Author Archives: Jasel Garcia

Courtesy of postalservicemusic.net

On June 14^th, I will see something I have only been able to fantasize about for 10 years, give or take. On June 14^th, I will realize many a fourteen-year-old Jasel’s wet dream. On June 14^th, I will see the “Postal Service” live at the Barclays Center.

Although I know that a large section of this post’s audience might strain to relate to my elation, an equally large core of passionate “Postal Service” devotees are presently squirming with as much, if not more, delight. This is the same audience that might entertain and even reciprocate my musings about “A Tattered Line of String,” the band’s latest single released on Feb. 11.

The new track is going to be included in the band’s Give Up reissue on April 9, and it seems to indicate a somewhat chipper departure from the melodramatic bleeps and bloops that amassed the devotion we succumbed to when the album originally debuted in February of 2003. Perhaps it’s a case of rose-colored glasses, or evidence for the direct relationship between the time spent with a piece of music and the intensity of the glorification that it garners (it has been about a decade, after all). Still, I urge my fellow “Postal Service” fans to give the song a couple of listen-throughs and see if they aren’t somewhat unnerved by its peculiar lack of melancholy.

The Postal Service (L to R): Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello. Courtesy of Sup Pop.

Ironically, the single seems to adopt the particularly danceable brand of electro-pop that has flourished in recent years, developed by acts that Give Up undoubtedly inspired. The new direction the band’s sound is embarking on (if the new single is indeed an indication of one) is almost evidence of some cultural self-fulfilling prophecy, where trailblazers inevitably follow the very trails they blaze.

However, if the band’s newfound optimism is any measurement of their moods in their personal lives, then I hope that my fellow “Postal Service” groupies will ultimately support the group’s pursuit of happiness, personal and musical. If anything, we can just chalk it up to another case of Gibbard Syndrome—Ben Gibbard, the lead singer and main songwriter of both the “Postal Service” and Death Cab for Cutie, has a gift (or curse) for writing exceptionally excellent sad songs. They’re so good, many fans secretly cherish any misfortune that may come his way (e.g., Zooey Deschanel, whom he recently divorced).

Courtesy of Willie Davis of The New York Times.

Does this mean that I won’t purchase a new “Postal Service” record if one’s released? Of course not. Will my fourteen-year-old-fantasy-come-true concert experience this summer be tarnished? No, not even slightly.

Bring it on Barclays.

The new Chelsea locale (200 Ninth Avenue) set to open by the end of the month. Photo by Jasel Garcia.

After much anticipation, fans of The Meatball Shop can confidently expect a Chelsea location by the end of the month.

The new digs would be the first of the soon-to-be-four locations in the city (counting the Upper East Side opening expected by the end of the season) to have a full liquor license (meatball shoppers in Williamsburg have beat the others to the punch). This news marks only the latest in a series of astonishingly great fortune to come the way of co-founders, Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, who opened the first Meatball Shop in the Lower East Side a mere two Februarys ago. Their meteoric rise to the height of culinary fame seems to resemble Danny Meyer’s, the founder of the now nationally successful Shake Shack franchise.

(L to R): Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow. Photo courtesy of NYPress.com

And with good reason. The restaurant’s appeal is evident.

While crafting some of the finest meatball creations available in the city (feast your tongue on the their signature parmesan-cream glazed “naked” meatballs, and see if you don’t agree), Holzman and Chernow also decided to subvert the traditional server-customer dynamic by laminating their choose-your-own-entree style menus and providing their patrons with dry-erase markers. Instead of subjecting their wait-staff to the stress of memorizing and juggling various intricate orders commonplace in most dining establishments, Holzman and Chernow have developed a system that allows Meatball Shop servers the space to enjoy their shifts and to even engage their clients. The following thought (which, according to Chernow, Meyers perfected) is a simple one: the better you treat your staff, the better they treat your patrons.

Parmesan-cream glazed “naked” meatballs. Photo by Jasel Garcia.

Plus, the coupling of meatball-centric dishes and menu scribbling inevitably activates the dormant adolescent diner in all of us, presenting a holistically fresh culinary experience that sets the burgeoning chain apart from other equally adventurous epicureans.

And, if these features weren’t enough, the Meatball Shop also offers up a line of freshly in-house churned ice cream that would warrant a second taste whether or not it came on the heels of the restaurant’s delicious, freshly in-house ground meatballs.