the somehoe tough Sully, who is actually about 4'9" 125lbs soaking wet and would probably have his hands full w/ my 1 yr old nephew. Then you have Dan Hedaya rocking peraps the most ridiculous South American Spanish accent I have ever heard. He also does a great job pulling off the outfit that the Iranian president has brought back into fashion... all tan man! There is Bill Duke who tries to use his barritone voice and toughguy stare to distract you from the fact he is fat and not a very fluent athlete. But the piece de resistance? The main bad guy... Vernon Wells! Nope not the center fielder for the Blue Jays. Vernon Wells as Bennett... the gayest bad guy I have ever seen in my life! He is fat, he is effeminate, and he is wearing an outfit I once saw in a pretty weird bar on Tremont St in Boston (thanks O'Connell). How could you take him seriously? Especially when he is grappling w/ an obviously roided out Arnold?!?!?!
Well there you have it... comedy, action, Arnold! It's a great movie.
Hey speaking of great TV... there is a Paradise Hotel 2. The first one was such a hit they had to put down volume 2 (on Fox Reality Channel)!!!!
Friday, February 1, 2008
I am Scuffed up today!
So Jay About Town was about town last night w/ a small group of colleagues and well, let's just say Mrs. Jay About Town had to cheaffeur me him home! We began the night at the trusty Church Street Tavern, newly painted and cleaned up. Funny thing, the bar had been closed for 2 weeks and you really couldn't tell the place was any different. The only tell tale sign was that they had not gotten around to putting all the random crap back on the walls? Anywho... we got to jawing and before you knew it, we were several light beers deep and ready for some chow. My lady was at class so I had a free pass. Now, where to go...? How about the newly redesigned Rusty Scuffer?!?!?! The Scuffer had a previous life as a nasty seafood place that was popular w/ local B-ball coach and celeb Tom Brennan. The new incarnation has the Scuffer posing as a high end steak house. Have you ever heard the old joke about putting lipstick on a pig? $30 steaks are the lipstick, same old Scuffer is the pig! We started w/ a blue cheese a steak flatbread... probably won't be ordering that again. 3 seconds later our entrees came out. I had a burger which was pretty good. Fries sucked though. So the service was ok, the atmosphere was nice, there is a big bar and plenty of TVs. The real problem is that the Scuffer is nothing more than a slightly better than average bar. They are charging way too much and trying to go fancy... I am calling their closing date Sept. '08.
Next stop, Ake's! Bam, a few more beers, PBRs no less, and we were back in the F*ing zone chief! By the time my wife showed up we had begun speaking in giberish but were doing it at an uncomfortably high volume. We had also secured a few XL Pabst t-shirts (perfect for me as my workouts have created a size XXL neck) and were ready to offend! mission accomplished w/in 5 seconds. So then I got a ride home and Jay About Town became Jay About his bed! I am giving the Tavern 1 thumb up for cheap cold beers and a cute waitress, the Scuffer 1/2 a thumb up for the TVs and the next day diarhea, and Akes no thums up... that place always makes me mad!
I need a nap!!!
Next stop, Ake's! Bam, a few more beers, PBRs no less, and we were back in the F*ing zone chief! By the time my wife showed up we had begun speaking in giberish but were doing it at an uncomfortably high volume. We had also secured a few XL Pabst t-shirts (perfect for me as my workouts have created a size XXL neck) and were ready to offend! mission accomplished w/in 5 seconds. So then I got a ride home and Jay About Town became Jay About his bed! I am giving the Tavern 1 thumb up for cheap cold beers and a cute waitress, the Scuffer 1/2 a thumb up for the TVs and the next day diarhea, and Akes no thums up... that place always makes me mad!
I need a nap!!!
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