New York Magazine has an interesting map and tidbits of crime in NYC, which is now being touted as being one of the safest cities in the country. Granted that there will always be crime, there’s some really bizarre stuff listed. Take a look for yourself HERE

Here’s one just a block away from my apartment:

9th Street and 5th Ave — “December 9, 2007: At 4 p.m., a 24-year old man pushed a woman headfirst into scaffolding and took her purse before being tackled and captured by two bystanders.”

BTW- those waiting for my Thailand stories and pictures bear with me. I have 20 gigs of photos for a grand total of 4,000+ photos taken, and it’s taking a long time to go through them (even just to pick a few highlights). With the long weekend, I should have something up by MLK day.

Even though I had been using computers since the Wang Workstation, IBM PC AT/XT, on phosphorescent monochrome monitors, the one computer that really platformed my skills was the Commodore64 (although I had the more powerful 128 which could run CP/M like Wang). It was way ahead of it’s time with its graphics and sound capabilities, and the OG’s of computing still make demos with retro C64 sound as a throwback, which i still enjoy. Anyways, Youtube has a great 90 minute special on it, courtesy of the computer museum. You can view the clip HERE.

There’s a huge buzz on the internet about this guy name Paul Potts from Whales who’s in “Britian’s Got Talent” show with, yes Simon as one of the judges. Paul is a cell phone salesman who has just an amazing talent for singing opera. I got goosebumps listening to him sing. Check out how Simon reacts like “holy cow,” 2 old ladies in the audience start crying, and the female judge has goosebumps and is also in tears. As a singer (an have sang opera in the past myself), this guy is definitely pro quality. His intonation and tone is spot on, with great control (he only lost it momentarily very briefly on the high note, but that’s ok as you could tell he was nervous). But this guy will go VERY far from this point on. The world see’s his talent, and Paul, I wish you the best of luck!

See the video of him singing “Nessun Dorma” in higher quality video/audio here:
VIDEO

EDIT: Someone has emailed me a link (the subject of which said “Paul Potts is a liar”) which is pretty sobering in that Paul Potts has sang opera professionally for the Bath Opera, in the UK. His biography is even listed with a picture in the past performance of Aida (LINK). He never really mentioned it, just said he’s a cell phone salesman now… Although I think that Simon and the other producers spun it this way to generate more buzz (which it did). But still, if he doesn’t do this professionally and on the side, the more power to him. If he does this professionally and lied about being a cell phone salesman. Shame on you…

His Biography was listed as follows from that LINK above:

Paul Potts Radames

A student of Ian Comboy, Paul has appeared on national and local television and radio. He has spent two summers touring Northern Italy training with one of the major opera schools, and has taken part in masterclasses with Vilma Vernocchi, Katia Ricciarelli and Luciano Pavarotti. He has also performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. With Bath Opera he has sung the roles of Don Basilio (Marriage of Figaro), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and the title role in Verdi’s Don Carlos. Future plans include the role of Chevalier des Grieux (Manon Lescaut) for Southgate Opera, London, and another concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer. Oh yes! He also plans to get married in May this year!!!

Double EDIT: got another email with THIS ARTICLE from UK’s Guardian newspaper that tells the story straight. Basically, he performed as an amateur on the side, then had to stop to to surgery, but always wanted to sing. Still bending the truth a bit, but the more power to him. Good luck Paul, and I hope you win this one! (read more to read the cache)
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It’s usually around this time of year where I celebrate my birthday and subsequently go broke. I guess it’s one of those things when you’re entire family (except for my sister) are all Aries, and I’m the first one… Well, then you got my birthday on March 23, then my mother, then my father, TAX day (April 15th), then my wife, ending with my sister on May 31st, and now my Wedding Anniversary on June 3rd.

Caroline took me out on my birthday to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill. Caroline chose to eat an herbed gouper, while I chose his signature herb-rubbed steak. Very good!

For Caroline’s birthday, we went with Godly and Rujin to Wined Up. This is a very impressive wine bar near Union Square/Flatiron area, where the entire wall is lined up from floor to ceiling with wine. We all started out with the cheese fondue and a flight of wines (3 each) each. It was a fun experience, esp. those who want a sampling of wine without cracking open full bottles.

For my mom, I went to Coach and bought her a purse. While my dad, I had promised to get golf shoes, without realizing how difficult of a feat that was. He has a very hard to get size, 7 1/2 EEE. Almost every place I asked said only Footjoy can make those, and they’re custom order. After nearly a month of digging around I finally found a pair of modern Oakley (which is pretty hot in my opinion) golf shoes in that size from Zappos.com. The best part was that if they didn’t fit, they pay for return by mail and will exchange them as well! My father took them golfing on a day after it rained and noted that since they are waterproof, it kept his feet nice and dry!

What’s interesting is that this year we had to file jointly in order to get the deductions for education and loans, but in the end for the first time, we didn’t get money back. We had to pay more tax.

My 1 year anniversary is coming up in June 3rd. We plan on going to the restaurant that we had our rehearsal dinner at, Rialto. They had good food and really good sangria! I highly recommend their Seared tuna (sushi grade) and their wasabi mashed potatoes. Some people suggested going to the place where I proposed, at Apple Bombar, but we’ve been going there lately a lot for their $5 drink specials. LOL. Caroline for my anniversary helped pay for some of my camera upgrade. I sold my Digital Rebel 300D, and used that money to upgrade to the Canon 30D. I plan on buying her something special, but that’s a secret!

Wow – 8 inches of snow on Valentines day! Whew! Luckily our reservations were at Mercer Kitchen, only a few blocks away. This swanky place had some awesome food. Black truffle mini pizza and the shank of lamb were awesome. Desserts were so many to choose from, but any of them should be good. The layout is interesting though. It’s under the sidewalk (look for those glass circle things in metal) with exposed brick walls and candles everywhere. Oysters were ok. I’ve had better at Acquagrill (get the Malpeque if you go there) Anyhow, as for Mercer Kitchen, I highly recommend!