Category: recs

my unsolicited recommendations

unsolicited recommendation: antennasdirect.com

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

we (well, mostly me, because i’m the cheap one in the family) decided when we moved to riverdale to not get cable tv. we’d turned it off before moving from inwood, and had not missed it. a couple of months ago, we had a brief flirtation with getting basic cable tv channels (just broadcast channels), but then i thought, why pay for that when it comes over the air for free?

or so i thought. free is relative. the catch to this was finding an indoor antenna that would pick up the signals. it has to be indoor, because i don’t want to mess with getting my building to allow me to put an antenna on the roof. an outdoor antenna would get me signals with no problem, but that’s way too much trouble and expense.

time is money, and antennas aren’t free, and i spent a lot of time and money trying to find the right antenna. we live in riverdale, in the bronx, about 14 miles from the empire state building, from where the local stations broadcast their signal. and with all the tall buildings and such, it’s tricky to find the right indoor antenna. i tried the terk hdtva, and got nothing, zilch, nada, bupkus. i tried the rca ant525, and got some stations, but not others, and was constantly getting up to adjust the antenna.

i tried buying an antenna amplifier, but as i later learned, if the antenna isn’t getting a good signal, the amplifier can’t magically make it better. all it does is make your intermittent signal stronger, but still intermittent.

so then i called the folks at antennasdirect.com — their number is 877-825-5572. the very friendly, helpful, and informative agent (wish i had her name…) spent several minutes on the phone with me, asking me questions about my specific area and situation. she then recommended the clearstream 2, which she said should work for me just fine. if it didn’t, she said it would be no problem to return it, and there’s no restocking fee.

well, hot damn. the thing is amazing. i get every channel i could possibly get, at full strength (100% signal quality, nothing less than 85% signal strength), with no picture breakup or dropout. i put it by the window, on an old mike stand, and the thing is like a magnet for hdtv signals. i never have to move it ever to get a signal.

antennas direct designs their own antennas, and as far as i can tell they are doing a very good job of it. the best part is, the antenna is so good it doesn’t need an amplifier, which means that you don’t have to plug it in, like all the other ones i tried. so, it’s a green product on top of everything else.

awesome products + outstanding customer service = unsolicited recommendation.

wall-e

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

more often than not (especially as i get older) my criteria for going to an actual movie theater to see a movie is: “is it something i must see on the big screen?”

“trumbo” the movie opened this past weekend. i saw the play several times, starting from workshop performances. kirk’s former boss at the westside is the director. and yet we’ve debated whether to go see it in a theater or wait for it to come out on dvd, because it’s a “netflix” movie.

on the other hand, i went to see “speed racer” in the theater. even paid extra to see it in imax. why? it’s something that you want to see writ large, on an enormous screen. the visuals are an attraction to me, and are often the defining factor.

the problem with that, as i forget each time i see a movie on that basis, is that the buzz only lasts so long; with some the buzz lasts longer than with others, but it always wanes. speed racer was stunning for the first fifteen minutes or so, and then i was completely inured to its visual charms. even the monkey couldn’t save the movie for me.

and i love monkeys. oh do i love monkeys.

which brings me to wall-e, which i saw last night. definitely a movie to see on a big screen.

but, for probably the first time ever, the buzz lasted for the whole movie. wall-e is an all-time classic movie if there ever was one. in retrospect, i think i now know what people felt at the turn of the last century, when they saw their first movie. it’s that arresting, that engaging, that challenging, and that different.

because there’s no dialogue for the first 1/3 of the movie or so, and large stretches of movie after that without dialogue as well, the filmmakers had to rely on the visuals to propel the story forward. wall-e the robot is buster keaton, directed by preston sturges. wall-e is gene kelly, directed by vincente minnelli. wall-e is marlon brando, directed by orson welles.

it’s easily in the top ten of movies i have seen thus far in my life. it’s that good. little did i know when i linked to the movie’s viral website months ago that i’d like it so much.

etcetera

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

» versions of “gypsy” i have seen/heard prior to last night:

— the rosalind russell movie version
— the bette midler tv version
— the bernadette peters broadway version
— the ethel merman broadway cast recording
— the genesius theatre version in kirk’s boyhood home of reading, pa

kirk could add:

