January 2005 Archives

The night was September 7th, 2001.

I had been living in Hoboken for about 7 years, and life was good. My regular bar haunt was The Farside, where I knew quite a few of the regulars and had become friendly with the bartenders and owner - this is very helpful for your youthful alcoholic to get cheap booze. It was another typical Friday night at the bar, just getting drunk with friends at the local pub.

Around 1 am I decided to leave the pub and go home. I was fairly intoxicated, but not drunk. Everyone knows their limits, and I was just 'feeling good', but I was in control and about 3 shots away from being smashed. You get the idea.

Now my apartment is close to the Farside, only about a 3 block walk away from Washington Street. I started to head back, and I was about 50 feet from my house when I noticed something strange.

Some of my friends commented that they were having problems with TypeKey & making comments.

1. Click the link to sign in.
2. Log in to the TypeKey site with your name & password (you may need to register).
3. The window will close after you login, but my site may still say "login".
4. Hit the refresh button on the window.
5. You should be able to enter comments now.

I'm not sure why its quirky like that, but it works.

Email me if you run into problems.

Poor Eagles. Jinxed again.

I am guessing there is a Patriots fan who works at Sports Illustrated who decided, once again, to throw a jinx our way.

Not only do we have The Curse of William Penn, but now the SI Jinx to double our chances of losing the Super Bowl.

If you are unfamiliar with the Philadelphia Jinx, the William Penn Jinx, its fairly simple. For a very long time there was a gentleman's agreement in Philadelphia that stipulated that no building would exceed the height of City Hall - so that the William Penn statue would grace the skyline unimpeded atop City Hall.

In 1984, Liberty Plaza was the first skyscraper to break that agreement and since then no major sports team in Philadelphia has won any championships (I guess Villanova in 1984 doesn't count, since its a college). Plus, we get a lot of "oh so close moments".

The Flyers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1985, 1987 and 1997. Lost. Lost. Lost.

Phils were there in 1993...but that was the Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams Jinx.

The Sixers were in the NBA finals in 2001, and were swatted by the Lakers.

Then there is the Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.

The claim is that when someone, or team, is on the cover of Sports Illustrated, there is a "demonstrable misfortune or decline in performance following a cover appearance roughly 37.2 percent of the time."

Also note that this article was written in 2002 and they wanted to put KURT WARNER on the cover. Look at Kurt now, the towel holder for Eli Manning on the Giants. Just the THOUGHT of putting Kurt on the cover jinxed him. Poor Jerimiah Trotter, I liked that guy.

This figures about our luck in Philadelphia. I'm guessing that right now the anti-fans are running under ladders, smashing mirrors and carrying around black cats while wearing Eagles jerseys for the next 2 weeks.

I do have one story about "The Jinx of Jinxes".

I started to edit and add text to a script that I have been writing for the last 2 years.

I don't take it tremendously seriously, but I enjoy the theraputic benefits to it.

The script is the factual / autobiographical account of one of my relationships, along with some creative insight and fiction. It deals with the subject of "game playing" in relationships and also pokes a lot of fun at the subject.

I was reading over some of the stuff I had written and one thing always jumps out at me.

Its how women, many women who I have known over the years, who have serious problems when it comes to properly breaking up with guys.

Far too often I have known women who simply don't cleanly break things off with a guy. They don't say "Its OVER. I don't want to see you anymore."

A lot of times its "I still want to be friends." - and the women are genuine about this. They do want to be friends. They want to have the guy as a boyfriend, sans sex.

The problem is that most guys don't think that way. If a girl that they still like/love is giving them the time of day - they are going to imagine that there is still a chance with her (chance = chance of getting sex). He will still call, and still email and still want to see the ex-girlfriend even if she is dating other people.

I don't know how many times I get from girls who tell me...

Finally over the hump - the Philadelphia Eagles are Super Bowl bound!

How does it feel? I'm actually a mix of emotions, but the most overwhelming feeling is relief.

I'm relieved that we got that monkey off our back. The last 3 years of listening to Eagle-haters and co-workers who gave me grief is over.

Win or lose for the Super Bowl - we can finally say we won the "big game" and are able to get to the final one.

