Top 10 Dishes of the Decade *

10. Green Curry with Tofu at Lily Thai in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
I love green curry, and this is my favorite.

9. Fresh guacamole, plantains, black beans and flour tortillas at Dos Caminos in Midtown
Not necessarily a 'dish', but i believe this is a perfect combination of components for a taco. I used to work at Dos Caminos. A reward for a 'job well done' was any dish on the menu. I always chose this.

8. Pancakes with strawberry butter at Le Barricou in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
This is more like dessert than breakfast. Two thick cake-like pancakes with plenty of strawberry butter, real maple syrup and fresh fruit. Possibly the best pancakes I have ever had.

7. Watermelon Salad at Back Forty in the East Village
A seasonal salad with tomato, feta and dill. It is so simple, but the combination is oh so amazing.

6. Burger at DuMont in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Tasty burger always cooked exactly to your order with cheese, yummy bun, pickles, dijon mustard and ketchup (heaped on thick tomato slice and bibb lettuce). It is totally falling apart when two thirds done. Just confirming there was plenty of juicy happiness.

5. Bhuna with lamb at Brick Lane in the East Village
Sweet, spicy and fresh curry with lamb meatballs.

4. Duck with sherry reduction, Restaurante Kirkilla in Enea, Zarautz, Spain
In a little mom and pop restaurant in Basque Country, 'mom' served me a fillet of duck perfectly cooked set over a plentiful drizzle of sherry reduction served with magical fresh baked rolls crispy outside doughy inside, useful to wipe up every bit of sauce.

3. Carrot Risotto Dirt Candy in the East Village (pictured above)
Okay, so I work here, but this is no brown nose to my boss, Amanda Cohen (chef and owner), I believe this is a frickin' fantastic dish. Creamy sweet carrot risotto, savory carrot ribbons (fried bits of goodness), carrot dumplings, a little parmesan, and thyme (can't do without). Unfortunately this dish lives on the island of retired dishes. I heart Dirt Candy!**

2. Patacones/Tostones Maracuchos at El Cocotero in Chelsea
Crispy green plantain crostini with black beans, sweet plantains, salty cheese and flank steak. The dreamiest sandwich ever - in close competition with a banana, fluff, peanut butter and M&M sandwich from the Peanut Butter Shop in the Quincy Market in Boston I had when I was ten.

1. North African Paella at Black Betty (Closed - R.I.P) in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Couscous with mussels, chicken, salmon and merguez in an amazing spicy Moroccan red sauce (I have never had anything like it, and sadly I won't ever again).

Two honorable mentions:
1. Fiorentina Pizza at Pizza Express in London
Spinach, grana padano, free range egg, garlic oil and olives
2. Salmon Cakes at Wagamama in London
Super yummy with sweet sauce and heaping salad

*eaten in restaurants more like the last three years than decade, due to my bad memory and the fact I spent most of the first half of the decade in London and the suburbs of Southern California.
**two other awesome dishes from Dirt Candy that nearly made the list, Mixed Green Salad with avocado, almonds, grilled cheese croutons and grapefruit pops, and Golden Beet Pappardelle with goat cheese yogurt sauce, beet pesto, beet honey, and a rainbow of roasted beets.

My Favorite Album of 2009: Grace/Wastelands by Peter Doherty

It may not be “the best” album, but these lists are subjective, like the way we listen to music. But, I can tell you that this year, Pete Doherty's first solo effort fit the mood, the tone and the spirit of my 2009. A hopeful breath of fresh air that tastes of a little longing on the exhale.

Pete Doherty has been marinating in 50 years of British pop…and heroin, alcohol, cocaine…yeah yeah yeah, I know. Just thought I’d get drug jokes out of the way before I go on. And, I do feel that the druggie-bad-boy issue needs to be addressed because of the stunning foil it provides for the innocence of this album. Doherty comes off as blushing troubadour from a simpler time—sent to the past to dry out, and now emerges gentler and wiser. Whether he constructed the songs on this album to conjure the history of British pop or not (I think not), the work is soaked in it. There is such a distinct sense of place—but not time. However, the nostalgia that courses through every track makes you yearn for everything past, before, and gone.