— the tyne daly broadway version
— the betty buckley and debbie gibson version at paper mill playhouse

i don’t think he saw angela lansbury as mama rose, but he can correct me if i’m wrong.

at any rate, to say we had “gypsy” burnout would be an understatement. we really didn’t want to see it this past spring at genesius, but kirk knew people in the cast and we had season tickets, so we went and it was good. even though patti lupone was getting raves in the latest broadway incarnation, we just decided to take a pass.

we were sung out, louise.

but then we saw the tonys, and she performed, and she won a tony, and boyd gaines won the tony as herbie, and laura benanti won the tony as louise, and they were all wonderful and we got chills and so forth, so we looked at each other and said “ok, get the tickets”. so we did, and got a decent deal, and went last night. house was packed — a good audience that we didn’t have to shush. amazingly, i think some of them were unfamiliar with the musical; there were lots of audible gasps when baby june took off at the end of act one.

we really enjoyed ourselves. the staging was good — there was a tattered proscenium onstage which symbolically lifted at the end, making it a “play within a play”. i especially loved the interplay between herbie and louise. the actors gave that relationship an added depth i’d never seen. june was alternately manically perky when “onstage” and bitterly cynical when “offstage” — great job. the most world-weary and ancient electra i’ve ever seen — hysterically funny.

and patti lupone was indeed a marvel. force of nature. complete presence. all the adjectives. two standing ovations — at the end of “rose’s turn” and at the end of the play.

even if you think you never want to see this warhorse (“gypsy”, not patti lupone!) on stage again, it’s worth the money.

» dinner before the show at bocca:

no silly, not the sandwich shop. the italian restaurant in gramercy. very nice experience. we had the prix fixe: for me, pomodori (fresh tomatoes, sliced onions, avocados, olive oil), trota (trout with roasted bell pepper salad and grilled potatoes), and frutta e zabaione (strawberries and bananas served with sabayon); for kirk, polpettine (veal meatballs served with melted truffle, pecorino cheese and veal jus), straccetti (pan seared oregano flavored shredded filet mignon served with roasted cherry tomatoes and wild rocket pesto), and the aforementioned frutta e zabaione. i had a glass of white, he had a glass of red. espresso after dessert (please don’t have your coffee with your dessert, says the food snob. so tacky!) we skipped the bread in deference to kirk, but it looked great from across the room.

everything was incredibly delicious because they did a great job of the one thing i love to see in restaurant food — each dish was just a few extremely high quality ingredients chosen and combined simply and well. not fussy, not cluttered, very clean yet surprisingly complex. good job.

they have a nice drinks menu as well and seem to get an after-work one-drink crowd; kirk started with a really yummy basil-infused gimlet.

total bill with tax and tip was $145 — a splurge for us but worth it.

» weekend update:

we’re going to reading for the second weekend in a row.

last weekend we went, borrowed kirk’s father’s truck and went camping at hickory run state park. we’d planned to hike a lot and be all active, but we lucked into choosing one of only eight campsites that were on the park’s babbling brook (out of 300+ campsites; what were the odds?). so we sat by said babbling brook and read, thursday through saturday. left early saturday afternoon due to impending thunderstorms and saw a production of “the women” in ephrata, pennsylvania. very fun.

this weekend, we’re taking an old steam train with kirk’s parents. it runs from somewhere to jim thorpe, pennsylvania and basically takes the whole day doing it. sounds like a relaxing time — looking forward to it.

next weekend, kirk makes the third consecutive trip to reading for sweeney todd auditions. i think my reading visit streak will end at two.

unsolicited recommendation: salvatores of soho

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

had dinner at salvatores of soho on friday night. the name’s a bit misleading — the restaurant isn’t in soho. it’s in riverdale. maybe salvatore is from soho, and he came to riverdale to open a restaurant. not sure.

anyway.

they have excellent basic red-sauce italian food. great pizza. a well-planned menu with lots of variety. and they deliver it all. we’ve been a few times before, for basic stuff. so far, a solid neighborhood option, but perhaps not worthy of an unsolicited recommendation.

