Robot Journal : I don't have an iPhone

7/1/2007

Put the camera down
Sure, I am a camera nerd. In our apartment, I have probably about 12 shoeboxes of just negatives from years of taking pics of things. I own many cameras. I spend a bunch of money annually on buying new ones.

I was looking at Miz Almond's FLICKR feed from the mermaid parade and I got a bit annoyed at all the men with their digital cameras everywhere. Anywhere there are scantily clad ladies, you can always expect to see a dozen or so guys surrounding them with digital cameras or camera phones (obviously).
What exactly are we doing with these photos?
Wait. Don't tell me. I don't want to know.

On that same note, put down the damn iPod.
Constantly I am running into these people who seem compelled to use their iPod every single waking minute.
Gotta take the trash out! Get my iPod!
Gotta go swim on the beach in Hawaii! Get my iPod!
Do you people have that much great music? Yea, I have tons of great music, but holy moly I get tired of it.

On that same note note, put the damn thing in your pocket. Do you have to hold it the whole time? Are you just wanting someone to punch you and take it away?
Look at me! I have an MP3 player! Just like everyone!

No Camera Day
How about a holiday that consists of parades and parties and concerts but cameras are not allowed.
Like, we'd all have to get out from behind our cameras and actually do shit.

The iPhones
Sunday we went to the Apple Store.

Since the blah-o-sphere is chock full of people writing about their new iPhones I won't waste much tube space on this, except to say: You don't realize how really really cool it is until you actually get to play with one.
It's a coolness that is so cool that it hurts you soul.
Your body aches.
It's a unique little device in real life.

I'll see how long I can hold out (I suppose I need to replace my 2002-era iPod and 2004-era cell phone soon-ish).

Eating. Drinking.
The usual stuff.
Sunday, our pal Mark made an appearance in the bigish apple. He's in the CT right now working on the new Indiana Jones movie (where Indy discovers some old man stuff) and had the day off and some money in his pocket (home for per diem).

Mark &; Rachel &; Eric at the Apple Store (with me waving in the reflection)

We met him at the Apple Store (and then Eric) and then kicked around the park and saw some Canadians with flags obviously celebrating Canada Day!

Obviously, we then had dinner at Bon Bon Chicken. Everyone loved it.
Mrs. Robot and I were so starving and that after our first drumstick we were dizzy. Dizzy with delight? Dizzy from the spices? Dizzy with joy?
Who knows.

Eric(w) pointed out that if Cream of Chicken soup was named "Cream of Chickens" then people might take a few extra seconds to remember that they are eating chickens.
Mrs. Robot pointed out that she only eats "down" on the food chain and tries to avoid eating animals larger than her.

We then saw a dog pee about 3 liters of urine onto the sidewalk.
That dog peed a river. Then Mark barely made it back to Grand Central for his return train trip. Probably still covered in delicious chicken-ness.

Roof
Saturday, it was our wine-pal Serge's birthday and his wife prepared a little dinner party in his honor on their roof. Tables and chairs and real napkins on the roof.
We watched fireworks off in the distance.
Drank old champagne.
Ate amazing food.
Enjoyed the breeze and the view of the city off in the distance.
It was one of those evenings. Those perfect type evenings.

Speaking of perfect.

Apart from the weather here in NYC the past few days, last week we went to see Ralph Stanley at the bandshell in Prospect Park. It was, naturally, a great show and featured classic, old school showmanship. The evening was nice and breezy. There was beer and tasty food.
But, for me, the highlight was MattyJ sitting next to me. He was eating ribs from a styrofoam container.
Listening to bluegrass music. In Prospect Park. With his lady.

It was a perfect scene.

Blue Ribbon
Last week we went to the phun NextBook party at Union Hall. I forget what the party was for.
Books? Things that are next? A reason to drink?
(It was their re-launch)
Regardless, we ended up at Blue Ribbon around 11pm afterwards with Raq and Joanna.
Blue Ribbon is open until something like 4am and it's awesome to be able to get a great meal at midnight on a Wednesday night in Brooklyn.
We had the pu-pu platter and a bottle of zinfandel from Ottimino - a winery in the Russian River Valley that is run by a friend's husband's brother.
Wait. Is that right?
I think so.

Great wine. The ladies all gave it thumbs up.

Po!
Our pal Karen is off to Israel for the summer to work on some movie production thing and we went out with her and her lovely gal-pal to Po which just opened a branch on Smith Street. Apparently I only like to eat dinner with the ladies.
Ah yea.

This is my ADD review of Po:
1. Great wine list consisting primarily of Italian wines from all over.
2. Great menu with a number of items that made it hard to decide what I wanted.
3. Amazingly friendly and professional staff (from the people on the phone when I reserved our table to when we arrived and they were slammed and busy).
4. I had a tuna dish to start. I believe it was some sort of smoked tuna (there were too many choices so I asked the waiter to decide for me). It had some sort of green element in it that was spectacularly delicious. I think it was mustard green?
5. I had a lamb dish as my main entr�e. The ladies all had some sort of fish - maybe a cod and a salmon. Oddly, they all had the same oily reddish sauce on them. Strange. The food was very good, but all of us seemingly having the same sauce was a bit, well, odd.
6. My lamb was super tasty, but was paired with these really tart and pickled vegetables (right?) that I thought were a bit too tarty and pickely for the dish. But that is me.

Our pal Don says it is the best place on Smith Street (an honor that isn't that difficult to achieve I suppose). On my personal list, I'd put it in third place after Grocery and Saul.
Or maybe 4th place after the cubana sandwich at Cubana Cafe.

Sicko
I wrote a whole post about health insurance and Michael Moore and his movie Sicko. It was a stupid post and it obviously never showed up, but...
It is somewhat frustrating that Michael Moore is the person trying to get a dialog started since he is so polarizing and people on the Right seem to instantly shut their ears down when his name comes up. This issue is way too big to be partisan.

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