BCLF Wrapped
It’s the last Big City, little friend of the year! Since April 2023, I’ve published 31 issues, had over 7,000 views on my posts, and connected with tons of people who also find my niche interests interesting. Lots of you have reached out to compliment my writing or share your own experiences and I’m so freakin thankful for all of the kind comments folks have sent my way.
The number 1 song on my Spotify Wrapped this year was Paramore’s Hard Times and I couldn’t have said it better myself - shit was rough! I used to really enjoy writing but I lost it somewhere along the way, so I’m humbled/grateful/over the moon that I found this part of myself again in a way that feels both fulfilling and authentic. Thank you for being here.
I’ll be taking the next week off to spruce this place up and do all of the admin tasks that I’ve pushed aside. I already made a cute new logo - peep that shit 👏 I also started an Instagram where I’ll post links to new issues and other fun NYC videos that I come across, so give that a follow. And because I put so much time and effort into creating this humble lil newsletter each week, I’ll be moving this to a paid subscription in the new year. Paid subs will help me afford to keep doing and eating crazy shit around the city and I sincerely hope you’ll stick around and join me for the ride. I’m offering a discount on subscriptions thru the end of the year, so jump on that shit!
1. Noshing 😋
And just like that we had another Beef Fancy Dinner™ this month! We had ourselves a fancy lil time at The Gallery by odo. The space is super cute and has a few tables set up amongst an art gallery. The current exhibition features ceramic work by Shiro Tsujimura - a collection of his work can be seen in the entrance and there are really lovely vases on all of the tables. It wasn’t clear to me if the canvases hanging on the walls were Shiro’s work too, but they were also cool! The food is by Michelin-starred chef, Hiroki Odo, of Odo NYC. Odo is super expensive and difficult to get a reservation at, so that’s why I opted for their little neighbor space.
A large portion of the menu at The Gallery features kushiage - panko fried skewers. Now, I love a meal of assorted skewers so I was all about this shit. The panko on their skewers looked super fresh, like it was freshly grated dried bread rather than old dried crumbles. The panko coating was pretty light and the skewers were served with a little bamboo tray of dipping sauces (honey mustard, oyster sauce, salt, lemon). We got eggplant, sweet potato, scallop, chicken, and shishito and they were all great. Special shoutout to the super sweet and super soft sweet potato - these are the potatoes that they’re spiralizing over at Hello Yam. Scallops are something I don’t eat often, but whenever I do have them I’m reminded of how soft and slightly sweet they are. The scallop kushiage here was absolutely delicious.
Strangely enough, the menu also features a really large hamburger section. I opted to get their tuna chirashi (it was good, nothing special) but the rest of my table all got hamburgers. While the burgers were on the smaller side, they all featured a wagyu blend patty so they were incredibly rich. Upon seeing the size of the burgers, Beef and Lorenzo were already planning what they wanted to eat for dinner #2, but after eating the burgers they were actually full. And they said the burgers fuckin slapped! I was super surprised to hear the boys say the burgers were the star of the meal. Despite eating an absolute feast of kushiage and burgers, we saved room for their house made Japanese soft serve with fruit. The ice cream was delicious and the strawberry and mango fruit was so sweet and tasty.
2. Watching🍿
In yet another instance of me knowing the meme before knowing where the meme actually originates from I give you - Beverly Hills Cop. I love Rush Hour and Beverly Hills Ninja and this movie seemed like it might be a mix of the two - it sort of was. Beverly Hills Cop stars Eddie Murphy as Detroit cop Axel Foley. When Foley’s old friend is killed, he goes on “vacation” to Beverly Hills to find the killer. I haven’t watched a lot of Eddie Murphy movies, but I was very happy that his laugh sounded exactly like the impression in Josie and the Pussycats and he laughed a lot in this movie.
