Saturday 21 May 2011

Kellogg's Diner

The only old school diner I've come across in Williamsburg yet is the Kellogg's one near Barcade. Unfortunately it doesn't have the unsurpassed selection of breakfast cereals I was hoping for. Merely some slightly below average burgers.

A general rule for diners, is that the shinier they are, the worse the food is going to be.


And this is really rather shiny.

Pontiac

I've got nothing to say about this photo. Sometimes a car just looks really cool and American, and must be photographed.

Barcade

Come one, come all! Step on up to the wondrous Barcade at the heart of trendy Williamsburg in Brooklyn.
Is it a bar? Is it an amusement arcade? Is it a sightly rundown old warehouse? All of this and more.

I love this place, they have a huge array of classic arcade games for 25c a go (man, I love Qbert, I'd forgotten how addictive that game is) and an even larger selection of beers on tap. $5 before 8pm!

http://barcadebrooklyn.com/


They also have a video game mural at the front made out of beer bottle lids. What more do you want from a bar? Probably nothing, although understandably it is a bit of a sausage fest...


Video game beer bottletop mural


Nice selection of local brews.


The high scores on the blackboard are really really high. Some people clearly spend too much time here. What would Steve Wiebe say eh?

Oh yeah, the most surprising and beautiful thing about the whole bar?


A god-damn Wolves bottletop square in the mural! I couldn't believe it, it's the only football team logo in the whole thing. Love for my team has spread far and wide.

Wednesday 18 May 2011

Transformer repair

Someone should tell Optimus Prime about this place, maybe they could fix him up?

I've yet to try buying a transformer. They are probably more trouble than they're worth.

Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.

The wondrous Dave Eggers is one of my dad's favourite authors. He also is a creator of McSweeneys, and the charity 826 Valencia, which promotes literacy for inner city kids. Generally, he's an all round good guy.

The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co is a venture by 826NYC (the NY branch), which raises money by selling superhero supplies. Well, it actually sells cans of sand with fancy packaging that daft designer type people like myself love to buy.


I have a tin of X-Ray vision sat on top of my stereo at home, but they sell a wide range of super powers


The store also contains a host of interesting features such as the de-villainizing chamber, that people who are being a little evil can be placed into to recover.


The place takes itself wonderfully seriously. Upon buying a product the would-be hero has to raise his or her right hand and read a motto out loud that states that you will only use your newly gained powers for good rather than evil.

All in all. One of my favourite places in New York so far.

Bed Bug Club

If you've ever had them you'll know this is not a matter to joke about. Itchy little bastards.

Turkey Bacon

One of the strangest culinary experiences I've had so far in the US is the idea of Turkey Bacon. As you may know, American's love the taste of bacon. You can get bacon salt, bacon mayonnaise, a bacon AK-47 (no, really) over here. 


However, they only really like the taste, the piggy product has lots of things wrong with it. It's too fatty, too salty and useless if you happen to be Jewish. So necessity being the mother of invention, a substitute was invented. Turkey bacon. According to wikipedia turkey bacon is "a meat product usually prepared from smoked, chopped and reformed turkey". 


In the name of scientific research and new experiences I tried some, and is it as good as bacon? No. Surprisingly it tastes like salty smoked turkey, only worse. The things I do for you, dear reader.




Real bacon on the left, turkey bacon on the right.



Monday 16 May 2011

MoMA PS1

Paid a quick visit to MoMA, but not the one you may know, and if so, probably love. Whilst (I've been told off a few times for using that word in the states, they only use 'while' over here, don'tchaknow) the old MoMA was being redone a few years ago they boldly went where most Manhattanites fear to tread and opened a second branch in Queens.

Unlike the famous Midtown branch of MoMA, this one focuses on more contemporary art that tries to push boundaries (read: pretentious). Whilst (ah, hahaha, take that, US English dictionary!) we were there, we being Chris Kline, his wife Lisa and myself, there was an exhibition on of a girl who photographed herself crying every day for a year. It was as bad as it sounds.

However, there was also this piece of awesomeness:


A giant interactive retro-video-game-wall/piece-of-cutting-edge-art. Not sure who it's by, but I'm guessing they are probably japanese.

Best art I've seen in a while.

I also loved their lamps. I'd have these at home...

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