Miami & The Beaches Photo Blog

One of the first things that DJ Erick La Peau said to me when I met him (and I almost missed it)
was “I’m very soft-spoken.” While the duration of our conversation certainly
confirmed this, La Peau’s message is loud and clear: “I want to take the world
by storm,” he says. And by the looks of things, he’s well on his way. La Peau
has all the discipline, wisdom, and (of course) talent to accomplish everything he intends to. P. Diddy himself requested DJ La Peau to spin at his 29^th birthday party, and La Peau played for Prince at the Benefit Life Concert he
hosted. Not too shabby at all. Best yet, even though La Peau is routinely
recruited to play for the hottest celebrities worldwide, he’s a normal guy and
watches lame TV shows just like the rest of us. “I’ve been DVR-ing shows a lot
recently,” he says, “like Vampire Dairies and For The Love Of Ray J. I’m
hooked.”

La Peau was born in Crown
Heights, Brooklyn, but moved to Haiti with his
parents shortly after. “To me, Brooklyn is a
family-oriented community,” he says about his hometown. “There are a lot of
artists and musicians in Brooklyn, and
everyone knows one another and feeds off each other. It has that community
feel.” La Peau returned to New York in his
pre-teens and today insists that New
York is where he belongs. “I spent a year and a half
in Miami in
2004 and 2005. It was pretty cool, but it’s not New York. Miami is a nice place to settle down and
raise a family. But I need that New
York hustle, that grind. In New
York, you can go out and do this and do that, get what you want
out of life; whereas Miami
was more laid back and chill. I love New
York. I missed it while I was gone.”

It looks as though New York
loves him right back; along with Miami, Los Angeles, Canada,
Tokyo, London, Zurich, Munich and Copenhagen. He plays
weekly at some of New York’s
most famous nightspots like M2 Ultralounge, Gansevoort Rooftop Hotel, and Pink
Elephant. And
although La Peau has been playing exclusive international venues regularly for
years, Tokyo is
his favorite city to play in. “I love it out there because they really know their
music,” he explains. “They really appreciate skills. I like that.”

In New York, especially Brooklyn, it seems like there’s a self-proclaimed
“world’s best DJ” around every corner. The emergence of computer programs like
Serato has made DJing super accessible. “Before, when we didn’t have Serato,
you had to go out and get records and shop and go to different labels,” says La
Peau. “I’ve been all over the world just buying records, to places like Japan, London,
and Denmark.
For example, a lot of songs in California
never really used to make it out to New York,
so I always went to California
to buy music out there. Nowadays, everyone uses computers to DJ, and that makes
it so easy. Everyone wants to do it. Everyone thinks it just a cool thing, and
it’s so simple for them to start. You don’t have to go hunting for records anymore;
you can just stay home and download everything you need.”

Considering the massive sea of pseudo-DJs taking over the New York music scene, it
makes a lot of sense that La Peau doubts the quality coming from a lot of the newcomers.
“It’s not really much about skills anymore. If you market yourself right, you
can make it without necessarily having the talent. But every DJ thinks they’re
the best, so it’s very a competitive job.” La Peau humbly gives credit where it
is due, and sympathizes with the struggle for notoriety that every artist
endures. “I don’t think anyone’s better than me,” he says, “but at the same
time, everyone is unique in a certain way. I suppose that new DJs that didn’t
start with vinyl records are missing out on the passion of it. They can
absolutely be devoted to the job and what they want to do, but I think there
was more passion back then, when buying vinyls was the only way to DJ. Because
in order to be the best, you had to have everything; you had to get exclusive records,
and you had to go looking for them. It wasn’t easy. Nowadays, you can download
an album before it’s even released. So there’s no exclusivity.”

