NYC, day 1

Sunday
Last night we played Rock Band (guitars & bass) until 3am on Saturday morning. I woke up early and played Portal for hours until Dana woke up. We had the most delicious brunch at this tiny* Spanish restaurant. I mean -The Most Delicious- I thought my ravioli was amazing until I tasted Dana's dish. I cannot even describe it, except that it was smooth and richly flavored. It came with eggs Benedict and incredible spicy sausage. We had been looking for another place. I'm so, so glad we didn't find it.

Dana had a bit of work to do, so I roamed Madison Ave. for 2 hours. Mostly I was people watching, though I did spend some time in the Apple store talking about 3ps with a Mac Genius. I am excited for the upcoming release of a $200 iPhone.
After all that walking my shins were a little sore. I'm not used to walking the way I'm used to cycling. After all that walking Dana and I rode for 10 miles through Brooklyn. The frequent stops were very annoying, the rain was heavy and wonderful. I loved riding in the rain as I had no need dry off and be presentable. We visited Dana's friend Page, who offered us food and let us play Garage Band (more on this later) but then Dana got a call and we needed to be home -stat- We took a different route and powered home. Gently uphill, 8.5 miles. Red lights aside, I believe we broke the land-speed record for inner city cycling. That was scary, by the way.

Ren arrived, finally. She was lost but only because we weren't able to provide her directions until we got home. I played Portal while we waited. We had dinner at my new favorite restaurant, Moto**. Let me tell you why this is the most wonderful restaurant ever. It's set in the 1930s. Everything from the live band they had, to the music they played while the band took a break, to the food and drink selection to the presentation.... By the time I started desert, I felt like I was in another world. A simpler world where there were no cell phones or digital interruptions or oil shortages or nuclear weapons. I felt right at home. Desert was chilled pudding and it was orgasmic. I enjoyed, thoroughly, every spoonful. It was perfectly rich, not too dark. But oh, it was dark. and good. I savored it slowly while listening to the most wonderful music. The moment was perfect. I cannot accurately describe how much I enjoyed that dinner. Just go. Go and soak it all in. There is no diet soda, they don't do credit cards, they brought a wine bottle with water in it: it refracted and bent the light of the candles so beautifully. Everything was simple and old. I love it and cannot wait to go back. After desert I drifted home like a fluffy cloud.

Regarding Garage Band
I've never played the drums in Garage Band before. At Page's house I experimented with them on two songs; first on easy, then on medium. One thing I noticed about the drums in this game that differs from the guitars, is that as soon as you start (easy) you've got all five buttons in use, and you're already hitting multiple drums at once. I'm happy to find that the progression of difficulty in this instrument is that you must hold multiple rhythms with different hands/foot. This skill can be taken to a real drum set and immediately applied. This is in addition to the coordination that you'd enhance just playing the guitar portions. Certainly, you can improve your range/control with the vocal section.... but I didn't play that section of the game.

*I will find the name of the restaurant and put it here.
**Moto is at 394 Broadway (at Hooper St.), Brooklyn, NY 11211 phone: 718-599-6895, but the year is 1936.