New York City

You know what we have a lot of in New York City? Spanish restaurants. However, most of them cater to the Sex And The City, sangria sipping, happy hour crowd looking for small plates with a side of Hepatitis A (we warned you about Alta, by the way). When was the time you went to a Spanish restaurant for a serious meal? It’s probably been a minute. That’s because big time Spanish restaurants don’t tend to do so well around these parts. People seem very content chowing down on paella and mediocre salt cod fritters. A well known chef from Spain has come to New York with the intention of changing this. Will he succeed? Probably not. Manzanilla is the Big Apple debut of acclaimed Spanish chef, Dani García. García is famous for being one of the first to bring liquid nitrogen into the kitchen and runs a number of stellar restaurants en España including Calima, his multi Michelin starred signature establishment of modern techniques in Andalucía. Being that we’re not massive molecular gastronomy fans, we were skeptical going into this meal. But the menu doesn’t get too adventurous, it adds bells and whistles to Spanish brasserie classics instead of doing weird sh*t just for the sake of showing off, so that’s good for those of us who actually want to eat food and not science experiments. We enjoyed a couple of dishes at Manzanilla, others not so much. It’s definitely possible to have a solid meal here if you order correctly, focusing on the starters and appetizers rather than the entrees. That’s where we found most of the good stuff. García’s flair for the unexpected impressed, yet his failure to execute the simple stuff flopped. Manzanilla is big on space and low in character. Despite the chef’s background, nothing about this restaurant made you feel like you were dining anywhere near the Mediterranean Sea. With its big open kitchen and fancy dishware, Manzanilla feels just like any other typical restaurant that probably hired a “creative agency” to design and caters to those with crisp blazers and deep pockets. Only this time, many have Spanish accents. We wouldn’t recommend going out of your way to dine here, but you can certainly do a lot worse. That being said, if you’re planning a huge dinner, this is your spot. Tables in the main dining room can seat 12-20 if necessary and there’s a massive private lair downstairs for private parties. It’s also worth checking out when in need of a last minute reservation at a “hot new restaurant”; given the amount of space and the lukewarm response this place has gotten from critics, there will be plenty to be had. Photo Credit: Daniel Krieger Food Rundown Tomato TartareA fancy way of saying Pan Con Tomate, which is always a nice way to start off a Spanish meal. Oxtail BriocheWe loved these bad ass steamed brioche buns, filled with pulled oxtail, mushroom, kale and topped with some kind of spicy sauce. We could have eaten these all night long. While the listing seems a bit par for the course, there was something different about them. Definitely order these guys. CroquettesOne of the most impressive dishes on the menu and one that’s a must order. Squid ink and cuttlefish croquettes, which contain a frozen mixture of cuttlefish stew made with milk and mussel juice underneath the fried exterior. Once bitten, an explosion of delicious, wide ranging flavor enters your mouth. It’s quite the party. Pulpo A La GallegaIf you don’t like the taste of smoke, move on. If you do, indulge. While this octopus listing sounds run of the mill, it’s anything but. García’s version of Galician octopus is fun and exciting. Small pieces of blackened octopus sit atop plump potato gnocchi which he uses a blowtourch on. The kicker though, is the dish rolls to the table covered by a dome, and once removed, a cloud of cherrywood smoke escapes, leaving its smokey mark all over this dish.

“As for Ike, when it rains, it pours for him. He cost the Mets with a mental mistake in the first inning, and did nothing at the plate afterwards to make up for it. … What more can you say at this point? It’s been a horrific season for him so far, and it’s starting to impact his entire game. If he’s not going to be productive on defense, either – which has been the case over the last few days – it’s hard to justify a place for him right now.” - Michael Baron, Metsblog - Final Score: Reds 4 Mets 3

Protesters of antigay violence held a march in Greenwich Village that ended at the site where Mark Carson was fatally shot.