DJing since 1995, La Peau has a pretty good idea of what it
takes to truly succeed in the DJ scene. “A lot of people come up to me wanting
to learn how to DJ. I’m like, ‘Alright, go get turntables and mixer.’ If you’re
serious about it, that’s what you need. If you don’t have those things, then
don’t talk to me,” he says. Sitting around in your apartment experimenting with
DJ software and posting your Grizzly Bear remixes on Myspace
isn’t going to impress Erick La Peau, or anyone else for that matter. A new DJ
must first prove his or her worth and show true dedication by being fully
equipped for the job and showing steady improvement.  “I don’t waste my time with people who don’t
improve. I’m not a nice person when it comes to these things. I’m very blunt
and brutal, and I’m going to tell you how it is.” However, La Peau also
acknowledges the gaping disconnect between talent and success. “I think a lot
of it has to do with marketing yourself and reaching out to people,” he says.
“Whether or not your skills are as good as someone else’s, if more people know
you and like you, you’re going to be the one who comes out on top. Nowadays,
you need a publicist, you need a stylist, you need a model girlfriend. You need
a team, all of the above. It’s not necessarily about raw talent.”

Although he has come a long way from his DJ beginnings in
1995, DJ La Peau well remembers how it felt starting out on a career in the
music industry in New York.
He says, “when I first started DJing, I had just quit my job at the World Trade Center working for corporate America. My baby boy had just been
born. It was incredibly risky; I had just become a father and had a child to
support. But I knew that music was my passion and that I had to pursue it.” A
music enthusiast his entire life, his top favorites include Marvin Gaye, Bob
Marley, Garnett Silk (the reggae artist who “made [him] want to start DJing”) and
Jimi Hendrix. “I used to have an afro;
people would say I look like him. I should have just told people that I’m his
son. Maybe I would have gotten more work,” he jokes.  

La Peau credits the reggae scene for giving him
his start. “When I used to go out, I’d go to a lot of reggae clubs. I was
really into it,” La Peau says. “I started out playing reggae at first, at
reggae clubs. My cousins were also DJs, and they really impressed me.” As his
career as a DJ started to take off, he began hanging out more in the hip hop
scene, where he discovered other beats and sounds that influenced his music. “I
had always heard the name Stretch Armstrong, but I never knew who he was. And I
was at this party one night and I was like, ‘Who is this white guy spinning?’ It
was Stretch. I was like ‘Wow! That’s him!’” Other artists he admires include “Mark
Ronson, of course, because we were partners when we started DJing. We used to
do a lot of parties together. And along the way, I also learned to love Kid
Capri and Red Alert.”

No artist is entirely without complaints about their current
scene. These days, La Peau would like to see a greater variety of people at
clubs and venues. Even in a city as cosmopolitan and diverse as New York, many of the
major venues are inaccessible to people who don’t meet the venue’s standards
for their patrons, who don’t “fit in.” La Peau says, “I wish there were more of a
mixture of people. This is New York;
there’s a scene here for everyone. You’ve got your underground spot on the Lower East Side, you have your chichi posh clubs, you
have places like Mansion that cater to the elite: athletes, models, actors,
rappers, whoever. I wish there was something in between, so everyone could come
to one place and see what the DJ is about, what I’m about.”

When it comes to his audience, it’s refreshing to hear that
La Peau isn’t too picky, even though he can afford to be. He says, “I’m always
excited to work for a celebrity or other artist. It’s amazing to get a chance
to work for someone like P. Diddy or Prince. I’ve worked for a lot of great
people in the past. But there are some people who just want to hear certain
things. That’s cool; I have to do what I have to do to please them. It’s their
event or party, and I want to make that happen for them.” To La Peau, DJing is
not about whom he’s playing for, but the attitude of his audience. “I want
people to have a good time and feel good about themselves, whether they’re in a
club or bar or whatever. As long as they’re having a good time, that’s it! I
don’t mind doing any type of party, as long as I have a crowd that I can rock
to. That’s what I want.” In fact, his crowd and the attitude they project is an
integral part of his craft. “I’m the type of DJ that just goes into work and
feeds off the crowd and gives them what they want,” La Peau explains. “I don’t
make a playlist before a show. I’m too good to prepare myself that way, because
you can put a lot of effort into making yourself a playlist, and the crowd may
not like it at all. You may be bored, the crowd may be bored. And that’s the
worst. To prepare myself, I just make sure that I have all the songs that I
know I might want to play. For example, for the New Year’s Eve party at M2
coming up, I’ll have some New Year’s Eve songs ready. That’s the kind of
preparation that I do. I just show up and work it out when I get there.”

