HellaFrank

Some very important people came to New York this weekend… the 49ers, my friend Jared from San Francisco and my cousin Marc. I thought we should all get together at some point, so we decided to go to the 49ers game against the New York Giants.

It was fun to go to a new stadium and see New York sports fans at their finest. There was a guy in front of me that was literally pulling up the leg on his shorts, stomping his foot and squealing like a pig when the Giants returned a fumble for 72 yards. I wish I had video, because nothing I can write can do this guy justice.

Here’s a picture of me and Jared. If you look really closely in the background you can see the embarrassing score. As you may be able to tell, we may have had a drink or two too many last night:

Sorry for not writing for a while — a lot going on a lot of fun being had, but I didn’t forget about you loyal HellaFrank readers!

Since I got to New York, I’ve been eating like a ravenous beast. Everything I’ve had is pretty damn good (anyone heard of Manchurian food? It’s a Chinese/Indian mix, fantastic). Anyways, the most gluttonous eating I’ve done hasn’t been at dinner or brunch or any regular meal. It has generally taken place between the hours of 2am and 4am and represents some of the most amazing eating experiences since I got here.

When people stumble out of bars here and want a late-night snack, the question isn’t “what’s open?” Instead, you will more commonly hear “what do you want to eat?” What I mean, is that the choices here at that time of the night/morning are amazing. I have seen sandwiches, tacos, pizza, halal food (see below), Jewish delis, hot dogs, giant pretzels and even knishes… yeah, 24 hour knishes. I’m sure there are a ton more I haven’t seen.

Personally, I have hit up the pizza, tacos and halal food and it’s all pretty amazing that time of day. For those who do not know what halal food is (as I didn’t when I got here), it’s generally a cart on the corner that cooks chicken and lamb and puts it over rice or in a pita with white and/or red sauce. Yes, they call it white and red sauce… What’s in it? Who cares, it’s incredible. I ate some at about 4am on Friday night and was not hungry until about 2pm the next day. The best part is that in a city of $12 drinks and $20 hamburgers, it’s refreshing to get painfully full for only four bucks.

The number of stores and restaurants that are open 24 hours is remarkable, but there is one that takes the cake. A block down from me is a hardware store, open 24 hours. I mean, I guess I can understand needing a plunger or something at a weird hour of the night, but this is a full-on hardware store, four floors. Are there people that just get the urge to pick up a table saw at 3 in the morning? I guess so. Personally, I’ll just wait till tomorrow morning to pick one of those up.

For those of you who have spent a lot of time in New York, let me know in the comments what your favorite late night places are. I welcome all suggestions!

I love New York accents. I’ve heard them in movies before and seen people on TV talking with them, but now I’m hearing them all for the first time for real.

First day here, I walked by construction worker — hard hat with an American flag, Italian guy, smoking a cigarette. As I walked by, I caught one small snippet of his conversation when he said, “Hey, dat was like two or tree days ago!” Not a misspelling, when I said “tree” I meant “tree.”

Since then, I’ve heard them all — Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, Staten Island (and a few dirty Boston accents mixed in there, not so much a fan of that one). Basically my dilemma right now is trying to decide which one I’m going to adopt. They’re all great, but I’m leaning toward Queens. Not sure if I’m badass enough to pull that off though.

So, I defer to you, which accent should I adopt? It will take time to get it down, but I think I can do it. Maybe I can consult Frank Caliendo, the most amazing impressionist I’ve ever seen — if you’ve been watching the MLB playoffs (AKA, the Cubs getting spanked) you know what I mean. Here is a video with a bunch of his impressions… Incredible, brilliant. Make sure you watch the Bush, Madden and Deniro ones:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAMIlPudalQ]

Before I get into this post, I need to state my opinion (or is it now fact) that Matt Holliday did not touch home plate last night. If I were a Padres fan, I would be so angry, like this guy. And, I’m calling ‘roids on Matt Holliday’s forearms. Are you kidding me? They are as big as Barry Bonds’ human-growth-hormone-enlarged head!

Now the real story here, is that the game ended at 12:30 a.m. I keep finding myself awake well after midnight watching sporting events here — Monday Night Football, West Coast baseball. If you want to catch the beginning of Monday Night Football on the West Coast after work, you better leave early and hustle home. Here? You can leave late, have a nice dinner, take a little nap, feed the cat and then flip on the TV in time to catch Tony Kornheiser say his first annoying comment.

