November 6, 2011

Live from New York, it’s Cheeseburger Saturday Night. Starring Odessa with special guest stars, Ray’s Candy Store and St. Marks Bookshop and featuring the Ready for Prime Beef player, Marty Wombacher. Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome your host for tonight, Odessa!

Since I had to work all night last night and I didn't get to sleep till around six in the morning, my hours are all wacked out. I didn't wake up till around four in the afternoon, so this is kind of like brunch for me. At least I gain an hour tonight.

And through the miracle of the internet you're spared a twenty minute walk to the East Village. Here we are, Odessa, let's go in and see what's happening.

It's kind of early for this place, it's open 24 hours and a lot of people come here after they've done their time at some of the bars on the block. There's plenty of seats at the counter, so let's go snag one.

And I'm just settling in as Danny cheerfully serves me up a beer. What a way to start the day!

Here's the view from my perch at the counter.

Cookies!

There's a little bar in the back with menus and plants and booze, oh my!

Here's the guy's hard at work in the kitchen area.

Okay, the place setting is all set, all we need now is the cheeseburger.

Ask and ye shall receive. I got the bacon cheeseburger on an English muffin. It looks delicious.

And it certainly is. The cole slaw was really good too.

A wonderful cheeseburger. One of the great things about Odessa is that it's...

Right next door to Ray's Candy Store! I haven't been here since they put up the new sign featuring Ray and Bob that Lindsay and Chico collaborated on. It looks great!

Allie was on duty tonight and told me Ray was sleeping in the back.

I was full from the cheeseburger, but craved something sweet so I got one scoop of chocolate gelato. The perfect last course for this Cheeseburger Saturday Night!

On my way home I wanted to stop in at St. Mark's Book Shop. Jeremiah Moss has declared this as another, "Buy a Book Weekend," and I wanted to do my part and get the new R. Crumb book all at the same time.

St. Mark's recently won a battle to get rent reduction from Cooper Union and hung up this sign of appreciation. Good to see a local business winning for once!

Here's the R. Crumb book I want to get.

Whoa, check this out, a book devoted to those old comic book ads. I have to get this too. Why not, I worked a lot of overtime on Friday, might as well splurge.

Here's Chris behind the counter. He said that the entire store was very appreciative of everyone who's been supporting the store. He especially said they really appreciated what Jeremiah had done to help the battle. And you can do your part to keep this great book store alive and well, by buying a book today. If you don't live in New York, you can buy one online by clicking here: St. Mark's Bookshop.

Cheeseburger Rating
Three cheeseburgers, a great burger!

Odessa
119 Ave. A (Near 7th St.)
212-253-1470

Further reading: EV Grieve, Time Out New York and NY CitySearch.

Hallelujah,
Rock my soul!

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Video Sent in by Kate!

Kate from One More Folded Sunset sent in this escalator awareness video. Watch it, learn it and live it! This should be required viewing before entering Penn Station!

August 23, 2011

There was a post yesterday at Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York that quoted Patti Smith’s book, “Just Kids,” concerning the old Allerton Hotel on Houston Street. I’ve been meaning to get that book and it leads into tonight’s Six Pack, which I debuted last Monday. If you missed that post, basically what I’m going to do every Monday is go to six places and get six of the same item and compare or in tonight’s case, I’m going to one place and get six items. And what better place to get six items than St. Mark’s Bookshop, where Jeremiah said the book was available? Not too many, so it’s off to St. Mark’s we go.

Oh, and speaking of Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York, don’t forget to vote daily for his blog right here: CBS New York Blog Competition.

Zingo! Here we are at St. Mark's Bookshop.

And there's the book I'm looking for, "Just Kids" by Patti Smith. Let's go in and find it and five other things to buy in here.

There's lots of choices in here, many of them you'll never find on Amazon or in a Barnes and Noble's.

And here's the book I'm looking for. That was easy.

And look at this, I ran into an old friend I haven't seen in years, Patrick. We used to work together all those years ago and he's buying a motorvational book by author David Katz. This book has been known to induce suicide in six out of seven buyers, so I hope Patrick is careful! This is something else unique about local book stores, you won't run into old chums on Amazon. Great to see you again, Patrick and be careful with that book!

Okay, I need five more items for my six pack tonight, let's go look for them.

These two are tempting, but I'm going to keep shopping.

This looks cool, Public Illumination Magazine. Looks like purchase number two of the six pack for tonight.

Let's check out this table of books...

"I Slept With Joey Ramone" by Mickey Leigh! I met Mickey last year on my bar crawl and he was a great guy. I've been meaning to get this and it's on sale, so I'll add this to the six pack.

"Masked Superstars of Mexican Wrestling!" I gotta get this.

And here's the other book I came in here in search of, "100 Whores" by Mykola "Mick" Dementiuk. He's a New York writer and I'm anxious to read the tales in this tome.