2010 looks like it’s going to be a groundbreaking year for
La Peau. He’s got plans to team up with entertainment mogul BJ Coleman on an
undisclosed project. He’s also really excited about working on his music,
saying, “I’m getting all the programs
and everything I need to take it to the next level. It’s something I’ve been
working on for a while, but it’s very demanding and you have to be working on
it constantly. I’m going to be very careful not to let it slip through my
fingers.”

As for New Year’s resolutions, while everyone else is
trying to lose 15 pounds and eat less chocolate, La Peau plans on “taking the world
by storm.” In 2010, La Peau is going to
focus on “making [himself] that guy that people look for when they go out.” He
says, “I want to be the guy that people talk about, that people are raving
about. I want to make sure that people go home happy because they have a good time and
love my music. In 2010, I really want to make that happen.”

Unless you’re abstaining from alcohol completely this New Years Eve, it pays to drink smart. An oxymoron, I know. One can always try. Here are a few ideas.

Tip #1 – Pace Thyself

The most obvious and the most often ignored rule of any
prolonged New York New Year’s Eve Party, proper pacing is essential to ensure that when midnight
comes around you’re kissing your date/stranger of choice/whoever, not hugging a
toilet in New York City.

Tip #2 – The Bottle Is For the Whole Table

Bottle service: always a good idea. Doing shot after shot
after shot while your friends are out on the dance floor living it up: don’t. Not
only is it a bit rude, it’s also a guaranteed way to have people start saying, “Wow,
what happened to that guy?”

Tip #3 – Water

Superstitions about drinking water on NYE being bad luck
abound, but a glass or two of plain ol’ H2O here and there can help you make
sure you aren’t the first to go home.

Tip #4 – Eat Sensibly Before You Start Drinking

Indulge in a fatty piece of pizza, small steak, or al pastor
taco before you head out. The fat will help your body cope with all the booze
to come. Carbs will help keep your blood sugar high for hours to come. Yes, it’s
a holiday. No, it’s not Thanksgiving, so keep portions sensible. If you’re
going to a formal dinner, constantly refilling wine glasses and cocktails can make it
difficult to tell how much you’re actually drinking, so try to keep track.

Tip #5 – Quality Over Quantity

It’s a celebration, so celebrate New Years Eve! Take the chance to be
classy. After all, you probably didn’t get all dressed up just to drink the
same thing you were drinking back in college.

Looking for the best NYE Parties? Check out 6-Hour Open Bar Amnesia New Years Party.

Have fun, stay safe, and have a happy hangover!

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On
Saturday December 12^th 2009, I pulled up to long time friend Reed
Adler’s Studio in a town we call home: Wayne, New Jersey. As I walked up to the
door and into the studio, I found Reed, Evan, Eric, and Skylar sprawled out on,
below, and around a couch positioned directly in front of a television that no one seemed to be watching. The guys were having a hang sesh, with all the
key elements: music, beer, and pretzels. I walked in with my good friend,
photographer Hayley Treanor, and we immediately joined in the festivities.

As I sat down and settled on to a
smaller plushy couch, I grabbed my handy gold Radio Shack branded tape
recorder, Evan grabbed me a beer, and we got to talking.

