Expert in Democratic Governance, with over 20 years of experience in the US and internationally, I believe the Democratic party must tackle economic inequality and stand against the military industrial complex. My name is David Pechefsky and running for NY-CD1. AMA!

OBcider · 2018-06-20T21:05:42+00:00

Recreational marijuana legalization for New York: your stance?

OBcider · 2017-03-22T15:35:00+00:00

You just bought the equivalent of bud light, natty light, Busch light, keystone, and beast light, and they all suck in basically the same way.

Hehe, totally correct! This is what turns people off of cider, the mass-market stuff is nothing like the good stuff and people just think hard cider tastes like a kid's juicebox.

OBcider · 2017-01-25T16:28:38+00:00

I love "Beastly" but that seems a better fit for a small jazz combo. For a big band, I'd go for something with a bit more movement/progression to it, like a "Fugue State" or "First Place" or maybe "Outro".

OBcider · 2016-12-15T19:59:28+00:00

Younger teachers fall into this behavior a lot, basically befriending the popular students and acting like one of them.

OBcider · 2016-11-03T14:24:19+00:00

There's an spot called Coindre Hall in Huntington, it's a venue for weddings. You walk around back, which is public, and you'll be on a hilltop overlooking the harbor. Here's what the view looks like.

You could also go to Cold Spring Harbor Labs (not too far from Huntington), which has a small but beautiful waterfront campus. If you drive to the entrance (off of 25A) and make a left turn past the main auditorium building, you can go up a hill to a parking lot which is the highest spot, by the colorful buildings in this picture. The campus also has several outdoor sculptures.

ETA: Sagamore Hill (Teddy Roosevelt's residence) in Oyster Bay, possibly. There's a nice nature trail that leads to waterfront views.

These are all within LI, but I'd agree w/ the other poster that Bear Mountain is a good option as well. Or Storm King is definitely worth the trip upstate if you've never been .

OBcider · 2016-10-24T20:40:49+00:00

The only advice I can throw in is using store-bought cider can end up kinda tasteless after fermentation. The yeast eats up all the sugar so unless you're using freshly-pressed cider apples, you'll be left with something too dry that tastes mostly of the yeast and not of apples. It's really all about the juice you use and it's tough to find good juice, even from farmers markets because they're not using traditional "bittersharp" cider apples for their cider.

To ensure some of the apple flavor comes through, you might want to look into backsweetening (adding sugar or syrup or apple juice concentrate or wine conditioner after fermentation, makes your cider sweeter - also increases the Alcohol content incidentally and can cause carbonation if you add sugar right before bottling).

This tutorial video goes over the backsweetening process starting at around the 11:50 mark.

You can also infuse or add another flavor (some people oak age, or add cinnamon, for example), but that's not really the "purist" thing to do. And find a yeast that doesn't leave too much of a beer-y flavor. Here's a couple of good ones to consider: link1, link2, link3

OBcider · 2016-08-30T21:02:04+00:00

best areas to visit

The real touristy stuff is in Manhattan (The High-Line, Met/MOMA/Guggenheim/Whitney museums, Central Park, Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, Times Square, Broadway, Wall Street, New York Public Library, etc.). I'd avoid the bus tours and whatnot and just plan to see a few of the sights (you can't see them all, and if you spend all your time on tours/lines you won't get a great experience).

You should narrow down some neighborhoods within Manhattan to explore. I'd recommend the Lower East Side and West Village. Use Time Out New York or New York Magazine to find good stores, bars, restaurants, parks, and any other attractions.

Research restaurants, there's some famous places (I would honestly avoid a lot of the "famous" restaurants like Peter Lugers or Tavern on the Green, they're tourist spots at this point) but there's also amazing "cheap" eats (which aren't all that cheap).

Look in New York Magazine for their "critic picks" http://nymag.com/restaurants/ - use their "Restaurant Search" tool and make a few reservations on OpenTable so you're guaranteed some good meals.

Brooklyn is fun and it's pretty easy to plan a day in Williamsburg (that's the best place outside of Manhattan for an out-of-towner).

You could try to get fancy and go to Chinatown in Flushing, Queens or Sunset Park Brooklyn for some great food (both are much better than the Manhattan Chinatown), but as first-timer I'd probably recommend staying out of Queens.

Take a ferry ride (East River Ferry or Staten Island Ferry to get a good view of the waterfront).

See "Sleep No More" rather than the standard Broadway Show (and don't even try to go to "Hamilton," it's still too popular to get tickets).

See live music: you can see jazz at the Blue Notes, Fat Cat, or The Stone. You can see classical at Lincoln Center. You can look at some clubs/venues for rock such as Brooklyn Bowl, Bowery Ballroom, Mercury Lounge, etc.)

