All Forces

Whenever my family gets together there’s an immediate sharing of music. There’s CD ripping, iPod hacking, file transfering and that’s just with grandma. I’m visiting my sisters right now so the sharing time has come and the biggest musical discovery was Jorge Drexler, a singer songwriter from Uruguay. Jorge won an oscar for best song with “Al otro lado del rio” from the film The Motorcycle Diaries. His song was performed at the show by Antonio Banderas accompanied by Santana. A painful experience to say the least. But he made justice to his music when he received the award from Prince ( a treat by itself ), he simply just sang it. No thanks to agents or studio executives, it was the best Oscar speech ever.

Links
Buy Eco from iTunes
Buy Eco from Amazon
Buy Frontera from Amazon
Jorge Drexler’s Website

The one thing I was looking for when visiting DC was the Smithsonian Museums. Specifically the Natural Science Museum. Even more specific, Dinosaurs. Yes, the kid inside me gets so excited about Dinosaurs I get butterflies when I see them. Come to think of it, all big mammals have the same effect in me, Elephants, Giraffes, Rhinos and Whales. Perhaps one day I’ll spend some time at an African Safari. In the mean time, the consolation prize today was the Smithsonian Natural Science Museum. A real treat for a Dino fan. I spent the whole day today and yesterday with my younger sister Aracely, reconnecting with her since we’ve lived in different places for such a long time now.

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My sister Aracely lives in an apartment right above these new type of open shopping areas. The first thing we did when we got there from NY was to go get some grub. So we went downstairs to a Thai place called Thaiphoon. I ordered Padtai since that’s the ultimate Thai test for me. If they don’t get that dish right, most likely they won’t get any right. So how did Thaiphoon come out in the test? not very good. Although some of the other dishes were quite yummy. Not a “must eat” there place, but it was nice that it’s just a few steps downstairs.

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Today we set out to drive from New York to Washington DC in a rental SUV. It was five of us. My sister and I and some friends. Little did we know, the rest of NY was also driving down to DC. It seemed we drove at 15mph for most of the trip, taking a whole 6 hours of non iPod driving. It was painful, specially the audio part. I was driving and had no control of the radio so I had to endure 6 hours of solid radio switching and crappy music. The things you do for family.

my sisters arimel, aracely and me
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Last week I received a frantic call from a friend whose web address had expired six months ago. The domain was bought by someone in Cuba and turned into a porn ad web page. My friend’s company gave up on it and decided to get a new web address and a new stationary to go with it. But panic broke loose as they are about to close huge deal with a client (a city) and they mistakingly sent out a mass mailing with their old stationary. Needless to say, they got a call from a very ticked off client. This is where I came into the picture. To save the day by buying back the web address. But how do you buy a domain from shady people without getting burned?

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Black Eyed Peas
Monkey Business

I’ve been wanting to hear some good new Hip-Hop for a while. This is not an easy task for me since I’m not a Hip-Hop fan perse. I mean I like Tribe Called Quest, Mos Def and De La Soul but only in small doses. Last year I ran into Black Eyed Peas and just really played it a lot. So I was glad to hear they got a new album out and even happier to hear how good it is. Ed thinks it might be a bit too commercial, but I think it’s just perfect for me. What does he know, he’s white.

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Today I had dinner at La Mancha, a small restaurant here in Brooklyn Heights just a few blocks from my sister’s apartment. We had this amazing Seafood Paella with some Sangria that was just to die for. And we ended up meeting the owners in front of the restaurant where we chatted for a while. They’re a couple who bought this restaurant about a year ago and were telling us some of the stories of their first year.We connected with them in a very strange way. I felt at home. Oh oh. Did I just say that? Let’s see, I have no job holding me back in L.A. hum…

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Last night I had the most phenomenal dinner with my sister at Pampa, an argentinean grill in upper west side Manhattan. I was so glad I was no longer a vegetarian. This is one of those places I MUST visit every time I come to NY.

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I’m on my way to New York right now. I got a wireless signal on the plane before take off and was able to use my phone cam and upload some pics. My nikon camera stayed home since my wife lost her camera and now she’s a blogger who NEEDS a camera.

I’m leaving for New York tonight to spend two weeks with my sister. We’ll also be be going down to DC to visit my younger sister during the weekend. I love New York. My wife and I always felt we would end up either overseas or in NY. I love the pace of the city, the buildings, the people and of course, the food. Which brings me to the following request. I am looking for the “must eat” places to grub in NY. If you are a grub master, I would love to hear from you. You will know if you are a grub master if people always ask you where to eat cause you just know the hidden treasures of the city.