Oh, MAN. Last night was just the best Friday night I've had in a long time. I was so happy about it. It was just a combination of doing all kindsa fun things I haven't done in a while. Yay. :) Keep in mind this is absolutely coming off a really brutal week at work -- nonstop, stomach-churning, turn, spin, up down, workworkwork type of week. So I'm really exhausted, and all I wanna do is just have a chill good time.

So first, I meet up with Anne of Trevor & Anne and her cronies, because it was her birthday on Wednesday and she's having a little birthday dinner at this restaurant called Funky Nassau, which is this hole-in-the-wall BYOB organic restaurant. It looks like nothing on the outside (though it does have a thoughtfully placed bench for the inordinately long waits this place has) and it looks like nothing on the inside -- it's cramped with folding chairs and standard elementary-school style tables. Oh, and you sit on the refrigerators that you put your beer inside. Also very cool. But the place is bubbly, and fun, and HOLY CRAP the menu choices are amazing sounding. They're all "Wildboar Sausage with Blueberry Sauce" and "Jerk-spiced Duck Confit" and "Rabbit with Carrot-Ginger Sauce." That triple threat of dishes is actually what the guys' end of the table decided to order and split in a rotating plate system. We all were very pleased that we had three different awesome types of meat just hanging out on our table. The duck was amazing, everything else was just really, really good. On the way to the bathroom, which, since the place is about as big as a living room, if that, is very close to the table, I got to see the "kitchen" which has got to be the most effective use of 3 square feet that I've ever seen. One guy, busting away in there. Amazing. Portions ended up being a little too small for my liking, but I got an Organic Vanilla Doughnut for dessert which made me not hungry. Lovely. Also recommended is the Toasted Almond Doughnut. Yum. Okay, I love doughnuts.

Yeah, so, to sum up: Funky Nassau = Crowded + Yummy + Cheap + Fun, so I'd totally go back. So around 9:45 or so, Little J and I had to bust out, because we were meeting Jerf at Northsix in Williamsburg where the Long Winters were gonna be playing. We just found out yesterday, and Jerf basically shat himself, and I did too. The Long Winters rule. Their music is just catchy, and rocking, and melodic, and smart and their CD booklet is the best-designed thing I've seen in years. It's got a weird rubberized print thing going on. So fun to touch! I like tactile things. Anyway, me and Jerf have been creaming ourselves over "When I Pretend To Fall" for the past six months or so, so we were so psyched to go see 'em. I had no real idea about what to expect, but they blew me away live too. They have a great sense of humor (which doesn't really come across on the CD so much), and their show was just FUN. I was smiling a ton. It was great. Highlights included their spot-on impromptu cover of "Hot for Teacher," them opening with "New Girl," and their wailing, dark "Nora" which concluded with some of the best controlled guitar feedback soloing I've ever seen. Their lead singer John Roderick is all nerdy charm and rock confidence and he's a fucking hoot to watch. Afterwards, Jerf went to talk to him, because that's what Jerf does these days -- talk to artists he likes. He met Ben Kweller the other day and shmoozed him too. It's very admirable. I don't have his balls. But yeah, John Roderick seemed really nice. He actually promised to e-mail with Jerf. So cute.

So this was like my fourth time or so going to Williamsburg, and I'm not sure I quite get the place. It seems like Hipster Sleepaway Camp or something, like there are no "grownups" around or something. Like the entire neighborhood had packed up and left, and then everybody just flooded in and opened up their little cafes and bars and clubs. J made the comment that the difference between Williamsburg and other hippified neighborhoods is that other neighborhoods used to be nice and fell into disrepair and then were revived. But Williamsburg was always shitty -- warehouses and ugly houses and all that -- and now there are just hip things wedged into the crappiness. Of course, that's what New York does to some extent: find industrial areas, call them authentic, and then "quirkily" set up shop there. It's a little like what's happened with the Meatpacking District, except less people have moved into the Meatpacking District. New York just can't get enough of crap that they can polish up and turn into boutiques. This city fascinates and mystifies me.

So then me and Li'l J caught a cab back to Park Slope, where we had the cab drop us off at Smiling Pizza, because that seemed like a perfect capper to the evening. Man, what would happen if I lived in a city where I couldn't get 2 in the morning pizza? And have that pizza be frickin' awesome? I have no idea. Night pizza is one of the best things ever. I have it, and I thank god I'm alive. Smiling Pizza indeed.

Okay, I'm gonna leave off here with two links.

1) The most hyper thing ever. Better than coffee: www.512kb.net/flash5.htm

2) The most addictive thing ever. Careful: www.yetisports.org