Stylistically, this album is all over the map; a couple of ragtime ditties, a torch song here, a folk song there, and some straight up alternative, indie, pop tunes. The magic of this album lies in the threads that hold them all together. I think these threads are the Beatles, Oasis (during the 5 minutes they didn’t suck), and The Smiths (mostly Johnny Marr). Doherty somehow manages to balance some fucking lovely Beatle-esque melodies (circa 1968), effortless pop-hooks, with some excellent punk guitar work—nice and jangley and oh so English.

The result is an album to smoke lots of cigarettes to while basking in the memory of your last encounter with Him or Her; and imagining running down the streets of London with them as you make fun of strangers and try on funny hats at the flea market, then go home and make love with a gentle rain falling outside…and lots, lots more cigarettes.

Happy Holidays from SPINE!

Dear Friends,

We just want to wish you Happy Holidays and all the best in the New Year! We are so grateful for your support, encouragement and patronage during this, our first official year as a company in New York City.

For those of you who didn't know, SPINE was based in London, England for 4 years, Los Angeles for 4 years, and we disbanded for a year during 2007-2008. Our regrouping started with a film commission and things took off from there. This year we premiered a new film at the Berkshire Fringe, exhibited a photo project at 3rd Ward, produced a live music and video event at Monkey Town, and produced a new work written by Allen Norvick, our newest member, which was presented at Speakeasy Stories this fall. Slated for 2010 are a web comedy series, 2 new films, a video exhibit, and an adaptation of a play. Our website has been updated, and we have a blog and a Facebook fanpage so you can keep up with it all.

Minus our year long hiatus, the core group of SPINE has been working together for 10 years. To mark our anniversary we're posting some "best of the decade" lists to our blog; a little thing we like to do at the SPINE house during family dinners that often result in drunken after-dinner brawls. Feel free to chime in and share some of your picks.

In what has become a yearly tradition, we used the holidays as an excuse to do an impromptu photo shoot based around a theme. As you can see, this year we chose "Domestic Bliss". Click the photos to embiggen. Thanks to Alvaro Gonzales, photographer extraordinaire.

We leave you with 2 pieces of rehearsal footage in their very nascent stages; The first, a video story-board for Kristen's new piece, and the very beginning of movement ideas for a duet Cory is working on. Become a Facebook Fan or follow our blog to check the progress of, and give commentary on, our newest works.

Take care,

Allen, Brent, Cory & Kristen

Top Ten Moments in The Comic Book World of the Decade (Special Foil Cover Edition)

What with the end of the decade coming up, I felt it appropriate to have my own Top 10 list. Something that fits my particular...idiom. So, I present to you, my Top Ten (pun intended for those of you that are familiar with Alan Moore) Moments in Comics for the Zeroes.*

10. The 52 Civil Infinite Crisis of the Secret Invasion of Ambush Bug's Butt - Crossovers aren't a new phenomenon in the mainstream comic world. They've been around since The Secret Wars or Crisis on Infinite Earths. What really stands out about the crossovers of the 00s are the FREQUENCY. And the quickly dwindling gap between the next one. It seemed like Secret Invasion picked up almost immediately where Civil War left off. And can we come up with some new words for crossovers that aren't secret, crisis or infinite?

9. ZOMBIES. LOTS AND LOTS OF ZOMBIES - This isn't JUST the mainstream comic world, but as often happens, as the more mainstream pop culture bleeds into specifically comic culture, there starts to be some symbiosis (ie Elvis' fascination with Captain Marvel Jr. and CM3's, which is a dumb name, later obsession with The King). Zombies seem to have exploded onto pop culture again (Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Bong of the Dead, etc) and with that, of course, zombie comics.

8. The Rebirth of the Silver Age - With such titles as Earth X and Kingdom Come, comes an obvious harkening back to the childhood of our now employed comic book artists and writers. There isn't much to say about this, other than "fanboys all grown up and got the power and want to turn their fanfiction into profit."

7. Lavaroid - This is nothing but a blatant plug for Kevin Conn's comic, Lavaroid. Suck it, weenies.

6. The Coincidal Coincindental Rebirth of Winter Soldier and Red Robin - With the rebirth/return/marketing tactic of Jason Todd and James "Bucky" Barnes, comes the retirement of the terms "Bucky Dead" and "Jason Todd Dead". This is actually more monumental than it seems, in my opinion. Bucky and Jason Todd were the standard for death. If you were Bucky dead, you were DEAD. That's how it worked. Now that we've returned BOTH of these characters, we've essentially said, "All bets are off." Death has lost it's weight and intensity in both Big Boys. Which leads me to number 5.

5. The Death of Captain America (again) - The reason this is on the list at all isn't because I think it had a monumental impact on the comic book world, but because it didn't. Life moved on. Captain America was shot, people were sad, they moved on. The number one comment heard was, "He'll be back." This doesn't happen in the real world. People don't die and the public doesn't say, "Oh, he'll be back with Thriller 2." Except on Easter. Take that as you will. The Death of Superman was a much bigger deal (and handled better), because you thought there was an actual chance Superman was being replaced.

4. Women in Refrigerators - This was another top 10 that should have been higher. What this was is a list of all of the female characters in the mainstream comic world (mostly) that had been killed, depowered or dehumanized. It originated from a scene in a Green Lantern comic where Green Lantern's girlfriend gets killed and stuffed into a refrigerator to make him angry. Point being, that females in comic books are, more often than not, used as punching bags to give the male heroes something to save. The list is pretty extensive. The issue is, most fanboys KNOW of the site, but it's used almost as a joke. I'm not going to start a rant about how the lack of impact its had is a perfect example of its purpose, but it's true.

3. Acceptance of Comics into Mainstream Society - This wasn't so much an EVENT that happened in this decade, as it was a result that happened in this decade. There has always been an overall awareness of comic books in popular society, but it's not as much of a social stigma to read comics in general as it was even 15 years ago. This is the result of a few factors, some being a result of each other, like the surge of comic book movies, comic book cartoons, and the wearing of Underoos by hot chicks.

2. The Erasing "Reboot" of Spiderman's Marriage - I find this a VERY important event in the mainstream comic book world. It was a blatant use of editorial power, that was (in my opinion) just a reflection of Joe Quesada's fear of growing up. Spiderman/Peter Parker's entire marriage to Mary Jane was (sloppily) erased to rewind Spiderman back to his carefree teenager days of crimefightin' and going to night clubs. It made me stop caring about Spiderman stories.

1. The Damn Interwebs - With the popularization and wild-fire spread of forum boards, social networking sites and mind-melting slashfiction, the internet has actually affected what is being created. The internet is not just an information site, it had become an extended form of our reality. In some cases, it has replaced our reality. To not call this the most significant change in the way comics are seen, created and bitched about would be false.

*this is entirely based on my opinions and observations. If you disagree, why don't you start a flamewar about it?

Favorite Albums* of the Decade

The decade in music. And by music, I mean popular music. And by popular, I mean what I listened to. For each year this past decade, I chose one album. This made me sad. So I then chose 2 runners-up. So many songs left. So I picked a single as well. No artist is represented more than once. I wanted to make a list where if you listened to every single one of these albums/songs before the end of 2009, you would have a lot more time on your hands than I do. I hope I succeeded.

2000

Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams

He certainly is. You treat him right, Mandy Moore.

Runner-ups: Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea– PJ Harvey; Agaetis Byrjun – Sigur Ros

Single: Dry The Rain – Zeroes to Heroes – The Beta Band

2001

Girls Can Tell – Spoon

Tight tight tight.

Runner-ups: Pleased to Meet You – James; Cuts For Luck and Scars For Freedom – Mystic

Single: Come What May – Moulin Rouge – Nicole Kidman & Ewan McGregor

2002

Son of Evil Reindeer – The Reindeer Section

Scottish supergroup with Snow Patrol, Belle & Sebastian and Arab Strap represented? Sign me up!

Runner-ups: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – Wilco; Deadringer – RJD2

Single: Seed 2.0 – Phrenology – The Roots

2003

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below – Outkast

Their White Album after Stankonia’s Sgt. Peppers

Runner-ups: Want One – Rufus Wainwright; Ghosts of the Great Highway – Sun Kil Moon

Single: My Coco – Stellastarr* – Stellastarr*

2004

Funeral – Arcade Fire

After listening to this I feel like I just got out of a Fellini film.

Runner-ups: Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine – Cee-Lo; Hot Fuss – The Killers

Single: Still At Home – Rendezvous – Luna

2005

With Teeth – NIN

Master Trent gets back to the force of Pretty Hate Machine, but using all the tricks he’s learned since.

Runner-ups: Get Behind Me Satan– The White Stripes; Come on Feel the Illinoise! – Sufjan Stevens

Single: Fuck Forever – Down In Albion – Babyshambles

2006

Return to Cookie Mountain – TV on the Radio

Sonically sprawling. A disgorgement of all their influences while setting the stage for what comes next.

