Hakata Ton Ton & Ida

went out to my first Eating Club event last night at Hakata Ton Ton. a restaurant in my hood that only serves pig's feet. ew, you may say...even if i love pig's feet, there's only so much I can eat. well, wait until you've tried this place! every dish was a delight in texture & flavor and no two tasted the same. the silky steamed goodness came out in a saikyo miso marinated dish (the group's fave!) while the trotters were braised to stewy perfection in a vinegar soy dish, not unlike a chicken adobo. the steamed bun sandwiches (in a chinese mantou-like bread) were a lovely starter as were the marinated pig's ears in a light vinegary sauce. more trotters made their way in the table in a gyoza dish with some of the best broth i've ever tasted. Ton Ton is truly a wonderful find!

at the very last minute, i found out about Ida's performance at the Cake Shop last night. while I haven't heard of the band before, their history with Lisa Loeb completely grabbed me. who doesn't love the ever cute Lisa Loeb and her fabulous glasses? they were still working through a couple kinks in organizing the performance but the music was overall very good. super mellow & folksy with an upbeat vibe to it.

Asian Art Week & A Fine Frenzy

it's been a whirlwind week of culture. last week was nyc's asian contemporary art week which featured a number of great exhibitions. Tomie Arai's screenprints were the highlight for me although Hyunkoo Lee's Animatus exhibit was also quite a spectacle.

as if all the culture wasn't enough, i was lucky to catch the first solo gig by indie pop band, A Fine Frenzy. yes, another dreamy girl vocal band...just can't get enough of 'em. great voice!

Graphic Design

i have a pile of industry pubs sitting on my desk which i rarely get around to reading. most of the time i save them for a cross-country flight where i will be bored enough to work through the pile. however, this month's creativity magazine really caught my eye with their retro geek chic cover. for those un-indoctrinated, creativity is part of the Ad Age family of advertising news.

the find of the week was ffffound, a site which allows the creative community to collect & save images from the web. really amazing design work! while you can view it, partakers are by invite only :( alas, if some kind ffffounder out there will invite me, i will be ever so happy. and why wouldn't you want to make a complete stranger happy?

Halou & Bob Mould

Saw Halou last night at Irving Plaza and they were great! Lovely band from San Francisco - goooo SF! The vocals were right up my alley in the oh-so-official dreamy girl genre of music. I'm not sure if there is an official term for this but if you know of one, shoot me a note. Both delicate and strong, I am loving them.

Sadly, they were just the opening band for Bob Mould, who even more sadly, I had never listened to before. Props for Bob Mould though - they too were pretty good.

When did Irving Plaza become The Fillmore East btw? Maybe I've been away from NY too long...

Chinese take-out

I've always wondered where the so called "Chinese" dishes on many take-out manus came from. This was certainly not the food my parents cooked growing up and it's not something I've bothered to venture into as I moved towards foodie uppityness.

It was with fascination and gratefulness that this curiosity was satisfied by this latest article by Jennifer 8. Lee in the NY Times which chronicles the origins of #56, #42 or #33 on your favorite take-out menu.

Flash mobs, Bay to Breakers, Idiotarod, and Alleycats...

What is it about our beloved cities that like to promote random gatherings? More reasons to wear costumes beyond Halloween? The subversiveness of thse grassroots organized affairs? The desire to create a community in the vast urban landscape? Whatever it is, it's pretty cool to see, even if the masses like me are too lame to participate participate. Here's the latest...

I read a lot of email, newspapers, RSS feeds, magazines, and the many other media formats that come at our everyday lives. In ad parlance, I have heavy media consumption habits across traditional and online channels. So it's often that I find tidbits that give me a chuckle, maybe you will too. At the very least, makes you wonder who writes this stuff:

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

Exciting times in musical discovery!

I'm the first to admit that I'm a complete blank state when it comes to music. My mp3 collection stopped in the mid 2000s when the labels started cracking down on illegal downloads and it just got too time consuming to find every track you ever wanted and/or burn all my old CDs. The reason I admit less to is that the boy in my life had always been the one to organize my music so when that went sour, apparently so did musical inclinations.

I don't know what's hot now! much less what's up & coming. My good friends (thanks especially to Susan & Brent!) have taken it upon themselves to keep me educated and have discovered quite a few fabulous artists in the past year. Now those of you in the know may have known about these guys for quite some time, but this is for the rest of us who are musically ignorant and/or stuck in the 80s time warp, here we go...

Arcade Fire
Blonde Redhead
The Raveonettes
Kimya Dawson
The Moldy Peaches
Halou
Feist
Hot Chip
Swell Season
Goldfrapp
Ivy
Frou Frou

I'm no RPG fan by any means but the sub-culture of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D to those in the know) has always been intrigueing. Just why do people spend hours playing this "game" and what exactly is it?