Rooftops: A View to a Thrill

    While this city has a plethora of museum's, art galleries, and street art, those are not the only places to see great art in this city. For instance, have you seen all the gargoyles that nest throughout the city's rooftops, even its most famous buildings like the Chrysler Building? Did you know that there are mansions floating in the clouds in Murray Hill or golden capped buildings? Were you aware that there are pyramids towering over us in midtown?

    It was some years back that I started to really notice some of the incredible art and architecture that topped many buildings throughout New York. While the older buildings downtown in the Wall Street area have some of the more impressive art up in the air, when I went up on rooftops in other parts of the city I started to notice all the wonders that one never sees from the street.

    So, next time you are invited to a rooftop party or dinner, a day at your friends pool club, or are on an appointment on a high floor, take some time to really look at some of the buildings and the incredible art and architecture this city has to offer.

    This piece was inspired by a similar one by fellow NearSay N-sider Thomas R Pryor.

Best of Madison Square Eats

    The Madison Square Eats Spring event started on May 6th and goes till June 3rd. It takes place in Worth Square right across from Madison Square Park and down the block from Eataly. Within this relatively small space (like the Tardis Dr. Who fans) it holds 25-plus booths comprised of primarily food stalls along with some arts and crafts vendors selling their wares. The food is represented by both restaurants and bakeries from all over Manhattan and Brooklyn.

    Now in all fairness with this many stalls and so much good stuff it would take coming here every other day with a few friends to get through it all. However, since I have been to this in the fall, and last spring along with a number of the restaurants I feel pretty good on putting together a Best of list. However, having said that, I may have as of yet missed some good stuff, so please feel free to add in comments what I'm missing out on. One other quick point, if you don't already bring a Ziploc or 2*.

    Let's start with Asia Dogs who I originally discovered at the Brooklyn Flea – they quite simply do hot dogs with awesome Asian toppings. My favorite is the Sydney, a hotdog topped with Thai mango relish (cucumber, red onion, cilantro, crushed peanuts). For my lunch I hit Calexico for their pollo verde and chipotle pork soft tacos and got some of their Chipotle Crack sauce** to give a whirl since I like it caliente. To wash down these tasty treats I went with a Hibiscus Lime Ricky from P&H soda company (They sell the syrup's as well for $11 a bottle). I'm actually not a big soda drinker (I do have a thing for high end ginger ales and root beers) but do like some of the new artisanal ones that are coming out and this take on the lime rickey was great. My conundrum now is I was going to get a bottle of the ginger syrup to make Dark and Stormy's, but the lime and hibiscus were really good – decisions....decisions.

    Eataly market put a stand out that was serving ribs and a seafood dish. I happen to love Eataly so for you naysayers who don't like it, don't go, it gets crowded enough, but for those of you in the know, check out my review.

    ilili was roasting a lamb over charcoal which looked great, but I didn't get a chance to taste (on Saturdays they start one in the morning to serve at noon and another that is ready to eat around 6 p.m.). I did however have their green lemonade which I thought was mint, but when I asked was informed that it gets its green from cucumber*** Turned out to be one of the best lemonades I've ever had. Resto had a nice selection of sandwiches that included a slight twist on a Cuban – they used pig's head (keep in mind you eat pig butt) and a braised beef. They also had a couple of beers on tap. I've been to the restaurant a number of times and their food is great.

    For treats there were a number, of the ones I've had I absolutely love Stuffed Artisan's mini cannolis. They come in a wide range of flavors. My favorites include the chocolate dipped shells stuffed with mint, coconut and dulce con leche. Momofuku Milk Bar's (David Chang's bakery) cookies are some of the best in town. My favorites are the Compost (the kitchen sink of chocolate chip cookies) and the Blueberry Cream. When the sun comes back out hit Peace Pops for their all natural fresh fruit and herb ice pops or give their shaved ice a shot.

    Well, this list should keep you busy and get you going. You can find the places I mentioned here as well as many of the ones I did not get a chance to enjoy.

*I generally carry a Ziploc or two with me always. If it rains, they are great to protect your phone, iTouch, etc. When you are hitting a fair like this let's say you get a sauce on the side. Instead of throwing it away, stick it in the Ziploc to use again.

**The Chipotle Crack (think a Ranch with some flavor) sauce is available as a side ($1) and came in a 2 oz. cup with lid (it was great so why throw it away?). In the morning it kicked up an egg white omelet (egg whites fried in a little butter topped w/chopped tomatoes, Cheddar cheese and a slice of Nueske's applewood smoked bacon)

***I put cucumbers in Mojito's replacing limes for a change of pace and to make cucumber mint water for an easy refreshing summer drink. Just muddle the cucumber and mint together, add ice and water for a healthy no-cal drink by the pool or add some simple syrup and light rum for a twist on the Mojito. Try it with the limes as well at first if you need to ease into them...
Madison Square Eats: Worth Square, 24th & 25th Sts., bet. 5th Ave. & Broadway

Al Qaeda: Operation Kill Granny

    Now that Al Qaeda is "headless" so to speak... no pun intended, it's various "franchises" are touting how they will get revenge for the killing of their beloved porn loving former leader. One group is planning on going after our President's 89 year old Step-Grandmother in Kenya. This is the best they got...Operation Granny?!? What... these imbeciles are going to attempt to send a squad of their highly trained Ninja-Hassasin's http://asianhistory.about.com/od/glossaryae/g/GlosAssassins.htm after her or talk a 14 year old scared and juiced up on Khat to blow himself up while she's sipping tea on her porch?!? Can these losers be any more pathetic?

    I also read that they have decided to not go after our VP Joe Biden because they do not deem him important. Possibly the only thing I may agree with these morons on, but is that the real reason or is it because these idiots are worried that if they do go after him they might run out of ammo after missing all their shots and he will beat them all up in hand to hand combat? They must be relieved that McCain didn't win in 08...if so, then they would have to deal with Palin. As long as they keep their distance they're safe from her shotgun...but are likely shaking that if she adds a sniper rifle to her arsenal she could see them and hit them from Alaska!

    Speaking of guns I guess it's safe to say the First Lady is not on their list...her guns are stronger, better defined and bigger then any of those nancy-boys in Al-Qaeda. She'd slap them silly. While I'm guessing Obama is a likely target they must be scratching their heads trying to figure out how the hell they are going to get past his Alligator filled moats to get to him! Why didn't they get Dubya for sending his Crusader armies to their lands? Is it because he's a Cowboy and they figure between his six-shooters and buck knife he would gun them down...and then scalp them! What about the previous VP...Dick Cheney...do they really believe that he is Darth Cheney a Dark Sith Lord capable of using his corrupted Jedi powers to fling them around while snapping their necks without even having to bother to bust out his Light-Sabre?!?

    They say a Hero is defined by his actions, deeds and his villains. Is that our problem these days...our villains are so damn lame? We started off with the British Empire and the warrior Apache, Comanche, etc tribes, then went at it with each other, followed that up against the German war machine and then against a bigger stronger Blitzkrieging German force on one side and real warrior ninja kamikaze's on the other side of the world.

    Now look what we have...guys trying bomb Grandma. In the Batman comics one of the issues that has been coming up is was Gotham better off before Batman showed up? The argument being that things were bad before him...but ever since he showed up the criminals have become even worse. I don't buy that argument...they just started wearing clown make-up, top hats and spandex. As we see in our own world monsters look just like us...they don't need costumes or superpowers to create atrocities. In the series finale of Smalllville Lex and Clark have a great verbal confrontation (best ever Dennis Hopper vs Chris Walken in True Romance... if you have not seen this movie you need to if you love cinema) where Lex actually does a great spin on the hero defining definition by telling Clark that every great Villain needs great hero's to challenge them to reach their full potential.

    It seems that Al Qaeda has found their true hero to challenge them...US...of A, and as they have learned regardless of the Administration in power or whatever bickering we do internally when it comes down to it we will put them in the ground and wave the flag together. I look forward to their vanishing back from under the rocks they crawled.

    As much as I would love to see peace in our time...I just don't believe we have it in our DNA. We seem to like to fight. What we need though is a real enemy...not these gutless craven cowards. Bring on the Klingons...

Bin Laden Bin Spanking

    Birds do it, Monkey's and dolphins do it, the bee's do it, we do it...why should it surprise anyone that Bin did it...? It has come to light that among the various intelligence gathered at the compound of the former mastermind...current fish feces leader of Al Qaeda was quite a bit of "Adult Entertainment"...Cinema of the Erotica"...Porn.

    Now the question is what was the former leader of Al Qaeda, his sons and guards doing with such material? Islam which is the religion which Al Qaeda "claims" to practice...(but at this point who but the uneducated & illiterate really believe that Al Qaeda has anything to really do with the religion of Islam in the first place?) according to Wikipedia forbids it (as do the various flavors of  Christianity & Taoism...however if you are Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish or Wiccan...enjoy yourself).

     Were they just doing "research" on the decadence of the West and was this just in the same pile as Sports, Alcoholic beverages, Woman's Wear & Pork Products? Were they in-bedding messages in Porn to send out orders (I didn't come up with this...the CIA did) since Porn makes up such a high % of Internet use? Did they capture it during their raids on Pakistani troops? I think not. While Bin Laden may have had 4 wives to take care of his "needs" and a "guest house" in the back of his compound for them I'm guessing he also had 4X the problems and headaches and needed some "alone" time to relieve all the stress one gets from being a "holy warrior". Just like the Saudis who preach Wahabbism and are yet the biggest hypocrites on the planet Bin and his Al Qaeda boys are just as bad. So the real question is (now that we know they were spending their days pleasuring themselves in between planning mass murder)... what did they call it?

     What will the followers of Bin call it now that they see he did it? I'm guessing Beating the Bishop, bopping the Baloney, etc are not going to work amongst his followers. So I'm guessing maybe the following will...

• Binning the Laden
• Abbottabadding
• Al Jizzering
• Grappling the Goat
• Mangling the Martyr

     Feel free to vote on these or add your own in comments:)