Runner-ups: Pick a Bigger Weapon –The Coup; 2 – Simple Kid

Single: The Funeral - Everything All The Time – Band of Horses

2007

Great Vengeance & Furious Fire – The Heavy

That scrappy kid from London lays down some funky FUNKY tunes.

Runner-ups: We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank – Modest Mouse; Let’s Stay Friends – Les Savy Fav

Single: Fake Empire – Boxer – The National

2008

Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords

Most of these songs came out live long before, however I can’t help but returning to this album again and again. I thought novelty records were supposed to get old?

Runner-ups: Seventh Tree – Goldfrapp; Heretic Pride – The Mountain Goats

Single: Dónde Está la Playa – You & Me – The Walkmen

2009

Hazards Of Love – The Decemberists

The Decemberists finally figure out how to stretch their wonderful story/songs into a full-length album.

Runner-ups: Broomst – Dan Deacon; Veckmatist – The Grizzly Bears

Single: I Quit Girls – Post-Nothing – The Japandroids

Hula Girl - Rough Draft

I have been playing with hula hoops. You may have witnessed if you have been following the blog. This video is a rough draft of Hula Girl (truly just a working title). This past month, Brent and I have been collaborating on a storyboard. We were playing with split screen ideas and such. At this point, I won't bombard you with a play by play of the story. I leave to enjoy, for now. Please post comments if you are inspired.

Salvage.Recycle.Repeat

A snippet of movement material from rehearsal #3 of “the mega piece”. And, no that is not gratuitous, sexy-dance, self-touching you’re seeing. Shame on you. It makes sense in the larger context of the piece. I do plan to shoot it from this angle and from much higher, and, at the moment anyway, it will be paired with a corresponding live performance.

If some of this choreography looks familiar, it’s because I stole some of it from myself. A few years back, I started work on a piece that never quite came together as far as movement and concept are concerned. Actually, at times the choreography and concept felt like two magnets I was trying to push together. I didn’t show it very much. I was really frustrated with it (despite a lovely performance from Kristen and amazing video from Brent). I feel like I finally found a “home” for this movement. Lots more to come.

PS and, am I crazy? Do you feel you’ve seen 20 dance pieces the past several years that have used this “In the Mood for Love" music? It’s lovely, but getting music composed.

Sounds of creation

The Blog has been quiet this week, but the SPINE House is louder than ever. New creations are brewing.

Reimagining

As some of you may have heard, we have a show coming up at Monkey Town on Dec 6th. This has involved a lot of work.

From our end (the other end being the band Oliphant) we are presenting 4 videos. 3 have been shown before and 1 premiere. The work comes from the location. Monkey Town is an impressive space. 4 giant screens (one for each wall) in a room where the audience sits around the walls, with a performance space in the middle. I have seen a few shows there, and the usual M.O. is to have all 4 screens playing the same thing. There is a logic to this since each audience member will have one screen behind them, and therefore cannot see it. However, I think this approach does not properly utilize the space. I mean, you've got these 4 GIANT SCREENS.

So, we are repurposing the videos. And by we, I mean me. That's OK I enjoy it. Luckily I had lots of help in the generating ideas phase. We aren't adding to the footage we already shot, so we need to find ways to take advantage of the 4 screens with videos that were meant to be shown on one screen while keeping in mind that each of the 4 screens will not be seen by 25% of the audience.

It has been fun, and I am aided by the pieces that I directed making liberal use of split screen. I guess I am the DePalma of SPINE. Which makes Cory=Scorsese, Kristen=Coppola and Allen=Landis.

I am finishing up the DVD burning tonight, and we should find out on Sunday if it all works as planned. Because, where the hell are you going to test this out?

Persperation/Suffocation

During the day, I work at Lexus of Manhattan, in the Business Development Center. It sounds both more and less than it is. It is part of the sales department, but it is not sales. It's technically customer service, but it isn't. I wear many hats throughout the day, which usually causes my manager to say, "Take off all those stupid hats." Ba dump psh. It's not a physical job, but anyone who has to deal with the public all day knows, it can take its toll. Sometimes I get home mentally and physically exhausted and it makes it difficult to create. I'm not alone in wishing money was not a factor in my day to day, but unfortunately, it is. Luckily, we're all very supportive in this house of our creative ventures and I'm glad I have the other members of SPINE to hold me accountable for pushing forward. :)