No matter what happens with Madison Square Garden, this Penn Station, shown here in 1910, isn’t going to return. For the last few months, we’ve heard a lot about the future of Madison Square Garden and its relationship to Penn Station. Community groups and various city stakeholders believe MSG should not be granted an unlimited license to operate about Penn Station, but there’s a sneaking suspicion that these efforts are fronted by those who care first about reclaiming a grand building for Penn Station and second about expanded transit access into and through New York City. The debate may soon come to a head with a time limit on MSG but also an out that could render the time limit pointless. In a story published last night on Capital New York, Dana Rubinstein reports on a gift for Madison Square Garden from the city that could arrive as early as Wednesday. Here’s her take: The city will in fact propose a 15-year renewal, rather than a 50-year one, which is in theory a victory for the planners. But the proposal also contains a major loophole: if the Garden meets certain conditions during those 15 years, it can get a permit to remain on top of Penn Station in perpetuity. Namely, the Garden would have to come to some sort of an agreement with the three railroads that run beneath it to make improvements to the station, like adding new escalators and elevators. If such an agreement were to reached, and the City Planning Commission’s chair (who is appointed by the mayor) were to approve it, then the Garden could remain where it is, on top of the ever-more-crowded Penn Station. Its special permit, in other words, would have no expiration date. “We think this exception would be a mistake,” wrote Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association, and Vin Cipolla, the president of the Municipal Art Society, in a letter to planning commissioner Amanda Burden last week. “Although the City Planning Commission cannot solve this problem singlehandedly, we would like to underscore that the only way to regain a train station worthy of New York’s status as a global city and to meet the needs of a growing economy and population is to relocate the Garden and build a new station from the track and platform level up.” Without knowing the full details of the agreement, I’m withholding full judgment on the deal. There has to be more to it than some new escalators and elevators as those are instead seemingly the centerpieces of the $1.6 billion Moynihan Station plan. Hopefully, there is more to it, and we’ll find that out on Wednesday. On the other hand, Yaro’s concern again seems to focus around the building, but if you read his statement closely, it’s more of an appeal to sensibility. He wants that new station from the track and platform level up, and that’s the key. New York City needs to redesign Penn Station from the bottom up, and if it comes with a new headhouse that looks nice and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, then fine. If MSG can figure out a way to improve the track, platform and station concourse levels while maintaining an arena above ground, that’s fine too really. Simply put, we need to focus on the transit experience at Penn Station first. Of course, not everyone agrees. In The Post yesterday, Steve Cuozzo penned a persnickety piece on Penn Station. Comparing a potential new Penn to the absurdly expensive and functionally questionable buildings at Fulton St. and the PATH WTC Hub, he writes, “Penn Station remains tolerably clean, safe and functional. Its lack of sex appeal hardly justifies the cost and years of chaos that trying to beautify it would entail… Let Penn Station be Penn Station. Remember, many thought it a fine idea in the 1960s. Let it remind us that change is not always to our good.” But that’s quite right either. Penn Station has stretched the boundaries of functionality, and at rush hour, frequent users would que

“Mariano Rivera pitched a clean bottom of the 10th. He now has 17 saves this season. He’s incredible.” - Too Many Home Runs, Yankees Beat The Orioles 6-4 | It’s About The Money

mightyflynn: Juan Lagares May 19, 2013 Wrigley Field Chicago, Illinois Photo by Charles Cherney

