I’m so stoked about the show I have coming up on Saturday, August 8!
It will be an awesome night of music and comedy from three amazing ladies.
Join us in Red Hook for an old time-y time!
I’ll be performing mostly new material with a full band (Marco Bucelli on drums, Matt Buttermann on guitar and Some Other Dude on bass)! It’ll be some comedic, some not, but mostly uke! Also appearing are two of my friends/favorite female performers:
Tinkerbel Tompsin is the alter ego of my friend Leigh Ann Cobb. She has a Mississippi-bred blues sound, “From the land of Molasses, Elvis, and all things hot and sultry in between there and NYC.”
Opening and perfoming between sets is the hilarious Leslie Goshko, Monologue Slam Champion and host of Sideshow Goshko! She does awesome sketch/stand-up/character stuff that will blow your mind!!!
Jalopy is an amazing venue with an old time-y vibe that offers music lessons (go ukulele!) and live performances in it’s gorgeous performance space. It’s one of the best venues in Brooklyn, and will certainly be worth the trek!
After Googling up and down to find a new place for lunch here in Greenpoint, BK, Tom and I just surrendered to walking up Manhattan Avenue. Walking along the street and looking at menus worked really well when I lived in Hell’s Kitchen and the street was Ninth Avenue, but this was a little less promising. While at home, we’d already ruled out Brooklyn Label, Coco68, Five Leaves, Lokal and River Barrel for selling over-priced yet totally unimpressive “new American” menus (although Lokal claims to be Mediterranean, but I don’t know what a turkey burger is doing on the menu).
But yeah, the prices were annoying. Isn’t that why we moved out of Manhattan?! So we could have more normal-priced food?!?!
And the odd thing about this area of Brooklyn is that it’s NOT Williamsburg-trendy. However, the prices of some of the more hipster-y restaurants are higher than better restaurants in the East Village! Location is bi and it will screw you both ways.
Anyhoo, there are tons of VERY reasonable places, but we ruled out any Polish restaurants because Tom just came back from spending Christmas/New Year with his relatives in Germany, where all day-everyday it was potatoes and pork. We also nixed the sushi place that has been advertising free hot sake for its “Grand Opening” since we were apartment hunting in September.
We finally made it north of Greenpoint Avenue and started wandering towards an outpost of Pio Pio when we saw Papacitos with its crazy Ed Hardy-looking awning across the street. We decided to go in after we saw the REASONABLE and pretty creative menu (compared to turkey burgers – seriously, Lokal?)!
It was a small place but adorably decorated with a pop pseudo-Mexican aesthetic (like Ugly Betty + El Centro). We were greeted with these signs, letting us know that Happy Hour was every weekday from 11am-4pm:
A total of 25 hours of happiness are possible per week!
Tom and I ordered chicken pozole – one of my favorite dishes because of rockin’ HOMINY!!! We also both got a trio of tacos: lime pork, carne asada and tilapia. Apparently we were crazy gluttons who ordered waaay more than people normally do (people usually EITHER do pozole or tacos). But it was all excellent, so WHATEVER!!! It definitely rivaled Tehuitzingo Deli in flavor, which I didn’t think was possible in New York. The carne asada was really the best I ever had, but the fish taco was just alright to this born-and-raised Californian.
Everyone in the restaurant seemed to know each other, since this is probably the cheapest hipster-friendly restaurant in Greenpoint. I mean, how could you beat a three dollar meal (assuming you went in and had two tacos for lunch everyday) and the soundtrack of XM Radio’s self-proclaimed “indie” channel? And literally EVERYONE seemed to know the waiter, who was nice (but a little weird, if you ask me). And in all, it was nice to have some yummy Mexican food in the neighborhood that wasn’t Chi-Mex or Tex-Mex. In our area of town, I still love The Creek in LIC more for atmosphere and draft beers and all that, but Papacitos is definitely on the list. Can’t wait to go back for burritos – “The Portland” breakfast burrito in particular, which has freaking tater tots in it! YEAAAH!!!
One of my high school friends, Matt, is coming to visit next month and asked me what it’s like to live in New York. Is housing impossible? Is it as hard to live here as “everyone” says? (I’m assuming that “everyone” is non-New Yorkers, as he’s asking me to confirm/deny what “everyone” is saying.)
Thinking about this question made me look back at how I felt about New York before I moved here. I had wanted to live here ALL my life. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy for sure, but even when I went to school in upstate New York, I still had no idea what “the city” was really about. All my college friends were from Long Island, Queens or the Bronx - all I ever heard about Manhattan was looong train rides and how easy it was to sneak into Webster Hall with a fake ID.
Now New York and I have been through thick and thin, richer and poorer, single and taken, repressed and creative:
New York v1.0 ( 2004-2005 )
When I first moved to Queens (for a few months) and then Manhattan, I lived as “Sex & the City” as a single gal could: cosmos, clubs, cappuccinos, boys – all the stuff that makes me vomit now. Living in Hell’s Kitchen was amazing. Plus, I was drunk half the time. Whoooooo!!!
New York v2.0 ( 2005-2008 )
Working in the performing arts allowed me to do good, get free tickets to amazing events and hang out with the world’s greatest musicians. I took a huge pay cut when I moved from a Big Four accounting firm to a non-profit arts organization, but I was happy to struggle a little if it meant working with awesome people and being part of a great cause everyday. I had an amazing new boyfriend, and people thought I had the coolest job ever!
New York v3.0 ( 2008 )
Last year, I decided to become a comedian. Now people REALLY thought I had the coolest job ever. Eating out on Ninth Avenue was replaced with a skillful rotation of ramen, Aunt Jemima pancakes and frozen Ikea meatballs. I also discovered something cheaper than shopping at H&M: not shopping at all. Plus, living on the West Side and having a boyfriend on the East Side was great because I had a short trip home no matter where the gig was!
New York v4.0 ( 2008-current )
Three months ago I moved to Brooklyn, where my only link to the outside world is the G train, I live with my boyfriend, and there are no tourists standing on our doorstep. Polish is heard more often than English in the neighborhood, there’s a washer/dryer in our apartment, and we actually have room to play Wii!
Same girl, or maybe not the same girl. But definitely many, many different versions of New York. And one thing never changes: my love for this fucking place.
This is what I wrote to my friend:
Hey Matt,
I’m good – thanks for hittin me up! We should def meet up and i’ll let you know what shows are going on!
It IS hard to live out here compared to the rest of the country, but there is no place like it. It’s hard to explain, but basically it’s a COMPLETELY different lifestyle from the suburbs or even other cities like LA and Chicago. And also, what a lot of people don’t realize is that most people who move to “the city” can’t afford to live in Manhattan anymore. Despite the romanticized vision of New York in the movies/tv, most people our age are living in the outer boroughs like Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island and even New Jersey or Westchester.
Housing is not impossible, but it’s harder than the rest of the country. No matter what your expectation, there is almost no doubt you will get less square footage than you want for more than your budget. Unlike California, stuff is old. It breaks. Everything is more expensive (almost double). A normal lunch (sandwich and a beverage) runs at least $8-10.
All that being said, for people who want to live in New York, there is absolutely no alternative for us! It’s like family: you deal with the bullshit. If it’s truly what you NEED/want/can’t picture doing anything else, you can make it here. It won’t be easy, but it can be done. It just takes being willing to adapt and make it work. And for those of us who love it, that is a tiny tiny price to pay
