cityrag

a striking bridge in any light...
GWB drive-bys. growing up in NY, the cities bridges always signaled a return to home.

flower power
Buddy's has no idea how handsome he looks surrounded by the foliage (he's so focused on getting that dab of peanut butter that we bribbed him into this postion with.)

LES soul sucking
another staple of LES anti-culture and artistic freedom has been kicked out of the hood. the Collective Unconscious Theater group was recently forced to leave their space on Ludlow to make way for a new “luxury apartment building” (they’ve now moved to 279 Church St.) we love the "Starbucks" and "The Gap" kiss-off they tagged up on the building front before they left…

and it seems one of our favorite local bar gardens Barrimundi, is shortly to follow. but fortunately it looks like they’ve found a new home at 67 Clinton St – yay! (some good quotes from Lockhart Steele of Curbed in the article) more on changing Clinton St. here.

the NY Press article also tipped us that one of our all time favorite LES bars – Motor City - might be is for sale (that would truly SUCK!)

street fight video motherload
a friend sent us this link to the Danzig fight that made the rounds last month. We’re late to the fight on this one but it totally rocks seeing smug-ass Glenn Danzig get knocked down by a single punch in a fight he starts. the inside word on the fight from the guy who knocked him down and comments on message boards are great reads.

this story inspired us to google for street fight videos, and we stumbled on this f'ing GREAT post on EbaumsWorld by Smoothy, where he put together a List With Over 60 Amatuer/Street Fight Video's!

we haven't even gotten through them all yet, but there's some crazy shit, like...
- 4 jocks harass skater Mike Vallely and he opens a can of whoop ass on them
- a man and woman go at it. she kicks his butt all over the neighborhood, but he keeps coming back for more. with an unbelievable moment where it looks like the police are coming in, but the cop car goes right by them without stopping!
- everything you could want in a backyard girlfight

Update: Reader PC sent this in... "Glenn Danzig is a student and instructor of the Jeet Kune Do Concepts which was developed by Bruce Lee. He was taught by Jerry Poteet who was a student of Lee's. Danzig should know better. A proper martial artist engages in confrontation only as a last resort." - unbelievable! Danzig is such a mook.

voting is better than crack
voting is like a free drug. you get that anxious anticipation, wait for your chance to hide in a small booth, make your line, slam it back and feel the rush of power wash over you!

we're jonesing for November already. if you're not registered, it's time to score your stash...
Punk Voter
Declare Yourself
DNC's simple step by step site

tacky trump terrorizes skyline
that dam Donald Trump, he's ruining the west side skyline with his chain of tacky brown monilith buildings.

favorite upstate farm stands
after our heirloom tomato report last week, Josh, from the excellent, all around and NY-ish food site – The Food Section, sent this over... “Mmmm. We just had some ourselves tonight (by way of Chelsea Market). Unfortunately they were a whopping $4.99/pound!! How much when you buy them from the source?”

so we checked and the word on the prices is even better than we thought… at our favorite farm, Green Acres, their wonderful heirlooms are only $1.29 a pound! for any of the several varieties that come in all different colors, shapes and sizes (including one that is green when fully ripe!) each has a flavor that’s so intense and wonderful. we spoke with the Yanick family who grow everything right out back on the farm about their heirlooms. found out that it’s a very tricky crop to grow because the tomatoes tend to split due to their odd shapes (and too much rain causes disease in the plants) they decided to try growing heirlooms 3 years ago and jumped in head first. the quality and flavors have been excellent, but it’s been a rough sell upstate (with the odd shapes and colors.) we encourage any heirloom lovers, stores or chefs out there to visit the Yanick's for your heirloom supply! (they should be in abundance through the beginning of Sept) they also have amazing peaches, squash, sugar plums and homemade pies!

here’s the scoop on how to get there, and we’ve thrown in info on other stands to check out … there are many great farms throughout NY state; this strip has some of the best we’ve found. there are about 6 stands. a couple are big and have a gourmet-goods slant, but our favorites are the small, homey stands that are directly in front of the farms, and sell only produce that has been grown right there. in addition to the Yanick’s farm known as Green Acres (with a big blue barn) we like the Edger Bros stand for a big mix of home grown fruits and vegetables, and another stand that’s simply a platform truck on the side of the road that sells that best and cheapest corn in the area (in peak season we’ve seen as low as 12 ears for $1)

this strip of farm stands is located in Columbia County on RT’s 23 & 82 (right off the Taconic Pky/Hudson exit, or about 10 miles east of exit 21 on the NY State Thruway – this map points about dead-center in the row of stands)

is that smoke in your panties?
or are you just happy to see us?...

the Party in my Panties party at Tainted Lady Lounge tomorrow looks fun. our girl DJ Laura Lux is mixing live (on a mac!), so the music will be rocking! maybe we'll see you there...

tough guy
Buddy's learning to play and loves him some hand wrestlin' - lucky for us he's getting the hang of the "soft bite"

soupy sales
after reporting a couple weeks ago on B & H Dairy's dispute with their landlord and reopening, on one of the recent cooler days we strolled over to see how the soup was holding up. the low down... B & H soups are still very good. not as tasty as back in the dayz, but their cabbage soup is still packed with cabbage and other vegetables and has a great flavor. and their challah bread is excellent. $3 for a BIG bowl and 2 think slices of challah with butter - classic NYC cheap eats! (update: check out this Chowhound post for more tips!)

uber cute
just when the baby's cuteness started to haunt us 24/7, he figures out how to make himself even cuter.

yoga for anarchists
walking home yesterday we look up above our local deli on Allen and Stanton, and see a row of giant windows, brightly lit with no covering, and a room full of sweaty people flexing inside. has a new Lucile Roberts opened in the LES? nope, it’s a big brand new yoga center lighting up all of Allen St - Bikram Yoga Lower East Side. couple of our neighbors look up with us and laugh at the spectacle of half naked bodies dripping sweat and stretching about in the big brightly lit windows and wonder “is this a good thing?”… (not the yoga center, a lovely addition of course, but...) oy vay - do we have to look at those fit bodies as we make our beer and ice cream runs to the deli below?!

aside from the overly bright windows, we're excited to see them come into the Allen St./LES hood and plan on taking advantage of their "$20 intro special: all first time visitors will receive an unlimited week of yoga for $20." - take the skinheads stretching!

Buddy and the bean
we tell him it's a green bone. he can't get enough of em.

steal this logo - the new and improved CNN light
remember when CNN could be considered a decent, center-line media source? HAHAHA!! these days CNN has no qualms about blasting their conservative, right-wing bias - from increasingly lame coverage and overt avoidance of ANYTHING that could be perceived even slightly liberally, to deliberately uninformative coverage of the democratic convention. their website reads like pure Bush propaganda, with daily front and center Bush video clips/promotions, and insidious quotes peppering so many articles (political or not). even their overall news reporting has become almost remedial.

friends of ours have a brilliant theory that, whether for ratings, political motives, or both - CNN has made a deliberate corporate determination to become more like FOX! and sent us over this amazing logo they put together and hilarious note -

“for neo-cons everywhere introducing the new and improved CNN light with fewer news carbs and great tasting nutra-right...”

we’d love to hear from any readers out there with their own theories… and feel free to download the logo for use on your site, making t-shirts, etc. - ROCK ON!

live to ride
“Viva Para Montar” (literal translation “live to mount") - pretty much covers his 2 loves…