This movie absolutely started out the same as Rush Hour. Foley goes off book and undercover, causing a big car chase that destroys a bunch of shit. His boss says he’s a good cop but he’s on thin ice because of these shenanigans, yadda yadda yadda. But Foley isn’t quite the same as Chris Tucker’s James Carter character in Rush Hour. Carter is cocky and he has no regard for authority and he lets you know it…constantly. Aside from the opening scene, Foley is actually pretty introspective and he moves through situations with a quiet confidence. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t get all up in people’s faces, but he just seems less cocky about it somehow.
This movie also both is and isn’t quite a standard buddy cop film. Judge Reinhold and John Ashton play two Beverly Hills cops that get assigned to tail Foley. While their relationship is at first adversarial, with Foley jokingly sending them room service and stuffing bananas in their tailpipes (not a euphamism, he literally did that), they eventually gain a mutual respect for one another in a scene that is just so well executed. Even then, they don’t really team up in the way that I expected, but we still got that opposites dynamic found in most buddy cop movies. Foley is the loose canon and the Beverly Hills cops are the ones who play it by the book. But of course by the end of the movie they each take some learnings from the other’s modus operandi.
The music in this movie was bad, but enjoyable, enough so that the soundtrack won a fuckin Grammy. The main theme, Axel F, is your typical 80s synth tune and truly sounds like something I could create with the bank of pre-programmed beats in my old keyboard. It’s an absolute vibe though and really fit the tone of the movie. The only part of this film that fell flat for me was any of the action scenes. The writing was great, the humor was great, but the shootout at the end was pretty meh. The movie does end on a freeze frame, though, which makes is a perfect 80s movie.
3. Exploring 🛼
Morning Brew has really been stepping up their content game lately and I was so happy to see them feature Casey’s Rubber Stamps in one of their videos a few months ago! Casey’s is the last remaining rubber stamp specialty shop in NYC - very niche. It’s unusual that a store that literally sells one thing has managed to hold on as mom and pop shops are disappearing at increasing rates. There are a multitude of reasons for this trend: rising rents, new generations unwilling to take over the business, changes in spending trends, etc. But Casey’s has remained a fixture in the East Village since 1979!
I first came upon this store a few years ago when a coworker and I decided to take a very long leisurely lunch because we hated our jobs. He walked me though where he used to live in the East Village and pointed out Casey’s. When you walk in you’re immediately hit with an aroma of rubber and you’ll find yourself surrounded by precariously stacked bins upon bins of rubber stamps. Casey’s seemingly has any stamp you can imagine, and if he doesn’t have it he’ll make it for you. Potato stamp? Got it. Ornate coffin? Check. Cats and rats? You betcha.
Casey still makes his stamps the old fashioned way - with a negative, a plate, and a mold process. However, unsurprisingly, this is a dying business. A lot of Casey’s suppliers have gone out of business and he’s survived by buying out their stock. Remind you of anything? The Brooklyn Seltzer Museum is similarly struggling to stay afloat as the world around them changes. Casey has purchases a laser cutter to use to make stamps not because he wants to modernize, but because at some point he’s going to run out of his traditional stamp making materials. But why insist on continuing to do things the hard way, you might ask?
Well, someone’s gotta do it. Our city has lost so much character as Dunkins and Targets open on nearly every corner. Blank Street Coffees threaten to homogenize our third places and dehumanize the coffee drinking experience(Boss Barista writes about this a lot). NYC has always been a haven for mom and pop businesses and that’s something that gives the city character; it makes NY NY. As easy as it is to get around with our lovely street grid, I tend to give directions using landmarks and that doesn’t really work if there’s a Target on every other avenue.
So what I’m saying is, if you need a stamp, go to Casey’s. His prices are reasonable, his craftsmanship is impeccable, and you’ll have a much cooler story to tell about your stamp vs if you ordered it on Vistaprint or some shit.
4. Learning 🧠
If there’s one thing New Yorkers love, it’s claiming notable people as our own. There’s a whole Wikipedia page about Notable New Yorkers. The A’s alone are stupendous - Aaliyah, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Christina Aguilera, the entire Astor family. But I recently learned about one native New Yorker that surprised even me. Y’all - Santa Claus is one of us!