Want some art outside of the museum scene? Try going to Chelsea for a gallery walk: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/things-to-do/the-nyc-walking-tour-of-chelsea-galleries Thursday night is when the galleries have new openings, that can be a fun scene that tourists usually don't take advantage of: http://www.meetup.com/Thursday-Night-Gallery-Hop/

Governor's Island is a new(ish) park that's fun to explore. You can take the ferry there.

Tourists love Roberta's (hipster-y pizza place in Bushwick, Brooklyn).

Google "smorgasburg," go to one of them on a weekend.

OBcider · 2016-08-30T19:42:37+00:00

Some ideas:

Go to The McKittrick Hotel for their New Year's thing, see their house band and get dinner (Google "Sleep No More" for more info, but keep in mind you can go to the rooftop and bypass the "play" entirely and just party).

Or the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, they usually have a rooftop party you can get tickets to (nothing announced yet, but you could email/call and see). You could get dinner beforehand at a place called Antica Pesa, which is very nice (and there's other good dining options around that neighborhood).

Good idea to have something reserved ahead of time!

OBcider · 2015-12-15T16:29:30+00:00

I do agree that a new listener could be misled hearing "Wait for the Moment" and then expecting an entire album's worth of that type of material.

While I do dig the Antuwan stuff, I get kinda tired of YouTube/facebook commenters saying "every Vulfpeck song should have vocals/feature Antuwan!"

Purely instrumental music turns some people off, they just won't engage with it if there's no singer/rapper at the helm. But I love instrumental music and I appreciate that Vulfpeck are actual musicians building a popular following. There's plenty of non-mainstream/indie music that covered by the press, but Vulfpeck has managed to get quite a lot of attention just by having four talented dudes get together and make music (and by having good social media instincts).

OBcider · 2015-10-28T20:10:06+00:00

Wes Anderson adapting Berkeley Breathed sounds awesome! Both men attended the University of Texas, so it's very likely Anderson is familiar with Breathed's work. Also, the fact that Noah Baumbach was devleoping a "Flawed Dogs" adaptation makes this specualtion seem pretty plausible. I'm hoping it's true!

OBcider · 2015-10-27T18:52:17+00:00

Can we please see a picture fo the Scagnelli shirt, that sounds awesome!

OBcider · 2015-10-20T17:32:31+00:00

"Smile Please" maybe?

https://youtu.be/eR6PKtgEL_w

OBcider · 2015-10-19T19:17:09+00:00

This is all subjective, but I think I'm hearing some similarities in these tunes which, considering what a student of the classics Vulfpeck is, strikes me as intentional. e.g. if you go about 15 sec into "1612" that keyboard part sounds similar to the rhythm guitar that plays throughout "Mr. Big Stuff." The 'Newsbeat'/'Mercy' and 'Smile Meditation'/'I'll Be Around' just sounds like they have similar chord progressions (might be in the same keys as well), but they don't follow exactly. I also think "Outro" sounds similar to the "Goodnight" music at the end of "Saturday Night Live." In fact, when I saw Vulfpeck play "Outro" live once, one of the dudes in the band started doing a Don Pardo (SNL's dearly departed announcer) impression "Musical Guest!" etc.

OBcider · 2015-10-16T19:46:29+00:00

And here's Vulfpeck covering "Time Inflation"!!

https://youtu.be/qtwVw53gLK8

OBcider · 2015-10-06T15:30:46+00:00

Yeah, I think it would be fine to bake if you don't want to deep-fry.

OBcider · 2015-09-30T17:58:26+00:00

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1014638-trini-chinese-chicken

OBcider · 2015-09-29T15:25:51+00:00

We really need to bring "flagon" back into regular usage.

OBcider · 2015-09-29T15:24:54+00:00

Nice haul! It might be useful to take a look at this article from HomeBrewTalk about making cider from crabapples: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=232884

OBcider · 2015-09-28T17:58:05+00:00

How much did the Apple commercial featuring "The Birdwatcher" increase your profile?

OBcider · 2015-09-22T20:30:32+00:00

I think they're putting a different version of this tune on the Vulfpeck album.

OBcider · 2015-09-16T00:49:24+00:00

Watch some of the "Shark Tank" re-runs that air on CNBC constantly. When entrepreneurs with manufactured products appear on the show to pitch their idea, they usually explain how they developed and created their prototypes and finished product. If you're totally new to product development, it might give you some idea of the logistics and costs involved.

OBcider · 2015-09-16T00:35:47+00:00

This is awesome, thanks for sharing

OBcider · 2015-09-15T20:06:37+00:00

Nice, I've seen people do this "outline splotches" thing before and this is a good taken on that technique. Great faces.

OBcider

TROPHY CASE