And the last purchase is going to be a postcard. Want me to mail it to you? If you're the first one who asks me to in the comments section, it's yours.

And Benjamin rings up this week's six pack. He told me the store is suffering in these bad economic times, so if you live in New York, stop by and buy a book or two and if you don't buy one online, the website is right below. Fuck Amazon and keep this place in business!

Oh and here's the postcard. The end. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

St. Mark's Bookshop
31 Third Avenue (Between 8th and 9th St.)
212-260-7853

Further reading: EV Grieve, New York Magazine, Racked and Village Voice.

You Might Also Like: Fuzzy Navel, Fuzzy Wuzzy and Fuzzy Duffel Bag (truthfully, is this you, csp?)

Four Other Saints
Susan Saint James
St. Stephen
The Saint of Fort Washington
The Saint

I'll be your whatever you want,
The bong in this reggae song.

ARCHIVES

(Surprise link...click on it...I dare you!)

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Bonus Book Link By Ilisha Helfman!

Speaking of books, check out my friend Ilisha Helfman's book which is an introduction into Jazzknitting. Even if you're not into knitting, you should take a look at it, it's beautifully designed and has some great tales in it. You can read all about it here: Jazzknitting.

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Bonus Earthquake Art From Jaws!

Jaws sent in this timely illustration. Thanks Jaws!

April 4, 2011

Okay, it’s Sunday and time to visit an independent business in New York and buy something. My way of encouraging everyone to try and shop as local as you can and tell the chains to go fuck themselves. As I’ve said in the past my two favorite kinds of stores are record and book shops, so I’m kind of juggling them back and forth. Maybe next week I’ll find a different kind of shop to go to, but this week it’s back to a book store, The St. Mark’s Bookshop in the East Village.

It's about a ten minute walk over there. It's a little chilly out, but not freezing, maybe spring is finally on the way.

Ugh.

Downtown, where the neon lights are...

Pretty. Downtown.

And here we are, St. Mark's Books, let's check it out.

Lots of books in here and this is just the front of the store!

Jed was behind the counter and said it was fine to take photos in the store. A nice guy!

Here's some of the newer releases. I keep meaning to buy that Sarah Silverman book. Maybe that'll be tonight's purchase.

More books! Let's go check out some titles, shall we?

Quite a scary bear and we all know that Otto spelled backwards is Otto. I think that's called a padiddle when that happens, but don't quote me on that.

When I saw the title of the book, I thought the author had to be Jimmy Kimmel, but once again I'm wrong.

This one goes out to Tim "Clacky" Clack all the way to the land down under! Cheers, mate!

This is a poster of a postcard book you can buy up front. It's real photos of Theater signs done up in haiku three line style. Hilarious, maybe I'll buy that.

Speaking of postcards, there's a couple of racks of them in the back.

Fire!

Two bookends at the end of the aisle.

And there's magazines in here too. They sold fishwrap in here back when I was publishing it.

Speaking of fishwrap, check it out, a food fanzine called, Put A Egg On It. Very cool, you don't see that many fanzines these days.

A shot of Jed in action behind the counter. They're doing a brisk business in here tonight and that's good to see.

Here's a display of some specialty books. Hey, speaking of fanzines, check out the book on the lower right hand side!

It's a huge book on the history of fanzines. It made the transition from St. Mark's Bookstore to...

My coffee table. Okay, I gotta go start reading and see if fishwrap is mentioned anywhere in here. Goodnight everybody and see you tomorrow after dark.

In Their Own Words (Taken from their website)
St. Mark's Bookshop was established in 1977 on New York City's Lower East Side, a community of students, academics, artists, and other discerning readers. Our specialties include Cultural Theory, Graphic Design, Poetry & Small Press Publishing, Film Studies, and Foreign & Domestic Periodicals and Journals. We are open Monday through Saturday from 10 am to Midnight, Sundays 11 am to Midnight.

Located at 31 Third Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets, we are convenient to the 6 Train at Astor Place and the N/R Trains at Broadway and 8th Street. Our neighborhood is home to New York University, The Cooper Union, and such cultural institutions as P.S. 122 and St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, which offer theatre, dance performances and poetry readings. There are also many vintage clothing stores, designer boutiques, import shops, antique stores, and new & used record stores in the area, as well as dozens of cafes, restaurants and bars.

St. Mark's Bookshop
31 Third Ave. (Near 9th St.)
212-260-7853

Further reading: facecrack page, Indie Bound, Ludlow Press and New York magazine.

Five Books On My Bookshelf
Your Vigor For Life Appalls Me—Robert Crumb Letters: 1958-1977
Now Dig This—The Unspeakable Writings of Terry Southern
Misfit by Jonathan Yardley
Balsamic Dreams by Joe Queenan
High On Rebellion by Yvone Sewall-Ruskin

This rock ‘n’ roll has got to stop,
Junior’s head is hard as rock.

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