Sneak Peek Into The Hammock

Here's a new mix for this summer. I might make some changes, and then again, I might just leave it as is, and get to work on the next one. A wiser man than myself once told me, "anything worth doing, is worth doing poorly."

I have a theme for this one: A CD that you put on right before you climb into the hammock for a nap on a summer afternoon.

Download the zip here and the wma here.

1 - Los Amigos Invisibles - Comodón Johnson
2 - Cut Chemist - The Garden
3 - Brazilian Girls - Lazy Lover
4 - charlie megira - da koochie mama swingers
5 - Ane Brun - Drowning In Those Eyes
6 - Zero 7 - Left Behind
7 - Amit Erez - Heart Away
8 - Jose Gonzalez - Don't Stop The Music (Radio Edit)
9 - Emerson, Lake And Palmer - From The Beginning
10 - Traffic - John Barleycorn
11 - A Little Diffrent - Sweet Song
12 - Nick Drake - Pink Moon
13 - The Kings of Convenience - Leaning Against the Wall
14 - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu
15 - Jenny Lewis With The Watson Twins - Happy
16 - Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
17 - Elcho - Lazy Summer Days
18 - The Flaming Lips/Thievery Corporation - Marching the Hate Machines (Into the Sun)
19 - Saint Etienne - I'm Here To Mix The Nuns
20 - Shpongle - Flute Fruit

Too much java?

My computer is a little slow today, so I'm gonna switch to decaf.

Podcasting on Podcasting

Last night Dude and I recorded a podcast on podcasts.
It was interesting.
I have other witty things that I wanted to write about:

• The outbreak of contact lens cases on my shelf.
• A wrapup of the boon-o-rama. (It was good.)
• The sleep clinic.
• Old army buddies crawling out of the woodwork.
• My life turning into the home version of "The Royal Tennenbaums."

But not today.

Gig Alert: Boon-O-Rama! Thursday, May 3, 2007

Next Thursday, I will be DJing for The Boon and Michelle.
They're having a party at Via Della Pace, which is on 48 East 7th Street, near the corner of 2nd Ave.
It's gonna be a lot of fun. The party is called for 9:00PM, and we will be spinning until 2:00AM (but the party will go on after that). I will be combining forces on this gig with Nick "Kid Lightning" Catania. When freindly DJs battle, the audience wins!

Evite
Schlep
Method
Horse

Happy Springtime!

Finally!

The rains have stopped.

The sun came out.

We had great weather all weekend.

I did a lot of walking and a lot of bicycling.

If you live in New York City, or are just visiting, I recommend riding The Greenway.

First Seder Menu

First Seder Menu
Originally uploaded by mennu.

"Southern Fried Seder"

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls
Fennel Salad
Broccoli Kugel
Brussel Sprouts
Coleslaw
Mashed Potatoes
Fried Chicken
Lamb Roast with White Wine and Dried Fruit Reduction Sauce
Roast Beef

When I arrived home from work, I found that the fried chicken was prepared, and the lamb was roasted. Unfortunately, my sister, who was supposed to be the "lead chef" fell ill. She had contracted all 10 plagues. I looked at the clock, surveyed the kitchen, and sat down to have some coffee with my two kichen volunteers. Taking a page from Iron Chef Japanese Rokusaburo Michiba, I wrote out my menu, thought through the timing of everything and got to work.

The rest of the production was performed in a calm that had been absent for the weeks preceeding the holiday.

One of my more interesting dishes was the sauce I made for the lamb. I sauteed some shallots in grapeseed oil and spiced it with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. Then I added white wine, raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, some apricot jam, and fresh mint.

Second Seder Menu

Second Seder Menu
Originally uploaded by mennu.

Here's the menu from the second seder:

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls
Seder Salad
Fennel Salad
Coleslaw
Brined Citrus Herbed Turkey with Mushroom Gravy
Garlic Zuccini
Asparagus with Shallots
Indian Spring Festival Rice

I brined the turkey for 5 days. On the day day of the seder, I prepared all the food listed above in three hours.

Meat Stuffed Matza Balls

Today I will speak with Leonard Lopate and Joan Nathan about my meat stuffed matza balls. So I made a nice batch of them this weekend, took pictures, and wrote out step by step instructions. Click here for the slideshow. Or here for the step by step instructions.

To listen to a podcast of the show, click here.

Why Rob Tucker Can't Bring Key Lime Pie To The Seder

My good friend Rob Tucker wants to bring a key lime pie to the seder. For all his good intentions, he can't seem to figure out the whole kosher thing, let alone the kosher for passover thing. So when the key lime pie issue came up, I knew Rob and I would have an interesting conversation about it. Rob got off to a good start. He found a kosher for passover pie crust recipe.

I set up a BlogTalkRadio show for us today. You can listen to it by clicking here:

If that doesn't work you can download the file here.

It was a fun phone call. A chef named Richard from Charlotte, NC called to participate in the conversation. He's a Christian head chef at an Orthodox Synagogue, and he had some good points.

