Not Very Blissful

After watching "Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares" last night, and seeing moldy food and colonies of cockroaches that infested the midtown restaurant he turned around, I started to wonder how our own neighborhood places have fared in the health department inspections, which Wesley has blogged about before.

Turns out that shortly after Bliss on 46th and Skillman underwent new management, their inspection ratings took a steep nosedive. On 8/22/07 they were given a disgusting 50 rating (anything over 28 constitutes a failure and requires a follow up compliance inspection). Their previous rating back on 5/1/07 was a somewhat high, but still passing 17. In contrast, Quaint, just down the block from Bliss on Skillman, received a very respectable 2 score (though that was back on 11/8/06 - let's hope they've kept it up).

When will the health department start requiring restaurants to post their scores? And why did it take a reality TV show to expose the filth that the former Dillon's (now rebranded as Purnima) was shoveling?

Touch Football for Fun & Charity

Got this in my inbox:

This fall, ZogSports expands to Queens with Touch Football in Queensbridge Park and Outdoor Soccer in Elmhurst. ZogSports, the charity-focused, social, co-ed sports league for young professionals in their 20s and 30s, is coming to Queens for the first time.

ZogSports has spent the last four years helping young New Yorkers break the monotony of the typical day – work/gym/bar/home - by offering sports leagues, trips, social events, and volunteer opportunities. To date, they have brought together 33,000+ participants and given more than $290,000 to charity.

Participants can sign up as an entire team or as an individual/small group and we’ll place them on a team. Teammates get to know each other at the organized post-game happy hours at local bars.

As a philanthropy-focused organization, ZogSports donates a portion of all proceeds to charity, and helps all participants Play For Your Cause by making donations to winning teams’ charities of choice. Teams have the opportunity to win both on the field as well as off, with awards given for Best Team Name, Best Team Spirit, and Best Happy Hour Team. ZogSports also partners with local charitable organizations to promote/co-sponsor their events, and organizes charity events of its own.

Sounds fun, if you consider yourself a team player and like meeting new people under physicall demanding circumstances, that is. Me, I'll sign up when they add Scrabble to their roster of activities. (Fact: I played ZLOTYS on a triple word score when Wesley and I were on our honeymoon in Spain. We didn't have a dictionary with us, and he threatened to cut off my supply of Rioja if I continued to insist that it was a real word. I chose Rioja over what I knew in my heart was right. I am still upset over what I consider to be the play of a lifetime.)

In Denial Over El Comelon

I kept telling myself that the busy signal meant that they were having phone troubles. I finally walked by there today and confirmed that my favorite purveyor of rice and beans and fried plantains is gone. Seriously, I'm devastated. They could carmelize an onion like you wouldn't believe. Unless you've had the grilled chicken and onions, in which case I know you're salivating right now. And we never even blogged about it.

So where do I go now? I know there are tons more options on Greenpoint, according to the New York Times and the Department of Health. What have I been missing thanks to my obsession with El Comelon?

108th Precinct Hosts Forum on Safety

PUBLIC MEETING:
108 Police Precinct Community Council
Tuesday 7pm, September 25, 2007
Sunnyside Community Services
2nd floor
43-31 39th St.
betw. 43rd Ave. & Queens Blvd.
(Usually lasts less than two hours. Council Pres. Diane Ballek urges all to attend and to arrive at 7pm sharp.)

NATURE OF CRIMES: The attempted and completed alleged break-ins appear to be crimes of opportunity, where a back window has been left open. Another common and more alarming feature in most of the alleged home attempts is that they occur at night when the houses are occupied with sleeping residents. The site of entry is sometimes in plain sight from the other side of the courtyard.

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND: If your residence has been broken in or an attempt was made, or you want to know how to try to prevent a break-in, please take this opportunity speak directly to 108 CO Captain Thomas Kavanagh, his team, and the specific special NYPD units who have been asked to attend. Everyone needs to hear your story. Community Affairs P.O. Juan Toro noted today (9/10/07) he finds only ³one break-in has been reported in the Gardens in the last 28 days,² which means we are not speaking up in an official matter. Criminals concentrate on an area until it becomes more trouble than it is worth. The police cannot discourage them with no information and if we do not show we care.

SQUEAKY WHEEL: Please report your crime to 911 and file a report, no matter if the attempt on your premises was successful or not. When such an attempt has been thwarted on the spot, one¹s main emotion is to try and forget about it. But if you do not file an official report, we will not get the attention we need from the NYPD. NYPD personnel are put where data exists suggesting a need, which is one reason NYPD policing is so effective. It is a hassle to file a report if you lost nothing, but getting the data in the system will protect you and your neighbors in the future. We don¹t want word to get around among lawbreakers that the area is an easy target. If you are told that you cannot file a report because no crime was committed, please note the time and place of attempt and time and name of whom you speak to -- obviously, police resources must be allocated to events with more serious priority, but down the road at the the council, such information might be invaluable to both you and the 108.

PRECAUTIONS: Please lock your doors and windows, particularly the ones facing the common areas. If you wish to have them remain open, wedge them open with pipe or wood so they cannot be opened from the outside. Secure air conditioners or fans so that they cannot be pushed into your premises to gain entry. Better information will be forthcoming 9/25 and your questions answered to the best of experts' ability regarding efficacy of alarms, lighting, locks. Get to know your neighbors and report anything suspicious in progress to 911.

LOCAL NYPD TEL. NUMBERS:
911 for a crime in progress, and that includes graffiti in progress
(Since our emergency calls to 911 are routed immediately to the precinct, call 911 rather than circumventing a good system by calling the precinct.)
311 for non emergencies
718 784-5411 - 108 precinct front desk ­ might ring awhile
718 784-5426 - 108 Com. Affairs --This # has a machine (PO's Juan Toro, and Marco Youseff)
718 784-5404 - 108 Crime Prevention Officer: Lou Chimento (free excellent, on-site advice)
If you wish to speak to Diane Ballek about becoming more involved in the Council, she may be reached at 718-784-3194

The (re)Cycle Plays: Call for Volunteers

We posted info about this event, and it turns out they could use some help:

As many of you already know, Confluence is producing a 1-day festival next Saturday called THE (re)CYCLE PLAYS. I can't tell you how rewarding this experience has been for me, the other producers, and all of the artists involved. Running a festival like this is not an easy task for a small non-profit like Confluence, which means we rely on volunteers to make sure that everything comes together and will run smoothly on the day of the event. We are still in need of some more volunteers to help us in the days leading up to the event distributing cards, hanging posters, and running errands. We also need some more volunteers on the day of the festival (Saturday, Sept. 15) to help us load in, set up, assist with the maintenance of our artist area, man the Confluence info table, assist with park clean up, and strike and load out at the end of the event.

If you are able to help us out over the next week or by signing up for a 1 or 2 hour shift on Saturday between 10am - 7pm, we would be extremely grateful for your help. Please email gabriel -at- recycleplays -dot- com.

If not, I hope that you are able to make it out to Socrates Sculpture Park to check out what promises to be a great time! All of the festival details can be found at www.recycleplays.com

THANK YOU!
Adam

Buy Raw Local Honey

A local honeybee farmer is selling honey to our CSA!
It's from Waldemar Galka who has a farm in Long Island.

To purchase honey:
- 1lb jars are $7, and 2lb jars are $13

- Choose Spring Honey (lighter) or Summer Honey (darker)

- Bring a check payable to: Waldemar Galka to the CSA pickup this Thursday 9/13 or next Thursday 9/20 Sunnyside Community Services, 2nd Floor between 5-8pm.. Please don't leave cash in the envelope.

- Put it in the HONEY MONEY envelope (just ask the volunteers for it)

- Print your name and phone number on the list that is attached
to the envelope, and indicate whether you want Spring or Summer honey.

- Honey will get delivered either during the last week of Sept or
first week of Oct.

About the honey (from Waldemar):

What is important is that the honey raw and local. The bioactive nutrients are not destroyed by pasteurization and the honey contains local pollen [said to help allergy sufferers].

The other important aspect is that I don't use any 'hard chemicals' to control varroa mites (honey bee parasites) so there is no risk of them getting into the honey even at low PPM. I produce healthy honey for my family and sell the surplus to the public. The honey is not organic since there are no organic areas in the vicinity of NYC sufficiently large - at least 6 miles in diameter, the extent of honey bee foraging - to certify an organic product.

1-lb jars are $7 each. 2-lb are $13 each.

The lighter jars are honey that's mostly from the black locust blossoms (spring time) and the amber jars are honey that's mostly from linden/basswood blossoms (summer time). This year's autumn honey is being collected by the bees at this time and, if all goes well, will be harvested in early October.

Las Senoritas de Avinon at Thalia Spanish Theater

I don't know how to add the proper accent marks onto that title--ever so sorry.

THALIA SPANISH THEATRE, celebrating its 30th anniversary, presents

the BILINGUAL AMERICAN PREMIERE

(WORLD PREMIERE in English)

THE “LADIES” OF AVIGNON

LAS “SEÑORITAS DE AVIÑÓN

in celebration of the Centennial of the masterpiece by

PABLO PICASSO

by

ONE OF SPAIN’S MOST IMPORTANT CONTEMPORARY PLAYWRIGHTS
JAIME SALOM
English Translation by CHARLES PHILIP THOMAS
Produced, Designed & Directed by ANGEL GIL ORRIOS

Associate Director HECTOR LUIS RIVERA

Starring
SOLEDAD LOPEZ, KATHY TEJADA, COCO NUÑEZ,
IVETTE OLIVERAS, ANGELA PEREZ, LORENA JORGE

and introducing as Young Picasso RAUL JULIA

Young Pablo Picasso, a struggling and as-yet unknown artist, finds love, comfort, and inspiration in the company of the “ladies” of a brothel in Barcelona. As he creates his masterpiece, the nude “ladies” from the canvas come to life. The great Spanish genius and his creation as you’ve never seen them before! DON’T MISS IT!

THE STORY OF THE MOST FAMOUS BROTHEL IN THE WORLD [thanks to him].
SIX WEEKS ONLY
OCTOBER 5 TO NOVEMBER 11 2007

alternating performances in ENGLISH and SPANISH

IN ENGLISH: FRIDAYS at 8 PM & SATURDAYS at 3 PM

IN SPANISH: SATURDAYS at 8 PM & SUNDAYS at 4 PM
TICKETS $25 STUDENTS & SENIORS $22

Special group rates

At THALIA SPANISH THEATRE

41-17 Greenpoint Avenue, Sunnyside (Queens)

Subway # 7 Local to 40th St. Station. Buses Q60, Q32 to Queens Blvd & 41st St.

INFORMATION & TICKETS (718) 729-3880

At Least a Cop Was There

School's back in session, which means at certain hours of the day the streets are swarming with teenagers. I've generally found them to be tolerable--they do form large crowds that block the sidewalk, but if you say "Excuse me" they move out of the way.

The 7 train platform is another story.

I was on a train that arrived at 40th Street at 4pm. As soon as the train stopped, each door was mobbed by a large group of teenagers, who were not at all interested in letting anyone off the train.

Right in front of me, a poor woman lugging a very heavy-looking parcel on a wheeled rack and carrying a large portfolio-sized parcel was KNOCKED TO THE GROUND by the crowd.

To their credit, a few reached out to help her up and to pick her parcels up. But most of them just climbed over her, making it even more difficult for the rest of us to exit the train. She was shaken up by it, and rightly so. It hurts to fall down. I'm not even going to get into the heebie jeebies it gave me, 7 months pregnant, contemplating what could've happened if it'd been me.

There was one cop on the platform trying to manage the situation, but he was woefully outnumbered and most of them were ignoring him. This girl fell only three doors from where he was standing.

THE re(CYCLE) PLAYS at Socrates Sculpture Park, Saturday 9/15

Come to Socrates Sculpture Park on Saturday, September 15 for an afternoon-long theater experience that sounds really unique: THE re(CYCLE) PLAYS. Here's what I've been told:

THE re(CYCLE) PLAYS is a free festival of shows related to sustainable development at Socrates Sculpture Park. The format of the festival hearkens back to the tradition of the Medieval Cycle Play, and gathers a number of talented young theater artists and companies for a common cause. Every set piece and prop is recycled, and the lights and sound equipment are powered by bio-diesel.

Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Blvd.
Long Island City, NY 11106
(718)956-1819


View Larger Map

Kaufman-Astoria is Super Bad

Saturday morning Wesley and I wake up bright and early, as is our wont these days. We're not sure at what point we morphed into senior citizens but our circadian rhythms seem permanently set on "wake up early and have a fun day." I blame it on the pregnancy hormones, which really doesn't seem fair because I have pregnancy insomnia to boot. I will never sleep again.

So anyway, on Saturday, after drinking coffee, reading the paper, doing the NYT crossword puzzle (that's right, suckers, I can do Saturday), enjoying the infonot, eating breakfast, doing a little light housecleaning, going to Nita's for pregnant lady's second breakfast, reading a few chapters in my book, and clearing out my email inbox, Wesley had a suggestion.

"Wanna see Superbad?"

Fuck yeah, I want to see Superbad. (You do, too, by the way).

We chose the 11:05 at Kaufman Astoria so we could get back in time to do some more Time Warner Digital Cable surfing before the Mets game at 3:30.

We get to KA at 10:50, because we believe that you should be early for a movie. (We also believe that you should shut the fuck up and turn off your cell phone, but it's much more rewarding to believe in things you can control.)

There was a crowd outside, and the gates were down. There appeared to be no signs of life inside. We really didn't know what to do. Later shows would cut into our Mets game. Wesley said, "maybe we should go get waffles?" We've never gone for waffles before, so I guess he was joking, but it was coming up on time for my third breakfast so I was having a hard time concentrating on willing the movie theater to open because of the steady hum in my head, going "waffleswaffleswaffleswaffleswaffles."

At 11:02 the gates open and all 50 of us bumrushed the entrance. I headed for the ticket line, wishing I had body armor to protect my belly from the people who were diving over and under the line to get as close to the front as possible. I don't blame them because there was only 1 woman selling tickets.

Wesley joined the mob at the machines, even though that is a true fool's errand because only 2 of them ever work at any given time and it's never the same 2. I was easily 8 people back and still got my tickets from the 1 slow lady (who even disappeared for a few minutes) before the people in front of Wesley had scored a successful swipe.

At least they started the movies on time, because that's what's important. Screw the audience, right? We made it just in time for the 100 minutes of awesome vulgarity that was Superbad. I'd say it was worth it but I'm too hungry to keep writing.

Museum of the Moving Image--New Podcasts

The ex-video store clerk in me is kind of freaking out at the Museum of the Moving Image's online offerings. They've got panels and Q&A sessions with all sorts of amazing people, from David Cronenberg to Terry Gilliam to Todd Haynes (twice!) to Martin Scorcese and a gazillion other people. They're audio-only, or you can get a PDF of the transcript.

Newest offerings are Michael Moore (Sicko), Sarah Polley (Away from Her) and a tantalizing panel called Considering Horror.

Seriously, did you guys know about this and not tell me? I'm so pissed at you for leaving me out...

Katrina Comes to Socrates Park

Check out The Blog of Joy for some cool photos from her trip to Socrates Sculpture Park to see by sculptor Takashi Horisaki's replica of a New Orleans house destroyed by hurricane Katrina.

Thanks for the heads up, Joy!

Live Music in LIC

Check out The Wallace Brothers next Friday night in the 'hood:

FRIDAY, August 24
9 pm
The Creek and the Cave
10-93 Jackson Ave (Long Island City)
1 stop from Grand Central on the 7

The Creek and the Cave is everything you could ask for in a nitespot: Mexican grill, bar, theater, lounge, pool room and patio all under one very large roof.

much love,
Mark + Carey

Hidden Queens--Huzzah!

Lots of our favorites on here--and some egregious oversights.

The Hidden Queens roundup from the New York Post is a great celebration of our borough. I'll be adding this link to our "In the Neighborhood" sidebar for easy reference.

CSA Killed My Contact Lenses--and I Liked It

The box from the Sunnyside CSA this week contained the usual goodies from the Golden Earthworm farm, including three lovely green peppers and two wondrously fragrant onions.

I decided to make steak sandwiches for me & Wesley. I carmelized the onions and sauteed the peppers, browned some flank steak in the cast iron then cut it across the grain and served it on a toasted baguette with some olive oil and goat cheese. With potato chip and a nice salad made from the CSA red leaf lettuce & tomato (and Foodtown cucumber), it was a delicious meal. I'm getting hungry just remembering it (though being almost 7 months pregnant it doesn't take much).

As we sat down to eat, I noticed that the skin between my fingers was burning, but I didn't remember touching any of the pans I used. As we were eating our sandwiches, we discovered that one of the three green peppers was a hot one. I am very sensitive to capsaicin (what makes the hot pepper hot) but I wasn't having much trouble with this one, possibly because it was cooked down & I had removed all the seeds. The fire was a quick flash that faded just as quickly.

However, as the night progressed, the burning on my hands spread and I realized that I was going to be in trouble.

See, I wear contact lenses. I learned once the hard way what careless jalapeno handling will mean for my ability to remove my contacts at night. So I'm always careful when handling hot peppers not to touch any part of them but the skin. This sneaky pepper, however, I'd been handling without care--that is, pulling out the ribs, brushing off the seeds, and cutting it up with my usual culinary abandon. I basicaly wiped it all over my hands.

That night, I braced myself for contact lens removal. There is nothing like having that on fire feeling directly on your eyeball. The last (only) time this happened I ended up discarding the lenses but I'd just switched to this pair on Friday and I hate to see a good pair go. Plus I had only just gotten used to my schedule--I am very flaky and can never remember when it's time to switch to a new pair. So I put them in the case.

In the morning, I pulled out contact lens number one and rinsed it beyond thoroughly, then stuck it in my eye. My poor assaulted eye immediately flooded with tears and began to swell up. I ripped out the lens and through both of them out. There was enough capsaicin left on my hands that even putting in the new pair caused some pretty intense burning, and for most of the morning I looked like I'd been crying.

My hands were burning for most of the day, even though I kept washing them and washing them and washing them. I finally put some burn ointment on and that helped. A friend suggested I dip them in milk, but that didn't really help.

Last night, over 24 hours since I'd handled that pepper, I took my contacts out and experienced a brief flash of burning.

Fortunately, this morning, when I put my contacts in, there was no burning at all, and my hands are back to normal.

But man, I tell you, that sandwich was awesome.

Manda Bala at MMI--Video Interview with Director Jason Kohn

I was at Sundance this year, and I kept hearing tremendous buzz about a little documentary called Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), which is screening this Saturday at 6:30 at the Museum of the Moving Image.

Here is a video interview with the director:



The interviewer, Reid Rosefelt, is a veteran publicist who helped launch the careers of such filmmakers as Pedro Almodovar and Jim Jarmusch. He wrote a lot more about the movie here, saying:

There are two basic strands to the story. One involves the super-violent world of kidnapping in Sao Paolo. We meet a woman who had both her ears cut off by kidnappers. It seems ear amputation is the preferred method of terrifying families into paying huge ransoms. There is a plastic surgeon that has developed a practice of reconstructing ears. A businessman relates that nearly every person of wealth has been a victim of crime or kidnapped. Some have been kidnapped more than once. Kidnapping is a booming business in Sao Paolo: it has the most bullet-proof cars, and the most private helicopters. Technologies.

The second part of MANDA BALA is about Jader Barbalho, Brazil's most powerful politician. It's really hard to think of too many people in the the world who are more outright evil than this man. Kim Jong-il? In a nutshell, he stole over two billion dollars from a public works project, thereby plunging the entire northeast of the country into starvation and death. I kept thinking, "what is he going to do with two billion dollars?" If he had considered stealing only one billion instead of two billion, it would have had a titanic impact on the ability of tens of thousands of people to survive.

Save the Library!

From Queens Crap:

"The Queens Library last year received $5.09 for each library patron visit, about two-thirds of the amount received by the Brooklyn Public Library and the New York Public Library, which serves Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, says the report, "Library Funding: Subsidies Rebound, Disparities Remain."

I don't know about you, but I think that the library is one of the greatest public places ever devised by humankind. I'm not joking. See, they have books. And you can get a card that lets you take them home for a couple of weeks. Nowadays, using this thing called the internet you can even get your library to order books that they don't have, then hold them behind the counter just for you and nobody else. They'll even send you an email when the books come in!

And I'm not just talking fusty old classics like that broad who wrote the book they based Clueless on. I'm talking Harry Potter. I'm talking Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Oprah's Book Club, Neil Gaiman, Spiderwick, Laura Ingalls Wilder... just to name a few who may never have appeared together in the same sentence before.

The library doesn't have to be pretty, though that helps. It ought to be quiet--but that's a post for another day, because today I come to praise the library, not to bury it. Many offer woefully underfunding continuing education and ESL classes.

And if you hate to read, did you know they have CDs, DVDs, and audiobooks? Try one of the latter for your August trek in the rental to Grandma's. Who needs an SUV with a DVD player when you can have an Oscar-winning actor read you a good story?

Has this post moved you to action? Then buy the library a book.

Buy-A-Book for Queens Library
Celebrate the Library's 100th Anniversary

Funds for new books are needed more than ever. The library's budget to buy books has decreased by $4 million, while the demand for books and materials continues to increase each year!

Make your special “Buy-A-Book” gift for Queens Library’s 100th Anniversary today! Until September 30, your gift will be worth twice as much through a very generous $150,000 challenge grant provided by The Louis Calder Foundation.

Donations of $25 or more will buy books for the Library to be enjoyed by toddlers, teens, seniors, or you! As a thank you, your name, or the name of the person or organization you choose to honor, will appear on a special, limited edition commemorative 100th Anniversary bookplate in a new book.

So Cute

The YMCA has an indoor track that runs in a circle above the pool. On Saturdays, you can see the kids having their swimming classes. Everything from dads with tiny babies to kids bumping into each other while trying to master the backstroke to little ones with floaties and kickboards.

I mean, seriously. Can anything be cuter? Except maybe the little ballet class I saw in the 2nd floor classroom last week. Tutus and everything.

Bring the Funny to the Grind

Are there funny people in NW Queens? The Grind thinks you'll find them from 9 to 11:30 on Thursday nights. No cover, 2 drink minimum--and they're claiming to have cocktails now.

If you're really masochistic--er, in the mood for homegrown entertainment, warm up with Open Mic night, starting at 7pm, also on Thursday night.

I totally, totally dare somebody to check this out. Best reader review wins a rice ball from the Cheesteak Factory and bragging rights. Send submissions to clairedeveronNOSPAM@gmail.com (make sure to delete the NOSPAM part).

WNBC-TV report on the future of Sunnyside Rail Yards

Thanks to "New Yorker" for sending Queens Rocks a link to ABC News's video report on this hotly contested issue.