The Lonseome Dove

So I'm badly in need of a cocktail, and I stumble across this new restaurant, only 3 months new, right by the RB Studio called:



It looks quiet and warm. I saddle up to the bar (saddling mind you because it's a WESTERN Bistro) and order a foo-foo girly drink, that I am assured, despite it's pink nature, it is a stiff beverage:



The "Lovestyle Martini" made with Plymouth Gin, Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur, Cranberry and Lime juice was delicious. So I figure, well, I might as well take a gander at the menu. The smell of food get's my stomach going, and I decide to reward myself for my efforts of the day with a solo meal. I order the Beef Tenderloin with a side of Asparagus:



It was AMAZING. nothing pariculalry special about the Asparagus, but the STEAK...Oh man. Quickly took my second top spot, right below Peter Luger's The Cilantro butter with pepper on the top was so simple and delicious, and the meat so tender and cooked to a perfect Medium rare. I was very pleased. I devoured it in record time and decided...when in a western bistro do as the westerner's do. I order the national beer of Texas:



Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. It's empty. Two girls walk in and I overhear them discussing Tuaca Liquor. I had previously been discussing this unkown liquor with the Bartender, Tejas (he didn't want to be pictured, but I must mention, he was extremely knowledgable and pleasant, one of those bartenders that takes pride in his work and knows when to strike a conversation with you and when to shut his mouth and let you fill yours, he rocked!) So I say to myself, "we shall all try Tuaca and be merry!" I order a shot for myself and "the ladies." We all enjoy it and I learn that one of them is from Texas and this is the big "shooter" of the region. I agree with the reviews, the potential for using this as a mixer, as well as sipping it straight is well founded. In short, I liked it.

So now, my "just one cocktail" has turned into a full blown meal. I'm feeling.....well....good, relaxed, and OK, a bit buzzed. I decide to peruse the desert menu....I'm not going to get anything mind you...I'm JUST going to LOOK AT IT:



And LOOK, here it is! Damn, I ouldn't resist a new chocolate cake to try and an eggnog drink to top it off, it is, after all, the season for such drinks. This cake was absolutely delicious. You know after you've had a meal, and you get desert, and then you struggle to finish the desert and you kick yourself under the table saying...."why, why did I order this." Well, with this desert, you will not be troubled. Upon finishing this chocoalte concoction, i was amazed to find that it felt as if I hadn't had desert at all. The cake was delicious, but as opposed to a heavier piece, it was light and fluffy. Satisfying to the core but not FILLING. Again, I was very pleased.

It's not on their online menu so i will tell you what it is:
The Ancho Chile chocolate cake with tomatillo sabayon. The Martini is an Eggnog Martini shaken with Depaz rum served with a cinnamon sugar rim and sprinkled with nutmeg.

My hat off to you, Chef Tim Love, Tejas the Bartender, and Rachel Baumgartner (private dining coordinator) for providing me with one of the most satisfying meals that I never saw coming. I will see you again for sure and I will be bringing friends.....HEYAAAAAAA!

Longest day EVER

On Monday I had an extremely long day. Gigi, Rocketboom's new production coordinator and I headed up to Deer Park, NY, leaving Penn Station at 9am to do a story on Ice Sculpting:



It was a lot of fun. Upon arriving back into NY at 3pm I rushed to the ITP exhibition at NYU. Drew and I surveyed a lot of amazing graduate student projects, some were featured in this rocketboom epsiode.

I was amazed by a lot of the stuff. Here's a funny shot of one of the projects, the "talking to yourself hat" click on the photo to see a few more:



Now it's about 7pm, and I'm walking back to the studio to drop of the footage of ITP for the editor to begin cutting it together. I pass a store that I always want to go in, but never seem to remember that when it's open, don't know the name of it, but it's on 21st st., between 5th and 6th Ave, right near our studio:



I would like to buy something there someday. Then across the street I hear a familiar noise that makes me cringe, "TERRY, TERRY OVER HERE! TO YOUR RIGHT! LOOK HERE TERRY....OVER HERE!"



That's right, the sound of the paparazzi. I can't stand them. Their screaming, their whiny voices, their selfish attitude that they and they alone own the right to stand on a sidewalk and take photos. I was curious, I'M ALWAYS curious, as to who and what they are snapping at. I will even, quietly, calmly, raise my hand above my head in hopes to get some semblance of a shot of whomever it is.....but just for fun. Now, I saddled up to the side of the building, Duvet, again, across the street from our studio, and watched these crazed fiends drool over an actress/model that I was unfamiliar with. But what I was interested in most, was them. so I snapped one photo....one flash mind you, and they yell to me, "NO PHOTOS!" my mouth dropped.