I discovered that band members Eric Goldberg,
22, (vocals, guitar, bass), Evan Campbell 22, (vocals, guitar, bass) Reed
Adler, 22, (lead guitarist, bass), Skylar Adler, 19, (drums, and sound
engineer), and absent Danny Goldberg, 19, (rhythm guitar) have quite a history
together. Aside from almost everyone in the band being related, these guys have
18 years of history with each other. Reed, Eric, and Evan have been friends
since they were tots in Kindergarten. They started their first band in the third
grade, calling themselves “The Stupids.” The guys have come a long way since 1996 and writing Green Day parodies.
They became serious about music around 2001 when they started their
first real band and began playing local shows. They have been in a handful of
musical projects during the course of those eight years, but it wasn’t until the
summer of 2009 when they realized what they had been looking for was finally within
reach. The Nico Blues’s self-titled album was recorded in the band’s studio during this past summer, and released right after Reed and Eric returned from Europe on July 28^th 2009. 

After the album’s launch, the band
immediately went on a small tour, traveling up and down the East Coast to
promote their new record. The band traveled to Connecticut, New
York, Boston, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland to complete a total of 15 shows.

When asking The Nico Blues what
genre they can best describe themselves as, they answer with the very inspired and original
answer of “post-alternacore folk funk.” What is this? No. What isn’t it? This self-designated genre is plainly saying
“Hey, we can be a little bit of everything.” With interchangeable vocals and
instrument swapping, The Nico Blues aren’t trying to be just another carbon
indie rock copy. “We want to offer something different to the audience, and
hate repeating ourselves, so our melodies are going to be different,” Campbell expressed.  The EP
offers an interesting mix of fun, finger snapping tunes. “Elsie’s Hooked on
Second Chances” is a stand out track that offers an upbeat angst with a strong
melody and shared vocals. The song simply states “I have been here the whole
time and you haven’t noticed,” something most of us can relate to. That’s the
winning quality about The Nico Blues. They have a way of singing to
their audience in a completely relatable way. “Holiday Song” is about Eric
working during the holidays and hating the contrived commercialism. In the song
“An Hour in a Half,” Evan is singing about working at his college’s public
safety office and the droning boredom surrounding it. The band has a very
humble ego and is simply making music for the love and passion of playing it, a rare
quality for any indie rock band these days. The Nico Blues have shows coming up
at Doc Watson’s (Philadelphia), Sullivan Hall (NYC), and The Pantry Party at the Wayne
Firehouse (NJ). Look for their next album, scheduled to debut in February 2010.

www.thenicoblues.com

Email Them @ Thenicoblues@gmail.com

Follow them on Twitter
@thenicoblues!

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Twenty-nine years after the death of John Lennon, fans continue to pay tribute to his memory, music, and worldview. Many will make a pilgrimage to the Strawberry Fields in Central Park. Others will sit at home listening to their well worn copy of Revolver, Rubber Soul, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, or ok, maybe even Yellow Submarine. For the members of Acrylics, Amazing Baby, Gillian Rivers and the SET Quartet, Here We Go Magic, Lauren Bahr, Nicole Atkins, Psychic, The Royal Chains, and Suckers performing tonight at Glasslands Gallery (8 pm, $6 cover), a memorial show is their way of remembering a person that changed music, even before he began to think about changing the world.

Biet of World War, one of tonight’s performers, explains her own personal connection to Lennon:

“Today is so important to me because he died on this day, my mother
happened to be outside if the Dakota when he was shot and saw it. My
mother died herself shorty after… Lennon’s life and music is a testement to all things heroic and the fact
that he was so talented was only the beginning of his journey not the
totality of it./”

As a self-declared Beach Boys and Rolling Stones fan (vote Keith Richards in 2012), I have to admit that the diversity of performers at this event is a clear illustration of Lennon’s influence on pop and not-so-pop music alike. Sour grapes aside, this is definitely great chance to hear fresh takes on some familiar tunes and celebrate a very special life.

The Gingerman
Cuisine: Contemporary American
Price Range: $5-$15

Midtown 
11 East 36th Street
(between Fifth and Madison)
New York, NY 10016
(212) 532-3740
www.gingerman-ny.com

Just for a little background – I’ve been called a beer snob
before, but I prefer to think of myself in a more endearing way, as a beer
geek. Yes, there’s a difference. So when I heard about The Gingerman, I could
hardly contain my excitement. Featuring 70 beers on tap and about 160 bottles,
this place is a veritable wonderland for beer enthusiasts. The food, however,
is another story.

The Gingerman offers a
tempting menu, boasting menu items such as the slider trio, with your choice of
BBQ beef short ribs with caramelized onions, braised pork with Asian slaw, Chanterelle mushroom veggie burger with spicy
mayonnaise, and seared tuna with Caribbean
salsa, all of which tease your taste buds with their descriptions. But be
forewarned, the actual products are far from their idealistic write ups. To
make matters worse, my waitress informed me that they were missing about 10 items
from the menu due to a shortage of ingredients.

Although my tuna was cooked
perfectly, the “Caribbean” salsa accompanying it was
merely hunks of canned pineapple interspersed with the rare strand of red onion
and occasional flecks of cilantro. The pulled pork was again cooked to
perfection, but the Asian slaw it was served with appeared to be nothing more
than cider vinegar and packaged slaw mix, the only hint of Asian flavor being
the black sesame seeds used as garnish. The biggest let down of all was the
short rib, which I saved for last, anticipating a rich, decadent finish to my
trio of sliders. Instead I ended my meal with a sandwich which consisted mostly
of grizzle, which any remotely talented chef would have trimmed off prior to
cooking, or at least discarded before serving. Adding insult to injury, the
sauce was flavored with a strange amount of vinegar, completely ruining the
best part about short ribs – the luxurious gravy resulting from slow cooking.
For $12 my sliders were under stuffed, and the side dish was potato chips. On
top of that, my dining companion received his meal so far ahead of my own that
he was finished before my food was ready, despite the fact that he is a notoriously
slow eater.

The food wasn’t the only
problem. The waitress was nice enough, but service was slow, as I watched my
beer flight languish at the bar for 5 minutes before it was served to me. And
we were one of two tables there. I wonder why?

Now, for
the good news. The Gingerman has an astounding beer selection with fair prices,
especially by NYC standards. I recommend the beer flight, which allows you to
sample four of their draught offerings. I stuck around for a post meal pint,
mostly because I simply wasn’t satisfied by my meager meal offering. The
bartender, unlike her restaurant counterpart, was very attentive. There’s
obviously a reason that the bar was packed with patrons looking for an
afternoon tipple while the restaurant was virtually empty. The beer menu is
constantly changing, meaning there is always a new brew on tap to explore.

It’s hard
to believe that an establishment can fail so spectacularly in one aspect of its
business, and succeed so admirably in another. Yet, that is exactly what Gingerman
does. If you’re feeling thirsty, by all means, stop on by. If you’re hungry, I
recommend dropping in for an aperitif and then moving on. 

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Harper Simon
Genre: Indie Rock
Website (coming soon): www.harpersimon.com

“The long playing album is not just ten songs
thrown together randomly. It has an arc. It has a structure. It is the attempt
to make ten songs that are all as good as each other, and fit together in a
seamless whole.” – Harper Simon, on his album Harper Simon

Simon, Simon . . . where have you seen that name before? It’s from the
better-known half of Simon & Garfunkel who later moved on to be a successful
solo artist. The talent of Paul Simon has apparently been passed on to his son,
Harper, who recently released his self-titled debut album.

Harper was first showcased on Sesame Street in 1976, singing “Bingo”
alongside his father. Fast forward 33 years, and Harper finally releases the
album he has been dreaming of doing since his 20s. What was he doing in between?

He went to college in Boston where he studied music. He then moved to London
and played with the band Menlo Park. When he came back to America (Tennessee,
to be exact), he began recording his own songs. He took these songs to Los
Angeles where he used his father’s connections to diligently work on a solo
album. Then he came to New York for the finishing touches.