Here's links to some of the things discussed in the show:

• Kosher for passover pie crust recipe
• Chabad calendar for times
• The Getting-Rid-Of-Chametz Wizard
• OU's passover product search page
• Leonard Lopate Show on Matza Balls
• Congregation Ohr HaTorah in Charlotte, NC

Professional Glacier in Washington, DC

On March 20, 2007 I attended Climate Crisis Action Day on Capital Hill. Climate Change doesn't just effect cute polar bears and majestic caribou. It effects us all, man! Particularly the community of glaciers! I carried a sign that said PRO GLACIER, and by that, I meant Professional Glacier...
Click here for more pictures from that day, including a really nice one of me with a guy in a polar bear suit.

Call Me O'ded

It's once again time to pretend we're Irish.

Here's some music to get you in the mood:

seamus o'ded and the mennu method st pats day long player

Bringing Back The Cup!

In the early 90's, I was invited down to Long Beach Island to spend the weekend with some friends. They had a summer place in Beach Haven, and were nice enough to open their beach house to me. Actually, they didn't have to open the house, just the driveway. I used to come down in my father's van, which had a couch that folded into a bed, and four captain's seats in the front that could be positioned into a kind of living room/salon area. So the van was my bedroom.

They had a refrigerator with a beer tap on it, so the cold beer was always flowing. To keep things clear, they kept a sharpie near the cups, so you could write your name on your plastic cup. I'm not a fan of drinking out of plastic, so I decided I needed a cup of my own. On my next trip down, I went to the Ron Jon Surf Shop and bought THE CUP.

For many years, I would kick off the summer by bringing THE CUP back to LBI.

But that house has dissipated, and I have relocated my summer activities to the Hamptons. At some point, I seem to have lost THE CUP.

Well, two nights ago, I was excavating a niglected part of my house, and I uncovered THE CUP. Tears welled in my eyes as I remembered all the good times and good friends that I associate with THE CUP. How I long to bring THE CUP back to LBI. Oh well, I guess it'll have to settle for the Hamptons.

PS: I dont' think they make THE CUP anymore...

It Went Well

The Annual Richter Brothers Purim Party went particularly well.

Click here for a requestable song list. Soon I will post an analysis of the songs requested.

For now I would like to thank Joe and Saul Richter and Adam Smoler for giving me the opportunity to DJ the best purim party in town.

If anyone has any pictures from the party, please email me.

Purim 5767: March 3, 2007

It's official.

It will once again be my honor to DJ the Richter Brothers Purim Party. This year they are partnered up with Adam Smoler.

The suggested donation is $20, and proceeds will go to The New Israel Fund and the Friends of the Israeli Defence Forces- Israel's friends in War and Peace.

I will prepare a list of requestable songs, and I promise to be nice this year.

El Taller: 2710 Broadway, 3rd floor;

103rd & Broadway, New York, NY

Saturday, March 3, 10:00pm

Evite

Snow...Hour?

It seems that the existence of the world, the global economy and national security all rely on Jewish Communal Workers being in their offices at all times. This morning when I called the general number at work, the recorded message said, "Due to the weather conditions, the organization's building will open at 10:00."

10:00??? Every school in the area has a Snow Day. We have a Snow Hour. The agency has remote desktop and we have the ability to access Outlook and voicemail from home. So I really don't understand why we should be forced to brave the road conditions or risk loosing a personal day. Then again, I'm not the chief here, I'm just an Indian. Or should I say I'm not the general, I'm just a soldier. (Yeah. That's better, more PC, and more accurate.)

So I got all bundled up with boots and galoshes, and even wore jeans, but I brought slacks with me, since jeans are not allowed according to the dress code. I decided to take the local roads to work because of the hazardous road conditions. There were so many accidents on Route 80 that the traffic reports didn't say where they were, they just reported how many. I stopped for gas on my way to work. "Fill it up. Regular. Credit" I reached into my pocket to take out my debit card, and realized that my wallet was not there. Two pairs of pants but no wallet! In all the confusion, I left my wallet at home. So I drove back, picked up my wallet and started out again.

I got to work at, like 11:30. I trudged in like Mennu of the North with my puffy coat, ratty scarf and golden shades. The woman at the reception area said the building was closing at 3:00. Good thing I was there!

When I got to my desk, I saw that I had a voice mail message. It was my colleague from Rochester. He said they had 27 inches of snow, and counting, but they still had to come in to work. Every school was cancelled in Rochester, but he had to be at work. It sounded very familiar to me. He was just calling around to see who else was in the same boat. He told me that they had a meeting yesterday to discuss whether they should cancel programs or not. I think it’s a no brainer: parents who send their children to these programs don’t think, “Gee! We really should bring little Shmully to the program even though there’s 27 inches of snow…”

Anyhow, I found an email in my box from one of the human resources demons saying that there’s a lunch meeting at 12:30. At first I thought, “Lunch! I like lunch. How nice!” Then I thought about what the possible subject could be, and that caused me concern. So I decided that I should put on the slacks that I brought so I wouldn’t be in violation of the dress code. As I finished putting on my pants, and was about to head to the lunch thing, one of my colleagues told me that our agency wasn’t invited for lunch. And to think, I changed my pants for nothing!

