I'm back

It's been a month, here's the theme music.

Get a Wii but don't quit the gym

Alright it's been over 2 months since I got the Nintendo Wii. I would like to show my before and after pics but they'd probably look exactly the same.... shizznix! So all the hype and publicity from the Wii experiment got to me – hook, line and sinker. Although I'm NOT going to say that the results from the Wii experiment are false, it's not as a easy and wonderful as it's made out to be. Wii sports is awesome but the games are totally shallow. What i mean is there is no object. For example, in most boxing games your goal is to get beat all the fighters, get to the next level and win the championship, or something like that. Some games take you to different cities with beautiful backdrops while you fight their hometown champion - who by the way looks like the meanest ugliest person to ever come out of their city. With Wii boxing, the fighters do get harder as your skill level goes up. But you're always fighting in the same ring with the same setting... The characters change, but only within the context of the Mii (custom character building), hence everyone looks more or less the same. Lastly you keep on fighting with no goal. There is no championship, no belt, no motivation to keep on playing. Same goes with Tennis, bowling, golf and baseball. Blaahhhhh..... I don't mean to complain, Wii sports does come complementary and it's probably meant to be a starter game, but that's what i think. Anyway I just bought Legend of Zelda and Tiger Woods golf. You probably won't hear me talk about it unless there is something insanely bizzare about it, because this isn't a video game blog!

ps. I'm still unwillingly going to the gym, but it's works better than the Wii. Healthy video games??!?!? common!!

paper flowers

Made a flower wreath with some other peeps this weekend. Surprisingly, it was a lot of fun and they last a lot longer than the real ones.

Bum Fight

56th and 6th Ave. Lunchtime. Bum fight. 2 meatheads yelling at each other. "I'll lay you out!!! You know because I'm at work I won't lay you out right here!!!" Homeless veteran sitting on corner. He stands up in between them, yells louder than both of them combined. "I'LL LAY BOTH OF YOU MUTHAFUCKAS OUT RIGHT NOW. COMMON!!!" Meatheads back down. Meekly to veteran bum,"you better get the fuck outta here...." "COMMON MUTHAFUCKAS, I'LL LAY BOTH YOU MUTHAFUCKAS OUT, HUH??!!!?!" Meatheads disperse. Peace has been reestablished in midtown. Douchebags continue on with lunch plans.

For more bum fights go to bumfights.com (paddy arbuckle is not associated with bumfights.com)

Dr. Phil's view on Bum Fights... later on in video the creator of bum fights is dressed exactly like Dr. Phil, hair cut and all, hilarious!!!!

Oren or Bob Saget?

Oren's Daily Roast has become my coffee of choice. Voted Manhattan's best cup of coffee by a couple of respected magazines, it's my daily fix. A strong cup with great flavor that keeps me away from Starfucks. Oren Bloostein, the founder and owner, also happens to be a dead ringer for Bob Saget. The location that i goto, 58th & Madison, has a picture of "Oren" holding basket of coffee beans, I'm guessing somewhere in South America? The first time I noticed the picture, I thought it was so bizarre to have the dad from Full House promoting Oren's coffee. I decided to ask one of the baristas why the hell they had a picture of B.S. She told me everyone ask the same question and that it was Oren, the owner/founder, not B.S. It's become a running joke that I ask that same question each time I go into Oren's. I also urge you to do the same, at least until they put up a sign that says "This is Oren, not Bob fuckin Saget". In the search to compare the two twins, obviously separated at birth, my friend and I found some fun links:

Worship the Lord Bob Saget here.

Offical Bob Saget site

Rap Video, Rolling with Bob Saget:

The Hand-Bangers

I've decided to form a band. Living in NY, it seems like the thing to do. However since i can't really play the guitar or drums, i've decided to use an instrument I do know, the handbell. I'm still looking for about 3-5 more members, preferably those who can play the handbell. The name of the band is the Hand-Bangers. Since there is no lead singer, I don't think there will be much drama. Listen to the song below to see if you can hang with the Hand-Bangers.

@ Love 2.24.07 with Johnny Fiasco

Jamanta Crew

Alright I just discovered these guys, so all you heads out there saying this is old news, fuck off! From Brazil, this "house collective" crew is producing some horribly sick beats. Incredibly funky and dancy, they're touring in the U.S. so check out their blog to see the tour cities and dates. Goddamit, why are they not coming to NYC?!!?!!?? Listen to their latest mix in Rio, I probably shouldn't be posting it, but under my blog philosophy,"share the love", i have to. Enjoy!

pop art

Saw this cool/weird rainbow of wolves or foxes, very Damien Hirst. I think it's apart of an exhibit in china somewhere. I found it on this on another blog called Pop Experiment, all kinds of cool shit there too. Don't be surprised if you see this same photo on cuteoverload.com, the king-cornucopia of cuddly animals.