Harper’s debut album was released on October 13, 2009, and was rated 3.5 out
of 5 stars by Rolling Stone. But I’m not so sure that we can truly
compare father and son. Does Harper really have what it takes to follow in his
father’s footsteps? Can he find fans in today’s music scene?

Harper is more about crafting a perfect album that flows properly, rather
than the current style of slapping together songs that he wanted released. As a
singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer, he is more concerned with the
whole listening experience. He wants to tell a story through each song, and
each song contributes to the whole of the album.  This style hails from
the traditional art of creating LPs in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And when he says
“create,” he means “create.”

However, he had a lot of help making the album. A full array of producers
and mixers from every decade going back to the ‘50s has a hand in Harper
Simon. Bob Johnston, a producer for Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, gave him the
traditional feel he was looking for. He even worked with Sean Lennon, another
son of a music legend. Of course, Harper’s father stepped in to co-write and
lend his vocals.

If you ask me, all this help was worthwhile. The tracks are beautiful. He opens
with “All to God,” which could translate as his gratitude for his talent. The
second track, “Wishes and Stars,” is more upbeat but seems to guide you in to
the album, and sets the tone for the next few tracks. “Tennessee” is the
undeniable country-bluegrass track, which is the peak of the album: the fifth
of ten songs. Number nine is “The Shine,” and it leads you toward the melodic
closing “Berkeley Girl.”

Harper calls it an “arc,” and I definitely could hear it, understand it, and
appreciate it. When you are in the mood to chill out and listen to something
tranquil, but not boring, Harper’s your man. Maybe this style will catch on.

Discography:
Harper Simon (2009)

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Latin music extraordinaire
and melodramatic tenor Marc Anthony was personally handed the keys to Dwyane
Wade’s house Saturday night. Wade, NBA star player of the Miami Heat, surprised
Anthony on stage midway through the the singer/songwriter’s performance to make
sure he would feel right at home. “You know Marc, this is usually my house,” said
Wade. “Tonight though, mi casa, tu casa.”

Anthony didn’t disappoint his 20,000 guests for the
evening, offering another of his trademark fully-charged and emotional acts for
a standing-room-only crowd at the American Airlines Arena.

Although the host for the night didn’t show up until 9:20
pm, he more than made up for his late arrival by delivering a well-balanced
show that had everybody dancing in the aisles and Anthony interacting with all
sides of the arena for close to two hours. While his over-the-top facial expressions and stage act
at times extend beyond the norm, it’s all easy to ignore since Anthony is one of the
most skilled vocalist and performers of all time.

Backed by a full ensemble, including a full horn section,
timbales, congos and bongos, Anthony took over the stage entertaining the
audience with his gymnast-like moves while directing the band. He occasionally
waved his arms to instruct them to turn it up or end a song. His powerful and seductive voice, the reason why most of
the females in attendance squealed as soon as he sang his first note, made for
explosive renditions of crowd-favorites like “Tu Amor Me Hace Bien”,
“Te Conozco Bien” and “Hasta Ayer” as Anthony routinely
slashed through instrumental solos by extending lyrics with his piercing voice for
a long period of time.

In a cream-colored suit and baby blue dress shirt, Anthony was at
his best during a superb and rapid-fire take of “Hasta Que Te Conoci,” his 1993
danceable remake of Mexican crooner Juan Gabriel’s soothing ballad. Anthony grabbed at his clothes, posed with hand on hip (just like Gabriel), and switched from ballad to full-blown salsa number with
ease. There he was offering the whole package as the audience soaked it all up.
He bounced around the stage and kept close tabs on the band while never missing
a beat.

Anthony also looked comfortable dishing out Hector
Lavoe’s classic “Mi Gente,” the same one Anthony retouched for inclusion in the
soundtrack of the 2007 biopic El Cantante about the famed Fania member.

Anthony, joined by his wife Jennifer Lopez for an uninspiring
“No Me Ames” and despite the latter’s slow and sensual shake of her most prized
physical attribute, made it through the entire concert without shoes. But chances are he would have had plenty of volunteers
ready to clean his feet if he so required it.