Then my boss rolled by my office and tells me to hang up my coat. “Joker,” I thought. I haven’t had a coat hook since my second day at the job. I sent repeated requests to facilities for a coat hook, all of which were unheeded. My boss even sent a few. But today, finally, after six months of being on the job, I got my coat hook!

“Happy birthday,” my boss said. I jumped out of my chair to see the shiny new coat hook on the back of my door.

As I hung up my coat, I had a kind-of-Borat-like moment. “Ha ha ha. Look at me. I am hanging my coat up on a coat hook! Look how fancy I am! Just like royalty! The king and his coat hook! It’s nice.”

To anyone who was brave enough to drive to work today, I salute you! Have a safe ride home!

Rum Balls

The rum balls made by Stephanie Soffer were very popular this weekend. Here's how you can make your own.

Rum Balls

• 1 box graham crackers, crumbled
• 1 stick margarine, melted
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 3/4 cup water
• rum - according to your taste (recipe calls for one capful but I just poursome in; then I add more; and then even more)
• Mix all together.
• Roll into balls.
• Roll in sprinkles, coconut flakes,powdered sugar, chopped nuts, etc.

Glaze for the Turkey

I made a turkey breast for shabbos machvis.
Here's the method:

• Buy an Empire frozen turkey breast (5.5-6lbs) and defrost in the fridge for 48 hours.
• Preheat oven to 385.
  
• Remove the skin and any other nastiness from the turkey breast.
• Cover the exterior of the bird with margarine and then sprinkle with salt and fresh cracked pepper.
• Stick in the oven for forty five minues.
• DON'T PEEK! 45 minutes won't cook the whole thing.
• Make the glaze: mix 1/4 cup of molasses; 3 tablespoons of mustard; and a shot of bourbon.
• After the breast has been in the over for 45 minutes, remove from oven, close the oven door (keeping the oven hot) and paint the bird with the glaze.
• Return to the oven. Repaint every 15 minutes until the turkey has cooked for over an hour and a half or until a thermometer indicates that the interior of the turkey breast is 170°F.
• Remove from the oven, gently cover with foil and let cool for at least two hours before slicing.
• Serve with carmelized onions, and a variety of mustards.
  

Steve Guns

A friend of mine recently sent me this article from Der Spiegel:
Life Insurance for Palestinian Suicide Bombers

As the bus began to pull away, a man ran up to the side and the bus driver stopped and opened the door. The man was wearing the black suit and skullcap of an observant Jew. But his beard was too thin. Seeing a bulge underneath the man's jacket, Averbach quickly stood up and headed toward the stranger. But Bassam, disguised as a devout Jew, was quicker than Averbach and he ignited his belt of explosives.

Bassam died and Averbach survived seriously injured for life.

The article is about the trail of money that pays the families of suicide bombers. They incorrectly refer to Steve as "Weapon Steve" instead of "Steve Guns." I suppose it has something to do with the translation to or from German. It's four years after the incident and Steve remains paralyzed.

One of these days I will edit my original story about Steve so that it's more coherent, but you can download the story here.

Two Stevens Make Bold Statements

Interested in stimulating your mind? Looking for some good topics to discuss over dinner or drinks this weekend. Look no further. Here's my suggestions:

Steve Jobs: Thoughts on Music

I couldn't beleive it when I read this one. It seems that the company that sells the most mp3 players and has the most popular digital music store would prefer to remove the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system from the music they sell in their store. It's a rational approach to a problem created either out of the greed or ignorance of the four big record companies that own 70% of the music distributed in the world today. Here's a quote from the article:

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free,what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Read the rest of the article here.

Steven M. Cohen: A Tale of Two Jewries: The "Inconvenient Truth" for American Jews

As usual, there's a ton of controversy when Steven M. Cohen writes an analysis of the state of American Jewry, and then makes some recommendations. What's the crisis all about? Here's an excerpt:

Responses to the statement “I have a strong sense of belonging to the Jewish people” are especially relevant here. The proportions who strongly agree drop from a maximum of 72% among those 65+, to 62% for those 55-64, to 58% for the 45-54 year olds, to 52% among those 35-44, and down to a low point of 47% for adults under 35.

Read the whole report here.
Read some articles about it here. And even more here.

Shabbos Machvis

• Q: What is this? When is this holiday? Are you having Pessach in Jersey? Oh my....
• A: It's this shabbos. You wanna come to NJ?
• Q: Sorry, I can't. So whats machvis about?
• A: When The Chairman was growing up in Milwaukee, he and another kid were the only Jewish kids in their class. Whenever they cut school, and the teacher would ask why they were absent, they would tell the teacher that it was a Jewish holiday: machvis. So machvis is a made up holiday from The Chairman's childhood in Milwaukee, or as we call it, "the good land."

We're taking it seriously, with a spreadsheet and everything: