harvey danger

Last night a friend texted me on a whim, and I ended up at the last Harvey Danger show, probably possibly ever. John Hodgman introduced them, and they played for two hours and forty minutes. I am not too familiar with the music of Harvey Danger, but I really enjoyed their show. I plan to acquaint myself more with their stuff. I missed the first opener, but I liked the second one a lot… they are called Jukebox the Ghost. Their style reminded me slightly, very slightly of Ben Folds Five.

More pics at my flickr. ♥

april, month of concerts

Bishop Allen at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. It was a great show, with great folks! I got some vids too but have yet to upload them. It takes a while!

Mates of State at Webster Hall, totally adorable, awesome. A magical night indeed. More pics on flickr, and thar be vids here! I love what they added to “Like U Crazy”, it has significance to me. Ratatat later this month, omagosh.

rainy day (it was)

Sunday was quite unpleasant outside, so I decided to make some (healthy!) chili to warm up. It’s super easy. Here’s what I got:

1 lb ground turkey
2 cans crushed tomatoes (diced if you like more texture)
1 can red kidney beans
1 packet chili seasoning mix
1 yellow onion

Brown that turkey, and while doing so, drain the beans and add them to a saucepan along with the tomatoes. Now, I just dumped my chili seasoning right into the turkey, but you can probably just add it to your saucepan, to distribute spices more evenly. The turkey didn’t really give off any grease, so I just dumped it on in with the tomatoes and beans, then I diced my onion (ow, my eyes!), cooked it a little, so it was softer but still a bit crunchy (just like I like it!) and dumped that on in there too. Onions grilling is one of the best smells in the whole world. Oh yeah, and BAM, chili. I’d also suggest adding a pepper or two, but I didn’t really think of it. It was ridiculously easy, made enough for lunches for a good chunk of the week, and it’s not bad for me!

secret science club: neil tyson

Last night I went to Secret Science Club, a monthly lecture put on by the scientifically inclined and curious community of Brooklyn, with Neil Tyson, People’s “sexiest astrophysicist alive”. He’s probably better known for finding himself at the forefront of the movement to get Pluto reclassified from a planet to something else. While “dwarf planet” is the name that seems to have stuck, Tyson referred to Pluto and other like masses orbiting in our galaxy as “Kuiper objects” [however my commenter informs me that the terms aren't mutually exclusive, which makes sense].

The presentation Tyson gave was fantastic, and the Q&A portion after the lecture lasted about as long as the lecture itself. He discussed not only his battle with part of the astrophysics community over Pluto’s status, but also 2012, the asteroid Apophis that will dip beneath our communication satellites in 2029 (on Friday the 13th too, yikes) that could come back and hit us seven years later, and even the economic crisis. It was so refreshing and inspiring to hear such a brilliant person speak. Just looking up at the sky afterward, I had a change of perspective. Astrophysics would be an amazing field of study, not just because it’s extremely interesting but because it is also extremely humbling. We are so amazingly small, and we’re not that smart either. He pointed out that optical illusions, while amusing, are actually our brains failing. BRAIN FAILURES, he bellowed. He ended on some ideas about evolution, and how, if our DNA is 95% similar to chimp DNA (at least), what a more evolved being with a merely a 2% difference from our DNA would be like. Would their toddlers write sonnets and solve complex problems like the most intelligent humans, while our toddlers use rudimentary tools like the most intelligent chimps? Interesting to think about.

Anyway, I really really enjoyed the lecture and I can’t wait to go to the next one. If you’d like to see him go over some of his talking points from the lecture, his recent Daily Show appearance is linked right hurrrr.

i love you!

Found at 9th St and 5th Ave, Brooklyn.

mourning doves

Not a great picture but they were there…

my morning ride

Now that I do some running before work, I get to see a lot more sunrises. Snapped this one the other day.

modern day cave drawings

This is a series I hope to explore further. My theory started out as the simple idea that some graffiti is spawned merely from ignorance and boredom, some of it crafted by what I imagine to be mysterious, Neanderthalic figures. I’m not talking about the artful works like those of Banksy or fi5e, just things I didn’t consider to have taken a lot of thought or effort. Then, I considered the location. Subway tunnels are our modern day caves, and it only makes sense that this is where we find the modern day cave drawing.

I’m posting these two as an introduction, but I do plan to post more cohesive collections of them. I see them all the time.

brooklyn legal

This week I was asked to testify in a court of law regarding a crime I witnessed and reported some months ago. While the case was only a misdemeanor, I found the whole process, from working with the DA’s office to the trial, to be very interesting. When you have jury duty, the movie they show you claims that real trials are nothing like in the movies. In both my experiences in with the legal system here in Brooklyn, both jury duty and the testimony, I’ve found this to be false. There were sassy, smart judges. I swore to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There were objections. I was cross-examined by an attorney who was determined to trip me up. So even though it was a small trial, it was a unique experience. That being said, I don’t hope to repeat it.

ffleeting