but we splurged a bit on friday night, taking a chance on some more expensive entree specials. three things shoved them over the edge, to the point where i’m flogging them on my blog:

» amazing specials. on friday i had a whole grilled bronzino with a rosemary sauce. i’d never had this mediterranean fish before, but man was it good. i like a fish roasted whole, head and skin on and bones in, because it keeps the fish moist and delicious like no other cooking method, if done correctly. and this was the best whole grilled fish i’d had in ages. it rivalled anything i’ve ever had at uncle nick’s on 9th avenue in midtown manhattan, which is mecca for a grilled fish. kirk had a broiled steak with mushroom sauce, which was equally as wonderful.

» great staff. welcoming, professional, prompt, every single person genuinely concerned with my total experience. they all enjoy what they are doing, and it shows.

» byob. they don’t have a liquor license, so you look at the menu, grab a bottle of wine from down the street, bring it back, and they serve it with no corkage fee.

total bill with tip was $50, which is about as much as you could possibly spend here. it’s a mixed crowd — half of the tables are families eating meals and bringing wine, like us, and the other half are tables of college students splitting pizzas. two could eat well and comfortably here for $20. but any money you spend here is well spent, and everything on the menu is an incredibly good value for the money, even the more expensive entrees. they definitely have kitchen staff that knows what they are doing.

we’ll be back.

a lot.

for the specials.

unsolicited recommendation: orsay on 75th & lex

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

had dinner last night at orsay, in new york city on 75th st. and lexington avenue.

i’m usually not one to venture onto the upper east side of manhattan. the transportation is awkward if you live on the west side, which we do. the extreme upper west side. but last night, kirk chose this restaurant to celebrate his raise and new title at work.

so i schlepped.

and i’m glad i did. the a la carte menu looked great, especially the blanquette de veau, and a beef cheek special. but they had a prix fixe “surprise”, which intrigued. for $38, you got a surprise appetizer, a surprise entree, and a surprise dessert. you could tell them “fish or meat” for the entree, and of course let them know if you had allergies and whatnot. but other than that, you were flying blind. we went for it, and asked for wine pairings to accompany.

the appetizer was a chicken terrine, wrapped in smoky bacon and studded with vegetables — i remember mushrooms and carrots. accompanying the terrine was a frisée salad with small potatoes and bacon. both were wonderful, both separately and together. the wine was a chablis — i remember it being very buttery, though not sure of the name. i was very proud of myself for figuring out the wine tasted buttery; i usually can’t tell these things and when the sommelier gave us that assessment unprompted, i was amazed.

the entrée was a pork porterhouse with a dipping sauce that had tiny julienned cornichons, and frites. that’s french fries, to you and me. the porterhouse was incredible — it had been brined well and cooked to perfection, with a crispy exterior while still tender inside. and the fries were sensational, as only fries cooked twice and perfectly can be. the perfect combination of salt, heat, and grease. yummy. the wine was a great merlot.

dessert was good, but not great — a kind of ice cream cake with sliced bananas on top and chocolate sauce brushed underneath. it got better as the ice cream softened a bit. the dessert wine to accompany was of course very sweet and fruity, and i liked it quite a bit even though i’m not much for sweet wines. i remember it was from the south of france, but no more details than that.

espresso with a nice belgian chocolate finished the evening.

the service was very french — completely attentive and friendly in the way it should be. wait staff were personable, helpful, and witty but not obsequious and pushy. everyone knew their role and executed exactly as they should have. in fact, our waiter guided us away from a la carte and toward the prix fixe, even though the former would have been a bigger check for him. good thing we listened — the chef was transitioning from the winter menu to the spring menu next week, so our dishes were a sneak preview of the spring menu items. our food definitely drew attention from the many regulars sprinkled about.

in all, a great experience — all pluses and no minuses. we’ll be back.

unsolicited recommendation: schwinn 431 elliptical trainer

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

kirk and i have been paying way too much money for bally gym memberships for years and years. when we go, which is sporadically at best, the only machine we really use is the elliptical cross trainer. sometimes some weight machines, but generally just the cross trainer.

we have to go to the gym in the mornings, and because we have to be to work at 8:00, that means leaving the house at 5:30 or so — that’s why we’re rarely at the gym. so, in the interest of both saving money and exercising more regularly, we decided to let our memberships lapse and buy an elliptical cross trainer for our apartment.

after consulting some reviews on amazon and checking out consumer reports, we decided on the schwinn 431 elliptical trainer. it was free shipping and $100 off, making the final cost $699 with no sales tax.

that’s less than one year of gym for one of us.

the item arrived several days ahead of schedule. the assembly instructions were clear and easy to follow, the assembled unit is built like a tank, and there’s very little difference between this machine and the models you find at the gym. it feels solid, is ergonomically comfortable, and is a breeze to use. there are lots of preprogrammed routines, or you can go freestyle. it has a heart monitor (though only on the stationary handlebar, a minor gripe), a fan to keep you cool, forward and reverse motion, and is compactly built.

so far, with the exception of the heart monitor, i have no complaints whatsoever. it’s a product i’d highly recommend.

unsolicited recommendation: homedecorators.com

~ jamie ~ Leave a comment

for years, kirk and i just left our liquor bottles in a disorganized clump on the floor. with our holiday party coming up, we thought it might be nice to have a small liquor cabinet to put the bottles in, something that had a top that could double as a small dry bar.

so kirk found this lovely and well-priced corner cabinet at homedecorators.com, and he ordered it.

the website was well-organized and very informative, the ordering process was straightforward, and the shipping was expedient (delivered less than a week after the order was placed, good for such a large object).

we were especially pleased with the quality of the shipped product. it was partially assembled, and the pieces were clearly labeled, each with its own letter of the alphabet. the assembly directions were clear and literate, and it was fully together in about 20 painless minutes.

since our entire kitchen came from ikea, we are not strangers to furniture assembly. the homedecorators.com assembly experience was much better than the ikea experience, and considering how happy we were with ikea, that’s saying something. the parts were of superior quality. no pressboard, all hard wood, better hardware (bolts, screws, etc.).

for a price comparable to ikea, we got a higher-quality product and a better overall customer experience. we’ll be repeat customers with homedecorators.com, without a doubt.

unsolicited recommendation: buynlarge.com

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

via kottke, the “secret site” for the upcoming new movie “wall-e” from pixar.

i generally hate it when companies do crap like trying to make me “discover” their site to accomplish their guerilla/word-of-mouth marketing campaign objectives, but this site is exceedingly well done and a riot to click through.

it interests me that the movie will have no dialogue. i’ll have to see how they accomplish that, but given the complexities of a worldwide movie release, it’s a strategy that’s brilliant in its simplicity.

unsolicited aerogrow recommendation, part two

~ jamie ~ 2 Comments

i’ve previously sung the praises of aerogrow, an exceedingly well-run company. and now i have to again.

we bought a second aerogrow. it’s a hydroponic growing system — perfect for a new york apartment. we’re using one to grow tomatoes, and a second one to grow various types of basil. the tomato-laden aerogrow was working fine, but the l.e.d. readout was a bit wonky. it kept telling us to put in water, but it didn’t need it.

now i’m not such a helpless idiot that i can’t grow the tomatoes without the l.e.d. readout. or, more accurately, kirk isn’t, because they are kind of his baby anyway. but we like things to work properly, and we know how wonderful the company has been in the past.

so kirk sent an email, explaining what was happening and asking what to do.

aerogrow tried to call him with the answer. and when he didn’t pick up, they followed up with an immediate email, pinpointing the problem — a cracked water detector thingy inside the aerogrow. who knows how it got cracked? more importantly, they diagnosed the problem accurately with a minimum of information and no fuss whatsoever.

and what’s more, they are sending the replacement part at no charge. and they also supplied us with detailed instructions on how to work around the wonky l.e.d. in the meantime.

i deal with crappy customer service all the time. we all do. and never have i seen a company so responsive, and so proactively out in front of any possible problem. i’d buy a hundred of these things, if i could afford them.

once again, kudos to aerogrow. keep up the good work.

