brooklyn birthday visit

I just got back from an evening/afternoon in Brooklyn. It was so nice to be ... home. There. I typed it. Brooklyn feels like home to me. I just love being there so much, and it was lovely being back in the big city again. I know that I will be moving back there again at some point in the future. (Moving back home -- oh snap!)

I had a lovely birthday celebration with a friend at the esteemed Blue Ribbon Brooklyn. We gorged on shrimp cocktails, New Orleans shrimp, an oyster each (we just wanted to try one), and a nice cocktail. I had salmon for my main course, which was delicious. My friend got the equally delicious catfish.

Then it was off to Bar Reis for some well made drinks in the dimly lit basement and upstairs. (Considerable time was spent there, and we moved spots after a certain point.) The bar was playing great music (until 11pm, anyway), and had a nice, relaxed atmosphere and an appropriately dingy-chique vibe. Props to the bartenders for putting on classic musical gold such as Bill Withers, Aretha Franklin and Donnie Hathaway. You NEVER hear things like that at bars around here. Never.

Oh, Park Slope, how I have missed you!

I finished the evening off with good company, and then woke up late this morning and ate yummy Italian for lunch while watching a John Cusack movie.

Good times.

In other news, I've been listening to these albums, and can't seem to get enough of them for various reasons. They are:

Donuts by J Dilla
23 by Blonde Redhead
Dear Science by TV On The Radio (mixed feelings about this one, but there's still redeeming qualities to it)
Godmusic by Chocolate Genius
Redheaded Stranger by Willie Nelson

Blonde Redhead really has hit home with me lately. There's just something about that band that I really like. I can't pinpoint it, and I can say what I *don't* like, but as for what makes me coming back to listen, I can't really say.

The J Dilla album really gets to me, because it was the last thing he ever created before he died. That knowledge makes for a heavy aural experience.

Oh, and Willie ... I just want to give that man a hug. A big, long and affectionate bear hug. Long live Willie Nelson.

I'm off to go watch another episode of Dexter -- an obsession, by the way, that several of my friends share. I don't feel so alone now.