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Dirt and Candy are two words that generally shouldn’t be
placed next to each other, you know, like unidentifiable and remains, or free
and champagne… Actually, scratch that last one.

However, in this case, Dirt Candy are two words that fit
together very well indeed. Step up Amanda Cohen, chef extraordinaire and owner
of this East Village vegetarian hotspot, who quite
candidly states that she doesn’t care about your health, and she doesn’t care
about your politics.

Fair enough, there’s a lot to be said for honesty.

What she does care about, is vegetables, or as she more
‘tactfully’ puts it; Dirt Candy. Her Portobello mousse with fennel pear
compote, and the Golden Beet Papardelle with yogurt, pistachios and honey are
not done to satisfy your anti-meat fanatical ravings. They are done to
celebrate the diversity and complexity of vegetables done right. ‘When you eat a vegetable you’re eating little more than dirt
that’s been transformed by plenty of sunshine and rain into something that’s
full of flavor’ she writes.

 Perhaps not the best marketing
ploy in the world, but it certainly caught our attention back when she opened
up shop.

 And now we are bringing Dirt Candy
to your attention too, as the restaurant celebrates its one year anniversary with
three days of festivities. Considering past complimentary write-ups in the New York
Times, New York
Magazine and Food & Wine, it’s no surprise that reservations for the actual
anniversary sold out the moment they hit the floor. However, we at Joonbug have
used our web of intricate underground sources to bring you some good news. If
you turn up to 430 E 9^th street (and Ave A), on the 27^th,
28^th, 30^th and 31^st of October, you will be
able to claim a free slice of their newest dessert – Red Pepper Velvet
Cake with white chocolate and peanut ice cream, and a free round of hush
puppies (which, like everything else on the menu, can be made vegan upon
request.) Bear in mind though, that this is one order per table.

My advice? Go stick your head in the dirt candy.

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This past tuesday, eight hundred well-dressed men and women
descended on the Metropolitan Pavilion for City Harvest’s annual fall charity
event – Bid Against Hunger.

City Harvest started up 25 years ago as a non-profit
volunteer program that delivers ready-made food to soup kitchens and shelters
across New York
City’s five boroughs. The concept was the brainchild of a group of Manhattan locals who noticed that restaurants
and delicatessens were throwing out perfectly good food at the end of each day.
Since then, the organization has helped inspire similar projects across the
globe.

As a newcomer to this fair city, I had previously never had
the honor of attending one of City Harvest’s many annual charity events. From
start to finish, last night was an experience I will not soon forget. 70 chefs
from restaurants across the city laid out a smorgasbord of amuse bouche sized
dishes for our consideration. I consider myself a foodie, although last night I
was reduced to the mere level of a foodiot – my palate was awash with some of
the most delicious sensations. The level of dedication that all of these great
chefs have put into their work was clear from the sensory overload each morsel
provided.

While most eyes were focused on the food, there was a
smattering of nudged elbows and whispered ‘do you know who that is?!’ as
celebrity chefs smiled for their guests and cooked up a storm. Even Le Bernadin executive chef and Food Network legend Eric Ripert found time to get behind the
line, serving up a warm lobster potato salad and bacalao parfait with a smile
and friendly word to all the admiring guests.

Now I’ve said it before; I have a great job. Yesterday my
editor and I were invited to sample the new menu at Bill’s Bar & Burger. We
both agreed, at the prompting of Scoop, our incredibly attentive server, that
it would be rude not to ‘sample’ the menu. An hour later, both of us left
feeling decidedly over-fed, and both in agreement to return as soon as
possible.

So when I turned up at 6PM, only four hours after I had finished
lunch, to spend the next few hours eating and drinking my way around a
Valhalla-worthy banquet, I was decidedly apprehensive.

Bars were well situated throughout the venue, and Rye, the Brooklyn based
restaurant and bar, were offering up a delicious gin and cucumber based
cocktail. A perfect ‘palate-cleanser’ as I made my way around the venue.

There were too many dishes and restaurants to mention them all
here, none of whom served a sub-par dish. The standard was exceptionally high,
and the presentation of many was exquisite, despite being forced to prepare
upwards of 1,000 dishes. However, there are few dishes which I feel must be
mentioned. Craig Hopson, of Le Cirque, was offering up a thinly sliced Venison,
served with a pistachio aioli and pomegranate seeds. One of my favorite dishes
was one I had to be convinced to try. I was in far too hedonistic a state to
realize that the affable and charming chef who convinced me to try his Orecchiette
Alla Norcina was none other than Marc Murphy, whose Tribeca restaurant Landmarc has been an addiction of mine since my first venture to the city.

From oysters provided by Les Barnes of London Lennies (who
was finally forced to ban me after my 5^th visit), to red velvet
cupcakes from Billy’s, the event was perfectly catered, and appeared to run
exceptionally smooth.

The success of such an event however, is measured not by
journalists such as myself, whose criticism and praise will do nothing to help charity’s
work, but by the private benefactors and philanthropists who donated and bid to
raise the money needed. This years’ live auction alone raised over $200,000. The
highest bid of the evening was for a wine tasting at Le Bernardin with its
sommelier Aldo Sohm, followed by dinner for eight at Le Bernardin and a cooking
class with Eric Ripert, which sold for $55,000.

Altogether, this years Bid Against Hunger raised $700,000,
which will help organizers continue their work as they strive to feed 260,000
homeless New Yorkers every week. Indeed a very successful evening for a very worthy cause.

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Are you tired of shoving large pizza boxes containing the
one or two slices you managed not to eat into a crammed
refrigerator? Do you really want to rearrange the items on your shelf Jenga-style so that you
can fit this gd pizza box inside? N, you do not. You might as well just eat
those remaining slices and be done with it. But wait, when you go to throw the box away, you encounter yet another problem. The gd pizza box does not fit into the gd
garbage can. In fact, it’s about 8 inches too wide to fit. Cue the Ragetoon face and walk away.

William Wash, founder of ECO Incorporated, wants to help
you. He offers you an alternative to a wasteful and uninspired pizza box that will not only make eating pizza easier and more convenient, but
that is also intelligently innovative and environmentally friendly. The ‘Green Box‘ is not your ordinary pizza box. The cardboard, made of 100% recycled
materials, is perforated, allowing the eater to tear the lid into 4 serving
plates (omg no clean up!). The bottom also folds in half and “snaps” into place
to hold leftovers without being cumbersome or taking up too much fridge space.
And when the time comes to toss it, the small box fits neatly into your
recycling bin.

The product was unveiled yesterday at Morningside Heights
pizza restaurant, V&T Pizzeria, and it looks like the Green Box is picking
up a lot of steam. Green Box, based here in NYC, has gathered attention by using
Twitter to catch the attention of Ashton Kutcher.

Walsh, who cooked up the idea to use the box as a plate back
in college, is moving forward with his idea 20 years later. He saw a problem
with pizza box manufacturing and set out on a mission to rectify it. His website states that
there are over 3 billion pizzas consumed in the US each year, 70% of which are
taken to go and packaged in a box. He told Pizzamarketplace.com “(The industry is) mowing down tree after
tree for boxes that are used for 45 minutes and then thrown away…So I thought, there’s a lot of material to work with (on a pizza box); I
wanted to make something intuitive, easy to use, and that had some value. … We
made it multifunctional so it was more than just a delivery device, and came up
with this design.”

As stated on the website, the Green Box “eliminates the need
for serving plates and aluminum foil or plastic wrap for storage.  No more
wrestling with an unruly box, disposing of paper plates, washing dishes, messy
crumbs spilling all over the floor or corners of the box poking through a
garbage bag!  Haven’t you had enough?”

See how it works here