You know what I did.....I took photo, after photo, after photo, just for the sake of saying (without actually talking), "hey you JERKS, you don't own the sidewalk, nor the right to photograph on the street, I, IAN SAVAGE, will take a photo of WHATEVER I DAMN WELL PLEASE." All this was accomplished with a simple push of a button. I walked away smiling. Knowing that i would not be followed for they dare not leave their precious post.

I dropped the footage off at the studio, imported it with the editor, walked out at 8pm, and realized, MAN, this has been a long day, I think I need a COCKTAIL! and that's when i stumbled across a new little gem, the The Lonesome Dove......worthy of a seperate post, coming right now!

Brunch with Abe

While working for the Children's Museum of the Arts I have been really lucky to have met and taught a lot of amazing kids. Kids today are so different from when we were their age, as i think is the case for all generations. The youth of today at age 7-11, some as early as 5, are already computing, animating, filming and recording....these guys are just huge sponges for technology. But all the technicial knowledge in the world, whether youth or adult, doesn't do you a scrap of good if you have no imagination.

The most amazing kid I've met is Abe:


Abe is one of the smartest, and most imaginative kids on the planet earth. He has taken many classes with us from animation to filmmaking, sculpture to comics. He, to quote himself via a documentary of one of the classes, "loves to think up ideas." It is only too obvious that he is good at it as well! He never ceases to amaze me. I think his parents and the environment they have created around him play a large part in all this. His father is a producer for the radio show, Jazz @ Lincoln Center. The house is filled with old radios of many kinds, old records (vinyl!) in shelves to the ceiling, and a lot of blank paper for writing stories and comics. His pop is really into shortwave radio and I hope to feature him in a future rocketboom episode, I was fascinated by our discussion on shortwave....check this out, he uses a SLINKY as an antenna!



They have an old House in Brooklyn, compared to my apartment it seemed a masion, in the sense that they had multiple rooms and three floors. They had some really interesting things inside that I had never seen, such as this speaking hole, in which you can talk into the hole in the wall and the "servants" in the kitchen could do what you bid of them:



Mostly now they use it for kicks. They also had the remnants of a buzzer type device that was in the floor and was probably placed under the dining room table, where the "master" of the house could have stepped on said buzzer, to alert once again the "servants" in the kitchen that something was needed, without having to ever disrupt the dinner party.....fascinating!

I am just so pleased to have Abe and his parents in my life. Everytime I see Abe I leave with a smile on my face, a chuckle in my gut and my mind overflowing with new ideas. Thanks Abe, for keeping my brain on it's toe's.

And the posts begin...

I have been wanting to post on a few subjects lately, a few daily events I feel worth mentioning, so here we go. A day of a triple post!

I think I want to start a series, in which I post a photo of a sunset or a sunrise, taken from my window. Everyone loves a good sunrise/set! Here's one that looks a bit like a forest fire. Taken around 4:30pm this past Friday.



Now, on friday morning i woke up and had been bitten by the bug. No. Not a bug of sickness, but a bug for SONG! The Karaoke bug. So that night we ventured to a new venue, a new singing frontier, at Karaoke 17



Click on the photo to see more pics of us rocking out! After Karaoke Sheila took me to a new dining experience called Shabu Shabu at this restaurant:



It was DELICIOUS and FUN. You get this boiling bowl of water and you throw in veggies and greens to make a broth and dip meat into it for like, 30 seconds, then dip the meat in a sauce, then rice, then you put it in your mouth. It was a lot of fun. And while reviewers complain of the wait, we showed up at 10:30pm on a Friday night, sat right down at the best table in the house (in the front booth, where you feel like your the only ones in the restaurant) ! The next morning I was on the train and ran into a reindeer:



OK! Not a real reindeer, but I appreciated this woman's spirit. She struck up many a conversation with strangers on the subway, which I am also a big fan of doing (talking to strangers that is.) And finally for this post, I saw this graffiti in the subway and it reminded me of a piece that we recently featured on rocketboom with Mechanical Sculptor Stephen Gerberich



Dr. Gerbeau did a piece called "Amer-o-matic" commenting on 9/11. Within the piece were several pencils sharpened down to the nub. The message being, "live life to the fullest." I like this image and the message attached. Let's all get out their and wear our pencils down to the graphite BABY! What have we got to lose? I'll tell you what...nothing, absolutely nothing!

