Well this is it! Time for JITZY to hang up the blog and call it a day. These passed couple of months doing this blog have been very eye opening and a lot of fun. We learned new things about each other and our cultures and even though we won’t be here, our experiences and our memories of this will always linger. Having the opportunity to have this blog with other people was great. We’ve all found out new things about ourselves on the way and we’ve all become better people along the way. We’ve become a voice for the people to inform them about New York City culture. We’ve become great friends that have learned much about each other’s traditions and lifestyles. We’ve become bloggers and we even though we won’t be around to do this blog anymore, rest assured we will each return individual and provide our own voices in the future and take every we’ve learned from this and become even better.
Recovering from anything that causes even the slightest bit of damage isn’t easy and doesn’t happen overnight. But when this slight bit of damage is caused by a hurricane that literally took New York by storm, it’s going to take much longer than that.
Thankfully, here in my neighborhood of Marine Park, Brooklyn, not too much damage was caused. Just trees and electrical wires being taken down by the winds and many of people’s rooftops, including mine being ripped off it’s base. However, my girlfriend’s neighborhood up in North Salem wasn’t as fortunate as mine. Her house which is surrounded by trees as many houses in that neighborhood are was covered in debris and toppled trees blocked her entrances so they couldn’t get out until they got assistance.
Luckily, even though it took about 10 days to get her house back to decent shape, everything in her neighborhood returned to normal. The whole family did manage to clear their property of the tree and debris and the neighborhood managed to recover from the disaster.
Being a typical New Yorker and having suffered many of Mayor Bloomberg’s “natural disaster scares” that have gotten me all riled in anticipation for something very impacting and awful only to be greeted with laughable wind currents and a snow storm that gives me the shivers, I was not expecting any of this to happen. The day before the subways were meant to be shutdown in lieu of Sandy’s rage, I was in Albany partying it up for Halloween not worrying a single bit about what will happen. My sister calls me the following morning telling me to go home early because the Subways were going to be shut down at 7pm and too be careful. Of course, I brush her off and give her a unamused “yeah okay got it” expecting nothing but a little rain fall and some mild to heavy gusts. Boy was I wrong. Big time.
Thankfully, I’m alive and well. Worst damage done to m home was just some minor roof damage but I’ll take it happily. I have no words to describe what happened. It was just a shock. Never in my lifetime I would have expected a hurricane of that caliber to hit Brooklyn the way it did. My heart goes out to the many of those who lost their homes, cars and loved ones during this tragic event. Just being without power for a day completely disables New York. Driving to work those couple of days afterwards felt like I was going through some post apocalypse city and some Resident Evil creature was going to jump out at me and eat my head off. It was pitch black. Never have I seen New York in such a paralyzed state and I was heart breaking.
For now, I am grateful. I feel New York did an outstanding job handling this unfortunate situation the best it could have. When Mother Nature strikes, the best thing to do is just keep on because you can place the blame on anyone. Here, a couple weeks after the matter, we are still trying to recover and go back to things being normal. Although it’s hard, we just have to be strong and keep on. We just don’t value our well beings and our city as much as we should. We take things for granted and assume the best. After the dozens of cries from the Mayor in previous years of similar situations, it’s not baffling why New Yorkers didn’t evacuate when they were told to and why people were still on the streets when they were told not to be. It’s New York. The best city in the world. The same city that people who want to go see the World Trade Center don’t because they can always go see it next weekend or next year and assume nothing bad will ever happen.
No matter who you are or where you are, unless you’re some sort of bread hater, you can never go wrong with a good ol’ fashioned hot and toasted sandwich hot off the grill or toaster oven or whatever tickles your fancy. If you’re looking for a place that serves sandwiches of all kinds, from your typical BLT and Tuna to more acquired tasting sandwiches made of Hot Ox Tongue, Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, located on 5th Avenue between 23rd and 22nd Street, is a good place to go.
Not the catchiest of slogans if I do say so myself, proclaiming to be “raising New York’s cholesterol since 1929”. Maybe it was appealing back in 1920’s but for modern day New York, this may actually be a trigger for potential customers to head down the block and grab a burger at Shake Shack on Madison Park. Once you get passed the poorly thought out slogan, Eisenberg’s does have a nifty method of trying to make up for it by trying to grab the attention of pedestrians walking by. Right on the window of the shop, there is a collage of photos with the restaurant owner, Josh Konecky, and various celebrities that appeal to all sorts of people such as Jeff Goldblum from Jurrasic Park, Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers Band and Kenan Thompson from the popular 90’s television series “Kenan and Kel“. So maybe if you want to get a little taste of what the stars are tasting themselves, you might want to head on over.
