Friday, October 15, 2004
I'm so lazy. I was supose to go see Converge play tonight. I was excited about the show, glad to see a band I use to hate and have come to love. In the end I flaked out to finish up my other website. Now I can re-do this site and make it dope. The bad part is I didn't go to the show. The though of spending a bunch of hours alone in a room full of people ten years younger than me with really loud music and then loud music inbetween the loud music made me sick, so I stayed at home and finished a website, cooked, walked the dog, picked dinner out in the garden, noticed my broccoli has a problem with insects or some sort of weird larve... chemicials needed? I don't want to lose my winters supply of broccoli!! Why don't I want to go see music anymore? I did spend some time listening to Rainer Maria's Long Knives Drawn - so fucking sick. That girl has the most powerful voice ever. The guitars give me goosebumps, that album is close to perfect! I gotta go to bed so I can get up and go to newberg in the moring.
posted by jered bogli 11:36 PM
Thursday, October 14, 2004
I just saw an ad for a Refused DVD. The video is titled "The Refused are fucking dead" and the subhead was something to the effect of: the sounds of shit and failure. THAT TITLE IS 100% BORN AGAINST. There is a Born Against song called "Born Aganinst are fucking dead" and one of their albums is called "The Rebel Sound of Shit and Failure" What the fuck? The Refused were a great band and no doubt the last album sounded a whole lot like Born Against and you could hear how much the influenced The Refused, but come on, flat out ripping off your title from them? Not cool...But cool because everyone should listen to Born Against!!! I'm listening to them right now.
posted by jered bogli 3:47 PM
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Rice to Riches is a rice pudding bar on Manhattan’s lower east side. I was excited about the concept of a rice bar, the idea of such a subtle food being served in a popularized manner, excited by the idea of an largely unknown and largely ethnic desert going mainstream. In short I was in love with the idea of a rice pudding bar.
The space is executed in a space age manner that is reminiscent of the way Barbarella was space age or the way the future was envisioned in the 50’s - Lots of smooth rounded sterile white shapes with inset translucent colored Plexiglas, glossy graphics of fruit on the walls, and bright hospital style florescent lighting. The only seating was a bench built into the wall with three hanging round white tables. It was obvious they spent a great deal of time and effort in achieving this look. The dishes the pudding is served in are these fruity colored plastic flying saucer shaped bowls which they give you with an eating implement formed in a mix between an obese boomerang and a shoehorn which matches the color of the plastic vessel containing your rice pudding.
Despite all this effort I have never seen a concept executed so poorly. Rice to Riches fails on every imaginable level other than the concept, including the way the space was designed, the lighting, environmental and sustainability, staff and most importantly Rice to Riches fails in their product.
The space while unified in design comes off as a gimmick and feels a bit cheap, as if it is primarily a movie set. I feel the space serves to separate the patron from the pudding. To me, rice pudding is a comfort food and the environment only served to juxtapose the comfort of rice pudding with cold sterile environment. Directly related to this uncomforted and sterility is the lighting which was cool and glaringly bright, Somehow even the light emanating from the warm colored Plexiglas felt cold and harsh. This lighting did not help the pudding either. The color of the light casted the pudding green and blue as opposed to picking up on the warmer tones of inherent in rice.
The staff also served to drive us away and make our party feel awkward and unwelcome. While we did arrive at closing time the staff did not make us feel welcome or really seem happy to be there, in that regard the staff undermined the bright colors in the signage, wall graphics and uniforms. Again the harsh, bright green/blue light falling on the brightly colored uniforms of cranky wait staff did not help the experience. When I asked what was popular I received a short curt answer “The raspberry is selling well.” No other options were given, no immediate offer to try the raspberry and see for myself. Shit, you’re selling rice pudding have some freaking fun with it!!!
In regards to the environment and sustainability the plastic serving containers are flat out irresponsible. As bowls for eating in they are fine, But to put all food into these thick, by all accounts quality plastic containers is not helping the planet at all. I looked on the container for a sign that it could be recycled and did not see any indication of recyclibity. The container was of a high enough quality that you could have easily have saved the container and used it again and again. As a designer I’m always suspicious of design solutions that rely on secondary use to make them environmentally friendly. From an ecological standpoint the plastic also served to undercut the “futuristic” aesthetic of the establishment in that plastic is NOT THE FUTURE. Containers made out of potato starch would have been brilliant. They could have been formed like their current bowls, they would have consisted of warm cream and off white tones and would have been 100% biodegradable! Not having researched this I can’t say for sure, but I’m fairly certain a starch-based container could have held the pudding for at least a few days before breaking down. What is more futuristic that containers that disappear?
Most importantly the product at Rice to Riches did not live up to the concept. First I need to lay down two principles on which I base this assessment on: 1. Rice pudding is about rice. 2. Rice pudding (in the traditional sense) should embody subtlety and complexity. The rice pudding I had at Rice to Riches was not about rice. We tried the raspberry and the traditional rice pudding. The traditional should have been the control, the baseline, the way you try a new pizzeria and you get a slice of cheese to see how they handle the basics. The traditional rice pudding lacked in all flavor. You can go a few ways with traditional rice pudding, which has really been my only experience in rice pudding. You can simply give it a hint of sweet using a touch of sugar and vanilla to accentuate the sweetness and contrast with the neutrality of the rice, you can use a touch of cinnamon and or nutmeg to add a little something to cause you to take notice of the rice or you can go more the middle eastern or Indian route and just hint at other spies like cardamom or ________(the really expensive spice in Indian rice). In addition in a traditional rice pudding there is a wide window to use different rices to further add subtle complexity to the flavors, a rice pudding made from Jasmine or basmati rice tastes completely different from a pudding made with basic white rice. The traditional rice pudding at Rice to Riches failed all of these criteria. It was bland lacking any hint of flavor, The consistency of the traditional as well as the Raspberry also served to hurt the pudding, again the rice should be the focal point and whatever is binding the pudding should not be overpowering the rice. In this case it felt and tasted as if it was a sweet plain yogurt holding the rice together. The raspberry took a 180 turn from the traditional rice pudding. All the problems noted above hold true for the raspberry as well, but the true tragedy of the raspberry was the way the raspberry overpowered everything. It completely blocked any flavor or neutrality of the rice.
As for the rest of the flavors they all seemed “whitebread”, easy, lowest common denominator. The execution of the flavors took the path of least resistance and was extra Americanized which I took umbrage to, there is so much more that can be done with rice pudding and Rice to Riches was afraid to truly experiment with flavors. Some of the other flavors offered were: maple, carmel, coconut, etc. There wasn’t a plain rice pudding using black rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice, or even a brown rice pudding could have been interesting. Brown rice with a touch or almond flavor? I would have like some flavors such as rose, lavander, even rosemary would have be wonderful.
Lastly the single serving size was absurdly large for one person to eat. While generally you do receive an absurd amount of rice pudding when you order it; in a “high end establishment such as this they could have been more responsible with their portion size. The $6.00 price was not the problem, the excessive size was. The last thing an individual needs is a tub of rice pudding. Given that the USA is so fat the serving size combined with the simplistic, dumbed down flavors seemed to play into the obesity of the United States. Sure you had a great container to take the pudding home in, but isn’t it more environmentally responsible to not create that waste in the first place – no packaging waste, no food wasted = healthier people and healthier planet!!
There it is a scathing indictment of Rice to Riches. All being said and my anger under check the experience was a good one. Seeing all that can be done wrong can be positive in the end. Hopefully the folks at Rice to Riches will make some improvements and start having fun. As is I wouldn’t go back, but I’m glad I gave it a shot.
posted by jered bogli 4:43 PM
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
I just got back from NYC and I'm feeling pretty tired. I think I'll update this ugly ass site, walk the dog then get into bed with the new issue of Vegitarian Times... that's my life! NYC was amazing as always. I think I may regret never living there. It could be that the friends I have there I love so much it always causes me pain to leave them. It gives me that knot in my stomach. Different people different reasons, but pain none the less. On the bright the side the pain causes a nice bit of introspection and some growth. I just discoverd emusic.com. I'm giving it a try, I just grabbed the new bad religion, the challenger lp, and the last Rainer Maria album which is currently rocking me! iphoto is doing a shitty job importing my photos. Maybe my mega 1gb flash card gives it trouble, but the standard Cannon image browser can import all the images... hum? Jess and I passed somewhere in the air today. She is off to pittsburg for the national health conference and I'm back at home. Maybe we'll be in the same state for more than a few hours sometime soon!! In NYC I got some more security camera shots. I think I've got to get the book layed out, it is close to done! It is the good life when you can fly to NYC for the weekend, hang out with people you love, work monday and fly home on tuesday all on someone else's dollar. Granted I'm a cheap guy to fly to nyc, my flights are cheap cause I want to maximize time there and take weird flights, I don't do the hotel because I'd rather be with my loved ones and I don't eat a whole lot... Still, thank you corporate america. I'll have to post my review of this rice pudding bar on the lower east side called Rice to Riches. It sucked, but I've got a full review sitting on the laptop upstairs that details all the failures! That will be tomorrow. I think the shots from Coney Island are the start of a new tradition with Rachel and I. Two falls ago we went to Asbury Park, NJ in October and strolled the bleak post summer boardwalk. This year was a cool grey Coney Island, anyone have any good boardwalks to go to in the fall? Atlantic City? What is that gross stretch of beach in New Hampshire... Hampton Beach? Any others?
The Wonder Wheel - Coney Island
Scary tower - Coney Island
Need I say more? - Coney Island
The next three images will be on the cover of my solo album (I need a band first...)
Lights - NYC subway
posted by jered bogli 9:13 PM
