Our Last Melville Book Club

Allow me to remind you all of our upcoming blow-out. It's a very big deal, whether you or anyone, finished the book or not. We'll cook up some fish and oysters on the grill so bring beer and your appetite. And your harpoon. And don't worry Elijah, who made this whale-plane finished the book so he can tell us what happens in the end...

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This Sunday at the Seaport

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Smells Like Wine

Thank you to staff who attended last weeks Wine Tasting 101. For those of you who skipped this unique educational opportunity have fun feeling insecure. You missed such gems as "White Burgundy is the O.G. of Chardonnay" or "imagine a monstery wine tearing up your mouth when your dealing with a pea shoot." We learned that fruity does not equal sweet and that sweetness is good with fire and cheese. Like coca-cola and Mexican. I learned what tannic means and that Pinot Noir is more tannic than Gamay. I also became intrigued by the concept of fantasy names, the name of the wine that describes nothing about it. Perhaps our names are all then fantasy names. Or perhaps my fantasy name is Brenda or Joe... And, believe it or not, we ended hoping you all felt a little less confused and a little more buzzed.

Tomorrow we will take on the army of pink in the basement. People unfairly hate Rose because they tend to have bad memories of viscous sugary wines known as White Zinfendel that tasted slightly of Benson and Hedges. Grandma cigarettes. Our pink wines are different, the real deal, delicate and thirst quenching. Rose is a summer wine, essentially the youngest wine you can drink, harvested just this past Fall. And unlike pink suspenders Rose goes with everything, making it the most versatile after Champagne and you can afford it! There is a reason we have the largest Rose list in the whole world. Rose is, if you don't know already, the best way to pick up girls. We love it and we think everyone should.

We would like to invite all staff to the back of Marlow at noon for more... musings?

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(Nothing But) Flowers...

This was a Pizza Hut
Now it's all covered with daises
-David Byrne:
(Nothing But) Flowers

An incredibly innocent young person asked a friend of mine recently if there were bands in Williamsburg when she moved here five years ago. Williamsburg famous for brunch and gay people, Dominicans, Hasidic Jews and Domino Sugar has something new to be proud of. Condos!

Bird dog and I walk to work everyday from Greenpoint to the corner of Broadway and Berry. It is about a mile and a half walk in a straight line down Berry, past the park and the Automotive Highschool, the Levee and the vet. The early morning hours offer a barrage of sounds. Dogs barking, cars whirring, beeping, Polish. But then behind the staccato is something else. Something more ominous. It is sometimes soft but harsh, erratic and omnipresent. The dull sound of metal pounding at the ground, the thud thud of the earth's growing wounds. People (developers) standing on corners trying to figure out just how much money they can eek out of the sky. Next to Marlow right now are two giant craters of broken dirt. Even these tiny swaths stolen through blue plywood walls prove startling apocalyptic. Here in Brooklyn, unless you are in a well manicured park or at the beach, this might be your only glimpse of real land.

What came as an equally jarring surprise is that we, unwittingly, are helping sell them. I mean it is obvious that Marlow and Diner play a role. We are in an SUV add, let's be real here. But it was a shock to see this in a recent issue of New York Magazine:



In the little box are Bonita matches and postcards! We never approved of these photos? No permission was asked. No money changed hands as they say in gangster movies. I went a little undercover to the tower's sales office, a tiny hut just feet from the East River. It reminded me of the tacked together little lean-tos that used to pockmark the waterfront's "unofficial" parks. Inside was a even more offensively appropriated picture of the interior of Bonita. Almost as creepy as the fake lady next to it...



In the mile and a half from my home to Marlow and Sons there are:
15 construction sites
4 new buildings and
one community garden.

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