Already, before even looking at the food, a potential customer can either be driven away by the small sandwich shop or drawn to it, you know, if a high cholesterol is kind of their thing. Nonetheless, once you go inside you might get a much unanticipated vibe. To me at least. Giving off a very neighborhood diner vibe with a bar where people can sit and enjoy the food right in front of the kitchen or tables for a more private and solitary experience, the shop makes you feel comfortable and right at home. Pretty bizarre for a restaurant smack dab in Midtown Manhattan on 5th Avenue to give off such a pleasant aura. Once seated, you get a nice look at the menu and being a sandwich place, it is no surprise that the majority of the menu’s entrees are sandwiches. However, there are many other choices as it has sections dedicated to burgers, platters, cold plates, sides, and desserts. Being of Latin origin I was very intrigued as to how the Cuban sandwich tasted so I ordered myself one with a side of onion rings. I have had all sorts of Cuban sandwiches since I was a boy, from a nearby shop in Washington Heights when I was four called “El Barrio Deli” up until now in college when I satisfy my Cuban sandwich desires at a place called ‘Sophie’s”. I am a full-time lover of Cuban sandwiches and who knows? Maybe Eisenberg’s can top the list of my favorite Cuban sandwiches.
The preparation was key to making this meal. All Cuban sandwiches consist of the main ingredients: ham, pork, cheese, pickles and mustard. Just these five in between two warm toasted slices of bread is good enough but good enough isn’t what I’m looking for. There’s a fine line separating a good Cuban sandwich and a bad one and that line can be crossed if the meat is not prepared right. In the places that I’ve enjoyed the Cuban sandwiches the most, chefs like to marinate the pork in a special olive oil based sauce called “mojo”. This sauce makes the pork feel moist and tender to the human tongue and tastes fantastic. If they did not marinate the pork in mojo, that might spell “Shake Shack” for the next time I’m in the area looking for some grub. However, to my pleasure, I found out they did marinate their mojo and my taste buds were going to be happy that night. To wash down my delicious Caribbean style meal, I decided to get myself a malted drink and I tell you it was the best malted I have ever tasted. Well it was the only malted I have ever tasted. For those of you that don’t know, a malted is a type of crazy ice cream soda milkshake combination. I had a taste of both the vanilla and chocolate malted drinks and they were delectable. It’s like drinking ice cream except not that kind of ice cream drink you get when your ice cream is all melted in your cone and you’re forced to sip away at it on the bottom of it. This one is a lot better.
Not bad for a Kosher spot located in the middle of New York City. The sandwich was great, the onion rings were crisp and the malted drink was A plus. For a grand total of $18.50, I wouldn’t mind stopping by again every day for lunch for the rest of my life. Until, you know, all the cholesterol gives me a heart attack. Good food, good service. Would recommend to anyone who is not looking forward to lose weight in the next ten years.
I’m not really a breakfast person. Usually my breakfast is my lunch because I just can’t get an appetite right after rolling out of bed and I don’t understand how most people do. Small fruits are a something I’d eat for breakfast like grapes or an apple but that’s very unlikely. However there is something that always calls my name whenever I need something to chew on before going to my 9am class.
S’mores are already on the top three of my favorite sweets and desserts but s’mores? For breakfast? Pop Tarts aren’t really my kind of style either. To be quite honest, I’ve only had about 5 poptarts in my life and they were all pretty gross. Except for one. The S’mores Pop Tarts are simply delectable and not only are they just jam packed with sugar and chocolate to ruin my blood pressure to keep me energetic for the day, but they taste pretty damn good.
The first time I tried one was at a sleep over about five years ago at a friend’s house and I thought it was okay. I saw it again in one of the Baruch vending machines during my freshman year and I couldn’t stop eating one every other morning even if I tried. People might say this is pretty gross since poptarts are just squares of sugar and death but I don’t drink soda or juice and strictly just drink water with my meals so I’d like to see it as a balancing act for my life. Less sugar there and more sugar here just means I’m getting just as much sugar as the average person so s’mores poptarts will forever be part of my morning routine for as long as I live.
I remember being served dinner every night by my mother. She would grab the bowl of delicious, hot rice and put a couple spoonfuls of it on my plate, and then she’d get the bowl of salad covered in vinegar and olive oil and put it right next to my rice and than place some nice, tender meat of whatever, chicken, beef or pork and I would enjoy every bit of it. But then staring me down menacingly from across the dinner table, are the wet little lumps drowned in some bubbling, brown liquid. She would grab them and dump a disgusting load of it right on top of everything and I could almost feel my appetite fly right out of me and vanish into thin air. Beans. These dreaded beans are ruining my dinner and ruining my life.