3 posts...coming to a blog near YOU!

I've had some long days, some fun days, and one gluttonous evening. I want to tell you about it. Coming soon to a Blog near you! (well...ok...THIS BLOG)

:)

Amazing Line Rider

A few weeks ago Rocketboom covered Line Rider in an episode or two. It is constantly going through changes and becoming more complex. I find it totally addicting, but also extremely hard....and thus....for me, frustrating. I can only imagine the time it took this guy/gal to do this. By D4n3Train http://youtube.com/watch?v=2SVMFCZgvNM

America's Finest

So I was walking around today and came across this scene:



Apparently America's finest isn't always at it's finest. This looked like a pretty bad wreck. Not sure who's fault it was, but I blame the men in blue. Don't get me wrong, I have NO problem with cops, they do a lot for everyone and have for me in the past. But honestly, how many times have you seen cops illegally parked, running red lights or speeding. Did you know that if their sirens aren't on they are bound by the same traffic laws as you and I. Sometimes I feel like sticking my head out of the window of the car and doing a "wooooowooooowoooo" sound. Citizen's Arrest!

Today my good pal Joe stopped by, we were working on a film class edit that is really awesome. I'll post it when it's done, it's HILARIOUS! So I grabbed a few of his business cards and scanned em in for his archives (of which I control and monitor.) I think they are just so freaking awesome!





He also brought by a little clay rocketboom figure. We want to start incorporating him into the episodes as a regular character, on the news desk, talking with Joanne, pulling things out of his head. This guys is just a prototype:



Ideally we would like to build a custom armature and make him out of lightweight aluminum (red) complete with little rivets and a hinged top. Anyone know of a good machinist or engineer?

Photo Essay of a Day in December

Shoot, I lapsed again. I get so many ideas for Blogs but have been scrambling around like a chicken with it's.....awww you know the phrase. Anyhoo, to make up for my lapse I have decided today to post a photo essay of sorts. Day in the life style. Click on the Photos for their relevant link! here we go.

So for Rocketboom, I need to be connected to the world wide web 24/7, in order to be able to approve rough cuts of the edits remotely. There have been a few cases where I haven't been near any wifi and thus, the editor had to wait on me. SOOOO, after having a lame, regular, STUPID phone I have had to upgrade to a new and improved, SMART phone. I have joined the Blackberry front.



Noooo....that thing around my neck is NOT a result from technological whiplash, I think I slept on it wrong, it's actually been plagueing me for two weeks now, this stiff neck. I don't have an electric heat pad, so i had to buy some of THESE which is what I'm wearing. If anyone has a cure for stiff neck, please let me know.

Moving On

Every year I do most of my shopping at the Union Square Holiday Market and the Virgin Records across the street. Not only have is it extremeley convenient, and always succesful, but it makes for a heck of a nice holiday day. The Market, both Holiday and Farmer at Union Square always provides endless entertainment. Such as this:



I had no idea there was such a thing, let alone it was a seasonal treat....."enjoy the little pearl of pure garlic!"
Keeping with the theme of Veggies, I also took note of this wonder:



Apparently it is very good....wit BUTTER. But hey, isn't everything good with Butter. I like brussel sprouts with butter.
Continuing through the farmer's market I was struck with an image that transported me instantly to my childhood:



I have the first season of Fraggle Rock on DVD, so if anyone needs to get me a Christmas present....I'll hold off on getting this. The themes and messages in this show are still, if not more relevant today. Jim Henson knew even then how important it would be to create a show that spanned the globe. In fact, it was the first show created in the US to be translated in Russian. i could go on and on about Fraggle Rock, but maybe another day.

But oddly enough, after I visited my childhood in the form of visions of doozer towers and song, I came across this booth that was most amusing, yet......



