Ahoy-hoy.
I’ve been back on the East Coast for the past week. A combination of work and R&R brought me back. In between doctor’s appointments, three full days of work, and countless meals with family members (oh my God, all the food I’ve eaten…) there have been moments of respite for which I am quite thankful. It’s good to have a mental break from my goings on in Los Angeles every now and again, and coming home once or twice a year certainly allows for that. As I haven’t written here for some time I feel obligated to review this vacation in great detail, so bear with me while I expound upon the past seven days.
And when I say “bear with me,” I mean I literally want you to put on a bear costume and act like a bear with me.
My flight left LAX shortly after 11pm on Tuesday night the 28th and arrived shortly after 7am on Wednesday morning. I popped my sleeping pill about an hour before boarding so I was out pretty much as we were taking off, and got a good four hours of shut-eye in before we began our descent. Mom was late in waking up so I had a few minutes to wait at the airport before I was retrieved and driven home. Once there, I fell onto her couch and slept for another 2-3 hours. Upon awaking (groggily) I was informed that I had a dentist’s appointment. I drove over to the office only to find that it had been cancelled (no idea why) and rescheduled for the following day in the middle of the afternoon. Kind of ruined my day but they didn’t have anything earlier for me. Mom and I turned the cancelation into an opportunity to drive down to Wegmans for my “welcome home!” lunch. They still haven’t broken ground on the Rt. 10-adjacent location yet, but I assure you once that place is built I’ll be heavily considering a move back to Jersey. It’s kind of sad that having a Wegmans ten minutes from my front door is more enticing than say…a job offer. Oh well.
Dinner Wednesday night was with dad and sister. As it was my birthday on the 25th, we had a belated birthday celebration at Ruth’s Chris in Parsippany. Right up the road from where Wegmans will be. Steaks were cooked perfectly. Sides included lobster mac and cheese, creamy mashed potatoes, grilled corn, creamed spinach, and sautéed mushrooms. After dinner we returned to dad’s house where I set up my new cell phone, and Narrator Jack stopped by to give both dad and myself a lesson in proper iPhone settings. Beers consumed included Evil Twin’s Imperial Biscotti Break Natalie (Pretty Please With A Cherry On Top) and Trinity Brewing’s Chocolate River.
Thursday began with a morning run, then that stupid dentist’s appointment. Errands with mom and prep for work Friday morning took up a sliver of time in the afternoon. Dinner that night was at Serenade in Chatham. Elissa and I made a detour on the ride home to stop by some hotel bar in Morristown where her friends were imbibing. We were there for a while watching the NFL Draft and a hockey game, then returned home in time for one more beer (Open Windows Open Hills) before bed.
Friday morning I awoke early, showered, dressed, and packed the car with what would be needed for work for the weekend. The drive to the Brooklyn Expo Center took a bit longer than the previous two WFMU Record Fair locations in Manhattan, but this was certainly a nice new venue they’ve found in Brooklyn. I met some familiar faces in the parking lot waiting for load-in and chatted with them until my boss arrived. Load-in was relatively painless, setup was pretty easy, and from there on it was pretty much all work for the remainder of the day. I was able to scoot out from behind our table to search the floor but I didn’t find much worth purchasing on Day 1. There was one table with an incredible collection of indie and import vinyl, so I grabbed some remarkably clean copies of long-sought-after titles like the Lily’s In The Presence Of Nothing (the original Slumberland pressing in a hand-painted edition of 500), Mark Lanegan’s The Winding Sheet, The Bats’ Daddy’s Highway, and Charles De Goal’s Algorithmes. Those turned out to be the only records I purchased on Day 1. The rest of the day was work. The day ended at 10pm, the drive home took about an hour and I don’t think I did much once I got back other than go straight to bed.
Saturday I awoke early (again) and headed back to Greenpoint. On this day I waited anxiously for a known dealer to open his boxes so I could get to them first, but all he had that interested me was a copy of Oxbow’s Serenade In Red (the original pressing with one white disc and one black disc). Later Ian and Jon showed up so I walked around with them for a bit. Although I didn’t find anything for most of the day, I did stumble across a copy of Big Black’s Headache that pretty much blew my budget for the day. I’ve been looking for this record for years, and to find a perfect blood-red vinyl copy in the body bag (slit perfectly along one edge) with all the inserts (poster and booklet) and the bonus 7″ (Heartbeat, also on blood-red vinyl) was too good to pass up. The dealer wanted $100 for it but I talked him down to $80. After that, I picked up the Sub Pop Loser’s Edition of the Goat record Commune for $10 and that was it.
Saturday ended and I raced over to Hoboken for a bottle share party at some friends’ apartment. Lots of rare beers were consumed, good food was eaten (beer bread! puff pastry filled with buffalo chicken dip! spicy salsas and spreadable sausage and more!) and new friends were made. Elissa and I brought along a couple rare bottles like FiftyFifty Eclipse Java, Hair Of The Dog Cherry Adam From The Wood, Hill Farmstead Clara, and Carton Tharsis. Other exciting bottles that were opened included a fresh bottle of Cigar City Hunahpu, Hill Farmstead Florence, Southampton Russian Imperial Stout, and AleSmith Speedway with Kona Coffee. Oh and Bruery Coton 100% was delicious too. And Bourbon County Cherry Rye. There were plenty of other bottles, but those were the ones that stuck out the most. Drainpours included the now 10-year-old bottle of Dogfish Head Fort I brought along, as well as Elissa’s Cascade Gingersnap, both of which were widely panned by the tasters. I happened to think the Fort was fine, but the majority of the beer nerds in attendance thought otherwise. The night ended with a bottle of Bruery Grey Monday and cigars on the rooftop, then a short ride over to a hotel in Jersey City.
Sunday morning was slightly difficult for me after all those beers. My mild hangover was made even more frustrated by the insane traffic patterns in and around Manhattan and Brooklyn. There was a 5-borough bike ride scheduled between the morning and 5:00pm that day, and pretty much every street and crossing I needed to take to get back to Greenpoint was closed. I wound up having to take FDR Drive up to the midtown tunnel and then went through Queens to some bridge I’ve never heard of into Brooklyn. I hugged the waterfront and wound up driving the wrong way down a one-way street just to get to the Expo Center parking lot. It took about 90 minutes to drive 9 miles. Brutal. Sunday didn’t include any purchases other than a $10 copy of a Shearwater record I like. It was mostly work, then packing, then struggling to leave in time to make an 8pm reservation at Marea.
Mom, sister and I always like to splurge on one meal during my visits home and this time we did so at Marea. Their four-course tasting menu ($99 per person) was quite delicious and made for a very memorable dinner. I started with the crudo tasting (chef’s choice of sliced raw fish and shellfish) which featured Ono (seared wild pacific wahoo, frutti di mare, basil), Shimaji (pacifc striped mackerel, almonds, peas and strawberries) and Dentice (pacific snapper, prosciutto, celery and tomato). My pasta was the Fusilli with red wine braised octopus and bone marrow. Holy cow was it incredible. My secondi was the Anatra, or roasted duck breast, polenta, olives, pistachio and broccoli rabe. Dessert was a tasting of gelato and sorbet. There was a scoop of sicilian pistachio gelato, and then a scoop of lemon basil sorbet and blackberry fennel sorbet. All told the meal was incredible.
One side note about dinner at Marea. The couple at the table next to us happened to be none other than Swan Fungus Enemy #1 Bono, and his daughter. I spent about 2 hours resisting the urge to ask him, “Hey. How do I get your shitty music off my iPhone?” Alas, my character got the best of me and I managed to get through the meal without making any loud remarks or snide comments. I hope he had a great meal.
Monday was a day to sleep in and relax. Mom went to work and left me her car so I could get around town if I wanted/needed. I met my father for lunch at a diner near his office and had a yummy breakfast wrap filled with bacon and cheese and eggs and hot sauce. We talked for about an hour which was nice, because usually when I’m home there are precious few opportunities for good one-on-one conversations. Afterwards I headed over to Madison so I could pick mom up after school. We came home and watched some TV (I introduced her to Eagleheart, which I’m not sure if she loved or hated) and then ran some errands. We picked up a buffalo chicken pizza for dinner (like Wegmans, another staple of any trip back to Jersey) and then Elissa and I headed over to Cloverleaf for their Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA release party. Good beers on tap included Allagash Session Brett and Kane Head High and Carton 077-07066 (Sorachi Ace). Guys, somehow two incredible breweries have opened in New Jersey in recent years. Kane and Carton. Both of them are putting out some amazing brews. I’ve been getting cans of Carton shipped to be for a few months by my sister but the only Kane I’ve gotten to try has been Head High and Overhead. Both have been outstanding. If you’re in the NY/NJ/PA area you owe it to yourself to seek out more of their beers, or make a pilgrimage to the breweries. Apparently Carton is only open on weekends (I think?) so I couldn’t make it this trip, but I guarantee the next time I’m in Jersey I will be there. Fantastic beers. Kane is down in Ocean Township but I’d love to stop there next time as well.
Yesterday I woke up early and went for a run. Then I had another doctor’s appointment that took a few hours, but I got two trips to Dunkin Donuts out of it so it was worthwhile. Mom, sister and I had an early dinner at Ursino on the campus of Kean College. a new-ish farm-to-table restaurant in the area that is turning out some great food. I had an excellent grilled Spanish octopus dish with Yukon Gold potato bellini, an arugula and caper emulsion, and manchego. It was light and clean and totally on point. Some of the softest octopus I’ve ever tasted. I then had more duck breast, not as spectacular as Marea’s but still way above average. It came in some kind of sauce with potatoes and blackberries. Damned good. I got to try the pork belly with grilled pineapple and chili too, which was fantastic. Dessert was chocolate cherry bread pudding made with Terrapin Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout. Yum.
After dinner Jack came over and I cracked a bottle of Clown Shoes Luchador En Fuego while he ran through a tasting of all the beers Trader Joe’s has to offer. We watched that Kurt Cobain documentary on HBO. It seemed kind of white-washy in regards to Courtney and his relationship. I really liked some of the animations of his journals and artwork, and some of the editing choices like cutting footage from recognizable videos to songs we wouldn’t expect to hear juxtaposed to them. It was fine. It wasn’t anything revelatory or deeply moving. The choice to end the film with the closing of the Unplugged performance seemed weak, and the lack of information about Kurt’s death only amplified my belief that this was meant to be a puff piece for him and Courtney. An attempt to amplify the myth and genius of Kurt Cobain without really investigating things like his nasty streak with ex-band members, or…you know…his suicide. No Grohl. No Buzz or Dale. Oh well.
Today I had to ship some records back to LA and send a box for my boss along to Austin for the Record Fair there in a few weeks. Had lunch with mom. Dinner is with dad. Afterwards there’s a party at a bar nearby for a friend of Elissa’s. Tomorrow afternoon I’ll fly home, back to LA, which is waiting to swallow me whole again and attempt to strip me of any memory of the fun I’ve had this past week. In the immortal words of Barney Gumble, “Don’t cry for me, I’m already dead.”
Bedhead – Living Well [Live]