I can’t stand this miniature orbs of pure disgust and evil. If I would guess what beans are made out of, I would say a key ingredient for them are pretty much everything that’s gross and abominable on this planet. And it’s shame they even exist. I love Mexican food. Mexican cuisine is one of my favorite kinds of food in the world. And it’s really a shame that such a great variety of Mexican food is ruined by these repulsive little things. I eat Chipotle like at least once a week and I never ask for beans in my burritos. If I see one bean, even a little drop of bean sauce, on my burrito I will make them take it back and make me a fresh one.
I really can go on forever on my hatred on beans. My father loves them and has always tried to force feed them to me. “They’re filled with iron and protein Ivan” he says. Yeah, I don’t care. If you consider these abominations food and nourishment, then I guess I’m the most malnourished person in the world.
Definitely on the top of my list of worst things ever. Hell is a close second.
One of the many young men from Detroit who make money out of retrieving old ore and copper from deteriorating buildings throughout the city.
The situation that is going on in Detroit in the last few years is frightening to say the least. With jobs and businesses going down the toilet left and right, the eye-opening documentary “Detropia“, by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, goes deeper into everything that has happened and is still happening in the once great city of Detroit, Michigan. The film is narrated by Detroitians who struggle in the crumbling motor city and talk about about the turning of Detroit from “fastest growing city in the world” to “fastest shrinking city in the world”, which is where the title “Detropia” comes from: the word “Detroit”, of course, mixed in with the suffix “tropia” which means “turning”.
The film follows three die-hard Detrotians who give their perspective on how the state of the city is affecting their everyday lives and the lives of Detroitians collectively: a video blogger, Crystal Starr, a local bar owner, Tommy Stevens and the president of a workers’ union, George McGregor. On a good note, a concerned history-enthusiast Starr, is enjoying the learning experience from the crisis. However, both Stevens and McGregor are finding it difficult to stay afloat amidst the disaster. McGregor pains through keeping his workers happy despite the various pay cuts and job losses, while Stevens is having to deal with a declining business.
With three different perspectives used to describe the overall mood of the people of Detroit, Ewing and Grady effectively tie them all together and make it look like a domino effect. Because of the state of businesses in Detroit, McGregor has to tirelessly negotiate to keep his workers happy. Through the painful negotiation process, jobs are lost in order to reduce pay cuts and because of this, Stevens’ business slowly goes downhill as well because what once was a booming locale for exhausted workers to go to after work, is now slowly vanishing without them. Eventually painting a bigger picture for the viewer that it is effecting every single one of us.
What makes “Detropia”, which was only the sixth film to be directed by these two very young and talented directors Ewing and Grady, compete with other great devastating documentaries such as the popular “Super Size Me” by Morgan Spurlock and “Home” by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, is that it ingeniously takes one thing people overlook and ignore because they think it won’t happen to them and sequentially creates a visual for them, powerfully summarized by the line towards the end by Stevens: “it’s coming for you.”
Two young, artists of Detroit doing what they do
Regardless of the many downsides that come from the receding motor city, the film does try to display some upsides to the entire situation. As gloomy as things maybe in Detroit, a young couple of artists are able to afford a home and live comfortably. It also included a very interesting stat that although population is decreasing rapidly, the population of youth in central Detroit has increased by 59%. Even with all the pessimistic visions of the future in Detroit, Ewing and Grady attempt to integrate some assurance to it that Detroit is not just a run-down, has-been city whose reputation will remain down in the dumps but there is some optimism.
With Detroit turning into what is is now, “Detropia” serves as a forceful wake-up call for the rest of us. Using The United States as a larger scale to Detroit in the 50’s and 60’s, Ewing and Grady subtly integrate their message that we, as a whole, are heading in the same direction and it’s time to wake up.
Still Image taken from the short film “Rest” by Cole Schreiber
Who says zombies can’t have hearts? …Oh, yeah. Well, anyway this zombie from the short “Rest” by Cole Schreiber will make any 300 pound, muscle man squeal “awww” right in front of their laptop screens. It all begins with a zombie inexplicably rising from his grave and walking miles to unspecified location. We see the zombie walk through sand and dirt and mountains just to arrive at this location. He even rides a boat across the ocean. All that is heard throughout is a merry piano tune. The lack of language is good because it perplexes the audience and makes them wonder where he might be going. Is he going to seek revenge on the person that killed him? Or is he just mindless walking since he is a zombie and therefore brainless. Well for the sake of making it a short film, let’s assume that he is going somewhere specific for a reason.