Ok so while the idea of Santa had been around for a while across various cultures (Saint Nicholas, Belsnickel, Father Christmas, the Wild Man), the Santa that you’re probably picturing right now was born in NYC. First, we have to go back to New York’s Dutch origins (I’m using origins loosely, I know the Dutch weren’t the first people here). The Dutch Saint Nicholas was associated with gift giving, aiding young people, imposing honesty, and rescuing those in need (sound familiar?). New-York Historical Society founder, John Pintard, used Saint Nicholas as an anti-British symbol and reminder of our Dutch colonial history. Pintard promoted him as the patron saint of both the Society and the city as a whole throughout the early 1800s. This caught the attention of another writer that I’ve mentioned a few times before….
It’s Washington mothafuckin Irving again! Irving was a member of the Historical Society and wrote about about Pintard’s version of Saint Nicholas in the 1809 Knickerbocker’s History of New York. Irving’s image of Saint Nicholas was cute and jolly, not towering and stern like the European version that was popular at the time.
But it was a little story by Clement C. Moore that truly fleshed out the image of Santa. Clement’s 1822 poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas was inspired by Irving’s writings and a chubby Dutch neighbor. Clement anonymously published his story in the Troy Sentinel on December 23, 1823 with the title “Account of a Visit from Saint Nicholas.” His identity as the author was later revealed and today that story is known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”—which is actually the poem’s first line, not its title. It described Santa as a jolly old elf and it gave him his sleigh and reindeer.
Cartoonist Thomas Nast sealed the deal when he created the iconic image of a red-suited Claus for Harper’s Weekly. Nast based his image of Santa on Moore’s descriptions and bits of German folklore. And he was the one who first placed Santa’s home at the North Pole and created his elf slave labor factory!
So there you have it folks, through the combined works of 4 New Yorkers, the Santa that we know today was born and now he’s free to employ elf labor and sell coca cola to children far and wide!
5. What’s Good 😎
Wonderville in Bushwick is hosting their 3rd annual screening of the “immensely weird & totally illegal parody/remix of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone” where Brad Neely voices every single character. This sounds absolutely deranged and I really want to try to attend.
Most Christmas themed bars/restaurants are terrible but one that isn’t is Grinchy’s in Bushwick. Every winter Roberta’s decorates their enclosed outdoor space in a barf fest of holiday decor. You can get drinks and pizza and it’s very nice.
Last week I attended a Wowza Hangout at Humming Puppy and it was absolutely delightful. I did their restorative yoga + sound bath and my dudes, it was exactly what I needed after a long ass week. The poses were relaxing and the droning hum made me feel like I was in a Cronenberg movie (which for me, is also relaxing). Also, their space is gorgeous.
I cannot stress this enough, but do not go to Times Square on New Year’s. It’s absolutely miserable and nothing will make it worth it. If you absolutely need to do something New Yearsy, you can see the giant 2024 numbers that’ll be next to the ball drop up close and write a wish on the confetti that’ll be dropped. Also, please watch this short video about the guy who manages the confetti drop!
Queens County Farm is running an Illuminate the Farm event thru Jan 7. It’ll feature tons of beautiful hand-crafted lanterns inspired by creatures from Chinese folklore and animals. There will also be interactive illuminated tunnels, swings, see-saws and a Bounce House and Sugar Paintings!
The NYC Parks budget is set to get cut drastically and that’s a bad thing. But someone paid for a Perd Hapley (Jay Jackson) Cameo and it is everything. You can sign a petition here to protest the budget cuts!
And that’s all folks! One last reminder that I’m taking next week off and paid subscriptions are open now. Use the link at the top for 15% off because I love a good deal. And I dunno, share what I write with a friend because maybe they’ll like it too. Or share it with someone you hate, I don’t make the rules. Anyways, Eden out 💥