benjamin moore aura paint: an unsolicited recommendation

~ jamie ~ 8 Comments

i thought kirk had lost his mind when he said we should buy this special paint from benjamin moore.

i went along with getting our friend deana, the color specialist, up to the apartment to choose paint colors. up until this point i had been an enthusiastic advocate of ceiling, trim, and walls all in the same color, preferably white. but i knew i was time to break out and get some color on my walls.

so she brought her voluminous paint sample books, and we chose several colors:

» jalapeno pepper eggshell finish 2147-30 for the bedroom walls
» moroccan red eggshell finish 1309 for the kitchen, one living room wall, the front door, and under the archway
» dash of curry eggshell finish 2159-10 for the living room walls
» driftwood eggshell finish 2107-40 for the bathroom walls
» sandlot gray eggshell finish 2107-50 for the hallway walls
» pale sea mist matte finish 2147-50 for the bedroom ceiling
» alpine white matte finish 2147-70 for the rest of the ceilings and all of the trim

whew.

that’s a lot of color for someone who liked his white walls so much.

and kirk really wanted this aura paint. i guess you can get less expensive benjamin moore paint, and i’m sure you can go to home depot and have them mix up an approximation of the color, but kirk really wanted this specific paint. it’s their best, and it covers well and is more environmentally friendly and has fewer fumes and needs a special machine to make it and blah blah blah.

fine.

and when, in the store, i found out that the paint was $60 a frigging gallon, i gulped but just whipped out the amex. i’d never paid more than $10, maybe $15 a gallon for paint. and, when my ex caitilin and i painted our house in st. augustine, caitilin’s dad got us the paint in 5-gallon industrial buckets, and i’m pretty sure he “borrowed” it from a construction site.

let me tell you. that paint is worth every penny of $60 a gallon, and more.

it went on smoothly, covered a myriad of wall problems, didn’t run down the wall or drip off of the ceiling, or off of my paintbrush onto the floor. the quality of the paint made it a pleasure to paint, and i hate hate hate to paint. the paint made it easy for an amateur painter to get professional-level results.

and the colors are absolutely stunning, and vibrant, and chameleonic. by chameleonic, i mean that the color shifts subtly in various levels of light. the sandlot gray in the hall has an eggplant-y hue in one light, a grayer hue in another light, and a greenish cast in yet another. it’s amazing. you can’t imagine how good they look. i’ll have to post some pictures when i get a chance.

so, benjamin moore. you made me a believer. i’ll never buy cheap home depot paint again.

and really, you shouldn’t either. the extra money you spend is more than mitigated by your spending less time painting. and your time is worth something, right?

and the results. my god, the results.

outstanding.

unsolicited aerogrow recommendation

~ jamie ~ 1 Comment

rarely am i impressed enough with a company and a product to give a shout-out. i’m pretty anti-commercial, in spite of my employment in the marketing department of a fortune 500 media mega-conglomerate.

so it goes, as our lost friend kurt vonnegut would say.

but i am so impressed with the aerogrow that i’m going to tell you all about it.

i ordered one of these contraptions for kirk after seeing it described in the pages of a magazine. it’s a one-piece grow light and hydroponic feeder for plants. you fill it (and refill it) with water, add the provided nutrients, and in a few weeks’ time you have herbs or tomatoes or strawberries or whatever you chose to grow. it is absolutely foolproof–built-in indicator lights tell you when to add water and all, and the lights cycle on and off to provide just the right amount of light and whatnot.

kirk had tried to cobble together a grow system in our dark apartment kitchen with little success. this thing works perfectly, though. we started with the herb schmear, though on the second go-around we’ve decided to grow just basil because that’s what we use the most.

and the aerogrow company’s customer service is outstanding. we had a dill failure the first time around, and they sent us a replacement at no charge. and our second round of herbs (the basil exclusive) came with explanations of just what to do to replace the old stuff and get a successful second wave.

the company really has thought out every thing you could possibly want to know or do, and has you covered. and they’ve thought out every way you could screw it up, and engineered the product, packaging, and instructions to avoid the problems. it’s the best-designed system imaginable. when we move to riverdale, we will probably buy a second one, so we can grow tomatoes along with our basil.

kudos to you, aerogrow.