2.14.07

This is scene on the 57th & 5th ave this morning. If you look closely, those aren't scratches on the Bvlgari sign, it's ice needles. Walking to work was murder. With the wind, I got about 10,000 ice needles in my eyes. It's a lot worst outside than what's shown in these pictures.

First reactions to the Wii

I purchased a Wii yesterday. Apparently, Toys R Us had a huge shipment of Wii's come in on Sunday, maybe for Valentines day?? Regardless, I finally got one!!!!

If you read my previous post Quit the gym and get a Wii you already know that my main objective was to get a Nintendo Wii in order to quit the gym. If you haven't seen all the publicity gained from the Wii experiment, check it out and you'll understand why I was so intrigued.

So after rearranging my apartment to make my space optimal for wii-playing, I started. The Wii console, consist of 5 sports games: tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing. I tried all 5 games to see how my body would feel compared to a work out at the gym. Tennis was very realistic, swinging the controller in different variations would accurately reflect the types of shots, i.e. topspin, lob, etc... Your range of motion does not have to be very dynamic, but actually moving the position of your body as if you are hitting a real shot gives a more realistic feel to the game. In terms of a cardio work out, I didn't really break a sweat or feel winded. Although, my arms did get a little tired from swinging the virtual racket, which i can feel today.

Let's quickly skip through baseball, golf and bowling. These three games are really fun, especially golf and bowling. Baseball is well, ehhhh. Final conclusion, play these sports with friends while drinking beers. There is no hope for true exercise, unless you're insanely creative.

So the real test was the boxing. The Wii experiment revolved around the boxing game mainly because it requires the most activity. I found it a little hard to control the punches at first but after a while I got the hang of it. The continuous punching and dodging made me tired & sweat. But it's really the amount of effort you put into it. Hypothetically I could play this game while sitting on the couch and flicking my wrist to throw punches, but jumping around, throwing punching and dodging with your entire body will give you a work out. I played for about 30-40 minutes. It's not as strenuous as a boxing class at the gym but it is a work out. My arms and back are noticeably sore today. Overall it wasn't to the level I imagined it would be, but again it really depends on the amount of effort put into it. Before I suspend my gym membership, I'm giving myself a few more days to get adjusted. It's too early to judge its real potential.

That's a-one spicy a-meatballa

The Bushwick 2007 meatball challenge happened Saturday night. The winning meatball (top photo), a traditional Italian meatball just edged out the newcomer's, team Galapagos Kick Boxing, spicy chipotle bbq meatball (middle photo) to win the top honors this year. Obviously presentation was not considered, as Heather, Chris and I, the heart, soul & fire of Team Galapagos, felt robbed as the winner/founder/host of the event may have had a slight influence over the judges (bottom photo).

See nancy's assessment below.

Feeling this now.

Check it. Today's musical inspiration. You gotta grab it from anywhere you can.

Quit the gym and get a Wii

I've become obsessed with getting a Nintendo Wii after seeing and reading about the Wii Experiment, basically this dude from Philly played Wii sports, mainly boxing, for 6 weeks, 30 minutes a day during the holidays. He lost 9lbs and got ripped! He didn't change any of his eating or drinking habits, take note that this happened during the holidays when eating assloads of calorific foods is not uncommon.

Here's the dilemma, I hate the gym. That's not much of a dilemma, but I would rather play video games if I got the same results as being in the gym. For the record I'm not a gamer and the last video game consol i owned was a Super Nintendo back in '93, over 13 years ago. Anyway i need some convincing that the wii is the right thing to do and the gym is an overpriced gimmick. Let's break it down.

COST
Gym: $85/month @ New York Sport Club
Wii: $271 One time fee (including 8.5% NY tax).
If i quit the gym for 4 months I will save $340 making up the money spent on getting a Wii.

ENJOYMENT
Gym: hate it.
Wii: Thinking I will love it. I have never actually played the Wii, but there are many videos of people playing it and they seems like they're having fun. Here's one.

HEALTH BENEFIT
Gym: Cardio workout with weights for muscle tone. There are also classes like yoga, boxing, step aerobics etc...
Wii: Cardio workout, no weight. If any of you doubt how much of a workout the wii provides, watch this news clip from NBC that shows a woman getting noticeably winded while playing the boxing game.

MOTIVATION
Gym: Getting to gym is a battle in itself. When I'm there, I can't wait to finish
Wii: When I was kid, my mom would have to hide the controllers of my original nintendo system so i would stop playing it and do my homework.

RISK
Gym: Getting hurt at the gym is always a possibility, i.e. falling of the treadmill, dropping the free weights on my foot or getting hurt by other yahoos at the gym.
Wii: Unknown, but players, bystanders and pets have all been injured by Wii-related accidents. Household furniture is also at high risk. This has been documented at the blog wiihaveaproblem.com.

SELF CONFIDENCE
Gym: Ever feel intimidated when Ivan da Steroid is benching 900 lbs and grunting like a gorilla?
Wii: The only ridicule you'll receive are from family members or roommates, but are we really trying to impress them?

CONVENIENCE
Gym: If your gym is 24 hours then you can go anytime you want, but not all are. However you still have to schlep your lazy ass, gym & change of clothes all the way to the nearest gym, sometimes in the freezing weather.
Wii: Living room.

After weighing the options it seems that the Wii wins over the gym by a huge margin. But it is really unknown what the physical results will be. The Wii Experiment is just one guy, who is to say that the results are not fixed or that he maybe an exceptional individual. Take Jared from Subway, sure his results were amazing, but i do not know one person who got results like Jared. Further more I don't know anyone who lost 1 lb from eating Subway sandwiches. This could be an elaborate marketing ploy by nintendo, which I think is brilliant by the way. I'm certainly buying into it, plus Nintendo is kicking the PS3's ass in overall sales. It is next to impossible to get a Wii except on ebay or other sites that jack the price up at least 50%. That's it!!! The only way to get to the bottom of this is to buy a Wii, quit the gym for 4 months and see if it's worth all the hype. One three things will definitely happen, I'll get ripped, I'll get fat or nothing will change. As soon as I get my hands on one I will let you know.

I'm thinking about putting out a personal ad

My friend said to me, "go on match, Jamie just got engaged and she was on match..." I don't know, i think it works for some. But you really have to sell yourself, like putting up fake pictures of yourself, lying about your measurements and saying you want kids. I thought about it and here's what i would write:

Intro line: You suck!

Description:
That's right. So don't bother contacting me because you suck. Well actually not, if you really did i would be praising you instead of hating you. So you might as well check out that guy who likes romantic walks in the park and long phone conversations while lying in bed staring at the ceiling. I think his intro line says "Seeking Soul Mate", which really means "Jerk Off". Good luck fuck-face. If i could make a picture of a middle finger with semicolons and parentheses it would be right here______

love, me

---------------

I don't know if it's too real, but that's what people like now-a-days. And I'm not into the whole soul mate thing because how can I have a soul mate when last weekend i traded my soul for a seat on the 6 train? If anyone has experience at writing this bullshit let me know. But you know what, I think it's pretty good as is. Who wants to bet I'll get a date?

UFC Move Over - 'Fight like a girl!!!!'

This weekend the Professional Pillow Fighting League came to Brooklyn. To say the least, it was CRAZY AWESOME!!! A cross between Ultimate fighting, Professional Wrestling and pillow fighting, this show definitely entertained us for a good 3 hours. Nothing was staged and all the fights were as real as it gets. Several fighters who competed the night before had to sit out because of injuries. With names like Ursla Anvil (top photo), Boozy Suzy & Betty Clocker, how the hell can you go wrong? In between the pro matches, the PFL opened up the competition to wannabe PLFers, young women only. In one of the amateur matches, a cheap shot to the kisser caused a broken tooth. I guess pillow fighting isn't as fluffy as we think. UFC you better watch out!

Happy New Year, Hawaii!

I was in Hawaii over the holidays. Don't expect too many pictures from the beach. It rained 75% of the time I was there. New Years Eve was a blast, usually there are so much fireworks the streets feel like a war zone. This year it wasn't so bad. After the initial celebration, my friend Merds took me to "Next Door", a club on Hotel Street (during the 1940s Hotel Street was infamous for its brothels). Inside the club it doesn't seem like Hawaii, but look closely and you'll see that it really is paradise.

Concrete Jungle

Yes, there are not many tree-lined streets in alphabet city. Don't get me wrong they do exist, but when they don't, the creatives have to do their best to make it happen. Sure there's no natural scent, shade, or oxygen created, but hey, do you really think real nature is prettier than this? Someone give me a fucking granola bar.

Ohhh it's on!

I can't wait. Modern day gladiators. "TITAN against TITAN!!!" (incorrectly quoted from Clash of the titans - 1981) Yeah I watch Ultimate Fighting, so what? Wanna fight about it?

Great gift idea for last minute shoppers