CREEPY! They are just so still and motionless, with their mouths open and gaping.... I felt that they were watching me. i shuddered. Ok, so I bought some stuff at the market and left. I was close to the temporary Rocketboom office, so i decided to stop in and say hello.



here we have Boom. The last remaining pet of our beloved trio Rocket, Boom, and Dot Com. I am looking into how to optimally care for goldfish so we can keep this guy going. Again, if anyone is wise in these matters, let me know. I love our temporary office. You walk into the lobby and the two men behind the desk have set up speakers, facing out, playing only the BEST Christmas album in the world, A Charlie Brown Christmas. If you don't own this album, please, spend the $7 and pick it up, you won't regret it. It instantly fills me with the holiday spirit. I thank Dale and Kevin everyday for playing non-stop. They are Brave men.....brave...but Wise.

So I leave the offices, and as it is with me, Mr. Impulse, I veered into one of my most favorite stores (without even thinking of it) and in under 5 minutes was walking out with a new bag.



I have a thing with bags. I believe one must have a plethora of bags for many occasions. Sometimes I want a real small bag, to carry wallet, keys, phone, journal, and a pen. Sometimes I need a larger bag, to carry a laptop, a book, Ipod, and headphones. And sometimes I have a lot of camera gear and a tripod and I need an even BIGGER bag. Well whatver you need, the Bag House is the place to go. My mouth drools just thinking about all their bounty. Cause I am carrying around my laptop and digital camera everyday, i felt I needed to recruit a new soldier into my bag army. So I got, appropriately The Blogger. I'm quite pleased with it.

And finally, I will leave you with this. I saw it from across the street, as i was exiting said Bag House:



I've never thought of Mrs. Clause as being a sex symbol. But like I said, it caught my eye.

The End :)

New Logos

So yesterday I had a morning meeting with my good friend Joe. Illustrator, artist extraordinare. We had both been whining for several months how we've been doing these B-day party + Bar Mitzvah gigs sans business cards. So I finally got these perforated ink jet sheets so we could design our own.

Joe is really an amazingly talented artist. This guy doesn't even have to think about it, it just comes naturally to him, I am extremely jealous. We designed him a simple card with a blank spot in the middle, leaving him room to do an original drawing on each. Here's the first two he did:



Seeing how great his were, I decided I needed to get something out of this meeting, so I put him to work re-invigorating my own logo, the almighty, adaptable ROLLIBOAT. He came up with some killer designs:



It took a bit of finagling of the print settings to figure out how to get the best print out, and they didn't always print centered, which is a bummer, but overall for $17 with a $5 rebate you can't beat the price.

Best Sunday EVER

Yesterday was a gloriously (cold) fun-filled day in Shelton, CT. The Clan gathered to partake in some good ol fashioned tailgating and some Christmas Tree Craziness.


Click the picture to view Photo's from the whole day


A fun time was had by all, and I highly recommend you visit if your in the area, or HECK, even if your nowhere close, you should find a way. It made for an absolutely memorable holiday.....DAY! The subject at top of Blog links you to their site. In other news... I hereby declare today.....MAKE YOUR PARENTS PROUD DAY!

This is for my Mum:


8 Shirts, 5 pairs of pants, 3 pairs of underwear (one longjohn's) and two pairs of socks for $201.44! An overal savings of $65 Mom. Check me out! My Mom will hopefully be proud that a) I purchased new clothes, as I have a tendency to wear my stuff into the ground and THEN six feet under that and b) the good deals.

I'd like to take this opportunity to Praise Old Navy. For years I could walk into an Old Navy, grab a pair of 32x30 Boot-cut jeans and walk out without even blinking. This perfect shopping relationship went on for many years, until Old Navy decided to fuck things up. They stopped carrying the jeans I liked in favor of the Boot-cut "special edition." Special Edition stands for twice as much money and comes with holes ALREADY in the jeans. I prefer to wear my own holes in, thank you very much. So I walk in to the store today, and head towards the jeans, finally, after maybe 2-3 years, I was going to purhase the overpriced monstrosities, as I have never found the Old navy's Boot-cut equal. WOAHHHHH! What's this?! Old Navy has brought back the original Boot-Cut! I was tickled. I was also tickled to find that I can now wear a 31x30. This opens me up for greater success in obtaining said jeans. I beleive 32x30 is always a popular size and difficult for me to find, so with the extra waistline option, I am very pleased.

This is for my Pop:


My Father once said to me that "having a lot of keys is a sign of responsibility." Well Dad, I have 20 keys on my chain, and I'm feeling PRETTY DARN RESPONSIBLE.

Well, I've had a long but productive day...it's off to the sack for me. Till the morrow.