affordable aficionado

Blarney Stone: Keep the Drinks a-Comin’
As I stare at this blank screen and think about what I should write on the Blarney Stone, I seem to be at a loss. Not because I can’t rifle off a dozen stories about the place, but because this spot is almost too good for words. I mean, what

Land Ho! Staten Island and New Asha
During sunsets, when tourists are in town, when you find yourself wanting something more, when you just want to drink on public transportation legally, there is a boat in the distance following the ray of light that trials along the water from Manhattan to Staten Island. My friend, that is

Eat, Game, & Sing in San Francisco This Spring!
It’s Springtime in San Francisco, which means it’s time to put your phone on silent for a while and step out into our fair city to sing, eat, and play with the wonderful people and programming on offer. Whether in the flesh or on a live stream, the journalists and

Poor Man’s King Feast
My friend Matt showed me this restaurant a few years ago, back when I was really broke. That means, basically, living in a crawl space, surviving off food stamps and having little to no spending money. But the poor still need a few quality pastimes. For example: going to the

The Boiler Room: My Nymphet Equivalent
Boiler Room, disco ball of my night, fire of my liver. My Sin, my soul. Boi-ler Rooooom: the way the lips slightly part as the last syllable escapes the mouth and puckers as the “m” oozes from the back of the throat. Boi. Ler. Rooooom. This is one of my

The Folk Revival Takes Brooklyn for the Third Time
Are you tired of electronica, metal, hip-hop, free jazz, bebop, noise music, classic rock, indie-rock, and everything else that mankind has created after the end of prohibition? Are you so tired of society, technology and the future that you don’t have a cell phone? Do you write on a typewriter,

Xi’an Famous Foods: It’s the Flavor that Matters
I don’t know about you, but I’d travel to the far ends of the earth for great foods. Like India for its curries, Morocco for its tagines, Spain for its tapas, Japan for its raw, well, everything, etc… Fortunately in NYC you only have to take a train to the

Don’t Forget to Remember the International Bar
I don’t remember the first time I went to the International Bar, and if you’re willing to spend $20 there I doubt you will either. Drinks, like the beer and shot combo, start as low as four bucks. And when I say “shot” I don’t mean that puny thimble you’re

The Lone Wolf Refuge
Bushwick is a fast growing neighborhood in the all the right ways for many of you young college kids, broke-ass artists and mentally unstable kooks, who frequently roam Broadway, Myrtle Ave., and Knickerbocker Ave. Nightly there are loft parties, dance parties, rooftop parties, live music, gallery openings, film screenings and