apples to apples

Shana tova to my Jewish friends! I've spent the day watching some folks I know leading Rosh Hashana services at 92Y Tribeca. Tonight a three-sevenths-Jewish group of us are having a potluck to ring in the Jewish New Year full of (hopefully) delicious foods, a Kosher wine that tastes better than Manischevitz, and a much-hyped homemade version of Apples to Apples.

My contribution to this shindig is my first solo-attempt to make a challah recipe passed off from our college rabbi's wife. When she makes it, it's the most delicious challah I've ever eaten. Perfect for the high holidays, it's a little sweet and full of chopped dates. I even figured out how to braid the round loaf, which I'm pretty proud of, even though it's hard to see the braids post-baking.

And for your own enjoyment, since I can't actually give out pieces of challah over the internet, here's some apples and honey for yourselves!

welcome to the space jam

Saturday night I fit a seemingly impossible number of people into my one-bedroom apartment for a space themed housewarming party. It was overflowing with aluminum foil, pop rocks, and really awesome friends who dove head first into the theme. I also threw the party so it coincided with several friends visiting from out of town, which made the festivities extra fun. I'm having some party-planning withdrawal now, though - it was all pretty consuming! The various elements included:

An almost 4-hour-long mix of space-related songs. Highlights here:

The playlist was visually-aided by a (mute version) of this Youtube playlist.

It got pretty middle-school-dance-ish with silver stars hanging from the ceiling, alongside a homemade galaxy (lit with christmas lights). Plus, more tin foil made an appearance to decorate an unused Ikea lampshade I had lying around.

There was "rocket fuel" made of Jager and Dr. Pepper (which wound up being my undoing), plus some sweet treats: Blue Moon cupcakes, and adorable alien rice krispie treats made by my friends Ana and Tiffany.

My friends came as a wide variety of spacey things...almost every costume involved aluminum foil, as you can see:

 space test animals (an elephant and a cat...)

the satellite that recently crash-landed on Earth, and the solar system 

generic foil/space hipster

Now that I've fully recovered (and my apartment no longer looks like the apocalypse happened), I'm definitely in search of a new project. Thanks to all of you who came out - my apartment is nice and warm now :-)

things move fast around here

The time has come: my friends are starting to get married. I went to my first non-family/family-friend wedding this weekend in Columbus, OH. Despite some travel woes (flight to Chicago delayed 90 minutes! first flight to Columbus canceled!) we barely made it to Ohio for the rehearsal dinner on Saturday night. As we rushed to get dressed and ran downstairs in the hotel, we came around the corner to see the bride- and groom-to-be making their way there, too. We met Elliot for the first time (so sweet!) and reunited with Alissa (gorgeous, as per usual). It was a mini-college reunion of sorts, meeting some newer friends along the way who told their own stories of the progression of Alissa and Elliot's movie-like relationship.

the bride-to-be at the rehearsal dinner! she never stopped smiling all weekend 

 rehearsal dinner outfit shots with my wedding weekend roomies

The wedding was beautiful -- as was their bridal party (talk about good genes in those families!) -- and the reception was a blast. We felt honored to be a part of their celebration and see the beginning of what I'm sure will be a wonderful life together. It felt funny at first to attend a wedding where I had never met the groom, but I was quick to understand and see how well they fit together.

The wedding and reception were at the Franklin Park Conservatory. The space and the decor were perfect! We all loved her berry and sage green color scheme, and the earthy elements they spread throughout: the sticks under the wedding cake, rocks with your name for place cards, and the lantern center pieces.

The signing of the ketubah and the ceremony under the chuppah were full of smiles and meaningful glances. I loved watching her parents during the ceremony - they looked so happy and proud!

circling the groom - the point at which I started to get teary-eyed 

first dance to Stand By Me 

with Alissa! Congrats, again!!

"How now did you see what I did see?"

Seemingly out of nowhere on Monday morning, a tweet/post went up on BrooklynVegan that Clap Your Hands Say Yeah would be performing at Littlefield that same night with tickets going on sale at noon. I dutifully waited with my laptop and pounced, snagging 2 tickets. The show was great, as the crowd wasn't pushy nor the venue overly full (despite being sold out). Everyone seemed so chill, in fact, that Ana and I found ourselves in the front row moments before the opening act took the stage.

I tend to have mixed luck with opening bands that I'm unfamiliar with, but we were really happy with Conversion Party. They switched up vocalists and instruments several times, but the sound remained fairly consistent. I got a Thermals-ish vibe from them at times, which I didn't mind at all.