This post originally took place on August 18 of last year, which was when I started writing it. But I didn't finish it until now. For no good reason. This does not end well, but that's ok! Photos of submerged kite taken by Melissa. Me: Melissa...MELISSA [points out to the Hudson River], THE KITE THE KITE1 Melissa: [turns to kite] AHHHH NO Me: OH MY GOD NO GET IT UP CANYOUGETITUP2 Melissa: AHGGHFJKDSJF OH NO Me and Melissa: AHHHARRGGHHH NOOOOOO3 Diana: [on the phone with me] ...Are you alright? Me: OH MY GOD OH NO NO NO Diana: [still on the phone with me] So...I'll head over soon... Melissa: I'M SO SORRY I JUST LOOKED AWAY FOR A SECOND Me: AHHH UHH UUGH BLUUUHHGGHRHR Some annotations to clear things up: 1) Response to seeing my kite flying dangerously low to the Hudson River. 2) Response to seeing my kite flying dangerously lower to the Hudson River. 3) Response to seeing my kite gracefully touching the water's surface, then getting swallowed by the water. You think flying a kite is all whimsical and fun, until your kite lands into a massive, swiftly moving body of water, and then it makes you realize, "So this is the pure horror a mother feels when she turns away from her only toddler for just a second, then turns back to see her toddler has disappeared. ...Maybe not into a river. That would be much worse. But yeah. It's just like that." The site of the kite drowning: Pier I off of West 70th Street. I had made Melissa in charge of keeping my kite aloft while I called Diana to coordinate meeting up on the pier. Elsewhere on the pier, Diana had already given her brand new kite a go, but after something like 30 seconds of exhilarating kite flying action it too experienced death-by-river. "Come over and join us; we've got a kite you can fly!" I assured Diana, turning right to give a nod of acknowledgement to Melissa—at which point I noticed the kite not majestically flying as much as lifelessly falling toward the river's surface, over a hundred feet away. And then the frantic yelling commenced. Refer to the dialogue above. But the kite wasn't dead yet. The string was taut; the kite was still attached to it. "We can reel it in!" Melissa suggested ever so optimistically. I like that about her—her beaming optimism in the face of probable doom. "It'll probably break," I deadpanned. Melissa helped me reel in the kite, gently pulling as I wrapped the string around the spool. The string held on despite the immense force of the water. Impressive. Maybe Melissa was on to something with that optimism of hers. We managed to pull the kite all the way back to the pier. Looking over the pier's barrier, we could see the kite "flying" just under the surface of the water, intact and full of potential to ride the skies once more. "I bet this is where it's going to break," I said. I'll admit that I felt a smidge of a smidge of hope, but I didn't want to show it. "No, no, this will work! We just have to pull it up slowly." "I don't know..." Pulled slowly, we did. We pulled and pulled; the kite felt heavier with each tug. In my mind, the kite willingly accepted the grasp of death. The cold, wet grasp. [snap] Oh f— The frantic yelling of watching the kite fall was replaced by dejected quietness. I couldn't remember the last time I felt less thrilled by something not related to a close brush with death (which is evidence of how extremely conflict-free my life is—I know). Melissa's kite was uncooperative. :( It took me a while to realize I overreacted in every way (aside from the initial bout of semi-intelligible yelling; that's just human instinct). Melissa surely felt worse than I did. Not only did her homemade kite not fly—the kite she had been excited to fly for weeks—but she also unintentionally sunk my kite, which I merely bought online and didn't have much of an attachment to. I'm ashamed that I almost let a kite—a fairly inexpensive one I owned for about four days,

Carmelo Anthony could be destined for same Knicks fate as Patrick Ewing - zero NBA championships - NY Daily News:

I had an awesome weekend! I’m not even sad it’s Monday because I’m still in such a good mood. The weekend kicked off with an urban picnic.  After work, I made a stop and Whole Foods Bowery and Luke’s Lobster to create a Cape Cod-style picnic for Frank and I. On the menu: Berries Salads (goat cheese cranberry for me, cesar for him) Potato salad Lobster rolls Crab claws with the best cocktail sauce ever Seltzer+diet coke Chips (which came with the lobster rolls but weren’t consumed) Delicious. On Saturday, I had all kinds of bachelorette party fun lined up.  You might know the bride:  Dori! We started out with a great workout class at Refine.  The 90s playlist was seriously baller. Plus, we all wore tiaras through the entire workout.  Tiaras might be the new headband.  The tiara stayed on my head better than any headband ever has!!! Next up DryBar: It was my first blow out ever!  I selected the Cosmopolitan. While my hair was styled, I sat back while they served me wine and fruit.  Crazy, stupid, love was on, so the experience was all the more enjoyable. Life is good. Viola, all blown out: Sadly, my baby fine hair doesn’t hold curl and the look above lasted all of 45 minutes before flopping. But it didn’t matter because I was with these lovely ladies… Next up, Beauty and Essex, a place I love! Dinner was great and the company was better. I can’t wait for your wedding, Dori! Other highlights of the weekend included, an awesome Uplifting Strength class with Michelle.  Bridesmaid dress shopping and chatting with Liz!  I owe you all a wedding update.  :) And last but not least, dinner at Sushi Samba with Bo and Ashley. Yes, it was a good weekend!  Next weekend should be great too!  We just booked (literally today) a trip to Newport, Rhode Island for Memorial Day.  Neither of us have ever been there, so if anyone has recommendations, send them my way!

High School Musical Merry Fuck Kill Forgetting Sarah Marshall Merry Fuck Kill Mean Girls Merry Fuck Kill Total Number of Votes: 101 High School Musical – Vanessa Hudgins and Ashley Tisdale Forgetting Sarah Marshall – Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell Mean Girls – Rachel McAdams and Lindsey Lohan Ok so this is a special edition MFK.  Here’s the rules, sworn enemies in their movies, sworn to the fate you decide.  Because they were enemies doesn’t really mean anything, in the MFK world they won’t be.  So you get double services, you can kill a pair, have a threesome with a pair, and marry a pair. Marry – Forgetting Sarah Marshall Fuck – Mean Girls Kill- Princess Diaries Whoever programmed the MFK has it to say “merry” instead of marry. Cool?