with the sun shining down over me and you

This mid-week musical moment is really 10 moments: a mini-mix of songs I've been listening to to kick off the summer.


10 for early summer '10:

• hand me downs by The Morning Benders
• Everlasting Light by The Black Keys
• Miami by Foals
• The Weekenders by The Hold Steady
• I Can Talk by Two Door Cinema Club
• Favourite Colour by Tokyo Police Club

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USA or England?

...and if you think I'm talking about the World Cup, you are barking up the wrong tree.

what I'm *really* interested in are the two dueling Arcade Fire singles: one that was for the UK ("We Used to Wait") and one for the US ("Ready to Start").  I actually like them both a lot and just listened to them back-to-back three times trying to choose a favorite, but so far it's a tie.  You can decide for yourself with these embeds I swiped from We All Want Someone to Shout For:

"We Used to Wait":


"Ready to Start":



In the meantime, I'm just hoping that Arcade Fire schedules a NYC show that is not the MSG one with Spoon which is $60 after all those annoying fees and the only seats left are all the way at the top and on the opposite side of the arena.  It really says something appalling about the price (and choice of venue...) that there are even tickets left to this show after it went on sale Saturday (and pre-sale a few days before that).  Let's go for something less ambitious and more reasonably-priced, guys!

summer staples

Summer has more or less arrived, complete with jam-packed (yet kind of lazy) weekends, frozen drinks, an assortment of hotdogs, and rooftop parties.

wildflowers on the Highline

 

Pretzel dog at the Rusty Knot

Rusty Knot signature drink, complete w/ lounging mermaid

 

"Ito" hotdog from Asia Dog

o

w/ the birthday girl on her East Village rooftop (stolen from Facebook)

not harvey

The problem with this glass is that 90% of its awesomeness lies is the name that they gave it online and has nothing to do with it actually being a useful object.

And of course, it's being sold by UO.

we end up together

This weekend I ate:

Grimaldi's pizza, thai food, dimsum at the Golden Unicorn

Listened to:


Finished reading:
Paris Trout
and then bought:


And hung out with these fantastic folks:

I would say it was a Cornell overload, but there's no such thing :-)  Great visit/luncheon/party/brunch, Al!  I (and NY) miss you.

PS - here is the cutest, random yellow duckling:

spotted at Rockefeller University, at John's farewell BBQ

I haven't forgotten about Memorial Day

I am so behind in re-capping the deliciously wonderful Memorial Day that I had on Monday!  It was also my last day before the big, bad world of working every day at 9am(!) - I guess I'm a grown-up now or something.

I hosted a small brunch party - I made corn-blueberry pancakes, biscuits, and spinach-egg-halloumi-stuffed baked tomatoes.  People brought over bagels, fruit, champagne, and daisies!  I bought my produce at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday, which was the first time I had gone there w/ the intention of actual grocery shopping.  All of the things I got were insanely delicious and fresh, and not expensive at all.

Post-brunch was spent in the park under the Manhattan bridge, first eating ice cream from Jacques Torres w/ Luiz and Nick, and then I was joined by my lucky friend/(now)former co-worker who lives rightthere on Main St.

It was beautiful out for 90% of the day, but I made it home right before the rain started to pour out of the sky - lucky me. :-)

2 years out

Memorial Day weekend became a whole new thing two years ago, because it also became graduation weekend.  My parents and I drove to NYC on Memorial Day of 2008 to start looking for an apartment, and it was the end of my days in Ithaca.

This dose of sentimental nostalgia was brought up early this year, with the release of "Graduation Song" by the duo Kinetics & One Love - otherwise known as two Cornell grads who are also behind the BoB/Paramore/Eminem song "Airplanes."  Interlaced with references to Ithaca/Collegetown, it took several listens to unearth them all, but my favorite is still "I miss you more than I used to miss my 8:40" - not that I *ever* signed up for an 8:40am class.  I could barely do the 9:05 classes in my schedule.  (I still have yet to regularly need to show up anywhere before 9am...since high school).

Check out/download the song here: http://freshnewtracks.com/?p=10380

I've also recently been asked with some frequency, how long I've been in NYC.  It still seems weird to say that it's been about 2 years.  Time flies.