CYHSY played a mix of their first two albums interspersed with tracks from their upcoming album. All the new tracks sounded great and I'm really excited to hear the whole thing in September. While I was never the biggest fan of Some Loud Thunder, the songs they chose to play translated well to the stage and I may give it a second chance. The crowd was pretty vocal as time went on that they wanted Gimme Some Salt to be played, so their wish was granted in the form of an extra song thrown into the encore. How do we know it was extra? Because our front-row positioning allowed me to hop up onto the edge of the stage and snag Robbie's set list after the show. Win! Photos of the show, including the setlist, below:

(Gimme Some Salt was inserted before Heavy Metal)

the pretty little patter of a seaboard town

Just about one week ago I was heading off to Newport, RI with team T.E.A.M. (tiffany, eve, ana, and [myself]) for the Newport Folk Festival. Our drive was never too traffic-y (thanks, John!) and our hotel was kind of ridiculously oversized for the 4 of us.

On the surface, Newport is a really typical waterside vacation spot. All the buildings have the same look and feel and themes, but what sets Newport apart is its insanely prep-bro visitors. It's like being smacked in the face with a Ralph Lauren catalog. Despite the almost pathetically stupid things that some of the drunk dudes on the street said to us, the town was cute and I'm sorry we couldn't spend more daylight time walking around. Rather, our day on Saturday was spent out at Ft. Adams State Park for the festival, which was a beautiful location and delightfully breezy. We ate and drank and possibly got too much sun exposure. It was fantastic.

Musical highlights of my day included Gogol Bordello, Delta Spirit, and the Decemberists. Colin Meloy (jokingly?) mocked the "party flotillas" out in the water catching the concert for free (or rather, for the price of already having a boat you can sit on all day). We missed Earl Scruggs because we were eating hotdogs (necessary). We also sat in the shade tent during Gillian Welch and I let her gorgeous voice lull me into an almost-sleep.

Sunday we attempted to visit the Breakers before heading back to NYC, but were very sad to find out that it costs $19 a pop to get in. We walked past a lot of the mansions, though, and I have grand dreams (probably to never be realized) of living seaside now.

my life as a Vanderbilt (ha!) #gpoy

tributary

Just a quick post to note the assembly of covers over on Stereogum as they tribute The Strokes' first magical album, Is This It.

You can stream all the covers, or download the whole thing. I'm partial to the Morning Benders' version of "Last Night" which turns an originally semi-frenetic song into a breezier jangly summer jam. Also, Owen Pallet's take on "Hard to Explain" is beautiful.

"New York City Cops" unfortunately gets treated as merely a sample to be rapped over (and really, its inclusion in this track seems really unnecessary). Chelsea Wolfe accomplishes what she intended to do with "The Modern Age", but I find it barely recognizable anymore. I feel similarly about Wise Blood's version of "Someday." Also: where is "When It Started"?? It seems like an odd omission, especially since they already had bands who were unfamiliar with the album doing covers.

Otherwise, I'm just spending some time with my (free version) of Spotify and preparing to head to Newport Folk Festival this weekend! It'll be nice to get out of NYC - and particularly to go somewhere that's a bit cooler. It's a miracle that my ice cream did not melt en route to Bushwick for my friends' housewarming last weekend.

ice cream mania

Summer thus far has been full of lots of great things, but rising to the top of the list is the amount of ice cream I've ingested. And it's all so good. I took an ice cream making class over at Brooklyn Brainery and am on a quest to re-create Homer's fresh peach ice cream (or at least make one that's better than the other peach ice creams parading around NYC which are all far inferior to Homer's). On top of learning a slew of ice cream-related historical factoids, possibly the most important takeaway from the class was a rather intense discussion about everyone's favorite ice cream places in the city. Challenge accepted. I am slowly going through the list I made during class:

- Blue Marble (had black cherry--I think-- which was okay, but I think I'll try something else if I go back. Pro: they do mini-scoops or regular sized scoops!)

- Ample Hills (LIFE CHANGING ICE CREAM. I had Salted Crack Caramel, and there are so many other flavors I want to go back to try. It's a good thing I live over two miles away or I'd be in there every day and gain 20 pounds)

- Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

- il laboratorio del gelato

- plus, my go-to in the East Village: Sundaes and Cones, where I have seriously never had a bad scoop.

- Graeters (to be eaten on my trip to Columbus in August for a wedding! Perfect timing)

My friends are having an ice cream-themed housewarming party this weekend, and I'm planning to make a bourbon-peach cobbler ice cream (and hoping it doesn't melt en route in the almost-100-degree heatwave that's headed our way). My first attempt at making peach wasn't quite peach-y enough, so I have a few ideas about how to change things up this time for better results. It still tastes pretty awesome, though, so I don't mind eating my way through the test rounds: