The Deuce Fo’

I titled this after the song by Umphrey’s McGee, but I stumbled across this movie poster featuring a YOUNG Kiefer Sutherland. Dzzzzamn that’s a flashy haircut! Anyways… So New York is straight up ca-razy! I am not sure how you NY kids do it, but with that said, I honestly wish I had about a year to go and explore it all, and that probably wouldn’t even be enough.

The above is a very LARGE painting that a friend of mine from long ago created for Isaac Slade of the Fray (Major namedrop there!) But, it really encompasses my general thoughts on my trip. It was big. There is just so much humanity packed in there. I checked out downtown Manhattan (even though the whole thing is “downtown”) a couple days just wandering around solo. I was just impressed with how it all seems to work together… There are about 150million neighborhoods/areas of Manhattan and everyone there seems to know them all and know cool bars/restaurants in particular sections. But the problem is that there are so many cool places I have no idea how you would ever go finding out about them. I’m just kinda rambling now, but there is really so much variety that I could live there for years and never get to experience them all, but that’s part of the joy of it I suppose… Finding a place that you like an identify with and can come back to again and again.

But pish posh enough musing and time to get down to some real details. So what happened!?

Cask Festival – A Brooklyn bar held is annual (?) cask festival where they crack into casks (mini kegs) of small batch brews. It’s as fresh as it gets and overall delicious! I have been on kinda an IPA kick lately and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality and variety that were offered. We got a little drunko there, met up with a good crew of people and had a very entertaining walk back to my buddy’s place, including a brief late night chat with a thickly accented Long Islander.

Beefsteak¹- The next day was the event that we had all been waiting for. The Brooklyn Beefsteak. This is held in a local bar/venue and is an all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink, no-utensils-allowed, beefstravaganza! There was also a really sweet three piece old time band (think Soggy Bottom Boys) that really brought the whole thing together.

Apron donned and seated at long tables, I wasn’t sure what exactly would happen but after the free beer got flowing we were soon greeted by large platters of these:

A single piece of sliced beef tenderloin placed upon a small slice of bread. The platters would show up and we would each grab a few slices of bread with the meat on it and devour them quickly awaiting the next one. There was a couple at the end of our table asked for all of the scraps of bread that were left from the platters and started hoarding them, more on this later… The band played and led us in a song about the unfettered gluttony of the event, which got everyone riled up and ready to eat more beef and pound more beers! Then beefsteak enthusiast, page 2 columnist for ESPN, and our host for the evening this guy²:

He ended up speaking in front of the crowd and telling some history about beefsteaks. The most interesting thing that came out of the talk was the fact that in a “real” beefsteak, no one eats the bread, because that would just take up too much room that could be used for beef! And so people would stack the bread into elaborate towers. This is what the couple at the end of our table had been plotting all along. This changed the entire vibe of the event. People started going huge with these:

We filled up and eventually things devolved into a semi drunken mess/minor food fight and we all had to head out. But wow, what an experience!

Rock  Climbing – There is a really sweet rock climbing place called Brooklyn Boulders made out of a converted warehouse that a few of my friends climb at regularly. It’s a pretty sweet set up that they have with a lot of room for bouldering and many different routes (indicated by the different colored tape on each handhold) and a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge that you can climb inside of and around up to the top. 

Although I’ve been hitting the gym and trying to get into shape this one really kicked my ass. It’s a lot about the finger muscles (wtf?) and despite nerding out in front of computers a ton and years worth of video game experience, my fingers are girly-man fingers when it comes to hoisting my body up. But it was a lot of fun to go out and try it. I have a few friends that climb and I really need to start going with them. Also, nbd… but while we were there Jude Law came in and was doing some bouldering (whoops more name dropping). These things just happen I guess…

I spent the rest of my time wandering around, taking in Manhattan, meeting up with friends that live there³, convincing my friends working there to come out for lunch beers, and taking in the giant organism that is NYC. I managed to only duff a few subway stops and by the time I was done, I think I had it pretty much down. I’m going to have to make sure that I take some time to spend out there again…

I left NYC to head up to meet my friends in Tarrytown and get ready for the actual reason for my trip. PSK Formal. Typified by excessive drinking, dancing, frolicking, philandering, and debauchery… this one delivered on a good number of these.  However, it was lacking a strong alumni presence. So given the circumstances, we made a run at it and did the best we could. There was some issues with the bussing that ended up kinda killing the whole vibe of what formal is all about, and ended up cutting the dancing short (gasp!). Small hitches aside, I actually had an absolute blast and was glad that it turned out as well as it did. I love you all and want to thank you for pulling it together⁴. Spring should be even better, a TON of people coming back, a siiiiick house (hoping, praying), new members, and a giant step forward into PSK’s future. I’m already ready already! ⁵

One last parting thought. I typically find a lot of wisdom/funny stuff on bathroom walls. Kinda like pre-internet message boards, bathroom walls have always served as a medium for expressing truisms, funny sayings, random phone numbers, racist diatribes, and movie critiques⁶. But, occasionally I find some that either make me laugh, confuse the hell out of me, or just flat out impress me, and I usually snap a pic of them. This was one that I really liked:

Poetic… Thanks RSC, you deliver in ways that you don’t even know.

-J