What an amazing game. The Eagles defense stepped it up and held Falcons to a mere 10 points. The Eagles offense, which was written off after T.O. went down, scored a solid 27 points. No one can call this game "lucky" - we beat the Falcons on both sides of the ball, with our offense and defense.

This was a complete game and a methodical win. We took away Vick's running game, and he proved that he could not win with his arm. I look at Vick and see Donovan McNabb in the early stages of his career. I think the Falcons are going to be a dangerous team in the future and this won't be our last post-season meeting in quite some time.

I'm very excited because, if you didn't know, i'm going to Jacksonville.

Yep. I was confident that the Eagles were going to win it, and I bought the ticket 3 weeks ago on Continental. I don't have a Super Bowl ticket, I plan on going down there and winging it. I don't care, I just want to be in the city for this game - its been 24 years since we had this shot and I figure that I better take advantage of it now while i'm young and single.

I know my father is looking down upon this game with a sense of pride and I know he is happy for me. Our one major bond was Philadelphia sports and talking about the Eagles over the years was one of our favorite subjects. I emailed my friend Brad before all the games started and told him my dad was going to make this our year:

Me: "The fix is in. We are going to the Super Bowl."
Brad: "Well, I hope so."
Me: "No, I know it. The fix is in. Frank is taking care of it."
Brad: "That would be great."

There was a sense of calm I had before this game. In years past, I felt nervous - but this year I was very relaxed (but excited) about everything. Last year I had nightmares of the Eagles losing to Carolina, and it came true.

This year I felt like we should win, and was confident but also wary of prior disappointments.

I'm happy for the city of Philadelphia and its long enduring fans. We deserved this after so many years of the NFC Championships, and wonderful seasons.

In two weeks and i'm off to Jacksonville to watch my Eagles face either the Patriots or the Steelers.

GO EAGLES!

I was watching VH1 last night, I think its VH1 Classic or something. They have a show called "The Alternative".

Its basically the same format of 120 Minutes from the old MTV days, and they play some hits & some misses of the 70's, 80's and 90's rock "alternatives" that I absolutely love.

I have this at #2 on my Tivo list right behind "Lost".

Anyhow, i'm watching them play some standard videos, like The Cure, The Smiths - some old one hit wonders from Soup Dragons and The Farm - then comes on a video of a band I never heard before...

My Bloody Valentine

As soon as the song starts I stop what i'm doing and watch the TV. I can't believe what i'm hearing. It was like discovering old book or watching a movie from the past - and my first thoughts were:

"I love this song - how come I never heard of this band before?"

The song was "Only Shallow" from the band's CD "Loveless". It was released November 1991...and I know exactly where I was...

Florence, Italy.

There would have been no chance that I would have seen this video on MTV because Italy was like being in a time vacuum. I didn't have access to any pop culture from September-December 1991. I'm sure when I returned in January 1992 from studying abroad that I could have seen or heard this song - but still...I didn't.

The song is a cool mix of warped guitar riffs, rat-a-tat drum beats and a harmonic blend of vocals (you won't actually hear the words, its very much like they made their vocal tracks like another instrument) that sounds similar to many things I have heard before in the alternative scene (for some reason Cocteau Twins & Smashing Pumpkins both come to mind when I listen to the song - but each artist is much lighter than MBV).

After the video ended I still was like, "What the hell was that?" I still couldn't believe I just heard that song - I was floored on how much I liked it. My only complaint about the song is that it can somewhat drone on - it seemed like a very long song that could have been cut down 25% of its song length.

I just hope that tonight I can download it from ITunes and listen to it again with my headphones. I don't know if you have done this, but listen to a song on the radio or whatever - then grab a pair of $100 headphones (you know the funky 70's looking types from Bose or Sony), and listen to the song again. You will realize how many subtle changes there are with a song.

I did pick up one last tidbit of information from The Alternative. From what I heard - My Bloody Valentine would spend so long in the studio that their label would release their songs piecemeal on EP's, rather than waiting for the album to be completed. I am guessing the band were either perfectionists or just really bad when it came to making up their mind on the final sound of a song.

After a lot of thought, I decided to bite the bullet and jump into the housing search.

Step one was to get pre-qualified for a mortgage. One of my previous roommates, Jen, works in the industry - so I asked her about helping me with that step.

Step two is to check out the market. I despise the thought that i'm buying a condo that was worth 50% of its price only a few years ago, because of supply and demand. I feel like I missed the boat on this one, only because I still think that we are in a housing bubble that is about to burst.

I will certainly expect the day after I close on my house that the market collapses and I watch the value of my condo drop 25-35%. That is the kind of luck I have.

My roommate Kristen has a friend who works in real estate and she has a fair understanding of what I am looking for - she is going to peek at a few places (she told me how she LOVES to look at condos...) and help me find a place that I like. Very cool of her, since I am terrible at getting motivated over this.

I enjoy the idea of finding a fabulous place, but really don't like the whole PROCESS to going out and seeing some depressing overpriced condos.

Its like shopping, for me. I hate browsing, trying things on, and looking around.

I like to see something (either in print or whatever) ahead of time, know what I want - and THEN go to the store and buy it. To me, shopping and browsing and trying things on is like trying to use your feet to eat food. Sure, I probably could learn how do do it - but the whole process of learning it doesn't appeal to me.

I'm still not excluding buying a place in NYC, Kristen is really jonesing to move into NYC and keeps sending me "starter condo's" which are like 450k each.

Can you imagine? I "starter condo" which is nearly half a million...christ. In any other city, these starter condo's would be worth maybe $180k. Or, if you moved into the Philly suburbs you could get a very nice place to live at the same amount.

More than likely i'd like to stay in Hoboken...I think I would get a bit more home for my money here (size, amenities, extras).

Also this move brings out something about me that I realize about myself.

I walked over to Philly's Steaks last night, after going to the gym.

Its sort of hard to figure out a cheesesteak into a diet when you are trying to watch what you eat - but for the sake of curiousity, I went inside.

If you have been to Jake's before, nothing much has changed except for a new peach paint on the walls and they got rid of the "Jake" cartoon character from the place.

One of the owners was working the register and the other owner was doing some "finishing touches" - like putting up the menu & helping customers.

I ordered a pizza steak with provolone (not mozzarella), and fried onions. Chatted with the owner at the register, but I didn't get his name. I made fun of the fact that he was from Philly and was wearing a NY Yankees cap. Traitor!

Lo and behold in walked a friend of mine, Brian G. Brian was on the email list that I sent out and is a fan of cheesesteaks. He had his super cute 6 month old Ridgeback with him - Fenway.

For the record, he named the dog Fenway BEFORE the Red Sox championship. The pup got the nickname before the series of "Fenway the Rally Puppy".

Fenway was a bit skittish at first, but she is a very pretty pooch. Makes me want to get a dog, but I don't think its 100% fair in my current situation to get a dog...I don't want to coop up a dog in a crate for hours a day. Plus waking up 30 minutes earlier to walk a dog before work would be a nightmare for someone with my sleeping habits.

On to the steak....

The roll is much better for cheesesteaks, its soft and chewy with a slight buttery hint. Plus they were so melt in your mouth kind of freshess that I love about Hoboken breads.

The meats, I think could use a dash of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. I told one of the owners via email that suggestion this morning - but they are leaning towards not adding salt and pepper in case the consumer wants to control their own salt intake. I wasn't suggesting a TON of salt - just a dash.

The marinara was a simple tomato based sauce, no real frills there.

The onions were NORMAL fried onions, not the sweet carmelized kinds that aggravated everyone. Well done.

If you haven't visited Philly's yet - it only just opened up. I can't wait to grab a cheesesteak this Sunday and watch the Birds fight the Vikings.

Ok, fixed the bugs to the commentary.

Register on this site:

Create your login name here!

Don't worry, its an online identification system and they are used by everyone out there that used Moveable Type (the program that allows me to blog).

This will limit the number of auto-spammers that I get on this site.

There was a restaurant in town called Jake's, which tried to make their own version of the Philly cheesesteak. Sadly, they didn't get it quite right.

• They tried sirlion meat, when Philly uses rib-eye.

• They tried carmelized onions, when Philly uses regular onions.

• They tried special ciabatta bread, when Philly likes their Amoroso's.

• They tried to serve a steak with a lot of bread and a little meat.
  

Cheesesteaks are a religion with the Philly born and bred - you don't make radical changes to our religion and expect the faithful to genuflect. They rebel. They get angry. They avoid your business.

I spoke to one of the new owners today, named Sean. He bought out Jake's and has a new vision for the place:

• Get the same meat that Jim's and Geno's uses.

• Get bread like they have in Philly (have you tried Hoboken bread - there are some very delicious bakeries around, it can't be that hard!).

• Throw out the carmelized onions, get regular fried onions.

• Serving up a steak with more meat than Jake's.
  

What does this all mean to you? Maybe someone finally got it right. Sean is from Bala Cynwyd. Went to the Prep in his high school years. He knows what a steak is all about. If this translates into this town finally being coverted to the religion of Cheesesteaks - not sure. I'm looking at the new menu that Sean emailed me - its all about the Cheesesteaks.

Oh, one other thing they will have is italian hoagies.

NOT HERO'S! Yea, hoagies are invading Hoboken!

The store, which will be renamed to "Philly's Cheesesteaks", is set to open up Wednesday or Thursday. I'm excited, especially that the Eagles this weekend play Vikings - I need to get my Philly fuel for the game.

Each day I have to clear spam off the comment fields from some freaks from Asia and Amsterdam who put crappy links there for online poker, viagra or debt consolidation.

Whoever the spammers are - I don't care - but I have to ask if you want to comment, please register first. It will cut down in the 20 times a day I have to delete the spammers.

You won't be spammed (I hope) if you register with TypeKey. Email me if you run into any problems trying to register - i'm kind of new using this and will try my best to fix it.

I like hearing all the comments, and thanks for the emails, too.

1. Popcorn popped in the fireplace.
2. Hot chocolate on a cold, snowy day - especially after a snowball fight or a sled ride.
3. The feeling after you got off the school bus on the last day of summer vacation - it was like you won the lottery.
4. Being chased by Leia's 7 Afgan hound puppies, who want nothing more than nip at your shoelaces and lick your face.
5. Rollerskating in the cul-de-sac in front of our Richboro house in Tanyard Farms. We used to make it our "roller rink" - we would set up a boom box to play our music & get lunch from WaWa. My favorite - Ham & Cheese (white, not yellow - thank you) on a round deli roll with yellow mustard.
6. Playing every sport known to man, and some invented by us.
7. "Pool Hopping" - warm summer night, and you climb someone's fence and slip into their pool to cool off. Alternatively, everyone rushes the neighbor's pool, doing cannonballs into them and running away when they turn the lights on after waking up.
8. Dad coming home from one of his office trips and giving all the kids presents from whatever city he visited.
9. Lying outback on a cool, spring morning on the patio couch. The cushins were black, and would absorb the sunlight and get toasty. So it was like lying on a warm bed, it would feel great for about 10 minutes.
10. Making toy rockets & firing them far into the sky. I was doing stuff like this at 11 years old, I couldn't imagine a parent letting an 11 year old now-a-days do that on their own. My rockets would go about 500 feet into the air, deploy a parachute, and land safely (depending on wind speed - many a day running across fields chasing those things!).

I got an email on 12/31 from Kristen:

"Wanted to know if you'd be interested in going to see a taping of Last Call with Carson Daly on Tuesday the 4th. Don Cheadle (Ocean's 11/12 and the new movie Rwanda) and one of your "Lost" boys, Ian Somerhalder are his guests...."

My response:

"Hell ya"

Props to Kristen, its a very cool idea. Come on - how often do you go out to see a TV show in NYC? I'll bet some people reading have never done it. If you haven't now you get to see why more people should avoid doing this - at least with Carson's show.

This year marks my 10th year in Hoboken.

As many of you may have learned, no matter how many years a person lives in Hoboken will they ever really be considered a Hobokenite. The "BnR" (Born and Raised) residents have a tendancy to look down upon the new blood that moves into this town. Of course once their families were new here, unless we have some Lenni Lenape Indian residents who can pick on the BnR's.

I'm at a point right now where I am unsure what I want to do.

My roommate, John, is moving out soon to move in with his parents and help them during his father's illness. I'm starting to think, once again, of my options. I can...

-Stay at current apartment and get a new roommate.
-Move out and rent an apartment in Hoboken
-Move out and rent an apartment in NYC
-Move out and buy an apartment

Each has its pro's and con's.