As you see him walk and walk for minutes through these different fields and areas, even through New York City at one point, the we still don’t get a hint as to where he might be walking to which can bore the audience. For a short film that’s only about 12 minutes long, 5 minutes of just walking with no indication or clue can get a little redundant and boring and make viewers just close their screens. Midway, however, we see him take out a picture and look at it so now the viewers can assume he has a plan, at least. At the end, he gets a shovel and digs up a grave and jumps in it, only for us to see a woman there and they lay there together until the end. How cute. If you’re into zombies and the undead and at the same time love a good love story, this is a good short film to watch.
I can understand why people love horrors and thrillers and movies that make you jump out of your seat. It’s a weirdly satisfying feeling being scared to a point where your heart feels like it’s going to pop out of it’s chest. But can anyone tell me what is so appealing about watching someone suffer from having their rib cage torn open like a pair of butterfly wings, watching blood seep out of them as they scream from the torment? Why would anyone waste $13.50 to watch people getting dismembered and tortured and sliced and I’m really going to throw up thinking about it. Gore is probably one of the most disgusting and offensive movie genres I’ve ever had my displeasure of witnessing with my own eyes. The “Saw” movie series is a light example of the kind of thing I’m talking about. These movies are just the epitome of stupid, disgusting and just I don’t even have words for it like why do people even WATCH this? What is so great about watching people being held captive and tortured and having their guts spill out and being forced into situations where they make themselves suffer?!? Why? There’s even discussions about them on the internet about which method of torture is better. Like what the heck goes on in people’s minds? There’s a list of The Top 10 Best Traps from the Saw Series. This legitimately scares me. There are people out there who enjoy this and probably are crazy enough to make these twisted and sickening fictional movie ideas a reality.
‘Saw’ isn’t even the worst of it’s kind. There are way more gore-y films out there that shouldn’t have had the right to see daylight. Like “Tokyo Gore Police” about a police force that has authority to brutally mutilate people on the streets. Things like penises getting chopped off and faces being ripped straight apart a person’s head with a wine bottle like is this serious? Do people enjoy this? I lost my appetite writing this post. That’s how bad it is. You have to be a severe nut case to enjoy a movie like this, let alone create one. I am also very afraid of even posting this because of my fear that I will offend someone who absolutely loves this and will kidnap me and do all this crazy stuff that I don’t even want to think about now.
I definitely am not one to talk politics with anyone let alone read about it on my own. This weekend I caught up on the Caucus blog on NYTimes.com and I can’t say I was uninterested. The Caucus blog did a very good job on covering the campaign of both the Republican and Democratic parties. But of course, to no surprise of mine, Obama was definitely in the center of attention since after all the New York Times is a more liberal publication and would give him more attention than his running mate, Mitt Romney.
The post that intrigued me the most was the article with the famous cover photo that was printed on nearly every single major newspaper across the nation of Obama being hug-lifted by a pizza man. Obama, trying to get some undecided voters to join Team Obama, went down to Florida to advocate his health care plan. In doing so, he bashed opponent Mitt Romney and his vice president candidate Paul Ryan is saying their proposed health care strategies will just make their lives much worse. One thing I do not like about politics is the bashing and I am pro-Obama all the way but maybe that was a bit more than he needed to say. Nonetheless, it’s politics and everything is fair game. Back to the story, the now famous pizza man, Scott Van Duzer, found some discomfort with his freshly acquired fame as he was bombared with hundreds of comments on his Yelp! page, both good and bad.
Of course, this blog is consisted of many articles pro-Obama and pro-Romney, yet through reading many of these I could only get the feeling that this blog was mainly an Obama cheerleader. The Nicki Minaj article where she tweets Obama saying “Thank you for understanding and creative humor Mr. President, the smart ones always do”, a reply to a public misunderstanding on her lyrics in a song, is a perfect example. Not only does this article promote Obama’s candidacy but it also ebbs Romney’s with the implication that these “smart ones” should have understood that her preaching for Romney in the song was a complete joke. Nonetheless, the caucus was filled with many good posts, some more over the top than others but definitely needed to be a little less “bashy”.
The multimedia coverage on the other hand was definitely more objective coverage than the caucus blog but again leaned more towards Obama. This portion of the Election 2012 section on NYTimes.com was filled with pictures and videos of Obama and Obama supporters. There was a slideshow of the backstage images during the Nation Democratic Convention however I found it interesting that there was no slideshow for the Republic side. But it was definitely a lot less bias than the blog. Many pictures from both sides were provided and videos as well. A very neat feature was the interactive one that tells you what words were said more by each candidate. Pretty much for reasons that tell you which topic each candidate would focus on more such as jobs, tax and energy as well as other friendlier words like family and the American dream. This was an excellent demonstration of last week’s conventions and public opinions through multimedia.