Everyone talks about the winter, the intense people and the traffic here, but to be honest, this whole latenight sports thing is gonna be the toughest one to get used to (unless I was a Yankees fan, which I’m not).

Wednesday and Thursday are the first Cubs games at 10 pm ET… So if you need to get in touch either day, please believe I’ll be up till at least 1 am!

Oh, where to begin. How about I start with my birthday. It started off with a few hours of work and then walking around and exploring this amazing city with my roommate, Ari, and my friend Nic who was visiting for the weekend. Dinner at Cafe Mogador, really good, then the fun and sometimes dangerous birthday night out… I had a few drinks, a couple shots, yadda yadda yadda, we went to central park the next day.

Central Park is incredible. Hard to believe you’re really in New York, and lacks the weird homeless people sleeping in the bushes that we know and love in Golden Gate Park. Oh, and dogs aren’t allowed to crap everywhere.

Saturday night, more of the same, and Sunday consisted of a nice stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge with Chaya, Sam and Nic. I can’t say I was to excited about that activity of the day initially, but once we were there, it was awesome:

The weekend ended with a horrible 49ers game, horrible, and a little Curb Your Enthusiasm, but what I have failed to mention is the highlight of the weekend. Birthday? Fun, but not the highlight. Hanging out with a bunch of close friends? Fun, nostalgic, but sorry guys, not the highlight. Chicken and lamb over rice at 3:30 in the morning Saturday night or the unbelievable French toast I had this morning? Delicious, but again, not the highlight.

Well, I know the suspense is killing you, so I’ll come out and say it. The highlight of my birthday weekend was the CUBS MAKING THE PLAYOFFS!!! Nothing like a little October baseball… You gotta love it!

Alfonso and Carlos:

Quite a few people have asked me about the name of this blog, HellaFrank. What does it mean? Are you trying to be funny? Why would you call it something like that? Some questions, obviously kinder in tone and intention than others.

To be honest, one of the LaunchSquad partners, Brett Weiner (biggest URL squatter I know, the guy has got to own at least 50), came up with the name a few days before I left — there were many others considered, Frankishly coming in a close second, but HellaFrank won because I liked it and more importantly, the URL was still available.

The word Hella has been in my vocabulary for a very long time — I’m thinking middle school at least. At one point it may have been a word used by a large part of the country, but it’s mainly known as a Northern California term. Urban Dictionary actually says that the word Hella originated in Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. Now, I’m not claiming to be from “the HP,” in fact I think I’ve only ever been through it to get to Candlestick Park (GreenAmy worked there!), but it originated in San Francisco and has stuck to this day.

Southern Californians make fun of it, but seriously, they use the word “bra” (like, “bro”) to address their friends (i.e. “Hey bra’ the waves were EPIC today”), so give me a freakin’ break. I miss San Diego less and less everyday.

In any case, it’s probably a word I won’t use here in New York, but I thought it was a nice way of representing a little Nor-Cal in my bi-coastal blog’s name. And besides my newly engaged sister who did 5 years of marketing for Apple had this to say about it:

“I LOVE the name. I’d try to steal it, but guess I won’t be a Frank much longer.”

I’ll take that as a nice stamp of approval… Sister knows best.

Another story from Yom Kippur that I thought I’d share is called the Jewish Beer Dilemma.

After services, my friend Chaya and I went to a friend’s house to waste away some hungry time. Flipping through the channels on TV, the best we could come up with was a Yankees rain delay and some really awful college football matchups (Cubs were on but no FREAKIN’ WGN!).

We settled on the best game we could find - Louisville vs. Syracuse. Riveting. Actually it wasn’t, and Chaya and I resorted to betting on trivial aspects of the game for a dollar each. Examples were “hey Chaya, this kickoff will be caught within the ten yard line, yes or no?” or “hey Jeremy, there will be a running play in the next three plays, yes or no?” Ridiculous. Gambling, essentially. Exactly the kind of activity us Jews are supposed to be doing on our day of repentance… Right.

We then left the house, Chaya up five bucks, and both of us starting to feel a little delirious — destination: Professor Thom’s for the Michigan football game. Then came the big dilemma…

As the game rolled into the third quarter, the bar became excessively hot and the bartender made an announcement that the A/C had shut down. It was uncomfortable but I was too hungry to move, so we stayed, surrounded by crispy amazing fried treats and massive nacho plates.

The bartender came to our table, apologized for the heat and in what seemed like slow motion, delicately placed a frosty, tall, glowing pitcher of beer on our table. Wow, exactly what I wanted at that specific point in time. Exactly. What ever was a young Jew like myself to do? On the one hand we are taught that Yom Kippur is the holiest holiday, fasting is very important and to respect the tradition. Couldn’t agree more. On the other hand, if we’re talking tradition, how many Jewish people’s parents, grandparents and probably great-grandparents would ever turn down a great deal like that?!?!? Yeah, that tradition goes pretty far back for all of us I think.

Well, Mom, I’m proud to say that I stared that pitcher square in the eyes and generously passed it along to the goyim sitting with us (besides, I think it was Bud Light).

In the back of my mind, I wished I could have watched this dilemma as an outsider, leaned over the Chaya and said: “Double or nothing Jeremy doesn’t cave and drink the beer.” Instead I bought him half of his meal later that night (see: Break-fast at Katz’s)

Yesterday was Yom Kippur and after a long day of fasting and watching Michigan football, I thought I’d end the fast in style. A couple of friends and I went to Katz’s deli (since 1888!) and had an amazing meal. Overall we ate knishes, potato pancakes, blintzes, lox, bagels, egg creams and an amazing piece of cheesecake. It hurt a little, um, a lot, but it was well worth it. I think I want to try their hot dogs next time - seemed like hot item. Here’s my pastrami sandwich and egg cream (FYI, there are no eggs in an egg cream):

Apparently if you ask for mayonnaise you get smacked upside the head. Look at how thick that pastrami is… Phenomenal.

I also just tried via phone and internet to get Cubs playoff tickets, which went on sale today — no luck. But, I guess we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves since there are seven games left in the season. Cubs are 2.5 games up in first place, but weirder things have happened to those lovable WINNERS!

THE MAN!

Last night I went to the launch part of Barely Political’s newest video “I Like A Boy” sponsored by them and the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans Association (IAVA). Barely Political is a LaunchSquad client and the brains behind “I Got a Crush on Obama,” “Debate ‘08” and the Romney Girls. It’s all really great stuff, I recommend you watch them if you haven’t already.

Pretty soon after getting to the party, my friend Chaya and I met Bubbles, Andre Royo, from The Wire!! Pretty good start to the night, eh? The Wire is one of my favorite shows (tied with Lost and any Cubs game, I think) and Bubs was the coolest guy, super friendly and we talked about the show and other actors. Next time you see me, I can tell you some interesting tidbits about the cast. He was with his friend Craig “muMs” Grant who has also done some cool acting and writing. And YOU KNOW I took a picture with them!

They are in a play together at the Public Theater here in New York called “A View From 151st Street” and please believe I will go see it. There are a couple of other Wire actors in it and from what they said, it sounds really great. Toward the end of the party, Andre and muMs came and found me and Chaya to say nice to meet you and goodbye — how cool is that?!?! That would have been enough for one evening, but there was still a party going on.

Almost everyone from past and present Barely Political videos was there (I didn’t see Giuliani girl) including Ben Rellis, the creator of Barely Political:

And of course, Obama Girl:

Leah Kauffman (#66), the behind the scenes singer who performed all of the songs live at the party:

… and the Romney Girls who are the sweetest nicest girls. Triplets! I think they were half Chaya’s height.

Unfortunately, Mims, (This is Why I’m Hot rapper) who is featured in the new video was nowhere to be seen.

It was a fun party, and meeting Bubs and muMs was awesome. The open bar may have had something to do with how fun it was, but I’m proud to say it didn’t get the best of me. As for my friend Chaya, I can’t say the same, but the falafel we had after in Union Square (the NY one!) had a bit of a sobering effect… I think.

The Barely Political Cast and Crew

And the lastest video

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnzbjftMwc]

So for those of you who do not know, I moved to New York to help the PR firm I work for, LaunchSquad, get a New York office up and running. Gavin and Eleni, the two other NY LaunchSquad people have already done a pretty good job of that though.

But today was a momentous occasion. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, and Gavin and Eleni might not agree with me, but for some reason putting our logo on the front door of the office seemed like a pretty big deal. A christening, if you will (can a Jew use that word?).

Anyways, I documented the occasion. Eleni took the challenging task of cutting the sticky velcro while Gavin told me where to put the sign and if it was straight (harder than you think), and then it was up.

Here’s Gavin trying to decide where the sign goes.

It ended up higher than that. I’ll post some pictures of the new office soon. We’re still working on some decor issues